1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?
UAD 1176 Rev E
The input knob on the 1176 compressor is my go-to. There’s this little trick I love—turning the attack off to turn compression completely off . It makes the compressor act more like a tonal distortion, adding this raw, saturated tone, especially on drums or guitar. Then you use the Input and Output knob to taste. Of course it has to be an emulation in software that replicates the whole circuit, and not just the compression part.
2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?
Sontronics Helios Microphone
Yes! I’ve got this Helios microphone that sounds great, but it has this high-pitched noise that I can’t control. I bought it used, and it has some weird charm, but that noise can ruin a take if it decides to act up.
3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute, etc.?
I keep it simple with a nylon string Spanish guitar. It’s not a fancy one; just something that feels like home. Perfect for when I’m on the go and want to mess around with ideas.
Acoustic Guitar
4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?
Decapitator by Soundtoys, hands down. I wish it were hardware. It adds this perfect, warm saturation, like analog gear. I use it on pretty much everything!
5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?
Oh, definitely. I bought this beautiful 1962 German-made 335 style electric guitar that looked incredible but played horribly. I couldn’t get a decent chord out of it. I ended up trading it for a Strymon Timeline pedal, which was a much better decision.
Strymon Timeline
6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?
Guitars, absolutely. I’ll start with guitar ideas and build the rest around them. I think it’s my main voice as a musician; it’s where my best ideas come from.
Fender Jazzmaster
7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?
I’d go for a guitar again, for sure. It just feels right, and it’s where I get the best start on my ideas.
8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?
My tape machine, a Revox A77. It’s a hassle to maintain, and it breaks down more than I’d like, but I can’t imagine not using it.
Revox A77 Tape Recorder
9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?
There’s another trick I like besides the 1176 one. It’s the classic with the Pultec EQ—the ‘boost and cut’ technique. Basically, you pick a frequency, boost it, and then cut it at the same time. Sounds strange, but it actually saturates the tone in a way that just works. I use it a lot because it brings this really smooth, controlled sound, especially on drums or if I’m running it on a bus. It’s one of those little moves that changes the character of the mix without being too obvious.
Pultec EQ from UAD
Artist or Band name?
Just my name — Lucas Delacroix.
Genre?
Alternative… though it’s a mix. Could be rock, could be something else entirely. It depends on the track.
Selfie?
No selfies here, but maybe a picture of my hand?
Monty Burns as Howard Hughes tattoo
Where are you from?
Buenos Aires, Argentina. Currently living and working in Copenhagen, Denmark.
How did you get into music?
Guitar was always around when I was growing up. I think it was just natural—I’d mess around on it as a kid, and it felt like the most obvious thing in the world.
What still drives you to make music?
Sometimes I hear a specific guitar tone or melody, and it just fires me up. I could spend years chasing that feeling, trying to capture it in a track. It’s like a love affair that never gets old.
How do you most often start a new track?
Always with guitar. I’ll get an idea down and then build out the rest from there.
How do you know when a track is finished?
It’s a gut feeling. It’s like there’s this small voice that just says, “Alright, you’re done.” It’s rarely 100% satisfying, but at some point, you just know it’s time to move on.
Show us your current studio.
I like keeping it low-key. Let’s just say it’s an underground space, literally.
Caveman Records Studio
Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?
It seems like it’s obvious, but mix at a low volume. I realize it feels nice to listen to a song loudly, so it feels like the earth is moving and something dramatic is happening. But it really does you no favors, if you’re totally deaf after mixing for an hour.
Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.
I’ve got a playlist with my latest productions which I have recorded and produced for other artist. Check it out. Also, if you’re curious about my own music? Here’s an album called Somos.
1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?
Back when I was working as a recording engineer, I got to assist on a session at Electro-Vox, which is just on the edge of Hollywood. They have an unbelievable gear collection — Neve console, every synthesizer you could name, Hal Blaine’s old drum kit, that kind of thing.
