Me in my studio: Alexander Lewis

The worlds of EDM and trombone might not often collide, but Alexander Lewis is just such a musician. He’s made quite a name for himself with his trap-jazz sound.

Having studied jazz performance at The Manhattan School of Music, Lewis discovered Ableton Live and embarked on an electronic music career. His latest release, Omni, is a 7-track EP that takes him in a hip-hop direction, and he has various collaborations in the works.

We asked Alex to show us garage-based studio space, and he duly obliged.

The studio

“Welcome to my studio! It’s a garage converted into a studio space where I can work freely ‘away from home’ as late as I want without bothering neighbours. It’s been really helpful for holding sessions, doubling as a practice room for when I’m playing my horn and writing on piano.

“I don’t use a ton of gear (as you can see). I’m running Ableton Live 10 and use a lot of its built-in audio effects and instruments plus a couple of third-party VSTs such as Omnisphere and DIVA.”

“The most important piece of the puzzle. My horn, and the centre of my sound. I bought this when I was 13 years old.”

“I don’t use this for anything other than writing or practising. A lot of the times before writing a tune I sit down at this piano and improvise ideas - later on I turn them into full songs. I bought this piano in my freshman year of college.”

“Gets the job done. The keys are pretty reliable in that they accurately translate touch velocity. I really like the 16 pads for tapping out drum patterns, etc.”

“Reliable interface that’s good for travelling. It comes with some useful UAD plugins”

“Probably one of the best investments I’ve made. It captures vocal quality very well and has made my job of mixing vocals so much easier. I use this as my main mic for recording horns as well.”

“I’ve had these monitors for years. My ears have gotten so used to them I don’t see myself replacing them anytime soon. They’re pretty flat for the most part.”

“I probably listen to music 90 percent of the time in these headphones. I check every mix on them.”