Gramatik

"Which iZotope plug-ins do you use, and how do you use them?

Oh man, do you have a week?

I've been a diehard fan since Vinyl. Beginning with my 2012 #digitalfreedom release, I've mastered all of my releases with Ozone Advanced; currently I don't even go take a leak without putting Ozone Maximizer on it first. I put Ozone Exciter into my morning coffee instead of sugar. Ozone Imager is literally my only friend, the only one who truly understands me and cares about my feelings.

And not to mention, I've been shamelessly cheating on FF Pro-Q 2 with the Neutron Equalizer lately, and I practically sleep with Neutron Transient Shaper now.

Oh and I almost forgot, if I have to communicate with people verbally, I only do it through VocalSynth.

But yeah, it's hard to find a channel in my session that's not being sent through an iZotope plug-in one way or another. My current master chain is Exciter, Neutron Equalizer, and Maximizer as separate units. I'm kind of obsessed with IRC IV Transient mode—the accuracy and transparency is fantastic. The first thing I do when I open a new Ableton session is put Ozone 7 Imager on two return channels with different band settings and compression; anything that needs expanding goes through them. I love using the Vintage Limiter for vocal group tracks and synth group tracks right before the sidechain compression; it really gives a thick warmth to the overall sound of your main melodic elements in the song.

I've been using Neutron Compressor for parallel compression on return channels a lot lately. Even though you can adjust the mix amount on the plug-in itself, I still prefer to do it that way. I used to use Alloy 2 Transient for my kicks and snares but, as you know, Neutron Transient Shaper just blew it out of the water; it works ridiculously well and you can fine-tune every little detail on multiple bands.

Neutron Track Assistant and the way it can communicate with other instances of itself through all of the channels you put it on is still blowing my mind. I mean seriously, what the f[***] guys?"

My setup is simple—most of it is in the box. I'm an Ableton guy, and I use all of the usual suspects like Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Arturia, u-he, Xfer etc. I work primarily on Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 ohm headphones and use Adam Audio monitors + sub for reference. I use a MOTU Track 16 and Apollo Twin Duo, I have a few midi keyboards, a Nord Electro 5d, a Neumann u87ai mic, a Banshee Talkbox and a bunch of other stuff. When I need any kind of high-end gear, or I need to record horn sections etc, I go to a few different studios around New York City that have some amazing gear and rooms.

A MKI can be seen in this Instagram post.

At 2:58 in this video from "DJ TechTools", Gramatik says "I like to use Ozone as the entire package, ozone 5 to master and mix…"

Gramatik's answer to "Production tools you can't live without?":

"...Like, I like to use Ozone as the entire package, Ozone 5 to master and mix... like Native Insturments, Massive and FM8 and Pro 53 a lot of synths... and of course like a lot of, like, Moog simulations and some hardware from Moog. Moogs are, like, definitely like, my favorite synths."

Quoted in the official product description.

"I gotta say, Cymatics really did a number on this one, these are truly masterfully designed patches that can be easily tweaked for personalization, and also reverse engineered to help you fully understand the magic of sound design in Serum! This is a must have for any EDM producer!"

At 2:53 in this video from "DJ TechTools", Gramatik says "I make all my music through Ableton, and play live through Ableton…". Judging by the still image they display when he mentions this Ableton, he uses 9.

Visible in this October 18, 2018 Instagram post.

"My setup is simple—most of it is in the box. I'm an Ableton guy, and I use all of the usual suspects like Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Arturia, u-he, Xfer etc. I work primarily on Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 ohm headphones and use Adam Audio monitors + sub for reference. I use a MOTU Track 16 and Apollo Twin Duo, I have a few midi keyboards, a Nord Electro 5d, a Neumann u87ai mic, a Banshee Talkbox and a bunch of other stuff. When I need any kind of high-end gear, or I need to record horn sections etc, I go to a few different studios around New York City that have some amazing gear and rooms."

"My setup is simple—most of it is in the box. I'm an Ableton guy, and I use all of the usual suspects like Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Arturia, u-he, Xfer etc. I work primarily on Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 ohm headphones and use Adam Audio monitors + sub for reference. I use a MOTU Track 16 and Apollo Twin Duo, I have a few midi keyboards, a Nord Electro 5d, a Neumann u87ai mic, a Banshee Talkbox and a bunch of other stuff. When I need any kind of high-end gear, or I need to record horn sections etc, I go to a few different studios around New York City that have some amazing gear and rooms."

"Which iZotope plug-ins do you use, and how do you use them?

Oh man, do you have a week?

I've been a diehard fan since Vinyl. Beginning with my 2012 #digitalfreedom release, I've mastered all of my releases with Ozone Advanced; currently I don't even go take a leak without putting Ozone Maximizer on it first. I put Ozone Exciter into my morning coffee instead of sugar. Ozone Imager is literally my only friend, the only one who truly understands me and cares about my feelings."

"My setup is simple—most of it is in the box. I'm an Ableton guy, and I use all of the usual suspects like Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Arturia, u-he, Xfer etc. I work primarily on Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 ohm headphones and use Adam Audio monitors + sub for reference. I use a MOTU Track 16 and Apollo Twin Duo, I have a few midi keyboards, a Nord Electro 5d, a Neumann u87ai mic, a Banshee Talkbox and a bunch of other stuff. When I need any kind of high-end gear, or I need to record horn sections etc, I go to a few different studios around New York City that have some amazing gear and rooms."

