RJD2

A Moog Minitaur Analog Bass Synthesizer can be seen on the left side underneath RJD2's display in this Vine video of his studio desk.

"I also used the Native Instruments Maschine. I’m not quite as proficient with it but it’s incredibly powerful and I love it. I’m always stuck between wanting to learn stuff and wanting to do stuff with the things that I know, so the Maschine is just this thing that I struggle with because it’s so great, but I’ve only scratched the surface with it. I’m not proficient with it the way that I am with other stuff."

-RJD2, Reverb.com Interview

Ramble has also gone on GearSlutz to talk about his gear. In this forum post, he mentions using the MPC for the entirety of the Deadringer album.

"More Is Than Isn’t was recorded at Rjd2’s Dustbowl Studios, which inhabit four rooms of his two-story Philadelphia home. A “sampling room” consists of two Technics SL 1200 Mk turntables, Akai MPC 2000XL, and approximately 8,000 vinyl records."

-eMusician

RJD2 posts a photo of his DAW session on Twitter, showing he uses Pro Tools for his productions.

In an emusician article about the making of his 2013 album More Is Than Isn't, he talks about using Pro Tools:

“I’ll chop up samples and pitch them to where it sounds natural,” he replies. “I try to keep it at A 440. But sometimes I forget to do that. Some of my older songs are between A and A-flat. Often I will start at 440 as closely as possible and still end up pitching stuff. With analog synths, you have to consider their ability to stay in pitch. I reference things against the Rhodes to know if it’s bang-on in terms of 440. Other times, I’m in the mixing phase and I’ll have to fix the pitch using the pitch shift in Pro Tools.”

Since 2013, RJD2 still uses Pro Tools quite a bit. In an interview with Reverb.com, Ramble mentioned that in the new 2016 album Dame Fortune, he had used Pro Tools to record everything in the album.

“The Universal Audio plug-ins are my bread and butter,” he says. “I use the UAD EMT 140 [Classic Plate Reverb], the Lexicon [224] Digital Reverb, and the Roland [RE-201] Space Echo. If drums or bass sound boring, UAD’s Fairchild 670 Compressor beefs stuff up and gives them character. Or the [Teletronix] LA2A plug-in on bass. Synths go straight to Pro Tools. Guitars and piano go to outboard effects like the hardware Space Echo, which I love for its unpredictability. I used a Manley Massive Passive EQ a lot too. The TubeTech CL-1B was the main vocal compressor. And I have a set of Lucas Limiting Amplifiers into a pair of Amtek Pultec PEQ-1A clones. That is a dummy-proof signal path. It’s hard to botch that.”

RJD2 is shown using a DBX 160A Compressor in a video on his Vine profile, highlighting its role in his studio setup.

RJD2 can be seen using the Universal Audio 6176 Channel Strip on his Vine profile, showcasing its role in his studio setup.

In this Vine, RJD2's MPC can be seen when the camera pans to the right.

Two years later, Ramble was interviewed by Reverb.com. He had this to say about what gear he used in the recording process:

"Pretty much everything was recorded in Pro Tools. There was an assortment of mics. For the most part, the signal path would be either microphone, preamp right into the machine, and then the MPC somewhat extensively, the MPC2000XL, the Akai."

According to an interview with Reverb.com, Ramble (RJD2) had used bought this instrument between 2008-09.

"Because the record I did the Song Exploder on, that album came out in 2010. And I used the CS-80 a lot on that recording."

Also, on the new album Dame Fortune, he mentions the Yamaha as being used on the album.

In an interview with Thump.Vice.com, Ramble has this to say:

"The best polyphonic synthesizer ever imagined, in my opinion. Has graced countless classic recordings. I'm into this one for upwards of 30-50 man-hours, if I'm guessing. All five of the lower PCBs were rebuilt with modern components; hundreds of chips and capacitors were desoldered, and newly manufactured ones were put in place. It's now one of the most stable synths I own—just a dream to play. The first track on Dame Fortune, "A Portal Inward," is almost entirely this synth. I can't say enough good things about this machine."

"It's a gorgeous-sounding machine; fully polyphonic, with all the functions of a standard analog synth, and the string sounds are amazing. Gary Numan's "Cars" in the flesh."

-RJD2, Thump.Vice Interview

"Very rich-sounding instrument with polyphonic aftertouch, velocity sensitivity, and immense programming capabilities. Almost like a modular synth in a programmable box."

-RJD2, Thump.Vice Intervew

"As for hardware synths, Rjd2’s Clavia Nord Lead Electro, Korg Polysix, Yamaha CS-80 and SY-2, ARP Pro Soloist, and Moog Minimoog provide color to his beat-pulsing tunes. The “synth room” holds an ARP 2600, Moog Polymoog, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Prophet T8, Rhodes Chroma, Oberheim Matrix 12 and Oberheim OB-Xa, Roland Juno-60, Elka Rhapsody 490 String Machine, and Elka Synthex."

"As for hardware synths, Rjd2’s Clavia Nord Lead Electro, Korg Polysix, Yamaha CS-80 and SY-2, ARP Pro Soloist, and Moog Minimoog provide color to his beat-pulsing tunes. The “synth room” holds an ARP 2600, Moog Polymoog, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Prophet T8, Rhodes Chroma, Oberheim Matrix 12 and Oberheim OB-Xa, Roland Juno-60, Elka Rhapsody 490 String Machine, and Elka Synthex."

