Dreaming up a Forever Studio this time is Scottish DJ, producer and label owner, Kevin McKay. Kevin has been involved in cutting edge club music for over 25 years, discovering and developing artists such as Mylo and Grum. He's also been a relentless force in the Beatport Top 10 in recent years with his own releases. In this hilarious remote episode, learn how Kevin helped bring Mylo's seminal 2004 record Destroy Rock & Roll to life, how he uses Fiverr when producing, and which affordable, apartment-friendly monitoring system he relies on.
Dreaming up a Forever Studio this time is Scottish DJ, producer and label owner, Kevin McKay.
Kevin has been involved in cutting edge club music for over 25 years, discovering and developing artists such as Mylo and Grum. He's also been a relentless force in the Beatport Top 10 in recent years with his own releases.
In this hilarious remote episode, learn how Kevin helped bring Mylo's seminal 2004 record Destroy Rock & Roll to life, how he uses Fiverr when producing, and which affordable, apartment-friendly monitoring system he relies on.
LINKS (SPOILERS AHEAD!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mylo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tb3RLqY9Xo
https://www.applecross.uk.com/
https://www.dynaudio.com/professional-audio/core/core-59
https://www.pioneerdj.com/en/product/all-in-one-system/xdj-rr/black/specifications/
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Trucker-Classic-Snapback-Baseball/dp/B07YQD4L3B
https://www.dbaudio.com/global/en/
http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/studio-monitors/resolv/resolvrxa6/
https://www.korg.com/sg/products/synthesizers/kronos2/
https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/convolution-reverb/
https://www.korg.com/us/products/software/kc_monopoly/
Chris Barker:
I'm Chris Barker-
Will Betts:
And I'm Will Betts, and you're listening to the MusicTech My Forever Studio podcast.
Chris Barker:
In this podcast, we speak with DJs, producers, engineers, and industry figureheads about their fantasy forever studio.
Will Betts:
The dream studio that, I guess, we'll have to invent will be one that they will live with forever. And to make it interesting, we have some rules. Famously, the only thing that separates us from the animals.
Chris Barker:
Yes, those annoying little rules. First, our guest can select a Mac, a PC or Atari, if they're feeling dangerous, a DAW, and an audio interface. Then, they have the annoying obstacle of choosing six other bits of studio gear plus one non-studio related luxury item.
Will Betts:
But Chris-
Chris Barker:
What?
Sound Board:
No bundles!
Chris Barker:
Yes.
Will Betts:
Yes, we have one rule and it's very serious, choosing a bundle of separate software programmes or hardware as a single item is totally forbidden.
Chris Barker:
Today, we have the Scottish DJ, producer, and label owner Kevin McKay or McKay if you want to keep it real.
Will Betts:
From his recent and relentless crushing of the Beatport Top 10 with his own releases to a history of discovering and developing incredible artists like Mylo and Grum, Kevin McKay has been involved in cutting edge club music for over 25 years.
Chris Barker:
Yes, and I'm going to say that no matter when you're listening to this podcast, if you check out Beatport, Kevin will be in the top 10.
Will Betts:
Shall we find out what's in his forever studio, Chris?
Chris Barker:
Yes. We've heard rumours he's a fan of the podcast, so I'm really excited to hear his choices. Welcome, Kevin. Hello.
Will Betts:
Welcome.
Kevin McKay:
Hi guys, how's it going?
Will Betts:
Very good.
Chris Barker:
Very, very good. Thank you so much for joining us.
Kevin McKay:
A pleasure to be here.
Chris Barker:
I took a risk on the chance that you'll be in the top 10 still. I'm sure that's a given, right?
Kevin McKay:
I'm currently not in the top 10, but there you go, I'm in the top 20 just now. But-
Chris Barker:
Well, you were in the top 10 when I was writing that.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, no, I've had a track in the top 10 for about the last two months, so it was a very good end of year and a good start to 2021.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, crushing it. Okay, so is that true, you're a fan of the podcast? You've heard this before?
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, I'm a big fan of the podcast. Actually, I loved the magazine as a whole. I used to find... well, when I was growing up and getting into music production, there was really only Sound on Sound and I always felt like I was really into making music, but I was always looking at this magazine like, "What? How do these people make music? What is going on here?" I saw it far removed from what my experience of making music is, but with you guys I've found that I can imagine myself being 23 again and it's not that removed. And so I love all the people you've had on, but I've mainly listened to the electronic ones. So-
Chris Barker:
Nice.
Kevin McKay:
Everyone... BT, fascinating to listen to. Morgan Page, fascinating to listen to. And then people that are a bit more real about it like Claude VonStroke, who are probably a bit more like myself in terms of what they've produced, and not only are you kind of raving about, you're sort of enjoying BT's love of the Synclavier and sort of getting really sort of nerdy about the kit. You're also just, like when Claude VonStroke pulls out the drum break, you're like, "Quality, lo-fi, lo rent, but does what it says on the tin." And I just think when you're young and you're starting out and you don't have the money, you can't go and drop 100 grand on a Synclavier. You need these kind of guiding lights to kind of help you out of that early stages of music production.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, so I think it's always nice when you find out that people are using gear that you can find at your local shop or under a few hundred dollars or a few hundred pounds on Amazon. It's less alienating.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, absolutely.
Chris Barker:
The frustrating thing about that fact, of course, is that then you discover that it's about talent and then you get really sad because you-
Kevin McKay:
That is true.
Chris Barker:
Like me, you look behind you at all your kit and go, "Maybe it wasn't the kit after all." I keep buying kit, I still don't have any hits.
Kevin McKay:
I think-
Chris Barker:
Let's dive in and talk about where in the world are you right now? Are you locked down? Are you in Glasgow?
Kevin McKay:
I'm in London. So I have lived in London since 2005. So when the Mylo record was kicking off, I basically had to move to London because I was on the plane, on the sort of shuttle from Glasgow that kicked off at 6:00 in the morning and back at 10:00 at night. And because I'm Scottish, I can't go to any airport without having a drink. So I could not do that in the morning because I had meetings ahead of me, but by the time I got to the evening and then the last flights, they're always delayed, so I'd be like having three or four pints and doing that three times a week. And I was just like, "All right, okay, either I'm going to sort of save up for a liver transplant sometime in the future or I'm just going to move to London."
Chris Barker:
Let's briefly, let's talk about that Mylo record because I was going to put it in the intro actually, but that's one of the few records in my life that I've bought by hearing it in a record store, you know when they're just playing it behind the counter and going, "What's this?" in that kind of Beta Band, High Fidelity... I don't know if you've seen High Fidelity-
Kevin McKay:
Yep, yep, yep.
Chris Barker:
Where it's like, "I'm going to sell some copies of this album now," and they put on the album and it's yeah... and it became quite a seminal record and yeah, how did that happen?
Kevin McKay:
From the outset, I was running Glasgow Underground at the time and I'd kind of pigeonholed myself or pigeonholed the label as a kind of deep house label and hadn't set the label up to do anything other than that. And at the time, that kind of sound was dying and the label sales were dying and I was a bit like, "Oh I've kind of messed it up here." And so I was looking for something different to do and also I just got a bit bored of... when you start off into dance music, you're really into a sound and so when you start your label, you're really into that sound. But you don't realise that life is going to change and in five years time, you might not be in, but you've set yourself up as a label with that sound.
