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If you've seen Rebekah play out recently, she may have been wearing her "go hard or go hardcore" T-shirt. Right now, it's her MO of sorts, a reference to her feeling that the hard techno scene might be dabbling in hardcore, but it's not really going there. "If you're going to go there, just go there!" she exclaimed when I visited her studio in Berlin last November.

When I was preparing for this interview, I watched a livestream of Rebekah's from 2023, in which she, well, goes there. As she describes in the following conversation, her sound has evolved over the years from cleaner techno into a more raucous, hardcore-influenced sound, all slamming distorted kicks racing along at breakneck speed. On YouTube, the comment section is awash with her loyal fans: "Rebekah's an absolute machine!" "Rebekah can't be stopped!" "No Rebekah, no party!"

But Rebekah rose through the ranks in a world in which women weren't typically afforded such positive commentary. In fact, quite the opposite. Born in Birmingham and based in Berlin since the early 2010s, she's been DJing for almost 30 years and producing for nearly 20. In this time she's experienced seismic shifts in the scene, and in recent years she's pushed forward several initiatives to support women in dance music and encourage an equitable industry for both DJs and producers.

In partnership with music gear marketplace Reverb, we sat down with Rebekah to discuss her evolution as a producer, her "bright but functional" studio setup and why the best hardware doesn't always have to cost you the earth.

TL Audio 8 channel mixing desk, RME Fireface 500, Boss Pro Stereo Effects, Novation Circuit Tracks, Korg Volca FM, Bass, Keys, Kick and Beats.

As a producer, how has your experience as a woman in dance music changed over the years?

I've seen a rise in the number of women producers and DJs. Everybody's proactive, everyone wants to get music out. And everyone seems super inspired. Eight or so years ago, the agenda was to have more visibility for women DJs and now we're seeing the positive repercussions. The 23by23 campaign, for example, is about now giving that visibility to women producers. There's an imbalance where we had the DJs but not necessarily the producers, which I think is down to confidence. We need diverse music and diverse voices within music.

There have been certain points in my career when I felt like the only woman, and if there was another woman, we definitely weren't so open with each other because that was the conditioning we had. I like to be honest about that, because it's not necessarily the fault of the individual, it's a fault of the system. I was inspired to make music by a woman—Scarlett Etienne—and I wanted to be where she was at. I wanted to be self-sufficient. I didn't want to rely on men for anything. My message to women has always been to go to school and study. Be able to stand on your own two feet, make music and understand what you're doing.

Rebekah's vinyl collection, turntables and Allen & Heath Xone:96.

How has your studio space and setup developed since you began making music?

It hasn't changed so much, it's more what I've added on top. I've always been working with Logic, a laptop, sound card, speakers—pretty similar to what you see now. Over the years, the soft synths I use have changed. I've always worked with a lot of Native Instruments soft synths, like their VST plug-ins.

The addition of hardware came a little later. I wanted to look for different sound sources and push myself to step out of my comfort zone. I also wanted more tools in my box as a producer. You should have a little tool box with things to help you be creative. Having some hardware is really good for that. Having something hands-on is more playful and I find you learn a lot faster, rather than looking at the screen, looking at a synth and moving the mouse around. It's more intuitive.

What kind of environment do you like to be in when you're producing?

So I've been in this studio for six or seven years. I like to be able to shut the door and know that this is my space, so I can really focus and what's going on outside doesn't matter. Everything is little bits of my personality. I have my relic area, which is like a play area of things I've collected, then my entire music history is here in my vinyl collection. It's bright, but it's still functional. I always say I have male and female energy and both of them are quite strong and I think that dual aspect shows in the room.

Which pieces of gear do you use most frequently?

