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NO LOGO: CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT

The chill out duo's essential piece of kit!

Legendary chill-out producer Steve Miller (Afterlife) and international DJ/producer Pete Gooding collaborate as No Logo. Steve tells DJ Mag what they Can’t Live Without...

“We usually mix 'inside the box', so we need good analogue modelling software to get a musical rather than digital sound. In particular, the UAD Studer 800 tape plug-in coupled with Slate Digital’s Virtual Console Collection — this gets us a big studio sound. Every single channel in my Cubase set-up has a VVC followed by the Studer as the start of the insert chain.

This creates a warm, fat mix without having to add a maximiser or compressor across the output stage, which in the wrong hands squashes the life out of a track before it’s even got to the mastering stage.

“It’s a common misconception that making a track that has extra loudness makes it sound better — quite the opposite."

Sonic parts of the track are actually removed in the process, try playing a hyper-compressed track on a big rig and it hurts, whereas a well-mixed and well-mastered track just gets louder as you turn it up and is more three-dimensional, with trouser-flapping bass and a real stereo field.

“We just finished a track with Steve Smith from Dirty Vegas, it’s really simple musically, but the sound is incredible. For that mix I chose the API desk from the VCC which also offers SSL, Neve, Trident and a 50s Valve desk. They all have their own tonal balances, so you can add the right amount of fairy dust to the track by just sitting back and switching between five top classic consoles to find the sound that suits the track best. That is luxury.”