Mauricio Ibáñez

This was my second Stratocaster. I always wanted one in Candy Apple Red and maple fretboard. I think it's a gorgeous classic. This guitar comes from Mexico but it is excellent. I couldn't detect any flaws in the build. The sound is all you could want from a Strat. Classic tone and very versatile too. This guitar can do most genres with ease. Rock, jazz, blues, even metal. This guitar will stay in my collection for sure.

I got this guitar in 2004. This is my second Ibanez guitar, the first being a SA160 which I no longer own. It came with Dimarzio IBZ pickups which I later replaced for a Dimarzio Steve Special/Air Norton combination ala John Petrucci in his Ibanez days. The sound is warm, full and clear. Another cool distinctive feature of this guitar is the unique mirror dot inlays. Very cool.

I bought this guitar in 2010 as a guitar student at LACM: Los Angeles College of Music in Pasadena, California, USA. It quickly became my favorite due to its light weight, low action, good sustain and beautiful flamed maple top. This particular model came in three colours: Dark Sunset Burst, Sapphire Blue and Transparent Black. I chose the first one. It is really gorgeous and it gets a lot of use in my studio recordings. It has a push-pull switch that allows for the humbuckers to go into single coil mode. That makes it a very versatile guitar. It also has the SynchroniZR tremolo which is a very sophisticated piece of hardware. It is my main electric guitar.

This is a stunning steel-string acoustic guitar. The sound is warm, big and sparkly. It stays in tune quite well too. I've used it on most of my steel-string acoustic parts on my songs. The construction quality and finish are superb. I would use another steel-string guitar if I wanted a different flavor but this guitar covers all my steel-string needs at the moment. Wonderful instrument.

This guitar has been my baby for the last four years. I love the Autumn Fade Metallic finish, it goes really well with the maple fretboard. It has a lively, snappy tone and it's super comfortable. It's a versatile instrument and I like the sound of the stock pickups, so I won't be changing them anytime soon. The locking tremolo works well. It's a mid-price guitar that performs like a pricier instrument.

This guitar amplifier is literally the king of Dual Rectifiers. It has all the bells and whistles. It features four channels that can be treated as four separate amplifiers. Each channel has 3 modes or voicings with the flip of a small switch next to the tone controls. Also the power tubes can be selected in different combinations per channel. It features selectable diode or tube rectification per channel as well. Like all rectifiers it features the classic spongy or bold switch on the back panel which changes the amp character. Spongy reduces the voltage which also reduces the headroom and makes the amp more bubbly and easier to play at lower volume. Bold turns the amp into a fierce beast and it's best suited for loud situations like live performance or band rehearsals. The main difference between the Road King I and II is that the second features the clean channel of the Lonestar series. Sparkly and beautiful. Overall it is a tremendously versatile guitar amp and I love it.

This is not even Line 6's latest model and it sounds great. I use it on studio direct mode most of the time, direct to my studio monitors or with a FRFR cabinet. I would say that if you spend enough time crafting your presets and learning about this unit, you will get impressive sounds that are hard to distinguish from their real non-digital counterparts. The only limitation may be the amount of FX you can put in the chain, up to 8 FX if I'm not mistaken. You have to choose wisely. I am well aware that there are better and more sophisticated modeling units than this one, like the Axe-FX or the Kemper amp but those are much more expensive. The Pod HD500 packs a punch for a lot less money.

I own three of these attenuators and they're pretty much life savers! There is a very serious design flaw on the M-Audio ProjectMix. The console has a phantom power switch which applies to all 8 preamps when activated. In order to record acoustic drums it's necessary to use both condenser and dynamic mics. However, since the console doesn't have attenuation pads on it, the signal on the dynamic mics for snare and kick drum gets boosted way too high, clipping even at minimum gain settings on those channels on the console. This is where these attenuators come into play. By using them with the snare and kick drum mics, I'm able to tame the signal by -30db, -20db or -10 db to taste with a 3 position switch. I have a third one just in case I need to tame a tom, depending on the song I'm recording and the drummer setup. I'll get two or three more of these babies soon. Very useful!

I bought Windows 7 Ultimate years ago and first installed it on a Bootcamp partition on Mac. I always had trouble with dpc latency issues that ruined my recordings so I didn't like using it. Now I got a custom PC and got the opportunity to update my Windows 7 Ultimate license to Windows 10 Pro for free. It's the best Windows system I've ever tried. Very stable and rock solid!

I purchased this virtual instrument last year and I have to say it's one of the best decisions I've made. The sheer amount of sounds and the sound quality are well worth the investment. From choirs, to strings and church organs, M-Tron Pro has it all. You can get those Steven Wilson, King Crimson mellotron sounds with ease. A must-have.

This is the latest version of Korg's legendary bundle of virtual synthesizers. Now they have added the amazing Arp Odyssey to this massive arsenal of synthesizers. They dropped the "Legacy" title. I'm currently going through the sounds and they're incredible. All the previous synths have been updated as well. This is just pure synth goodness.

This software synth has been around for quite some time. However, its sound quality is astounding. Leads, pads, arpeggiators, synth bass and more. The sounds are inspiring and very usable not only in electronic music productions but rock music as well. One of my favorite software synths.

I started using this DAW a couple of years ago and I was surprised by how small it is. The developer is always improving it with constant updates. I used a variety of DAWs before but now all my work is based on Reaper. I love how simple and efficient it is. It has an incredible array of features and is very customizable. I love the fact that you can buy it for 60 dollars. So much value for so little money! :)

This is one of those old school 90's Korg synths. Successor of the Wavestation. It's made of aluminum so it's very heavy. That's not good news for any gigging keyboardist's back but fortunately for me I just keep it in the studio for recording purposes. It has some lovely sounds. Many of them are quite dated but have lots of character. I use it mostly as a midi controller with software on my studio PC.

This is the quintessential studio microphone. Most if not everyone who owns a recording studio has at least one of these microphones. I use it mostly to record electric guitar and snare drum. I've seen videos of people using it as a vocal microphone too so it's very versatile. It is also very durable. The sound is bright and focused, ideal for miking guitar cabinets. It makes a great combination with the Sennheiser e906.

I bought this microphone because I found out Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree uses it for live performances. Also because it has exceptional feedback rejection. I've used it for studio recording purposes with great results. It needs a significant amount of gain from the audio interface's preamp though. The sound is clear and crisp. I love the fact it rejects feedback so well because I never get nasty squeals and noises of any kind when I use it. It is a quality product, very sturdy. Highly recommended.

This is my current music production machine. Processor: AMD FX(tm)-8150 Eight-Core Processor 3.60 GHz, 32 GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. It works beautifully with Reaper and my audio plugins. I often have sessions of 20+ tracks, all of them with several plugins and this system handles everything perfectly. I work with a dual screen system, which allows me to see the mixer on the second screen at all times.

I haven't used this audio interface much because I busted one of the preamps and it always clipped. I had it serviced and have been using it more often lately. It can produce quite decent recordings provided you use good quality microphones. Lately I've been recording drums so I needed to use it. M-Audio never updated the Mac drivers which didn't allow me to use it on OSX so I switched to Windows 10 on a custom PC. I'm glad I did, because this setup is more powerful than my previous Mac setup. Update as of Dec 23, 2015: My ProjectMix is fried. The LCD screen won't show anything but squares and no letters. None of the faders or buttons work. I can't reset it or get it into test mode. The fact that this unit has been forgotten by M-Audio with no driver updates for years proves its unreliability. I will send it to have it serviced and fingers crossed, they might be able to fix it. If that doesn't happen, I will have to buy a new audio interface with 8 mic pres.