Tools of the Trade: Inside Eekkoo's Studio

Today’s dance music landscape is overstuffed and, at times, over-saturated. One man doing his part to do things differently is Montreal’s Eeekoo. After kicking off his career with becoming the first SoundCloud account fellow Canadian deadmau5 ever followed, the producer/DJ took to the studio to come up with his debut release, Eeekoo. The EP came out this week on Mau5trap and to give you an idea on what he used to create it, Eekoo was kind enough to give us a look at what tools make up his studio.

I abandoned Cubase and FL Studio in 2007 for Ableton Live. A Mac and PC platform, it's a software that can be used just as well in the studio as on stage. I fell in love with it. I do a lot of time-stretching with my recordings, and Live allows me to do it quickly and effectively.

The Little Phatty was my first analog synthesizer. I had already used a few analog-virtual synthesizers like the JP-8000 by Roland, but nothing beats a Moog ladder filter. You shouldn't limit yourself to the filter section, though. It's really with the modulation section that everything comes to life, incredible complex harmonies can be programmed. I use this little beast for my leads and my bass sounds. "Function" and "Grindin'" off the Eekkoo EP were produced with this synth.

I initially bought the Tetra (four-voice Analog Tabletop Synthesizer), but I wanted even more polyphonic voices, and especially, more immediate controls. I absolutely love this synth and its unison mode slays. It's so satisfying to have an analog synthesizer that allows me to play rich chord progressions. I mostly use it to create pads, plucked sounds and a few leads. My track "Kodes" off the new EP was produced with this synth.

This one is crazy! With the external power supply by Chandler, my bank account took one hell of a hit. $4000! But it's so beautiful, so good. I mostly use it as a buss compressor on my drums and synthesizers. *The Limiter was featured on every channel of TG consoles used to record The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, in addition to albums by Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones.

I rented this monster before buying it. I went seriously nuts. Every time I use it, I'm shocked with its capacity to distort my sounds. It's always a nice surprise and still even now I find myself having trouble predicting the results of its use. It's kind of mysterious in a way. The company talks high-end, military level valves. They don't mess around.

When the partnership between Akai and Ableton was announced I was eccstatic! Finally a dedicated controler that would let me conveniently launch clips during live performances. Even in the studio though, I regularly use it to experiment with the arrangement / the structure of a track.

I have the first generation monitors (I haven't used the new edition, but I've heard quite a bit of negative comments so I'm staying away for now). I know them like my back pocket. Some people fault them for lack of definition, but I find myself very easily in them. And I'm lucky, a lot of my musician friends have a pair. I had also bought a pair of ADAM monitors, but I wasn't convinced, at least not to produce electronic music. Maybe I should have gone with a higher-end pair of ADAM? I don't know, but for now I'm sticking with my Mackies.