When designing my PC I paid special attention to minimizing noise. For that purpose I obtained Antec Sonata II enclosure, which is whisper-quiet and easily the quietest enclosure on the market. Then I installed Thermaltake SonicTower CPU cooler, which is due to the absence of fan is completely quiet. I also made sure that my motherboard did not utilize a chipset fan and disconnected a fan on my video card. I also had to pad my secondary hard disk with synthetic foam material to eliminate resonance arising in the enclosure due to the rigid mounting of the disk. When I powered up my workstation I still heard a noise - my CRT monitors were crackling! But I could not hear my computer at all. Silence is golden.

For video output I employ three 21" Dell flat screen CRTs and an older 15" Sony monitor all connected to quad-head Matrox MMS video card.

Inside my PC hosts two chain-linked Creamware sound cards - huge 15-DSP PowerPulsar and compact 3-DSP Luna, both powered by Creameare's SCOPE Fusion Platform software (SFP). SCOPE Fusion Platform is a close equivalent of DigiDesign ProTools. All the sound processing is performed by sound cards without the need for main CPU power. All of my external equipment is plugged in in these cards thanks to an impressive collection of analog, SPDIF, ADAT and MIDI connections these cards provide. Using SFP one can design by means of connecting virtual gear - mixers, compressors, equalizers, effects, etc. - a studio configuration that best suits the project at hand. Creamware can be a fickle as far as motherboards are concerned and from what I have learnt Gigabyte boards are best.

My personal favorite in the studio is the Novation Supernova II Pro, which is an incredibly powerful analog modeling synthesizer. Numerous artists use it in their production for deep basses, eerie pads and high-pitch screeching filtered and richly modulated acid sounds.

My second favorite is good old  Kurzweil K2500XS V.A.S.T. synthesizer / keyboard, which (being a piano player) I cherish for its full-size 88-note full weighted keyboard and unparallel sampling ability (it reads AKAI samples, which can be loaded using external SCSI CD-ROM).

For recording live instruments and vocals I SHURE KSM27 microphone connected to ART DPS tube dual-channel preamplifier, which I particularly like for its digital (SPDIF & ADAT) outputs.

The Event PS8 monitors that I use I somewhat dislike: the bass leans to be to heavy on them and the stereo field is too deep for a small studio (I think more compact Genelec speakers are better for that purpose).

For inspirational modulation and effects I employ Korg KAOSS pad, which has earned a reputation among DJs for its easy hands-on operation that is built for improvisation. The built-in effects are truly awesome, although MIDI controls are somewhat convoluted. I also occasionally use Tascam US-428 MIDI control surface to automate sequencer operation.

For acoustic samples I rely on Tascam GigaStudion 160 software sampler, which is incredibly powerful and too can read AKAI samples.

Finally, I assemble my tracks together using Cakewalk SONAR 3 Producer Edition, which is an unquestionable centerpiece of all my projects.

Besides Cakewalk SONAR (which seems to dominate American market) there are Emagic Logic Pro and Steinberg Cubase VST products that are equally powerful and are most popular among Mac aficionados. Although I was mulling an idea of switching to Mac I permanently abandoned any such plans after attending a performance by BT. Although he was lazily streaming prerecorded mix set off his PowerBook his computer crashed twice during the show. This is saying something.

As a final note I would like to draw your attention to the fact that majority of musical hardware and software comes from Germany. No wonder they have the best techno music and the liveliest music market.