For Volume 74 we get Don Distorted on the show. The extremely prolific Amsterdam based producer presents a full set of his own tracks (which have passably been mixed by yours truly) for almost two hours of hardcore, terror, speedcore, hard techno... basically anything distorted. Strap in and take your medicine. Noise approaches. I catch up with Don on a few bits and piece ahead of the set.
HCBX: Alright Don, how you doing and where are you based these days?
DD: I am doing very good at the moment. The year is about to end, and if I reflect back on this year — what kind of personal goals I have completed — I should be happy and proud, and that’s how I feel right now. I am located in the capital of Holland, Amsterdam.
HCBX: You’re known for a sound that channels early-90s hardcore and terror — how did you arrive at that style? Was it nostalgia, the sound design, or something else?
DD: As I am 48, I am the generation who witnessed the start of gabber and hardcore. I always stayed true to the early hardcore and early terror from back in these days. Unfortunately the way hardcore and terror evolved is not completely my style. I listened back in the days to compilations like Gabberbox, Gabberdome and Thunderdome over and over, and it’s imprinted in my brain. With that given, I start my tracks thinking about that specific sound.
HCBX: What tracks or artists got you into hardcore techno and the harder music styles?
DD: Well, actually not any specific artist or tracks. It all started with collecting vinyl back in the early 90s of Turn Up The Bass. Those weird sounds I could listen over and over and could not get enough of it. Then you had compilations like Gabberbox and Gabberdome or Hellraider, and I thought back in the days, “I hope one day I can produce my own tracks.”
I do have some favourite producers like Drokz, The Destroyer, Noisekick, The Vizitor, Lenz, The Resonant Squad, Painbringer, Leviathan.
HCBX: You started releasing under Don Distorted fairly recently (in relative Hardcore Techno terms anyway!) — what made you move from listening/collecting into producing your own tracks?
DD: The funny part is actually I always thought that producing was a way league too far for me, as purchasing studio gear is expensive and therefore I never could do it. I don’t mind telling that I once was addicted to drugs and I just loved collecting all tunes — many different styles and labels. I have two massive YouTube channels called Early Hardcore Server 1 with almost 4,894 tracks/mixes and podcasts.
Once I was in recovery after rehab, I needed to do something with all the spare time I got. I loved getting buzzed collecting all kinds of tracks. Once in recovery the glance fell off it. I thought I could not love hardcore and terror anymore sober, but the opposite occurred.
Not knowing what to do with all this spare time but not wanting to leave hardcore… Hardcore has, in my opinion, nothing to do with drugs. I saw a YouTube short of DJ Painbringer making a hardcore track on his mobile phone through an app called Caustic. Wow, so cool. So on my back-dated Google Chrome laptop I downloaded it, and with no knowledge whatsoever how to build a track, I started messing around.
Slowly it took over my life — I wanted to become better and evolve. I started networking with some other labels. After a year knowing a bit of basics about how to structurally build a hardcore track, I dared to download FL Studio, and then the real work started for me.
HCBX: Tell us more about those first tracks.
DD: I can offer you a link to the first release on Rotjecore Records and a link to my first EP. As it all started actually with these tracks, I wanted and was destined to make professional tracks and learn it all myself.
Here are the links:
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ROTJE062 - DON DISTORTED - Distorted Destruction | Rotjecore
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First release ever on Rotjecore: Scratchemus (Lau’s re-mix) | Don Distorted
DD: My first releases ever are to be found on Rotjecore and Gabbaret. As some of you know I am very active on FB, and once I was in my music app Caustic, I saw a call from Rotjecore for their Christmas Hardcore Compilation. That was, I think, in 2000. Never released anything but dared to send the track to them. They loved it and I was ecstatic — within my first year of producing ever I got a release.
I started networking with the guys behind Rotjecore and Gabbaret. FB helped me to connect. I recommend any starting producers: go network, ask questions, get help. We are all happy to help each other. Those guys helped me a lot and some still do.
Also I loved the tracks of Biodome, so I started chatting with him and he helped me too. They watched me grow. SO THANK YOU GUYS!!
To be honest, this year was the first year — after 5 years of starting producing tracks — that I had my debut release on GGM Digital Records owned by DJ Smurf, and the debut album on the mighty Brutal Force Records. This is a reward after 5 years of hard work, almost daily working on my music, watching tutorials, asking other people for help to come this far.
HCBX: Can you walk us through your production setup — DAW, go-to synths/samplers, drum sources, FX chain, monitoring? How much of it is hardware vs digital?
