Specifying a six-item studio this time is production superstar and label owner Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5. Joel is an unapologetic tech nerd and studio wizard and already has a mind-meltingly kit-packed studio. But how will the man who has everything cope with our semi-strict rules? In this episode, find out which guitar pedal he describes as his “Frank’s hot sauce for distortion”, why dry vocal booths aren’t for him and which synthesizer he’d steal from the Smashing Pumpkins frontman.
Dreaming up a six-item studio this time is production superstar and label owner Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5.
Joel’s an unapologetic tech nerd and studio wizard and calls in from his mind-meltingly kit-packed studio. But how will the man who has everything cope with our semi-strict rules?
In this episode, find out which guitar pedal he describes as his “Frank’s hot sauce for distortion”, why dry vocal booths aren’t for him and which synthesizer he’d steal from the Smashing Pumpkins frontman.
LINKS [SPOILERS AHEAD!]
https://burlaudio.com/products/b2-bomber-adc
https://burlaudio.com/products/b80-mothership
https://www.rupertneve.com/products/swiftmix-automation/
http://atcloudspeakers.co.uk/professional/loudspeakers/scm300asl-pro/
https://www.analoguesolutions.com/colossus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMS_Synthi_100
https://www.rupertneve.com/products/master-buss-processor/
https://www.rupertneve.com/products/high-voltage-discrete-mixer/
https://www.moogmusic.com/products/minimoog-voyager
https://www.zvex.com/guitar-pedals/machine-guitar-effects-pedal
https://www.matrixsynth.com/2009/09/billy-corgans-ichabod-delivered.html
http://mattsonminimodular.com/
https://reverb.com/item/28517559-azzam-bells-mpa-019-2019
https://en-de.neumann.com/tlm-49
Chris Barker:
Hi 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 producers, engineers, deejays, and industry figure heads about their fancy forever studio.
Will Betts:
The studio that our guests create will be one they have to live with forever. But as I'm sure you know by now, there are some rules in Studio forever land, totally rational rules.
Chris Barker:
Yes, there are some rules. Our guests can select a computer, a DAW, and an audience face, those are given as standard. Then they have the conversation's dine challenge of picking just six of the bits of studio kit plus one non gear related luxury item.
Will Betts:
And there's one pesky, little rule that they must not forget.
Speaker 3:
No bundles.
Chris Barker:
That's right. Any collection of software or hardware sold as a single item is banned. Today we have an electronic music master who needs no introduction, Joel Zimmerman, aka, Deadmau5.
Will Betts:
Joel's an unapologetic tech nerd and studio wizard, and you'll have seen his mind melting new kit pack studio in last year's magazine feature with us. But how will the mau5, who has everything, cope with our six item limit?
Chris Barker:
Well let's find out.
Will Betts:
This is my favourite studio with Deadmau5.
Chris Barker:
Welcome. Hello Joel, thanks for joining us.
Will Betts:
Sorry for scaring you there with the air horn Joel.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
That was already confusing though. I mean, there was so many rules and regulation and disclaimers and things. So, I guess we'll just go through them one at a time, right?
Chris Barker:
Well, let's start, where would you put your ... Like we said, you've done great in your career so I'm sure you've got a pretty amazing studio, wherever you want to be, but would you change anything? Would you put your studio anywhere else in the world if you could?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
On my property, yes, I would like to move it out in the woods, but no, not in the world. No, I'm totally happy with where I'm geographically situated.
Chris Barker:
Okay. Well that's cool. So why the woods then? It's in your house at the moment is it?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, yeah. It's second floor, kind of what was the master bedroom converted into studio kind of thing. But like I mean, converted. They absolutely got into place and did it from the ground up. But, I mean if I could have it my way, I would have done it from a separate building. Still in the property just, go for a walk.
Chris Barker:
And you're relatively remote there as well, so that's the kind of the fantasy for a studio, because some people build these and they like being in the hustle and bustle but you kind of like being out of it.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, yeah. No, I got away from that, it was just too much. And it has nothing to do with just ... It's just clutter. Other people, opening up your door, going for a walk and the first thing you hear are 20 ambulances and police, and people, and noises, and helicopters and it's like, ah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, yeah. Okay. And so I mean, what about décor wise? Do you give a shit? You must start-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Not really.
Chris Barker:
... when you started you were kind of just on a computer, right? When I interviewed you a long time ago, it's basically almost all in the box.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Almost, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
But you mean like décor, the look and function, all the veneers-
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Because-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... in the studio?
Chris Barker:
Well you kind of got those EDM spaceship studios, some people have the kind of-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, yeah I know. No I did not go-
Chris Barker:
Come on give us your thoughts about that.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... I didn't say it was going to be a W hotel reception desk. It's like, where do you make music? And, can I have a coffee in here, is that cool? Or, is it going to stain the white everything?
Chris Barker:
So it needs to be fairly laid back then.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah. I'm all good with that kind of thing, there is certain ... there's actually a company that specialises in this stuff. It's a company in Mississauga, they're called Technature. And what they do is they make the studio furniture. And now you say, studio furniture, sounds like a waste of money. Well, maybe not because the thing about going to IKEA and buying a thing that's going to be seated on a floated floor or that's going to be vibrating, there has to be acoustic properties to this "furniture." Whether it's going to be your centre console island, that shit has to be bolted down.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
And there can't be any lose joints or any screws or, just even the shape of it for reflecting what could potentially be standing waves and stuff like that. So-
Chris Barker:
Yeah and I guess if gear's got fans in as well. If some gear has fans in I'm like, [inaudible 00:04:13] and all that kind of stuff. Okay well, let's kick off with these are three items that you get for free, so these have come out of your six. Everybody has them and they're kind of boring but I'm sure you've got some strong opinions on them. What computer would you have in your forever studio? Mac PC, self build, what's the perfect studio computer?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh geez. It's too modular of a space, changes yearly with PC so you're not going to ... Maybe if you asked me in 1990, I'd say a 4060 X2, fucking yeah. That's not forever, imagine trying to do the things we do today. But-
Chris Barker:
Does the platform matter? Does the OS matter?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It does and it doesn't. Everyone's, like again, with the advent of PC recording and all that stuff, coming to the masses, everyone's doing something for everything. So you got your PC and a lot of interchangeable applications in terms of cross OS compatibility like Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic, this and that. But in terms of the piece, I would go PC. Because, it's just the most modular, you got to know a little bit more than maybe your typical Mac guy because that's just a trip to the genius bar, get a new one, or have it fixed. PCs, like I said, I'm very ... Well, I think I'm technically proficient enough to know that when something goes wrong with my computer, it's a matter of taking something out of a PCI slot, putting them back and replacing one thing versus shit binning the whole system, or handing it off to a certified professional to go in with the screw driver-
Chris Barker:
A genius.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... Yeah, yeah, yeah. The weird eight sprocket, fucking star shaped thing, just to pull out a GPU. Like, come on, and he really cornered to market that one.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. And it's like that tool like it's the magic tool. It's like, do you imagine the initiation of the Apple thing, they give you that tool and they're like, you are now a genius.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh my God, they would lose so much money. And I remember having a situation like that with a certain piece of hardware. I don't think it was a PC but, I remember taking it to get service, whatever it was, and then they had this special tool that they used to access the thing. And I'm like, "How much you sell me that for?" "Oh no, no, no, it's not for sale it's super proprietary technology." I'm like fuck man.
