This time, we’re joined by multi-instrumentalist producer Scott Hansen, aka Tycho. Scott’s instantly recognisable brand of downtempo guitar, analogue synths and crunchy drums has attracted genre labels such as chillwave and ambient, and he’s connected with a vast audience. He's earned hundreds of millions of plays and two Grammy nominations along the way In this episode, learn about his love of a specific ‘80s rock band, how he harnesses noise on his Minimoog and which unexpected DAW he’s been using since 2009.
Chris Barker:
I'm Chris Barker.
Will Betts:
And I'm Will Betts, and this is the MusicTech My Forever Studio Podcast.
Chris Barker:
In this podcast, we speak with artists, engineers, DJs, and producers about their fantasy forever studio.
Will Betts:
The studio that our guests describe will have to be one that they live with forever. And to keep things interesting there are some rules, totally reasonable and non-arbitrary rules.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, that's right. Our guests can select a computer, a DAW, and an audio interface. Those are the freebies then they have an unenviable task of choosing six bits of studio kit plus one non-studio related luxury item.
Will Betts:
Chris, there is one more rule though, isn't there? One that I always forget-
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
... at the start of the show. I feel like it's something to do with items compiled into a package.
Chris Barker:
Correct.
Speaker 4:
No bundles.
Chris Barker:
No bundles, Will. No bundles.
Will Betts:
This time we are joined by Scott Hanson better known to the world as Tycho.
Chris Barker:
Scott's instantly recognisable brand of down tempo, guitar, analogue synths, and crunchy drums has attracted general labels such as Chillwave and Ambient, and he's connected with a vast audience.
Will Betts:
Indeed, as Tycho Scott's top five tracks alone in Spotify have a collective 125 million plays. And he's earned two Grammy nominations along the way. One of which was for 2019's Weather, which was also his first record with vocals.
Chris Barker:
Knowing what we do about his love for nostalgic since I suspect we're going to have some excellent choices for his fantasy recording space.
Will Betts:
Let's dive in. This is my forever studio with Tycho.
Chris Barker:
Welcome. Hello, Scott.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Hey, thanks for having me. That was quite an intro.
Chris Barker:
Thank you. Yeah, we do try. It seems... They seem to get longer as the podcast goes along the series.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
It's good.
Chris Barker:
But we had a lot of stuff to talk about, 125 million plays. How does that feel?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
That's crazy. Yeah, that was part of it. I'm like, "Well, this all sounds like much bigger deal than I thought it was based on the intro. It's a lot of plays." Yeah, no, it's amazing. It's always, obviously super fortunate. And it is weird to think that this kind of music has garnered that level of attention. So, I just feel lucky to be doing it.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Well deserved, well deserved, man. So, you heard the basis for the idea of this show is choosing your favourite bits of kit that you have to live within your studio forever. You get six bits of studio kit to choose from, but you get three free ones first, which is kind of boring ones, but ones we have to know about, but even before we go to the equipment, let's talk about where in the world you would have... Does it even have to be in the world? We've had people put it in space before. So, where in the universe would you have your dream studio, if it could be anywhere?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
But do I teleport there every day, and get to go home somewhere where I'm connected because I'd love to have it in a really isolated place like in the woods in Tahoe or something like that. But I love being near a city, and I love having all the trappings of urban life at hand, so I think I would... In a perfect world, if I could teleport, I would have it somewhere deep in the woods near a stream or-
Chris Barker:
I don't know if we can provide teleportation. Can we, Will? Maybe a Hyperloop?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
That'll be the first piece of gear that I have on my list.
Will Betts:
I could say, ideally, somewhere remote, then, like you said in the woods, tell us more.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Somewhere near... I don't know. I'm from Sacramento. I grew up near a river, so somewhere on a stream or a river overlooking it. You know how you see on... I don't know, you'll be searching for images on Google image search of interiors, and there'll always be these incredibly ideal things where this person has this cabin A frame right overlooking a river, probably in a liquefaction zone or some horrible geological. It's going to fall down in 10 years, but it looks amazing right now and it has no electricity. But yeah, if I could get that with 220 volts coming in, I'd be happy.
Chris Barker:
So, you'd stay in the US?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, I love the United States. I mean, I love California. I'd pretty much stay in California. I was born and hopefully will get to die here someday.
Will Betts:
Wow, that's already gone really dark.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, no. I just mean hopefully I get to stay here that long till the point where I die. I'm not anticipating or looking forward to my own death, but yes.
Chris Barker:
Excellent. Hopefully I get to die. I mean, it's nice that you hopefully you might not.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, who knows. Maybe that's going to be my second choice is some sort of immortality device.
Will Betts:
Well, this is the forever studio. So, you do have forever, literally forever.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, this is forever, not mortal forever. This is just like infinite universe forever?
Will Betts:
Okay, well, so we had to clarify this on an episode recently because somebody asked what the forever rules were, and we decided that we had to institute the Highlander rule where basically you can live forever unless somebody chops off your head.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, okay. Interesting. That's very specific. I've actually never seen the Highlander or read it or any–
Chris Barker:
And now you know why.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah. I just remember some show that came on late when I was a kid, and it was... Yeah, I never saw it. But yes, I will abide by those rules.
Chris Barker:
So, we got the cabin in the woods. Again, another popular choice, isn't it? The old cabin in the woods. I think it's a close second to Malibu and Rick Rubin's studio is to cabin in the woods.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, yeah.
