Inside the Sonic Playground of Rabea Massaad: Studio Tour + Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtyjUYOPK2U

$0 Mic Trick Rabea Massaad Studio Tour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtyjUYOPK2U)

Somewhere between a creative lab, a rehearsal bunker and a YouTube production powerhouse sits Rabea Massaad’s studio. A self-built sanctuary of sound where analogue soul meets digital precision. It’s part cave, part cathedral. And for one of the UK’s most recognisable modern guitarists and content creators it has become an all-purpose hub for writing, recording, rehearsing, mixing, experimenting and filming.

When I visited Rabea’s studio I found a space that is as personal and hands-on as the man himself.

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From YouTube to Victory to Vower

For the uninitiated, Rabea Massaad first gained traction online as a guitarist with Toska, a prog-metal instrumental band that earned cult status before going on hiatus. In parallel his affable technically dazzling YouTube channel built a massive audience. He has collaborated with companies like Neural DSP, Victory Amps, Ernie Ball Music Man and Bare Knuckle Pickups and is now fronting a new band Vower whose music is written, recorded and mixed in-house quite literally.

A Makeshift Masterpiece

Rabea’s studio began life as a residential property and was converted by the drummer in his previous band for content creation. When Rabea took over he reinforced the space, treated it for sound isolation and split it into two key zones: a downstairs live room and tracking space and an upstairs mix room.

“This is my little home away from home” he says. “I can track guitars, rehearse with the band, stream rehearsals, mix singles and shoot videos. Everything happens here.”

And while it is technically “makeshift” the gear list would make any tone chaser weak in the knees.

The Heart of the Studio: Gear, Workflow and Workhorse Tools

A loyal Logic Pro user Rabea mixes and tracks with Universal Audio Apollo interfaces: X8P, X4 and a 4710 preamp which gives him 24 channels in total. He is especially fond of the UAD ecosystem not least because of his friendship with Tom Waterman who helped him optimise the studio setup early on.

“I’m proud of the results I get in here” he says. “You work with what you’ve got and this space gives me enough flexibility to create high-quality work.”

Monitoring is handled via Neumann KH310s downstairs and Genelec with a sub upstairs in the mix room. The mix room is also home to Native Instruments’ Komplete Kontrol setup and the Neural DSP Quad Cortex which serves as both a touring rig and a flexible recording solution.

The Pedalboard: “The Mothership”

Rabea’s pedalboard is the stuff of Instagram dreams: a sprawling Strymon-heavy mothership of delay, reverb and modulation pedals. While he uses digital modelling on tour for studio work he prefers real pedals into real amps.

“There’s something magical about tracking through pedals and capturing that depth through a miked cab” he says. “Even if it’s subtle those variables add something personal.”

The Amp Wall: From JVM to Kraken

Marshall, Mesa, Friedman, Revv, Soldano, Victory. Name a great amp company and it is probably represented in this room. As a Victory Amps collaborator Rabea helped design the Kraken series which remains a go-to.

“I track two amps and two cabs at once and blend them” he explains. “It gives you more tonal depth and flexibility when mixing.”

Cabs include Mesa 4x12s with Vintage 30s, a range of Victory cabs with Creambacks and G12H65s and a beaten-up old Marshall cab that has been passed down like a war relic.

Rabea’s Guitars: Signatures, Sentiment and Mojo

Rabea is now an official Ernie Ball Music Man artist with his own signature model based on the Sabre design. He also treasures a 1979 Fender Strat handed down from his father. A guitar with the kind of wear that cannot be faked.

He is a long-time fan of Bare Knuckle Pickups and even had his own signature set developed. “I’ve been using Bare Knuckle since before I ever had any endorsements” he says. “To now have my own pickup with them—it’s a full circle moment.”

Other notables include a Custom Shop Fender Tele, a Washburn N4 signed by Nuno Bettencourt and a Gretsch baritone used to reinforce low-end riffs in heavy arrangements.

The Plugin That Changed Everything

In 2021 Rabea released Archetype: Rabea, a Neural DSP plugin that broke new ground by combining amp simulation, cabinet IRs, pedals and a fully-fledged synth engine that tracks pitch in real time.

“You can play a guitar part and have it trigger a synth underneath almost like a Moog. It’s ideal for someone like me who can’t play keys but wants synth textures” he says. “It tracks bends, vibrato, harmonics all the nuance of your playing.”

The synth engine, inspired by Rabea’s Moog Subsequent 37, includes multiple oscillators, glide, arpeggiation, filters and even pre and post amp routing.

The Mix Room and Stairwell Mic

Upstairs Rabea mixes Vower‘s singles in a purpose-built room treated with bass traps, diffusers and Genelec with a sub. He uses UAD Sphere modelling mics and has one permanently set up in the stairwell.

“It’s a happy accident but the stairwell mic sounds great as a drum room. I’ll usually model it as a Coles or AEA ribbon and just smash it.”

Recording Drums and Layering Guitars

The live room features a DW Collector’s Series kit originally purchased by Rabea’s old bandmate and now lovingly maintained.

“I started as a drummer” he says. “So recording drums still excites me. My drummer Liam is amazing at tuning so I don’t have to do much.”

For room treatment? Gear. Literal stacks of it. “The cabs and amps actually do a decent job of diffusing reflections” he laughs.

Community, Curiosity and the Long Game

Despite his technical know-how and growing discography Rabea remains humble. “I’ve only been mixing for three or four years. I’m still learning. But I love the process.”

That passion shows. From hacking together mic sliders from camera gear to modelling amps and pushing creative boundaries with Neural DSP Rabea’s studio is less a monument to perfection and more a celebration of possibility.

And that is what makes it great.