What DAWs do the world’s top DJs and producers use?
All music software is slightly different and every producer has their favourite that works for them when they’re mixing up a plate of fresh sounds – these are the favourites for the world’s top producers.
Whilst each producer is unique and works in a different way there’s only so many tools out there to bring your ideas to life. We think it’s best to explore and try as many as you can to find the one that works for you, when you know you know, but you can take inspiration from what your favourite artists are using.
The worlds biggest producers and DJs are still working on the same select few programs that most of the world are using. Although many of them will use multiple programs, here are there main ones that they come to for inspiration and creating banging new beats.
Here’s a list of what the biggest producer’s in the world right now are using to create their hits:
Flume
When it comes to creating wonky electronic beats Flume is the man at the helm of weird and wonderful EDM with a pop-appeal. Flume has always touted Ableton as his top choice of DAW, saying: “For me I like to work really quickly. Ableton Live, yeah, I’ve been using it for quite some time now.”
Beyond Ableton Flume users Native Instruments Komplete and Kontakt instrument plugins as well as their Guitar Rig software. Flume says: “I like NI Guitar Rig as an effect on things like vocals… I do that quite regularly. It’s great running things through the amps, and even if I’m not using much distortion you can get some really cool, different sounds.”
Disclosure
Electronic duo Disclosure have been influencing EDM music since their debut album Settle sent shockwaves to parties around the globe. The English brothers use Apple Logic Pro X as their main program for creating music but say about playing gigs: “For live we use Ableton on one laptop to run stuff we can’t play, but we try to play as much as we can.”
When it comes to gear the boys love Akai Professional using a range of their launch pads, keyboards, and controllers. They say: “We run everything through Ableton and control it with the APC stuff Akai makes which is great. We also use bass guitar, a couple of drum machines, MPC for vocal samples, a synth and percussion at [the] moment.”
Martin Garrix
When it comes to Dutch producer extraordinaire Martin Garrix he prefers Image Line’s FL Studio as a canvas for his creations. Garrix has said that he uses multiple versions of FL Studio because he hasn’t put all of his synths and samples into one version – producer problems.
Garrix says that he also uses “a bit of [Apple] Logic sometimes”. In a tweet Garrix listed some of the Plugins he’s bought now he can afford official music software including: Nexus, Sylenth1, Massive and Gross Beat.