Kevin McKay:
So anyways, I was kind of looking for a different challenge and I wanted to do something in pop music, but I felt that there hadn't been a British artist or an album that had been released that kind of did everything that I wanted from a dance album. So the kind of big popular dance artists at the time were maybe Fatboy Slim or The Chemical Brothers, and whereas they were fantastic. They felt like sort of stadium versions of dance music, which didn't quite sort of ring true with me. I was more into kind of Super Discount and equally popular albums, St Germain Boulevard, an album that probably sold quarter of a million copies. A big record, but it didn't have any hits on it and it was cool and popular, but it hadn't really sort of translated into pop culture in the UK in a way.
Kevin McKay:
And I was looking for something to get involved in something that did that. And then a friend of mine was working at the BBC and Mylo was working as a researcher, and she said, "Oh you should send your music to Kevin. He runs a record label." And from the moment he sent his records in, the music in, I was just like, "This guy has got something." And then every week, he would send in between sort of two and 10 tracks. Sometimes he was making 10 tracks a week. He was just incredibly creative. I got to know him, started playing football with him, just hanging out. And after a while, I think I had about 70 demos, I was like, "I've just got to do something with this guy." And so, I sold the flat that I was living in to pay for an advance for him and signed him to a record label, and yeah, it all started there.
Chris Barker:
And accidentally made a stadium rock mainstream album that you didn't... you did though. It affected mainstream culture and it was very poppy, and it wasn't a St Germain in the end, it wasn't one of those kind of no hits. You had hit after hit after hit.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, but I felt you could have hits without having to sort of resort to... the hits could be a bit more cultured. I was a bit naïve really because the hits that we had on it, that I thought were hits like 'In My Arms' and 'Drop the Pressure' and those things, they were kind of records that hit somewhere between the 10 and the 20 in the charts, which is still obviously a hit. You're in the top 40. You're feeling like you've never done this before. But I was like early 30s, I was just like, "This is amazing." But it wasn't like a proper hit like when you sort of... we moved from a kind of indie setup to a major label setup, we did a joint venture with Sony, and when we moved in there, you realise that their version of hits is very different from your kind of music fan version of hits. You're like, "Hey, we're in the charts!" They're like, "Yeah, in at 14. Good result, move on." And I was like, "No, no, no, but it's like at 14!"
Chris Barker:
Yeah, they want one or two, or just one basically.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, and until you sort of see the kind of mechanics of it, so until Mylo did that or it was somebody else that did it and he incorporated it into his single, so until we did 'Doctor Pressure' where we sort of merged 'Drop the Pressure' with Miami Sound Machine's 'Dr. Beat' and had a number three hit, then it was like, "Right, okay, I get it. This is where the major label is really good." And in the end, we did end up having a record that was more like those kind of Fatboy Slim sort of records.
Chris Barker:
And 'Drop the Pressure' is being remixed and re-released almost yearly in every genre from trance versions to moombahton versions to-
Kevin McKay:
I think they've all been bootlegs up until recently. I know that when I was still-
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Yeah, probably.
Kevin McKay:
When I was still working with Mylo, he always had this thing where he was like, "I'm never ever going to reissue singles. I'll never re-release anything. The original should be the original and you shouldn't remix," and he always sort of looked down on dance artists that kind of remixed their classic hits. And I've not worked with him for, we've not... I'm still connected to the projects somehow royalty wise and stuff, but we don't work together anymore. And yeah, and this year, they had the Claptone remix at number one on Beatport. So fantastic.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, I guess it was kind of like that 'Music Sounds Better With You' aesthetic where I don't think there's been ever any official remixes apart from the ones, the Benjamin Diamond stuff that came out, there's not been any official ones of those since then either.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah. But yeah, [inaudible 00:10:41]. It's like people would send me all the time, people would send me versions they've done and go, "Oh, can you get this to Mylo?" And I'd be like, "Yeah, this is his manager. Here you go. You can have a chat to him about it," and see how he got on with it. But it's just one of those records, he made four tracks in Sky one weekend and he came down to our office in Glasgow, and he's already been signed at this point, and when he played, 'Drop the Pressure', I was just like, "Oh yes, that's it."
Kevin McKay:
It just felt like someone had played me... it was like the first time I heard 'One More Time' or Stardust or one of those records, I was like, "Oh fantastic. We've got one of those records." And I'd only ever had that once before with a Romanthony record where I was just like, "Oh yes, things are going to change and it's going to be great!"
Chris Barker:
Am I right in it says, "Motherfucker's going to drop the pressure," right?
Kevin McKay:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
And [crosstalk 00:11:32]
Kevin McKay:
Not on the version that you heard on the radio obviously. So it was the mother and the fucker were reversed. But I think with modern day kind of, like the way that people do clean records now, I don't think that would've been allowed.
Chris Barker:
No, because it's still basically, even on the radio edit. What I was going to say is I thought it was one of those records where the radio station accidentally plays the not clean version not knowing what it's actually saying.
Kevin McKay:
No, we had to reverse, because yeah... Mylo basically made the record. Once he'd finished the records, he was terrible at sort of fixing things. So again that's the main reason why... well, there were two reasons why I got involved, but one of the reasons why I got involved so heavily in the record was because he was just like, "I'm done with this." So I had to do everything. And so I did all the radio edits and did all of that stuff. And yeah, we started off with just reversing the fucker, but that didn't work. But yeah, mother was reversed, fucker was reversed, and it was reversed every time it was said in the song, which were all different because he'd done it on a Korg and he'd done the vocoder on the Korg.
Chris Barker:
Oh on the microKorg?
Kevin McKay:
The microKorg, yeah.
Will Betts:
[crosstalk 00:12:54] Korg, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Well, there's an insight. If you want the 'Drop the Pressure' vocal sound, you've got to get yourself a microKorg. Straight away on the podcast, we've got the insight, cheap gear-
Kevin McKay:
That is it. Yeah, all the synths on 'Destroy Rock', pretty much all the synths, apart from the ones that I recreated because Mylo had sampled artists that we couldn't clear the masters on, but all his synths, all from Reason.
Chris Barker:
Oh right.
Kevin McKay:
So it was made on Pro Tools on an eight track rig. That was the other reason why I got involved because his mixing was so terrible because he only had eight tracks because he wouldn't shell out for the full version of Pro Tools. I don't like speaking ill of people-
Will Betts:
I've had that version, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
But I think anyone that knows Mylo will say he's the classic version of the classic tight Scotsman and you don't really meet tight Scots people in reality, but Mylo is one of them. He was one of those guys where people would joke when he got his wallet out like, "When was the last time," that sort of like idea, that kind of carried on.
Chris Barker:
That was great. Oh anyway, let's move on to the my forever studio. Sorry, I went down a rabbit hole then but-
Kevin McKay:
No, no, no. It's fine.
Chris Barker:
That's one of my favourite albums.
Kevin McKay:
Oh thank you.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, it was great to talk to you about it.
Chris Barker:
So where are we going to have the studio? In the world, you can put it anywhere. My forever fantasy studio, where's it going to go?
Kevin McKay:
I spent quite a lot of time thinking about this because where I would like to put it is somewhere in Scotland, but unfortunately all my family don't enjoy the sunshine and so I would struggle with that. I'm just going to be selfish and say, "Right, okay, I'm going to put it where I think I make them,"... I'm kind of happiest making music when I've got a view of Scottish water and islands. It doesn't have to be Scottish. It could be anywhere. I think New Zealand's got equal things, but I'd like to be in Europe. And there's not many places... England's a lovely place to live, but the coast doesn't really have any of those views where you've got water and islands and mountains and all of that. And I think there's something about it that it's just so peaceful and the landscape changes minute by minute in Scotland. It could be like beautiful sunshine and 10 minutes later, it's absolutely heaving down with rain.
