Danny T. Levin

Horns, etc.

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1 Review
Danny T. Levin on SoundBetter

You've probably already heard my work on albums/songs by Doja Cat, Post Malone, Eminem, Megan Thee Stallion, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Iggy Pop, Morrissey, Vampire Weekend, Gary Clark Jr., Regina Spektor, 21 Pilots, DaBaby, Glen Campbell, Blueface, Paloma Faith, GWAR, Built To Spill, Rilo Kiley and tons more including movies, commercials and TV.

Professional brass player - trumpet mainly but also equally adept at cornet, flugelhorn, trombone, euphonium, bass trumpet, trombonium, flugabone, alto horn, frumpet and more. Also I sing, play some keys (fender rhodes, piano, Juno 60, etc.), guitar (electric, acoustic and nylon string plus a few different amps/FX), and other random instruments I've collected.

I'm also a composer, arranger, producer, songwriter and beatmaker as well as being a session musician, and I can stack myself into anything from a small horn section to a marching band. I can do string arrangements and orchestrations, as well as sound design and manipulation of midi and effects. I made the instrumental loop for the song Demons by Doja Cat.

I also have a custom designed studio, built to my specifications explicitly for the type of recording I do. My room was designed by Ken Goerres, also I've got a bunch of great recording gear including Neumann, API, Chandler, Lynx, Avalon, UA, Beyerdynamic, and more. I've got a bunch of cool outboard effects, amps and toys in addition to a wide variety of brass instruments, guitars and keyboards.

My credits include grammy winning and billboard #1 albums, and I've been worked with a bunch of legendary artists and producers. Some of the worlds best known record producers have hired me to do work for them in my home studio.

Send me a note through the contact button above.

Credits

AllMusic verified credits for Danny T. Levin
  • Explorer Tapes
  • Once & Future Band
  • Once & Future Band
  • Once & Future Band
  • Once & Future Band
  • Blueface
  • Grant-Lee Phillips
  • Grant-Lee Phillips
  • Grant-Lee Phillips
  • Caleb Landry Jones
  • Anthony Shadduck
  • Anthony Shadduck Double Quartet
  • Anthony Shadduck Quartet
  • Anthony Shadduck
  • Anthony Shadduck Double Quartet
  • Anthony Shadduck Quartet
  • Anthony Shadduck
  • Anthony Shadduck Double Quartet
  • Anthony Shadduck Quartet
  • Factor Chandelier
  • Factor Chandelier
  • Psychic Temple
  • Daye Jack
  • Daye Jack
  • Once & Future Band
  • GWAR
  • GWAR
  • Paloma Faith
  • Paloma Faith
  • Paloma Faith
  • Paloma Faith
  • Paloma Faith
  • Paloma Faith
  • Gwen Stefani
  • Gwen Stefani
  • Gwen Stefani
  • Gwen Stefani
  • Foxes
  • Tim Heidecker
  • Tim Heidecker
  • James Houlahan
  • Iggy Pop
  • Iggy Pop
  • Iggy Pop
  • Iggy Pop
  • Iggy Pop
  • Iggy Pop
  • Iggy Pop
  • Daye Jack
  • Daye Jack
  • Augustines
  • Twenty One Pilots
  • Twenty One Pilots
  • Twenty One Pilots
  • The Front Bottoms
  • Twenty One Pilots
  • Twenty One Pilots
  • Twenty One Pilots
  • Van Hunt
  • Vampire Weekend
  • Psychic Temple
  • Psychic Temple
  • Psychic Temple
  • Snoop Lion
  • Lenka
  • Lenka
  • Heidecker & Wood
  • Heidecker & Wood
  • Gary Clark, Jr.
  • Gary Clark, Jr.
  • Gary Clark, Jr.
  • Eric Hutchinson
  • Eric Hutchinson
  • Regina Spektor
  • Glen Campbell
  • Mike Bloom
  • Mike Bloom
  • Mike Bloom
  • Mike Bloom
  • Mike Bloom
  • Christina Perri
  • Matt Nathanson
  • Matt Nathanson
  • Matt Nathanson
  • Matt Nathanson
  • Matt Nathanson
  • The Heavenly States
  • Lenka
  • Brooke Fraser
  • Brooke Fraser
  • Lindsey Ray
  • Cary Brothers
  • Eleni Mandell
  • Chris Schlarb
  • Chris Schlarb
  • Chris Schlarb
  • Chris Schlarb
  • Jimmy Webb
  • The Webb Brothers
  • Breakestra
  • Aaron Barnhart
  • Alan Semerdjian
  • Alan Semerdjian
  • Alan Semerdjian
  • Built to Spill
  • Built to Spill
  • Lenka
  • Lenka
  • Lenka
  • Lenka
  • Raheem DeVaughn
  • Raheem DeVaughn
  • The Spinto Band
  • The Spinto Band
  • Pierre de Reeder
  • David Ramos
  • James Combs
  • Rilo Kiley
  • The Elected
  • The Elected
  • The Elected
  • The Elected
  • Ceschi
  • Ceschi
  • Naomi Greenwald
  • Naomi Greenwald
  • Regina Spektor
  • Factor Chandelier
  • Daye Jack
  • Daye Jack
  • Kim DiVine
  • August Eve
  • Trey Lockerbie
  • Trey Lockerbie
  • Trey Lockerbie
  • Trey Lockerbie
  • The Cat and Owl
  • Ceschi
  • Ceschi
  • Ceschi
  • Ceschi
  • Chika
  • Chika
  • Terraplane Sun

1 Reviews

Endorse Danny T. Levin
  1. Review by James North Productions
    starstarstarstarstar

    I've been using Danny as my go-to horns guy for over a decade and he's the best in the biz. Great gear, great recordings but most importantly great parts and composition - he knows exactly what to play and when to play it. I'm also very confident using him for any style regardless of whether it's a traditional 'horns' genre. He's extremely easy to work with and a fantastic communicator which his everything when working with someone over the internet. I don't bother hiring people locally because Danny is just that good and never fails to deliver. Do yourself a favour and get in touch!