Used live, as can be seen in Instagram posts dated November 10, 2019 and September 24, 2018.

Visible in Instagram posts dated December 21, 2019, November 28, 2019 and December 3, 2018.

Many times in the video you can see the APC40

14 secs into it and there it is

Gramatik's answer to "Production tools you can't live without?":

"...Like, I like to use Ozone as the entire package, Ozone 5 to master and mix... like Native Insturments, Massive and FM8 and Pro 53 a lot of synths... and of course like a lot of, like, Moog simulations and some hardware from Moog. Moogs are, like, definitely like, my favorite synths."

Gramatik's answer to "Production tools you can't live without?":

"...Like, I like to use Ozone as the entire package, Ozone 5 to master and mix... like Native Insturments, Massive and FM8 and Pro 53 a lot of synths... and of course like a lot of, like, Moog simulations and some hardware from Moog. Moogs are, like, definitely like, my favorite synths."

The set's nothing crazy. I just use Ableton Live, an APC 40 and a bunch of effects, VST’s to tweak s*** up right away and I use some separate channels besides the two track channels. I’m using three of four channels with like, percussions and hi hat loops and stuff like that like shakers and vocals samples and then I play that over and I try to rearrange the arrangement when I play it live, but nothing too crazy. And then of course he (points to Ales) plays guitar over through Ableton and through Guitar Rig. So… yea, we have fun.

Guitar Rig can also be seen in this January 14, 2012 photo of Gramatik at Le Belmont, taken from this website archive.

Quoted on the official product page.

"I'm really addicted to Distortion right now. It's so fucking good."

Quoted on the official product page.

Arturia Mini-V was one of the first emulations I've used, and it's still present in my nowadays tracks.

Can be deduced from his use of Cymatics Nightmares Vol. 2. He is quoted in the official product description.

"I gotta say, Cymatics really did a number on this one, these are truly masterfully designed patches that can be easily tweaked for personalization, and also reverse engineered to help you fully understand the magic of sound design in Serum! This is a must have for any EDM producer!"

"My setup is simple—most of it is in the box. I'm an Ableton guy, and I use all of the usual suspects like Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Arturia, u-he, Xfer etc. I work primarily on Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250 ohm headphones and use Adam Audio monitors + sub for reference. I use a MOTU Track 16 and Apollo Twin Duo, I have a few midi keyboards, a Nord Electro 5d, a Neumann u87ai mic, a Banshee Talkbox and a bunch of other stuff. When I need any kind of high-end gear, or I need to record horn sections etc, I go to a few different studios around New York City that have some amazing gear and rooms."

"And not to mention, I've been shamelessly cheating on FF Pro-Q 2 with the Neutron Equalizer lately, and I practically sleep with Neutron Transient Shaper now."

"Which iZotope plug-ins do you use, and how do you use them?

Oh man, do you have a week?

I've been a diehard fan since Vinyl. Beginning with my 2012 #digitalfreedom release, I've mastered all of my releases with Ozone Advanced; currently I don't even go take a leak without putting Ozone Maximizer on it first. I put Ozone Exciter into my morning coffee instead of sugar. Ozone Imager is literally my only friend, the only one who truly understands me and cares about my feelings.

And not to mention, I've been shamelessly cheating on FF Pro-Q 2 with the Neutron Equalizer lately, and I practically sleep with Neutron Transient Shaper now.

Oh and I almost forgot, if I have to communicate with people verbally, I only do it through VocalSynth."

"RX is a whole other amazing universe of its own; you have no idea how many times I wished I could just remove the annoying loud headphones in the background of an otherwise perfect vocal take back in the day. Well, I'm sure iZotope programmers have a perfect idea actually, it's why they wielded it into existence for us mere mortals, so we can stop f[***]ing complaining and do something useful with our meaningless existences!"

Visible in this Instagram post by Gramatik.

Featured in this April 14, 2018 Instagram post. It is also featured in this April 18, 2018 Twitter post.

April 14, 2018

Just copped this little beast in Asheville! 🤗🎹🎛 #Moog

April 18, 2018

Testing out my new #Moog Subsequent 37 with @LuxasMusix 🎹🎛🕶🎛🎹

"chaos34560: (...) I've got a few short questions to start you off!

1.) What DAW do you use? Why do you prefer it over others?

2.) What's your favorite plugin to make/resample your bass?

3.) Where do you find your inspiration?

(...)

Gramatik_Lowtemp:

1.) Ableton Live. It just has the best functionality and workflow for me.

2.) Massive, Trilogy/Trillian, ABL2, Kontakt...

3.) In the idea of making a soundtrack for somebody's life. :)"

"chaos34560: (...) I've got a few short questions to start you off!

1.) What DAW do you use? Why do you prefer it over others?

2.) What's your favorite plugin to make/resample your bass?

3.) Where do you find your inspiration?

(...)

Gramatik_Lowtemp:

1.) Ableton Live. It just has the best functionality and workflow for me.

2.) Massive, Trilogy/Trillian, ABL2, Kontakt...

3.) In the idea of making a soundtrack for somebody's life. :)"

"willistheillest: What is your favorite soft synth at the moment?

Gramatik_Lowtemp: There's so many of them, but I've been f[***]ing around with ABL2 lately, it's a great simulation of Roland TB-303. http://www.audiorealism.se/abl/abl2_announcement.htm"