Friday, January 27, 2012

Skrillex Studio Setup Then & Now - The Rundown

First off Skrillex has been exploding and right when you think he peaks in popularity he gets nominated for multiple Grammys (for serious?) Seeing how his music wants to be emulated and I myself have been curious looked into what he used in his past releases and his newer album. I was shocked to find his physical workstation equipment is very minimal and contradicts what you would think for his material.
"I’ve got the most minimal “rig,” if you’d even call it that. Macbook Pro, Ableton Live, some KRK’s (I actually did the whole Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites EP with the right speaker blown!) and some plugins. I don’t even use a MIDI controller. I’ve gotten very quick at drawing everything in with the trackpad. I prefer it that way actually. No hardware as of yet, though I do plan on expanding my studio and collecting more toys in the future. But what I have does the trick for now!"
So there it is for his past, literally making tracks without a stereo field with a blown speaker. He later was on his first round of toura and made tracks in his hotel room and even in vehicles on the way to gigs.
This is Skrillex pictured in his current (as of January 2012) studio based out of LA, he lives in a 100 year old building that was a bank. Some sort of creative persons loft community. He has since gotten some upgrades since his humble Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites beginnings. Hes invested in what looks like Dynaudio monitors, a Virus Ti and panels. Very Neat.   
He has an Akai MPK49 as his main interface connected to Ableton Live, 2 pieces of outboard grear that I assume could be a compressor on the left and some sort of soundcard interface (if anyone knows what they are let me know). You will then notice the Mac keyboard suggesting he is using Macosx and theres foam cups everywhere which could mean theres a coffee machine somewhere in this high traffic area. Or he doesn't like to do dishes.

Skillex is constantly on tour. As I said before he constantly makes music on the road anywhere he can. He travels with multiple MacbookPros (1 live, 1 toy/production mac and a backup). He uses Beats By Dre headphones, does everything on the trackpad and smokes a lot of cigarettes. Everything is in the box. He has stated in a recent interview that he makes tracks during the day and plays them out that night doing this, intense.

No doubt Skrillex uses Native Instruments Massive. On the software tip he uses that, FM8 and Abletons Operator. He has stated that he uses mostly effects within Ableton, he compresses, bounces audio and edits it again, he also uses techniques like Parallel Compression and Serial Compression but that will be a later Tutorial. Its been established that he most likely uses the L2 Maximizer (all dubstep people uses that) and a mixture of limiters, distortion plugins and some sort of bitcrusher.

I like this because it just goes to prove you can produce Grammy nominated (or a least pretty good) music without a quarter million studio, engineers, session musicians and artist development. It should inspire you like it does me.

Peace out Skrill drop it hard. =]=]=]

25 comments:

  1. The picture your referring to as Skrillex's studio is actually 12th planets and its in Downtown LA

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  2. the soundcard is the apogee ensemble, and i think on the left is some sort of monitor switcheroo thing

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  3. the sound card is the apogee ensemble, and i think the thing on the left is a monitor switcharoo thing

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  4. "I like this because it just goes to prove you can produce Grammy nominated (or a least pretty good) music without a quarter million studio, engineers, session musicians and artist development. It should inspire you like it does me."

    It just goes to prove everybody can produce mediocre music :

    "If everybody is a musician, and everybody is making mediocre music, evenly the world is just cover with mediocrity, and people start to become confortable of mediocrity. And that to me is the danger." - Moby

    How can we compare actual Grammy nominated garbage music with productions like Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Talk-Talk or Alan Parson's project ?

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    1. how can u compare those 80's bands with the actual music people are hearing now a days, if you want to campare music, you have to make shure, every song you are comparing has been composed in a certain range of years. so please ask yourself: if skrillex music is garbage as you say, why is it, that you, mr asshole, are not able to compose something that becomes famouse or even gets a few thousend views in youtube.

      exactly, you can't and hope that answers your cuestion, it is not that simple to compose music, whatever gender it is.

