Sascha Dikiciyan

"B2 from 2C Audio is what I use the most. Andrew (one of the founders) is also a good friend of mine and also helps me from time to time with some additional sound design! Their plugins are brilliant and I’m a big fan of algorithmic reverbs so B2 is really amazing at that and can so much more than just reverbs. From crazy delays to extreme granular sound mangling."

"My entire Digital I/ O is made out of RME hardware, with my main speakers being the Twin Be’s by Focal. These speakers have really changed the way I mix. I have also all kinds of low-quality computer speakers to check mixes on. It’s not really an enjoyable experience, but listing on them will resolve issues pretty quickly."

Among the key pieces of gear are the Roland Juno-106 synth (which Dikiciyan first used way back on Quake 2), a Moog Slim Phatty for arpeggiated bass parts, the highly-desirable, retro-futuristic OP-1... and an iPad. Dikiciyan calls the iPad "a legit tool to use as a music pro" and notes that he used the Animoog app on "pretty much every single cue."

Among the key pieces of gear are the Roland Juno-106 synth (which Dikiciyan first used way back on Quake 2), a Moog Slim Phatty for arpeggiated bass parts, the highly-desirable, retro-futuristic OP-1... and an iPad. Dikiciyan calls the iPad "a legit tool to use as a music pro" and notes that he used the Animoog app on "pretty much every single cue."

"I started to build a Eurorack Modular Rig last year with some help from Josh Humphrey of Big City Music here in LA. What you see there in yellow is the Metasonix Vacuum Distortion module. Yes, real working tubes. True Clipping. It's good stuff. The modular was used for a lot of more FX type of sounds. Since there's no way to ‘save a patch', you never know what you going to get next. Some sounds of it you can hear in our Character creation theme."

"The Moog was used for a lot of the arpeggiated Bass lines you will hear all over the tracks. This unit gets send first through a Chandler Tg-2 pre-amp before it hits the DAW so the signal is really phat so to speak. The Tempest came in while we were almost done with the score but I still managed to use it on two combat cues. Of course Linn style drum sounds, that was the whole point."

"These were some of the main tools used to create the musical soundscape that is Mass Effect 3. Honorable mention: The MS2000 (still a great synth), Roland V-synth and of course my Symbolic Sounds Kyma system, which was used to create some drones and other morph-like effects."

"I use mainly PCs, running Steinberg’s Cubase 6.5. My audio IO is a RME fireface. I just added a Dangerous Music D-Box to my setup so I’m finally enjoying the advantages of summoning mixing. Before the audio goes back into my DAW, I run everything through my Obsidian Compressor. It’s a simple but solid and good-sounding chain. I still use real keyboards, like the Korg MS2000, Korg Prophecy, Juno-106 and I’ve used a real CS-80 for my score on Mass Effect 3. I love the newer, more experimental synths like the OP-1 and all of the synths from Dave Smith. There are tons of other hardware gems I use, like Metasonix pedals and the Moog Froggers to name a few."

"I have been using Cubase Pro 8 for a while now and what I’ve seen so far is just awesome."

Also from this interview:

"I use mainly PCs, running Steinberg’s Cubase 6.5. My audio IO is a RME fireface. I just added a Dangerous Music D-Box to my setup so I’m finally enjoying the advantages of summoning mixing. Before the audio goes back into my DAW, I run everything through my Obsidian Compressor. It’s a simple but solid and good-sounding chain. I still use real keyboards, like the Korg MS2000, Korg Prophecy, Juno-106 and I’ve used a real CS-80 for my score on Mass Effect 3. I love the newer, more experimental synths like the OP-1 and all of the synths from Dave Smith. There are tons of other hardware gems I use, like Metasonix pedals and the Moog Froggers to name a few."

Tweet from Sascha Dikiciyan about the Ensoniq ESP 16.

Among the key pieces of gear are the Roland Juno-106 synth (which Dikiciyan first used way back on Quake 2), a Moog Slim Phatty for arpeggiated bass parts, the highly-desirable, retro-futuristic OP-1... and an iPad. Dikiciyan calls the iPad "a legit tool to use as a music pro" and notes that he used the Animoog app on "pretty much every single cue."

Among the key pieces of gear are the Roland Juno-106 synth (which Dikiciyan first used way back on Quake 2), a Moog Slim Phatty for arpeggiated bass parts, the highly-desirable, retro-futuristic OP-1... and an iPad. Dikiciyan calls the iPad "a legit tool to use as a music pro" and notes that he used the Animoog app on "pretty much every single cue."

"The Moog was used for a lot of the arpeggiated Bass lines you will hear all over the tracks. This unit gets send first through a Chandler Tg-2 pre-amp before it hits the DAW so the signal is really phat so to speak. The Tempest came in while we were almost done with the score but I still managed to use it on two combat cues. Of course Linn style drum sounds, that was the whole point."

"The OP-1 contains 8 different forms of synthesis. From an FM to wave engine, it has it covered. It also has a unique build-in sequencer. Almost all of the melody arp lines you hear are coming from the OP-1. Lots of outboard was used to give the sequences that ‘Vangelis' sound (well thanks to the H8000)."