Chris Barker:
Yeah that's one.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I'll pay a lot of money for that tool dude, just let me know.
Chris Barker:
And what about, from PC, what about audio interface choices? Does that change things?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
They do. They change from time to time. But I've been actually very, very satisfied with the Burl. The B-52, and the mothership and their ADCs. But that's very, very taste maker stuff. That's because I love the way that that ADC is handled. Through transformers and stuff like that, creating that, not tape emulation, but it's a tapey sound. And that's where we get into the Matt Lange shit. Where it's like, the flavour of this conversion whereas, if you were to ask anyone about that outside of professional level or engineering, nobody really cares. So, it's the general producer I would just say, couldn't tell the difference between a UA ADC and a Burl ADC.
Chris Barker:
Okay. So what was the change from to get the Burl, what did you have before that?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Before that was RME.
Chris Barker:
Okay.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well for the MADI interface and their encoders and stuff, pretty good and cheap ish. Good converter. And yeah, they made all sorts of great products like the Fireface UFX and stuff like that. But, for the rec, no. DACs or ADCs, I don't mind the Apollos they're actually pretty great.
Chris Barker:
They're a popular choice on the podcast.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well because they're putting in their satellite cores for their plugins which it's great, and especially if you're doing big, heavy things and you just want to offload all of your CPU to defer to the unit in the box. So that was a really great advent. And I think the quality of their plugins are pretty good.
Chris Barker:
But in terms of the forever studio and being able to have whatever you want, I guess there's nothing above the Burl right now, is there? For you.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
No, not really, I think it's just a matter of tunnel preference and workflow, and stuff like that. I mean we had to go with the Burl, we really didn't have a choice. Either that or I could buy a rack of 12 Apollos to run the 196 channels. So it was just like, the way Burl works it's all very modular and you can configure and say, oh I need this many BDAs, and I need this many BADs, and stuff like that for playback and busing.
Chris Barker:
So we get to a sort of a bit more complicated question. Now the DAW of your choice. I mean you can have more different ones, but they will come out of your six items. But you get DAW for free, what are you going to choose? What do you use now? Do you use multiple? You were hopping between...
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... all over the board. Everywhere from Reaper, Ableton, Cubase, Pro Tools, and it's all out of necessity due to the task at hand. No DAW, other than Pro Tools, for whatever reason, supports Swift Mix for example, so I can't use the Flying Faders on my Neve unless I'm running Pro Tools, stuff like that. So there's a lot of hits and misses with technology in every DAW, so I always find myself scrambling to and fro. But if I had to take away one, I would actually even just say Cubase. Well, but that's again, that's because I prefer a PC.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Cubase does run better on PC we-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It does.
Chris Barker:
... we got told it was because Hans Zimmer is always on the phone to them, Steinberg, getting them to fix stuff. Maybe he was-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well I so doubt that. I don't ... No, it's like just a thing with DAW development is that, they're talking to a lot of artists who are all doing the same thing so the product relatively kind of stays in tune with that research and development. But they no longer really reach out to the outliers who are using them for data handling. Because why would you use a DAW for data handling? Like OSC and all these really great protocols and Artnet, and stuff like that. They say, "Well, we're a music software, we don't do that." And I'm like, yeah, well I use these music delivery tools at shows, and I need more comprehensive protocols to send out information from the DAW, from the house so that he FOH guy knows what's up.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
And then we can develop tools as an intermediary to extrapolate information, what's happening on the DAW on the performance side, to what's happening in front of house, in terms of media content delivery, and lighting and sound?
Chris Barker:
So what's the best DAW at the moment? Or do you still have to use middleware, or plugins and?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I have to write my own middleware. So actually we wrote a number of soc ware of packages that were originally for single purpose, just for me, never put it out, and now we've just now slowly started to consider releasing them to the public and just putting them up on the market. Not because, oh it's the greatest idea in the world. I just mean, well if I'm sitting on this software that I own and maybe one or two other people find it useful, shit, I'll make 40 bucks.
Chris Barker:
Yeah if you are to write it, to make it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, totally. Okay so lock in Steinberg Cubase then I guess.
Will Betts:
And so is that OSC pilot, is that what you're talking about the software?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, one of them, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's like that came out of necessity because there was just no software that did that.
Will Betts:
Right. What's the other stuff then? What are the other things you're-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
OSC/PAR I'm working on.
Will Betts:
What's that?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Which is ... So Ableton as we all know purchased Cycling '76, we used to do the Max thing, and then they put it Max. It's great, it's a good prototyping tool but natively, it runs like a pig, it's terrible. But again, it's a no driven IDE to do programmatic things. So if there are things that I could prototype in Max and nativize that, C++, it is a million times more performant. Because what happens is, there's a lot of dudes going to, or girls going to Max and they make, "Oh yeah, I did this thing, it sends its OC stream out." And they're like, "Yeah it's cool. And it does work, and I can turn the nob. But, if you chart the difference between the latency of the packet construction that's handled by Max, running as a sub thread. Versus a nativized application that's ... sole purpose is to drive OSC, you're going from two milliseconds, to less than half a millisecond.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It's nuts because you see as just so performant in that sense. And the MVST has the really great framework for being able to develop that thing. So if you can nativize those tools into dedicated plugins, and I'm not talking about synthetic Max and stuff like that but actual JUCE platforms to do those things. Then the latency is on point in terms of sending UDP out. So, yeah, I'm now developing with [inaudible 00:13:32] a friend of mine, he's a former coder at Waves, and he's helping me develop these kind of edge case tools of prototype systems that I would make in either Touch Design or Max and stuff like that. And just basically compile them down into a really easy process step that you can slap in.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So a plugin that lets you take and VST parameter in any DAW and automate it, and it sends out the OSC. Because, now if I have my OSC thing working in Max and that's all good and great. Well, the show's over if I want to load up that project in Cubase because, you have to do some middleware crap to get something to communicate to Maximus P and then go out. If it's a VST, it's a VST. You just load it in Cubase, or you load it in Ableton, or you load it in Reaper and it's native.