Kevin McKay:
So somewhere like that and I think the most beautiful place I've seen is Wester Ross, there's a place called Applecross up there on the kind of northwest coast of Scotland. And I've not actually been there yet, it's on my list of things to do because I've done almost all of Scotland, but that is so blooming far away from most of Scotland that-
Chris Barker:
Isn't Westeros in 'Game of Thrones'?
Will Betts:
That's right, yep.
Kevin McKay:
Westeros with one S is in 'Game of Thrones.' Wester Ross with two S's at the end is in Scotland, but yeah, I think, pretty sure-
Chris Barker:
Wow, that has the potential to be a very awkward Uber journey isn't it if you get it wrong.
Kevin McKay:
I mean you're north of The Wall anyway. You're with the Wildlings. It's all crazy out there. So if you get an Uber driver or-
Chris Barker:
Yeah, north of The Wall, please.
Kevin McKay:
I can't even say what the last Uber driver in Glasgow, the story he told me because it'd just be like you have your podcast booted off of Spotify and Apple because it's probably the most un-PC thing you've ever heard on it.
Chris Barker:
So Wester Ross with two S's?
Kevin McKay:
Wester Ross with two S's. Yeah, it's remote and beautiful. I've got a friend that made a record up there and I imagine that Scottish scenery, fantastic.
Chris Barker:
Lovely stuff.
Will Betts:
Wow, I'm looking at some pictures of it right now and it is extraordinary. It's exactly as you described it. It's sea, it's islands, it's forests.
Kevin McKay:
One thing the studio does have to have though is a geodesic dome so that it's nice and warm. So somehow, it's within a geodesic dome.
Chris Barker:
Okay.
Will Betts:
That's fine. We can do that. We can make that happen.
Chris Barker:
Yep, okay.
Will Betts:
Yeah, yeah. So that's how you can still enjoy some kind of yeah, temperate climate while also being in a freezing cold place.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, I'd like to have a swimming pool. It's my forever studio, so I'd like to have a few things in there. But again, it depends whether that comes as part of the building or whether it's the luxury item, but I don't know, I'm kind of-
Chris Barker:
Yeah, we can describe it as the building.
Kevin McKay:
All right.
Chris Barker:
If you get too flagrant with the rules, we will shoot you down.
Kevin McKay:
I'm a bit like Claude on that front where I'm just like-
Chris Barker:
Pushing it.
Kevin McKay:
"Okay, those rules, I need to pick them," straight away.
Chris Barker:
On one of the podcasts, we actually did go back to their forever studio and delete some of their plug ins from a bundle that they accidentally purchased. So we will do that. So we have eyes everywhere.
Kevin McKay:
No, no, no. I'm totally down with the no bundles, although you will see how I try to get around it later on, see whether you enjoy it.
Will Betts:
Oh okay. My finger's on the buzzer.
Chris Barker:
Okay. Well, let's whip through the three free items.
Kevin McKay:
Yes.
Chris Barker:
The free items are getting a bit boring now to be honest with you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, listeners. When we came up with this format, we didn't realise that everybody was going to pick Mac, Logic, and a UAD interface. But here we go, Kevin, what are your three items?
Kevin McKay:
So I'd been on a Mac since Pro Tools moved, since Macs could kind of handle kind of audio without glitching. So yeah, so Mac and I always have a laptop because I'll make music anywhere. And yeah, I don't actually care about the audio interface. So I was actually going to let you guys pick-
Will Betts:
Controversial.
Kevin McKay:
Because I'd be really interested to hear what you think. If I've got to pick, the only one I know is the one that I'm using. Well, I used to use Pro Tools audio interfaces when I had Pro Tools on the Mac. I don't use Pro Tools anymore. But yeah, I've got a Focusrite Scarlett just now, which has is just totally suitable for me. But yeah, what... there you go. I've got the four by four, but yeah, the same thing. I think it totally... I just don't get it.
Chris Barker:
For everybody listening, I just held up my little Scarlett Solo with the caveat, it's still in the box. That's how much music I make nowadays. But I do have one, a Scarlett Solo. Audio interface, we've got to-
Sound Board:
Upsell your dreams.
Chris Barker:
What do you think?
Will Betts:
What we need to do is we need to I think either go for a top end rack mount UA. You can go for a Prism Sound, like a Titan or a Lyra, or you could do... some of those Audient interfaces are really great.
Chris Barker:
Yes.
Will Betts:
RME, absolutely bullet proof.
Kevin McKay:
Do any of them come with any extra stuff?
Will Betts:
Well, that's the problem, see.
Chris Barker:
Bundles?
Sound Board:
No bundles!
Kevin McKay:
No, no, no, not a bundle.
Will Betts:
Okay.
Kevin McKay:
No, I'm definitely not suggesting a bundle.
Will Betts:
What kind of extra stuff do you need?
Kevin McKay:
Well, just because UAD have the stuff that comes with, stock stuff-
Chris Barker:
Yeah, it does have some DSP, doesn't it? [crosstalk 00:19:50]
Kevin McKay:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
You're studiously trying not to say bundle, I notice.
Kevin McKay:
Definitely not saying bundles.
Will Betts:
Okay.
Kevin McKay:
You [crosstalk 00:20:00] come out of my mouth.
Chris Barker:
Okay. So the UAD, yeah, I think to be fair that's why most people pick the UAD. They are rock solid, really nice interfaces. But having that little bundle of plug ins. But no, the combined, the default ones that come with the interface for free anyway, it's not actually a bundle is it as such, it's part of the audio interface infrastructure. Do you think that's a bundle, Will?
Will Betts:
We've allowed it in the past. So because we've set the precedent, we can't go back now.
Chris Barker:
But aren't there plug ins on the UAD?
Will Betts:
They tend-
Chris Barker:
I have the old cards, but they're plug ins that you literally can't buy in the UA store because they just come with all of the hardware. So if you can't buy them separately, they can't be bundled-
Will Betts:
There are some-
Kevin McKay:
Are the compressors [crosstalk 00:20:45]
Will Betts:
Are they precision?
Chris Barker:
Yeah, they've got some basic compressors and [crosstalk 00:20:50].
Will Betts:
Yeah, yeah, there's some basic stuff there.
Chris Barker:
It's all basic stuff but yeah, it runs off the SHARC chips. Are they still SHARC chips [crosstalk 00:20:58]?
Will Betts:
SHARC DSP, [crosstalk 00:20:59]
Kevin McKay:
Always interested to have more options in this my forever studio with its limited number of options. Even though I'd probably be better off not caring about more options because you just have to get creative when you don't have any options. And having made music on a Roland D-70 and an ASR-10 and nothing else with a Mackie 12-channel disc and an Atari that can do no options, so I don't know why I'm so bothered about having options.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, it's that quandary isn't it when you look back at how other records were made, either records that you made yourself or other famous records, and they had like a drum machine, a keyboard, and a sampler or something, and-
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, I'm sure if you speak to Armand Van Helden, I bet some of those amazing dance records, he'd be like, "Yeah, I've got an MPC60 and an s950 and a Juno-106. There you go."
Chris Barker:
Yeah, which, of course, now would be ridiculously expensive, but that's the irony, isn't it? It was all done with this simple gear, which is available now on eBay for 10,000 pounds. Right, okay. So what are we going for? We're going for the top end UAD, shall we?
Will Betts:
Well, I think we're going to have to press you on this later, but let's do the DAW. Let's do DAW now.
