Matt Calvert

“This immaculately-sampled keyboard collection became a huge part of my album - the upright pianos added a vividness (complete with pedal noises) to my demos that helped steer the sound. Even though I replaced most of it with a real upright piano for the final arrangements (there are some things you can’t get from anything other than a physical acoustic instrument, like being able to reach inside a piano), I left it on a few tracks or used a mixture within certain pieces - I’m not sure people could necessarily tell them apart. The dulcitone has also become a huge part of my sound.”

“The Line 6 Helix is amazing - super flexible in terms of routing (compared to a normal pedal setup) and programming. It can integrate with other stompboxes easily, and can send MIDI to control Ableton Live. I also use Line 6’s M9 a lot for gigs and all sorts - it’s brilliant."

"My pedal board is split into 2 channels with a Line Selector. Channel one has all the indispensables: EHX Ring Mod, Boss OC3, Whammy Pedal, Boss DS or a RAT, Boss DD5, and now a Hexe Revolver too. Channel 2 is to cut from whatever combination of those to just clean, or a Boss RV5. I’ll probably replace the RV5 with a Line6 M9, to expand Channel 2, and probably put an M5 in 'channel 1’. Nothing too fancy. I can’t say I’ve exhausted that setup yet."

“When recording my album Typewritten (which has only acoustic instruments) I borrowed a cheap Ozark Resonator which had tons of buzzy, rattly character, sounding like a big banjo. It really helped give a different angle to the guitar element that blended really well with the sound world - lots of percussion, vibraphone, marimba, strings and acoustic keyboards. I’ve since bought this electro-acoustic Ozark for gigging the album’s material.”

“Apart from my acoustic record, there’s hardly a production or project that I haven’t used this for. I was lucky to get this in 2007 for £270 (less than the recent Roland Boutique SH-01A reissue).

I’m not a hardware or analogue snob - some of my favourite music is all made from soft synths, and I use the TAL Bassline-101 plugin a lot, too. I’m more interested in whatever is inspiring to use, and have always advocated for good musical ideas outweighing gear collections - although, as much as I subscribe to that ideology, my financial situation has enforced it!”

“This has also featured on most productions - it just adds vibe and inspiration straight away, whether using the echo, spring, or just distorting things. UAD makes a very impressive plugin emulation but I consider the hardware piece to be almost like an instrument that you can play with.

I also have a modded WEM Copicat and my Electro-Harmonix Memory Man gets a lot of action, too. I’m looking forward to doing some non-exclusively-acoustic music to get into these things again!”

“An obvious choice, but Ableton Live has become indispensable. Everything about Live is geared towards creativity, especially how you can use samples, plus the FX and MIDI mapping capability. It’s an amazing tool for writing and generating ideas, and I use it for all of my studio-based work and various live performances - either building custom synth/sample rigs for Goldie’s live band or numerous Heritage Orchestra projects, or doing more experimental live sampling/processing with Strobes using this controller.”

Image shown in linked article, used with Ableton Live

“The Line 6 Helix is amazing - super flexible in terms of routing (compared to a normal pedal setup) and programming. It can integrate with other stompboxes easily, and can send MIDI to control Ableton Live. I also use Line 6’s M9 a lot for gigs and all sorts - it’s brilliant."

“The Line 6 Helix is amazing - super flexible in terms of routing (compared to a normal pedal setup) and programming. It can integrate with other stompboxes easily, and can send MIDI to control Ableton Live. I also use Line 6’s M9 a lot for gigs and all sorts - it’s brilliant.

If I had to pick a few pedals, though, it’d be the Digitech Whammy, EHX Memory Man and EHX Frequency Analyzer.”

“The Line 6 Helix is amazing - super flexible in terms of routing (compared to a normal pedal setup) and programming. It can integrate with other stompboxes easily, and can send MIDI to control Ableton Live. I also use Line 6’s M9 a lot for gigs and all sorts - it’s brilliant.

If I had to pick a few pedals, though, it’d be the Digitech Whammy, EHX Memory Man and EHX Frequency Analyzer.”

“The Line 6 Helix is amazing - super flexible in terms of routing (compared to a normal pedal setup) and programming. It can integrate with other stompboxes easily, and can send MIDI to control Ableton Live. I also use Line 6’s M9 a lot for gigs and all sorts - it’s brilliant.

If I had to pick a few pedals, though, it’d be the Digitech Whammy, EHX Memory Man and EHX Frequency Analyzer.”

"For years I’ve just had a USA Telecaster for everything. Recently I bought a Jazzmaster, but only cos it looks bad ass!"

"For years I’ve just had a USA Telecaster for everything. Recently I bought a Jazzmaster, but only cos it looks bad ass!"

"My pedal board is split into 2 channels with a Line Selector. Channel one has all the indispensables: EHX Ring Mod, Boss OC3, Whammy Pedal, Boss DS or a RAT, Boss DD5, and now a Hexe Revolver too. Channel 2 is to cut from whatever combination of those to just clean, or a Boss RV5. I’ll probably replace the RV5 with a Line6 M9, to expand Channel 2, and probably put an M5 in 'channel 1’. Nothing too fancy. I can’t say I’ve exhausted that setup yet."

"My pedal board is split into 2 channels with a Line Selector. Channel one has all the indispensables: EHX Ring Mod, Boss OC3, Whammy Pedal, Boss DS or a RAT, Boss DD5, and now a Hexe Revolver too. Channel 2 is to cut from whatever combination of those to just clean, or a Boss RV5. I’ll probably replace the RV5 with a Line6 M9, to expand Channel 2, and probably put an M5 in 'channel 1’. Nothing too fancy. I can’t say I’ve exhausted that setup yet."

"My pedal board is split into 2 channels with a Line Selector. Channel one has all the indispensables: EHX Ring Mod, Boss OC3, Whammy Pedal, Boss DS or a RAT, Boss DD5, and now a Hexe Revolver too. Channel 2 is to cut from whatever combination of those to just clean, or a Boss RV5. I’ll probably replace the RV5 with a Line6 M9, to expand Channel 2, and probably put an M5 in 'channel 1’. Nothing too fancy. I can’t say I’ve exhausted that setup yet."

"My pedal board is split into 2 channels with a Line Selector. Channel one has all the indispensables: EHX Ring Mod, Boss OC3, Whammy Pedal, Boss DS or a RAT, Boss DD5, and now a Hexe Revolver too. Channel 2 is to cut from whatever combination of those to just clean, or a Boss RV5. I’ll probably replace the RV5 with a Line6 M9, to expand Channel 2, and probably put an M5 in 'channel 1’. Nothing too fancy. I can’t say I’ve exhausted that setup yet."