Intro
"My studio is in a very old building from 1900 in Düsseldorf. Because I am mainly recording acoustic instruments and especially the piano, everything is focused on that instrument.
"I have a two year old Zimmermann piano, which is a brand belonging to Bechstein. This particular piano is a great instrument as it has a very bright but also quite bassy sound. I record every take of the piano with six microphones in stereo pairs and as I am mostly recording, mixing and producing myself, the equipment has to be very close to me as a player."
Piano
"The Microphone settings are two Schoeps with an MK4 capsule on the front, two Groovetubes GT44s on the bottom and DPA 4061 above the tuning nails."
Schoeps Mk4 microphone
"The Schoeps Mk4s have a great warm and full on sound. I use them in combination with the Mytek Stereo 192 ADC."
Groovetubes GT44
"The Groovetubes mics are the first microphones I bought myself and they have a wonderful valve sound. I use them as well for string recordings but they need to warm up for at least an hour."
DPA 4061
"The DPA 4061s are very small and you can use them for recording cellos or violins. Here I am using them inside of the piano to get a very close up sound of the various preparations. A lot of times I use beer bottle caps as a tambourine on one string."
Soundcraft Spirit
"I have quite an old Soundcraft Spirit desk which sounds nice and warm. It has good mic preamps and I mostly mix with it then record back into the computer.
"Resting on the mixing board there is a Korg Monotribe which I bought in Japan not long ago and I use for some delays. All my bass sounds come from the Roland JP8000."
Audio Interface
"I have only a few things for outboard as I dont like too much compression. So, I have an Akai analogue filter, a Motu 828 and a RME Fireface 800. In the computer I have as well a UAD-2 Card."
Wem CopyCat
"I love the Copy Cat from WEM as a delay source and it is constantly used."
Eventide Timefactor
"I also use an Eventide Timefactor delay, which is a great little chaos machine that I ordered from Steim Institute in Amsterdam."
Mytek
"The MYtek Stereo192 ADC is my newest piece I bought. It's an A/D Converter and it has a great sound."
Harmonium
"From time to time I am using the Harmonium from my great Grandmother which was made in 1880. It is in a perfect condition and it sounds like a huge Accordion. I like it a lot."
