Intro
London-based, Dutch DJ/Producer Patrick Hagenaar is a relatively 'new' kid on the block when it comes to producing, but has already had a string of chart-topping club hits to his name such as We Feel The Same, L.O.V.E, Won't Let You Down and In & Out, plus remixes for major artists like Ke$ha, Toni Braxton and Wynter Gordon.
As a Ministry of Sound Tour resident DJ he destroys dancefloors around the world. Here, Hagenaar takes some time to show us around his home studio and explain some of the kit he uses to craft his tunes.
The studio
"My studio is located in my flat in South London - it’s a proper ‘bedroom studio’: PC, M-Audio Axiom Pro 49 MIDI Keyboard, ADAM A5’s and a TC Electronic audio interface, but it does the job for me.
“As it’s a small room, I’ve chosen small monitors, with not too much bass in them. In addition, I put some necessary padding up and several paintings, which not only work as bit of acoustic treatment, but make it all a bit more colourful as well”
Ableton Live & Pro Tools 10
“Currently, Ableton 8 is my DAW of choice as it’s just so easy and quick to use. However, I recently bought a copy of Pro Tools 10, which I’m trying to learn as we speak, so I can start using this for productions as well.
"I’m especially interested in the mixing part of this software – now with the 32bit float feature, there is even more headroom and things just sounds great in this DAW"
TC Electronic Desktop Konnekt 6
"I spent quite some time researching before I bought this Audio Interface – The reason why this works for me is because it’s very good value and the audio quality of this interface is the same as the top of the range Konnekt 48.
"It just has less I/O’s, which I don’t need as I don’t record here – oh and it comes with the tasty M40 studio Reverb"
Monitoring
"My Adam A5’s are my main monitors, they sounds great – very detailed and not too much bass, which is perfect for the room I’m in.
"The Tannoy’s I just bought years and years ago and are just there to double check my tracks on, but that’s about it"
Sennheiser HD600
"As the acoustics aren’t great in my room, plus the fact that I don’t get a great lower frequency representationon my monitors, I bought these headphones after being recommended to me by my buddy Felix Baumgartner.
"I do often still take my tracks to my mate’s studio (Danny Dove) to double check all the levels with his set up, just to be sure”
M-Audio Axiom Pro49
"I bought this after reading the raving review by the guys in Future Music magazine – I have been looking for a decent MIDI keyboard with proper auto-mapping in Ableton and this does the trick for me"
My best kept studio secret
“This little music note, doesn’t only look wicked, but you can actually make some tunes on it as well!
SHM probably don’t want you to know this, but I think they made their ‘One’ bassline on this… Well it sounds really close for some reason haha”
UAD cards
"Everyone loves a bit of UAD – I got myself a UAD-2 duo and some old UAD 1’s with quite a lot of the plugins.
"Little ‘penny pincher’ tip for all you guys on a budget – why not buy a card second hand with plugins that the previous owner bought already? Can save you a lot of cash…"
Synths in a box
"As I do all my music and mixing ‘inside the box’, I have a pretty extensive synth/plugin collection – arguably too much – some of my current favourite synths are Ace, Zebra2, Z3ta2, Massive & Dune”
Xponent & Avid Torq 2.0
"As my space is so limited, I have to use it wisely, so I also record all my mixes here.
"Unlike a lot of DJ’s now, I still records my mixes live with the same set up I have been using on the road since 2007: My trusty Xponent and Avid Torq 2.0 – sometimes I throw in the Trigger finger in there for good measures as well"