Will Betts:
I mean, have you ever been to any of these, any studios that have been that remote? Have you had any experiences writing in places like this? Is there a particular inspiration you get from these places?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, for Awake and Epoch, me and Zach, the guitarist, bases that I collaborate on a lot of stuff with. We went to... His uncle had this cabin, just like a really small cabin in not a super remote place, but outside of Tahoe and in a smaller town. And it backed up against a national PLM land or something. So, you just felt like you're in the middle of nowhere, and it was really cool. We went there for Awake and Epoch. And then unfortunately his uncle sold it. So, this time we're going... We're just Airbnbing a place, but yeah, so that's always near to my heart is the idea of being up there and writing. It's a nice experience.
Chris Barker:
Beautiful. So then we move on to the first three freebies that every studio needs, which is a computer to start with. Are you Mac PC, or would your forever studio have something wild like an Atari?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
No, no, yeah. I'm Mac now. I was PC my whole life until about three years ago, and I got an iMac Pro, and that kind of solved a lot of my issues. So yeah, that's been... It was kind of I lost a few plugins in the transition, but now I'm on it. I feel like, man, I should have been here all along. Although I couldn't afford it back in the day, so expensive.
Chris Barker:
So, are we thinking full spec crazy Mac Pro? Or do you like to have a laptop for portability? What would you go for?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I think the iMac Pro is this really cool in between. I've taken it on tour. They make a case for it, and Gator makes some sort of this fold up case that actually opens up with your keyboard and mouse. It's really cool. So it's kind of like because I've never found a laptop that can handle the kind of stuff I'm trying to... I use a lot of plugins, but those M series ones are looking interesting like that new ARM architecture. It seems to be really outperforming all the old stuff. But yeah, I've got a specked out iMac Pro, which is like 18 core Xeon, so it can handle pretty much anything I throw at it.
Chris Barker:
They're still doing those, Will, aren't they? They're still doing the crazy... That's the actual shape of the new Macs as well, isn't it? They're all in one units.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Well, the new Mac Pro is like that little... It's like the new cheese grater.
Chris Barker:
Cheese grater, yeah.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
But yeah, the iMac Pro is just, it just looks like an iMac essentially, but it's got different stuff inside.
Chris Barker:
So, iMac Pro, actually, that's quite... That's an original choice. Usually it's either laptop or the cheese grater, right?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Well, it was just what there was at the time. It was before the new Mac Pro and it was kind of like the only high end Apple machine unless you wanted to buy that Darth Vader trash can.
Will Betts:
That was spectacularly unpopular, that computer.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
But it was cool, though. You could put two of them in those racks for live shows. For live it was a great form factor. But yeah, it didn't really perform very well considering the price.
Chris Barker:
And it was just so un-modular people hated the fact that it was just... It was like dongle city, wasn't it?
Will Betts:
Totally.
Chris Barker:
Basically, everything you wanted to add was just an adapter and a cable.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Totally.
Chris Barker:
Okay, well, so moving on the audio interface is the next one you get.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
That's a tough one. I think to keep it pure, I think it'd be a Lynx Aurora, and they're modular, and I just love how much you can pack in there. I have AES and ADAT concurrent on there, and in 24 analogue channels, so it's just like you basically if you can't make do with that, then I don't know what you're doing. So, yeah, it feels like the end all be all. But a close second would be the Apollo system just because you have all the plugins.
Will Betts:
We'll go for the Lynx, though, because you're going to run into problems with the plugins with that bundle rule.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Okay, yeah, there you go. Then definitely-
Will Betts:
Definitely the links.
Chris Barker:
And then finally on the third item, let's talk about DAW for your forever studio. What DAW would you use? And what did you start on, and what are you on now? What's the DAW story?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Well, I started out... I mean, I started out on hardware, and then when I got a computer that can handle audio, I got Cakewalk MIDI. I used it for MIDI because they didn't have audio at the time, and then I used Sonic Foundry Vegas to record audio. So that was where I came from, and then Cakewalk got audio and I switched to that, and I never liked it, but in 2009 I found REAPER, which was clearly based a lot on the workflow and editing style of Vegas so like it was a really smooth transition for me, so I jumped over to that and never looked back. So, it definitely absolutely would be REAPER all the way.
Chris Barker:
That's got to be the first time we've had REAPER on the show, right?
Will Betts:
It is, it really is. Yeah.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
It's weird. I think there's just... I think it's intimidating just because it's not really user friendly. It doesn't have... The GUI isn't really all there. It's just like, looks very Windows-ish like 2000, circa 2000, but if people gave it a chance it's crazy. It's insanely powerful, and so, so flexible. You just make it what you want. It has a scripting layer where you can basically just change, and there's a huge community of developers who make really deep script layers for it to create functionality that's not baked into the stock version.
Chris Barker:
And it's Mac and PC, REAPER, I don't actually know that much about it.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, it's cross platform. And it's about, it's 24 megabytes the installer, and it costs 40 bucks. And, yeah, it's crazy. It's amazing. It doesn't have the slick looping features of Ableton. It doesn't have that signature feature. It just is this incredibly stable and powerful platform, and then you make it what you want from there.
Chris Barker:
So, that's what all your musics been made on?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, since 2009, since Dive. That was the first record on REAPER.