Chris Barker:
So are these tools needed to exist for a future show, or are they tools that already exist for shows and now you're just putting them out?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
No, no, no, we've been using these for years for our show to deliver cues and content, and content control. Because the visuals that we're doing live aren't Resolume video clips that some veejay just, yeah. They're real time. They're shaders, they're game engine, real time rendering. So with the advent of OSC and real time rendering, we can send in exact, fucking cues for things to flash, or move, or do all that stuff. And the best protocol we've found for that so far was OSC.
Chris Barker:
And that means that you're in total command of those cues as well whenever you want.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh yeah.
Chris Barker:
So it's not like a-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
... yeah, exactly. So you can-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
OSC you could have thousands of channels of data in the float domain, meaning zero to one with eight, 16, 32 bit float preciseness. You just can't do that with MIDI. MIDI is four bit so you got to go zero to 127, those are your integers. So if you want to move light, smoothly from zero to 255 positions it's going to look [inaudible 00:15:31]. Same with moving a filter and stuff like that. Well you know, it's the whole, I can't wait for the status quo to agree on the MIDI 2.0 specs. So, forget you guys, I'm going to go do this and make a bespoke for me. So, 10 years from now when you've got that figured out, then maybe I'll use that.
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
And I hold my breath.
Chris Barker:
Yeah I can't see that in that sense either. Okay. Well, I guess the three items out the way, that's kind of your standard, they're the three. So now you've got six, only six of those studio items, hardware and software for your forever studio, and I guess first thing, up to you but we're going to have to talk about monitoring, we have to hear something.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, yeah nearfields, Active, maybe, for the bridge and the big old passive, fucking bangers in the back.
Chris Barker:
Well, you can't have two, you got to choose an item, you've got six, only six items for the forever studio, this is the game Joel.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Okay then I would do passive monitors in the back.
Chris Barker:
Okay. So big in wall, soffit mounted-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
The old ATCs, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Okay. That's one of Will's favourites, he like to say soffit-
Will Betts:
Very nice.
Chris Barker:
... mounted.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well they are.
Will Betts:
Soffit mounted is the ... yeah, yeah, yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah if you're going to spend that much on a fucking single speaker, you better fucking soft mount it, you know what I mean? You're not going to put it on a IKEA table and just let it fucking jiggle around with a two eight inch driver just fucking watching it bounce.
Chris Barker:
So you'd definitely go for ATCs then, they're your preference. Is that what you got at the moment?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, they're my preference and I think had I have shopped around, perhaps I could have found something better but, honestly I spent a long time with the god-tier jenny's and stuff like that and it served me well. But then I just decided to make a switch due to ... I found that I was getting, and they probably wouldn't want me saying this but I felt I was getting into that hearing fatigue a lot earlier in the game, than I did with the ATCs. And then I just became so acclimated to how my mixes translate on other systems and across the board with the ATCs, because that's just a level of comfort, it might not even be a preference, maybe Telegrapher is making better shit right now, I don't know.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
But if it was better, then great. If you put them up and I just ABd them I'd be like, oh no, I like the ATCs better because I've been so acclimated to how the ATC=
Chris Barker:
That's interesting.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... SEMs translate everywhere. So, it's kind of one of those, you pick your thing. Like I said, you could get those little fucking Auratones cubes. And as long as you know the translation between the Auratones and the PA or wherever else, then fine, use the Auratones.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, yeah, totally. Totally.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
That was the whole logic behind the NS10s. They sold like shit and to sell more they, I guess, paid someone to say, "They sound like shit because if you can make a mix sound on those, it will sound good anywhere." You know what I mean? I'm like, oh my God, what a [inaudible 00:18:32].
Chris Barker:
Right. [inaudible 00:18:33].
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
And now all the hip hop dudes, everybody, every studio I go into, has those fucking NS10s on their bridge metres and I'm like [inaudible 00:18:43].
Chris Barker:
We had something mentioned on the podcast as well about putting the little bit of tissue paper of the tweeter or on the NS10s.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Was it Bob Clearmountain started doing that?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yep, yeah.
Chris Barker:
And it's like, yeah. Because that's why Bob Clearmountain is good, it's that tissue paper guise. It's not that he's just loads better than you.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Right. Right. Also you know what I've really noticed a running theme with Neve owners too, are little plastic goats that they put on their mixing console.
Chris Barker:
Oh, actually. Okay I thought that was going to be-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
That must be a thing – I'm dead serious.
Chris Barker:
I was looking for some kind of acronym there for ... what does goat stand for?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
No just the little goats and then they're on a little tree stump, and then you push them down and they go ah. And it's like, why does every Neve owner have one of these? And then I got one, and then I found a photo of another guy that had one, and then every picture it's like, it's a meme, meme format for Matt.
Chris Barker:
If anybody is listening and has one of those please-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah you got to go get a little plastic goat.
Chris Barker:
Just please tweet us those photos on our Instagram and Twitter, share the goat photos.
Will Betts:
Don't tag Neve @nevegoat, that's something quite else.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Thegoatsofneve.com, I'm going to start up a WordPress. Goats of Neve.
Chris Barker:
Tumblr, it's got to be a Tumblr. Tumblr is dead though now, anyway. Okay so-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Because they took off all the porn, that's my theory. That's what happened.
Will Betts:
Yeah. Yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I was like, oh oops.
Chris Barker:
Okay so moving on. What's interesting on this Joel, is going to be to see if you choose anything that you don't already have, or if there's anything you actually want, but let's go through. Number two, item number two for this forever studio.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I really want to come up with something I don't have, so I'm gonna have something to think about when this is over.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, yeah. You've got you've got five more items left.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So we're everything, right? We're all Synths and everything?
Chris Barker:
And you can steal things off people, we've had that. We've had people just go get that mic from Abbey Road, or that piano or, people have stolen Slash's guitar-
Chris Barker:
So we're everything, right? We're all synths and everything?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
We're in fantasy forever land, anything you want.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh, man. A Synthi 100.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
All right. So you don't have a Synthi 100?
Chris Barker:
Well, I have the Colossus, which is pretty close.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
The analogue solutions?
