Plug-ins I Actually Use: Aron Volta

The Dutch house producer shares his secret software weapons after the release of his PIV Records sample pack.

Hero Aron Volta
When you purchase through affiliate links on MusicTech.com, you may contribute to our site through commissions. Learn more.

Aron Volta’s hypnotic house productions have gained him support from underground heavyweights Butch and Chris Stussy, have charted on the Beatport Deep House Top 100 and have garnered hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify. For his new sample pack, now available on PIV Records, the Netherlands-born producer combined his skills with software and prowess on performance gear to create a wealth of ethereal loops, one-shots and melodies.

In the wake of his new EP, Hot Night, we catch up with Aron to learn more about his favourite software, learning about his love for Ableton’s stock devices and why the now-classic Sylenth1 is still a go-to synth for him.

What’s your latest plug-in purchase?

WLM Plus Loudness Meter from Waves – I use this for mixing and mastering. The Waves WLM Plus Loudness Meter plugin provides me with precise loudness measurement, metering, correction, and adjustment tools for uploading to streaming services such as Spotify, Youtube and more. It lets me check short term and long term LUFS. I also use the free Youlean Loudness Meter.

What’s the best value plug-in you own?

That’ll be Kickstart from Nicky Romero. It’s an amplitude envelope shaper that behaves like an instant sidechain compressor. It’s easy to use and sounds awesome, with different wave shapes to choose from. I think it cost me 10 Euros and I use it on almost every bass channel in my projects.

Nicky romero Kickstart
Nicky Romero’s Kickstart

What’s a DAW stock plug-in you use all the time?

Ableton Live’s Amp device. Its a software guitar amplifier so it adds noise and a lot of distortion. I love the sound of Amp, plus it has a lot of options to shape the sound of the distortion. I use it sometimes to give an instrument more body or to help make them stand out more in the mix. It also generates a lot of low-end frequency content, so I like to filter that after with EQ Eight.

In your new sample pack for PIV, which plug-in was essential in its creation?

Sylenth1 by LennarDigital. It’s a warm and analogue-sounding soft synth. Sylenth1 is a synth that’s been around for a long time now, so there are loads of third-party banks and presets available for it. The workflow is clean and I find it simple to create sounds with.

Which plug-in is your secret sauce?

Ableton’s Reverb to create small room spaces, and Ableton’s Ping-Pong Delay. I always use these on a send channel to quickly create more space and room within the mix.

Ableton Reverb

Which plug-in is your guilty pleasure?

That will again be Kickstart from Nicky Romero. I love it because its so easy to use and so quick to get the result I need. Its saves me a lot of time in the composition and mixing process.

What do you use without fully understanding?

iZotope’s Ozone 7 Vintage Tape. I don’t know what this plug-in does, but it makes the whole mix sound more warm and gives it more weight on the low end. But I don’t have a clue how!

iZotope Ozone 7 Tape

Aron Volta’s new EP, Hot Night, is available to purchase and stream now. His sample pack with PIV records is also available – learn more at pivrecords.com.

logo

Get the latest news, reviews and tutorials to your inbox.

Subscribe
Join Our Mailing List & Get Exclusive DealsSign Up Now
logo

The world’s leading media brand at the intersection of music and technology.

© 2024 MusicTech is part of NME Networks.