Will Betts:
You don't miss any of those looping features, and you just recording everything in live or what's that process like?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I never had those features, so I don't know what I'm missing. I mean, maybe I'm missing something. But I just do loop recording in there. I kind of have built my own little process that does that. But I love the tape method of thinking about recording as tape and having these splices and these strips all over the place, like a linear. I like thinking linear when it comes to arrangements and recording. I've never wrapped my head around the abstract loop based stuff where you have the arrangement and the sequence or the loop view or session view, they call it an Ableton. So yeah, I would love to work more with that, but I've just never done it. So, this is the only way I know how to do it.
Chris Barker:
Fair enough. So, those are your three free items, the basis of your studio, audio interface, DAW, and your computer. So now we get into your six forever studio items. What's the first item going to be, item number one?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Minimoog, yeah, Minimoog Model D, original or the reissue. I think that's my go to for everything.
Chris Barker:
I mean, this is a dream situation. So, you've got to go for the original, right?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah. Well, sure. But I mean, if the original needs service and it breaks down so if we're in some sort of desert island scenario, I'd want the newest one so I know I got a good 25 years ahead of me before the thing starts to fall apart. But yeah, I don't have many problems .
Chris Barker:
I think service is included. We're going to say the forever studio items don't break down.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Wow, you got a tech on site?
Will Betts:
Yeah, you get the forever studio tech. Yeah.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Okay. Yeah, then of course I'll take the original. I'll take the rev three, like the circa early '80s revision three.
Chris Barker:
Why the rev three specifically?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
It's just the one that I have, and I like to filter. It's not as aggressive, and it has this smooth warm more round sound, which I don't... I think is less desirable to some people. That's why everybody, and I put... I feel like people just always think earlier the rev the better, and it's not necessarily for me, but it may be just because it's all I know, but when I play the other ones, I definitely hear this grit and an edge that sometimes I'm not that fond of.
Will Betts:
So, you said it's your go to for... What are we talking? For what sort of sounds you trying to coax from the Model D?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I think my go to sound is... I mean, you can hear it everywhere. It's a very round triangle kind of thing with a slightly mixed in sawtooth and very, very cut off but I use the envelope to get it snappy and kind of make it plucky in a way. And then I just love the warmth of the noise on the Mini, and just having a little noise burst in there into like an AMP Sim, and with a little bit of reverb just opens up this really cool texture that I... Because I feel like my music can feel very round and cut off in mid rangey, and without vocals it's hard to create those high frequencies at least for me because I don't tend to like the harsher sharper synth sounds that I feel like I'll hear other people's mix and be like, "Wow, this is so bright and amazing." And then you're like, "Well, yeah, because the filter is completely open. You have to open the filter to do that." So I love using noise to fill in those spaces, and I do that with the noise oscillator on the Mini.
Chris Barker:
Okay. So, item number two, what's it going to be?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Well, I think we have to go to preamps because the Aurora doesn't have... Or the version I would pick doesn't have preamps, so I would say a Neve 1073, 1076 or just something in that vein. Even like a heritage modern version of it or an AMS, but something in that vein. I love the transformer sound on the old Neve.
Chris Barker:
So, what do you have at the moment?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I have a Neve 1076 original vintage ones that it was cut... It's a detented. It just has switches instead of pots so they click. So, it's kind of like it's not really for mastering but I heard that people would put them at the end of... on the last six channels of a board to do master bass stuff and you could have better recall, I guess is the idea. But I'd rather have 1073 because it's like, when you're sweeping frequencies, it's kind of a pain. It's like click, click, click, and they're really strong switches. So, like I thought it was cool at first and then now I'm like, "Oh my God, to get from zero to 100 on any of those is a little bit of a chore."
Chris Barker:
Just give yourself RSI doing it.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Chris Barker:
So, we've had people just get a single preamp before, but I'm going to ask you if you want to (singing). Upsell your dreams. Basically, we think there's a better option. I think I know what was going on here, but I'm not going to jump the gun in case I'm wrong. Go on, Will, explain.
Will Betts:
Technically, you could have a desk.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah. Okay, there you go. So, we'd have multi channel. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
I'm glad I didn't interrupt that because I was thinking you were going to suggest, isn't it the 1078, the stereo one?
Will Betts:
Oh, no, I wasn't going to suggest that. No.
Chris Barker:
But a desk is even better because...
Will Betts:
Yeah, I mean-
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I would take a Neve BCM 10 then, of course.
Will Betts:
Oh, yes.
Chris Barker:
There you go. Dreams have been up sold.
Will Betts:
Wow.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I was like, "How do you upsell a 1073?" And then you got me.
Chris Barker:
Yes.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
but I would have, in the BCM 10 I would have half 1084s, and half 1073s, how about that?
Chris Barker:
Oh, there you go. Look how happy he is that has happened. That's great. So, where are we up to now?
Will Betts:
That's two down.
Chris Barker:
Two items down.
Will Betts:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
So, item number three.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
So next would be a Les Paul. It'd have to be a Les Paul Goldtop. I have a Joe Bonamassa edition. I don't know what it is about that, but I really like it, the setup on it. So, I guess I'd take that. Actually, I forgot this is dreams, so I'll get whatever the... I always see the ones that are like $10,000 at Guitar Centre, and you're like, "What the hell is this?" And like slash signed it or something. I don't know if they're actually better, but I'd take a really expensive Les Paul or like an old... How about a '50s one, a real vintage 50s one that are like $100,000? I'll take one of those.