Chris Barker:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Andrew-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah Toms.
Chris Barker:
... something.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Or yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Tom Carpenter, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, yeah, it's great. I love it. But I would love the System 100.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Okay, why?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Just the tonal weirdness of it. I had a chance to play with one in Calgary for a minute or two and I was like, oh man, this is like ... of all the little things, I've got the Synthi A and this and that, and it's close, but it's just not quite. You know what I mean? Maybe I don't want one, because maybe that was just particular to that machine. You know what I mean? Because-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
You can take that one.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Okay that one. I think it's in a museum, like a Synthi museum in Calgary.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
In the National Music Centre?
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Is that where Tonto is?
Will Betts:
Yes, yes.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Tonto, was there and Uncle Leo, and NEM, and they were all there. Tonto was fucking badass man. I didn't get to play it, but I got to see it.
Will Betts:
They put it behind the glass wall didn't they? So you just have to be a windowlicker
Chris Barker:
Somebody chose Tonto on the podcast once. They chose Tonto.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Good choice man, actually that might be my number two but I'm going to have to go with their Synthi 100.
Chris Barker:
Lovely stuff, lock that in Will. When I first met you I remember I asked you this first album, debut album stuff. You didn't really need that much stuff to make music and-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well you still don't.
Chris Barker:
No, but that's what I mean. Is there anything now that you still feel like you couldn't make music or just it's something that is loaded up every time or that you go to every time like a piece of kit? Or does it definitely change every time with-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, the Neve Portico MBP the Master Buss Processor, end of everything. That is mix insert, we literally hardwired it to the Neve. To be my fucking mix insert ... Well no, it's just Perma-Patched but, yeah, that is inescapable.
Chris Barker:
Was that when you got the desk and it was like, holy shit?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I was using it before actually, just as a mix insert.
Chris Barker:
And then you realised it was on every single thing, and you were like, okay.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It's different. It's different. It's a little bit different than just having one on every channel strip. I've noticed too, you got that little silk button too. There's something different that the MBP is doing in the stereo linking, versus the mono channel of whatever you're doing on your 5088. On the EQ. I think it's only on that, it's not on the compressor.
Chris Barker:
So if we're talking about an item of gear for the forever studio, are we talking getting the desk then as well?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, yeah. Well, yes and no. I think the desk wasn't a, me working up to get that, it was actually really just a kind of thing to change up my production methods, to serve two functions. One, it's going to give me a completely different mindset when it comes to producing because, people in the box tend to add track, okay, and then add this, this, this. I tend to literally, intentionally slow my process down where it became more meticulous because I've got this 800 point fucking patch bay with my external gear and stuff like that. And everything I did was with purpose, and not experimentation, which lent to different creative decisions, especially when it came down to mix.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I wish they sold a Neve that didn't have a fader buss, you know what I mean? Because the way I do it is, I want to have them all at zero so that way the more I can save the channel states and the DAW at the levels I want them, I don't have to rely on messing around with the mixer too much to a state where that, four months from now I can't go back and then, I got to reset my board, and lay down new tape marks, and you know what I mean, and that stuff too. But that's kind of the beauty of music in the fleeting sense that, once it's done, it's done and there's commitment there, and you've done your mix catch and stuff like that. So I'm losing the advent of, in the box, because, I could just file, open and boom, there's my whole song mixed, mastered ready to print and with the stems and all that stuff too.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
But I mean, there's something just to be said about the consolidation and live summing of everything into that, just that beautiful print mix, and having to live with that for the rest of your life, you know what I mean? So, I like that.
Chris Barker:
Forever, that's the forever-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It brought back the romanticism in making music for me. Because I feel that the computer really destroyed that. Like I said, functionally, that's really nice that you can open up a track you did two years ago, and get that vocal stem out for a remix that somebody wanted to pay millions for. But, I like that also that will never be done again, you know what I mean, kind of feeling?
Chris Barker:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
And it wasn't just a, fucking, an impulse buy. One doesn't do that with a Neve. But it was a culmination of my experimentation with modular synthesis, with the Eurorack stuff. The whole kind of feeling of non permanence, and commitment, and stuff like that. Because when you did stuff on a modular system, and you recorded it, sorry bro, you can't go back and remake that patch. So, I'm making Synth patches and cool noises and stuff with the modular, and there's no one on this planet, myself included, who can recreate that sound.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Which is a nice feeling, isn't it? When you're making music, it's-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It's beautiful, yeah. It's original, it's yours. And even if it's one little note, one little blip, that's like a talking point of the piece.
Chris Barker:
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Will Betts:
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Will Betts:
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Chris Barker:
Evo start recording bundle is suggested to retail at 199 pounds, 220 euros and $249 in the USA.
Will Betts:
Discover Evo online at Evo.audio.
Chris Barker:
So where were we at? That was item number three. So is that item number three the desk then?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris Barker:
Item number three is the desk so-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Number four, your fucking modular synth.
Chris Barker:
Well oh-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Eurorack.
Chris Barker:
... Don't make us press the ... you don't want us to press the button but a modular synth is a bundle of modules and there's no bundles allowed.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
If you press the button I'm hanging up.
Chris Barker:
We're not pressing the button.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Look at my face, do I look like I'm kidding?
Will Betts:
I'm not pressing the button.
Chris Barker:
But we're telling you the rules though. The rules-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
All right. Okay, okay, reiterating the rules and I am therefore remitting my fourth-
Chris Barker:
But you could have a modular that comes like the Moog, like the Model 55, you could have something like that.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Okay, okay. Okay. Moog Voyager. Yeah, Voyager. Simple.
Chris Barker:
Oh, okay.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Timeless, multi-use, even though it's no what are we going to call it? Virus TI thing where it's just it could be this, it could be that, it could be this and that. It's just that, the sonic purity and lockdown functionality of a Moog will be timeless. A Mood Voyager. Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Have you tried the One?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
What are you guys-
Chris Barker:
Moog One.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... doing?
Chris Barker:
Big poli?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Why do you got to do that to me Mood?
Chris Barker:
Okay, you've tried it?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah. Like guys, just strip it back a bit, let's not fuck with DSP, okay? Cool but, man, don't go the way of the Roland.
