Early in my career, I was a professional singer/songwriter. I now have a family and a vocation that I’m passionate about, and I’m grateful that music remains a big part of who I am and what I like to do. 

One Room Schoolhouse

One Room Schoolhouse is my latest project. I’m having fun with it – it’s unabashedly electronic and I’m writing songs that I’m not worried about playing live. New wave meets retro jazz pop. You need this! More new music arriving in 2024.

Jeff Shuck

You can find my solo music on Spotify, Apple Music, and most other major outlets.

My first full-length album, brightest coldest blue, was originally released on a CD in 1998. I recorded it using a Roland MC-500 and the venerable VS-880. It seemed like high technology at the time! (Lyrics for the songs are available here.)

Soon after that I moved to a Mac running OS 9 and a program that was then called Logic Silver 4. The march to the digital audio workstation had begun and I’ve been on it ever since, although recently I’ve grown fond of hardware again. There’s just something about the tactile response of great gear. Some highlights of my current kit list are below.

Plenty

In my role as co-leader and principal of Plenty I also write all the music for our videos and meditations. Several years ago we released our first album of guided meditations featuring the voice of my co-leader, Jennifer Mulholland. It’s beautiful work and the perfect thing to start your day. You can find Plenty on Spotify and Apple Music as well.

Gear

  • iMac Pro 3 GHz 10-Core with 64 GB RAM. My computer philosophy has always been, “Buy big and hold.” Well, six years ago this was THE BEAST … but the new Apple processors are starting to leave this ol’ beast in the dust. Logic isn’t choking yet but it’s starting to sputter at times. The whole approach to buying big seems to be changing as Apple want you to buy a new machine every two years.

  • UAD Apollo x4 and Satellite. Sounds beautiful. I think Spark is great and I’m quickly moving off using the hardware-powered versions, which is interesting.

  • Logic Pro X. How Apple have created ongoing and primarily free updates is amazing to me. I’ve tried other DAWs many times and always come back to Logic. A wonderful product and an incredible value.

  • Sometimes for fun, Korg Gadget and Reason. When I’m stuck, maybe Ableton 11 and Bitwig. I think what Bitwig are doing is quite cool.

  • Focal Shape 65s — I said for years I was going to upgrade and finally did. I love these. Amazing.

  • Korg Oasys 88 — I bought this second-hand in 2009 and still nothing can beat it for class and UI. Recently I’ve been comparing it to the Fantom and I’ve been surprised to hear myself say that the Fantom sounds better in some contexts. That said, there’s really nothing matches the Oasys interface. It is just so easy to use and a joy to program. A powerful, amazing instrument and I come back to it again and again. A used Oasys on eBay is around $2500 and may be the best deal in music right now. Nothing beats the sheer presence of it. While it is nice that Korg has essentially re-issued this core technology in less expensive packages again and again over the last two decades, I’m sad they haven’t put themselves out there to try to top it. (A couple of years ago I was looking at getting an Opsix until I realized I already had it, complete with the intuitive fader and knob UI, in the Oasys.) I laugh when I hear people say the Kronos or Nautilus are “more powerful” — clearly no one saying that has sat in front of the Oasys interface. The build qualities are light years apart, like comparing a bicycle to a Ferrari. Specifications aren’t the only features that matter; elegance, workflow, and build quality are features, too. A Steinway grand piano has zero gigabytes of RAM …

  • Roland Fantom 7 — I bought one of the first back in 2019. It had some rough edges and I applaud Roland for the ongoing updates. I wasn’t sold on Zenology or Roland Cloud, but to their credit they’ve kept investing in it, and have built quite an ecosystem. The Fantom sounds really good, within the context of the sound engine which is a bit impenetrable in that Roland way — there’s no way to sort the waveforms (?!), some critical editing functions are presented in Excel-like tables, and so forth. Not so fun. I love the knobs and sliders, which make a big difference, although perhaps if the sliders were somehow more integrated into the synth engine editor I’d find the engine easier to program. The new introduction of the EX version is cool, and it’s nice to have more than 61 keys. Alas, the Oasys display conveys way more information and the Akai display blows it away for what’s possible in a modern machine. Which brings me to what Akai is doing…

  • Akai MPC Live II and Force. I use these as idea stations, mostly, but the more I use them the more I like them. The interfaces took me a while to understand but I’m getting my head around it. The regular, excellent updates set the standard for the industry. The plugins are fantastic and the sampler sets the bar. I don’t have an MPC Key but I’m find myself “driving by on the way home” quite a bit. The Live II is so damn fun. Battery + speaker + 1 TB SSD = Amazing!

  • Groove Synthesis 3rdWave — Amazing. I traded a Prophet X for it. I wanted to like the Prophet X more than I did. The idea was cool but the polyphony was really limiting. The Groove3 has 24 voices and is classy, massive, expensive, and worth it. And like Akai, they are updating this thing regularly. The knobs! I have a Hydrasynth which I love — so easy to edit — but it doesn’t get much use with the 3rdWave in town.

  • A number of retro synths and samplers, including a Korg Wavestation A/D, an E-Mu E-Synth, an Ensoniq VFX, EPS16+, and SQ80 — I love Ensoniq! — a Roland Juno-1, an Akai S6000, and more besides. Really into late-80s to mid-90s right now, obviously. Sometimes hardware is the best way. I spend too much time on Reverb!

  • Elektron Analog Rytm MkII — these are so easy to love. I went overboard with Elektron at one point, but I’ve pared things back down. I traded up from the Digitakt to the AR and haven’t regretted it. The file management is a pain and I find Overbridge to be a bit finnicky. Still, there’s just something about the Elektron gear. I use this more for idea generation and then migrate into something more powerful. Inspiring, well made, incredible. I wish the Fantom had the Elektron sampler and parameter locks.

  • The Hologram Microcosm — totally unneeded as plugins can easily do all of this and then some, but that’s not really the point. So fun. Using it a lot for One Room Schoolhouse.

  • Lots of plugins and overstuffed hard drives. I am gravitating back to hardware as you can see from the above list, but plugins are here to stay. In terms of plugins, Kontakt features prominently. I do love anything by Spitfire, although I feel they’ve lost the plot recently. Arturia rock, and the SSL bundle is incredible. I like what Spectrasonics, Output, SoundToys, and Baby Audio do. Baby Audio Transit is my latest addiction. XO and Life from XLN are quite cool, and I reach for Superior Drummer by Toontrack again and again.