New York Producer

Junior Sanchez

Junior Sanchez is using our Avid Pro Tools shortcut keyboard

Who is Junior Sanchez?

I’m Junior Sanchez, I’ve been DJ’ing since 1993, I had my first record while I was a junior in high school in 1994. I’ve been making electronic-, dance- , pop- and a lot of rock-music in the past 20 years. So basically, I started my music career at the age of 14.

My first DAW/recording device

Back in the day when I started making music I didn’t have any software. So, I started using a Roland R8 and a drum machine, but my first real workstation was a Roland W30 with 3 banks of 7 seconds’ sample time, so not more than 14 seconds’ sample time. It was a really great workstation. But when it really started to kick off was when I got my first real DAW, Studio Vision Code by Opcode and I used that for a few years because I saw that one of my big idols at that time, Trent Reznor, was using it for Nine Inch Nails.

After that DAW I started using Emagic Logic, but when Apple bought Emagic I switched over to Pro Tools (Digidesign). Back at that time, when you bought Pro Tools, the first version of Ableton Live was actually included in the purchase.

The transition from being an amateur DJ to a world class producer

I was always into Dj’ing. I started as a DJ when I was 11 years old in my old bedroom. At the time I was 13 I was already playing at the big clubs of New York City. When I was about 14-15 years old I got into the studios, and for me it was a really natural transition, I didn’t really know what I was doing. Everything just passed very organically. The first time I ever worked at a really studio I was hooked, I fell in love immediately. I was super inquisitive, "what’s this?", "what’s that?", and started my passion for the art of making music, and it has been non-stop since then.

Working with artist like Katy Perry and Daft Punk

I worked on Katy Perry’s first EP when she was signed to Virgin. I did a cover with Katy Perry of the outfield “Use your love”. With Thomas and Gee we had a crew called Da Mongoloids, a DJ collective between Armand Van Helden, Daft Punk, DJ Sneak, Roger Sanchez, Todd Terry, Ian Pooley, Laidback Luke, Basement Jaxx, and The Rhythm Masters, Da Shapeshifta Project, we were like the “Wu Tang” of house. We all worked together with remixes and music production. I was lucky enough to remix Revolution 909

The importance of keyboard shortcuts and efficiency

I think that shortcuts are super important. I can’t really tell you any shortcuts because they are so instinctual in my head and my fingers. I never used shortcut keyboard before, every shortcut I’ve been using has all been from my memory, so your shortcut keyboard will be super great for me and I believe it will be much easier for me to work even faster and with new shortcuts with your Pro Tools shortcut keyboard. It really helps me dive into the world of being even more efficient and quick.

My shortcut keyboards

I use a Pro Tools shortcut keyboard from Logickeyboard, and the Ableton Live shortcut keyboard.