Dan Deacon

At 3:44 in the video, the AVP can be seen amongst Deacon's gear.

At 3:48 in the video, four CP-251s can be seen amongst Deacon's racks of Moogerfoogers.

"...Then I have an Electrix Warp Factory vocoder that's just on its own channel, and also a Casio SK1 keyboard" The quote can be found at the end of the third paragraph in the 'Signal Processing' section.

Prominently in the center of his setup, we see Dan using a Casio SK-8 as his keyboard of choice.

In front of Dan in this photo, an OP-1 can be seen. Also, in this tweet Dan asks, "anyone know where to get replacement keys for the OP-1? i've lost several plus two of the dial caps (volume + blue)."

At 1:16 in the video, Deacon can be seen using Ableton Live on a MacBook Pro.

At 3:24 in the video, the PM7 can be seen amongst Deacon's effects pedals.

At 3:44 in the video, the WarpFactory can be seen amongst Deacon's gear.

At the beginning of this video, taken during the studio sessions for Deacon's 2009 album Bromst, Deacon can be seen and heard talking about Reason.

A Boss DD-3 Digital Delay can be seen in the top left corner of this April 5, 2008 photograph by Milo Winningham.

Quoted on the official product page.

"I've been blasting on the nine Perc units that I have and really love them. They will be heavily featured on all my future recordings."

At 3:21 in the video, the TimeFactor can be seen amongst Deacon's pedals.

At 3:24 in the video, the AP7 can be seen amongst Deacon's effects pedals.

At 3:25 in the video, the TR-2 can be briefly seen, out of focus and partially obscured by the DigiTech Whammy pedal.

At 5:53 in the video, the LV3 can be seen amongst Deacon's gear.

"Sometimes there's a ProCo RAT distortion on there too, but it depends if it decides to work or not." This quote can be found near the end of the third paragraph under the 'Signal Processing' section.

"I'm fascinated by Disklaviers, and used them extensively on Bromst and America...and would like to focus on them more, but they're hard to come by." 2:58 into the video, Deacon talks about his Disklavier.

In this picture Dan Deacon is seen using an iPod shuffle during his set, comically placed on top of a banana.

Deacon is a fan of this “simple, rudimentary sampler pad.” Created by Vimeo cofounder Jake Lodwick, it makes Reggie Watts-style beat-mixing easy. “At first I was like, oh, another sampler. Great,” Deacon says. “But then I realized it wasn't for musicians. It's for everyone.” The app is elegant in its no-frills simplicity and intuitive in ways that pro audio samplers aren't—just tap a pad while making a sound and you've created a sample. It even comes preloaded with samples from professional musicians like Watts or Tegan and Sara—built-in inspiration.

Used while making Mystic Familiar, as featured in this March 6, 2020 Phoenix New Times interview.

Eno’s deck of cards served as a kind of collaborator on Mystic Familiar, helping Deacon transition into being a one-man band again.

“I did most of the production myself, so that could be a real nerve-wracking process, wondering if I’ve gone down the right path or making the right choice,” Deacon says. “The cards are a good way to visualize there being another person in the room. If I agreed with the card, I would incorporate that idea into the next step of the process. If I disagreed with the card, I would still try to find some way of using it. I’d try to understand why I thought it didn’t apply or how it wasn’t applicable. It’s the same way you’d be if there was a person there: You have to have a conversation about why you thought it was a bad idea.”

(...) “I was a real fan and follower of John Cage’s philosophies in college, and Eno’s cards seemed to embrace those,” Deacon says. “Chance has been a part of my process since the very beginning. I love leaving things to chance and seeing what can occur.”

In this article by Sound on Sound, Dan talks about his pedals, including his Digitech Whammy, saying, "A Digitech Whammy Pedal pitch-shifter starts the chain, and that goes into an Ibanez PM7 phase modulator." In one of the sidebar pictures, it can be seen that the Whammy Pedal is a Digitech Whammy 4.

At 3:48 in the video, two MF-105Ms can be seen amongst Deacon's racks of Moogerfoogers.

At 3:48 in the video, two MF-103s can be seen amongst Deacon's racks of Moogerfoogers.

At 3:51 in the video, a MF-102 can be seen amongst Deacon's racks of Moogerfoogers.

At 3:51 in the video, two MF-104Zs can be seen amongst Deacon's racks of Moogerfoogers.

At 1:13 in the video, a bandmate in Deacon's solo show can be seen using an MPK61.

A Wavetek Model 30 is visible in this April 5, 2008 photograph by Milo Winningham, the Pitchfork In the Studio documentary on Bromst at 2:10, this May 25, 2012 Instagram post, this press photo from this August 19, 2012 NPR article, and this photo of Deacon's rig from this January 2013 Sound on Sound interview. It is also mentioned in this November 7, 2013 Tumblr repost and in this June 9, 2021, reply to Instagram user frankspigner on a June 7, 2021 post.

