Paul Oakenfold's favourite music software
The bona fide dancefloor legend tells us what's on his hard drive
LennarDigital Sylenth1
“Sylenth is extremely versatile and a regular that I keep going back to. Its sounds have a thickness and meat that a lot of competitor synths lack. The basslines are absolutely solid, the pads are full, and for acid lines, it’s one of the best in the business.”
Soundtoys EchoBoy
“I can’t rate this delay highly enough. Echoboy is really tweakable, so you can fine-tune your delay to an amazing degree. It’s such a user- friendly plugin. Its ping-pong delay and the saturation settings are just great, and the Tweak and Style Edit buttons are fantastic for creating unique delay effects.”
Waves S1 Stereo Imager
“The S1 is my go-to plugin for extra stereo separation where necessary - on certain pads or percussion loops, or maybe on the master out – to give your track a touch more width. It’s extremely simple to use and the results are always impressive.”
Native Instruments Massive
“This is a hugely powerful synth, and a must for my more up-tempo trance productions. A lot of my recent tracks on Perfecto have Massive sounds in - those lovely metallic FM basslines that cut through in the mids, and ripping acids that give grit, energy and pace to your track as 16th-note patterns.”
DAWs
“I switch between Logic and occasionally Cubase or Ableton depending on the studio I’m working in. I tend to create ideas in Logic while in transit and then use Cubase when it comes to mixing down back in the studio in LA. Ableton is great for timestretching, changing pitch or making shorter edits of tracks people have sent me.”
Paul Oakenfold's new album Trance Mission is out in June on Perfecto Records
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