Listed below are common techniques Nathan uses to create his sonic landscapes. To the right are the software, hardware and instruments he uses.

"I use my computer for my recording and sequencing, though obviously I play all the stuff on keyboards or guitars. In the old days, I used two computers . . . let's call them computer A and computer B . . . I would start with the melody, then record it on my keyboard and save it as a MIDI file on computer A. I then built around the melody, first with MIDI drums, then with the other tracks, all in MIDI. After a piece was pretty much filled out, I soloed most the MIDI tracks from computer A's speaker outs into computer B's speaker in's, recording each MIDI track as digital audio. Then I had to sync up all the new digital audio tracks in my sequencing software to match the original MIDI file.

Of course with Sonar, I can do the whole thing on one computer. You just convert the MIDI files to audio in one click. No sounds artifacts, no hassle at all - it's SO much better than it used to be!

This is where the real fun begins - filtering, effects, EQ, compression where needed, and stuff like that. If the song has vocals or guitars or drums, I record them during this phase. And I replace the MIDI drums with real samples. I usually put together my own beats using individual drums, but often I'll combine my own grooves with already existing ones that I think fit the song.

After a lot of work, I'll eventually have the final mix ready to go. Depending on what sound I want, I may also run the completed tracks through an effects box like the SPL or BBE 482 before sending it to a cd burner. But 90% of the time, I keep it all digital, because the plug-ins are so good these days."

 

Software

Sonar 7.0 Producer Edition
Cakewalk Project 5
Sonic Foundry Acid
Antares Auto-tune 4.0
Voxegen Mastering Suite
Sonitus FX
Aboretum Systems Hyperprism H-DX 2.5
Arboretum Systems Ray-Gun Pro
Alien Connection Revalver SE
DreamStation DXi 2 synthesizer
DS864 DXi software synth/sampler
Lexicon Pantheon Plug-in
Waves Gold Bundle
Speedsoft Virtual Sampler 2.7
nPulse analog synthesizer
PSYN analog synthesizer
Pentagon software synthesizer
Velocity Drum Machine
MusicLabs Velomaster 2.1
Pyro 2004
PSP Vintage Warmer
Izotope Ozone Mastering Suite

Instruments

Yamaha EX-5 Synthesizer Workstation
Casio CTK-101 Keyboard
ESP B-50 bass guitar
ESP M-50 electric guitar
Carlos acoustic guitar