Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • EVH trance state
  • Antonoff on Please Please Please
  • “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Behringer Model D
Soft Synths “It's probably my Behringer Model D monosynth. So simple and obviously cheap, but it’s just so versatile. I’ve used it on basically every track that I’ve created”: 10 producers share the tech they can’t live without
eats everything in his studio
Tech “Entrance Song is a massive 808 sub and a 909 kick. Those two shouldn’t work together - I’m not sure they were even in key”: Eats Everything on his ever-changing approach to production and DJing
lone
Computers “You could take everything away from me but leave the laptop and I'm confident I could make interesting music quite happily for the rest of my life”: Lone on the gear behind his technicolour, rave-adjacent electronica
Lawrence Hart
Artists Watch UK electronic artist Lawrence Hart build a track from scratch in his hardware-stuffed studio
Riva Starr
Artists “I have an original 909 – every time I try to use it I feel like I’m ruining it”: House hero Riva Starr on his studio essentials and his love of analogue synths
Djrum
Artists "I have a very emotional relationship with my machines”: Djrum on how a catastrophic technological failure led to one of 2025’s best electronic albums
Vaughn Oliver
Producers & Engineers “I have that on more records than anything else”: Take a peek inside Vaughn Oliver’s studio
  1. Tech
  2. Recording
  3. Studios

In pictures: Perc's bedroom studio

News
By Future Music ( Future Music ) published 14 August 2014

The techno producer talks synths, gizmos and software

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Welcome

Welcome

Since setting up his Perc Trax label in 2004, Ali Wells, aka Perc, has earned a reputation as one of the UK’s finest purveyors of dark, mesmeric techno.

His 2011 debut album, Wicker & Steel, gained him numerous plaudits and converts well beyond the usual underground techno circles, establishing Wells as an in-demand remixer, DJ and live performer in the process.

Meanwhile, this year’s stunning, politically-charged follow-up The Power and the Glory has cemented his reputation as one of the most exciting names in British dance music.

With the album’s worldwide tour and various launch parties all but dispensed with, Future Music made the trek up to a leafy part of North London to meet Ali in his studio and discuss its contents.

NEXT: Ableton Live

Page 1 of 16
Page 1 of 16
Ableton Live

Ableton Live

“I don’t know why I chose Ableton. I think maybe the interface looked the friendliest to me. I think the first version I was on was probably 4 or 5, and it’s been the hub of what I do for quite a while now.”

“I recently tried Bitwig Studio and I did like it, but when you’ve spent years with one program then it’s really hard to change over. It feels a bit like you’re limping again and your workflow slows down.”

NEXT: Maplin Echorder EC444

Page 2 of 16
Page 2 of 16
Maplin Echorder EC444

Maplin Echorder EC444

“Going back in time, the Maplin Echorder is a classic bucket-brigade analogue delay. It’s over 20 years old and it was the first bit of equipment I ever had back when I used to sing in an indie band.

“I’ve always preferred analogue delays to digital or tape delays. I love this Maplin one: it’s instant, lo-fi, and great on drums. You crank up the feedback and it goes into self-oscillation; then you can tweak the delay time and all sorts of stupid noises come out of it. It’s got quite a range of input levels so you can actually distort it and get it quite grungy and dirty.”

NEXT: Jomox Mbase 11 and Mbrane 11

Page 3 of 16
Page 3 of 16
Jomox Mbase 11 and Mbrane 11

Jomox Mbase 11 and Mbrane 11

“The Jomox MBase 11 is just incredible. For a long time it was my main kick drum synth. It’s only one knob for a whole bunch of parameters, so you’re stepping through menus and parameters quite a lot, but once you get the hang of it it’s pretty quick. There’s a panel for programming it in Max for Live but I generally just use the hands-on approach with it.

“Straight out of the box [the Mbrane 11] has a very clicky, minimal sound, but through distortion, particularly analogue distortion, it really comes alive.”

NEXT: DOD Supra Distortion

Page 4 of 16
Page 4 of 16
DOD Supra Distortion

DOD Supra Distortion

“The DoD Supra Distortion is something I’ve had for a long time. I don’t use it so much for putting signals through, but if you plug the output to something then run a cable into the input with nothing on the other end of the cable but just move your finger over it, then you get this ground/earth hum sort of distortion.