Chris Barker:
Like a Goldtop, an old Goldtop.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
The original.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Original.
Chris Barker:
And would you like that signed by anybody in particular? We could do that for you.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Who's famous? Slash, I'll take Slash. I love Slash. I love Guns N' Roses. I'll take the Slash signature '50s Les Paul.
Will Betts:
You can hear your love of Slash in all of your music, of course.
Chris Barker:
Yes.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Totally. I actually was obsessed with Guns N' Roses when I was a kid, so yeah, and I still have a soft spot for him. I was just watching November Rain the other day just watching him on that field with that church the helicopters spinning.
Chris Barker:
That's so good.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Badass.
Chris Barker:
I absolutely love that. I love the way it feels like the podcast has now taken off. It feels like after upselling the dreams Scott's really like, "Okay, we're going to do this now."
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Sky's the limit, man. We got Slash, we got Axl, we got Duff, the whole crew. Matt Sorum, not Matt Sorum though. We need the old guy. I forgot the old guy's name.
Chris Barker:
I don't want to bring the mood down. I was wondering whether to tell you this or not. But let's see when we get to the next one. So, what's the item number four next? Item number four. So three more left.
Will Betts:
Before we get there, before we get to four I want to just ask about the guitar though because there's so much guitar in your music. Is it basically the Les Paul across the board that you're using? What your go to?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, it depends on who... If I'm playing the part of Zach's playing the part. Zach plays most of the guitars on Awake, and he has a Les Paul that's slightly different than mine. He has a Korean '90s Les Paul. I don't know what the name of it was, but it was the ones made in Korea during that time, and it's just got this really gritty sound, and then I have the Bonamassa gold top, which has a more rounded kind of sound. It's more mellow. So, the more contemplative sad songs, I guess, are me and the more driven parts he's played a lot of the rhythmic parts that are really angular. Those are him on that Les Paul, but yeah, for the most part it's Les Paul. There's some acoustic guitar sprinkled throughout, and some tele stuff, but that's about it.
Chris Barker:
And are you using amps in them because you spoke about amps with the Minimoog. But is that something you go to or are you trying to record through actual amps?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Everything up till Awake except for two songs was AmpliTube, and then I started getting into amps just because I didn't know how to mic amps. And then I started getting into them for Epoch. But epoch is mostly the Kemper because that's right when I got the Kemper, and then after that I got the UA OX, which is just light years beyond any of that stuff. And I got a Fender Deluxe Reverb, like an old '60 or '70s one. And those two things paired or a Bogner la Grange, I have that for my cleaner tones. That's kind of my... That is my go to these days.
Will Betts:
Good choices. But you haven't got any of that, of course, you haven't got any of that yet. So, let's listen.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, no, I know. That's why I'm like, I think I'm going to just stick with amp sims because if this is to save space because you can get away with amp sims if you got a nice preamp, and the time. Well, wait, so we have to pick software too? Plugins, those count?
Chris Barker:
Yeah, unless there's an amp sim in REAPER you don't have anything yet.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, right.
Chris Barker:
I think more importantly at this point we should point out that you're unable to hear any of this right now.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, that's a good point.
Chris Barker:
No monitors, no headphones.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Okay.
Chris Barker:
So, this is the challenge of the my forever studio. So, you've got three items left. You can change your mind on some previous ones if you want to switch some stuff up.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I'm going to switch to Ableton... Or no, should I go to Logic or Ableton? I'm going to... I'm just trying to think builtin. I'm going to have to switch to Ableton 11 because I've totally forgot about the software suite. Yeah, I need those reverbs, and need all the delays and stuff, and the amps in. It has a decent amps in there, so yeah.
Chris Barker:
Does REAPER not come with anything? Is it quite raw?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the beauty of it. Yeah, it has like a basic EQ. It has essentially what was in a Sonic Foundry Vegas, the older versions, like an EQ, a compressor, really basic stuff.
Chris Barker:
But no amp sims or no reverbs, and-
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
No, no, no, none of those things, which I kind of... That's what I like about it. It's a roll your own situation, and it isn't bloated, and it doesn't have all this stuff. But yeah, I didn't even think about that. So, we're switching to Ableton.
Chris Barker:
You're going to have to make a tactical manoeuvre to get Ableton here.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Okay, then. So, we'll replace REAPER for Ableton, and then we've still got three more items left. You've got the desk. You've got the Les Paul. You got Ableton.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
And the desk has a headphone amp conceivably, or yeah, I guess, and then you'd have one on the links. So, I do Audeze LCD-X. They're like, open back, planar mag, whatever you call them, a bunch of marketing speak.
Chris Barker:
Would you choose headphones over monitors or you going to get monitors?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Chris Barker:
Okay.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I mean, unless the room... I don't know what kind of room I'm going to be in or what kind of acoustic installation I'm going to have or treatments I'm going to have.
Chris Barker:
It's perfect. It's exactly perfect.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, yeah. Then does a monitor package count as one?
Will Betts:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, they're not a bundle. I know a lot of Guitar Centre and stuff will try and sell you one speaker at a time, but we do not do that. They come as a pair.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Okay. I'll take the Genelec GL... They're called the ones, part of the GLM system with the subwoofer. It all works together with AES, and it has a monitor controller so that would knock everything out in one.
Will Betts:
Oh, that's getting bundlely. That sounds... That's tickling my... No bundles.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I mean, I bought it. It was a single skew. No, you're right, it is a bundle. I bought it. Okay, then just the speakers, whatever, that's fine.