"As for hardware synths, Rjd2’s Clavia Nord Lead Electro, Korg Polysix, Yamaha CS-80 and SY-2, ARP Pro Soloist, and Moog Minimoog provide color to his beat-pulsing tunes. The “synth room” holds an ARP 2600, Moog Polymoog, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Prophet T8, Rhodes Chroma, Oberheim Matrix 12 and Oberheim OB-Xa, Roland Juno-60, Elka Rhapsody 490 String Machine, and Elka Synthex."

"Rjd2 keeps his literal mic setup close to his vest; but less is more is his message, typically employing a Heil PR40 for kick drum, with Beyer M160 and AKG C12 mics for the remaining set."

“The Universal Audio plug-ins are my bread and butter,” he says. “I use the UAD EMT 140 [Classic Plate Reverb], the Lexicon [224] Digital Reverb, and the Roland [RE-201] Space Echo. If drums or bass sound boring, UAD’s Fairchild 670 Compressor beefs stuff up and gives them character. Or the [Teletronix] LA2A plug-in on bass. Synths go straight to Pro Tools. Guitars and piano go to outboard effects like the hardware Space Echo, which I love for its unpredictability. I used a Manley Massive Passive EQ a lot too. The TubeTech CL-1B was the main vocal compressor. And I have a set of Lucas Limiting Amplifiers into a pair of Amtek Pultec PEQ-1A clones. That is a dummy-proof signal path. It’s hard to botch that.”

“The Universal Audio plug-ins are my bread and butter,” he says. “I use the UAD EMT 140 [Classic Plate Reverb], the Lexicon [224] Digital Reverb, and the Roland [RE-201] Space Echo. If drums or bass sound boring, UAD’s Fairchild 670 Compressor beefs stuff up and gives them character. Or the [Teletronix] LA2A plug-in on bass. Synths go straight to Pro Tools. Guitars and piano go to outboard effects like the hardware Space Echo, which I love for its unpredictability. I used a Manley Massive Passive EQ a lot too. The TubeTech CL-1B was the main vocal compressor. And I have a set of Lucas Limiting Amplifiers into a pair of Amtek Pultec PEQ-1A clones. That is a dummy-proof signal path. It’s hard to botch that.”

“The Universal Audio plug-ins are my bread and butter,” he says. “I use the UAD EMT 140 [Classic Plate Reverb], the Lexicon [224] Digital Reverb, and the Roland [RE-201] Space Echo. If drums or bass sound boring, UAD’s Fairchild 670 Compressor beefs stuff up and gives them character. Or the [Teletronix] LA2A plug-in on bass. Synths go straight to Pro Tools. Guitars and piano go to outboard effects like the hardware Space Echo, which I love for its unpredictability. I used a Manley Massive Passive EQ a lot too. The TubeTech CL-1B was the main vocal compressor. And I have a set of Lucas Limiting Amplifiers into a pair of Amtek Pultec PEQ-1A clones. That is a dummy-proof signal path. It’s hard to botch that.”

"just found a great easter egg...had to pull the schematics for my 1966 Freeman String Symphonizer."

RJD2's Tweet reveals he owns a Freeman String Symphonizer from 1966.

This Vine video posted by RDJ2 shows a portion of his studio gear setup, where his Barefoot Sound MicroMain 27 Studio Monitors can be seen on either side of his display. He captions this video, "Digital funk".

In this Tweet, RJD2 posts a photo of the Coles 4038 Studio Ribbon Microphone he uses to record his acoustic guitar. He says, "Ol' faithful", implying this is his go-to mic for guitar recording. In the comments, someone asks him, "Coles?" to which RJD2 replies, "yessir".

In this Tweet, Ramble shows off his Space Echo.

Besides messing with it, he has used it in studio as described in this interview with eMusician:

"“The Universal Audio plug-ins are my bread and butter,” he says. “I use the UAD EMT 140 [Classic Plate Reverb], the Lexicon [224] Digital Reverb, and the Roland [RE-201] Space Echo."

RJD2 has built and uses a custom Teletronix LA-2A Leveling Amplifier, as mentioned in his tweet.

Concerning the new album Dame Fortune, Ramble mentions this:

"The CS-80 is on there, I love that thing, the ARP 2600 is in there, and then there are some odds and ends, but that’s kind of the meat and potatoes of it."

"The most comfortable keyboard manual that has ever been installed on a synth, in my opinion—like driving a Caddy in an empty parking lot."

-RJD2, Thump.Vice Interview

"The first analog synth I bought; this was on the Since We Last Spoke tour in 2004... Only five voices, but sounds beautiful."

-RJD2, Thump.Vice Interview

"Fun machine! The step sequencer that is built in is a blast."

-RJD2, Thump.Vice Interview

"Part of what makes analog synths sound distinct is their imprecision; not all eight voices sound identical on this, which gives it a nice character in the context of a recording."

-RJD2, Thump.Vice Interview

"The “synth room” contains an eightcore Mac (running Pro Tools 10), DIY modular and analog synths and percussion."

"As for hardware synths, Rjd2’s Clavia Nord Lead Electro, Korg Polysix, Yamaha CS-80 and SY-2, ARP Pro Soloist, and Moog Minimoog provide color to his beat-pulsing tunes. The “synth room” holds an ARP 2600, Moog Polymoog, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Prophet T8, Rhodes Chroma, Oberheim Matrix 12 and Oberheim OB-Xa, Roland Juno-60, Elka Rhapsody 490 String Machine, and Elka Synthex."