“If you then crank the distortion up to full you can get a really high-pitched, whining noise that can be tuned using the tone control. The new Perc & Truss record has that sound all over it. It almost sounds like feedback, but it’s a little bit more controllable.”

NEXT: MXR Carbon Copy

Page 5 of 16
Page 5 of 16
MXR Carbon Copy

MXR Carbon Copy

“Recently I got a MXR Carbon Copy, which is really good. I have the analogue delay from Maplin, but the MXR is like a 20-year later version with a slightly cleaner sound. If you crank up the regeneration and delay then all sorts of whooshy feedback noises come out of it.”

NEXT: Deucetone RAT

Page 6 of 16
Page 6 of 16
Deucetone RAT

Deucetone RAT

“The Deucetone RAT is my ‘go to’ distortion because if you match the controls then you can just about work it as a stereo distortion. The killer thing for me with it is that the two channels can be linked so, effectively, you then have two RAT pedals.”

NEXT: Audio interface

Page 7 of 16
Page 7 of 16
Audio interface

Audio interface

“A lot of the album was done on the Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1,which isn’t the highest spec interface out there, but it’s worked for me. I know this room fairly well now, and I often go to a bigger studio in South London to mix the albums and the higher-profile remixes.”

NEXT: Korg MS-20 mini

Page 8 of 16
Page 8 of 16
Korg MS-20 mini

Korg MS-20 mini

“It’s fairly new and it came after the album, so I’m just getting my head around it. I actually used the original MS-20 at university years ago, so the knowledge is there in my head, but maybe a little bit dusty!

“Now the album and tour are coming to an end, it’s time to get onto the MS-20 mini and work with it a bit more - especially the external signal processing, which is probably more interesting to me than the oscillator/synth side of it.”

NEXT: Soulsby Atmegatron

Page 9 of 16
Page 9 of 16
Soulsby Atmegatron

Soulsby Atmegatron

“I’ve wanted an 8-bit, chiptune synth for a while, and the Atmegatron fits the bill. It’s pretty nasty, and it’s nice to have a synth that pretty much does what I want it to straight out of the box, other than a bit of EQing.

“The fact that you can load other machines into it is really interesting. There’s a wavetable and pseudo polysynth for it as well as a drum machine. That idea of it being able to be multiple instruments in one box is fascinating.

“I’ve ordered the special cable you need, and when that comes I can load up the drum machine software. It’s cheap enough and small enough to take out live, too, and it’s very sturdily built. Obviously, it was £300, so you wouldn’t want it getting smashed, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world like if you were taking a big synth out.”

NEXT: Casio SA-1

Page 10 of 16
Page 10 of 16
Casio SA-1

Casio SA-1

”This is nicked from an ex-girlfriend. It’s great - there’s nothing you can do with it in terms of editing, but it has 100 grungy little sounds ready to run through an analogue delay or distortion pedal.”

NEXT: Korg Volca Beats

Page 11 of 16
Page 11 of 16
Korg Volca Beats

Korg Volca Beats

“It’s a mixed bag the Volca Beats. The kick’s great, the hi-hats are great, and I quite like the grungy PCM samples, but the snares and the toms aren’t really that great.”

NEXT: MFB 522

Page 12 of 16
Page 12 of 16
MFB 522

MFB 522

“Pretty much a workhorse on the album. The kick drum, for the size of the box, is pretty hefty. I love it.”

NEXT: Retroverb Lancet

Page 13 of 16
Page 13 of 16
Retroverb Lancet

Retroverb Lancet

“It’s always nice to have a real spring reverb. I do use some plugin reverbs, but having a hardware one is really nice. You can drop the reverb out of it and just use it as a multi-mode filter, too.”

NEXT: Tecbug DS7 clone

Page 14 of 16
Page 14 of 16
Tecbug DS7 clone

Tecbug DS7 clone

“This is a boutique drum synth, I’m not sure if it’s ever worked properly, but it’s interesting and you can get nice synth toms out if it.”

NEXT: Plugins

Page 15 of 16
Page 15 of 16
Plugins

Plugins

“I have been using the FXpansion plugins - Bloom, Etch and especially Maul, which is probably the one that gets the most use.

“The Kjaerhus Audio MPL-1 is a limiter I’ve been using for years. I know that the Waves limiters are pretty much industry-standard now, but that term, ‘industry-standard’, often turns me off.