Chris Barker:
I like the rule bending. When I was kind I said, "Don't worry, we'll give you a pair of speakers." You were like, "Yeah, cool. Okay, I'll get the monitor control, the speakers and the subwoofer."
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, okay, you're right, that is very much a bundle. Then I just take the Genelec ones, they're perfect, they're great.
Chris Barker:
They still have the room correction technology built in, don't they?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Well, you need the GLM bundle, which comes with the monitor controller. It's this little box, which is a separate item. So, I don't know. I don't know if that's allowed. You guys got strict rules around here.
Chris Barker:
I think the... Isn't it the SAM thing? I don't know. I'm not sure if that is a bundle, Will.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I remember having to buy it, and it came with a mic. And then oh, yeah, I bought the monitor controller separate, but I don't know. I swear it was an extra add on package. I got up sold on that one.
Chris Barker:
Well, you can do the research on that, but we'll see what got.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Okay.
Will Betts:
If you're into music production, you should also check out musictech.net. There you'll find impartial gear reviews, the latest product news, and tutorials for honing your craft plus producer interviews and under the hood track breakdowns. And for those of you wanting to master your recording software, head to the MusicTech YouTube channel where we have free courses in Logic and Ableton Live delivered by our expert trainers with more DAWs coming soon. Thanks for listening. Let's get back to the show.
Chris Barker:
Okay, so item number five. Oh, wait, we've got the Moog as well, haven't we? So, actually, we've got what? Yeah, we've got the Moog, yeah. So, item number five. Sorry, Ableton doesn't count. I was getting confused. Is there anything you don't have in your studio though? This is what the my forever studio can do for you. See, you don't have to take stuff that you already have. Is there anything that you've always wanted?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Right. That's a good point. I'm trying to think of synths that are versatile, but full featured. I guess that maybe a Moog One, that might be it, a Moog One, that's pretty crazy synth. I have a Matriarch, and I was going to say Matriarch, but it can get close to Minimoog territory, so that might be too much overlap there. But you know what, I take an Access Virus synthesiser, final answer.
Chris Barker:
Okay. Wow, that's a change from a Moog One.
Will Betts:
Curveball.
Chris Barker:
Why the Virus?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, I realised I need a digital synth with reverb and all that. You can run guitars through it. You can get a lot of mileage out of it, and it's just the virusy, it has the sound, this kind of the converters were just low far enough that they imparted this texture and grit. It's all over. It's kind of I think that's the synth I've used the most on all my records.
Chris Barker:
Oh, wow. Okay, I wouldn't have expected that.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, you think it's like some trance machine from the turn of the century because it's got all these crazy biohazard logos, but it really is a beautiful... It can be just really beautiful and warm. It's got a great sound. The newer ones are so high-fi, they're like crystalline almost, you know?
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
They're almost too... I mean, if used right they're cool. But on the old one, it had this really nice grit to it.
Chris Barker:
It definitely does strike me as the kind of synth that would make the music in the nightclub scenes in Robocop or something like that.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, totally. Yeah, I don't know. You know what's interesting, the same guy who made that made the Kemper, which is an interesting jump.
Chris Barker:
Oh, yeah, of course, yeah.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah. That's what he's up to these days, which is cool. There's a few. You can see some of the product design. And even the plugins, it has all the virus plugins are in the Kemper. I mean, not plugins, sorry, effects.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, the reverbs, and delays, and things like that.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
This is crunch time now though because it starts getting... This is where you might start changing your mind again. So, this is the final item for your dream forever studio. I do like the fact that you keep looking around like you've got everything you need. It's good.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Well, I'm actually in... So, this is a new space. I just moved in here a week ago, and I heard there was a room next door that's just empty. So, I put all the gear in there, and I've actually been... And I just put in here what I feel like I need on a daily basis. And I'm like, I'm just going to slowly go in there as I need things and add them and put them in the right place and think, do I need this? And if I don't, I'm going to sell it. So, I'm actually in the process of creating my kind of forever studio right now. So, I'm looking around seeing what are the core elements because I always forget. I have a monitor... Or no, I already have an iMac so I don't need a monitor, mouse and keyboard on this. They come with that.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, all of that's fine. Don't worry about all the boring accessories like cables and furniture. You've got all of that.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Okay, I will take a... Man, this is tough. I guess I would have to say a AEA R44 ribbon microphone.
Will Betts:
Oh, interesting.
Chris Barker:
Mic, okay.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
It's an interesting choice of mic as well. So is that a mic you don't have currently?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I have that, and I absolutely love it. It's my favourite mic ever.
Will Betts:
Yes. So, this is the one that's based on the old... Is this is the new one, the AEA? Are you talking about the-
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
It's like an RCA. Yeah, it's like an RCA. You know, the old like Frank Sinatra. You'd always see old radio guys talking into it. It's got... It's really cool. It's like a super tight pattern with really good side rejection, and it's just really... It has the tonne of proximity effect if you're going for that, but it's the first thing they've ever found that can capture acoustic guitars and vocals the way that I hear them in the room as opposed to having to understand how it's going to be processed. It's just a very... For me, it's a really easy mic to use.
Chris Barker:
Okay, and going into the Neve preamps is going to sound pretty nice.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, although they don't quite have enough juice for it. I have to use a cloud lifter. If I dime it on the way in, it'll work, but the only way I can get a little more headroom there is with the cloud lifter.
