Welcome
Inspired by early hip-hop and Detroit techno, Swiss-born producer Deetron’s blend of classic techno, electro, latin and jazz has kept audiences chained to the dancefloor.
Deetron’s production career developed in the mid-’90s with his resident spot at the fabled Zurich club, Trax. Since then, he’s proven his versatility through a constantly expanding catalogue of remixes for classic labels such as Cosmic, Ongaku and Carl Cox’s Intec imprint.
His debut album Twisted was released on Belgium’s esteemed Music Man label and was followed, after a lengthy hiatus, by Music Over Matter last year. Deetron is now launching his own label, Character, as a platform for his own productions and others, in an ambitious attempt to move beyond dance music’s generic constraints.
We caught up with Deetron in his Zurich studio, where he showed us his current music making setup.
Computer and DAWs
“I work on an iMac with Ableton Live and use Cubase almost exclusively for vocal editing, as I think it just turns out better and has a better sound. Pretty much all the rest happens in Ableton.”
Mackie 1608 mixer
“I’m not much of an analyser or technician; I mix ‘by my ears’, and so usually get some complaints from my mastering guy.”
Technics 1210s
“Beat matching is an essential element of the art of DJing and should not be surpassed and automated.”
Mackie monitors
“I actually have a bit of a love/hate relationship with my Mackies. I think over the years I have gotten used to them and have figured out how to work out a good sound, but I also don’t like their wobbliness in the lower frequencies.”
Korg SV-1
“I use this as my master keyboard.”
Hardware synths
“On the hardware front I have a Roland Alpha Juno 1, the Moog Voyager and Little Phatty, and a Yamaha TX81Z.
“I really like the hands-on approach to using hardware; it suits me much better than fiddling around with virtual knobs on a screen.”
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“Michael Stipe said it was his favourite dance album – he used to put it on and then write his lyrics for REM to it”: Rave icons Utah Saints on their legacy, sampling Kate Bush, and the challenges of making their debut album
“They're French. I would say it's a kind of techno prog band”: Elvis Costello reckons that the Brooklyn warehouse gig he saw Justice play was “one of the great shows I've ever been to”
