R/deadmau5: All deadmau5, all the time. Press J to jump to the feed. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Log in sign up. Mar 09, 2020 Related: What Chair Does Ninja Use. The article was to learn what headphones does Deadmau5 use. Each type of headphone has its own unique quality. Now it is up to the user what to choose. Zimmerman’s vast amounts of varieties need special kind of gadgets.
The latest mini-controversy in the electronic music world kicked off when deadmau5 was interviewed for a recent cover story in Rolling Stone and sounded rather critical of some of his fellow EDM performers who (according to him) don’t do very much while performing live: “David Guetta has two iPods and a mixer and he just plays tracks – like, ‘Here’s one with Akon, check it out… Even Skrillex isn’t doing anything too technical. He has a laptop and a MIDI recorder, and he’s just playing his shit…” He even went on to include himself in this category, saying “…not to say I’m not a button-pusher. I’m just pushing a lot more buttons.”
Deadmau5 on the cover of Rolling Stone
deadmau5 is right of course: many EDM performers (especially at larger shows) do play a live set that is prerecorded and presequenced to some extent, whether they use computers or DJ with vinyl or CDs. This shouldn’t be shocking news to anyone though: after all, the whole genre of electronic dance music started with a DJ mixing a set of prerecorded tracks together one after another!
These days, instead of DJing some well-known EDM performers like deadmau5 are just ‘pressing play’ at the beginning of their set and playing back a (mostly) preconceived performance, perhaps changing some levels or adding some effects or filters during the show to give it some live feeling (as deadmau5 describes in his own case). Looking at it one way, a performer like deadmau5 is doing less than a DJ freely mixing tracks together, because the order and length of everything in the set has been decided in advance. On the other hand though, it is also possible for him to do MORE than a DJ can as far as actually changing the sound of the music while it is playing, because he has control over the individual parts of the music (drums, bass, synths, etc.) and he doesn’t have to worry about what’s coming next.
DMC champ, Dubspot Instructor, and electronic music producer/performer Shiftee
Of course, using prerecorded tracks in performance is not something that started with electronic dance music: many major pop and rock acts have been using live sequencing like this for years. Particularly at very large pop shows involving a big stage show with dancers, lights, video and pyrotechnics, it has long been common practice to run a computer offstage with most or all of the parts of the music playing out of a DAW like Digital Performer or Ableton Live. Certain parts from the master sequences (such as the live bass or guitar) will be muted in favor of having them played live by musicians on stage, while other recorded parts (such as backing vocals or percussion) will be played from the computer. The live drummer (if any) plays with a click track in headphones to keep time with the sequences.
Travis Barker: “I love, love playing to a click…”
As deadmau5 mentions, this is done in part to keep music, video and lights in sync at huge shows. Also, many major artists don’t want to take a lot of chances with a live show, they just want everything to run smoothly and give their audience what they paid for. This is not limited only to the most ‘commercial’ artists, either; I wouldn’t expect that there is a lot of room for musical improvising in Amon Tobin’s solo ISAM show, for example (although I could be mistaken), but this is not what it’s about, it is a tightly-linked audio-visual piece:
Trailer for Amon Tobin’s ‘ISAM’ live show.
There is not necessarily anything wrong with this, there is room in electronic music for different types of performances and for different kinds of audiences. Of course it can be really enjoyable to hear a set of your favorite music performed together with a mindblowing visual show at a huge venue, even if you know how most of the music is going to go in advance. On the other hand, there are different pleasures to be had at a more improvisational show where you don’t know what is coming next and the DJ or live band is totally in tune with the energy and mood of the crowd and amplifying it with their track selections and performance.
Ean Golden is right that the feedback loop between performer and audience is the crucial thing here: the ability for the performer to feel the energy of the crowd and respond through their performance. This is what makes for the most legendary live performances, this felt connection between the people in the crowd, the action on stage, and the sounds that result.