Chris Barker:
Okay, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
So yeah, the DAW is Ableton. The first thing that I would definitely have is Ableton.
Chris Barker:
So talk to us about did you go from Pro Tools to Ableton or did you go Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton or-
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, I went from Cubase on the Atari. I worked with a few people that had Cubase when it went up to involve audio and just audio glitching used to drive me nuts. And it was only until Pro Tools, and probably Pro Tools Free came out and it had that on a Mac, that I moved up to Pro Tools. And then one of the guys I was working with at Glasgow Underground, Milton Jackson, he moved into this sort of office studio space for a bit and then he showed me how good it was on audio because I was just not sold on this. It's a bit like how I feel about Bluetooth now. It was like, "Don't buy it if you Bluetooth [inaudible 00:23:03]. It's going to be rubbish. It's going to be rubbish."
Kevin McKay:
And it was the same with audio, like audio on a computer. I was just like, "It's not going to work. It's not going to work. There's no point in even trying this." It's like, "We're years away from it working." And then eventually it's like, "Yep, there you go. It's working now." "Great, okay, I can do that."
Kevin McKay:
So yeah, I went to Pro Tools and then the minute Ableton had warping, as a dance producer you're always working with loops and always sampling, I think. So I tried various things. There was Acid that did good sampling and good kind of you can chop up individual things, but then I would bring disco records into Sound Forge and then cut them up into individual loops and then bring all the loops into Acid and then try to make my kind of loops like that. It was incredibly convoluted and time consuming.
Kevin McKay:
And then Ableton appeared with warping and I was like, "Oh, that's just amazing. Thanks very much." It's like let's say if you want to be a millionnaire, then solve a problem for a million people, well there probably wasn't a million dance music producers at the time, but Ableton certainly solved that problem.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, there's probably about 20 million now.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah. And so just ever since then, they've just always made it... they haven't improved some things that I would've like to have improved, the sort of effects and the onboard sounds, but it's still better than going back to, and I've tried Logic and I just never really, when you're so used to that workflow and also how great it is with effects and effects automation and just all of that stuff that is crucial in dance music, there's nothing to compete with it in my mind just now.
Chris Barker:
That's fair.
Will Betts:
Are you going to go 11 or are you going to stick with 10?
Kevin McKay:
I haven't tried 11 yet. I've paid for it and I think it's... is it out?
Will Betts:
No. It probably will be by the time this podcast goes out, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
So I normally just upgrade, as long as it doesn't involve some Mac upgrades weirdness, then I kind of just, yeah-
Chris Barker:
Well, in the my forever studio, that won't be a problem because you'll have some super power Mac.
Kevin McKay:
I'm just going to have the Mac Pro. Hopefully, by the time this podcast is out, it'll have the 16 inch M1 because you can't even buy them just now, but there probably is 16 inch M1s kicking around somewhere in Palo Alto.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, my forever studio gets access to all of this stuff. It's fine.
Will Betts:
Yeah, we're going to break into Palo Alto and we're going to get you a 16 inch M1 pre-release. Done.
Kevin McKay:
Thank you very much.
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Chris Barker:
Studio item number one then-
Kevin McKay:
Yes. Well, I need some speakers don't I? Because I always thought you should give the speakers away as part of the ... because over interface, I would've definitely had speakers and then choose an interface if you want. Because if I had to choose an interface, I'd be like, "No, it's fine. I'll just work of the Mac." That would [crosstalk 00:26:57]
Will Betts:
Really?
Chris Barker:
That's interesting.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, rather than sacrifice an item, yeah. But because I've got an interface as part of the thing, I'm taking the UAD, but yeah, no, my first item is because... so I actually work on these ear buds that I'm listening to you guys just now and they are 30 quid ear buds from Amazon. So SoundMAGIC [inaudible 00:27:18], and that's what I do all my music on. I don't have any speakers. I live in London, I've got a 15 month old baby, so making noise, not happening. So everything's on ear buds.
Kevin McKay:
But when I did have a studio, I have Dynaudio BM15As, which I really love listening to. And so I had a quick look this morning and they've got these Core 59s, which look pretty nice. I love the sound of Dynaudio and so I'll probably go with them unless there's any better options.
Chris Barker:
Will, are we upselling dreams here? It sounds like Kevin's pretty prepared on this one.
Will Betts:
It sounds like you're pretty set on that one, the Core 59s. Yeah, right, okay. That's a-
Chris Barker:
What do they clock in at? What's the budget on those?
Kevin McKay:
Normally two grand each.
Chris Barker:
Oh actually that's-
Will Betts:
That's okay, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
It's not like stupid money for speakers.
Chris Barker:
No.
Kevin McKay:
And I've been in studios and tried lots of the other kind of famous dance brands and from working with people that have KRKs to working with people that have got Atoms and stuff, and I just never think they sound that great. I'm so used to the sound of Dynaudio, that I just like that sound. And I think the thing with speakers is once you're used to them, that's it.
Kevin McKay:
People are always like, "Oh I need to change my speakers and I've got to upgrade this and upgrade that." And I just think at the end of the day, no one else is going to be listening to them when you're set up. You've got to be happy and it takes you years ages to get used to a new setup.
Chris Barker:
So there's no mega soffit mounted Dynaudios or something? I do like it when Will says soffit mounted. That's what I'm trying to get him to say because-
Kevin McKay:
Who said that? It was BT had that, didn't he?
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Kevin McKay:
Someone had that. No, I was really interested to hear all the, and the one thing I thought was... the most interesting thought about that thing I thought about the podcast choices is how varied the speakers were. So it was like different people had different... obviously there was a sort of preference for Atoms amongst the electronic producers, but there were loads of other ones. And I think that's the thing of once you get to a certain level, it's kind of personal choice after that.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, it's not like once you get over sort of 1,500 pounds per speaker, there's no real bad speakers. It's just preference at that point. They're all... and I've done some big speaker roundups and tests in the past, and it's surprising the subtleties between, even actually when you get above 500, it starts getting quite superfluous at certain points. The main thing that changes is just literally, the only real thing where you can hear it stand out is the size of the cabinet. Obviously if you're comparing a small speaker to a big speaker, you can tell. But once they're all eight inch like full range kind of minimum, it's very subtle, the differences.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, that was the only thing, I was looking at those Core 59s and thinking, "I've got these BM15As and they've got a nice big bottom speaker on there, and when you're making dance music, you kind of need that kind of weight to it." I was thinking, "Should I go for a d&b sound system rather then?" Just totally throw out the studio idea and just go, "Yeah, I'm going to have a d&b audiotechnik." The kind of thing you'd get a two K rig. I'll just have that because I'll work on headphones and then if I want to hear how my record sounds, I'm going to do a mix test or something. I'd be like, "Fire up the d&b sound system and just smash it out like it's in a club," and feel like I'm on the dance floor.
Chris Barker:
That's a good idea, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
So yeah-
Chris Barker:
Well, there is something to be said to that actually. I think a lot of dance music producers, especially when they start out, they sort of favour the kind of cheap, big monitors or cheaper, big monitors because they have club sound FLAC. The Mackie HR, actually the HR8s-
Will Betts:
I said the-
Chris Barker:
The old HR8s. And then I think Behringer did one of their famous versions, shall we say, of them as well and they were popular too, but they have that kind of PA sort of FLAC.
Will Betts:
Wasn't it the 824? Was it that one, the HR824?
Chris Barker:
Yeah, HR824, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
Sounds about right.
