The Year In Gear : My Favorite Studio Stuff from 2025
This year was about mobility, accessibility, and the opportunity to build from the ground up again. After moving into a new home back in April and leaving behind a professionally built studio, I made a deliberate shift toward a leaner, more adaptable setup. What follows is a record of what shaped my work, my listening, and my creative life over the past twelve months.
Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro, Magic Trackpad, Arturia Minilab 3, Slate VSX
This was the year I went almost fully mobile. I gave up the split between a dedicated studio computer and a laptop and moved everything onto one machine. I ditched the Magic Mouse for the Magic Trackpad, which feels like the best of both worlds for editing and navigation. The Arturia Minilab 3 is compact, tactile, and fun to use, with just enough knobs and faders to stay expressive without becoming clutter. The VSX headphones opened up the world as my mixing room. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to maintain the level of work I needed while working between studios. I know them intimately now and I’m looking forward to the new immersive set arriving in January. Minimalism and portability have massively won me over.
Dachmann Audio DA-87 (pair)
I picked these up during a sale after hearing a lot of praise and was pleasantly surprised. They’re solid, familiar-sounding LDCs that have held up across a wide range of sessions. I’ve used them as stereo overheads, on string room captures, and in situations where I just needed a solid pair of microphones. Fantastic value for the money, and they’ve already earned their place in my cabinet.
RealTraps Sound Absorbers and Diffusion
Starting over in a new room meant starting over acoustically. I initially built a few DIY traps, but eventually found a full RealTraps set for a great price, and it completely transformed the space. Having a consistent, well-designed system across both the mix area and live room has brought stability and consistency into the new space, which is something you don’t fully appreciate until you lose it and rebuild.
Ivers and Pond Upright Piano
Thanks to the generosity of Dan Fox at Wondersmith Audio, we now have a beautiful upright piano in the house and studio. I play it every day. It has influenced my writing, my mood, and even the way my family interacts with music. It’s just fun having a gorgeous instrument in our space and reminds me so much of growing up surrounded by music.
Mixer Brain
Everyone knows how skeptical I am of courses, but this one is different. Jeff Ellis infuses humor and earned perspective in this course about breaking out of bad habits and focusing on what really matters: the energy of the song. It’s on sale right now (I did not get paid for this endorsement)
Louis
Look at this dog.
Turntable and CD Listening Setup
I’ve spent more time this year listening to music on physical media. It brought me back to the ritual - sitting down and just listening.
Books
I’ve read more this year than in any of the last twenty. Textbooks, fiction, survival stories, accounts of sailing alone across the world - I realized this year how important books are in my life as something I do outside of work and family responsibilities.
Substack
Substack felt self-indulgent to me at first. I never thought of myself as a writer. But I’ve wanted to get better at expressing ideas with clarity and depth. So I went back to the basics: simple outlines, essay structures I learned in high school, and whatevers going on in my brain. Not everything I write is worth reading but everything I write is worth the EFFORT. I’ve now published weekly for three months, and I don’t want to stop. Writing has changed how I process the work I do. I hope it shows I am committed to getting better every day.
long stares
A small personal project with no expectations attached. No genre boundaries, no aesthetic rules. Sometimes it’s strange dance music built from noise machines; sometimes it leans heavy and abrasive. It exists purely because I wanted somewhere to make music for myself again.
Making Friends with Wildlife
The deer stop by and stare at me. The groundhog wanders over to see what I’m doing. It’s a weird, grounding form of companionship around the studio.
Studio Snake
Built by the wonderful Michael Cataldo Jr., this patch box sounds exponentially better than the junk it replaced. One of those unglamorous upgrades that improves everything downstream.
