Studios of Future Funk — The Choice of Gear and Hardware From Your Favorite Future Funk Producers 2019
Featuring the Studios of: ΛDRIΛNWΛVE, Desired, Ev, Fibre, Mere, Tanuki, Tokyo Wanderer and Vantage (In That Order)
This article is for both new producers and seasoned veterans who seek inspiration for their studio builds. We asked some of the Future Funk community’s most well known producers what they thought were the most essential music production equipment for someone trying to get into the genre and of course what they used in their own studios! Here’s what they said:
ΛDRIΛNWΛVE
Links: Soundcloud Bandcamp/Merch Spotify Twitter Facebook Youtube
Miscellaneous Beeps n Boops:
Mackie CR4 Monitors (Speakers) x2
Glorious Modular Mechanical Keyboard (Vintage IBM Keycaps)
Logitech G502 Mouse
Glorious Ultrawide Mousepad
Cheap Ass Ikea Desk
“It’s not much, I just use Ableton Live paired with Akai MPD218 and I also have a cheap midi keyboard but i rarely use it. I blast my tunes through JBL305P MKII speakers, and sometimes test them in my Audio Technica ATH-M50X.”
Ev
Links: Bandcamp Soundcloud Twitter Spotify
“My setup is fairly minimal, I dont have any instruments as much as the temptation is there, but I have a pair of Tannoy mx-1 speakers, Audio Technica ATH-M50X headphones, and a M-Audio Keystation 88 II.
I prefer having a completely digital workflow with no external instruments and everything done inside through plugins. I use Ableton live 10, my go-to plugin for synths is Serum; Keyscape for keyboards; Trilian for bass guitars. Aside from that and Ozone 8 for mastering, I dont use much else”
Main Production Rig:
Macbook Pro — 15 inch, 2014 (A1398)
Apple LED Cinema Display 27 inch (for desktop docking)
Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 2nd gen Audio Interface
Presonus Eris E5 Studio Monitors
Audio Technica ATH-M50x “(Definitely my secret weapon.)”
Ableton Live 10
Instruments and assorted hardware:
Early 1990’s Fender Squier II Stratocaster Guitar
Alesis 3630 compressor
Roland TR-505 Drum Machine (I use this with HKA Design ROM expansion mod, which includes TR-505, Linndrum LM1, LM2 and DMX rom samples https://hkadesign.org.uk/tr505expansion.html)
Main software synths and VST’s:
u-he Diva; Xfer Serum; DEXED; Izotope Ozone 8; Waves Suite; D16 Group Plugins (Decimort, Devastor, Fazortan, Toraverb); Korg MS-20 Suite; Mathieu Demange RX950;
Recommendation:
“I recommend that people start off with their computer and a good pair of headphones, maybe a small midi controller they can get for like 50 bucks. I made most of my discography on just those 3 things. You don’t need a lot of crazy gear to make good music, and I got the stuff I have after years of occasionally scouring for 2nd hand deals, buying one new thing at a time to add to my studio. When you’re starting off your headphones don’t even need to be flat frequency- I started off with the Audio Technica M50x’s and I still use them today for reference. I know people who produce with Beats and sometimes even Apple EarPods. It’s just about knowing what you got to work with and making it work!”
MERE
Links: Soundcloud Bandcamp Twitter
“MacBook pro 2016 with Ableton Live Suite. My record player is an LP 120, I use an Ableton Push occasionally and I have this weirdo custom bass for weird people.”
Tanuki
Links: Soundcloud Bandcamp Spotify Twitter Facebook
Main Production Machine:
Macbook Pro 2019 15" model; 2.3GHz i9 (8-core); 32GB RAM; 512SSD; External 1TB SSD — Samsung T5;
Audio:
Focusrite Scarlett Solo (3rd Gen) Audio interface
Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Headphones
Genelec 8330 APM (with GLM) Monitors (Speakers)
Synths:
Instruments:
“I currently own two bass guitars that I have been using for Tokyo Wanderer and all of my other projects. A fretless 5 string Sire Marcus Miller V7 and a Yamaha RBX 375. (fretted 5 string). For the fretless bass, it has a set of D’addario flatwound 45'’-125'’ gauge strings and for the fretted, it has a set of Dunlop Stainless Steel 45'’-125'’ gauge strings (Marcus Miller Super Brights) [side note, for the recording of Sleepless and Incubus I used a set of D’addario Stainless Steel 43–127 gauge strings on the Yamaha bass].
