Me in my studio: Perfect Stranger
Inside the studio of the Israeli progressive trance man
Intro
Perfect Stranger is a stage name for Israel-based electronic musician Yuli Fershtat, who's been making and performing his music since 1997. This is the space where he creates his beats.
The interesting thing about the place is that it's a Navy Container that was re-designed inside to serve as his studio.
"Basically, any time I change the place I am renting out for a new one, the studio travels on the truck with me to my new house! This way I don't need to get my ears used to a new space every time, and I must admit that the sound this studio produces is really good.
"The only drawback I have, is that it could be a little wider, and the subs suffer as they are not developed properly - so if I made this container again today, I would probably make it 3.5 metres by 8 metres (slightly bigger) and then it would be simply perfect..."
Perfect Stranger's album Leap of Faith is out now on Iboga Records
The first synth
"Back in the day, when it was my 27th birthday, my friends brought me a cheque to go and buy myself a synth to make electronic dance music. I thought it was a kinda funny gesture. This is the one I got and I still use it - a Yamaha CS1x. They knew better than me for sure."
Crown amp
"Back in the day (part two) if I has seen this piece of garbage out on the street I wouldn't even have noticed it. But it so happens that this piece of junk Crown DC-300A Sreies II is an A-class discrete studio miracle. Best piece of junk I've ever owned."
Roland SH-101
"Best synth ever made in my opinion. This baby is upgraded with an extra triangle waveform that enables special wavetables to be chosen, taking its sound capabilities to monstrous proportions.
"An ultra fast and ultra slow LFO rate has been added and an FM function is there as well. There's also a really cool overdrive knob to play around."
Moog Moogerfooger
"Here's a bit of Moog kit, the Moog Moogerfooger MF-104Z Analog Delay."
Realistic Moog
"This one is not mine and is just staying around until I have to give it back. For me it's the best Moog ever created, period."
Moog Voyager
"As much as wish it was, it isn't even close to being as nice as the other Moog in my studio."
xOxBox
"This is NOT the real TB-303... but it sounds pretty much the same. Plus it has some amazingly cool extras, such as overdrive, extra decay, extra resonance for the screaming sound, an upgraded envelope control and more. And of course I can plug in various LFO shapes from my SH-101 and make a real mess there."
Vestax VCM-600
"This was (still is, but won't be once the new Livid controller arrives) my Ableton Live controller for gigs for the last two years and more. It looks pretty broken right now; it's still in working shape, though. It had an extremely large number of battles on every continent and it won all of them. It's a beast of a controller."
Software favourites
"Vengeance and Sound Toys packages are simply filled with phatness and bring my productions up to the next level. These are some of my favourite plug-ins to work with."