Chris Barker:
HR824 and then there was the 624, which I had for a while, which were weird and terrible in the bottom end. But the 824s were great. You can still pick them up second hand and if you're looking for a good value for dance music, they kind of sound like a club PA speaker. So they're kind of a decent choice.
Kevin McKay:
Yep.
Kevin McKay:
For good cheap volume for dance producers, I've got a Samson Resolv RXA6 behind me, which I got on eBay for 60 quid for the PR and they absolutely do the job, and if I need to listen to something, if just my ears have got a bit tired or I want to have another reference, then I've got them behind me. And I actually bought them for a friend's 40th party in Cannes. And she was like, "How do we get a sound system to this place?" And I was like, "I'll be able to get you a set of speakers that have got some decent volume for," there was 30 people there and we had a swimming pool, so we wanted to set them up next to the pool. And I was like, "These will do." Sixty quid, stick them in a suitcase, bring them to Cannes, there we go, party sorted.
Chris Barker:
Yep, I've done stuff like that. How much DJ gear can you get into a suitcase and get a full party? I think there's probably a market to actually... maybe not now. Not now with Brexit, maybe not. But there probably was a market to have a whole PA system and some decks that fit in a hold luggage bag securely. That would be quite cool.
Kevin McKay:
The new Pioneer, the XDJ-RR, which I've got, that's what I take when I need to go places and sort of just have a little bit of a fun house party then. That set up would totally do.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, it's like a shoulder carry bag, isn't it?
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
I reviewed that actually. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, I've played [crosstalk 00:33:25]
Kevin McKay:
Obviously, they over charge you massively for the carry bag. Thanks Pioneer. But-
Chris Barker:
Yeah, don't blame Pioneer. I think blame Apple for all of that stuff. Everybody looks at Apple and goes, "Seventy quid for an adapter? Can we do that? I think we can do that. I think we can do that."
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, that's why my adapter has definitely not come from Apple. I'm not paying that. It's ridiculous.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, I like it when companies do that. They kind of look at the consumer and go, "What can we get away with here? How can we-"
Kevin McKay:
Four hundred pound wheels, can we do that?
Chris Barker:
My favourite one is that comedy sketch with Mitchell and Webb when they're in the toothbrush meeting and he looks at him and he goes, "I think we can get them to brush their tongues."
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, brilliant.
Chris Barker:
And it actually happened, didn't it. Do you remember that when the adverts started, it's like, "Yes, you're cleaning your teeth, but what about your teeth, you scumbag? I bet your tongue is filthy, isn't it?" And you're watching the telly going, "My tongue must be filthy. I've never brushed my tongue. Maybe I should brush my tongue."
Chris Barker:
Item number two?
Kevin McKay:
Item number two? So I need a keyboard. I'm not a player at all, but I need a keyboard. And actually everything I do involves software, collected items of software within one purchased VST.
Chris Barker:
Go on.
Kevin McKay:
But I'm obviously not going to choose an item such as that. So I've got a kind of complete controller just now, but I can't have one of this [inaudible 00:35:06] MIDI controller. That's absolutely ridiculous. I did see someone... who did that? Tensnake, did Tensnake do that? Or someone did that-
Chris Barker:
Yeah, actually most people do. I was just thinking of another one we've recorded and there was no MIDI controller and that person that we interviewed is actually a phenomenal keyboard player and maybe we forgot to point that out, and they're going to be gutted when we deliver all their items and they have to play on a QWERTY keyboard.
Kevin McKay:
So yeah, I just thought, "Right, I'm going to have to have to sort this out." So my favourite sort of suppliers of collected items within one VST are Arturia and Korg. So I had to look to see what they [inaudible 00:35:44] and actually the Arturia Polybrute looks really nice. And if I ever move out of London and have enough space to have an actual studio again, then I think I'd probably get one of them. They look really nice and it gives me all the things that I would normally have within the forbidden fruit of the Arturia collection. It gives me a bit of that, so yeah.
Chris Barker:
Fair, fair, okay. And obviously it's your MIDI controller as well.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
It's a way over-spec MIDI controller, but not the most over-spec MIDI controller we've had to date.
Chris Barker:
Didn't we have like a MIDI grand piano with a MIDI controller?
Will Betts:
Yeah, it was a Yamaha Disklavier as your MIDI controller, which is utterly stupid, but brilliant.
Kevin McKay:
And Mason had a retrofitted-
Chris Barker:
That's right, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
Fender Rhodes-
Will Betts:
Oh that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
Which I thought was cool and just there's absolutely no point in me having that because if I need keys on a track, then I'm off to Fiverr and looking for a keyboard player. I can programme and stuff, but the idea of me actually playing a solo on it. I've recorded too many good musicians for me to ever do that without taking 10 years off to actually learn how to play the piano properly.
Chris Barker:
Fair.
Will Betts:
But that's a really good point. So you're using Fiverr for actually building tracks at the moment. Is that how you do it?
Kevin McKay:
Well, so I've got a vocal producer, but yeah, if I need bass or if I need keyboards of somebody whose studied at Berkeley whose into jazz, can send me like... I can say, "Right, I'm doing a cover. I want a keyboard solo in this style." Then yeah, you can get it from Fiverr, no problem.
Chris Barker:
And talk to me about how that works in terms of you contract them for a buyout fee, agree a fee, and done.
Kevin McKay:
So it's on Fiverr's terms of service. So I think at some point, they're going to have to update it because I think obviously it's these American companies that do all the kind of work for hire, sort of gig economy and stuff, they're not really compatible with our kind of... well, we're no longer in the EU, but a lot of our rules will still be EU rules, so kind of left of centre, as the Americans would probably call it, "Wishy washy liberal rules" about sort of treating people fairly and stuff.
Chris Barker:
Socialism!
Kevin McKay:
I know. Make music great again.
Chris Barker:
Let's get those hats made. We should have that. Let's get those hats made for the podcast, yeah.
Will Betts:
I'm sure it exists, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
So when I first got into it, I was like, "So what about performance royalties and stuff like that?" They're like, "No, it's all yours. Everything is yours." So I feel quite uncomfortable about this, but from the kind of American side, they're just like, "No royalties need to be paid. No nothing." And I'm like, "Right, okay. Well, I'm still going to register the performers, so I need to know the performers' names, so that I can register it," because you can't take someone's performance royalties away for it. They've set it up that maybe you can in the US, but in the UK and the EU, at least that's one thing that record labels can't take away from you. You still get your PPL money even if you've kind of agreed to perform on something with no royalties, straight buyout, all that stuff. But it's within Fiverr's terms of service, so if you're a sort of budding producer, you don't even need to have like a-
Chris Barker:
A [inaudible 00:39:11], yeah.
Kevin McKay:
A sort of buyout contract or a kind of a session musician contract-
Will Betts:
Wow.
Kevin McKay:
Are the things you would've had to have back in the day.
Chris Barker:
It's interesting.
Will Betts:
That is going to be very problematic quite soon, I imagine, for a lot of people doing that thing. But are we not going to hit a point where there's going to be a problem legally with that? Like you describe-
Kevin McKay:
When someone has a hit on it and then they can say... well, I haven't checked Fiverr's terms of service, so I don't really want to say anything, but if it's a complete buyout of all rights, then I don't know if that's possible because I don't think you can legally, within the EU, transfer your performance rights as a kind of entity. You can allow someone to manage them, but as far as I'm aware, it's not like you can transfer-
Chris Barker:
This, again I'm not a legal guy and this is [inaudible 00:40:02]... but I remember there was some change to it when was it Pete Waterman or something registered himself as A Lynne and registered his drum machine to the PPL, and was getting like a 40 grand a year in performance royalties from being a drum machine.