Since I started recording bass for this project, I have been using my pedalboard that has been expanding overtime. During the Sleepless era, I only owned a Boss BC-1X bass compressor, a Boss CEB-3 bass chorus and an EHX Bass Big Muff. I recorded everything with the compressor since it brought out the lows on my bass and helped leveling things out when I had to switch between slapping, tapping and just regular finger style; techniques that vary a lot in dynamics. I use the big muff after the chorus only for solos, the best example of this is in the song Sleepless. Already at the time and still now, I use Guitar Rig 4 a lot. Whether it’s to use the tube screamer with the autofilter to simulate the Tube Zipper overdrive/envelope filter pedal from EHX (that you can hear on the song Wanderer), the Neon Mistress flanger emulation (from the song Himeji) to a simple Ampeg bass amp sim (that I pretty much use on all songs).
For Incubus, the pedal board got a bit bigger and became more of a way for me to simulate certain effects that I did on my DAW. For this album, I didn’t use the Big Muff (only exception being Hurt’s intro) since it got damaged at a show with one of my metal bands (I think, I’m not 100% sure when it started cracking up), but I added a Digitech Bass Whammy, an EHX Canyon Delay-Looper, tc electronic Polytune tuner & buffer and my most crucial piece of bass gear, my Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver DI v2. Starting on Heartbreak, I began recording all my bass tracks with the Boss BC-1X and the Sansamp DI always on since those two pedals sound amazing together. On Hurt, it was one of the first times I used the bass chorus without the big muff and you can pretty much hear it across the entire song on my fretless bass (it’s a very subtle effect tho). For Loveless, I used the Whammy to do the octave slides on the bass. During this time, I start experimenting a bit more with the effects on my bass and probably the best example of this could be on Drown, since all the “guitar sounding” instruments you can hear filling up the entire track are actually just my Yamaha bass played on it’s highest register (between the 12th and 24th fret), ran through my compressor and into guitar amp simulations from Guitar Rig (For example, just for this track I remember using the Fender Reverb, Rolland JC-120 and the Orange Overdrive OD1209 sims) and some wacky effects like tremolo, a wah (I can’t remember if I made this filter by automating fruity Parametric EQ2 or using the Autofilter from Guitar Rig 4, but it was one of these two since I use them both a lot not only to make filters for my bass but also synths and e-pianos). During this time, I also tried using my actual bass amplifier (Orange Crush 50 BXT) during the second half of Incubus. This part of the song was actually all recorded with a pick on my Yamaha, which is not something very typical for me unless I’m trying to emulate a guitar. The reason behind this decision is because I really wanted to re-create Slipknot’s Paul Gray’s tone during recording like Iowa and Slipknot (Self-Titled), which has this really dark and palm muted quality to it’s tone. Some of my biggest influences for my tone decisions from this record ranged from Prince (which was crucial to the making of hurt), Cassiopeia, Daft Punk, Justice and Thundercat to stuff like Deafheaven, Deftones, Boris, Sunn O))), Slipknot (like I already mentioned), Nine Inch Nails, RHCP, Tool Type O Negative, Cynic, Dream Theater and Beyond Creation.
The way I chose between each bass I’m going to record with is somewhat linear, tho it has it’s exception. If I’m recording something that is just supposed to kinda stay in the back, no slapping, very jazzy/round tone; I’ll go with my fretless. If I start doing crazy stuff like tapping and slapping, I’ll have to go with my fretless since it’s got a much brighter and clearer sound. Another cool thing about the fretless, is that I can add a lot of tiny details that are somewhat impossible on a fretted bass. This being very clear and noticeable when I do melodies on it’s higher range that are full of vibratos and slides (For example, the songs: Consolation Prize, Incubus, Loveless, Heartbreak, Drown, etc.). Very occasionally I’ll do slaps on my fretless, and it’s if I think the fretted bass is cutting way too much on the highs or if I wanted those typical fretless accents on a note here and there (examples: Hurt and Hollow Groove).
For João’s guitar, he tends to mainly go for his Gibson Flying V, but occasionally he’ll also bring out his BC Rich Stealth and one of his Ibanez RG’s. On pretty much every single Tokyo Wanderer song, he was used his wah pedal (which I believe is a Dunlop KH95 Kirk Hammet Wah) and tends to stick to guitar amp simulations from the Amplitube VST. I have also ran a few of his takes (for example, all the guitars on the song Wanderer) through Guitar Rig 4’s amp and pedal simulations.