Chris Barker:
I mean, will you get more headroom on the preamps on a desk, Will? They usually go a bit more, don't they?
Will Betts:
Yeah, I think you should be all right there. I think you'd be all right with the BCM.
Chris Barker:
Those Neves go pretty hot, right?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
You'd think, but for whatever reason I've found that I need it. It's not quite all the way there. Some of the modern transformer stuff like the Meris 440s can handle it and give it enough juice but yeah, on the Neves I got to almost dime it on the way in.
Will Betts:
But then, okay, are you willing to give up one of your other items to get a cloud lifter? Or are we just going to say-
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
No, no, it still works without it. As long as the BCM 10 has as much juice I'm sure it does.
Will Betts:
Okay.
Chris Barker:
That would be the most boring item on the podcast that we've ever had, the Cloudlifter as a whole item.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
It's completely essentially.
Will Betts:
It's a useful tool.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
That'd be like, have we ever had anybody get a DI box?
Will Betts:
Or NVI, that could be good.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
So, wait, are we out? That's it.
Chris Barker:
No, no, wait, wait, wait, we haven't talked about what's your first experience with this AEA microphone then? Where did it come from?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
On Weather, I had to start recording vocals, and for the first time I'd never done that. And I had this Neumann, and I just felt like I wasn't getting... It sounds amazing, but I wasn't getting the sound of the room. So, I wanted something that felt more natural, so I just started researching and everyone was saying, "Oh, Ribbons can do that." And I got it in, and I just recorded acoustic guitar because I don't sing. So, I was just playing my acoustic guitar the first night I was like, "This is crazy. Finally what I'm hearing in the room is being picked up by this mic. And then I ended up using it to record Hannah Saint Sinner the vocalist on Weather, so I used this, the Neumann, and then we do layers with the R44. So, like the harmonies and stuff and it just...
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I don't know if I was just imagining things, but it sounded like it really... The blending of the two really made this special because like this Neumann has really, really sharp high frequencies. It's really bright, it sounds like to my ear, so it brought out the breathiness of her voice and then the R 44 filled in that that mid range and that lower end and gave it some weight.
Chris Barker:
So, you had those up next to one another, did you?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
No, no, we just... That record was all layers and multiple passes. So, it just did, basically, the harmonies and stuff, and the doubling.
Chris Barker:
So, layering up with the Neumann or doing your layers with the R44. How did you approach that?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Just like she would do the first take on either... Actually, I think it was, I think she did most of the first takes on the Neumann, and then she would do the doubles on the R44. And then maybe the harmonies or the ad lib stuff on the R44. For the most part, all the extra stuff, most of the takes with the R44, and then the core main take was the Neumann.
Chris Barker:
All right, so you're building up that extra top end as you go sort of thing?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Which seemed like, yeah, that started to get away from me pretty quickly with the Neumann.
Chris Barker:
And was that a challenge balancing the sound of the, having the human voice for the first time really in your work with Weather. How did you find that from a compositional and mixing standpoint?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, it was intimidating. I mean, I don't have a tonne of experience with mics at all. I don't really mic stuff, mostly for the most part. And so, yeah, like when you get into the domain of air and sound waves actually travelling through space and not a cable there's a whole host of challenges that come along with that, but I just figured if I started with the best tools that I could get, at least I had a leg up already, and yeah, I just watched a bunch of YouTube videos and read a bunch of Gearslutz forum posts. They probably didn't help me at all. They probably put me a little bit behind in some respects, but helped me a tonne on others. And yeah, I mean, Hannah, she's just, Saint Sinner she has such a great voice, and she's such a pro that it just made it easy. And she had had a lot of experience, so she helped me learn the process, and we learned together.
Will Betts:
Nice.
Chris Barker:
Nice. So, Will, just in case there's any changes, and we've had a change already with REAPER. Do you want to do the rundown of the studio so far? Set the scene.
Will Betts:
We are in the woods near a river. We're sitting in a national park in an A frame building. Your computer is an iMac Pro. Your audio interface The Lynx Aurora N all loaded up with all of your different connectivity options. Your DAW for the change is Ableton 11, Ableton Live 11 suite, we're saying. You're using the beta right now, but this will be is forever so they would have got into-
Chris Barker:
Yeah, get updates. Updates forever.
Will Betts:
Yeah, your six studio items. First of all, you have chosen the Minimoog Model D rev three. You have a Neve BCM 10 with half and half 1084 and 1073 preamps. You have a 1950s Les Paul Goldtop signed by all of Guns N' Roses.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Steven Adler as well, yeah.
Will Betts:
You have listening back on the Genelec, Genelec the Ones, and I think we're going to give you the room correction part of that. That's going to be included with that because we're benevolent like that.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Excellent.
Chris Barker:
It's sort of around Christmas time.
Will Betts:
It is, yeah. It feels giftie. Then you have the Access Virus C, and for a microphone you have the AEA R44 Ribbon mic. How does that sound?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
It sounds like I'm going to trade out the Virus C for a Taylor acoustic guitar because I realised I need some acoustic instrument, especially if I'm going to have that mic around.