“D16’s Devastor and Decimort are great for mangling and bit-crushing, and I do use the D16 drum machines - Nithonat, Drumazon and the Nepheton, which I turn to if I want Roland-sounding drum samples.”

Page 16 of 16
Page 16 of 16
Future Music
Future Music

Future Music is the number one magazine for today's producers. Packed with technique and technology we'll help you make great new music. All-access artist interviews, in-depth gear reviews, essential production tutorials and much more. Every marvellous monthly edition features reliable reviews of the latest and greatest hardware and software technology and techniques, unparalleled advice, in-depth interviews, sensational free samples and so much more to improve the experience and outcome of your music-making.

All-access artist interviews, in-depth gear reviews, essential production tutorials and much more. image
All-access artist interviews, in-depth gear reviews, essential production tutorials and much more.
Get the latest issue now!
More Info
Read more
Behringer Model D
“It's probably my Behringer Model D monosynth. So simple and obviously cheap, but it’s just so versatile. I’ve used it on basically every track that I’ve created”: 10 producers share the tech they can’t live without
eats everything in his studio
“Entrance Song is a massive 808 sub and a 909 kick. Those two shouldn’t work together - I’m not sure they were even in key”: Eats Everything on his ever-changing approach to production and DJing
lone
“You could take everything away from me but leave the laptop and I'm confident I could make interesting music quite happily for the rest of my life”: Lone on the gear behind his technicolour, rave-adjacent electronica
Lawrence Hart
Watch UK electronic artist Lawrence Hart build a track from scratch in his hardware-stuffed studio
Riva Starr
“I have an original 909 – every time I try to use it I feel like I’m ruining it”: House hero Riva Starr on his studio essentials and his love of analogue synths
Djrum
"I have a very emotional relationship with my machines”: Djrum on how a catastrophic technological failure led to one of 2025’s best electronic albums
Latest in Studios
An Arturia KeyLab 88 MkII synthesizer on a blue background
I’ve looked through all 372 deals in the Thomann Easter Sale - these are the 5 deals I’d grab right now
Universal Audio Standard SC-1
“Its robust construction, low self-noise, and ability to emulate a range of classic microphones make it a valuable asset”: Universal Audio SC-1 review
Abbey Road Studio One
Refurbished Abbey Road Studio One reopens with evening of "boundary-pushing expressive dance" that blends styles from ballet to hip-hop and krump - and a new mixing desk
Billie Eilish
“I was like, ‘man - this is the energy’”: Billie Eilish’s mix engineers reveal the star's “favourite part” of her smash hit, Birds Of A Feather
maida vale
Hans Zimmer's plans to transform former BBC Maida Vale Studios into "world-leading" music centre take one step closer to completion
Mk.gee, Justin Bieber and Fred Again
“Anything that comes out of his mouth: that’s pop music. You can really do pretty wild stuff behind that”: Mk.gee, Fred Again, Sekou… is Justin Bieber assembling 2025’s hottest cast of musical collaborators?
Latest in News
Calvin Harris and Chicane
“You can play two notes over multiple different chords. It’s a thing. It’s not the same!”: Calvin Harris slams claim by Chicane producer that his new single Blessings sounds too similar to 1996 trance anthem Offshore, then cites song by Tangerine Dream
Dave Navarro (L) and Perry Farrell (R) of Jane's Addiction perform at Trinity College Park on June 28, 2024 in Dublin, Ireland
“It all came to a screeching halt and forever destroyed the band’s life. And there's no chance for the band to ever play together again”: Dave Navarro confirms that there’s no way back for Jane’s Addiction after chaotic last gig in Boston
Elton John during the opening night curtain call for Tammy Faye on Broadway at The Palace Theatre
“It’s a criminal offence”: Elton lambasts government over proposals to change copyright laws to suit AI firms
Olivia Rodrigo
“I don’t know the science behind it but it really works”: Olivia Rodrigo swears by this $50 Vocal Trainer gizmo to keep her singing voice in shape, but how does it actually work?
Bono black and white in glasses
Bono’s Stories Of Surrender documentary receives standing ovation at Cannes
soundflow
If you're an Ableton Live user, SoundFlow could save you hours of time by replacing complex workflows with the touch of a button

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...