Vincenzo Gabriele – Estelle Avenue

1. Favourite knob or fader or switch on a piece of gear and why?

Akai s612 sampler

It would have to be the start and end sliders on the Akai s612. I love the immediacy of playing with those sliders and reversing the sample with my fingers. That tactile feel lets me feel more connected to the sample.

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

It would have to be the EMU Command Station. I love the sound it puts out. Plus the 16 track sequencer and hands on real time sound manipulation that can be had. If I could change something about it, it would be to save presets and programs better.

EMU Command Station

3. What setup do you bring on holiday or tour or commute etc.?

Just my iPhone running Koala sampler with either AUM or EG Nodes. I usually can create something I’m happy with using that, without the worry of having expensive pedals/synths/samplers broken, lost, or stolen.

Koala sampler

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

BACKMASK by Freakshow Industries. It’s some type of reverse, but more than just a regular reverse. Whatever it’s doing is usually pretty wild, but sonically pleasing.

Backmask by Freakshow Industries

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

My brother and I bought a Studer A820 8 Track 1 inch machine from a local radio station. Low hours, pristine condition. We made some great recordings, just recording super hot at 30ips. We never did any maintenance on it and so one day (surprise, surprise), it stopped working. I definitely don’t regret buying it, and we haven’t sold it, so I can’t regret selling it. LOL!!
I regret not being able to fix it. (but hope to one day)

Studer A820 8 Track 1 inch machine

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

The Hologram Electronics Microcosm. Once I got that, it allowed me to start thinking outside the box. Giving old cheap keyboard/samplers a whole new lease on life. It inspired me to try and run different things through it to see the outcome.

Hologram Electronics Microcosm

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

Most likely the most powerful iPad Pro I could possibly afford. I believe they are capable of producing incredible results, in such a fast, efficient, portable, and sonically pleasing way.
I just enjoy plugging and unplugging things more. Twisting knobs and pushing faders is satisfying too.

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

Chase Bliss Habit. I don’t know exactly what it’s doing, but I need it on all the time.

Chase Bliss Habit

9. Most surprising tip or trick or technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

If you split your bass into two channels and run one into the mic input of the Akai S612, and the other direct, (essentially using the Akai as a distortion) you get a bass that really rips and cuts through the mix.

Akai S612

Artist or Band name?

Estelle Avenue

Genre?

Experimental Lofi Ambient Sound Texture Moments

Selfie?

Vincenzo Gabriele aka. Estelle Avenue

Where are you from?

Italian descent
Born and raised in Toronto, Canada

How did you get into music?

My parents bought my sister, brother, and I a Casio keyboard when we were young. I didn’t think much about at the time, but it must have had some affect on me.

What still drives you to make music?

I love creating something new when I can. It’s very therapeutic. A creative outlet.

How do you most often start a new track?

I try to go and create whenever I get the itch to.

How do you know when a track is finished?

I don’t really create tracks. Just moments.
Create something. Upload. Gone forever.
I’m not going to play it live or try and recreate it somewhere else.

Show us your current studio

Tempera Beetlecrab Audio
EHX Q-Tron and Memory Man
Walrus Audio R1 and buddy
Rack FX

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Enjoy the process and have fun.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

https://www.instagram.com/estelle.avenue


How I met Mr. Steve Albini

Steve Albini and Martin Yam Moller in Electrical Audio Studio A

Ok, so here’s a wild thing that happened. I got to meet Steve Albini at his studio Electrical Audio in Chicago.… and embarrassingly I got so star-struck meeting him, that I completely forgot to ask all the questions that I would normally do for this blog!

So that’s why this post is a little bit different than the usual ‘9 Odd Questions for Music Gear Junkies’ Interview.

First of all, if you don’t know about Mr. Steve Albini. He’s a producer/engineer who famously recorded Nirvana’s In Utero, but also hundreds of other records that I and millions of others, have listened to since the ‘80’s.

He has got to have one of the heftiest discographies ever!

But more interestingly, he has a particular kind of attitude to recording and music in general. He records all analogue, not just because of the sound and workflow, but because of its importance as an archival medium. He also keeps his rates as low as possible in order to keep working with independent bands/musicians. This attitude is very much reflected in the way that he constructed Electrical Audio, the studio that he built and opened in the late ‘90’s.

