Studio Equipment That Encourages You to Experiment
Gear that pushes you outside your comfort zone.
We explore a range of different studio equipment that encourages you to experiment with sound during the recording and mixing phases of your project.
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While much of the studio gear we use performs a specific function, there are certain pieces of kit that have the tendency to open doors creatively. Now, thinking outside the box doesn’t have to be literally mixing with hardware instead of a DAW. You can also be inspired to take a different approach in your sound creation and songwriting process.
Studio Equipment That Encourages You to Experiment: Audio-Technica AT4050
When it comes to gear that allows you to experiment, microphones are seldom mentioned. A multipattern mic like the AT4050 can be used in a number of ways for more direct (cardioid), ambient (omnidirectional), and mid-side (figure-8) recording. The reason I’ve chosen the AT4050 is that it’s a tried and tested studio tool with years of great results to show for itself, and a clean, modern sound.
However, for the purpose of mid-side recording, you can use any decent multipattern condenser switched to figure-8 polar pattern mode or even a ribbon mic, as these usually have a figure-8 pattern by default. This figure-8 mic is then combined with a cardioid mic in the mid-side configuration, so the cardioid mic captures the mid channel, and the figure-8 mic captures the side information.
When you record instruments this way, it gives you the flexibility to balance your signals between the mid and side channels. For example, this allows you to reduce the mid channel and increase the side channel of an acoustic guitar to allow the lead vocal track to sit front and center, while the accompanying guitar surrounds it.
Studio Equipment That Encourages You to Experiment: Elektron Analog Heat +FX
A hardware multi-effects unit is another piece of gear that allows you to experiment easily with a range of different sounds. The Analog Heat +FX is a particularly interesting unit because it combines tasty analog circuitry and a flexible DSP engine. What’s more, because it can connect to your computer like a USB audio interface, the Analog Heat +FX can run like a plugin in your DAW with the Overbridge software.
The Analog Heat +FX offers a range of eight stereo analog distortion circuits, giving you a range of colors to use while mixing or recording. There is also a versatile multimode filter with seven filter modes and a 2-band EQ to shape the bandwidth. Meanwhile, on the digital side, you have seven effects blocks that can be used in any order.
This gives you additional effects like chorus, delay, reverb, compression, bit-reduction, and more. Overall, because it can be used in just about any situation and on any instrument, the Analog Heat +FX is an ideal tool to turn to when you need a little inspiration, as it has the ability to transform sounds tonally and introduce space, texture, and width.
Studio Equipment That Encourages You to Experiment: Echo Fix EF-X3
Whether you’ve used a vintage tape echo unit before or only a plugin, you’ll know that it’s a gift that keeps on giving as far as experimentation goes. In fact, you could probably give three different musicians the same tape echo unit, and each one will come up with completely unique results and find their own special way to implement the effect creatively.
The first thing a tape echo provides is timing fluidity, as rather than being locked into the BPM of your DAW session, you have continuously variable controls to adjust the echo speed and feedback amount to complement the feel of the music you’re creating. Vintage-style tape echoes like the Echo Fix EF-X3 also combine the echo effect with chorus and spring reverb.
This means you have multiple echo layers from the different tape heads with separate outputs and the ability to dial in doses of chorus and reverb when you need it. Overall, you have a versatile effects processor that provides a new scope of ideas depending on whether you are feeding it guitar, vocals, synths, or drums.
Studio Equipment That Encourages You to Experiment: Eventide Omnipressor
The Eventide Omnipressor is a creative dynamics processor, birthed in the golden age of recording gear. As its innovative design managed to separate the level detection and VCA circuits, the Omnipressor laid the foundations for look-ahead and sidechain processing. Why it’s called the Omnipressor is that it processes signals both above and below the threshold point at once.
This is rather different from a usual compressor, and it allows you to completely reshape the gain structure of a recording, whether you are aiming to increase or decrease the dynamic range. The processing characteristics are controlled with the main Function knob, and as you dial it clockwise, you shift from gate/expander to a more familiar compressor/limiter.
With features like infinite compression, you can keep the output signal at a constant level even if the input signal is varying constantly. Meanwhile, you can also use inverse or negative compression, which makes the subtle parts of the signal loud and the peaks become soft. As you can imagine, this makes the Omnipressor a particularly fun tool for experimentation.
*Note that this item is on sale (-20%) at Sweetwater until 3 January 2027
Studio Equipment That Encourages You to Experiment: Radial EXTC
If you aren’t a guitarist yourself, you probably have a friend who is, and they have an extensive pedalboard loaded with effects. With the Radial EXTC boxes and 500-series modules, you can send balanced signals from your DAW, which are converted to Hi-Z for interfacing with guitar effects and amps.
As the scope of available pedals is simply staggering, this opens up the creative possibilities far beyond what you have access to in your DAW, and because pedals are often designed with stage performance in mind, they have an immediacy about them that is often inspiring to use. From the range of distortion stomp boxes to expansive digital reverbs, there is simply no limit to what’s out there.
This also lets you introduce a performance-oriented approach to your music-making process, whether you’re starting from scratch or enhancing your existing DAW projects with hardware effects. While you are likely to start amassing your own pedal collection as a result, you will certainly have fun and discover a few new sounds along the way.
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