Skrillex's DJ Gear: The Essential Tools for His Iconic Sound

by Alan Jansen Sep 06, 2023 Sep 07, 2023

Skrillex is among the most popular DJ, producer, and electronic dance music artists globally. As a beloved DJ with a unique sound and style, he often attracts huge crowds whenever he performs. The skilled DJ knows he has to pick the right equipment to support his craft. What does Skrillex use for DJing? Keep reading to find out.

What Does Skrillex Use to Make Music?

Skrillex is popular for his unique work in dubstep music. This is a complex genre, yet he manages to make it look so easy while sounding good. How does he manage to do this? What does Skrillex use to make music? The DJ uses a combination of hardware and software tools to mix and produce unique sounds. Below we will be highlighting the different equipment he uses.

What DJ Boards Does Skrillex Use?

A DJ Board or a DJ mixing board is essential for a DJ setup. It helps the DJ manipulate or control different audio signals and merge them into one sound. A DJ can also use a mixer to transition from one song to the next. Let's take a look at the DJ boards Skrillex uses.

Pioneer DJM-400 DJ Mixer

The DJM-400 DJ Mixer is a two-channel DJ mixer with features that make DJing effortless. The intelligent 24-bit/96kHz beat sampler can automatically detect a track's tempo, sampling it for four beats and looping the sample. The sampler instinctively stretches the loops to sync with the beats of the audio being played.

You also get six sound effects, which include delay, echo, flanger, roll, and 24-bit robot. This gives a DJ plenty of options to explore their creativity. In terms of size, it's compact, allowing for easy mounting.

Pioneer DJM-900NXS Professional DJ Mixer

The Pioneer DJ DJM-900NXS2 4-Channel DJ Mixer is the standard DJ mixer, and with good reason. The 96 kHz / 64-bit signal processor utilizes improved dithering technology to deliver a warm analog sound. The mixer also features Pioneer's sound color FX with six effects, including crush, sweep, dub echo, filter, space, and noise.

Additional features include four S/PDIF digital input connections, Pro DJ Link, and three USB ports. In addition, it has a send and return section that lets the DJ use external and internal effects simultaneously.

What Laptop Does Skrillex Use

Like most renowned DJs, Skrillex uses an Apple MacBook Pro. These laptops have a good amount of hard disk space and memory, plus a solid operating system. It's no surprise they are popular among professional DJs.

MacBook Pros are very reliable. They handle DJ software like Ableton Live very well without crashing. Another benefit of MacBook Pros is that they're ready-to-go and plug-and-play devices that go with most DJ hardware like mixers, controllers, sound cards, and midi devices.

What Turntables Does Skrillex Use?

Turntables are equipment used to mix pre-recorded music for events or parties. Basically, they are like CD players with slip-pad discs. Take a look at what Skrillex uses.

Pioneer CDJ-2000-NXS Digital DJ Turntable

The Pioneer CDJ-2000-NXS is an improvement of the CDJ-1000-NXS. Expect a precise and accurate sound thanks to the 96kHz/24-bit sound card. Also, the FLAC/ALAC file format support allows for superior audio replication.

Aside from that, the display controls and general build are all exceptional, and you're going to love the touchscreen that makes it easy to manage your audio files. This is one of the few turntables that allow you to transfer music through a Wi-Fi connection. Forget about the hassle of connecting cables to your laptop. It also features an LCD screen that displays song information such as title, album art, and wave data.

Pioneer CDJ-1000MK3 Digital Vinyl Turntable

The Pioneer CDJ-1000MK3 Digital Vinyl Turntable boasts high-quality construction to withstand heavy use in DJ gigs and live performances. The Vinyl control features allow the user to control digital audio using vinyl records. Any DJ who loves that vinyl feel but also wants to enjoy the simplicity of digital media will appreciate this feature.

The large and touch-sensitive jog wheel allows the user to perform pitch bending, precise scratching, and cueing easily.

What DJ Controllers Does Skrillex Use?

A DJ controller is one of the most important DJing equipment. It consists of several components like turntables, mixers, and speakers and runs on software to help DJs make music.

The Pioneer DJ CDJ-2000NXS2 Professional Multi Player

The Pioneer DJ CDJ-2000NXS2 Professional Multi Player is the standard DJ controller. Its advanced performance features include beat loop slicing, cues, quantize, and slip mode. All these let the DJ explore their creativity.

The multiplayer supports different audio formats like FLAC/ ALAC, AIFF, and WAV, ensuring DJs play high-quality audio files. The touchscreen display is a standout feature because a DJ can easily navigate through different tracks. The track filter menu on the screen allows the user to filter music files by key and BPM and tag tracks through color coding.

What Headphones Does Skrillex Use?

You will find Skrillex wearing different types of earphones in different videos and photos. Here are a few that people have seen him with.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Professional Monitor Headphones

The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Professional Monitor Headphones deliver quality audio with deep bass response. They are also comfortable, making them great for long DJ sets and studio sessions. The earcups are contoured for great sound isolation, ensuring you aren't distracted by background noise. While they are available in black, blue, white, and red, Skrillex has been seen with black ones.

Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones

The Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones have been made with smooth matte plastic and soft earcups, giving them an appealing look and comfortable feel. Their notable feature is their active noise canceling capabilities that block any ambient noise. Thanks to their 10+ hours battery life, a DJ can use them for a long time before they need recharging.

Sennheiser HD 202 II Professional Headphones

Skrillex also uses the Sennheiser HD 202 II Professional Headphones. From the name, you can deduce that these headphones are made for professional use. The ear padding might be stiff, but users adjust to them very fast.

The sound quality is okay for that budget. With an 18 to 18,000Hz frequency range, the pair is perfect for DJs and music producers. In addition, users can twerk the neutral sound signature through an equalizer software to suit the specific music genre they are working with.

What Software Does Skrillex Use?

DJ software makes music production and DJ work much easier. Skrillex uses the following software.

Rekordbox

As you have seen, Skrillex uses Pioneer equipment. Therefore, it makes sense to use Rekordbox, a product of Pioneer. The software makes music management much easier by providing tools for analyzing tracks and setting cue points.

For live performance DJs like Skrillex, the performance mode is a welcome addition. The software integrates with Pioneer hardware allowing the user to control certain aspects of their performance, like selecting tracks and syncing beats. It also has a variety of performance effects like reverb, echoes, and filters.

Serato Scratch Live

Skrillex uses Serato Scratch Live when performing radio mixes. The software provides large virtual decks that display important track information like Beats Per Minute (BPM), time elapsed and time remaining, and a track's pitch and progress.

It also has a large library giving DJs a lot of music options. Despite the large library, Serato DJ's file management feature allows for easy location of tracks.

What Plugins Does Skrillex Use?

Plugins allow DJs to explore their creativity. Different plugins handle various tasks, including processing vocals and effects. Let's take a look at the plugins Skrillex uses.

For effects, Skrillex uses Ohm Force Ohmicide Distortion. This tool allows the DJ to manipulate and distort a sound they have created even further. It's also easy to use and produces amazing sound quality.

In terms of vocals, the tool he uses is Celemony Melodyne. When you listen to some of Skrillex's tracks, you'll notice he manipulates vocals. This is possible because of Melodyne. This tool has been designed for vocals. It allows a DJ to alter vocals, including the pitch and length of notes.

Pitch editing can rectify a singer's mistakes or make a bad singer sound good. The tool lets you treat vocals like an instrument you can manipulate on a computer.

Vocoder

Skrillex also uses Vocoder. It's a tool that alters human vocals. However, he mentioned that while he uses the tool, it's not for manipulating vocals but for other types of audio.

What DAWs Does Skrillex Use

A Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) is a music production software that allows users to record, create, edit, and mix digital audio files. It usually consists of tools like sequences, synthesizers, effect processes, and samplers that help to construct audio recordings. Skrillex uses Ableton Live, the most popular DAW in the game.

This tool allows Skrillex to easily create complex patterns, contributing to his unique and powerful music style. It consists of production tools like virtual instruments, effects plugins, and an easy-to-use interface that enables him to create intricate beats quickly.

The software caters to most creative needs, including offering multiple midi device support and unlimited audio tracks. Its wide range of capabilities allows Skrillex to keep the dance floor alive when performing.

Ableton Live is in three editions, which are Intro, Standard, and Suite. Although they share a common feature, Suite has the most features and is ideal for complex DJ tasks.

What Synths Does Skrillex Use to Make Music

Synths work alongside music software to process and produce music. Skrillex uses the following synths.

Native Instruments FM8

This Native Instruments FM8 plugin has a wide variety of features and effects. Aside from allowing you to create your sounds, it has more than 1200 preset sounds. You also get 32 waveforms giving you a wide sound palette. The graphical sound morphine feature allows for easy creation of evolving sounds.

Native Instruments Massive

The Native Instruments Massive gives the user total control over the way sounds osculate. You also get a huge range of modulation options, effects, and filters. This synth includes over 1300 preset sounds made by leading sound designers and artists.

Frequently Asked Questions

What app does Skrillex use to make music?

Skrillex uses Ableton Live to make music. It's an incredibly powerful and intuitive Digital Audio Workstation that makes creating music much smoother.

What instrument does Skrillex play?

Skrillex plays the guitar. He owns several, including the Fender Stratocaster and Fender Classic Series 72 Telecaster Deluxe.

What samples does Skrillex use?

Skrillex creates his own samples but also uses popular EDM sample packs like Future Rave Serum Presets.

Conclusion

What does Skrillex use for DJing? As the article has explained, Skrillex uses a variety of equipment to DJ. Note that most of this equipment is quite expensive with advanced features. If you're interested in being a DJ, look for affordable and entry-level equipment.

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