I think the piece that's featured in the most tracks is Novation Peak Polyphonic Synthesiser. After I learned the modular, with the Peak, I understood it much better, how to create different FX using different sound waves. It gave me a new freedom. It has a couple of nice features like animate buttons which I can use to set the parameters to modulate something, like modulating a filter resonance to make it a bit crazier. And then if I'm recording on Logic, I can press a button and get some really nice modulations. I also have happy accidents with it which results in something more interesting and less static. I also have the functionality to do something similar with the modular. There's a module by Bastl Instruments called a CV Trinity which has the same function. You record something, go back and play it and then when you're recording out you can have these different variations. I like things that I can play with, I tend to use these small features the most. Maybe it has more functionality than some of the other synthesisers.

Desktop synth station including Novation Peak, Acidlab Bassline 2, Strymon blueSky V2.

Are there any other pieces close to your heart, or that you feel have helped define the Rebekah sound?

I think the main Rebekah sound, my identity in that sense, is always the kicks. That's how all my music from across periods connects together, regardless of tempo. I make most of my kicks in the computer where I have most of my processing tools as VSTs and audio plug-ins. I'll also do sample sessions where I create kicks on my modular using the TipTop 909, Hexinverter Mutant Bassdrum, Doepfer A-137-1 Wave Multiplier and WMD's TRSHMSTR. These can create heavily distorted kicks or more subtle 909s depending on the kind of track I'm working on. The kick is always the strong thing. I'm drawn to that as a DJ, too. I'm drawn to a particular energy within the kicks. I want it to be hard.

Let's talk about your item from Reverb. Why did you choose it?

The MicroFreak was recommended to me—they're really popular. I already have the MiniBrute so I know that something by Arturia was going to be decent. It just looked fun. My friend, who helped me get set up for today, was suggesting I sell something and buy myself some processor but I just thought, what would I demo? I wanted to show people that it's going to be fun. Because making music should be fun. Sure, we know we need to buy utilities and we have to get compressors and limiters, but I'm a creative music producer and I wanted to show people something fun they can get inspired by. I'm inspired by this little machine. The more I use it the more I'm discovering. I'm excited to team it with some outboard FX, that might be interesting too.

The Arturia MicroFreak.

What is a MicroFreak? What does it do?

It's a wavetable synthesiser. I seem to be drawn to hybrid synths. It has digital oscillators and analogue filters. So it has a preset, and then you can change the sound maybe 30 or 40 times within just one preset, so there's so much experimenting you can do. It has an arpeggiator as well which is interesting—you can create loads of sequences and patterns. For a relatively small amount of money, you get a lot. The difference between this and, say, a soft synth, is that you can be much more hands-on with it. If you're recording out, you've got two hands to move things around and make more interesting sounds and modulations that way.

And you also got a Rat distortion pedal from Reverb. How are you planning to use that?

Yeah! I'm going to test it as soon as you leave. the Rat has been on my list for quite a while. It gives me this distortion I really like. There's a soft audio unit I use and Soundtoys has a couple of distortion soft audio units which sound good, but nothing is going to come close to the Rat. It gives you that really crunchy sound. Even just listening to it for a moment earlier, it's so extreme. I really like it.

If you're interested in any of the equipment in Rebekah's studio, she's compiled a list of lower-cost, similar pieces that are available from Reverb. To browse Reverb's wider collection, visit the website.

Arturia Beatstep Pro

Arturia MicroFreak

Arturia MiniBrute

Boss DD7

Korg Kaoss Pad KP3

Korg Volca FM

Korg Volca Kick

Novation Peak

Roland TR-8s

Strymon Bluesky

You mentioned there's some items in the studio that are tributes to your mum and how you connect with her through music.

My mum will always say my dad's side was the musical side, but he wasn't around. And around my fifth Christmas she brought me a stereo system and two records including Madonna's True Blue. She's an original punk rocker from the '70s and she always had music on in the house, everything from reggae, punk, new romantic music, pop, Kraftwerk. Her 7-inch collection is amazing. She was always having parties in the house and I remember she had the first Renaissance mix CD by Sasha and John Digweed. So I guess I was exposed to this kind of music way before I decided I wanted to DJ. She gave me this love of freedom and dancing. She was so free that I believed I could have that freedom too. She's got a lot to say for why I do what I do now. "What do you love doing?" she would ask me. "Just do it." I was so lucky in that sense.