"What you see here is a modded Alesis HR-16 drum machine. The original machine is from 1988 but when you hear the crazy modded sounds, it's a killer for sure. You can patch for hours and always get something new and strange. Not sure what each mod does but I used this for more of the one shot FX hits in our ME3 combat cues. On the Soundtrack listen to 'The Scientist.'"

"Yes, the iPad is now a legit tool to use as a music pro.If you still think this is toy then you are sorely missing out on some of the most innovative software out there. Moog's Animoog app was used for a lot of the, what I call, Musical sound design. Wave table movements all send through a Eventide H8000 unit, together they make magic. You can hear this app on pretty much every single cue, esp. the ambient ones."

"These were some of the main tools used to create the musical soundscape that is Mass Effect 3. Honorable mention: The MS2000 (still a great synth), Roland V-synth and of course my Symbolic Sounds Kyma system, which was used to create some drones and other morph-like effects."

"These were some of the main tools used to create the musical soundscape that is Mass Effect 3. Honorable mention: The MS2000 (still a great synth), Roland V-synth and of course my Symbolic Sounds Kyma system, which was used to create some drones and other morph-like effects."

Sascha Dikiciyan, in an interview with Time+Space, mentions his use of iZotope Ozone, specifically highlighting the EQ and limiter as essential tools in his mastering process. Although he primarily uses Ozone 4, he expresses anticipation for trying out Ozone 5.

"We have a few slave machines here running Vienna Ensemble Pro 5. Currently, I use a lot of string stuff from Project Sam Symphobia 2 among others. Of course, we also own our own custom library, all running within Kontakt as well."

"We have a few slave machines here running Vienna Ensemble Pro 5. Currently, I use a lot of string stuff from Project Sam Symphobia 2 among others. Of course, we also own our own custom library, all running within Kontakt as well."

"We have a few slave machines here running Vienna Ensemble Pro 5. Currently, I use a lot of string stuff from Project Sam Symphobia 2 among others. Of course, we also own our own custom library, all running within Kontakt as well."

"I use mainly PCs, running Steinberg’s Cubase 6.5. My audio IO is a RME fireface. I just added a Dangerous Music D-Box to my setup so I’m finally enjoying the advantages of summoning mixing. Before the audio goes back into my DAW, I run everything through my Obsidian Compressor. It’s a simple but solid and good-sounding chain. I still use real keyboards, like the Korg MS2000, Korg Prophecy, Juno-106 and I’ve used a real CS-80 for my score on Mass Effect 3. I love the newer, more experimental synths like the OP-1 and all of the synths from Dave Smith. There are tons of other hardware gems I use, like Metasonix pedals and the Moog Froggers to name a few."

"I use mainly PCs, running Steinberg’s Cubase 6.5. My audio IO is a RME fireface. I just added a Dangerous Music D-Box to my setup so I’m finally enjoying the advantages of summoning mixing. Before the audio goes back into my DAW, I run everything through my Obsidian Compressor. It’s a simple but solid and good-sounding chain. I still use real keyboards, like the Korg MS2000, Korg Prophecy, Juno-106 and I’ve used a real CS-80 for my score on Mass Effect 3. I love the newer, more experimental synths like the OP-1 and all of the synths from Dave Smith. There are tons of other hardware gems I use, like Metasonix pedals and the Moog Froggers to name a few."

"I use mainly PCs, running Steinberg’s Cubase 6.5. My audio IO is a RME fireface. I just added a Dangerous Music D-Box to my setup so I’m finally enjoying the advantages of summoning mixing. Before the audio goes back into my DAW, I run everything through my Obsidian Compressor. It’s a simple but solid and good-sounding chain. I still use real keyboards, like the Korg MS2000, Korg Prophecy, Juno-106 and I’ve used a real CS-80 for my score on Mass Effect 3. I love the newer, more experimental synths like the OP-1 and all of the synths from Dave Smith. There are tons of other hardware gems I use, like Metasonix pedals and the Moog Froggers to name a few."

"Computers like the Commodore 64 featured a vast and new way of making music with the advent of so-called tracker software. It was something I got really into, until I got my first real sequencer on the Atari 1040ST, an early version of Cubase. So being into computers early on definitely helped build my skills quite a bit. Things were a lot simpler back then, but it was a great foundation to build upon that simply today doesn’t exist anymore."

"Sonnox Inflator and Limiter. These two are built into my Cubase template. Inflator is great at adding some high end sprinkle without changing the dynamics drastically. It’s like a magic EQ. The limiter just adds a little more juice when needed."

"Sonnox Inflator and Limiter. These two are built into my Cubase template. Inflator is great at adding some high end sprinkle without changing the dynamics drastically. It’s like a magic EQ. The limiter just adds a little more juice when needed."

"I still feel very close to NI’s FM8. It’s just very deep, and always has a surprise in store for you, and that’s the reason why I use it as one of my to go synths."

"Of course, the Fabfilter plugin’s are built into my template, as well as most of iZotope stuff like Ozone (I still use 4, sadly) and Trash 2 being my favorite distortion tool these days."