“At the end of the day, audio processing is much more important to me than the source”: Techno artist Levon Vincent weighs in on gear

Electronic artist, producer and DJ Levon Vincent has argued that audio processing is “much more important” than the source when it comes to music-making.

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Discussing his creative process in a new interview with Music Radar, Vincent says he doesn’t have a preference for vintage or modern gear as he “never saw an advantage to one or the other”.

“A nice vintage synth with some tuning stuff going on can sound pretty good, but if you layer that with the punch of software it sounds ten times better,” he explains. “Then again, software alone sounds boring and clinical half the time.”

“The only thing I must have is at least one vintage synth from the Roland Juno series. I probably paid $200 for it back then and I also got a Roland 909 for $300 and a Yamaha DX7. I don’t even need a drum machine anymore and only have my converters because I couldn’t find a buyer.

“What I must replace though is my Chandler line mixer. Right now I’m going with a Neve 5067 and a JCF Audio converter. At the end of the day, audio processing is much more important to me than the source,” he says.

Also in the interview, Vincent reveals how he typically gets started on those Techno tracks of his, saying “If I’m at a DAW I love to work with drums first, but I’ll often just sit at a piano and write the tune before any computer is involved.”

“It depends on whether I want something melody-driven or drums-driven, and it’s best to have several different approaches because I’ll generally build a whole tune out of the first motive.”

He adds, “Everything goes through Reaper. That’s the big mama. I also opened LUNA recently and think I’ll experiment with that because I’m attracted by how luxurious it feels.”