Me in my studio: Plastik Funk
Welcome
It’s been a busy year for Plastik Funk. The German house duo (Rafael Ximenez and Mikio Gruschinske) have released both remixes and original music, and over the next few weeks they’ll be touring the globe, rounding out 2016 in Switzerland on New Year’s Eve.
Fortunately, we managed to pin the guys down while they were back in their studio, and we asked them to show us what they’ve got in there and tell us all about it.
The studio
“Our studio is mainly digital, with mostly software synths and plugins. We moved into this room approximately five years ago, when we started our agency with the guys working next door. We guess it’s the only way somebody supports constant bass sound coming through the walls.
“The base is an 8-core Mac Pro from 2009 with lots of SSD power, 16GB RAM and an older UAD card for some nice vintage plugins. The vinyl collection in the usual IKEA shelves is both inspiration and sound diffusor.”
Access Virus TI Polar
“This is our favourite hardware synth, and we use it a lot. The bass sounds are still unbeatable. Tweaking knobs is still more intuitive than just moving the mouse. The keys are also really smooth and nice to play on. A must have!”
SPL Transient Designer
“We love this piece of gear. Although we also have the plugin version, we’d rather use this gem. We couldn’t believe that there really is a difference between the analogue gear and the digital version until our friend Ramon Zenker from Hardfloor gave us this one to try. We still have it mounted in our studio.”
Main monitors
“Our monitor speakers are pretty standart we guess. Two Genelec 1031As and two Avantones to double-check the radio compatibility and final sound. All these are combined with an Adam Sub12 for the neccessary low frequencies (and to annoy our neighbours) controlled through the Dangerous Music Monitor ST, which is really outstanding and doesn’t change the signal going directly to the speakers.”
Native Instruments Maschine
“Always great for making beats and coming up with ideas on the fly. It’s that love of pushing pads and turning knobs again.”
RME Fireface 800
“This soundcard has all we need to record some vocals or get the right sound out of our Virus, etc. Lately we have been peeking over at the UAD Apollos, but we’re still sticking with this one.”
MacBook Pro with Retina display
“We recently found out that the MacBook Pro has similar processing power to the 2009 Mac Pro, so we’re using both. And the DAW is Logic X, of course.”
Old-school keyboards
“The Roland JX-8P and the D-10 are the leftovers from earlier days. Still keeping them but can’t even remember the last time we turned them on. There is not even a cable in the patchbay anymore.”
Technics SL1200 MK2
“We often record pieces of old tracks on this turntable [in the background] and tweak around with the samples. It’s still good for inspiration and for making solid house tracks. You should never sell this one if you’ve got one.”
I’m the Group Content Manager for MusicRadar, specialising in all things tech. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. 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.