Now on the prestigious Ed Banger roster, Myd (Quentin Lepoutre) is French musician, producer and engineer with a string of remix credits to his name.
With lockdown keeping him at home, 2020 saw Myd converting his apartment into a complete studio: the bathroom is the reverb room; his bedroom is the vocal booth; and he moved his kitchen table to make room for all his guitars. He’s also been keeping busy hosting his CoMyd-19 livestreams.
Following a series of EPs, Myd is now preparing to release his first album, Born Loser, with recent single Moving Men (feat Mac DeMarco) serving as a taster.
About that studio, though - what kind of gear resides within it? Let’s find out...
1. Minimoog Model D
“The Moog Model D was the last piece I wanted for my studio. I found it at Echigoya Music in Tokyo. Finally buying it, I was like a daddy buying his first vintage Porsche during his mid-life crisis.
“Joking aside, beyond the object itself, the sound of this 50-year-old grandma (serial number 1593 - I found out nothing about it) is like candy for your ears.”
2. Tascam PortaStudio 424
“At first I bought the PortaStudio to go further in my tape sound and artifacts experiences. It's fun and exciting to hear a natural tape sidechain. Most of my masters are lassed through it; that's my last polish touch.
“Knowing this machine really well, now I also use this tool as an instrument: the pitch knob is magical.”
3. Roland Jazz Chorus 120
“My computer is the brain of the studio and sometimes it could make my songs a bit flat. I use this fantastic ‘80s amp to reamp anything I want to sound out of the mix. The integrated FX also sound really nice - if you know my music you already know how much I love vibrato.”
4. Roland Juno-60
“A Juno will always sound like a Juno but it’s also a really versatile synth that can fit in lots of different productions. It’s like this weird friend you can bring to any party and it will always make new friends.
“And of course, being a really bad keyboardist, I MIDIfied it the day I bought it.”
5. Fairfield Circuitry Shallow Water
“It’s really important to create incidents and randomize your sources: it makes your studio and your music alive.
“This pedal effect creates random tape recorder bugs on any sources. I love to pass my synths through my pedals to make them more alive and this pedal effect from Canada is one of my favourites!”
7. Lexicon PCM 91
“Eight years ago I asked Phillippe Zdar how to get more depth in my mixes. He gave me this reverb and I never stopped using it ! That’s way more wide and deep than any plugin I ever tried.”
8. Mooger Fooger Low-pass filter
“The maths behind these pedals is simple: Myd = French = French touch = filtered House. Whose are the best filters on earth? Moog’s. Use it on anything and it sounds alive and sexy.”
9. Dave Smith Instruments Evolver
“I call this synth ‘The last chance’. When you are really out of inspiration you turn this baby boy on.
“Making music on this sequencer is a pain in the ass but it’s always useful for your creative mind to focus on something other than a blank Ableton session. You’ll never hear this synth in one of my songs but I started lots of my songs with this tool, glasses on my nose like a grandpa.”
