TOM DEMAC CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT

“I picked up the Focusrite ISA430 Mk2 a few months ago after a few friends hammered on to me about the need for a quality channel strip in the studio.

I'm not usually one for buying outboard gear that doesn't make a noise or let me jam with it, having always invested in synths, drum machines and guitar pedals over the years.

“When cracking the box open and seeing the ISA430 for the first time, there was an immediate thought I'd be spending a long time getting my head around it, but it's a really intuitive piece of kit and within a couple of hours I was up and running.

It's now a key piece of my studio, whether it's fattening up my old analogue synths at the recording stage, heavily compressing and adding warmth to my drums or recording vocals using the lovely sounding pre-amp.

“Talking of vocals, the fact that I'm a truly terrible singer has always been the musical thorn in my side over the years.

Sadly, I can't seem to shake off the growling satanic style I was trying to imitate from heavy metal bands when wearing face paint, leopard-skin leggings and a frilly shirt at battle of the bands competitions in my early teens.

Since I've been using this channel strip though, I've found I can record some decent harmonies myself, sounding a lot less poor man's James Hetfield [Metallica] or Sebastian Bach from Skid Row.

For electronic music, trust me, that is a very good thing!”.