“For MIDI-deep stuff like I tend to go to Cubase for better control.”

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What DAW does deadmau5 use?
deadmau5 has said they switch DAWs: Cubase for detailed MIDI work, Ableton Live for quick edits and Pro Tools to recall their Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console. They started out on Impulse Tracker and were seen trying Bitwig Studio in 2016. Synth mainstays include an Analogue Solutions Colossus, a Moog Voyager and an EMS Synthi AKS.
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What studio gear deadmau5 uses: a sourced gear guide
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Studio
“For MIDI-deep stuff like I tend to go to Cubase for better control.”
“So if I just need something quick and dirty, I'll just go in there and do some quick edits.”
“neither Cubase or Ableton supports SwiftMix for my Neve console, but Pro Tools does.”
“It’s Kontakt, bro. Kontakt, piano roll and a lot of little note shifting, velocity editing but it sounds good.”
“So I actually did get to use that on XYZ. That was kind of cool.”
“With analogue, even though you’re going over the red, you’re still not peaking.”
Synths
“I really, really love my Colossus these days, the Analogue Solutions Colossus, which is a kind of an EMS Synthi 100 clone.”
“Voyager, I can't seem to escape that synth. It’s the last good Moog.”
“It’s not dirty, but I use it a lot”
“I’ve used this on tracks. I use it on a track called 2448.”
“The last module I bought was probably my third Yarns from Mutable Instruments”
“I never tour with anything I can't replace”
Stage
“There are more than 800 tags of OSC data that are piping from me to front-of-house and back”
“I actually used TouchOSC for a little while”
“We use it live because the signal path in the live show is just so pure that it’d be a damn shame not to put it at the end of it”
Records that shaped me
“Having listened to all the top brand-name acts when I was going through high school that was the one that stuck out”
Where it started
Modular
About deadmau5's gear.
What DAW does deadmau5 use?
deadmau5 told MusicRadar in 2022 they switch between Cubase for MIDI-heavy work, Ableton Live for quick edits and live shows, and Pro Tools for fader recall on their Neve console. They started on Impulse Tracker in the early 1990s and teased a track made in Bitwig Studio in 2016.
What plugins does deadmau5 use?
deadmau5 has said they use Native Instruments Kontakt for programmed parts, Universal Audio UAD plug-ins as utility tools, and VCV Rack 2 Pro for virtual modular inside the DAW.
What synth does deadmau5 use?
deadmau5 has said the Analogue Solutions Colossus and the Moog Voyager are mainstays, and in 2026 said they use an EMS Synthi AKS a lot. Studio tours have shown a Roland Juno-106 and Jupiter-8, a Prophet-10, an ARP 2600 and a gold Minimoog Voyager 10th Anniversary Edition.
What modular synth does deadmau5 use?
Their wall of modular includes an Analogue Solutions Colossus, a Modcan system, Oberheim SEM modules and Mutable Instruments Yarns. A 2024 case build showed Moog DFAM, Mother-32 and Subharmonicon, Behringer Neutron, Pro-1 and K-2, and Mutable Braids, Clouds and Elements.
What mixing console does deadmau5 use?
deadmau5 has said they use a Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console in their studio and like driving it into the red for analogue tone.
What DJ mixer does deadmau5 use?
deadmau5 has said they use the PLAYdifferently Model 1 mixer in their live show for its signal path, controlled alongside their own OSC/Pilot app.
deadmau5 is the Canadian producer Joel Zimmerman, behind Strobe, Ghosts 'n' Stuff and the mau5trap label. This guide covers the DAWs, synths, modular systems, console and live tools they have named in interviews or shown in studio tours, from the Impulse Tracker days and the 2017 studio tour to the 2026 Reverb tour, plus a record that set them on their path.
truerecs put this guide together from public videos, interviews and posts. Each item says how we know and links to the source. deadmau5 didn't write it or choose anything on it. How we source gear guides.
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