Mica Levi Gear / Equipment

Google "Mica Levi studio" and you'll get plenty in the Image search results:

https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/qa-under-the-skin-of-mica-levis-masterful-film-score-20635

https://www.loudandquiet.com/interview/micachu/

https://www.thefader.com/2016/11/14/mica-levi-jackie-under-the-skin-soundtrack-interview

It's rare that artists will mention gear by name in interviews, even if it's an "in the studio" interview, because you'll lose 90% of the readers talking about what monitors and plugins you use... but from the studio pictures, you can begin to piece together the technical side of the story.

UPDATE: Oh, and every time one is nominated for a big award, as Mica was for Jackie, everyone who ever gave that artist gear or authorized a software license in their name will come out of the woodwork to announce their customer's success:

https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2017/02/14/917095/29073/en/Avid-Customers-Reign-at-The-BAFTA-Film-Awards.html

So, Jackie was (presumably) Mica composing the material in Sibelius, using a MacBook and a MIDI keyboard, then a handful of talented classical musicians executed that score in the studio.

thank you ! i appreciate the lead - didn't really find exactly what i wanted, but was still helpful ^_^

i agree that most artists dont mention their gear in interviews but this website is a testament to the fact that the info is often out there ! most artists i like, i can find at least some info on what synths or pedals or plugins they are using. and with mica ive found basically nothing !

nah... I bet the info you want is out there. Which albums and/or tracks do you MOST want to know about? I'll see if I can dive a little deeper.

Give me some focus :)

Ohhhhh! You just connected some dots for me. Listening to Devotion as I work this AM, and I just recalled that I kept forcing "Holding On" upon my friends back in '18/'19. But I'd totally lost the thread on Tirzah since then. Couldn't remember that artist's name or anything. Welcome back to my playlists, Tirzah!

Now I'm going to pitch Tirzah to everyone reading this thread, with this low key Prince-y jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zexqEPvCZk8

I'll work on some synth and plugin details for those 2 albums. This will take a bit, but we'll get some progress as the week progresses.

https://imgur.com/EUmoyR4

UPDATE 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jip3cc7AzT8

Here's Mica performing with an old Korg X50:

Coby Sey is using an Arturia controller to trigger sounds on what looks to be one of Akai's recent portable MPC-type sampler things, and someone is using an old Korg Kaossilator, the original yellow one... I had one of those for awhile, they're a bucket of fun.

The X50 has pretty standard keyboard workstation sounds from what I know of it, but we'll keep combing through.

Update: X50 apparently has a subset of sounds from the Korg Triton series... so some great and varied tones, as well as a ton of drum sounds. I wouldn't be surprised if this X50 was used on a few recordings.

youtube (dot) com/watch?v=_-KKaU6Fl_k

DAW of choice seems to be Apple Logic, at least it still was at the time of this interview... so all the synths and samplers included in Logic are fair game too...

UPDATE the preview from this URL was causing all sorts of technical issues, so I've disabled it for now... but if you can manage to get the link working, you'll see Mica endorse and use Logic on an iMac.

UPDATE 2 My 2 cents on this topic, now that I've had a little time: I don't hear much on the synth-based recordings in question that couldn't be accomplished by either an X50 w/ FX (or any similar workstation synth), mangling of sample sets and instruments included with Logic, or playful use of sampled voice and acoustic instruments in Logic's bundled sampler. Speaking anecdotally: the majority of the academy-trained musicians/composers* that I've known are not gear-obsessed, they make great work from the simple ingredients at their disposal. When you're forced to work with a bunch of talented people on years of assignments, I suspect you see over and over that it's not the gear that separates the good from the great.

Also: student loan payments are gonna keep you from going wild with software/gear purchases. Just sayin'.

*Mica mentions getting a degree in composition from Guildhall -- they also trained as a classical violinist and violist from the age of 4 onward