Studio Favorites: Coflo

Coflo Ferreira (San Francisco / Bay Area, California) is an international touring DJ, music producer, dancer, Capoeirista, and audio engineer. His work sits at the intersection of underground dance culture, technical precision, and embodied movement. Coflo produces house and electronic music and has released as a featured artist on labels including Sacred Medicine (Joe Claussell / Ron Trent), Yoruba (Osunlade), Freerange (Jimpster), and Cataleya. He is the founder of Catch The Ghost and LoudCat Music, platforms for original productions and forward-thinking collaborations. He is also a member of the Soulshifters collective and the dance crew Circle of Fire. In addition to his artist career, Coflo is currently a mix engineering educator and course designer at Detroit’s premier music production school, the Underground Music Academy, where he mentors emerging producers and engineers.

FabFilter Pro-Q 4

“All right.This is one that you've heard from a million people, but I'm jumping on the bandwagon.For many years, doing EQing with Logic as my DAW of choice using the stock EQs, which are fantastic, or using iZotope tools or various other free plugins.I finally broke down this last year and joined the FabFilter bandwagon and Pro-Q 4 is a beast.From corrective measures to musical idea enhancements to education.I mean, being able to learn and to have such a broad tool set of EQ capability, this isThere, it really is, I mean, I'm sure there's some other EQs that, that rival it, but I mean, uh, the way it interacts and behaves, I mean, look at, just flipping through presets, look at all the crazy curves and settings.You know, just, just to give you an idea of the wildness of it all.And of course, obviously, I'm not big on the presets, um, but man, what an EQ.Gotta have it.”

Korg Prologue 16

“Another legendary piece of synth that is gonna stay in my studio amongst all the stuff that I've sold and bought back and sold and got rid of.This has never left the studio after acquisition.It's a Prologue 16 voice, so they make an 8 voice and a 16 voice.This is a 16 voice.2 oscillators, one digital oscillator.Why I love it is that post my time period with a 106 and kind of learning subtractive synthesis many, many, many, many, many years ago, the Korg Minilogue was, like, the first, like, kind of just workhorse that I found to be beneficial.And being that it was 4 voice, I started running into times where I wanted bigger chords, and those bigger chords needed more voices.I purchased this.Um, it shows up on so many records in so many different ways, and oftentimes I have to put it away because it becomes, like, the backdrop to everything.But I absolutely love it.I love it.I love it.I love it.It's a very important piece of gear for me.”

Adam Audio S3XHs

“Nothing is more important in the creative decisioning process and in your compositions than your ears.And who speaks to your ears?Your monitors.These are the Adam S3XHs.This is last series.This isn't the most current series of this model, but I have a pair of these bad boys, which are dressed up lovely with a pair of cryptic skulls to give the ultimate vibes to these.When I moved to more of this midfield design, a lot more transparent, a lot more focus in the mid-range.A lot of people say a lot of buzzwords about this kind of stuff, but until you start to learn and take the listening practices seriously, there's so much that changes.It's not only about how your music sounds, like sonically how it sounds, but also compositionally the types of choices and the things that you might move towards because of how you hear things.Monitoring game is a must for me.”

Apple - Logic Pro

“I am fairly versed in a few DAWs, but my workflow and creativequickness is second to none inside Logic Pro. Even when working in other DAWs toshake up the workflow blues... the cool stuff I come up with in Ableton, or other DAWswill aways get completed in Logic. I feel in control and like I have endless creativefreedom in Logic. It is just my weapon of choice and if I had NOTHING else but a setof headphones and Logic, I could make something that comes from my spirit.”