James Ho, better known as Malay, is a Grammy-winning producer and recording engineer.
His emotive sound has attracted influential collaborators including the likes of Frank Ocean, John Legend, and Sam Smith. Although he has many years of working with top-tier artists under his belt, Malay never developed a single formula for creating music. “I really have no plan when I come to the studio,” he tells us. “The process is like, not having a process I guess (laughs).”
Despite his ever-changing approach to creating music, what continues to be a constant in Malay’s workflow is Arturia’s V Collection. “Back in 2010, when I started working with Frank Ocean, I couldn’t afford any keyboards,” he recalls. “So, most of the stuff on channel ORANGE is done with the Arturia stuff.”
Though he initially turned to Arturia’s keyboards due to financial constraints, Malay still continues to use them in his work, at times over the very instruments that they emulate. “With V Collection, I’ve had really good luck with the Minimoog remake… One of my go-tos, still, is the Oberheim,” he notes. “I have the real versions, but I’ll still sometimes dive into it because there’s some pretty cool presets, and all of the sudden you get inspired to go a different direction in your writing.”
Watch our full video with Malay below, where he walks through how he used instruments from V Collection and sounds from his sample pack to create a track.
Interested in giving V Collection a try? Get access to all 24 synths for $24.99/mo on Rent-to-Own.
May 1, 2019