Chris Barker:
You feel like they're watering down the message a bit.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well, okay, okay, maybe the talk show musician band, perfect for that. But, you know what I mean? To me that detracts from the purity of Moog. Where it's just all about that latter filter. It's all about that oscillator, and really that's like the core of it. It's the, you know what I mean, that's where all the focus went and now you're turning it into a multi bag, digital, fucking all in one thing, and there's a thing for that, of course. I'm not saying, fuck Wavestations, fuck those multiple band in a box keyboards. But I feel that it got a little too close to that line for me for the Moog One. But, there's something to be said, there is a need for a band in a box.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Because a guy is going to go to a wedding and he's going to bring a Moog Voyager. Not going to work, unless he's Rick fucking Wakemen, no one's going to give a shit.
Chris Barker:
I mean Moog One is like 10 grand though. I don't know a wedding player would be-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah why not?
Will Betts:
It would be funky.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Like again, this is different strokes for different folks stuff. So it's not saying the Moog One is a disaster of a product, it's just not for me. Because I tend to be ... I want potatoes and corn. I don't want you to bring out a little piece of fucking shrimp, with some parsley on it, with some swirled ketchup around it and charge me 500 bucks. Just give me a fucking mashed potato and some corn, and I'll do the rest with my imagination. You can use that one. There you go.
Chris Barker:
That's a wonderful analogy for that synth. So we lock in the Moog Voyager. So where we at? Item number five.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Number five, yeah. Would a conduit count?
Chris Barker:
Oh yeah, cables, furniture all that, you've got all that stuff. You don't have to worry about all of that kind of thing.
Will Betts:
Why the conduit? Why is that so important?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
After hoarding equipment over the years, cable management became a real fucking problem. And a conduit, underground, under panel conduit run, lifesaver. TT type Patchbay?
Chris Barker:
That's really specific.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Not really, I mean every studio had one up until the 90s. So it was a must, still is, especially when you're dealing with rack islands of stuff that you just don't want to touch. Because, while I have a fucking centre island with a bunch of rack stuff, I barely go over there and adjust a knob unless it's a compressor or something fun like a distortion unit or something. But more often than not, that's like set it and forget it, and then use the TT type Patchbay to do the routing.
Chris Barker:
So you literally have bits of rack gear where it's like, I always send my snare to that, or whatever?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yep, yep, yep. There's a Unicomp, it's just for these things, or sometimes you get creative. But that's where ... you get creative on the Patchbay, you don't get creative playing the rack gear, no one was ever famous for being a rack gear virtuoso. It's just, they just kind of sit behind glass and do a thing. You know what I mean? And then the creativity is actually in the routing, and the Patchbay, and stuff like that.
Chris Barker:
If you've got multiples of things, so you can have different settings for things like that.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
No, no, not really. Maybe a couple of mono pieces of gear that I might have two of, because for stereo and linking and stuff like that. Even if you can't really link them like say the El distressor or something like that, they have link functions, all that stuff is good and great. But, things like the Vermona spring reverb for example, you can't fucking stereo link a spring reverb, but you can buy two of them and then you get a really great stereo image by doing that. Even though they're both kind of independently freewheeling.
Chris Barker:
That makes it kind of cool though when they're independently doing that in the-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It does. I tend to do that with guitar pedals actually. If I really love a distortion pedal, I'll get another one. I'll buy them in pairs just because it's, well they're not stereo right. So there's actually one that I really love and I almost use that shit on everything. It's my ... Oh, here we go. It's my Frank's hot sauce for distortion. It's the ZVex machine pedal.
Chris Barker:
Okay.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It's a zero crossing, funny distortion. And I have two of them, so I can run them in parallel and create a stereo image but, I no doubt, go to that before I would go to a Culture Vulture, or a Fucifer or something. I go to these little, cheap fucking ZVex machine pedals. They're great.
Chris Barker:
Nuts.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
For a little bit of saturation, all the way up to the ... That was literally the whole Nine Inch Nails album, were those two pedals.
Chris Barker:
Oh, wow. And they still make those?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, I believe so.
Chris Barker:
There are so many great guitar pedals that were just of a moment, developed for five or 10 years and people rediscover them.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of them, honestly, are just so boutique that, you just find the one and you're like, cool. I don't even know ... it's like some nondescript, grey box.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, like a-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
With some marker scribble on it and you're like, what the fuck? I come across a lot of those too and I'm just like, damn, I wish this was like a thing. And then you take it apart, give it to your nerd buddy and say, can you make me like a new PCB with these, this, this? And he's like, "Yeah, sure."
Chris Barker:
And make it stereo.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
And then you get a black box with some goofy knobs on it that has two inputs and, yeah we've done that a lot, actually.
Chris Barker:
Nice.
Will Betts:
So would you take the ZVex machine pedal over the Patchbay because, if you've got all these patches and you don't have anything to patch around?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yes. What I do is I buy pedal, you know those felt pedal boards?
Will Betts:
Yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I'll take the input and output, and then send that to the Patchbay. Not every individual pedal.
Will Betts:
Right. Okay. So you have a whole block of-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So it's patching, patching?
Will Betts:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
You know what I mean?
Will Betts:
Yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So you can do your work on the pedal board. So I've got probably about five or six pedal boards with go to setups, and I'll just take that thing, put it on the desk and go in and out, and then go in with the little fucking TRS guys and then wire up however I want in series. I wish I had ... you can get really fancy pedal boards with digital switchers and shit like that, which are great, but fuck man, that would get expensive after a while if you're just in the studio and there's-
Chris Barker:
As long as your pedals, I guess as long as your pedals have got a decent bypass and things like that. So the ones that are off in a chain, and things like that.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So just manual labour there, but that's okay.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Makes you feel rock and roll anyway like switching pedals on and off. I like it. All those big, fat buttons, yeah. So where are we at? What we are now? We got one more item left or?
Will Betts:
Hang on. Wait, before we get there, we're on five and you've chosen the Bantam patchbay. Are you sure you want to go with that? Because I feel like that might just be included in the fixtures and fittings at the studio, it's not the sexiest there? I mean you talked about the ZVex machine pedal do you want to ... And you've got nothing to patch around just yet.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well if I'm going to have a mixer, if I'm going to have a neat mixer, it's one of my guests, you're going to need a patch bay dude. Or are we going to just say, that's granted with the mixer?
Chris Barker:
Yeah, we might-
Will Betts:
Yeah we might allow it.
Chris Barker:
... throw that in for you so we can find another item out of you.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So a new number five? All right. Okay, number five would be then ... fuck, I don't want to troll you guys. What about my cat?
