The REAPER Revelation

There is a persistent misconception in music production circles that Scott Hansen makes Tycho records in Ableton Live. Forum posts repeat it. Casual interviews assume it. The confusion is understandable given how thoroughly Ableton has colonized the conversation around electronic music production. But the truth has been documented across more than a decade of interviews, blog posts, and video features: Scott Hansen’s primary DAW is Cockos REAPER, and it has been since 2011.

Hansen made the switch during the production of Dive, his breakthrough album on Ghostly International. Before that, he had been working in Cakewalk Sonar, the Windows-based DAW that served him through the earlier solo recordings, including the material that became Past Is Prologue. As he told Digital Trends: “I love Reaper. During the process for Dive, Cakewalk just wasn’t working anymore for my flow.” On his ISO50 blog, he was more pointed about the alternative that most people assumed he was using: “Was never happy with Ableton. It’s a great app but it just didn’t fit my specific needs / workflow.”

That blog post, written in 2011 as Hansen was rebuilding his live rig around REAPER, documented what the switch meant for his process. REAPER, he wrote, “has helped immeasurably and opened up some possibilities that didn’t exist before.” The critical advantage was being able to use the same software in the studio and on stage, eliminating the translation layer that plagues producers who compose in one environment and perform in another.

In the years since, Hansen has been remarkably consistent in articulating why REAPER works for him. In a MusicTech interview, he broke it down in specific terms: “Reaper’s efficiency is number-one. It’s a very visual programme, very extensible, very flexible.” He praised the depth of customization available through “macros and shortcuts to scripting,” noting that these time-saving tools compound over thousands of hours of studio work. In a Tape Op interview, he called it “the Swiss Army knife for audio.”

For someone with Hansen’s background in software engineering and graphic design, REAPER’s philosophy of deep user customization resonates on a fundamental level. He told Prefix Magazine that he prefers to work linearly and thinks of REAPER as a multi-track tape player rather than a clip-launching environment. The distinction matters. Where Ableton Live organizes music around loops, scenes, and session views, REAPER presents a timeline. For Hansen, whose compositions tend to unfold as continuous narratives rather than modular arrangements, that linear model maps directly onto how he thinks about songs.

The nesting capabilities are another draw. On any given track in REAPER, Hansen can have infinite other tracks nested within it, almost like one track can be a whole project unto itself. The routing flexibility means complex signal paths that would require a large-format console in the analog domain can be accomplished entirely in the box. For a producer who treats effects processing as composition rather than post-production polish, that routing architecture is not a convenience but a creative necessity.

Hansen has also invested significant time in REAPER’s ecosystem of extensions and scripts. In 2023, he demonstrated on The REAPER Blog how he uses ReaLearn, an add-on script that enables what he called “super-deep integration with plugins and controllers.” His configuration maps the Softube Console 1 hardware controller to REAPER functions, PSP InfiniStrip, and additional devices through multiple instances of ReaLearn. Each controller can handle multiple functions, and entirely separate control mappings can be swapped on the fly. “It’s just really helpful to be able to multitask with each controller, and have each controller have multiple functions,” he explained. The result is a tactile mixing experience where a Minimoog plugin controlled through a physical knob feels substantively different from clicking a mouse, even though the sound engine is identical.

The REAPER Blog has featured Hansen twice in substantial technical content. The 2021 appearance focused on Super8, REAPER’s built-in looping tool, which Hansen uses for both songwriting and live performance. Rather than relying on dedicated hardware loopers, he routes everything through Super8, controlling record and play functions via MIDI footswitch and using an expression pedal for reverb send levels during live looping passages. The 2023 appearance covered the Console 1 and ReaLearn integration in detail. That a flagship REAPER community resource has featured Tycho twice underscores his status as, in their words, “among the biggest artists using REAPER.”

There was one notable moment where REAPER’s flexibility created friction with a collaborator. When mix engineer Count (who has worked with Tycho since Dive) initially wanted to work in Pro Tools, Hansen brought the sessions over but found that complex mixing relationships did not transfer well between platforms. The sessions ultimately came back to REAPER. As Hansen told Tape Op: “At this point it’s become a really smooth process.” Count visits every few weeks to mix newly recorded material in Hansen’s home studio, working directly in the REAPER sessions rather than translating to a different environment.

