Welcome
Danny Daze has never forgotten where he came from. As a DJ, he eschews the modern tendency to conform to cultural expectations and continually references the flawless technique of the DJ legends he grew up idolising.
Daze yearns for the return of battle-mode turntablism, noting its morph into what’s now known as ‘controllerism’. As a producer, the Miami bass sound remains a prevalent influence on his bass-heavy dance music, modified to encompass his love of Detroit techno and Italo disco.
We caught up with Danny to talk gear - click through the gallery to discover some of his favourite studio pieces. His Dual EP is out now on Ultramajic, while his remix of Terranova's Tell Me Why is out now on Kompakt.
For news and DJ dates, visit the Danny Daze Facebook page.
Starting out
“When I first started making music at 13 years old I had absolutely no clue what I was doing - it was all in the box, using Fruity Loops. I would render out MP3s at 96K because I thought, ‘Ooh, it’s less space’. After learning I could render out at 320K, or full WAV files, it made a big difference and obviously changed my life [laughs].
“I didn’t even have a Mac; I was running PC-based cracks. The VAZ modular plugin was my go-to; I still use it to this day. The sounds that I get off that are amazing; the way you edit and everything about it is perfect for me.”
Current software
“I switched to a Mac, because everything’s much easier. I used Pro Tools for a while, then Logic, but for the last five years I’ve been using Ableton.
A lot of the money I make is going into my studio and expanding it as much as I possibly can - getting cooler sounds and weirder instruments for techno and dance music, but also for experimental stuff like movie scoring.
“I don’t really use virtual synthesizers; I tend to use effect plugins. Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch is one of them - that’s freeware. I’ve used that a lot to get transition noises and really weird stuff - you can put Justin Bieber through it and it ends up sounding amazing.”
