David Guetta is a French house DJ and music producer. He was born in Paris, France in 1967. He became active on the music scene in the 1980s. However, it wasn’t until 2002 that his first album Just a Little More came out.He’s a bit of an anomaly in that he got his big break after the age of 30 which is slightly older than the average age at which many mainstream artists gain popularity.
He spent the early part of his career DJing in clubs and eventually became the manager at a French club called Le Palace.
He established Gum Productions with fellow producer Joachim Garraud in 2001 and released his first hit song Just a Little More Love. His debut album of the same title came out a year later and went on to sell more than 300,000 units.
Guetta released two more albums shortly after; Guetta Blaster in 2004, and One Love in 2007. But it was 2009’s One Love that made him into an international superstar.
Notable songs that Guetta has contributed to include Love is Gone (with Chris Willis), When Love Takes Over (with Kelly Rowland), Sexy Bitch (with Akon), Titanium (with Sia) and 2U (with Justin Beiber).
He has also produced songs for other artists such as Black Eyed Peas’ smash single I Gotta Feeling, Jessie J’s LaserLight, Ariana Grande’s One Last Time and Jeremih’s Tonight Belongs to You.
As of 2018, he has released six studio albums. One Love which was released in 2009 and Nothing But the Beat which was released in 2011, are Guetta’s most successful albums to date. Each one has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.
Guetta has won numerous awards and accolades including two Grammy Awards as well multiple DJ Awards. He has also been nominated for some NRJ Music Awards. Guetta has sold more than 9 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide. He’s a mainstay on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list on which he reached the number 1 spot in 2011.
On the personal side, he’s divorced and has two children with Catherine Lobé. He’s been on the EDM music scene since 1984, making him one of the oldest and most experienced producers/DJ on the electronic music scene. Due to his age, he’s affectionately known by some as the grandfather of EDM.
Guetta uses Ableton Live and Logic Pro as his DAWs. He’s also been seen using Image-Line FL Studio as well as the Audacity audio editor.
He works software instruments such as Native Instruments Massive, reFX Nexus 2, Future Audio Workshop Circle and Lennar Digital Sylenth1.
Effects plugins he’s known to use include Nicky Romero Kickstart sidechain compression plugin, Industrial Strength’s Drop plugin as well as Cableguys Halftime.
On the hardware side, Guetta uses a pair of Adam A77X studio monitors. He partnered with Beats to create the Beat by Dre Mixr headphones. He also uses a pair of Sennheiser HD 25-1 II headphones.
He has used the Roland TB3 and Roland AIRA TB-3 touch keyboards in past performances. His DJ setup consists of a Pioneer CDJ-2000, Pioneer EFX-500, Pioneer RMX-1000 remix station as well as the Numark TDC05.
Other keyboards that are part of his arsenal include the Akai Pro LPK25 and Novation 61SL MKII MIDI keyboard controllers. He also uses an Ableton Push and Prism Sound Orpheus.
The heart of his studio setup is an Apple MacBook Pro, which hosts and runs the vast majority of his software instruments, software effects, and DAWs.