NPR, August 19, 2012, "First Listen: Dan Deacon, 'America'" by Bob Boilen

Sound on Sound, January 2013, "Dan Deacon: Performing Electronica Live"

Dan's musical contribution is the manipulation of various sound sources, including his own voice, the output from a [Wavetek] oscillator, the feed from the live drums and pre-mixed backing tracks bounced down onto an iPod. For these tasks, he uses an array of carefully chosen processors and effects, wired up so as to maximise their performance potential.

Deacon's touring pedal board includes a Wavetek Oscillator, a Digitech Whammy, an Ibanez PM7 phase modulator and a Casio keyboard. He also has a small Behringer mixer on stage, which he uses to process the drum submix coming from the front-of-house desk.

Tumblr, November 7, 2013

wow!!!!! sick watercolor of my wavetek 30 signal generator!

Instagram, June 9, 2021, reply to frankspigner on a June 7, 2021 post

frankspigner What happened to the Wavetek 180 that you found at Purchase?

dandeacon @frankspigner I’ve had a few wavetek 180s over the years but sadly most of them are toast now. I have one that stays in my studio. I toured with a wavetek 30 for a while and really loved that little osc. It’s a table top version

"I use the Moogerfooger FreqBox as my oscillator and frequency tracker. I really like to send the drums through it: using the drums as a gate on the oscillator sounds awesome."

According to the following sources, Deacon used a Wavetek Model 180 in the 2000s. He had rescued it from the garbage at SUNY Purchase and repaired it.

NBC, WSAV-TV, Coastal Sunrise, March 30, 2005) (@ 1:55)

Dan Deacon: Well this is a function generator, which makes sine waves and square waves and a pulse and I run that through the–

Lyndy Brannen: I mean, this is something that would've been in a TV repair shop thirty-five years ago.

Deacon: Sure. I found that in the garbage and I fixed it up. But um, I run that through a pitch shift and harmonizer and a ring modulator and delay and, uh... other than that I run my voice through that, and that's basically... I have a vocoder underneath it.

Brannen: Vocoder, ring modulator, these are all things that have been around for a long time.

Deacon: Yeah. Well, the vocoder's... that guy is relatively new, but that signal– the Wavetek is a wonderful old guy.

Pitchfork, "Guest Lists: Dan Deacon" (May 15, 2007)

__ >> Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment __

Casiotone MT-400V

I really like my Wavetek 180 signal generator. It's really been the most fun thing, but I guess it's only fun through other pedals. As a stand alone instrument you can't do that much with it, since it's just one droning square wave. But that paired up with the Line6 delay pedal has been my favorite piece in the world. But I guess…a nice Casiotone is always an endless mammoth of sound that can be fun. Especially the MT-400V, which is the one that I've been using for the longest and that's my favorite piece of gear that I have.

And if anyone has the filter, microphone adapter, I would love to trade something for it. I don't have it. Anyone? Please?

Associated Press, asap, "Dan Deacon's electronic jungle" by Otis Hart, Ray Zablocki and Peter Hamlin (2007) (pictured up close; had an explanatory video that is no longer extant online) (.swf Archives: One, Two, Three, Four)

Photo by keinsignal on Flickr, taken July 2, 2007, "Dan Deacon's equipment" (visible)

NPR, April 22, 2009, "On Tour With Dan Deacon And His Veggie Oil Van"

PAUL [guest caller from Boston]: How did you decide on a process or a series of equipment to use initially?

Mr. DEACON: Well, that's a good question. I found a signal generator, a Wavetek 180, in the garbage at my college, and I was fascinated with it. I had been writing computer music for a while and wanted to figure out a way how to do it live and finding this oscillator really opened up a lot of doors, but, you know, it was just one tone and everything was just a straight gliss, I couldn't really go from step to step and... just started thinking what I could use to, you know, modify and modulate the sound to get it to do what I wanted and... I thought a pitch shift pedal and a loop pedal would do exactly that, so I could change the pitch and I could layer them together and create, you know, harmony and melody, and noise various levels of density. And at some point, I added a ring modulator, and that sort of started it from there. And once I had the pitch shift pedal and the ring modulator and the loop pedal, I started thinking less about using the oscillator, more about using the voice and started making the performance very based around vocal manipulation - that's when the vocals were added.

Reddit, u/dandeacondotcom, AMA reply to u/_karass (October 17, 2017)

_karass What's the most useful piece of music/recording gear you own (besides laptop)?

dandeacondotcom Whammy Pedal or Wavetek 180. waketek was vital to me wanting to perform electronic music live but i no longer use it. the whammy, has never left my setup and i use it on every album and at every show.

Instagram, June 9, 2021, reply to frankspigner on a June 7, 2021 post

frankspigner What happened to the Wavetek 180 that you found at Purchase?

dandeacon @frankspigner I’ve had a few wavetek 180s over the years but sadly most of them are toast now. I have one that stays in my studio. I toured with a wavetek 30 for a while and really loved that little osc. It’s a table top version

Visible in this April 5, 2008 photograph of Deacon's equipment by Milo Winningham (taken at the Picador in Iowa City, Iowa) and in the Pitchfork In the Studio documentary on Bromst at 2:10.