Chris Barker:
Cats or family, friends all that is included? Don't worry, it's studio gear. What about software though? You've only got-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Software? I don't really ... I use a shockingly not a lot of software these days. I used to a long time ago but I've grown out of it. Like I said, I love the practise of hands on music and being very methodical about using the equipment, and doing as much as that I can. Of course I'm using MIDI and sequencing, and stuff like that, but I'm only using the core functionality of a DAW. And I'm not stacking it with a million versions of Serum on a single channel and all that shit. I've kind of-
Will Betts:
So what about effects though?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well, not even that. Like I said, no. A lot of ... I don't know if you're a Deadmau5 fan, but a lot of, kind of my newer stuff has actually sounded a lot less stripped back because I'm avoiding using these colourful, all these great plugins that are doing this and that, and treatment and stuff like that, where they're more effect effects, versus practical things like compressors and EQs, and stuff like that. Because, I have 64 fucking compressors and EQs on the board alone, I don't need a plugin to emulate what that shit's doing better. So practical stuff, no. Maybe some candy shit, like some reactor, goofy, buffer chopping stuff from time to time. But no, don't pour on lots of VSTs.
Chris Barker:
So in the forever studio then, you would be just stuck with the Cubase native reverbs, delays, things like that, you're happy with that?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Again, I would just go to the Lexicon for that. Or the Eventide Orville, or the H8000.
Chris Barker:
In the forever studio you haven't selected those items. That's what I mean.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I see what you're saying. Okay, so can we go with like the UAD bundle?
Speaker 3:
No bundles.
Will Betts:
No bundles.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It comes with ... Okay, UAD Apollo, can we say that? Because it does come with-
Chris Barker:
Yeah you get the ones that come with the Apollo. If you buy the Apollo you get the standard ones but you don't get the extras.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Fuck. Okay what about ... can we say like the Waves Mercury suite?
Will Betts:
That's a bundle.
Chris Barker:
No, that's a bundle.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Fuck.
Chris Barker:
We put this in for a reason because, yeah we knew everybody would just do it.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
All right. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. Okay, okay, okay let me split some hairs then. I'm just trying to think of like, what's the most common, go to fucking thing for me in-
Chris Barker:
But you could get a multi effects rack. Do you know what I mean? That's not a bundle.
Will Betts:
Well it is.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Because they end up piecemealing that out and selling it at premium for the individual components, we know a few companies are really good at that. Okay hang on, hang on. Wait, wait, are we just doing software right now?
Chris Barker:
No you can have whatever you want, okay.
Will Betts:
Yeah, I'm just pointing out you didn't have any effects. But, obviously there's a reason for that.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh my God my piano, I'm such a fucking idiot. Steinway.
Chris Barker:
Piano?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, piano.
Chris Barker:
Okay Steinway.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
And any reason you went for the Steinway? Did you try the piano or?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It was actually, I guilted EMI into buying that for me. Because they fucked something up they shouldn't have fucked up and as an apology I demanded the only offering I would take is a full Model D Concert Grand, and they actually did it.
Chris Barker:
That is awesome.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It was awesome.
Chris Barker:
That is a great story.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Borderline extortion, really. No, no, no, but it was all in good and it was really funny and Nick Attfield, God bless him, I love him to death, for being able to pull that off for me and he did.
Chris Barker:
And black?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, absolutely. And one of very few, mine in particular, signed by Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr. Because it used to be a fleet. They fucking pulled out all the fucking stops. And not only that, it's like one of the only few Steinways in existence that Steinway authorised to send to New York, get it rebuilt, because the frame is good, but sometimes the box is a little beat up, because it was a fleet piano, because those ones sound the best man. Because they've been all over, and they've just been played and played and played, they have a tonal quality to them. But, it's one of the few that they let PianoDisc come in and retrofit it with a fucking MIDI drive system, with like 64 levels of sensitivity on every key, the sustain pedals.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So I can literally play that thing, in the fucking studio, run MIDI over ethernet to the piano, and mic it up, and draw it like Native Instruments Kontakt piano. And I just stereo mic it, and it's like the most ... It sounds so good.
Chris Barker:
So that's how that ... Is it the Disklavier that we've had before Will?
Will Betts:
That's right, yeah.
Chris Barker:
The big Yamaha, it sounds like the Steinway version of that–].
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
But a Model D Concert Grand version of it, it's fucking nuts. I love it.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. Now it's-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Because I can't really play so I can draw the notes. So, yeah.
Chris Barker:
We said this about the discovery of this. Because you can have so much fun micing stuff up because it's going to be played the same every single time, because you're sending MIDI to it. So you can-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yes and no. Well, no, no, I just mean, it's the sonic properties of a hammer hitting felt, you're not going to get a one to one sample recreation, but-
Chris Barker:
But it's going to be better than a human playing it.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah. And actually, I use that prominently on the album called Where's The Drop? That was a real piano. And there were things in there where I would hear sometimes pianists would come to me, and it's like, "You can't play that. You cannot. Did you have another guy? Was it a two man job on the piano?" And I was like, No, I just played it.
Chris Barker:
... Troll them. You should have just trolled them and gone dude-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It's just me.
Chris Barker:
I'm Deadmau5 it's like-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It's like chopsticks plus. No, no, but it was ... That's ... Okay there you go, Steinway Concert Grand.
Chris Barker:
That's great. So we've got one more item for the forever studio in terms of gear, and then we'll talk about a luxury item which is non studio gear.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Okay.
Chris Barker:
Okay.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So hand on, this is just gear shit.
Will Betts:
You don't have a microphone.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh, Herman Miller chair.
Will Betts:
You get ... all that stuff's included.
Chris Barker:
You get chairs, you get chairs, don't worry about chairs. You get that.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It's not just a chair man.
Chris Barker:
What about, is there any other dream synths that you ... do you like? Now you're back into that like, what about the big SEM? SEM 8 voice?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh my God, Billy Corgan's Ichabod
Chris Barker:
I don't know what is. This ... right.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Google it. Google it. He is such a piece of shit, I cannot believe this guy. Billy Corgan Ichabod, I-C-A H-B-A- B-O-D.
Will Betts:
Okay. Oh my God, what is this?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
You like that? Yeah.
Jingle:
That's a rare find.
Chris Barker:
You're going to like this as well. So, if you choose a piece of gear that me and Will have never heard of, us being nerds.
Will Betts:
I've never heard of this.
Chris Barker:
You get it for free and I've never heard of this. I know Billy Corgan but I didn't know what this is. So you get this checked in.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So I get the ... So if you've never heard of this. Awesome.
Chris Barker:
No.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
So it's mine.
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Okay. It's-
Chris Barker:
Just describe it for people listening. What is this?