Will Betts:
This rings a bell.
Chris Barker:
I think that's true. Although there was somebody, maybe it wasn't Pete Waterman, [inaudible 00:40:23], I can't remember who it was, but-
Kevin McKay:
I heard a story about Simon Cowell and a triangle, which I can't repeat obviously without again opening myself up to-
Chris Barker:
Well no, there's a lot of producers and engineers as well who will get performance. I think there was a lot of that in hip hop culture, the whole "Puff Daddy y'all," Puff Daddy, so he can get performance rights on the record by saying a few words at the beginning of who was producing it, it means you get that performance royalty as well as being a performer on the record, especially when doing remixes and stuff. But I think what you were saying about transferring the rights, I think that might've been when people started saying they were the drummer on a record, but it was a drum machine. They changed the rules because that was kind of a work around for a while, which makes sense, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
If you programmed the drum machine, then you're still entitled to the-
Chris Barker:
But I guess he was registering himself as a separate person as the drum machine.
Kevin McKay:
Oh a separate account so he can double claim?
Chris Barker:
Yeah, that's what I mean, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
Oh yeah, that's... you just get your one share. You get your share if you're a non-featured performer. I think in the UK, the artist takes 60 percent and then featured performers get something else or basically the rest of them split the remaining 40 percent. So it depends how many performers you are because it all starts to-
Will Betts:
Fascinating.
Chris Barker:
Well, just a caveat, none of that stuff that we were saying was fact. It's all things that we can remember. But check it out, give it a google yourself if you're listening, but there are some funny stories about people working around performance rights and royalties in general. It's a useful business for musicians, but it's always been a bit of a shady one for the industry as well because there's been lots of workarounds over the years where people can get themselves paid in various ways.
Kevin McKay:
It was rife with it. People would just register claims on tracks. I would have people... there's DJs that have called themselves the same names as DJs from the past and then they've then gone and claimed all of the PPL from their previous recordings. Yeah, it's just... you get other record labels as well. I've had record labels, famous record labels who I'm not going to name here, but who would be involved in a track for a short period of time and then go and claim not only that track, but anything else that was released. So they would just claim rights just because they could because there was no check process. So now there is. Now it's-
Chris Barker:
Well, the new version of that, I guess, is the YouTube finger, the copyright claim on YouTube. People are doing that a lot as well.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, that's happened to us where people have said to publishers, "Listen, I know you're the publisher on this, but I've got someone else claiming to be the publisher." They're based in Brazil and I've never heard of them, and they've got a name that kind of sounds like one of the names of a big publisher. It involves Universal somewhere in the title, but it's not actual Universal Publishing.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, somebody's getting paid somewhere. It's mad.
Chris Barker:
Okay, so where are we at, Will? Item number four?
Will Betts:
Number three. Number three.
Kevin McKay:
Item number three, I think I'm going to have to go for another keyboard and I'm going to have to go for another modern keyboard because again, I can't have the collection of things that I want. And it's annoying, this, I had a good look at this and I'm disappointed in Korg because they make some amazing collections, but I'm going to go for their Kronos, but it's not as... the Kronos has got some great engines in it. It's got the engine that they use on the M1. It's got the engine they use on the PolySix. So this is the one where I thought this is tricky because what's Will going to say about this one?
Will Betts:
Yeah, it's technically allowed. You've skirted the rules there ably. I'm not happy about it.
Kevin McKay:
It's got Nine Engines in it.
Will Betts:
How many?
Kevin McKay:
It's got a bundle of Nine Engines in it.
Chris Barker:
He said he would. He's taunting us from the sidelines.
Will Betts:
All right. Yeah, he is.
Chris Barker:
He's taunting us.
Will Betts:
Oh my God.
Chris Barker:
He even said the word out loud. Unbelievable.
Will Betts:
He said it out loud.
Chris Barker:
Unbelievable, the cheek. That is a good choice though, Will. I think that's a good skirt of the rules.
Will Betts:
It's a great choice, yeah. It's really good. Smart. Smart move. Hats off. You haven't go the moral victory, but-
Chris Barker:
You've gotten around the rules, which is cool.
Kevin McKay:
Thank you.
Chris Barker:
But you have got a synth that is not that cool really.
Will Betts:
It's got wooden end cheeks.
Kevin McKay:
No, it's not that cool. That is the thing. So that one's undecided. So I might... because the other option to have that is to go back in time to my favourite synth when I was making the Mylo records and all that, which helped out on a huge number of things, so just the Jupiter-8. Because I don't have... so I'm either kind of going to go with the kind of the stuff that I know how to use. So I use the Korg collection all the time and the Kronos doesn't have the MonoPoly because I think their version of the MonoPoly is one of the best VSTs, and so I might actually get a single VST as part of my list. I'm still sort of... I still haven't worked it out and I guess it's one of those things, until you talk to people about your ideas, that you're not quite sure about how you feel [crosstalk 00:45:49]
Chris Barker:
Okay. So we'll partner the Kronos with a Jupiter-8 parked behind it.
Kevin McKay:
Jupiter-8's in there. Yeah, so Kronos/Jupiter-8. One's cool obviously, but less versatile. The other one is deeply uncool and I should probably have some kind of straight-leg trousers and a goatee beard and be touring the world playing keyboards for like maybe Bjorn Again or something, that's probably what I should be doing.
Chris Barker:
It's like that's what those keyboards are for though, isn't it? They're insanely... they're not cool, but they are amazing and actually they have all the cool stuff in there, the flagship Rolands, the flagship Yamahas, the flagship Korgs. And actually that's their bread and butter, isn't it-
Kevin McKay:
I did think [crosstalk 00:46:31]
Chris Barker:
Those touring musicians that need Nine Engines on tour because they don't want to take nine keyboards.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, and the one thing I don't have is a piano and when I was looking at the Kronos, I was like, "God, the piano on this is really nice. It's got the same... because my favourite piano plug in is the Arturia piano with just the different way you can move the mics around and everything. It's such a versatile VST, but I wasn't sure I could give up one of my six just for a piano VST. So I was like I need to... and the Kronos does look like it's got some really nice piano. So it might still stay in there. We'll see.
Will Betts:
So are you going to go with the 88 key if you do it, so you've got a proper piano action?
Kevin McKay:
No, the 88 key I think is... is that the one where they change it? So you can only get synth action on the 66 and 73. So the 88, you have to have a hammer action and I'm terrible-
Will Betts:
Okay.
Kevin McKay:
I need synth action because I'm no good with the hammer action.
Will Betts:
Interesting.
Chris Barker:
No hammer time, okay.
Kevin McKay:
No hammer time unfortunately.
Chris Barker:
Item number four, right?
Kevin McKay:
Item number four, right. So because Nathan C got it and I'm not sure I'm going to go with his choice, but I need some kind of rompler. So it's either going to be Nexus, but it depends what you're giving me with the Nexus. Is it just core bundle... oops sorry, I almost said the word within a sort of genuine question.
Chris Barker:
No. We could go top flight on Nexus, right? 20,000 presets, what do you reckon?
Will Betts:
We've allowed that. Yeah, we've allowed that in the past.
Chris Barker:
We've allowed it in the past, yeah.
Will Betts:
So you can, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
Okay. Because my other choice for that is the Lethal Audio one and I'm still unsure as to what... I've got both and I use them both. But until my records started to really sort of take off in the last sort of year or two, I'd been using the Lethal one because it's incredible value. It's like $200 and I couldn't afford the Nexus one, although I'd used it in a couple different studios. But then I've just recently got it because they did an amazing Christmas sale, so I got like the full wack for nowhere near as much as they're charging now. So that was-
Chris Barker:
Because the full one is what, four grand?