However, this does not necessarily require a lot of fancy gear or a complex controller setup — the performer just needs to be able to manipulate SOME aspect of the performance in response to the audience. To a large extent, the audience doesn’t really care (or even notice) how the music is being made or what aspect of the sound the performer is controlling; what they DO care about and will notice is whether or not the performer is interacting with and responding to them somehow by changing up the energy and flow of the performance.
Even if all you are doing is mixing one track into the next DJ-style, if you are flexible in your track selection, creative with your mixing, and in tune with your audience you will be able to interact with their energy and take them on a memorable journey. Great DJs are expert at using selection and sequencing to shape a mood.
In fact, in some ways playing prerecorded music gives DJs more freedom to interact with the audience than a live band has, because they don’t have to concentrate on keeping all the parts of the music going from moment to moment and they don’t have to follow a predetermined set list. This is one of the keys to the power of a great DJ — thinking about the overall flow of the performance from a higher level and deciding what will be played next, over the course of an hour or over the entire night, rather than just concentrating on the song at hand.
So although deadmau5 got slammed for some of things he said recently, we shouldn’t be afraid to admit that he’s right — many if not most EDM performers use prerecorded music in their sets to some extent, there are very few electronic bands who actually trigger every note and sound ‘live’ (Mostly Robot comes to mind for example). This isn’t necessarily a problem though — the whole dance music scene traces back to listening to selections of prerecorded music together in a dark club or warehouse, often played by a DJ who no one knew or could even see. At its root dance music is really about the experience of hearing and feeling the music and seeing each other and dancing TOGETHER, not about watching a superstar performer.
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Online conversation: Peter Kirn also had some thoughts on this topic at CDM, and Bassnectar weighs in with an interesting contribution on his blog as well.
Side note: ‘pressing play’ i.e. using prerecorded backing tracks in a live performance like this has long been a source of controversy in music, in fact people used to get much more agitated about this than they do now. Although it may seem a bit silly to us now after 2 decades of DJ culture, back in 1990 state lawmakers in New York and New Jersey were actually debating putting some legal controls on the use of recorded music in live concerts, because it was felt that audiences were being ripped off by the use of canned backing tracks.
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Joel Zimmerman better known by his moniker Deadmau5 is a Canadian electronic DJ and dance artist who is famously known for his trademark helmet that has the shape of a mouse.
What Laptop Does Deadmau5 Use
There have been questions on whether he wears a headphone inside that helmet when he is performing and I would like to think that he does considering that he has a whole line of headphones named after him coming out.
Partnering with Sol Republic, the Sol Republic 1299-01 Deadmau5 Tracks HD On-Ear headphones were born, a creation thanks to Deadmau5’s collaboration with the headphone company.
Sol Republic 1299-01 Deadmau5 Tracks HD On-Ear headphones
Checking out the qualities and requirements for a killer headphone, Deadmau5 headphones are affordable and give the user the satisfaction of good sound and durability.
First things first, when one hears the word “Sol”, they assume it has something to do with the sun but in actuality, “Sol” is an acronym that stands for “Soundtrack of Life”.
Deadmau5’s headphones consists of two flavors of Amps in-ear headphones and two flavors of tracks on-ear headphones. An exciting feature that comes with these headphones is the swappable headbands, speakers and cables that come in vibrant colors and designs.
If you are using your cellphone to listen to music, you are able to receive or make calls thanks to its built in microphone.
View Lowest Price Here
Considering who partnered with them to come up with this headphone, it is obvious that one of the features is that the headphone will have deep bass and aggressive sound. They obviously will not make good headphones for those who prefer well balanced and natural sounding headphones.
Having purchased and used the headphone, this is my take on it.
Looking at its design, the Sol Republic Tracks headphone has an on-ear design that is quite comfortable although its fit will be subjective on the user.