Universal Audio Luna: The Sketchpad

While REAPER remains the bedrock, Hansen has incorporated Universal Audio’s Luna software into his workflow as a secondary creative environment. He described Luna to MusicTech as “a tape machine that should sit in between your DAW and outboard,” using it as a sketchpad for experimental work. The appeal is Luna’s integration with UAD hardware and its built-in tape emulation, which allows Hansen to create complex signal chains and record them directly, capturing committed performances with analog-style saturation before bringing the results into REAPER for arrangement and mixing.

This is consistent with Hansen’s broader philosophy of committing to sounds rather than endlessly tweaking parameters. He uses UAD plug-ins “in a destructive manner,” adding inserts such as compressors and printing the results rather than leaving everything on automation lanes. “Treating them like hardware,” as he put it to MusicTech. Luna facilitates that destructive, commitment-driven approach in a way that feels distinct from REAPER’s more surgical editing environment.

The Plugin Arsenal

Hansen’s relationship with software plugins has evolved dramatically across his career, moving from a producer who owned thirty analog synthesizers and a room full of outboard gear to someone who openly describes himself as a “plugin junkie.” The shift accelerated around 2023-2024, when he sold over $160,000 worth of studio equipment through Reverb and leaned heavily into software for what became Infinite Health. “If there’s a software equivalent of a tool or an instrument, I’m going to use that instead of the hardware, no matter what,” he told MusicTech. He called this position “sacrilege” given his history as an analog devotee, but the results justified it: “The argument of sound is over, it’s just more about workflow.”

That said, Hansen has always been a plugin user, even during periods when hardware dominated his setup. In an interview pegged to Awake, he estimated that 75% of what he uses is effects or instruments in-the-box, with the computer as the centerpiece of his working environment. For Epoch, that number climbed to roughly 80%. By Infinite Health, he was describing the record as fundamentally “a plugin album.”

What follows is a detailed accounting of the software tools that have appeared across Hansen’s interviews, blog posts, and features over the past decade-plus.

Soundtoys: The Permanent Residents

No plugin developer has a deeper documented relationship with Tycho than Soundtoys. Hansen was the subject of the second installment of the Soundtoys “Process” video series, filmed when Tycho played in Burlington, Vermont, near the Soundtoys headquarters. The resulting interview and video covered inspiration, gear, production techniques, and the specific role of Soundtoys plugins in his workflow.

Hansen’s assessment of the Soundtoys suite is unequivocal. “Every single project I work on has at least one of the Soundtoys plugins being used,” he told them. More specifically: “I can’t do a track without using EchoBoy and FilterFreak… they’re equal to finding drums or a pad.” That phrasing is revealing. He is not describing utility plugins that solve mixing problems. He is describing creative tools that are as foundational to his compositions as the instruments themselves.

EchoBoy occupies a singular position in Hansen’s effects hierarchy. He described it as “kind of my go to,” with particular affection for the Memory Man emulation mode. His technique involves layering EchoBoy after other reverbs, using it to sample reverb tails rather than dry signals, which creates the cascading, self-referential delay textures that define so much of Tycho’s sound. EchoBoy and PrimalTap, he has said, are the most-used plugins he owns, present across every record.

Decapitator is the other indispensable Soundtoys tool. Hansen uses it for saturation and harmonic distortion across a wide range of sources, describing it as the plugin that lets him “record less destructively” while still achieving the crunch and warmth that previously required committing to hardware distortion at the tracking stage. On Awake, Decapitator was applied extensively for that purpose.

FilterFreak functions as a creative filter rather than a corrective EQ, and Hansen places it alongside EchoBoy as something he reaches for on every session.

MicroShift provides stereo widening and is “constantly used” to add character and width to vocals, guitars, and cymbals.

Devil-Loc Deluxe rounds out the Soundtoys tools that Hansen has cited by name, used for more aggressive distortion effects during album production.