Outside Electrical Audio

So I was in Chicago this summer playing a couple of concerts for the release of my debut solo album, and I was talking to my bassist, who mentioned that he’s recorded at Electrical Audio with other bands. He said “Give’em a call and ask if you could come by and take a look at the studio and talk to Steve”. For him, having lived in Chicago for many years, Electrical was simply the local studio that everybody used. For me, it was the holy ground on which Sunn 0))) conjured Pyroclasts, their excellent 9th album from 2019.

It simply didn’t seem possible to just call up the studio… and so for the 14 days that I was in Chicago, I procrastinated and did a whole bunch of other stuff.

Then on the last day before I had to fly back to Denmark. My buddy Anthony, the bassist, reminded me “Just call and go out there”. So I called up Electrical and there was a nice person who answered “Yeah, come on by… There is a session today at noon, but there should be some engineers here to show you around”.

So of course I took a cab out there at 9am! Jumped out and rang on the door.

Electrical Audio Studio Door and Bell

And… the same person on the phone says “Oh, there are no engineers here right now to show you around. Can you come back in an hour?”

“Sure” I say. An hour goes by. Me, loitering outside in the general area.

Ring that bell again. Same thing. So I come back 30 min later.

Receptionist says “Hey, what about if you give me your tlf number and I get someone to call you back when they get here?”

“Perfect” I say, and think ‘Damn, they’ll be busy with that session today and I’m leaving tomorrow’. So a bit disappointed, I walked down the road from the studio that I didn’t even get into, to find lunch somewhere.

I’m just about to order a sandwich at a cafe … and my cellphone rings.

“Hey, this is Steve… you wanted to take a look around the studio?”

“YES! I’ll be there in 2 min”… and I run out of the cafe.


The following is a loose, badly-remembered re-paraphrasing of the hour long tour that Mr. Steve Albini gave me of his wonderful studio and gear. Mainly just photos with whatever I could remember that Steve said.


At Electrical Audio, walking from one live room to the next, seems just like any other studio, but what is not visible, is the fact that each room has it’s own separate foundation, for near total acoustic isolation between rooms.

Walking from Studio A to B

You know how you always hear of studio owners tearing the roof off their house in order to get their massive consoles into the mixing suite? This is the upside down version of this! Buying a building and re-digging it’s foundation, with the building still in place. A pretty intense approach to acoustic control.


The mic collection at EA is a sight to behold. While I was a little too busy salivating over the mics, I barely managed to register that Mr. Albini said something like… ‘Every sound is different and every mic responds to that sound in a different way… so for every recording, you have to try out a lot of mics.’

Headphone tree
Guitars and Pedals

Analog recorders and effects racks play a huge role in the daily recording life at Electrical Audio. These aren’t there for show or the occasional ‘retro band’ that books a session once a year.
They are constantly serviced and maintained by the in-house tech.
Mr. Albini even showed me their service log books, and described the administrative system they use to keep everything up and running. Which means that anything that’s not working, gets pulled out and fixed off-site. Anything you see in the mixing rooms is plugged in and ready to go.

Studer A 820 MCH 24 Tape Recorder
Studer A 820 MCH 24 Tracking Recorder
Ampex ATR-102 2-Track
Ampex ATR-102 2-Track Master Tape Recorder

Electrical Audio even make their own brand of equipment. Their in-house studio tech has plenty of work to do, in order to maintain all that juicy analog equipment. But somehow they make time to produce a lovely EA preamp and shelving EQ (the bi-colored LED lit logo is a signature).

EA’s preamp and EQ

EA also make a passive direct box, which Mr. Albini say is a workhorse and gets used a lot, both for re-amping and sending mic level signals to guitar pedals. Since it’s a passive design, it is bi-directional.

Check out the super high ceilings in Studio B. There’s lots of natural light, which is very lovely, but quite unusual for a live room, there’s also tons of diffusion in the ceilings.
It was really funny to clap in this room, coz I could easily recognize the distinctive reverb, from countless albums with recordings of snare drums in this room. Strange to experience such familiar early reflections, in real life.

Studio B with very high ceilings and natural light

Steve took particular pride in describing the non-parallel walls made from Adobe mudbricks that were used inside the studio live rooms. They are unfired and have the odd properties of both reflecting sound in a diffuse way, but also absorbing it over a ‘pleasant’ spectrum.


Lastly… yes, I did remember to ask him what his favorite knob/fader or switch was….

Penny & Giles Motorised Faders on the Neotek Console

Thanks Mr. Albini for graciously taking me through your awesome studio!


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