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    2. Music quality is determined by the listener, for the listener and therefore the world will always and never be filled with mediocrity.

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    3. Music quality is determined exclusively by the listener, for the listener.

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    4. pink floyd sucks. end of discussion

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    5. pink floyd sucks. end of discussion

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    6. pink floyd sucks. end of discussion

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    7. ^ Ugh. Dude. Moby? Pink Floyd? Automate something from scratch that doesn't suck. Then try to make it banging half as much as Skrillex does. You'll find there is no magic 'make it sound cool button'. This work is painstaking, and Skrillex is one of the best at it. Your boring list of music you quoted only backs up the theory I hold that only boring unimaginative 'purists' hate on Skrillex.

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    8. The problem is that music should NEVER be limited to only superstars. This is the reason why music has become so stagnant on so many levels. I remember hearing unique music down below the superstar level and it wasn't a brand name. In fact, I doubt you have heard about The Protomen, Vanity and Makeup Set, The Megas, and other more small-name brands that have nothing to envy these guys.

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  5. Pink Floyd won grammy esque awards and recognition back in the day too, it's all the same shit as it was back then. People go coo coo for cocopuffs over artists, then move on to something new with each generation. Some clammer over th artists for years even after their death, as other generations of people move on to something new.

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  6. The monitor "switcharoo" thing is a dangerous d-box

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  7. hah i ove the jealousy you have of skrillex. the guy is pure talent and has made a record with the members of the doors.. is style and sound is unique. Skrillex simply just knows music and what people like ;) hence winning three grams being nominated of 5. If ableton live was around when pink floyd was around, I'm pretty sure they be using it too.. skrillex goes deep into the music so deep that he can relate to so many musicians in the world. The ones who are jealous of him and envy him for how good he is, get your head out of the sand. his music is where its and its coming from someone who has PURE TALENT...

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  8. The picture of the two keyboards to the right of Skrillex is a Access Virus TI v2 on top and the bottom one is, I think, some type of M-Audio MIDI controller. Like an Axiom or something similar. And in the picture below that, that is an Akai MPK49 and the two interfaces above it are an Apogee Ensemble (cause his friend deadmau5 uses it as well and suggested it to him) and the other is some type of pre-mixer I think. Not entirely sure on it but that would be my guess.

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  9. EDM music moves on and right now this man is one of the people at the front. I would like to see what equipment he does actually use though :)

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  10. EDM music moves on and right now this man is one of the people at the front. I would like to see what equipment he does actually use though :)

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  11. Do you not have sex?

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  12. Dood that was years ago... just stfu and get laid...

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  13. For your information the Doors' lead singer believed that one day there would be one guy with a bunch of electronics and recordings making music. I think that some people are just afraid to embrace something different than guitars,drums, and a bass guitar. And everybody has their own opinions, don't get me wrong, but just because people think that the only good music is made with a guitar, doesn't mean their right.

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  14. ^^
    You must be pretty ignorant to say something of that nature. I dare you to produce any piece of electronic music that is decent. Then, try doing it on just a laptop and some shitty speakers with the quality for multiple Grammy nominations.

    "Living is easy with eyes closed." -John Lennon

    I'm in no way saying any of the aforementioned artists are bad. They are great artists as is Skrillex for the genres he produces in. Essentially, your comparing apples to oranges.

    Sincerely,
    Jack

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  15. It's really just a matter of taste. I like a lot of music styles but look at it how you want, Skrillex is pretty damn good at what he does. Don't compare apples with oranges.

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  16. idk anythng about the music production stuff or whatever... i think skrillex is the bomb.... i think their music is unique and they have a catchy vibe.... if it werent for skrillex i wouldnt have gotten into dub-steb..... and all other dub-steb sux accept for theirs.... so just keep rocking on....... and by the way... kick ass hair style!!!!!

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  17. its Apogee Ensemble on the right and Dangerous Music D-BOX on the left. the speakers look like Mackie (not Dynaudio).

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