One thing I haven’t mentioned before is my love of taking recording equipment on the road with me. I take a recording device to get noises of trains, conversations in cafes and anything else that grabs my attention.

You see for me sounds are almost more important than visuals. A picture is worth a thousand words but a thousand words are, well, a thousand words, so imaging listening back to chats you have on the road.

So what do I take with me?

Firstly my laptop so that I can edit what I record. I have FL Studio producer edition and Reaper to record on. FL Studio because it has all sorts of useful things like great ways to record drum loops, and Reaper because it’s a more traditional looking DAW that is simple and does what it says on the tin.

Sometimes I slave FL Studio to Reaper, but more and more I’m just using FL Sudio on it’s own.

To record audio I have a Zoom H2. It’s a miracle to have a quadraphonic recorder in such a neat package and the recordings are great. The other thing is that it acts as a soundcard with ASIO if you get the right drivers for it.

The other thing I use is the miraculous little Korg Nanokey. But make sure you buy the bag with it as I managed to snag one of the keys off by storing it in my rucksack au naturel – Dolphin Music (if you are in the UK) are including the bag in their dealor you can get the keyboard only cheaper elsewhere (remember that the bag costs almost a tenner so it works out the same).

When I get home I add a small Peavey RQ200 mixer (can run on batteries so can be used anywhere) and a simple UCA202 USB Soundcard so that I have a choice of inputs.

Suits me fine.