Tascam 4-track and 500 series rack
But when I think about the week or so I spent there, I think about the knobs on the Eventide PS101 Instant Phaser that they had racked alongside all the classic Altec and UA preamps. They’re shiny, tactile, and resist with the perfect amount of heft when you turn them left or right.
Even now, it’s easier to see what they look like by seeing Eventide’s plugin emulations, because so many of the original knobs have been replaced on the outboard units they belong to. They’re similar to the knobs on the H910, but I always liked the simplicity of the Instant Phaser better. Still sounds like the future.
2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?
Univox Mini-Korg K2
I have a 1974 Univox Mini-Korg K2, which is my favorite monosynth. When I got it, the previous owner had installed a CV-to-MIDI conversion in the back, but the voltage has always been off when I try to sequence it. So I suppose to make it perfect, I’d just have to dig in and get it fixed 😂
3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute etc.?
These days, I like to bring a bunch of tiny, weird microphones and plug them into a Critter & Guitar 5 Moons. Contact mics, transducer mics, aCrank Sturgeon Town & Mouth Report — whatever I can throw into a lunchbox. It makes it fun to invite people in and collaborate.
If I can swing it, I’ll also bring my Casio SK-1, which is my favorite small keyboard for so many obvious reasons.
Casio SK-1
And I’m not sure if this counts, but I purchased a small Bluetooth speaker for my Crocs, which has been really handy around the campfire.
4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?
The answer to both questions for me is simple: filters. I want all my filter plguins to be hardware because it’s impossible to capture the sound of analog filters. And I want all my outboard filters to be software because it’s so easy to recall!
5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?
I sold two things when I was in high school before going off to college, and I regret both sales deeply.
A Casio DG-20 electronic guitar
A pair of original Technics SL-1200 turntables
6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?
Casiotone 701
Outside of my electric guitar, which wins on sheer quantity because I’ve been playing it since I was 12, the answer is my Casiotone 701. It’s been my primary keyboard in almost every apartment I’ve lived in, and so it’s been the machine I go to when I have an idea and need to bang it out.
There are 2 or 3 drum patterns on there I always return to, and the electric piano sound is perfectly soft. There’s no velocity sensitivity so it forces me to put a ton of emotion into the progressions and melody, because I can’t summon any dynamic change. Then later, when I’m able to play with quiet and loud, everything can be that much more impactful.
7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?
I don’t think I’d change a thing, honestly. Every detour led me to where I am today.
8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?
AM radio transmitter
I have an AM radio transmitter than I’ve hooked up into my patch bay. It’s a pain in the ass to get a signal, and a pain in the ass to get signal into it. But it’s the coolest thing in the world to be able to send a track out from Ableton, into the airwaves, and then back in by recording a handheld AM radio. Magic.
9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit
I love outboard drum machines, but I don’t nearly have the money for my favorites — a Linn Drum, a Drumulator, or a DrumTraks. But! I do have an Alesis HR-16 and some hacked ROM cards you can find on eBay. Does the trick in a pinch.
Alesis HR-16
Artist or Band name?
Simulcast
Genre?
post-apocalyptic punk
Selfie?
Tristan Rodman
Where are you from?
Los Angeles, CA
How did you get into music?
When I was 5 years old, my friend Carly took me to the Virgin Megastore. She was friends with my parents, and the perfect non-parental adult figure in my life — the first person to give me perspective on my own family. She asked what CD I wanted to buy. I told her I wanted Irresistible by Jessica Simpson. She said no and bought me Daft Punk’s Discovery instead. The rest is history.
What still drives you to make music?
I work at Splice now, where I’m empowered to ask musicians how they make their music. Those conversations inspire me to keep going.
How do you most often start a new track?
Late at night, baseball on TV, sitting on the couch with an acoustic guitar.
How do you know when a track is finished?
When I start coming up with reasons why I shouldn’t put it out.
Show us your current studio
Tristan’s studio
Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?
Someone repeated this to me from a songwriting workshop they took with Chris Cohen, so I’m probably getting it wrong in the game of telephone. But the general idea is that there are two creative modes: generation and organization. And I’ve extended that with the realization that whenever I’m stuck, it’s because I’m trying to force one when I should be doing the other.
Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.
1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?
Bellari RP220 tube preamp
The gain knob on the Bellari RP220 tube preamp is so damn delicious, especially when hooked to a guitar. What you get is the unique crunch of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Aeroplane Over the Sea. It’s a crunch that I’d been looking to emulate and when I read that Robert Schneider (the producer of that album) did not use any guitar pedals and only used the Bellari RP220 preamp (cranked to the max!), I was determined as a dog to get me one. I found one used and it’s been a love affair ever since.
2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?
iPad and hardware
When I had ZERO audio gear, an iPad pro helped me realize sounds that were unavailable to me without hardware (special salute to the independent plugin makers). All I had was an acoustic guitar, a mic, zoom h4 and an iPad (along with affordable plugins). I got so much out of them and being on an iPad didn’t feel like I was on a computer. I still use it for recording, but as my journey rolls on, I have actual hardware that have replaced a lot of the digital plugins.
3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute etc.?
Lately, I try not to take any music gear to really be present and enjoy the place I am at, but I may sneak one of the Dream Machines (OP-1 Field or the Synthstrom Deluge) and either the ultra portable Martin backpacker guitar or the Screaming Heart guitar.
Martin Backpacker acoustic guitar
Another piece of “audio gear” that’s been surprising is an apple watch. Especially as an unobtrusive recorder, it’s been so damn handy to capture ideas and for field recordings (or for recording doctor appointments!). Very handy.
4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?
Music is an escape and I fucking hate computer screens! I write emails and work on a f’n computer all day and when it’s time to go in to the happy place of making music and writing poetry, there’s no better ware than hard-ware.
I collect typewriters, tape recorders (4 track and 2 tracks), analog preamps, guitar pedals, among other earthly tools. Don’t get me wrong, digital stuff is still super cool, but there’s nothing like the tactile feel of making music with an actual instrument. So, in short, I’ve spent my musical career converting all the software tools into hardware.
As a side note, I recently bought a Critter & Guitari Kaleidoloop and I’ve been loving the damn thing. The reason that I mention it, is because it brings both software and hardware together to make this unique tool to capture sounds and mangle them on the spot.
Critter & Guitari Kaleidoloop
I truly love this time in our lives where hardware creators make these hybrid software/hardware instruments.
5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?
At a time when I was desperate for money, I sold my OG OP-1 and it felt as if I had sold a friend. Like Tom Hanks losing Wilson. I deeply regretted it.
Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field
Things got better and I got a new OP-1 field and all the gripes and shortcomings I had with the OG were now fixed and I had a new and improved best friend. And if you’re reading this OG OP-1, I am so damn sorry.
6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?
Screaming Heart Martin Acoustic Guitar
The Screaming Heart Guitar turns feelings into sounds. She’s a beautiful Martin acoustic-electric and can make sadness come alive, fill the room with angst or make a grown man rage with utter hatred against this cruel world. It is majestic.
7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?
Another Martin acoustic-electric guitar.
8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?
The Synthstrom Deluge. It is so beautifully annoying. It is a magic machine that is both simple and complex. It is a tactile piano roll that is ready to work at the drop of a hat.
Synthstrom Deluge
What is annoying is my ambition to put in my favorite sampled instruments and make it my go-to instrument that’ll help me create at the speed of thought. A feat that is yet to flourish, but will one day. You’ll see Martin!
When I first saw (21 years ago) how Robert Rodriguez made music for his movies (https://youtu.be/c9-R6Fgzi9c?t=175) I was hooked, now I can achieve this in a super tiny and portable music machine.
9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?
I am floored by how cool the compressor sounds on vocals. I have a Bellari Dual Tube Compressor and the sound is magical (paired with the Bellari preamp). The compressor and I are yet to be besties, but every time we work together it is an adventure filled with joy.
Top: Bellari Dual Tube Compressor
Side note: I always had a compressor plugin that works well, but my goal is to get real-time effects (without computers).
Artist or Band name?
