Christian Smith

“I’ve been using Ableton for a long, long time. At first, I missed the excitement of a hardware studio, but moving onboard gives you so many more options and so many more sounds. Ableton is an amazing DAW.”

“Because I come from a hardware background, I was drawn to the Arturia V collection. The Minimoog gets used for most of my basslines and stabs. The only problem is that it eats up a lot of processor because you have to EQ it, compress it and really shape the sound. If you feed it straight into a track, it feels way too heavy.”

"tip: if you make music you must get this soft synth. it's amazing!"

"I also have a Dave Smith Tetra analog synth which is great. But i cannot stress enough how important acoustics are."

“Another one that reminds me of the analogue era. When I first heard the software 303s, I didn’t think they were quite as deep as the real thing, but these days… I cannot tell the difference. I was talking to Richie Hawtin about this, and even he says that the plugins are getting it right.”

“I think it’s hard to find a really good software flanger; not many developers have managed to get that warm analogue sound. For me, the MXR is the best one out there.

“To be honest, I would have been happy to talk about any of the UAD plugins. I’ve got the whole set and every one sounds incredible.”

“I love panning… adding some serious width to a track. I’m really getting into panning my hats at the moment; a fast pan that doesn’t affect the sound too much, but gives you so much space. Any producer who doesn’t investigate the Soundtoys plugins is a fool. They will make your music sound better!”