In pictures: Jon Rundell's software-based studio

Welcome

A long time has passed since Jon Rundell bought his first set of decks at the age of 15 and started pestering Carl Cox with mix tapes on the Brighton club scene. Cox quickly became an avid supporter of Rundell’s productions, asking him to join his own Intec Records as A&R/label manager in 1996.

Since then, Rundell hasn’t looked back, cementing his reputation as an international DJ and acclaimed producer, with demand for his remix skills coming from the likes of Moby, Fatboy Slim and Paul van Dyk.

Future Music recently rocked up to the studio that Jon works from with his collaborator Alex Tepper. Read on to discover the gear that he uses to make his tunes.

Apple MacBook Pro

“I tend to start a lot of tracks on my laptop - while I’m moving around I just get ideas down - then I develop them at home and fully arrange everything,” says Jon.

“With running the label and trying to keep on top of making music, I don’t really know when I’m going to feel inspired. I’ve got Logic and Ableton Live 9 on there.”

Nord Modular G1 Rack

“A fantastic piece of kit from back in the day, but the plugins emulate these sounds so well that we’ll only use it if we fancy being a bit more hands on, twiddling the knobs and going on journeys of discovery in the studio. A more tactile feel can be a bit more fun.”

Ableton Live 9

“I bounce my stems down and bring them into [Ableton Live] in Alex Tepper’s studio. We’ll basically go through each part bit by bit, adding effects, changing the arrangement and mixing down to get them really, really powerful for the sound systems in clubs.”

Genelec 8020 monitors

“We tend to use these most of the time. They’re mounted on two bricks to help stop the vibration on the wooden desk. They’re very powerful for their size and I’d recommend them to anybody.”

Focal Solo 6 BE monitors

“These are really for after we’ve mixed a track down and we’re working out what frequencies might not be cutting through enough. Although we make music for clubs, and club systems are very loud, people do listen to this music on car stereos and at home on basic CD players. So it’s important that the music suits that kind of mood.”

Novation ReMOTE 25 LE

“From time to time, if I feel a track needs a little something extra then I’ll start playing in parts. Bits of percussion from records, pitching them up and down, or a synth line or piano. It's always good to have this here to play it in properly.”

Plugins

“I’m quite a big fan of [SoundToys] EchoBoy. Certainly for breakdowns within techno records, the delays and reverbs can make for some pretty interesting manipulation. Before that, I was quite into [Sugar Bytes] Effectrix, which was really good fun, because you could get the effects up but could also manipulate the blocks within the effects.

“To be honest, a lot of Logic’s preset effects are really good - I love Phase Distortion, for example. I use it with Bitcrusher, which helps me get things sounding a bit crunchier - that Warehouse techno-type feel.”