WHAT’S ON YOUR HARD DRIVE?

Amirali Tehran-born, London-based Amirali Shahrestani loves analogue synths and software emulations

ABLETON LIVE 10

“I’ve played music since I was a kid. Traditional music; the piano. My first move to electronic music was via Reason, then Cubase, but I have been with Ableton for around ten years now – a friend introduced me to it, and that was the end of the story. The wonderful audio/MIDI workflow, easy integration with everything I bring into the studio, the sound engine… it really has infinite possibilities!”

ARTURIA ARP 2600 V

“In the early days, I used 100% softsynths, but as time went on I started to introduce a few hardware synths and drum machines into my studio. Now I’m almost 100% hardware. Almost. The ARP 2600 V is still one of my main tools. It was one of Arturia’s first emulations, so they’ve had lots of time to improve. And the sound quality is absolutely incredible!”

WAVES ABBEY ROAD REVERB PLATES “By far the best plate reverb on the market. It gives you a deep, rich reverb that I’ve never heard from any other plugin. You can go from subtle to lush with just a few tweaks, and it will always fit easily in any mix. I use it a lot on vocals and snares, to add realism and punch.” SOUNDTOYS DECAPITATOR

“Some people might try to tell you that this is just a simple plugin; that all it can give you is basic saturation and distortion. I don’t agree with that at all! You can add it to virtually anything you like – vocals, drums, synths – and it will immediately take the signal to the next level. For some reason, I find that it gives any element the ability to slice right through the mix.”

UAD NEVE 1073 PREAMP AND EQ COLLECTION

“I record a lot of vocals, and this one gets used every time. What I love is that you can just add it to the channel and, without tweaking any controls, the vocal will sound better. That’s the sign of a good plugin: it does the job with little effort!”

“I’m almost 100% hardware. Almost. The ARP 2600 V is still one of my main tools”