Ricky Mendoza on streaming platforms and when performing live we go by Ricky Mendoza and the Screaming Hearts Collective.
Genre?
Folk-Punk
Selfie?
Ricky Mendoza
Where are you from?
From the border between Mexico (Coahuila) and Texas (United States). Got the best of both worlds. Currently reside in Austin, Texas.
How did you get into music?
At 35, I was at low point in my life. I was getting a divorce and my passion (up to this point) was making independent films (I had made 2 films). So, I had no more money (making movies was an expensive hobby) and I had all the time in the world, so I bought a guitar and decided to learn how to sing and play guitar at the same time. Thanks to the wonders of ultimate guitar (the website), I learned some chords and some punk songs. As time went on I discovered a sort of a “fraud”.
The “fraud” was that many of my favorite songs used the same chords that other songs used (and many of them used the same chord structures). This was a huge revelation to me.
I had also read that the most popular songs in the world were written in the key of C and G. This simplified things even more for me.
At that time, I had begun to write poetry and one day, in my small apartment a chord structure started playing in my head. As I was playing the chords with the guitar, I sang the words in melody and like magic, I had invented a song.
I couldn’t believe it. In one sitting and in about 4 hours of work, I had a song. In contrast, each of our independent films had taken about 4 years to make. I was stunned and it was a glimmer of light in those dark times.
I began making more and more songs and that has snowballed into 3 full-length albums, tons of of live shows and collaborating with some amazing humans along the way. It’s been 12 years now and it’s been an incredible journey so far.
Zoom LiveTrak L-20R
What still drives you to make music?
Music is life and there is no life without music. It sounds cheesy, but there’s no way around it.
Marantz Casssette Tape Machine
Even though my genre is Folk-Punk, I love making ambient music. As a kid I loved movies so damn much that I would buy the soundtrack to a film to continue the experience into my daily life.
These days, I’ll turn on my music machines and just get lost in drones, in ethereal sounds and just play (no recording). Just like the thousands of meaningful conversations we’ve all had with our loved ones, it’s a deep connection, I feel like I’m connecting with myself at a very deep level when I play.
Elmyra by Neutral Labs
It sounds pretentious, but here’s the practical reason: Some days are just too damn rough for me. Sometimes I’m really overwhelmed with juggling everything that has to do with life (work, business, family, etc) and having a space where I can just go in and play music for the fun of it is so damn stress relieving. It really is therapy for me.
How do you most often start a new track?
If I’m playing guitar and there’s something that excites me, whether it be a riff or a chord progression, I’d get my most recent poems and start joining the words with the music. Most of the time, the tracks won’t work but I don’t judge. I just let it happen, record the track on my voice notes app and let it sit there for a night.
Pedalboard
I come back the next day, listen and if it excites me, I’ll develop the tune. Otherwise it’ll go into the sea of archives.
How do you know when a track is finished?
Until satisfaction levels are at 100. But it’s interesting (with the passing of time) to hear something that was done in the past and think, “I could’ve done better”. I try not to judge too harshly because as time passes, I’m a different person with a lot more knowledge and more experience so it is very unfair to judge my past self like that.
I like to think of my past work as a diary and to be proud of the work that I could (to the best of my abilities).
My main goal is to make the music that I wish my favorite artists could make if they were me. And since, they’re not, I have to make that music myself but still honor how my favorite songs sound and try to capture that sprit.
Show us your current studio
StudioStudioStudio
Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?
I’ve made little labels all over my office that read “Don’t think. Feel.” This is from the legendary writer Ray Bradbury, who had this sign over his typewriter (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ij8ziAN5pTU).
Don’t think, feel
Another label I have around the office is “surrender control”. This is from author Michael Singer. I’ve been learning to be part of life and try not to control every damn thing. It’s a struggle but that’s where I’m at.
Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.
The latest record is called THE NEW HURT and it’s a 32 minute trip you won’t forget. It’s got songs about emotional breakdowns, rough sex, death and journeys into the unknown.
Take a listen and if you like it please add it to your favorite playlist (it helps a lot).
You can listen or watch the music videos here: rickym.org