Hansen has stated that EchoBoy and Decapitator have been on every mix he has done over the past fifteen years, calling them “mandatory in a session.” For a producer who deliberately limits his toolkit to maintain sonic cohesion, that level of consistency is significant. “I’ll just stick with what I have because I feel like there is something to being limited,” he explained to Soundtoys. He treats his favorite software the way others treat hardware: as permanent fixtures that define the studio’s character.

Valhalla DSP: The Reverb Foundation

Sean Costello’s Valhalla DSP plugins are a core part of Hansen’s reverb architecture. On his ISO50 blog’s “Studio Standouts” feature, he listed both Valhalla Shimmer and Valhalla VintageVerb among his essential software tools.

A detailed breakdown of his VintageVerb usage appeared on Reverb Machine’s analysis of the Awake synth sounds. Hansen runs two instances of VintageVerb as inserts on his synth chains. The first is a simple plate reverb using the Fat Plate preset as a starting point, with the mix level pulled down to around 15%, giving the dry signal just enough spatial context to sit in a room without sounding processed. The second instance is a long, lush modulated reverb using VintageVerb’s 1970s color mode, starting from the Large RHall preset with modulation amount and depth turned up. This dual-reverb approach, one short and dry, one long and shimmering, creates the layered spatial depth that is a hallmark of Tycho’s sound.

Hansen has also mentioned D16 Toraverb (also known as Epicverb in some references) as a favored reverb plugin, praising its modulated character and “warbley” quality. He noted that Toraverb’s built-in modulation reduces the need to manually create pitch wobble effects to simulate tape saturation, a technique he learned from studying Boards of Canada’s production aesthetic.

Universal Audio: Hardware and Software Ecosystem

The relationship between Tycho and Universal Audio runs deep on both the hardware and software sides. UA published a detailed feature titled “Producing Tycho from Studio to Stage” that documented Hansen’s setup alongside his longtime collaborator, producer and mix engineer Count (Eldridge).

Studio UAD Plugins: - UAD 1176 Classic Limiter Collection – Hansen’s go-to compressor plugin, mirroring his use of hardware 1176 units - Studer A800 Multichannel Tape Recorder – applied to individual tracks for tape saturation and compression characteristics - Ampex ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder – used on drums, synths, and the master bus for cohesive tape-style glue - UA 6176 Vintage Channel Strip – the plugin equivalent of the hardware unit Hansen has used since the early records, applied primarily to lead vocals

Count Eldridge, who handles much of the mixing alongside Hansen, adds his own UAD selections to the chain: - Sonnox Oxford Dynamic EQ – described as “incredibly useful” and something that “radically changed how I mix” - Neve 1073 Preamp & EQ – for tonal shaping - Chandler Limited Curve Bender Mastering EQ – for mastering-stage adjustments - AMS RMX16 Expanded Digital Reverb – for spatial effects

Hansen also uses the UAD Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555 amp emulation in the live rig, having switched from a Kemper Profiler to the UAD plugin for guitar tones processed through Apollo interfaces.

Perhaps most striking is Hansen’s admission that he now prefers Universal Audio’s Minimoog plugin over his actual, physical Minimoog. For someone who built his reputation on analog synthesis, this represents a genuine philosophical shift. “It ended up serving me well on this record,” he told MusicTech about Infinite Health, acknowledging the cognitive dissonance while embracing the practical reality.

Native Instruments: Monark and Beyond

Hansen’s use of Native Instruments products centers primarily on NI Monark, the Minimoog emulation that he has called “the best Mini emulation” he has heard. For live shows, he has stated that Monark is “really close to the real thing” and “almost indiscernible from a real Mini for some sounds.” This makes Monark a critical bridge piece, allowing the Minimoog’s voice to travel to stages without the risk and logistics of transporting a fifty-year-old analog instrument.

While specific mention of Kontakt in Hansen’s interviews is limited, his extensive use of samples and his background working with “virtual analogue and digital hardware, VSTi synthesizers, and samples of live instrumentation” during the Cakewalk Sonar era suggest familiarity with the Native Instruments ecosystem broadly. The NI platform serves as a host for the kinds of sample libraries and virtual instruments that have been part of Tycho’s DNA since the earliest recordings.

