Espen Gätzschmann - Software/Equipment

Espen Gätzschmann - Music/Sound Design

Software/Equipment

My Music Hardware

I don't really focus on hardware when making music. Computers and their software has come so far that hardware is becoming less and less relevant for every year that passes. Still, there are a few cases where you need something physical, such as for audio interfaces.

	Studiologic VMK-188 plus Bought this one used since my CS1x keyboard was getting a bit old and doesn't have a full complement of 88 keys. The VMK-188 plus is known for being an exceptionally realistic keyboard (it emulates a grand piano to the point where the bottom keys take more effort to press down than the upper ones). It has graded hammer action keys, which is a big shift from what I'm used to (no weight at all).
	M-Audio ProFire 610 The Profire 610 is my newest audio interface, purchased specifically because it's firewire, cheap, and works in Windows 7. It's lightning-fast on my system.
	Mbox 2 The Mbox 2 is an USB audio interface meant for use with Pro Tools LE. I've put aside this interface for the moment, since I'm now using the ProFire 610, but I keep it in reserve in case I want to use Pro Tools again.
	Roland JV-1010 A completely underrated sound module containing over 1000 sounds, I haven't given this nearly enough of the attention it deserves. I've got it plugged in and ready for my new rig, so I'm going to try and use it in the near future.
	Yamaha CS1x I haven't used this synthesizer for its sounds in years. In fact, I can barely remember what it sounds like. These days I only use the keyboard for MIDI data, and with the purchase of my VMK-188 plus I don't think I'll even be using it much for that any more..

My Music Software

These are the applications I use today to compose music with. All are full, legal versions. I don't use all of these for every piece of music I compose, but I mix and match according to what I'm trying to do.

	Cubase 5 I recently acquired Cubase 5, which is set to take the place of Pro Tools as my main sequencer. The reason I went for Cubase over Pro Tools is because it supports 64-bit and Windows 7, and it also sports a few features that are very handy for someone who works a lot with virtual instruments, such as a VST expression editor.
	Renoise 2.8 Based on the interfaces from old trackers like FastTracker 2 and Impulse Tracker, Renoise can be overwhelming at first but quickly becomes second nature. The main reason I like to use this instead of traditional sequencers like Pro Tools or Cubase is that everything is faster and easier to access. Almost anything can be done using nothing but the keyboard, while most sequencers expect you to use the mouse. Renoise works particularly well for pattern-based music such as trance.
	Kontakt 5 One of the best software-based samplers available today, Kontakt serves most of my sampler needs. It provides a whole load of high-quality effects and filters, and it supports most major file formats available today.
	Pro Tools LE 7 Pro Tools is slow, clunky, uses its own plugin format and has numerous bugs and issues that makes it harder than it needs to be to use. Despite this, it works fairly well as a sequencer as long as I don't try to run it in a system configuration meant for other things than music. I don't currently use Pro Tools actively, having replaced it with Cubase 5 and Renoise, but I do have it in backup in case a future project requires it.
	iZotope Ozone 5 Ozone is a brilliant plugin for mastering. It's got everything I need in one easy-to-use package. Only rarely do I have to pull out other plugins for mastering, as Ozone does the job marvelously.

My Virtual Instrument Collection

This is a list of the virtual instruments that I own. All of these are original, legal copies. Ideally I want to own at least one instrument library for every genre of music out there, but I've realized that it's nearly impossible without bankrupting myself. One of the only things I was struggling with was finding a decent jazz flute (or any jazz flute at all, for that sake), which I finally stumbled across when I found Bela D Media's Retro Flute library. In other words, I'm very satisfied with the libraries I have today.

	EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus Play Edition An updated version of the older EWQL orchestal library for Kompakt. Uses a new, sexier, and easier to use engine (Play by East West), and allows me to use both 16-bit and 24-bit samples according to my needs. As a result, it takes up a whopping 193 GB on my HD. I have this installed along with the old version, for a grand total of 331 GB! Yikes!
	EWQL Symphonic Choirs - Play Edition (with Voices of the Apocalypse expansion) A massive choir library which lets me type in whole words or even sentences for the choir to sing. It's a very tricky piece of software to master and takes up a lot of resources (particularly RAM), but it's very powerful and can often be heard in movies and games for this reason.
	EWQL Silk A more specialized, higher-quality version of the types of instruments that EWQL Ra provides, allowing for very convincing exotic music.
	EWQL Ministry of Rock I'm one of those musicians who don't play the guitar, so a library that allows me to faithfully recreate guitar or bass sounds is invaluable to me. MoR can easily sound like it's an actual live performance, and particularly the solo instruments. This library gets a lot of use.
	EWQL Ministry of Rock 2 The followup to Ministry of Rock, featuring more instruments and more realistic performances.
	EWQL The Dark Side A complete library for those times when I want to delve into the darker, more industrial aspects of music.
	EWQL Voices of Passion Voices of Passion is in many ways a similar library to Symphonic Choirs, but is still pretty different. VoP focuses on female solo voices, particularly of the ethnic variety. It works very well in ambient or soundtrack productions, but can fit in just about anywhere. Famous for its rendition of portamento.
	EWQL Gypsy An ethnic library with an unusual theme. Analog guitars, violins, claps, trombones, etc. may not sound like much, but where Gypsy delivers is in the fantastic sound quality and the impressive articulations. To the best of my knowledge there isn't any other library that can compete with Gypsy when it comes to simulating a solo violin.
	Spectrasonics Omnisphere Got this as an upgrade to Atmosphere. Omnisphere is actually a completely new synth with thousands of new instruments in it, but it also contains all the instruments from Atmosphere (as well as many of Spectrasonics other, older libraries such as Symphony of Voices. Excellent value for money!). This is probably the best sounding synth in my collection, and it contains enough sounds that I'll never hear all of them.
	Spectrasonics Stylus RMX My library contained a lot of beats and drums, but I didn't have a dedicated drum machine of any kind. That's why I bought Stylus RMX, a well-known and heavily used library of beats, grooves and miscellaneous loops, as well as what Spectrasonics calls a "realtime groove module". It's quite nifty. I can control each loop's every detail and synchronize Stylus and Omnisphere. It also supports pretty much every drumloop I already own, which is a nice bonus.
	EWQL Stormdrum One of the most heavily used libraries in my collection. It's useful for almost everything, from thunderous, booming hits to fast and frantic drum & bass loops. If one of my tracks sounds dramatic and powerful, you can bet it's using Stormdrum!
	EWQL Stormdrum 2 + SD2 Pro The sequel to Stormdrum, using the new Play engine and containing tons of new instruments. The SD2 Pro expansion contains most of the instruments from the first Stormdrum as well as some new material. This is possibly the most used virtual instrument in Hollywood and can be heard in movies like Terminator 4 and The Dark Knight.
	EWQL Ra Play Edition An absolutely fantastic ethnic library. Anyone with even a passing interest in ethnic music should own this (and most do!). Contains instruments from just about any major ethnicity in the world, including my very own Norway.
	Retro Flute I had been searching for a decent jazz flute for years until I finally stumbled across this excellent instrument by Bela D Media, It contains only one instrument, but it has articulations that I haven't heard anywhere else, including overblown and sung style. This instrument is ideal for jazz and nu jazz.
	Anthology Spiritual Wind Another winner from Bela D Media, Spiritual Wind contains wind instruments from several exotic locations. These include popular instruments like the Duduk and the Shakuhachi and less typical ones like the Didgeridoo and Dizi. The instruments are good enough that it can be nearly impossible to hear that they're not played live when used properly in a composition.
	Anthology Celtic Wind I've always been weak to celtic instruments like bagpipes and flutes, so this library is a no-brainer.
	Soniccouture Pan Drums The pan/hang drum is one of the most fantastic instruments ever. It has to be heard to be believed. I simply couldn't let my instrument collection be without one.
	Scarbee Funk Guitarist A clever, dynamic way to handle jazzy guitar riffs. This way I'm no longer stuck with premade loops, but can make my own. All without having a bit of talent with the guitar!
	EWQL Colossus A nifty library for when I need something I don't have a dedicated library for, but I find myself turning to it less and less often lately. Make no mistake, it's an excellent addition to any collection, but for every instrument it has, another library has a better version of it. The one exception may be the dark ambiences which you can morph and twist freely. Those are unrivaled today.
	Zero-G Morphology This has been the basis of many moody compositions of mine. Complements Spectrasonics Omnisphere nicely, providing a cleaner, lighter approach to atmospheres and pads. There's a lot of great material here for ambient and electronica.
	Zero-G Wired Wired focuses exclusively on Trance and provides a lot of useful tools for this genre. I don't make trance all that often, but this library is usually an important part of my trance compositions.
	EWQL Vapor Filled to the brim with mostly cold synth basses, leads and effects. This might not be East West's most impressive library, but I still turn to it again and again when I need something synthy and don't want to bother using a softsynth for it.
	EWQL Adrenaline A very specialized library. Adrenaline provides plenty of pre-made loops and their individual elements, and is intended to be used for adding texture to music. In reality it's pretty hard to do this, and I end up using it mostly as inspiration.
	Zero-G Firestorm A Drum & Bass library with both construction kits and individual instruments. I don't really make D&B as a standalone genre, but these instruments are very common in action music in movies thanks to The Matrix.
	SoundSense AMBIOSIS Made by the same guy who made Morphology, this one comes as individual samples, not as a virtual instrument. Lighter, brighter fare that suits warm ambient and electronica very well, though it's just as well suited for darker stuff.
	Zero-G Trance Inducer Contains a lot of helpful instruments for when I'm making trance. It isn't as in-depth as Wired, but fills in some important gaps and has a high level of quality.
	Zero-G Total REX Contains over 15,000 adjustable loops from over 40 different Zero-G products. Yeah, that's a lot! Some of the included products are among my favorites, like the Jungle Warfare series for Drum & Bass.
	Tau Pro One thing that was lacking from my mostly sample-based library of sounds was a good way to create acid bass lines. Enter Tau Pro, which is a softsynth which uses the 303 as a basis and expands on it dramatically. The only pure synth in my library.
	Percussive Adventures An oldie but goodie. You've probably heard some of the loops and samples from this collection in movies or TV-shows before. A little hard to use because of the dated formats (AKAI and CD-Audio), but still useful.