Me in my studio: Olaf Stuut
Welcome
Having made a name for himself with his remix work, Dutch producer Olaf Stuut released his new album Run last month.
Citing influences ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Claude Debussy, Stuut has a keen eye/ear for production detail, blending industrial and ambient elements in his richly-textured music.
As ever, our task for Olaf was to highlight the gear that gets his creative juices flowing. Click through the gallery to take a look at it.
Studio
“Here are a few things I used for the album - to make sounds, melodies or to create tension in the compositions.
“I've chosen to use less instruments and elements than in my previous work, to keep everything close to the source and try to make that as strong as possible.”
Knas Ekdahl Moisturizer
“This is a spring reverb. But not just a reverb - there is an LFO which can be assigned to the filter cutoff or the filter mode (which gives crazy results). The springs are open on the top as you can see. You can play with the springs in so many ways and hear sounds you've never heard before.”
TC Helicon VoiceLive 3
“As you can hear on the record, I manipulate a lot of my vocal work. My favourite must be in Run, where the vocal makes these eerie melodies.
“With this machine you can sing and sample your own voice in real time and play harmonics with a keyboard. This feels really soothing and inspiring - almost in the same way that a Rhodes gives inspiration while you’re playing.”
Yamaha DX7
“This old beast has some classic old school sounds on it. I mostly just like to play on this thing to get musical ideas, or get very cheesy from time to time [laughs].”
Dave Smith Instruments Tempest
“One of my favourite pieces of gear. I use this little thing for almost anything. I make drum sounds with it, obviously, but many synths, arps and basses as well. I really love how it's easy with this machine to give everything a little movement in sound so it feels more organic.”
Boss RE-20 Space Echo
“Live, this is the thing I turn to very often. I use it to make sound for the Tempest and create bizarre effects with the delays/verb. Beingrhythmic, it is also awesome for the arps I make with the Tempest.”
I’m the Group Content Manager for MusicRadar, specialising in all things tech. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 20 of which I’ve also spent writing about music technology.