Arturia: Software Synth Emulations

Hansen has cited two Arturia products by name as go-to plugins: - Arturia Jupiter 8V – the Roland Jupiter-8 emulation, listed among his studio standouts - Arturia CS-80V – the Yamaha CS-80 emulation

Both appeared in his ISO50 “Studio Standouts” feature and have been referenced in interviews as part of his regular software instrument rotation. The Jupiter-8 and CS-80 are foundational polysynths whose voices map naturally onto Tycho’s pad-heavy compositions.

Softube: Model 84 and Console 1

Softube Model 84, the Roland Juno-106 emulation, played a central role in Infinite Health. Hansen described it as “one of the best soft synths ever made” and credited it with inspiring the album’s title track. The Juno-106’s distinctive chorus and simple oscillator architecture translate well into software, and for an album that Hansen deliberately built around plugins rather than hardware, having a reliable Juno voice in the box was essential.

The Softube Console 1 hardware controller is not a plugin per se, but it is the physical interface through which Hansen interacts with his plugin mixing chain. His ReaLearn configuration maps Console 1’s knobs and faders to REAPER’s mixer and to specific plugin parameters, creating a hybrid tactile-digital mixing surface.

Waves

Hansen has recommended Waves’ plugin suite “because of how versatile their suite is.” Specific Waves plugins that appeared on his “Studio Standouts” list include: - Waves H-EQ – a hybrid equalizer combining vintage and modern EQ curves - Waves RS56 – a passive EQ emulation - Waves Scheps 73 – a Neve 1073 emulation by Andrew Scheps

He also mentioned using L2/L3 limiters (likely Waves) for mastering-stage dynamics control.

Additional Plugins and Software

Hansen’s “Studio Standouts” feature and various interviews revealed an extensive further list:

  • PSP InfiniStrip – channel strip plugin, integrated into his Console 1/ReaLearn workflow
  • U-He Presswerk – a compressor plugin
  • Plugin Alliance VSM-3 – a vintage saturation emulation
  • Eventide Black Hole – an algorithmic reverb known for its massive, infinite-decay sounds
  • Acustica Amethyst – a convolution-based processing plugin
  • Empirical Labs Arousor – the software version of the Distressor compressor
  • Sonnox Envolution – a transient shaper
  • SSL Duende Drumstrip – a drum-focused channel strip
  • Kush Omega N&A – a transformer-coloring plugin from Kush Audio
  • XILS 3 – an EMS VCS3 emulation from XILS-Lab
  • Ujam plugins – Hansen specifically praised these after discovering them around 2023, saying “their plugins sound like nothing I’ve ever heard and that’s compelling to me”

That list spans saturation, compression, EQ, reverb, synthesis, and transient processing. It is the toolkit of someone who, despite professing a philosophy of limitation, has amassed a deeply considered collection over more than fifteen years of full-time production.

The Hardware vs. Software Philosophy: An Evolution

The arc of Hansen’s relationship with software is one of the more interesting narratives in his career, because it has genuinely shifted over time rather than remaining static.

The Early Position: Analog Sound Sources, Digital Recording

Through the Dive and Awake eras, Hansen’s philosophy could be summarized as: analog sound sources, digital recording. The synthesizers, preamps, compressors, and effects units were physical objects. The DAW was a tape machine substitute that happened to offer non-destructive editing. In his Digital Trends interview around Awake, he framed it plainly: “I always use an analog front-end… obviously you have to use some sort of analog!” His signal chain ran through analog preamps, analog dynamics, and analog EQ before hitting a high-quality converter (Lynx Aurora, later Dangerous Convert-8) on the way into REAPER.

This was not mere gear fetishism. Hansen articulated a specific sonic rationale. Analog equipment provides color and character at each stage of the signal path, and the cumulative effect of passing audio through multiple analog circuits creates harmonic complexity that is difficult to replicate with a single plugin. The Ursa Major Space Station reverb, which he called a “stalwart” of his studio, was an effect he felt had “never been properly emulated” in software. The 1972 Minimoog Model D was not just a synthesizer but “the most responsive” instrument he owned, described as guitar-like in its expressiveness.

