In the house
DJ, producer, label owner – house music maestro Chris Lake certainly likes to keep himself busy. Previously based in Scotland, these days he works out of his London facility, and that’s where Future Music magazine recently caught up with him.
Prophet 08
Lake’s current pride and joy is his Dave Smith Prophet 08 synth, which he describes as “One of the best buys I ever made”. Explaining why, he says: “It just sounds so good, so expressive and fun to use. I’m using this quite a bit on all of my upcoming records”.
Violet mic
At the record label’s request, Chris ended up adding a vocal to 2006 release Changes, which went on to be a big hit in the dance charts. “[Adding a vocal] was probably the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make regarding my career,” admits Lake. “I wanted to keep artist integrity and I suppose my ideal would have been to release the instrumental as a chartable record. But label pressure meant that they wanted a vocal.”
Software
Chris is a big fan of Ableton Live, but he’s also a Logic user. “I decided to get Logic 8 on the Mac and I think it’s brilliant, especially for when I’m recording vocals. The feature to comp vocals in Logic 8 makes it so easy to quickly find the best parts of a take. This alone sells the software for what I need.”
