Rob Papen - I have bought nearly all of Rob's synths. He is a true master at designing not only great sounding synths, but ones that inspire you to create something new and unique from those sounds. Those of you who watch my videos already know about one of my all-time favorite synths is Albino from Rob Papen.  His latest synth, SubBoomBass is built off the Predator engine and looks like a must-have for any serious hip hop beat maker.

MotionSamples  -  Since 2003 the team at Motion has been sound designing, sampling, programming and developing sound libraries for producers, musicians and other online media companies. They have a great selection of sample CDs for various genres. and you owe it yourself to go and check out their goods.

Crysonic - Many years ago I bought my first Crysonic mastering plug-in: Spectralive. Since then I have graduated to the whole product line. Part of me loves to take the credit for the compliments I get for my supposed mastering skills, but the reality is that I almost always throw a Spectralive (using one of the Crisp presets) on my master channel before final mixdown. Now that the secret's out go check out their product line for some great and affordable mastering plug-ins.

GoldBaby - I've been a fan of Hugo and his company for a while now and for a good reason: he never disappoints. He brings old things out in fresh ways to make them new again and takes new things to make them sound old and grimey - in a good way!. His Tape808 is my go to 808 kit and his MPC60 kits are among the "phattest" money can buy. Speaking of money, the kits are insanely affordable. Make sure you check out his freebie section too.

Image-Line - The makers of my DAW of choice : FLStudio 8. I've been a user since version 3 and thanks to the free lifetime updates, I've had to spend very little to keep my FL habit satisfied. Plus the crew over at IL are active in their forums and always working hard to bring new features into the FL product. Their latest release, a synth plug-in is Sawer and is made from 99.9% pure awesome.

Sounds in HD - Relative newcomers on the scene, but blew me away with the overall sonic quality of their first drum kit release: SHD1. You can read my gushing review but honestly this is a kit that I always check first when I need a great kick and snare combo. The sounds all work together so nice it feels like cheating.. Almost. :) SHD2 is their latest release and promises to be a well rounded and banging kit as well.