The Middle Period: Pragmatic Hybridism

By the Epoch and Weather era, the balance had shifted. Hansen estimated that 80% of Epoch was made with plugins. The practical reality of producing dense arrangements as a primary creative force (rather than delegating to a separate mixing engineer with a large console) meant that in-the-box processing was not a compromise but a capability multiplier. As he told Digital Trends: “I don’t have a large-format console for doing a lot of the interesting parallel effects. That isn’t really a possibility for me, so I’m having to do it in the box.”

His Tape Op interview captured the hybrid workflow in action. Analog summing remained part of the chain: “We do analog summing and use analog bus compression sometimes, but it’s pretty rare. We mostly just do the summing, so we go out through that and come back into the master bus reverb.” But the reverb itself was software-based. The boundaries between analog and digital were becoming permeable.

The Current Position: Software Primacy

The transformation completed around Infinite Health. Hansen sold off the majority of his hardware collection through Reverb, cleared his studio to its essentials (a Sequential Prophet-5, some Moog synthesizers, the Matriarch, an Elektron Analog Heat, and effects pedals), and built the album primarily with plugins. His statement to MusicTech was striking in its finality: “If there’s a software equivalent of a tool or an instrument, I’m going to use that instead of the hardware, no matter what.”

The rationale was not that software sounds better than hardware. It was that software has reached parity in sound quality while offering dramatically superior workflow flexibility. “The argument of sound is over,” he said. Where hardware required committing to creative decisions at the moment of recording, with no ability to restructure the signal chain after the fact, plugins allow the kind of iterative refinement that Hansen’s compositional process demands. On Infinite Health, he could place a delay before an amplifier simulation, then reverse the order a week later to see which worked better. That flexibility was impossible with hardware.

He also offered a broader philosophical observation to MusicTech: “The most basic DAWs have enough tools to make 90 percent of all music ever created.” Coming from someone who has spent two decades accumulating and refining his toolkit, the statement reads less as an endorsement of minimalism than as a recognition that the instrument matters less than the player. The Tycho sound persists across every configuration because it originates in Hansen’s aesthetic sensibility, not in any specific circuit or algorithm.

Yet Hansen has not abandoned hardware entirely. He still reaches for the Prophet-5, the Moog Matriarch, and certain effects pedals when they serve the composition. The difference is that these are now choices made for specific creative reasons rather than default assumptions about quality. Software is the baseline. Hardware is the exception that proves the rule.

The Live Setup: Software Architecture

Tycho’s live show is one of the more technically sophisticated touring rigs in contemporary music, and the software architecture has evolved substantially across multiple album cycles.

The Original Dual-REAPER Configuration

The earliest documented version of the dual-computer setup, described on Hansen’s ISO50 blog around 2011, ran REAPER on both machines. Two MacBook Pros, each equipped with a pair of RME UCX interfaces connected via ADAT to multiply available inputs and outputs, divided the workload:

Machine One handled playback of automation, SMPTE timecode for video synchronization, MIDI sync distribution, and the in-ear monitoring system (Sennheiser G3 IEM). This was the master clock machine, responsible for keeping the entire production – audio, video, lighting – locked to a single timeline.

Machine Two received MIDI sync from Machine One and handled all input channels, virtual instrument hosting, and effects processing. This was the performance machine, where Hansen’s live playing was captured, processed, and mixed in real time.

Both machines ran REAPER with each song in its own tab, a feature that eliminates CPU overhead from plugins loaded on inactive songs. The distribution across two machines was a practical solution to resource limitations: running the entire set on one computer was hitting the ceiling of what a single processor could handle with the density of plugins and virtual instruments Hansen requires.

The key advantage Hansen identified at the time was using “the same software in the studio and on stage.” Session files could move from the studio to the touring rig with minimal translation. A mix balance achieved in the home studio would translate directly to the live environment, and vice versa.

The REAPER-to-Ableton Transition

Over subsequent tour cycles, a significant change occurred. Ableton Live entered the picture, not as a replacement for REAPER but as a complement. Hansen explained the shift to MusicTech with characteristic directness: “Reaper is the most efficient way to do the live show but it’s hard to find people to run it and maintain it on tour. Ableton Live is kind of the universal language everyone speaks.”

