Studio Essentials: DJOKO

German house talent DJOKO has been consistently impressive over the past few years, releasing his tracks on labels like MadTech, Shall Not Fade, Rawsome Deep and Whoyostro.

Now, teaming up with PIV Records, a label that has released works from ANOTR and Jaden Thompson in the past, DJOKO has released a sample pack containing dozens of bass loops, string pads, drums grooves and SFX.

We hooked up with the Cologne-based artist to get an insight into what bits of gear he’s using most in the studio, with mentions of Korg, Sennnheiser, Ableton and Yamaha, get the full list below.

Ableton Live

I’ve always used this program as the staple of my productions. It’s very intuitive and makes sense all around. It looks like Excel but that’s because it’s stripped down to the essentials. There were certain moments in the studio with other producers on other programs where I thought to myself: “If he was using Ableton now, he’d only need half the time to do what he’s after.” It also has all the plugins you need to get creative and some pretty awesome in-house drum racks.

Yamaha HS80M

It’s not important to have the best studio monitors – but – you should know your speakers. I’ve used these for 5 years now and I know them inside and out. Having the A-B test between these and my Sennheiser headphones is always really helpful, for any production. Now I’m thinking to get the smaller version of these since I’m not able to crank them up anyway and it’s kind of overkill to use the 8-inch version in such a small room.

TR-8S

This machine has always been instant inspiration. Whenever I feel like getting away from the mouse and touching some knobs to create grooves, I get on the TR-8S. It’s packed with great drum samples like the 909 and 808 sounds. Also, you are now able to load in your own sample packs. It’s always been a great help and will definitely stay next to my keyboard for a long time.

Nord Lead A1

You can find the sounds of the Nord Lead in almost all my productions. It’s another great way of stepping away from the computer and finding a good atmosphere for a track. I’m a big fan of pads and this thing just has so many nice sounds to choose from, which gives me instant inspiration. The built-in reverbs and delays are also really great. They have their own unique character. It’s not only good for pads though, you can get some serious basslines out of this thing as well.

KORG Prologue

Another hardware synth which I’m slowly getting into. It’s the extended version of the Minilogue and man does it sound nice. It has a built-in compressor which you can look at when playing some notes and has such a broad variety of sounds. So whether you want to throw in some sharp lead sounds or thick basslines, this will do the job!

Sennheiser HD-25

I know they’re supposed to be DJing headphones, but I love to produce with them. Again it’s just about knowing the things you have. I bought dead flat production headphones and they were not fun at all to work with. For me, the aspect of having fun is more important than the aspect of the headphones being true. Also they never break – so you can throw them in any bag, sit on them or put them in your fridge and they are still good to use.

Check out PIV + DJOKO’s sample pack here.