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, two and a half, they were doing it at Christmas, so it was really-
Chris Barker:
That's so... two grand, that's good. That's good.
Kevin McKay:
2,500 euros.
Will Betts:
Ooh yeah, it's still-
Chris Barker:
We'll allow the four grand wack though for Nexus?
Will Betts:
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
Yeah, why not.
Kevin McKay:
But I might still choose the Lethal Audio because it is really nice but-
Chris Barker:
Okay. When we get to the recap, you're going to have to-
Kevin McKay:
One of those, a rompler-
Chris Barker:
This is going to be like being in a restaurant where you're looking at the menu, you've got a few options, and then you just panic order when the waitress comes over, right?
Kevin McKay:
I think dance music, you need romplers for bass because I've worked with so many people and they try to use sort of analogue modelling for bass and it's just there's too much variation. They're too good at the analogue modelling now. So it's like before when you would use an analogue synth for a bass, it's not like you're going to sit there and record like six minutes of Jupiter-8 bass. You're just going to record the loop and then you're going to put it in and then you're going to use it as a loop.
Kevin McKay:
Whereas now because it's MIDI and going into a VST, people are recording, people are effectively letting that VST run their bass for six minutes, which I don't think is great.
Chris Barker:
Some of the technical reasons for that, I think, is because of the... is the AD envelope triggering, slightly changes, so where especially on old Moog synths, it wouldn't trigger from the start of the wave every time, right?
Will Betts:
You can set it to. On some of them, you can set it to retrigger each time, but there is still the slight discrepancy each time.
Chris Barker:
So you can set that, which changes it-
Kevin McKay:
Right.
Chris Barker:
But I remember was it the genius producer that is James from the Freemasons, who was mentioned on the Gary Barlow podcast, who helped Gary with that album, he would always, even with VSTs, like you said, he would sample four or five notes and then resample those notes in a sampler because then you just get that solid consistent sound every single time-
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, that's what you need to do.
Chris Barker:
And then you don't have that kind of drift. Like you said, you don't have all the nice emulation you want. Actually it doesn't work-
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, I'm too lazy to do that. So just give me a rompler.
Chris Barker:
Fair, fair.
Will Betts:
Fair enough.
Kevin McKay:
If James releases a VST... oh a plug in, I haven't said the B word. So yeah, if James releases a VST that has done that with some analogue synths, then I'll definitely buy that. His piano collection, the F9, because he's the same guy that set the F9 studios. Is that right?
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Yep, yep, yeah.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, so his F9 piano collection is absolutely outstanding.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, the F9 stuff is great. Okay, so part goes to?
Will Betts:
Okay, yep.
Chris Barker:
Nexus and Lethal and what's next? Item number five?
Kevin McKay:
So item number five, I'm actually going to have Logic as my item because of the onboard sounds, just-
Chris Barker:
Oh wow. So you've got Ableton as your DAW-
Will Betts:
Wait, double DAW.
Chris Barker:
And you have Logic as your item. Okay.
Will Betts:
We need a sound effect for that surely.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, the reverb in Ableton is just not great. Although maybe you're going to tell me Ableton 11, they've finally fixed the fact that their reverb is only really good to set at 16 seconds and do big special effects with.
Will Betts:
They've actually got a new reverb algorithm in it.
Kevin McKay:
Oh have they?
Will Betts:
Yeah, they've got convolution and I think it's a hybrid reverb.
Kevin McKay:
Ah, oh well.
Will Betts:
But anyway, yeah, you can have Logic all the same.
Chris Barker:
Just at the time of recording, guys, we're just about to get the new version of Ableton officially released, but you can see some preview videos on the MusicTech YouTube channel. But yeah, there is some reverb stuff in there.
Kevin McKay:
I can't wait for that. It's the one thing I generally use plug ins for, for reverb. [crosstalk 00:52:06]
Chris Barker:
You do get a lot of` other stuff in Logic well. You get the Apple Loops, you get all the-
Will Betts:
There's loads.
Chris Barker:
All that CamelCrusher-type effects that they've got and-
Kevin McKay:
The Fender Rhodes plug in that kind of was originally like an Emagic EP70, I think it was, so I think it's still that. It still sounds like that to me. So that's really nice. That's what we used on Mylo's 'In My Arms'. That's what we did with... that's how we remade the Kim Carnes' 'Betty Davis Eyes' keys.
Chris Barker:
Oh the [sings keyboard riff 00:52:33]. Oh okay, nice.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, that was with a Prophet, it's actually a Prophet-5 through an Echoplex. A friend of mine who used to manage Professor Green, actually [inaudible 00:52:49], he met the guy that was the producer and found out what it was. But we did it with a combination of a Jupiter-8 and the EP78 plug in from Emagic.
Chris Barker:
Nice. So Logic, you're still sticking with it?
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, definitely. The reverb on it is fantastic.
Will Betts:
Which one are you using, the Space Designer or the algorithmic one?
Kevin McKay:
The Space Designer, yeah. I think it's one of the nicest sounding reverbs that you can get even. Apart from going into hardware and stuff, and I'm just not a fan of having hardware anymore, so from in the box reverbs, I think it's one of the nicest ones.
Kevin McKay:
Certainly in dance music. I don't know if you're sort of doing other types of recording or rock or other types of things, you might make different choices, but for dance music, it's cracking.
Chris Barker:
Okay. Final item, item number six?
Kevin McKay:
The final item is going to be the Korg MonoPoly VST because I use it on pretty much every track and they've updated... if you'd asked me this a month ago, I wouldn't have had it. But they've updated it recently and then the interface is amazing and I just think the sounds are just wonderful. And I know it so well, I can get loads of different sounds from it.
Chris Barker:
And again, you wouldn't go for an actual MonoPoly?
Kevin McKay:
I don't know. I don't know. I like working in the box so much. I really love how simple things are. You open up Ableton, open up a VST, it's just-
Chris Barker:
But then you're going to have the complexity of your Jupiter-8/Korg Kronos anyway.
Kevin McKay:
I know. But I don't need too much of any of that, I don't think.
Chris Barker:
You don't want, yeah. I suppose the Kronos is the MIDI controller keyboard as well, so it's kind of it's a potential... yeah, and I guess the Jupiter-8 is a serious bit of kit. We'll get back to those. We'll see what you decide in a bit. So okay, the MonoPoly-
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, I think the Jupiter-8 is probably going to... oh there's no piano then. That's the only thing. Ah!
Will Betts:
There's a-
Kevin McKay:
I might have to drop the Polybrute for a Jupiter-8.
Chris Barker:
Wow.
Kevin McKay:
I know. I know. I don't know. The Polybrute might just give me everything I need for that... because DJs who are dance producers just love a bit of knob twiddling and the Jupiter-8 just gives you that. There's sort of just sitting there with an envelope and sort of changing the release and all of that stuff when you're sort of making a sort of slightly techy record, you need that.
Will Betts:
Dance piano has sort of been back in again for the last couple of years, but maybe they won't be and maybe you don't need any piano. Maybe that's on the way out. Who knows what the next trend is?
Kevin McKay:
I do, there's loads in it in Nexus. So the Nexus ones are good. They're just not there as-
Will Betts:
Well, I think what we need to do before we can do the rundown is we need you to decide... you've got eight items here, not six.
