Audio Interface - UA Apollo x8 HEXA; UA Apollo Twin X Duo

Outboard Gear - UA 4-710d; Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor; API 3124V; BAE 1073DMP

Speakers - old Genelec monitors

Misc. Rack Gear - Furman P-1800 AR; ART P16 Patchbay

My main interface is the UA Apollo x8 HEXA which lives in my studio rack. The UA Apollo Twin sits on my desk and acts as an at-hand control surface and provides easy access to headphone port and a few additional inputs. My favorite thing about the UA 4-710d is the ADAT capability, which adds eight additional input channels, four from the 4-710d preamps and four from the API 3124V. So in total, including the Apollo Twin, I have 18 channels of available inputs.

VOCAL CHAIN (Pre-DAW) - Soyuz 017 (or Shure SM7B into CloudLifter) -> BAE 1073DMP -> EL8 Distressor -> UAD Pultec Pro

FAVORITES

IZOTOPE RX9 - Specifically “Mouth De-click” and I wish I could shout this from the rooftops, particularly for anyone who does a podcast.

CINEMATIC ROOMS REVERB - This is my main reverb for orchestral projects and I love it.

VALHALLA REVERBS - Obvious to anyone that knows anything about audio plugins.

XFER OTT & LFOTOOL - OTT is free and almost like a cheat code for excitement. I use it on my master bus sometimes. I’m a little behind on competitors to LFOTool, but I use LFO modulation all the time and this plugin is easy-to-use and powerful.

UAD 1176 COLLECTION - These are my main in-the-box compressors for vocals and a million other things.

FABFILTER PRO-Q - This is specifically for ProTools. Kind of wild how bad the stock ProTools EQ is and Pro-Q fixes that. I use the stock Channel EQ in Logic.

AUTOTUNE - An unfortunate fact of modern life! My favorite way to edit pop vocals is to leave AutoTune on while I comp, get the comp close enough, print, then fix the remaining spots by hand in graph mode. Might do a longer post about this, but it’s the best way to comp vocals, in my opinion.

FULL LIST

ANTARES - AutoTune Subscription

DADA LIFE - Endless Smile; Sausage Fattener

FABFILTER - Pro-DS; Pro-G; Pro-L2; Pro-MB; Pro-Q3; Pro-R

IZOTOPE - RX9

LIQUIDSONICS - Cinematic Rooms Professional; Seventh Heaven

METRIC HALO - MH ChannelStrip

SOFTUBE - Saturation Knob

SOUNDTHEORY - Gulfoss; Gulfoss Live; Gulfoss Master

SOUNDTOYS - Full Bundle

SYNCHRO ARTS - VocAlign Standard

UNIVERSAL AUDIO - AKG BX 20; Empirical Labs Distressor; EMT 140; EP-34 Tape Echo; Fairchild 670 Legacy; Galaxy Tape Echo; Lexicon 224; Moog Multimode Filter; Neve 88RS Legacy; Ocean Way Studios; Precision Delay Mod; Pultec-Pro Legacy; Softube Vocoder; Studer A800; Teletronix LA-2A Collection; UA 1176 Collection;

VALHALLA DSP - ValhallaRoom; ValhallaShimmer; ValhallaSupermassive; ValhallaUberMod; ValhallaVintageVerb

XFER RECORDS - LFOTool; OTT

XLN AUDIO - RC20 Retro Color

Computer - MacBook Pro 16”, 2021, Apple M1 Max chip, 64 GB unified memory

Laptop Dock - CalDigit TS4

Additional Items - iPad Pro, 11-inch; Two external 4K displays on VESA arms; BlackMagic Multidock 10G; SanDisk Extreme Portable 4TB solid state hard drive, custom studio desk by Mastodon Furniture

At my home workstation, I dock my MacBook Pro into a CalDigit thunderbolt dock. This allows one-cable connectivity to my two external monitors, audio interfaces, MIDI controllers, etc. which is a wonderful quality of life improvement. The VESA arms allow me to rotate my displays 90 degrees which enable me to work on full 11x17 notation scores when needed. All of my sample instruments fit on a single 4TB SanDisk drive. I use the BlackMagic Multidock for archival storage of past projects etc.

Going “full laptop” is a recent development for me. I used to have a desktop computer for my home workstation (a Mac mini) in addition to my laptop for mobile work. I decided to switch to one computer when I realized that the Apple laptops are more than powerful enough to handle my music tasks—I’ve scored entire feature films on my MacBook Pro—and I gain the ability to bring all of my work with me anywhere I go. This setup also removes the annoying task of maintaining plugins/files/software updates on two machines. I could never go back to a desktop computer. If you’re thinking about going “full laptop”…just do it.

HARDWARE SYNTHS - Roland Juno-60, Moog Sub37, Sequential Prophet-6, Yamaha DX-7, Yamaha SY77, Mellotron M4000D Mini

GUITARS - I love my Grestch G5120 Electromatic. I have many guitars, but that’s my most used electric guitar. I play a Gibson Hummingbird Pro acoustic guitar on stage. Honorable mention to Cory Wong’s Nashguitars Telecaster that he gave me, which I play all the time as well as my Sire Marcus Miller P7 5-string bass.