Vocals:
For vocals, since all my collabs with vocalists have been mostly online (only exception being Nuno Renato Guerreiro, since he lives near my town), I just subject myself to whatever equipment and recording conditions they have in their working space. But when there’s the rare occasion that I have to rap something or sing through a vocoder (For example, on Incubus, Loveless and my remix of Zenith), I record everything through my Shure SM58 inside of my closet with plenty of heavy clothes around me to avoid any annoying reflections (even if the SM-58 is a dynamic mic and is not very sensible, it can still pick up my bedroom’s very annoying and noticeable reflections whenever I raise my voice). Additionally, I’ve been using two socks as a pop filter since I don’t have one yet and the grill on the SM-58 was not enough to stop some of my heavy sibilances. Occasionally, I’ll also record random things with my microphone, like me banging cups with pencils and clapping to create percussions that are then processed a crap ton though my DAW (for example, most of the additional percussion on Loveless was recorded that way). Along with my basses, the mic is going straight into my PreSonus Studio 6|8 audio interface.
Drums:
The only time I recorded drums for Tokyo Wanderer, was for the song Incubus with Shrouded Serenity. In this situation, we were extremely limited on resources since I couldn’t use any mics from my university during that day, so we had to improvise. We recorded a few parts of the drum kit once at a time with the SM58 from earlier and a crappy T-Bone super-cardioide condenser. Surprisingly, the cymbals actually sounded pretty good and so did the clavs, but obviously the kick, snare and toms were completely unusable since they had no lows and sounded too far away. To get around this, I threw the Kick, Snare and Tom recordings on the midi tracker from Superior Drummer 3 and replaced them with drum samples from the same plugin (I think the library that was used was Metal Machinery).
For electronic drums and drum samples, when I don’t record my sounds, I tend to just layer old drum machines together to make kicks and snares. Most of the ones I’ve used the most have included classics like: Rolland 707, 808 and 909; Oberheim DMX; LinnDrum and a few others. Back in the Best Friend/Tears days, I used the drums from Vegeance House Essentials 2 a lot; but nowadays I really only use that sample pack whenever I need special FX’s and additional percussions like congas (Example, on Incubus and Hey). Most of my drums are processed a ton and probably the two plugins I use the most of that are DiscoDSP Nightshine (compressor, very good for stuff like sharpening transients) and FabFilter Saturn (very good to saturate claps and snares, specially if you want a lot of white noise on your tails (this plugin also works really well on bass)).
Synths:
These days, the synth that I use the most has to be Serum since it’s got a really good visual interface and a lot of capabilities. But before I had Serum (that was only used once on my latest album, the second half of the song Incubus), I only used 3xOSC, Harmless and Sakura. I believe those synths are not bad, but you need a lot of post-processing that does not come with them to have a variety of tonal options that can rival Serum. Nowadays I still use those old plugins here and there if I want to re-use a patch from an old song or if it’s something simple and very specific, but otherwise I don’t really see myself using them that much anymore.
DAW:
I use FL Studio mostly since I started. Right now, Im trying to move from 12 to 20, but for the time being I mix and produce on 12 and master on 20. I also use Reaper to record and quantize audio file since FL Studio’s time aligning tools are honestly complete garbage. I might try moving to Ableton soon tho, since I think it would probably make my workflow less messy (less popup windows and automations are on the same mixer/playlist track as their respective audio sample/instrument.
Audio:
Right now I don’t own monitors, so I just do most of my work on my AKG k240 studio headphones, along with the plugin Sonarwork Reference 4 to help flattening their frequency response. Whenever I do work with monitors (mostly for referencing), is at my university with their pair of Yamaha HS-8. The cool thing about monitors is that you get a more realistic stereo image of your mix and you get to detect a lot of phase issues more easily. But headphones are cool too, specially for stuff like EQ’ing (if you got a pair of flat headphones or adjust their frequency response on Sonarwork Reference 4). If you are starting out, cant have monitors at home and need a trustworthy pair of headphones; I recommend copying my listening set up since the AKG k240 studio are relatively cheap (around 70 euros) and you can also buy Reference 4 for around 100 euros (or ya know, get it through shadier means).”
Drums:
“I have a drum kit Tama Imperial Star and all the mics for it (including a shure sm57 for the snare), a Yamaha dd-5.
Other:
I have some rack units, namely an ADA8200 Audio Interface from Behringer to expand my Apollo twin duo interface inputs. I also have an Alexis 3630 compressor that I used on some of my French house tracks, a Patchbay and a Zoom RFX-3000 that I bought used for 30 bucks and that’s where I get my flanger and phaser sounds from! I also recently bought a reel to reel deck to process some drum recordings and add that vintage vibe to my sound. What I’d recommend people is to spend time learning what you like and getting the adequate gear. For me it was the tape machine and the jx3p, because I love vintage sounds, but everyone is different !”
THE END, more Artists may be added later!