Will Betts:
It is kind of a remnant of polivoks system, but custom built by, fuck, I don't know the whole provenance on it. But, it's basically like a dual fridge sized polivoks. But different manufacturer, different components. Yeah. And awesome. And I mean, I'm happy to give you guys my delivery address, and you can send that on over.
Chris Barker:
It's a rare find.
Speaker 5:
That's a rare find.
Will Betts:
It is, it really is. I think there's two of them. Anyone looking online it's made by a guy called George Mattson. Mattson Mini Modular is the company.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yes.
Will Betts:
Yeah. This is absolutely mad. Fantastic. Great choice.
Chris Barker:
What era Will?
Will Betts:
I think it's the 90s.
Chris Barker:
Okay.
Will Betts:
Yeah, the photos look very 90s, yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
It's "new" so it's not like a 3P system or anything.
Chris Barker:
Well, great choice, that's a new one for the podcast. And that's swell.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
There you go.
Chris Barker:
Okay, one more better studio kit then what would you have?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
That is-
Will Betts:
You got it free.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
That was it. Now you're-
Chris Barker:
Yeah but you get a bonus one.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... the luxury one?
Chris Barker:
... we've never heard of, yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Okay.
Chris Barker:
No, no, you get a bonus piece of kit for as never-
Will Betts:
It's just a one time deal.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh, well if we're going to do this-
Chris Barker:
I know ... I can see why [crosstalk 00:45:43]
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I can say shit you've never heard of for days.
Chris Barker:
I know. That's exactly why I didn't tell you this rule at the beginning of the show Joel.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Azzam's bells. Azzam's bells. Actually you might have heard about that one, because you guys strike me as the guy that totally lurk Richard Devine's fucking Instagram.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, that's probably why it's ringing a bell.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah, he ... it's funny because, a friend of mine got it for me for my birthday. It's a little cheap thing, it's not like a really-
Chris Barker:
Oh yeah, that's cool.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... expensive thing at all. But yeah, my friend got it for me for my birthday and I was like, What the hell is this? This is weird. Because he knows I like to do weird, Foley stuff and it's like a little mini Foley box, with a TRS output and a gain stage, and a couple of those acoustic pickups underneath. And I plugged it in, and I went, for whatever reason, I have a water phone and a bow. So, I took the bow and started, yeah, I know as one has. So I had the bow and I was like, I'm striking and bowing some of the rods and stuff like that, and it was making some really interesting noises and I was like, holy shit. And then two days later, I see it pop up on Richard Devine's feed and he's like, "I just got mine."
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I was like, dude, how did you even hear about this? And why did we just get the same weird thing at the weird, same time. And it was like we had some discussion over it and it was pretty funny. But now we're starting to see a bunch of these little Foley boxes spring up. But Azzam's bells was like the first. I invented a new instrument and it's amazing, everyone's going to play one.
Chris Barker:
There's some good Facebook groups on weird instruments, these homemade kind of ... there's a lot and kind of horror sound design and that kind of thing that people are building sort of, like Piezo pickups and all this kind of stuff on them, it's great.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah. And if you really want to deep dive that too check out look Look Mum No Computer.
Chris Barker:
Yeah. We're hoping to get him on the podcast as well. Yeah, yeah he's so-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
You have to, you have to. I will put you in touch, he is amazing.
Chris Barker:
He's fantastic. So you're going to choose Azzam's bells as your final studio item, that's kind of cool. That's-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah fuck it. I mean it was free.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, yeah. Totally.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I'll take it.
Will Betts:
You don't actually have a mic at this point, though. That's the one thing you're missing. Do you want to mic?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
A mic? For all that fucking singing I do?
Will Betts:
Well for Azzam's bells.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh, true.
Chris Barker:
And the Azzam's bells, yeah. Well that has a TRS out.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
We use the TLM 49s, Neumann.
Chris Barker:
Okay.
Will Betts:
Stereo matched if you can. We're only allowed one.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh, sorry.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Okay, fine, one TLM 49.
Chris Barker:
Okay, nice. And why the TLM 49 because we've had a lot of people getting the Sony and, I suppose you're not doing singing though.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah. You mean like the Cls with the massive ... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the only thing that really made that mic good, was the way that that fucking PSU. fucking sticks out of the bag. It just looks pro. It looks, pro, this is the ... And it's 13 grand. Let's use that one, it's got to be good it's Sony and I know they make PlayStation so they're going to make me sound great. And it's funny, I actually recently I recorded ... I was in a vocal session with Pharrell at Criteria in Miami and boom, there it is. The big fucking CL in the room. Like in the vocal building goes in ... And I had to ask him I'm like, come on P, what is it? Do you really like that mic?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
And he's like, well, he likes it because it's all he's used. And I'm like, but have you ever just tried a Blue Yeti or whatever? Insert mic name here. And he was just like, "Well no, because I know how I'm going to sound with this mic because I've just been using it so long and nah, nah, nah." And then the way that his-
Chris Barker:
Maybe it's like the NS10 of mics then.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well, maybe, maybe. But I like the TLM just because it tends to ... TLM is less focused, it tends to kind of capture the room as well. Or, even if it's a small tiny, tiny room. I have like a four by four vocal booth which is big because there's this whole big misconception about, you want the room super dead, and then you [inaudible 00:49:42], fucking these shields that come over the mic to prevent. I'm kind of backwards on that, I like the sound of a room. I like the sound of you taking that TLM in a fucking bathroom and doing it in there, it produces-
Chris Barker:
Well when you watch-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
... some really-
Chris Barker:
When you watch the old videos of making the thriller album and stuff, they do double tracking with Michael standing another five feet back, another five feet-
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Because they didn't have room simulations or impulse response things and convolution reverbs, and stuff like that. You had to fuck ... like the EMI, fucking, or the Echo chamber down in Capitol Records, shit like that, that was the reverb. So, yeah, I like that. I like being able to ... and the U49 captures ... not every ants fucking on the wall, but it captures the tonality of where they're at in that environment a little bit better, with just the right amount of focus between the person and the microphone, and the wall to them. So I like that stuff. So a TLM 49, that's my reason for that.
Chris Barker:
So we're replacing Azzam bells with that.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
No Azzam bells was my free one, this is number six.
Chris Barker:
Okay. Is that ... I feel like we've gone seven now Will. The free one was the thing we never heard of.
Will Betts:
Ichabod. Ichabod
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
The Ichabod.
Chris Barker:
Ichabod was free. So you get-
Will Betts:
Okay.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I'm set for life in my studio, my life studio. That's it, that's all I need.
