My Writing Gear

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of the hardware and software I use to write music. If you have any question, please let me know in the comments! (For my mobile rig tips & tricks, see this article.)

Main Software

• For writing, programming, and (sometimes) recording and mixing: Logic Pro X

• For orchestration and score/parts preparation: Sibelius

• For audio recording, editing, and mixing: Pro Tools

Sample Libraries

Orchestra libraries

• Woodwinds: Berlin Woodwinds (Orchestral Tools), Vienna Instruments (VSL), Hollywoodwinds (Cinesamples)

A large Woodwinds layout. I use Vienna Instruments (VI) samples mostly for solos, and Berlin Woodwinds (BWW) samples mostly for the other articulations (stacattos, trills, etc.)

• Brass: Cinebrass (Cinesamples), Orchestral Brass Classic (Project SAM), Symphobia (Project SAM)

A typical large Brass layout. I absolutely love CineBrass’ legato patches.

• Strings: Albion ONE (Spitfire), Cinematic Strings, Spitfire Chamber Strings, Symphobia (Project SAM)

My basic Strings layout. Cinematic Strings (CSt) is the only section strings library I really enjoy using (and I’ve tried A LOT of them over the years.)

• Harp: Skaila Kanga Harp (Spitfire)
• Piano: Synthogy Ivory, Emotional Piano (Soundiron), various Native Instruments libraries (The Maverick, The Giant, Una Corda…)

Synthogy Ivory II is my favorite piano library, and their “German Concert D Grand” patch (a sampled Steinway) has been my go-to piano patch for more than 10 years.

If you’re into soft and muted piano sounds, Native Instruments’ Una Corda, sampled from a piano created in collaboration with Nils Frahm, is a very inspiring keyboard patch to improvise on.

• Percussion: Spitfire Percussion, CinePerc (Cinesamples), Tonehammer (Epic Dhols, Epic Frame Drum, Epic Toms…), Epic Taiko Ensemble (8dio)

A fairly extensive percussion layout. It can get (and often gets) much bigger than this!

• Mallets & Celesta: Spitfire Percussion, Spitfire Ricotti Mallets, Cinesamples Dulcimer

My basic mallets & celesta layout.

• Choir: Liberis Angelic Choir (8dio), Requiem Light (Soundiron), Mercury Symphonic Boys’ Choir (Soundiron)
• Pulses: SIGNAL (Output), Rhythmic Aura 2 (8dio)

Output’s SIGNAL: if you’re looking for pulse sounds, I can’t recommend this plug-in highly enough.

• Synth & Textures: Omnisphere 2 (Spectrasonics), Massive (NI), Sculpture (Logic), Ólafur Arnalds Evolutions (Spitfire)

To say that Omnisphere changed the Synth plug-ins landscape when it came out would be an understatement.

Spitfire’s Ólafur Arnalds Evolutions is an amazing texture and ambiance generator based on acoustic strings samples. (Don’t let yourself turned off by the GUI’s apparent complexity— it’s actually really easy to use!)

• Bass: Trillian (Spectrasonics)

Spectrasonics’ Trillian is super easy to use, yet comes with a huge number of patches (acoustic, electric, and synth) and tremendous sound. It’s also pretty deep if you’re into tweaking your presets. What’s not to like?

• Guitars: Acousticsamples and Ilya Efimov libraries

I’m a big fan of Acousticsamples’ line of acoustic and electric guitar libraries.

• Drums: Superior Drummer (Toontrack), Drumlab (NI), and other NI drums libraries

Toontrack’s Superior Drummer

Native Instruments’ Drumlab

… and a few other goodies.

FX Plug-Ins

• EQs, compressors, imagers, delays, filters, etc.: Waves Horizon bundle and the incomparable Soundtoys bundle

A few of my favorite Waves plug-ins.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know what I’d do without these three Soundtoys plug-ins: Echoboy, PanMan and FilterFreak.

• Reverb: Altiverb and Lexicon PCM Native

If you’re going to get only one convolution reverb, Altiverb should be the one.

Hardware

• Main computer: Apple iMac 27-inch Retina 5K, 4 Ghz Core i7, 64GB RAM
• Additional Display: Dell Ultra HD 4K Monitor 24-inch (tilted at 90º)
• Storage: Three Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SSD drives (PROJECTS, LIBRARIES, and BACKUP) loaded into a Blackmagic MultiDock (Thunderbolt 2)

• Audio interface: Focusrite Clarett 2Pre (Thunderbolt)

• Keyboard controller: Yamaha KX88
• Other controllers: Presonus FaderPort and Apple iPad mini (for Logic key command shortcuts via Quadro)

• Speakers & Headphones: Genelec 8010A and Sennheiser HD 580 and HD 600

Because I write in a small studio, I typically prefer working with headphones. I have owned and loved the Sennheiser 580s for more than twenty years now, and I couldn’t imagine writing—or any kind of listening—without them. I use the 600s as backup, or as a loaner for my remote clients.

And that’s it for the gear fest! Until I buy more stuff, that is :)

Remember to leave a comment below to let me know your thoughts about this article. Feel free to ask any question you may have, or share suggestions of topics to discuss in later articles! I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

You can also reach me via email for general comments or inquiries, and/or follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Finally, if you’d like to learn more about me and what I do, head on over to my new website, where you can read my bio, listen to my reel, and check out my various album releases.