Studio Essentials: Hannes Bieger

Hamburg born, but now based in Berlin, Hannes Bieger has certainly become a go-to provider for high quality live performances, alongside the likes of KiNK, Stephan Bodzin and Saytek.

Besides the performance focused end of things, Bieger is also a studio enthusiast and has mixed and mastered countless tracks for other artists and released his own tracks with Bedrock, Hommage and Poker Flat Recordings.

Welcoming him to our Studio Essentials series, Hannes tells us all about his favourite studio monitors, microphones, outboard synths and rack mount processors. His picks include gear from Moog, Genelec, Neumann and more, you can find the full list below.

Moog Minimoog

In terms of studio gear, owning this synth has been one of my proudest achievements. I always wanted to have one since the 90s, but back then I could never afford it. In 2004 I finally bought a unit that was refurbished by Rudi Linhard, and it arrived as if it came straight out of the factory – which is very remarkeable for a synth that was already 25 years old at the time. To date it hasn’t required any additional service, it’s still going strong. It might be my desert island synth, I know it inside out, and pushing it past its limits prepared me for the Moog Modular. It sounds simply majestic, and I will never part with it!

Neumann U67

This microphone always has been one of my favourites, and I own one with a two-digit serial number, possibly the oldest mic of this type you will ever see! It has a beautiful tone – it sounds as clear and true to the source as you would expect from a vintage Neumann, yet it has this gorgeous texture and warmth that makes it a standout mic even between the other classics. On top of that it’s an engineering marvel, it looks and feels like a sculpture.

UREI 1176LN Blackface Rev F

Another example of recording history ‘first’ that stood the test of the time. The first commercially viable transistor compressor on the market, the 1176 still proves one of the best sounding and most versatile units available. I own a later version called Revision F, built in 1973, which normally doesn’t get as much attention between gear enthusiasts as the earlier models. But I love it to the moon and back, because it sounds a bit warmer than the other versions, while still packing all the punch you would expect from such a compressor. Another desert island piece!

Ursa Major Space Station SST-282

This unit was the second commercially available digital reverb unit after the legendary EMT 250. It cost a fraction of the EMT, and while the 250 is still considered one of the best sounding reverb units ever made, the Space Station comes across as an entirely different animal. It is more of a multi tape delay, it certainly doesn’t offer a lush tail at all. But it sounds gritty and crunchy and noisy and full of character, and it offers the most 3D sounding dub/delay/chorus/comb filter effects I have ever heard.

Genelec 8050a and Audeze LCD-4

All the tones and textures only mean so much if you can’t really tell what you’re doing! These units are my favourite monitoring devices, and they allow me to tell what’s going on sonically. The Genelecs have a remarkeable sub bass for an 8“ nearfield speaker, so I don’t even need a subwoofer. They also offer a very flat response, and as a two way system there is only one crossover frequency to deal with.

The Audezes on the other hand are the best headphones I have ever heard. They sound as clear and pristine as it gets, yet they retain a certain smoothness. And they make you dive into the music so much that you just want to stop mixing, lay down on the floor and listen to your favourite records all day!

Hannes Bieger – Poem for the Planet will drop April 3rd on Awesome Soundwave.

Find more content from Hannes Bieger here.