This is a pragmatic observation, not a creative preference. REAPER’s power comes from its depth of customization, but that same depth means a steep learning curve for touring crew members who need to troubleshoot under stage conditions. Ableton Live’s ubiquity in the electronic music world means any competent touring technician can step in and operate the system.

In the evolved configuration, Ableton Live on a second computer coordinates the master automation that syncs the set list, REAPER, visual projections, and lights. Hansen described using Ableton “essentially as a software-based pedalboard with effects chains, clip-launching and automation to perform entire shows.” Meanwhile, REAPER continues to handle the aspects of the show that benefit from its specific strengths.

The UAD Live Processing Chain

The Universal Audio feature “Producing Tycho from Studio to Stage” documented the hardware-software integration of the live rig in substantial detail. Three Apollo x8p units and a UAD-2 Live Rack form the backbone of the front-of-house processing system. The onstage system processes bass and guitar 100% through UAD plug-ins in the Console app before routing to Ableton Live.

Hansen’s guitar signal chain, for example, replaced a Kemper Profiler with the UAD Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555 amp emulation running through an Apollo Twin interface. The drums pass through a dedicated Apollo x8p and the Live Rack before reaching front-of-house. “This Apollo/UAD-2 Live Rack system really feels like an instrument, rather than just a ‘tool,’” Hansen said.

The distinction between “instrument” and “tool” is significant for understanding how Hansen thinks about software in the live context. The plugins are not corrective processing applied after the fact. They are part of the instrument’s voice, as integral to the sound as the strings on the guitar or the heads on the drums.

Click Tracks, Timecode, and Monitoring

The synchronization architecture uses SMPTE timecode as the master clock. The first machine generates timecode that is distributed to all band members via in-ear monitors (Sennheiser G3 IEM system). This timecode also drives video sync and MIDI sync for lighting.

Within this framework, drummer Rory O’Connor serves as the primary timekeeper. The click track runs in his ears, and the rest of the band locks to his performance rather than rigidly following the automation. This creates a system where the computer provides the reference but the humans provide the feel, a critical distinction for music that needs to breathe and flex dynamically rather than sounding like a playback rig with live instruments pasted on top.

Front-of-house engineer Peter Franco (who previously worked with Daft Punk) manages the mixing. In a notable philosophical shift documented in the Tape Op interview, the live rig moved to an analog mixing console at front-of-house. “We switched our whole front of house system to analog; we’ve tried to break as much as we can out of the box,” Hansen said. The irony is deliberate and acknowledged: a show built on software automation and digital processing is mixed through an analog console because that is where the engineer’s hands feel most connected to the sound.

The Evolving Relationship

What makes Hansen’s software story compelling is its honesty. He does not pretend that plugins have always been adequate, nor does he claim that analog is inherently superior. His position has changed because the technology has changed, and he has documented each stage of that evolution in real time through interviews, blog posts, and video features.

In the Cakewalk Sonar era, software was a limitation to be worked around. During the Dive transition to REAPER, software became a genuine creative partner. By Awake and Epoch, the balance tipped toward in-the-box processing as the primary production method, with analog providing color at the input stage. And with Infinite Health, software achieved what Hansen considers full parity with hardware, making the choice a matter of workflow preference rather than sonic compromise.

Through all of this, REAPER has remained the constant. DAWs are religions in music production, and Hansen’s devotion to REAPER is as defining a choice as his preference for Minimoog bass or Valhalla reverbs. It is the foundation on which everything else sits: the plugins, the effects chains, the live show automation, the ReaLearn controller mappings, the Super8 looping sessions. When Hansen describes his computer as “the centerpiece of my working environment,” he is talking about REAPER.

The plugins change. New ones arrive (Ujam, Softube Model 84), old ones persist (EchoBoy, Decapitator, VintageVerb), and some hardware gets replaced by its software twin (the Minimoog yielding to UAD’s emulation). But the platform underneath has been stable since 2011. For a producer whose music is defined by its patience and coherence, that stability is not incidental. It is architectural.

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