Gear & Sounds

A set of three musical instruments: Akai MPK Mini mk3 MIDI keyboard with 25 keys, 8 drum pads, 8 knobs, a 4-way joystick, and a few additional buttons. Then there is the M-Audio Keystation 49 with 49 keys, volume fader, mod and pitch wheel, and a few more buttons. And finally, Akai MIDImix with a bunch of knobs, faders, and buttons aligned in grids.

My current setup primarily consists of:

  • Ableton Live as my main working environment.
  • I don’t have a dedicated studio, and often compose at night, so I use a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones.
  • Akai MPK Mini mk3: A gift from my wife for my 33rd birthday that kicked off my music production journey. This is a nice, compact MIDI keyboard, great for writing melodies and making beats.
  • M-Audio Keystation 49: My space for playing is a bit limited, so I wanted something with a wider range than the MPK Mini that’s still small enough to fit on a desk.
  • Akai MIDImix: A MIDI control surface with a good amount of knobs and sliders. Typically you’d use this to control your DAW, but I wanted a way to make it easier to adjust parameters of virtual synths.
  • Arturia’s V Collection: You’d have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to get all of the original synths, if you could get your hands on them at all. I have some cheaper and free synths as well, but I like that Arturia recreates the original circuits instead of just using samples, and in some cases they even get the original creators involved. I also recommend watching these detailed overviews of some of Arturia’s instruments.
  • Instrument libraries from Spitfire Audio.
  • Instruments and effects from Output.
  • Unique and free instruments from Pianobook.
  • And Splice is my go-to place for samples and loops.

Also check out some of my favorite resources for learning how to make music.