How would you say your sound has evolved in the time you've been producing?

If I think about the final product of my tracks, the sound has evolved from a clean sound to getting really inspired by industrial sounds and industrial techno. My sound has become more distorted, more grungy, punky, gravitating towards that more. I always come back to a more industrial soundscape now. If I get stuck, or I go off on a tangent with all the arps and making things sound really techno-y, at some point I wonder if it sounds like me anymore. I like the harsh FM sounds as well, and then putting a tremolo [pedal] on. I realised you can do that with the FilterFreak, which I'm going to go back to, to add these metallic sounds.

I think hard techno is a little too clean for me at the moment, so I'm trying to bridge the gap between that and industrial hardcore, which sometimes feels too noisy for me. I'm working to find a space somewhere in-between.

Rebekah's vinyl collection and trinkets.

It's fair to say that some budding producers might be intimidated by the challenges of hardware, but there are many items in your studio that prove this isn't the case. Can you tell me how you've found yourself leaning towards more accessible items?

I'd say if you're looking at my studio and it seems intimidating, remember I've been doing this for a long time. It's taken me years and years to collect these pieces. Take your time. You can have all the gear and no idea, or you can choose one item at a time and really get to know it. That's what I did, I had one piece of kit—the MiniBrute, before branching out to the Pro 2. Get to know your DAW first and then bring in a piece of kit.

I think the main fear of hardware is as simple as, how do you plug it in? How does it work? How does MIDI work? There's all these technical parts of hardware that understandably put people off. But first and foremost, it's fun! You want something you can turn on and play with and just enjoy, and get something creative down really quickly. Actually, I think a lot of synths out there, their availability offers learning while doing. There's a couple of brands that are really difficult and require so much menu diving and I want to avoid that. Making it accessible and cheap is so important. We made digital music-making really affordable to everybody. I think hardware brands are catching up with that. There's a market for the really high-end modular synthesis, where you can drop tens of thousands of pounds on something, but you can achieve very similar sounds for a fraction of the price, too.

The MicroFreak is super fun and I'm interested to see how it will work with the Rat [pedal]. Most people would be able to plug it in and start playing with it, it's pretty intuitive which I like. I know people who have the [Korg] Volca and they have a setup at home, but sometimes you can have them in your studio but not use them so much in your music. If you're going to spend that amount of money, are you going to commit to putting it in your tunes? Basically I think music should be affordable and accessible.

Arturia beatstep Pro, Eurorack modular system.

What have you got coming up?

I'm in the middle of a few collaborative projects that I need to finish, as well as some solo stuff and a couple of remixes. I've settled into my new studio space recently after a crazy year that was challenging for all kinds of reasons, so I'm feeling really excited. I went through something where I had to stop and consider my life and my health, and I made a lot of changes overnight. I changed my mental space, my diet, my relationships. I changed a lot of things to become more positive. And now coming through that, back into being creative, I feel like I'm ready to know where I am and where I want to go musically. I really need that compass. I feel good about this year and it feels like a good time for me to be back in the studio. I'm feeling inspired.

Revisit the previous editions of Studio Digest with Cinthie, Steven Julien and Leon Vynehall.

Novation Peak, Arturia BeatStep Pro, Eurorack modular system, Arturia MicroFreak, Allen & Heath Xone:96, Technics 1210, Strymon Blue Sky Reverb. Korg Volca FM, keys, kick. Acid Labs Bassline 2.F

Arturia Beatstep Pro Arturia MicroFreak Arturia MiniBrute Boss DD7 Korg Kaoss Pad KP3 Korg Volca FM Korg Volca Kick Novation Peak Roland TR-8s Strymon Bluesky

Arturia Beatstep Pro

Arturia MicroFreak

Arturia MiniBrute

Boss DD7

Korg Kaoss Pad KP3

Korg Volca FM

Korg Volca Kick

Novation Peak

Roland TR-8s

Strymon Bluesky