Chris Barker:
Give us the eight fast ones and then you can make the choice.
Will Betts:
Okay. So Dynaudio Core 59s are in. You've got the Arturia Polybrute, the Korg Kronos 73, a Jupiter-8. Then you've got to pick between the reFX Nexus, Lethal Audio's Lethal, those are the ones where you've got to pick. You've got to pick the Nexus or the Lethal, and then you've got to pick between your Polybrute, Kronos, and Jupiter. You're out two.
Kevin McKay:
Yep.
Will Betts:
What's it going to be?
Kevin McKay:
I'm going to go for the Polybrute and the Kronos, and I'm going to have the Nexus, please.
Chris Barker:
Okay.
Will Betts:
Done.
Chris Barker:
There we go.
Kevin McKay:
I'm going to go modern and I just think yeah, this idea that they've made... the Jupiter-8 is an amazing synthesiser, but the stuff they're doing now, to sort of go back to something that was made 40 years ago just seems a bit silly.
Chris Barker:
Okay. Will, set the scene.
Will Betts:
We're in Apple Cross in Wester Ross within a geodesic dome overlooking the sea, a forest, and some islands. Your computer is a Mac Book Pro, 16 inch, M1 stolen from Palo Alto. Your interface remains to be chosen. You have to choose it right now. You've got five seconds.
Chris Barker:
Oh the UAD-1 that you suggested.
Will Betts:
All right, fine. Your main DAW is Ableton 11 Suite. You have chosen a second DAW controversially, Logic Pro X. Your speakers are a pair of Dynaudio Core 59s. You've chosen two hardware synthesisers. You've got your Arturia Polybrute. You've got the Korg Kronos 73. And then you've got two plug in instruments, two virtual events. You have the reFX Nexus rompler and finally you have the Korg MonoPoly V2 plug in. How does that sound?
Kevin McKay:
I can make loads with that. I think I'm more excited to go to Scotland and spend some time just making tunes.
Will Betts:
In the dome.
Kevin McKay:
In the dome.
Chris Barker:
Nice. Dome Studios, that's what we're calling it. Lovely.
Kevin McKay:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Okay. So now we are on to the luxury item and luckily, as a fan of the podcast, I don't have to, hopefully won't have to upsell dreams or explain to you what this is. So luxury item, what's it going to be?
Kevin McKay:
I'm having a helicopter.
Will Betts:
Wow! Great choice.
Chris Barker:
Just remember to park it outside the dome otherwise if we deliver it and then we do the dome afterwards, that's not going to be fun is it?
Kevin McKay:
No, it's not good. Not good.
Chris Barker:
Just going up eight feet inside the dome and back down again.
Kevin McKay:
No, because I love Scotland, and Scotland in the summer when the sun is shining is just the best place in the world, but you can't live there all the time. So I've got my laptop. I can pick up the latest... I can probably take all my synths back. I can carry that stuff and put it in a helicopter, into the helicopter with the family, and off to Ibiza for the summer or Palma or Majorca or somewhere else.
Chris Barker:
Any particular type of helicopter? I would suggest a Chinook then because you can lift the whole dome with a Chinook.
Kevin McKay:
I think if that's the ones that the RAF use up in Lossiemouth, then it's going to be weather sort of ready for the north of Scotland. So sounds good to me.
Kevin McKay:
If you're asking me have I ever flown a helicopter, I would have to take licence immediately, that the helicopter was delivered. But since it's a luxury item and I haven't really gotten nuts on the studio budget, not as mad as other people have, so I think a helicopter's fine.
Chris Barker:
It's good, yeah. Well, we can throw in a helicopter pilot surely just for safety reasons. Safety reasons, I think, otherwise-
Kevin McKay:
Oh even better.
Chris Barker:
I wouldn't want to just drop off a helicopter with somebody, walk away, and say, "Have fun." It seems a bit irresponsible.
Kevin McKay:
Sounds good. And how about a helicopter pilot that was also in Game of Thrones, and then we can have the whole Westeros thing going on there.
Chris Barker:
That would confuse the fans on the internet, wouldn't it, if Jon Snow landed in a helicopter.
Kevin McKay:
I'm going to take you guys to the real Wester Ross. We're really north of The Wall because [inaudible 01:00:14] actually built a wall by this point.
Chris Barker:
Good.
Kevin McKay:
She's resurrected Antonine Wall and now you actually have to stop at the border and show your passport to get into Scotland.
Chris Barker:
Yep. Yeah, nice, yeah. I like the way that when you said the helicopter there, when you said, "Oh I really love Scotland." I was like, "Oh that's cool. He wants to travel around Scotland in his helicopter." And it was actually, "I really love Scotland but in the summer, I'm fucking off. I'm getting out of there."
Will Betts:
Oh in the winter.
Kevin McKay:
No, in the winter. The summer-
Chris Barker:
Oh in the winter? Sorry. In the summer-
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, yeah, so in the summer... yeah, so probably arriving in Scotland around about the Easter holidays and then probably heading off last day of September, and then yeah, you need the helicopter. And also if it looks like the rain's coming in for sort of 10 days at a time, which it can do even in May and June, then yeah, it's good you can just skip off somewhere-
Chris Barker:
Yeah, nice.
Kevin McKay:
Amsterdam for the weekend, nice. It makes living in Scotland totally... it totally works in my head if you've got a helicopter.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, yeah.
Will Betts:
Amazing. Amazing.
Chris Barker:
Nice. Okay, well that takes us to the end of My Favourite Studio podcast with Kevin McKay. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been a blast.
Kevin McKay:
Thank you very much for having me.
Chris Barker:
We loved your items and your reasons. Thank you so much. And what's happening for you for the rest of the year? Do you've got some more releases coming out?
Kevin McKay:
Yeah, loads of stuff happening. I'm just making records for fun, so whenever... I sort of make records for my DJ sets and then turn them into real records. So the record I've got out just now is a cover of 'Ain't Nothing Going On But the Rent', but it started off as an edit I'd play a party in London at Night Tales.
Kevin McKay:
So hopefully, I'll be back in a kind of record playing scenario some time later on this year, but I still have those ideas about what will be entertaining for people and what would make people want to dance, but without being too sort of obvious. So I was just making more of them. And I make them and put them out quite quickly, so I can't actually reel off a list of all the great stuff I've got coming because I've not made it yet.
Chris Barker:
But if our listeners just check the Beatport Top 10, there'll be one in there, I'm sure. Nice. Thank you so much, Kevin.
Kevin McKay:
Hopefully.
Will Betts:
Thanks Kevin.
Kevin McKay:
Thank you very much.
Will Betts:
Thank you.
Kevin McKay:
Bye.
Chris Barker:
Okay, well thanks again to Kevin McKay for joining us to talk studio gear on the My Forever Studio podcast.
Will Betts:
Yeah, there were some great stories there and some excellent studio choices as well. Now remember, 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 little five star rating.
Chris Barker:
Yes, a little five star rating would be excellent. And also feel free to email us at editors@musictech.net too with any suggestions or your feedback-
Will Betts:
Let us know.
Chris Barker:
Or love letters, whatever you want to do. Next week, we're being joined by the one and only Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5. And I'm predicting some pretty strong studio opinions here.
Will Betts:
Yes, what will the mouse man with an already gear packed studio choose for his six forever studio items? Chris, what do you think?
Chris Barker:
Yeah, well we'll have to see. Well anyway, that's it from us. Thanks for listening and catch you next time for more adventures into studio foreverdom.
Will Betts:
Bye bye.
Chris Barker:
Bye bye.