GUITAR AMPS - Kemper Amp Modeler

GUITAR FX - Chase Bliss Blooper; Dunlop Volume/EXP; JHS Double Barrel; Strymon BigSky; Strymon Timeline; Walrus Audio Luminary**; Wampler Ego Compressor

PIANO - Yamaha U3

DRUMS - Ludwig Questlove Breakbeats Kit

VOCALS - Soyuz 017 Tube Mic, Shure SM7B

PIANO - Coles 4038 (2)

ALL ‘ROUNDER - Neumann U87, AEA R88a

Yes, I do have more microphones than what is listed above, but these are the ones I really use.

KEYBOARD CONTROLLERS - ArkoKeys 25; KompleteKontrol 61; Doepfer PK88

OTHER CONTOLLERS - ArkoDuo; TEControl Breath Controller

DAW - Logic Pro; ProTools Studio; Ableton Live

Notation - Dorico

Additional Music Software - MetaGrid/Speakerfood PlugSearch/BabylonWaves ArtConductor; Finale

Misc. Software - Dropbox; Adobe Creative Cloud

Logic Pro is my DAW of choice and it is where I do the majority of my music production. I use ProTools as a finisher, everything usually ends up there for mix prep. Also, all larger recording sessions at major studios (read: orchestra sessions) happen in ProTools so fluency here is key.

Dorico is my notation software of choice. I was a Finale user for a long time and still have it on my computer just in case, but Dorico is so vastly superior as a notation program, you couldn’t pay me to go backward. I love Dorico. I would rather eat thumbtacks than use Sibelius.

I use MetaGrid, Plugsearch, and ArtConductor as a part of my articulation selection workflow for my orchestral sample libraries. I used to employ large orchestral templates with one track per articulation but recently changed to a “keyswitch” workflow where each track can house an entire instrument’s worth of articulations. MetaGrid turns my iPad Pro into a keyswitch touchscreen, and via integration with Plugsearch, follows my DAW track and updates to the appropriate articulation set as I move through my projects. ArtConductor sells preprogrammed articulation sets for the most popular sample libraries and virtual instruments. It even works for Dorico and other applications. You can see a more detailed description of this setup here.

FAVORITES

ORCHESTRAL

WOODWINDS - AcousticSamples VWinds, Spitfire Symphony Orchestra

BRASS - SampleModeling Brass; Spitfire Symphony Orchestra; AcousticSamples VBrass

STRINGS - Cinematic Studio Strings (main); Spitfire Symphony Orchestra (secondary techniques)

SYNTH / KEYBOARDS

PIANO - Spectrasonics Keyscape; Spitfire Simcock Felt Piano; Spitfire LABS Felt Piano

SYNTH - Spectrasonics Omnisphere; Spectrasonics Trillian; TAL-U-NO-LX

FULL LIST

Here is everything I own organized alphabetically by manufacturer.

ACOUSTIC SAMPLES - VWinds Clarinets, VWinds Double Reeds, VWinds Flutes, VBrass French Horns

ARTURIA - V Collection

CINEMATIC STUDIO SERIES - Cinematic Studio Woodwinds, Brass, Piano, Solo Strings, Strings

CINESAMPLES - CineBrass Core, CineBrass Pro

EASTWEST - StormDrum

LABORATORY AUDIO - StrikeForce Cinematic Percussion

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS - Kontakt, Una Corda, Vintage Organs

SAMPLEMODELING - SampleModeling Brass Bundle, SampleModeling Strings

SPECTRASONICS - Keyscape, Omnisphere, Trillian

SPITFIRE AUDIO - Spitfire Symphony Orchestra, Abbey Road Low Percussion**, Abbey Road Two**, Albion V Tundra, Spitfire Chamber Strings, Eric Whitacre Choir, Eric Whitacre Contrast**, Hans Zimmer Percussion, Harp Redux, Kepler Orchestra, LABS, London Contemporary Orchestra, Originals - Cinematic Soft Piano, Originals - Felt Piano, Originals - Intimate Grand Piano, Joey Burgess Percussion, Simcock Felt Piano, Spitfire Solo Strings, Spitfire Studio Brass, Spitfire Studio Woodwinds, Spitfire Studio Strings, Symphonic Organ, The Stack**

STREZOV SAMPLING - Choir Essentials

TAL - TAL-U-NO-LX

TELETONE AUDIO - Le Gibet, Ondine, Retrograde Bass, Golden Age Grand, Postcard Piano, Scarbo, Tympo, Vespertone

TOONTRACK - Superior Drummer v2

U-HE - Zebra2

VIENNA SYMPHONIC LIBRARY - An old VSL from 2008 that runs in EXS. I actually use it kind of a lot for percussion stuff!

WAVESFACTORY - Typewriter

XFER RECORDS - Serum

**Given to me as promotional item