Chris Barker:
Well, we've got a luxury item. So this is not a piece of gear, but is there something you've always had in your studio, or something that you wish you had in your studio? Something more eccentric, I guess. It's not like furniture or anything like that. Or, you've got your friends and family and loved ones. But, a luxury item if you could have anything that isn't gear.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
A fanless metre bridge. How about that? That's the fantasy. That's the fucking fantasy.
Chris Barker:
That's such a dorky luxury.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Having to be able to power up my fucking Neve and not hear-
Chris Barker:
That's the dorkiest luxury item ever, I love it. I love it. I love it. It's great.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
A fanless metre bridge.
Chris Barker:
Most people go for swimming pools, or water beds.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
No, no, that would be a luxury for me.
Chris Barker:
Neat.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
How would they do that? A fanless metre bridge, it's all I dream about.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
I'm a simple man. It really is because every time I ... we never power down the board, because you got to leave it hot. But when I do go on tour, and I go on for two or a month, yeah, we power it down. And I get in the room, and I don't go into the machine room and turn anything, I just stand there for a minute. This is so crazy. Like no reflections, no nothing, I can hear that change in my pocket dying right there without hearing it off the back wall, or the glass. And then I go into the machine room and all you hear is [inaudible 00:52:41]. And you're like fuck man, I got to make music in this? All right, 80 DB, let's go.
Chris Barker:
Okay, so let's, before we finish up, Will, do you want to do the rundown of what we got here? Let's set the scene, where we are, and list all the gear and take a listen Joel and see what you think of this.
Will Betts:
We're in the woods near your house, on your property in Ontario. We're inside a studio with Technature furniture and a ... what was the chair that you chose?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
A Herman Miller.
Chris Barker:
Herman miller.
Will Betts:
The Herman Miller chair. Your computer is a beefed up PC. Your DAW is Cubase. your audio interface is a Burl BAT mothership. In your studio, your chosen items are, for monitoring you have the ATC SEM 300 ASL pros, soffit mounted, you have an original EMS Synthi 100 built by Peter Zinovieff. For your desk you have the Rupert Neve 5088 with an included TT patchbay because we are benevolent masters. You have a mini Moog Voyager, very much the mashed potato and corn of synths. You have a Steinway Model D Concert Grand piano signed by Diana Krall, with the MIDI retrofit. Your bonus item, the rare find, was Billy Corgan's Ichabod, made by Mattson Mini Modular.
Will Betts:
You've got a cheeky double bonus, which is not normally allowed, we'll allow it this time because it's you, Azzam's bells, and your final item is TLM 49 Neumann microphone. How does that sound? Oh with a fanless metre bridge. Fanless metre bridge.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
How does that sound? It doesn't and that's the point.
Chris Barker:
There we go. Lovely. Well, that brings us to the end of the My Forever Studio podcast. Joel, thanks so much for taking the time and talking tech with us, we love it. And what's coming up for you after the pandemic, hopefully more? Have you got millions of cancelled gigs?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well, you know the day? Shit because our fucking agency would love to hear your fucking opinions on when after the pandemic is. Yeah, no, I'm just doing what every other fucking musician is, it's just sitting on ass and busting out NFTs because we heard about it on the internet. And it's, yeah, what better way to crash an economy than to board the hype train that is known as hyperbole, hyperbole. Hyperbole. No, no, no, it's good. Album, I guess, first and foremost, because it's like, why not? I got the time. I have the resources. I've got the fans in the metre bridge to do it. So I'm going to do that. And that's it really. I mean, the tour is ready, everything's good. We're ready to go because we kind of stopped one day.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
And it's on pause, it's all in the warehouse tucked away, it'll work when we go back out. So, the programme will resume when it is safe to do so.
Chris Barker:
And that's the will too, still going?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
That's just whatever.
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Yeah. Well actually we built two of them. Can you believe that? What a waste of fucking money that was, a financial fucking disaster. Because we were going to we piggyback them. We were going to do one in Europe and one out in Asia, Australia. And do show, show, show, show, show so that we could load in one day, play another day, and then be there ready to go, and then just piggyback the things. And we thought, what a bright future you have Joel. Brand new track with Pharrell and a massive tour in Coachella, yay. And then all of a sudden [explosion] we're like, nice. What's my liquidity like? Can I eat for the next year?
Chris Barker:
Oh man.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh, by the way, you're very, very cash poor Mr. Zimmerman so you should probably just do the NFT thing. Okay. Yeah.
Will Betts:
I was going to ask you about the new label. What's the score with Hau5trap?
Chris Barker:
Of course.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Oh house trap?
Will Betts:
Yeah.
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Well, you see it's like mousetrap but it's just for house. No, the house thing we're starting to see a resurgence come back with the fucking really great house music. Not big room, not trance, not anything. So, we kind of made these little predictions based on our analytical data, that there will be a resurgence of that. And so, now we've just kind of made an umbrella entity to just cover that, because we think that'll be the next thing. We're betting on futures. But we don't want to keep it all under one pot so it's just divide and conquer really.
Chris Barker:
But I think with clubs reopen it's definitely, I mean it's going to be but, going to be crazy out there, isn't it?
Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman:
Dude, you can play fucking Hannah Montana on loop for fucking 10 years as soon as they open up the fucking doors and people will just, "Point me to the bar and fucking let's party." You know what I mean? That soundtrack is just background noise at this point.
Chris Barker:
Nice. Well, thanks so much man, it's really great to talk to you again. And, thanks for taking the time to the MusicTech, My Forever Studio podcast. And, take care and we'll see you on tour, either on one of those rigs in the future. Thank you. Well, that's it. Thank you again to Deadmau5 for taking the time to choose his favourite studio gear.
Will Betts:
Yeah I mean, there was a lot of rule bending there though Chris, so I think in future maybe we need to take a firmer hand with some of our guests, you think?
Chris Barker:
Yeah. It's not easy with Joel he gets his way, he gets his way. Anyway, thanks for listening everybody. And remember, if you're a fan of the My Forever Studio podcast, make sure you subscribe using your favourite podcasting app, and maybe leave us an ultra positive super fan style rating as well.
Will Betts:
Yeah we do read every single super positive review that we get. And if you want to suggest guests for future, or get in touch, email us at editors@musictech.net.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, please do. And next week we'll be joined by Australian producer, songwriter and singer KUČKA, who's now based in Los Angeles.
Will Betts:
Yeah, that's going to be a really good one. So, tune in next time for more adventures into studio forever dome. Goodbye.