Interview with Danny T. Levin

  1. Q: Analog or digital and why?

  2. A: Both. Why not?

  3. Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

  4. A: That brass instruments are polyphonic - if you send me a demo track that is a horn section playing a bunch of chords and counter melodies and overlapping parts, that means I have to record each note of the chord individually and stack it multiple times. Brass instruments can only play one note at a time, so what might have been one or two demo scratch keyboard tracks could require 50 tracks for me to realize.

  5. Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

  6. A: What are you looking for me to do? When do you need it done by? What is your budget?

  7. Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

  8. A: I'd love to work with Steve Earle because I love many of his songs. Also the aforementioned Lanois and Rubin, for obvious reasons.

  9. Q: Can you share one music production tip?

  10. A: Always serve the song - good production, songwriting, composing and arranging are basically the same thing IMO.

  11. Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

  12. A: Literally everything. Rap (Megan Thee Stallion feat. Da Baby), Metal (GWAR), Pop (Gwen Stefani), Classic Rock (Iggy Pop), Modern Rock (21 Pilots), Indie Rock (Vampire Weekend), Indie Rap (Ceschi), Hip Hop Reggae (Snoop Lion), Blues (Gary Clark Jr.), Hip Hop (Chika), Singer Songwriter (Regina Spektor), Trap (Blueface), Reggae (The English Beat), Neo-Soul (Van Hunt), Jazz (DD Horns), Blue Eyed Soul (Paloma Faith), Americana (Glen Campbell), Electronic (Diplo), RnB (Celeste), I've worked in just about every genre imaginable. Also a bunch of video games, tv shows, commercials, movies etc. Pretty much anything that might need horns on it, also been writing a lot of trap/hip hop beats lately with producer DA Got That Dope.

  13. Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

  14. A: I've been doing this professionally for about 20 years. I went to school for music composition, and then spent a number of years touring and doing session work. Now

  15. Q: How would you describe your style?

  16. A: Eclectic

  17. Q: What's your strongest skill?

  18. A: Creativity is probably the biggest thing I bring outside of my specific and general musical expertise. Left to my own devices I'm working on music 24/7 when not with my family, because I have a constant desire to create.

  19. Q: What do you bring to a song?

  20. A: I have a pretty comprehensive understanding of how the language of music works from the bottom up and from the top down. I play a bunch of different horns and can track on the spot horn arrangements, but I also have experience songwriting, musical directing, singing, producing, composing, beatmaking, educating, engineering, scoring, orchestrating and sound designing so I bring all of that with me when I work on a project. I've got a great sounding room with some really great gear and instruments, but most importantly I know how to use them to serve the song!

  21. Q: What's your typical work process?

  22. A: Usually I discuss with the client what their needs are and we agree upon a rate for the services. At that point they send me a bounce of the song they want horns on along with any other specific or general info about what they want me to do. Sometimes this means charts with exactly notated parts, sometimes this means a very specific demo part they've rendered with midi, sometimes this is a very loose voice memo recording of a half sung idea, sometimes this is just an email with instructions/description/references. Often as not, I just get the song and none of these things and people say "do your thing" and then I do my thing, send back an mp3, they give me whatever feedback they have and we go back and forth until they are satisfied with the product. At that point the client pays me and then I send over the wav files and/or pro tools sessions.

  23. Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

  24. A: I've got a really great sounding room, and a decent selection of gear. My coolest piece of recording gear is a pair of API 312s that came out of the console that was in Sunset Sound Studio 2 in the 1970s (think first Van Halen record), it's a real instant mojo box. I use Pro Tools for my DAW. I typically track horns with a close mic and a room mic, and will often use more inputs if I'm doing outboard effects like say running a euphonium through a space echo and then into a bass amp - I might use 4 or 5 mics to capture that sound.

  25. Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

  26. A: Horn arranging - people send me tracks, I send them back with a whole bunch of horns on them. Also lately I’ve been doing a lot of hip hop production and beat making as well.

  27. Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

  28. A: Too many to list, but off the top of my head Daniel Lanois and Rick Rubin have had a hand in a bunch of my favorite records.

Terms Of Service

Different for every project and I try to accommodate everyone I can in whatever way I can.

GenresSounds Like
  • Doja Cat
  • Post Malone
  • Twenty One Pilots
Gear Highlights
  • Neumann
  • Chandler
  • Lynx
  • Avalon
  • API
  • RCA
  • Shure
  • UA
  • Beyerdynamic
  • Fender
  • Bach
  • Martin
  • Gibson
  • Roland
  • etc.
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