An attractive feature about this headphone is the ability for one to completely pull apart the headphone and swap in a new headband that will have your friends wondering how you keep switching headphones every week. Not only does it have a pull apart headband, it also has detachable cords and pads which make it easy to accessorize the sound engines as they are dearly called by Sol Republic.
The other thing about this headphone is its ability to bend to great extremes without the possibility of it breaking.
SOL REPUBLIC Deadmau5 Tracks HD On-Ear Headphones Pulled Apart
When it comes to its performance, they have an aggressive lean that accentuates the bass and treble making them a good choice when listening to music that has big thumping bass predominantly found in music genres like techno, rap and hip-hop.
The Sol Republic Track headphone delivers its price’s worth.
Below are its features:
- V10 high-definition sound engine speakers are fully loaded with deeper bass, higher vocal clarity and crisp vocals
- 3-button mic + music control
- Virtually indestructible FlexTech Sound Track headband has a 1,000 day guarantee
- Fully interchangeable headphones so you can Remix your sound and style
- Compatible with most Apple, Android and Windows devices that uses a 3.5mm jack
Below are some comments given by people who have used the headphones:
What Laptop Does Deadmau5 Use
“The form, function and style of these headphones is top notch. Sol Republic claims that the band is nearly indestructible and they display a video and several images on their website that solidify that belief in me (although I would never try it with mine). The trouble for me is that since I wear glasses the band presses my earlobes which then press my glasses into the skull behind my ears leaving me with a headache even after a few minutes. This effect doesn’t detract my love of these headphones but from a design perspective it seems flawed to have an uncomfortable product. Now I will admit my head is larger than the average bear’s so to each his or her own.
The modular design is unique and everything is replaceable which includes the band, the sound engines and the wire. My android phone doesn’t know what to do with the volume but the play/pause works in the stock media player. The color options are even more unique and I see some additions to my Deadmau5 sound engines in the future.
I was really surprised by my wife when I opened them as a gift. I was pretty shocked by the sound range and every person who wears them has something good to say. I had been using an open and light pair of Sennheiser headphones and the trouble with those were in the open air design. My wife could clearly hear what I was listening to even at low volumes. These headphones are pretty tight until you reach a moderate to high volume and even then the music isn’t clear but audible.
The sound range of these headphones is crazy and the bass is why I love them. The first track, very first, I listened to was Teardrop by Massive Attack. I was floored. I hadn’t heard some of the lows in that song since I had a semi-professional component sound system in college more than 10 years ago. For those familiar with this song there is a bass track that overlays another and that was in fact muddy. The clarity in the middle and high at that muddiness were still clear which is a win many headphone manufacturers don’t experience.
The bass produced is unique in that you can experience it at any volume but I have found my favorite volume between 40-50% as it seems to produce the most clarity on the low end before distortion (the clipping is a result of my sound card). Overall, the sound does get dirty but in a good rave scene kind of way (increase the Preamp and you will experience what I mean). The clarity is a pleasant surprise and even at high bass levels the mids and highs are crisp. Like I said early every person who listens has had been reluctant to let these go. By Nathaniel Reynolds
What Synths Does Deadmau5 Use
“I was on the hunt for nice on-ear or over-ear headphones when a friend recommended I check out Sol Republic. At first, I was skeptical; I had never heard of Sol Republic before. However, after trying out a pair at a Target, I was convinced! The ability to customize your headphones, easily replace parts, and not have to worry about parts breaking/stop working is unmatched by anything else to date. Sol Republic was created by the son of the creator of Beats headphones so you can be sure that looks will be important with these headphones. The great thing though is that looks are not all you are going to get with these. They look cool but also have great bass and it doesn’t over power like Beats. The mids are good and nothing sounds muddy or washed out. When I saw the deadmau5 version I was sold. I love deadmau5 and these headphones are the definition of AWESOME. I would totally recommend these to any deadmau5 enthusiast, audiophile, and anyone who wants cool, great sounding headphones for a price that doesn’t break the bank. Bottom line: Best headphones ever!” By Pen Name