Will Betts:
Okay. Taylor acoustic guitar
Chris Barker:
And again some insane... Who is this one going to be signed by? Any particular acoustic musician so you'd like to sign it?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Acoustic guitar... I forgot her name, but the woman who... From heart, one with the blond hair who plays the crazy acoustic intro on Barracuda on the YouTube video of the '70s live version of it. I'm always looking for old cuts of live versions of old '70s songs and there's this one who just shreds acoustic guitar on the intro. But, man, but I don't have a bass. That's the problem. This is hard. Six is not enough.
Will Betts:
There's a lot of you playing bass on the tracks that you've put out for years.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I mean, that's my favourite stringed instrument. Yeah, I love bass. That's my favourite thing-
Will Betts:
You're going to have to get a bass then. What are you doing?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I know.
Chris Barker:
Just pitch down the Les Paul. It's fine.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, I've actually done that. I've done that on a bunch of songs. That's a good point. You could actually do that.
Chris Barker:
Or get a six string... Or replace Les Paul with a six string bass.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah. You know there's like an old gold top '70s Gibson bass. It's like a Les Paul bass. It's the craziest. It's called Les Paul special, and it was a bass. It's the coolest looking thing. They seem pretty rare but I see them on Reverb every once in a while. That's a dream, but man, I don't know, it's hard to say. I think I'd have to stick with all that. I'll just have to make synth base all the time. Yeah, I can get away with synth bass. Still I need that acoustic, and that Les Paul.
Chris Barker:
So, it's a Taylor acoustic, we're saying. Sorry, just to-
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, I think so. I've never had one. I have a Breed Love, which is Guitar Center's in house brand, I think. It sounds good, but I've heard other people... My friend has a Taylor. I heard him play it. It sounded amazing.
Will Betts:
And what kind? Like a dreadnought or like a parlour or like?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I don't know what any word any of those words mean.
Will Betts:
A big one, big like country sort of style one?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, the normal big one. The one that's like...
Chris Barker:
Because there's all those Ed Sheeran style. That's Parlour guitar, isn't it? The kind of Ed Sheeran sized ones.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, I don't know much about... I'm guitar ignorant, but yeah, I just... The acoustic guitar, the one with the hole in it and the curves and it's made out of wood.
Chris Barker:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know that one. The one with a hole in it. Sure, yeah, cool.
Chris Barker:
Is that what you said when you went to Guitar Centre to get yours. I'm after one of those things with the strings and the hole in it?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, the hole. It's one hole, not the two hole addition, or the one with the eight holes up at the top, or the tinier holes. I didn't want those.
Chris Barker:
Oh, yeah. The proper, the Takamine kind of-
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, they're very country, and they have feathers and stuff on them. Yeah, nice. Now we've got the studio sorted. There's one item left to the studio, which is a luxury item. So, this isn't gear related. It's not a piece of gear, but is there something that you like or you could have in it in the studio, in a dream situation, what would you have in the studio as a kind of luxury item?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
And this is just for fun. This is totally unrelated, music related.
Chris Barker:
It's not music related, but it might be workflow related. It might be something that you wish you could go to mid session, but it's not going to be a piece of gear.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
And I live near a river so I can swim anytime I want. It wouldn't be... Maybe like a... This is tough. And I'm in the woods so I can go exercise all that I want. That's the thing, I have no hobbies, and I do nothing to relax. I work all day every day, and I'm completely obsessed with with my work, so-
Chris Barker:
"I have no hobbies and I don't do anything to relax."
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
This is it. If I have a computer I'm a pretty happy, man. So, yeah, I would get... I guess I'd get a sauna. How about that? That'd be cool. Or like a hot, whatever, like the dry one where you go in and get real hot and sweaty, and then you go jump in the cold lake or the cold stream and get all pumped up like Russian moves like in the wilderness.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Like the Scandinavians or the Finnish?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, who's that guy who... He's name like-
Chris Barker:
Wilf? Is it Wilf? Something messed up. The Wil something method? That guy's that goes really cold.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
It's called Wim, Wim something, but yes, it's the Wim Hof.
Chris Barker:
Wim Hof. That's it.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I'm going to go Wim Hof on you guys.
Chris Barker:
That's cool.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
But yeah, I think I would get some sauna. Yeah, I love that. I love going from hot to cold environments, and then back again very quickly. That's a good vibe, so I'd do that.
Chris Barker:
So, some kind sauna, a sauna to do the Wim Hof Method.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah. Or maybe a spa. I don't know. Either a sauna or spa, probably sauna, that's better. So, it'd be a nice teak or whatever the wood they make those out of. It would be, it smells nice. Pour the water on the hot coals.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, get the eucalyptus sticks. Whip yourself with those eucalyptus leaves. That's what they do, isn't it?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
It's very intimidating if you've ever experienced that. I actually experienced that on trip with Genelec in Finland. Thank you, Genelec.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, really?
Chris Barker:
Thank you, Genelec for that experience where members of team Genelec whipped me with eucalyptus in a sauna. It was very bonding. I know, and then I made my own Genelec speakers, which are in front of me now. And yeah, I'm sure they don't sound as good as the ones that the professionals make.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, I would not want that. Well, then I have a small edit. I need my Genelecs signed by Wim Hof, the Wim Hof signature edition Genelecs.
Chris Barker:
Hang on. Let's get everything signed. Okay, so we've got the Genelec signed by Wim. What else? Whose the Moog signed by?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, the Moog. Yeah, who is that signed by? I mean, I guess. Yeah, it's signed by Bob Moog, however you say it.
Chris Barker:
It's Bob Moog signed it.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
And the Neve?
