Up next on Artist Toolbox, it’s Marco Lys who has recently released his brand-new Toolroom Trademark Series Sample Pack. Marco Lys himself has been active in the scene for well over two decades, becoming a name synonymous with the Tech House scene &firmly establishing himself as one of the most respected producers in the genre.
With an endless flow of sublime productions since the early 90’s, Marco has released countless hits on some of the most respected labels there is. We caught up with the prolific producer and DJ to ask him what’s in his Artist Toolbox…
It’s a VST drum machine included with Cubase and has everything I need from this kind of instruments: a LOT of all well sounding drum kits, a lot of settings and fx for sound manipulation and separated outputs.
What I like the most is the ease of use and the possibility to add my samples. I usually use 2 of them in my tracks.
It’s a multi parametric EQ, for me the best one, I use it on practically every single channel and also on master channel for mastering. it is literally the surgeon’s scalpel to work with precision on sound. The feature to automatically detect the peaks frequencies with great precision is priceless. I use it since version 1 that was already great. With version 3 they added the band dynamic range, which is basically a compressor the acts on the selected band! Very useful when you have to correct some peaks without compromising the nature of the sound. Sometimes I use it as deesser.
It’s a virtual synth especially designed for basses and sub basses. When it comes to really going down with low frequencies, this virtual synth is a must for me. I mostly use it for its kind of 808 kick bass, it has the perfect ammount of low ends that fits perfectly to my tracks. I also love the kick waveforms for very percussive basses!
It’s a drum machine that emulates real drums in terms of sounds and player execution. Let’s talk about the samples: the drum that come out from this instrument is simply amazing, warm and wide, very difficult to distinguish from a real one. I use it to give that real feel to some of my tracks, especially for the toms fills. I use it creating my own midi patterns, although its onboard patterns are impressive.
It’s a virtual effect that adds sub harmonics to any sound. I’ve tested several plugins with the same feature but this one for me is absolutelly the best. I like it because it can add lowends where they don’t exists at all with a clearity that’s really impressive.
I mostly use it when I do mixing and mastering for other producers, sometimes they send me kicks or basslines that are lacking of proper lowends hardly fixable with just an EQ. This plugin always does the magic!
