I don’t really follow Thomas Penton but he’s a successful DJ/Producer with many releases + a nice touring sched. I found this article an interesting read, because he generously opens up and reveals a lot of his production techniques. It made me think about how electronic music production’s evolving (for better or worse) to be all “in-the-box” and how the “loudness war” continues to get louder. His method of mastering as he composes, squashing the hell out of all of his elements, working entirely in headphones and using some clever layering/sequencing to maximize basslines would typically be frowned upon by old(er)-school producers. But its also a process that works well for him, and some techniques I’ve tried in the past. At the same time, I’m starting to see a movement of folks that are fighting this “digital racket” by consciously using outboard analog gear and making sure there’s more dynamic range in their tunes.