Daniel De Los Reyes

World-renowned percussionist Daniel De Los Reyes has toured and performed with a who’s-who list of legendary artists (Don Henley, Sting, Billy Joel, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Brian Wilson, Stevie Nicks, Patti LaBelle and many others), and is also a consummate artist, producer and all-around forward-thinking musician who makes full use of today’s music production technology, including Pro Tools M-Powered, Ableton Live, the FireWire 1814, Octane and more.

Born in New York City and raised for a short time in Puerto Rico, Reyes and his family moved to Las Vegas when he was four. His father, legendary drummer Walfredo Reyes Sr., made his living as one of the top musicians in Las Vegas. And Reyes, a third-generation musician, spent his formative years honing his skills by his father’s side. This valuable experience along with years of extensive touring with a variety of A-list artists has given Reyes—who has played every style from rock and funk to jazz, R&B, Latin and world rhythms—the musical background needed to assemble and choreograph his new creation called DRUMJUNGLE.

A collaboration between Reyes and fellow drummer/producer Joshua Eagan, DRUMJUNGLE is an elaborate musical and performance experience that fuses Reyes’ and Eagan’s affinity for all manner of percussion, technology and diverse musical styles. And M-Audio technology is at the forefront of this new creative endeavor. “The great thing about the M-Audio stuff is that it allows you to bring your ideas to reality, with full production, in half the time and at a fraction of the cost,” say Reyes.

“The M-Audio stuff is making life a lot easier,” he continues. “Sometimes I use Latigo or Darbuka to create a groove and then expand on it with layers of live percussion. The stuff is so realistic. All I have to do is track a little on the top, and it sounds awesome. And from a performance standpoint, I used M-Audio gear exclusively for the performance we did at the 2006 NAMM show. We ran the songs on Live 5 in order to extend things as we pleased, and we were triggering sound loops from the ProSessions series during the performance.”

“We primarily use Pro Tools M-Powered for tracking and mixing,” Eagan explains. “We also use Live 5, which comes in very handy. The two complement each other very nicely. We use the 1814 interface quite a lot, and it’s great to be able to track at 24/96 when a producer calls me for tracks. And for that great analog sound, we use the Octane to track live drums. We take the ADAT out of the Octane and run it into the 1814, so we can easily track live takes at 48kHz. The Trigger Finger and the Oxygen keyboard have also proved invaluable for triggering samples.

“I think M-Audio is gaining a major place in the recording industry,” Eagan adds. “M-Audio has made a line of great products that any musician can afford. Now anyone can make great sounding music.”

“All I can say is that M-Audio is a mainstay in our musical arsenal,” Reyes concludes.