Jan Hammer

In this interview Jan Hammer says: "When it comes to samples, I like things like Distorted Reality from Spectrasonics. A new patch can set you off writing a new piece of music — it's like the grain of sand that starts the creation of the pearl."

I still use Opcode Studio Vision, after five years. It was murdered by Gibson!

It’s still the most logical MIDI-integrated sequencer. As far as the MIDI part, Studio Vision is still my favorite. I’ve got a Mac set aside that runs System 9.2. It’s completely stable, it all works. There’s no reason it won’t work for another ten years.

"As software processing goes, I like the Waves processing plug-ins and I have used their Maxx Bass to reprocess an album I recorded that I felt was lacking at the bass end, probably due to my monitoring environment at the time. I'm from the old school of outboard gear so I particularly like their Renaissance-series plug-ins and their new convolution reverb is just incredible. I use virtual effects much more than virtual instruments."