Thomas Wesley Pentz aka Diplo is a successful American DJ, songwriter, and record producer who has a huge number of hits under his belts. He is also the co-creator of Major Lazer.
This article is written after a good amount of research on Diplo’s that are available on the internet. I will try to list as many DAW, VST, and Gear that Diplo is known to use.
I have also written other articles on Martin Garrix DAW and Alan Walker’s DAW. If you like to take a look at all of them please check out the page called Artist.
What DAW Does Diplo Use?
Ableton Live
Ableton Live is very professional and advanced software that is used by almost all mainstream artists who are topping the charts. Diplo uses Ableton Live for his music production and live performance. On the official website of Ableton Live, there is an article on Diplo answering some of the questions on him using the software.
What VST Software does Diplo Use?
1. Native Instruments KOMPLETE 9 Software Bundle
Diplo uses Native Instruments KOMPLETE 9 Software Bundle as you can see in the below video. I personally saved up just to get this bundle and I think it is amazing. The plugins that come with this are mind-blowing.
Watch the below video to watch Diplo talk about Native Instruments:
2. Universal Audio Studer A800 Multichannel Tape Recorder Plug-In
Throw this plugin in if you want the two-inch fat sound. Diplo uses these to bring life to those tracks. On the official site, He said…
“I definitely have channel strips made up entirely of UAD plug-ins that I will break out to inspire an instrument or sound.”
3. Universal Audio Teletronix LA-3A Classic Audio Leveler Plugin
This is an Audio Leveler VST plugin that has a lot of features and one of them is expanded features include the original High-Frequency Emphasis filter and digital-only Dry/Wet Mix parallel processing. That was on their website and I honestly don’t even understand the whole of it but one thing for sure is that this is a really powerful compressor that I will surely invest in someday.
4. Universal Audio Roland RE-201 – Delay Plugin
This plugin has a lot of really great reviews and when I heard the demo it does sound amazing. No surprise that Diplo uses it. Even though I personally prefer the Echo Boy plugin.
“On the track, ‘Get Free’ the choppy skipping vocals near the end were processed with the Roland RE-201 Space Echo and numerous layers of compression and resampling to get the overall effect heard.”
5. UAD – FATSO
Diplo is said to use this plugin on drums and vocals, as well as instrument sounds. This plugin claims to bring out warm musical qualities. This plugin is also used by other famous names such as Ed Cherney, Al Schmitt, and Brendan O’Brien.
6. UAD – Pultec Passive EQ Plug-In Collection
This plugin was built to recreate the Pultec EQ experience plugins. A few of my producer friends have mentioned to me that this plugin brings out a vintage vibe when used and is a must-have.
7. UAD – 1176 Classic Limiter Plugin Collection
1176 compressor is a software version of the classic 1176 compressor which is famously used in the greatest golden hits. This plugin is very interesting as it has amazing reviews across the web. This is on my list of plugins to buy and also Diplo uses these.
8. Dada Life Sausage Fattener Plugin
Sausage Fattener is a plugin that actually makes a track sound fatter if that makes sense. Diplo is listed as a user of the plugin on the official website.
9. iZotope Stutter Edit
Diplo is mentioned on the artist page of iZotope and says that he likes to use stutter edit on everything such as drums, vocals, synths, effects, guitars, etc.
10. Izotope Ozone 6
IZoptope Ozone 6 is pretty much every producer’s weapon and a widely used plugin. From Martin Garrix to Skrillex everyone has it and uses it. If you are interested feel free to check them out on YouTube.
11. Waves CLA Vocals
Waves CLA Vocals are one of my favorite plugins to use on Vocals and there is everything you need to tweak and mix vocals. In the below video you can see around 3:00 minutes the Waves CLA Vocal plugin.
12. Native Instruments – Massive Synth
Another favorite synth of mine as well is the Massive Synth from Native Instruments. Regardless of your genre, you can get these to produce a decent and unique sound with multiple presets available. Diplo says in the below video “A couple things I like about Massive is the versatility”.
13. Xfer – Serum
Serum by Xfer is one of Diplo’s favorite as he mentioned it while replying to a question on Reddit and you can read that here. If you are into dubstep or techno even the default serum preset sounds wonderful. Download Serum Here.
14. FabFilter Pro-L Limiter Plugin
FabFilter has tremendous plugins in their collection and Pro-L is a powerful Limiter Plugin that is used by so many artists around. Below is the picture of Diplo responding to a question on Facebook about FabFilter Pro-L Limiter Plugin.
Source: Facebook Post
15. Sonic Charge Bitspeek
BitSpeak is a real-time voice changer and Diplo is said to use these back in 2014-2015 for his drops. I am not quite sure if he still uses it to this day but I thought it’s worth mentioning.
16. Lennar Digital – Sylenth1
Along with Massive Synth and iZotope, Sylenth1 is another common synth in the toolkit of producers. I started to use it after I read that Martin Garrix does too. Anyway, in the below video you can see him using Sylenth1 around the 1:20 mark.
17. Output EXHALE
I am not too familiar with this plugin but the GUI looks pretty amazing and worth checking out. Diplo is mentioned on their official site as a user of the plugin.
18. Dada Life Endless Smile
Dada Life’s Endless Smile is another plugin just like the Sausage Fattener which is a plugin used to create anticipation before the drop. On Dada Life’s website Diplo is mentioned as a user of the plugin.
19. LOUDPVCK: SOUNDPVCKS – VOL ONE
If you have watched the Where are U Now video on this page then you can see this sound pack is being used by Diplo. This plugin is available in Splice Sounds if you want it.
Headphones Diplo Uses
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Studio Equipment that Diplo Uses
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Diplo’s Keyboard and Synthesizers
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Diplo’s DJ Setup
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Source
https://www.uaudio.com/blog/artist-interview-diplo/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplo