What Piece Of Gear Can You Not Live Without?

I've never been somebody who buys a piece of equipment and decides it must stay in the studio forever. I buy what I think I need at the time. Sometimes it turns out to be exactly what I was looking for. Sometimes another manufacturer releases something that does the job better, or gives me a different sound or workflow.

When that happens, I'm happy to change things. There's always been equipment coming in and equipment going out. What matters to me is the finished system, rather than holding on to a particular unit for the sake of it.

Today, I feel as though I've reached the studio I set out to build. The console, controllers, EQs, compressors and mastering chain are all there for a reason. Each does a particular job, and the system works together in the way I want it to.

So picking three essentials isn't really about saying the rest of the gear doesn't matter. It's about identifying the pieces that would cause the biggest disruption if somebody took them away.

The first piece of equipment is my SSL console. This is absolutely central to how I now work.

I have a sophisticated DAW controller in the studio as well, and although I wouldn't enjoy losing it, I could still work without it. It's ultimately a control surface — a very detailed one, but a controller nonetheless.

The SSL console is different. It brings the analogue side of the studio together and has become essential to my workflow. It provides the central point around which so much of my setup operates, and I love how it sounds.

I've built my approach around the console. Taking it away would mean fundamentally changing the way I work. That's why it has to be at number one.

The second piece of gear is the Flock Audio patchbay. I genuinely cannot imagine going back to a traditional patchbay now.

So much of my studio is digitally recallable. Being able to route the analogue equipment without manually moving patch cables is a huge part of that. If somebody removed the Flock system, I'd be left wondering how I was supposed to use all this recallable hardware efficiently with a conventional patchbay.

Even thinking about going backwards to that way of working stresses me out. The convenience of the Flock system has become fundamental to the way the studio operates.

Mine provides 32 inputs and 32 outputs, and that gives me enough connections to route the equipment I need to use. It's perfectly capable of doing the job. Would I have liked a much larger system? Absolutely. More connections would mean I could leave even more equipment connected and available.

I spoke to Dale at SX Pro about one of the larger models. From memory, the price was somewhere around £11,000. I found that a difficult amount to justify for a patchbay. To be honest, I was reluctant enough to spend roughly £3,000 on the one I bought.

But having lived with it, I can say that it's one of the most important purchases I've made for the studio. It may not be the most exciting piece of equipment in the rack, and it isn't something you buy because of its sound, but the improvement it makes to the workflow is enormous.

My third essential is the Trinnov. It's one of those systems where the difference becomes immediately obvious when you turn it off.

Without it, the monitoring system still sounds very good. I like my speakers and I like the room. But when I engage the Trinnov, the whole system comes together in a way that is difficult to give up once you've experienced it.

The closest analogy I can give is a bus compressor. Imagine a mix that's a little loose and uncontrolled, then you engage the right bus compressor and everything suddenly feels more cohesive. That's similar to the way I experience the Trinnov in the monitoring room. It isn't literally doing the job of a compressor, but that sense of the whole system becoming more unified is the best way I can describe it.

It's especially important for immersive audio. In the system I'm talking about in the video, we're working with a 7.1.6 speaker configuration. That's a lot of speakers, and getting the timing and response of those speakers working together is essential.

The Trinnov helps with time alignment and room correction across the system. When I move an audio object around the room, I want to hear a smooth movement rather than being distracted by the sound passing from one speaker to another.

With the correction disengaged, I can notice those transitions more readily. With it engaged, the motion feels much more seamless. Having matching speakers around the room helps too, but the calibration is a major part of the result.

That's why the Trinnov earns its place in my top three. For the way I monitor and work in surround and Dolby Atmos, I wouldn't want to be without it.

What's interesting is that my three choices do completely different jobs. One is the centre of my analogue audio path, one manages how the outboard equipment is connected, and one makes the monitoring system work together.

None of them is simply an exciting new compressor or EQ. They are the foundation that allows all the other equipment to be used effectively.

Even though I feel I've built my ideal studio, that doesn't mean nothing will ever change. Manufacturers keep bringing out new products, and I'm always interested in equipment that offers something different.

One change I'm interested in is the Neve Elements range. My plan is to introduce some of those units in place of some of the WesAudio 500-series gear, giving me a wider choice of character across the studio.

I like the idea of having different flavours available: WesAudio, SSL and Neve. It's not necessarily that one replaces the other because it's objectively better in every situation. Sometimes I simply want more options when I'm choosing the right sound for a particular piece of music.

That's how the studio continues to evolve. I don't make changes for the sake of buying something new, but if a piece of equipment gives me a useful additional option, I'm interested.

I hate being asked which piece of gear I couldn't live without, because it makes me imagine having to give something up. I don't want to lose any of the equipment in this room. Every purchase has been part of a gradual process of building the studio I wanted.

But if I have to name three, it's the SSL console, Flock Audio patchbay and Trinnov. Take any one of those away and the way I work changes dramatically.

For me, that's what makes something essential. It's not necessarily its price, how impressive it looks or how fashionable it is. It's how deeply the equipment has become part of your workflow.

This is my dream studio. I've built it around the way I want to work, and those three pieces of equipment are at the very heart of it.