My Toolbox: Forester

This week we start things off with a new My Toolbox feature with LA-based indie electronic duo Forester. The pair released their debut album Kerosene in the second half of 2019 that starts out with a Tycho-esque track before settling in for joyous and breezy summertime indie dance records. Their new single “We Found Home” was released on Friday featuring Kwesi that goes a bit bigger with soaring synths to carry the record.

To see how the magic is made, they take us into their studio for a My Toolbox feature. The pair already has an impressive collection of synths and guitars that make their music sound lush and vibrant. Read on for their studio essentials.

Synths:

Dave Smith Instruments Sequential OB-6 Analog Synthesizer:

The OB-6 is an analog synthesizer made by Dave Smith Instruments in collaboration with Tom Oberheim. We use this synth in every song that we have released; it’s our go to for anything from pads to leads. It adds a warm analog character to our music that we haven’t been able to find in another machine thus far. Additionally, we’ve always been inspired by delays and atmospheric effects- OB’s on board effects have had a great deal of influence on our music.

Dave Smith Instruments Sequential Prophet Rev 2 Analog Synthesizer:

The Prophet Rev 2 is one of the newer synths in our arsenal. It’s a very versatile synth that we still have a lot of exploring to do with. So far we have used it for layering basses, pads, and arps. We used this synth for the arp in our song “Eremos” and layered it with an arp from OB-6.

Moog Sub Phatty:

We like to use this piece of gear primarily for its warm and powerful low end. We’ll usually use the sub phatty as a sub layer to a live recorded electric bass.

1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Reissue

This is another instrument that we use in every song of ours. It is a versatile guitar that can virtually do anything.

Universal Audio LA-610 MkII Tube Mic Preamp/Compressor

One of the best bass pre-amps out there. Also great for vocal compression and eq.

Telefunken Elektroakoustik AR-51

We credit this tube mic for its warm midrange and airy top end.

Universal Audio Apollo x8:

This is the newest piece of gear that we added to the Forester family. As we’ve collected more outboard gear, this interface has streamlined the creative process because of its numerous inputs and outputs. The zero latency plugins from UAD also allow us to use in the box plugins to track in real time. For example we love to run The Les Paul through the lexicon 224 reverb when writing.

-Our go-to plugins:

-All the Soundtoys bundle, particularly the delay chains in effectrack.

-PSP oldtimer for compression

-UVI Synth Anthology for quick synth layering

-Waves Gold for processing

-UAD Galaxy Delay and Lexicon 224 are great emulations of the classic dealy based effects

Roland RE-201 Tape Delay:

This is a super famous vintage tape delay that we recently started experimenting with. It’s great for adding that old school tape sound to anything from vocals to synths to guitars. You can also get it to self oscillate pretty easily which results in some interesting delay loops. It’s like it has a mind of its own.

Studio shot