Will Betts:
Rupert Neve.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Rupert Neve, of course, you got to have him sign it.
Chris Barker:
This podcast is everything is signature addition, Tycho's signature studio, everything is signed.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
And the Lynx is signed by Kevin Parker of Tame Impala because he's the only Lynx user that I know for sure uses Lynx.
Chris Barker:
We've got the acoustic signed by the Barracuda player from Heart.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, yeah. From heart. Yeah.
Chris Barker:
We need to... What's her name, Will?
Will Betts:
I'm trying to track it down right now.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
It's Nancy Wilson. No, she's in Heart.
Chris Barker:
Nancy Wilson sign the acoustic guitar.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, and then... That's it, right? We don't...
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
My iMac needs to be signed by Steve Jobs or something, but it didn't exist. It's signed by... What's the guy who designs everything?
Will Betts:
Johnny Ive.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, Johnny Ive. It's got to be signed by Johnny I've, Steve Jobs, and then whoever the CEO is now. I don't know who that guy is.
Will Betts:
Tim Cook. There you go.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Tim Apple.
Chris Barker:
So, I like the way that every item is signed apart from Wim Hof and the Les Paul not signed by Les Paul, but signed by the entire cast of Guns N' Roses.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Wim Hof made my Genelecs at the studio. He went and did a factory tour and he made them.
Chris Barker:
Okay, that's fair.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, there you go. He imbued them with some sort of spiritual crystal energy that he gains from all the hot/cold baths.
Chris Barker:
Let's round this off. So, the final studio. Do you want to just run down the final studio so we can go through it now, Will. Now we know the signatures on everything.
Will Betts:
Okay. We're in the A frame cabin in the woods near a river running an iMac pro signed by Johnny Ive, Steve Jobs, and Tim Apple. You have a Lynx Aurora and signed by Kevin Parker of Taming Parlour. Your DAW cannot be signed, sadly, it is Ableton Live 11. Your studio items are a Minimoog Model D rev three signed by Dr. Bob Moog himself. A Neve BCM 10, half and half 1084 and 1073 modules signed by Rupert Neve, and Les Paul Goldtop original 1950s signed by all of Guns N' Roses, and Genelec the Ones signed by Wim Hof-
Chris Barker:
And made by Wim Hof.
Will Betts:
And made-
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Well, the Wim Hof signature edition, actually, I don't know if you guys know. That's a product that's coming out soon.
Will Betts:
Yeah, perfect. You have your Taylor acoustic guitar signed by Nancy Wilson, and an AEA R44 Ribbon as yet unsigned.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Oh, right. We don't know. Signed by Frank Sinatra.
Will Betts:
Done, done.
Chris Barker:
And the luxury item is?
Will Betts:
It's the sauna.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Again, signed by Wim Hof. It's a Wim Hof signature edition sauna. And it connects you, you can correct the room in there with the GLM system so you get... If you put them in there, it's a perfect acoustic space if you put the speakers in there.
Chris Barker:
It's like the mastering room. You get really hot while you're mastering to make really quick decisions, so you don't overheat. That's good. I like it.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Totally, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Okay. Well, that that takes us to the end of My Forever Studio. Thank you so much for joining us. I hope you had fun. We did. And it's really always a pleasure to nerd out with you. Thanks for joining us. What's coming up for you in 2021? Just let us know, what's the plan?
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Working on... The first thing is I'm doing a sunrise set on New Year's Day. I'm kind of out in the woods. We're doing... I'm going to go out there and set up, and that's going to be live streamed on New Year's Day at 7:00 AM, so really excited for that, and been working on that. That's kind of the culmination of this year of training, and getting better at live streaming, and creating this kind of solo set and thinking about how to re-contextualise the live set for the modern COVID era.
Chris Barker:
And hoping to maybe tour and more albums next year? I mean, if the world gets back to normal a bit.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah. Right after that set we're going up to Tahoe and Zach and I are going to start working on the next record. It's pretty fleshed out, and so we're going to start doing the layering and the guitar work and hoping to have an album out next year, and of course, hoping to tour next summer or whenever it's safe. So, probably fall or something like that by the time we get to club shows. But yeah, I think it's going to be a great year of rebirth for everyone, hopefully.
Chris Barker:
For sure, for sure. Well, again, thank you so much.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
Yeah, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
Will Betts:
Thank you, Scott.
Scott Hansen (Tycho):
I had a blast.
Chris Barker:
Thanks, again, to Tycho for having fun with us on the My Forever Studio Podcast, and that's it. It's the end of season two.
Will Betts:
It's unbelievable to think we've been through this many episodes already, Chris, but that's it and what a season it's been. We're going to be back in 2021 with some fantastic guests for season three. And if you're a fan of the My Forever Studio Podcast, make sure you subscribe using your favourite podcasting app, and maybe even give us a five star rating and a delightful review.
Chris Barker:
Yes, please. We really appreciate your feedback. Let us know your suggestions for guests you'd like on the My Forever Studio Podcast.
Will Betts:
Indeed, if there's someone who you're dying for us to grill, let us know in your review via our socials, or email us at editors@musictech.net.
Chris Barker:
Finally, a huge thank you to our season two editor Mr. Will Seelig who has done sterling work throughout as he always does.
Will Betts:
Yes, a huge thank you to Will and see you all for season three in 2021. Bye-Bye.
Chris Barker:
Goodbye.