American University
Arts
Audio Tech Student's Tools of the Trade

Audio technology master's student Pouria Firouzi shares his must have items.
- Almost everything requires a cable—they are a real pain for a sound engineer. I hang them to keep them from getting tangled.
- The Arturia KeyLab25 is a compact keyboard MIDI controller—and one of my favorite music production tools.
- I brought five bottles of cologne with me from Dubai. Terre d’Hermès is a current favorite.
- I’m a tea fan: green, black, almost every kind.
- Akai Professional APC20 is a MIDI controller for Ableton Live, a software to create music. The APC20 is the link between the human and the computer.
- I use a mix of technology in the classroom (the Apple Watch is my new toy), but pen and paper are still useful for note taking. I’m 31 years old—I’m old school.
- You always want to record in an acoustic-treated room. The AU studio has the best mics, but I use my AKG-c3000 microphone at home to record samples and guitars.
- The M-Audio ProFire 610 FireWire audio interface turns my laptop into a little recording studio. It allows me to use my condenser microphone anywhere I can find electricity.
- I use my iPad as a wireless, touch- screen media controller—for either music production or DJing.
- I listen to music with my Sony headphones. As a sound engineer, you have to accept every kind of genre, but I’m especially fond of deep house, tech house, and techno.
- When I was in my country, Iran, five years ago, I used Windows because access to Macs was limited. But Macs are the industry standard—they crash less.
- The Traktor Kontrol Z1 is a compact, all-in-one controller that works with Traktor software for DJing. I worked as a DJ for 10 years; now it’s just a hobby.
Story appeared in the November 2015 issue of American Magazine.