JoeFarr

Joe Farr – My Studio

Photos by Jamie Harding.

Elektron OCTATRACK

The place I go for inspiration, the backbone and brain of my live set, and an all-round workhorse for the syncing and routing of my setup. I’ve had this for about three years and I am still discovering new ground. For me there was a barrier with learning Elektron kit because it works in a different way to other hardware, but once I was over that, I entered a different world.

Elektron Analog RYTM

I lose hours on this thing. If the Octatrack is the backbone, then this is the legs, arms and balls. It has its limitations in terms of synthesis of hi-hats and top-end percussion, but the more I spend time on it, the more I realise its capabilities… so maybe I’ll get better at hi-hats. In the meantime though, I can just load samples in for whatever I can’t get out of it.

YAMAHA HS 80s

They are not as flat and unflattering as NS10s, but not far off. It’s a cliche but “if they sound good on these they’ll sound good on anything” – well yes, that’s true if your room isn’t fucking shite. I’ve never had a decent room to produce in, so I am always reliant on my headphones to judge the low end. Treating reflection is easy but sorting out bass issues is an expensive and laborious task. My room has a fairly decent sweet spot so I just have to make sure I don’t move my head too far.

Laptop & RME Fireface 400

No matter what I make, my sounds always ends up in Logic for editing. I’ve been using Logic since I started making music, so I can get to where I want pretty quickly. The Fireface was a wise investment – I bought it about nine years ago, and apart from a corrosion problem (which RME fixed for nothing) it’s been problem free, plus the converters are as good as you’re gonna get without spending thousands.

Headphones

Beyerdynamic DT 770s, AIAIAI TMA-1s and Apple iPhone buds. I’m always checking mixes on all these throughout the music making process. I also have an iPod dock and a cheap hi-fi at home for triple checking.

Mixing on headphones can be counter productive – judging space is a lot more difficult than listening on monitors in a room – but once I learned to allow for the difference I found the mixes sounded tighter. Plus I can now mix anywhere – I don’t have to be in the studio.

ZOOM H6 RECORDER

I take this with me when I’m travelling, recording whenever I hear something interesting. You can also use it as an audio interface and, with the XLR adaptor and 6 channel mixer – which is pretty frikkin’ sweet.

AKAI MPD232

The Elektron gear is so comprehensive, but I only have two hands, i.e. it’s very difficult if I am playing live or jamming in the studio and I want to mute tracks 3 and 4 whilst fading in tracks 6 and 7… The Akai can be mapped to almost any of the Elektron parameters and I can take more control. This is a pretty new controller. It’s solid and smooth and very comprehensive. Before I got this I was using a Bitstream 3x which is built like a tank, but it’s too heavy to gig with.

Tape Deck

Saturation, or is it overdrive? Either way, less is more. I use this to process drums, glue them together, tame transients, and to add a bit of warmth. The way I use my tape deck is just running the audio through the tape heads, the tape is paused (recording to tape then recording back to the DAW is a ball-ache) – this way you can route back in with almost no delay. There are tape decks with 3 heads so you can actually record onto the tape and playback at the same time. Anyway, just get one and try something with it.

BOSS ROD-10

Distortion and overdrive. The Boss is the noisiest thing I’ve ever used. It has a few different settings, but I only use one as the others are way OTT. I used it on a remix recently on the whole mix to add a subtle layer of grit and texture. You can go the other way of course and blast kick drums through it for instagabba.

Glue, Duck Tape and Electrical Tape

I like to keep things minimal in the studio to avoid getting distracted. I’ve got a couple of pictures my daughter did for me, which you can probably spot in the other photos. My non-musical essentials are No More Nails glue, orange duck tape and a small roll of electrical tape, just for when things start falling apart – oh and it’s debatable whether it’s musical or not, but there is a cowbell, just to lift the mood when necessary.