DD: Actually you won’t believe this. My studio is an ACER laptop with Adam Audio speakers and Beyer TD headphones and a Midilink Audiotech III external soundcard — all other stuff is completely digital!
I have some favourite synths like Serum, Sylenth1, Poizone and old school synth Sytrus. I use FabFilter Pro-Q for end-mixing and love the distortion plugin Distructor which gives all your sounds and kicks a massive boost or twist. In every track I use Grossbeat for sampling and side-chaining. The FX Serum 2 series is also awesome. Some other FX chain plugins I use now and then.
HCBX: Your sound often feels like a mash of early terror, hardcore and a speedcore edge. Where do you draw your samples and sounds from?
DD: Actually I create my sounds and melodies through FL Studio’s piano roll connected to one of the above synths. I have a massive 600GB file of samples I can use, split and divided into snares, hats, atmos, drones, vocals, preset kicks (sometimes I make my own kicks through Serum 2), etc.
So I have my selection of sounds ready in my projects, and I just spin the wheels of the library, haha, and see what sounds best to it.
HCBX: When you write, what’s your usual workflow for turning an idea into a finished track?
DD: That depends. Sometimes I start with vocals, and depending on the style of vocals — angry, aggressive, stressed, happy, dramatic, scared — I start to create a track in that atmosphere of style.
I often start a track creating a loop till the end before a break, make the break of a track, and after that I enlarge and add or change the first loop before the break. Sometimes I just start from scratch.
HCBX: You’ve put out both EPs and contributions to compilations — how do you decide whether a tune is an EP track, a comp inclusion, or something you’ll hold for later?
DD: Actually I don’t make any difference, as I want to produce at my best. I think a track should be exactly the same quality as a track for an EP. On a comp I have to represent my artist name in one track, and on an EP you can do the same but have more options. Also depending on the offer they ask me for. Sometimes I make beginnings of tracks that start cool, but I put them aside for later.
HCBX: How do you approach mastering? Do you do your own finishes or work with a mastering engineer, especially to get that old-school punch?
DD: Well, to start with the end-mixing of my track, I do it all with FabFilter Pro-Q and a compressor and the built-in plugin Waveshaper of FL Studio. Once it is all levelled, I use Tonal Balance Control. That old-school punch is a mixture of FX plugins, compressor and FabFilter Pro-Q.
Mastering tracks that come on, for instance, Brutal Force — I won’t do myself. Mastering I hardly do myself as most labels like to do it themselves, but mastering can also be done through FabFilter.
HCBX: There’s a big early hardcore revival in the scene right now — how do you keep your productions from sounding like a straight rehash of the 90s? Where do you try to inject originality?
DD: If I hear producers who produce early hardcore, it’s kinda always the same melody, same structure, and to be honest I got bored of it. I love to combine sounds used in drum and bass tracks or even house tracks.
If you have your own style, you know you stand out of the big crowd. It’s fast, loud, and heavy percussions, snares and hats in fast MIDI patterns. I use my artistic flow and combine all sorts of sounds to make it sound different.
HCBX: Who are the producers or labels right now that you feel are doing interesting things with the sounds you love?
DD: I am busy with a collab with DJ Portos who released many tracks on Brutal Force Records. Of course my focus will be on Brutal Force and GGM as I am licensed contract. Though I do have aspirations for other labels as well. One day I hope to get a release on Gabberhead as well.
I would love a collab with The Vizitor, Resonant Squad or DJ Lenz.
HCBX: Live performance question — do you ever play out live, or have any plans to take Don Distorted to the raves?
DD: To be honest, I WOULD LOVE TO!! But first of all I only can do premade mixes from FL Studio with some copying and pasting sounds between two tracks, so therefore I thank you Andrew for mixing my tracks into this show — awesome work my man.
I have some plans in the future to learn DJ-ing so I can play my tracks at hardcore parties. That would be a dream come true.
HCBX: What’s next — any upcoming releases, collabs, or experiments you can tease for HCBX listeners?
DD: Hell yessssss I have!
I am busy with a debut EP for GGM Digital Records.
My second EP for Brutal Force Records lifts off in 2026 somewhere.
I have two tracks on the upcoming compilation Rawforce 8 — speedcore and terror track.
I might do a second Toxic Sickness mix next year made through FL Studio.
I also plan — but unfortunately I do not have much time — to create a TikTok show or YouTube show and teach newcomers to produce in FL Studio.
HCBX: Finally — anything else you want to get off your chest?
DD: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS — FCK THE MAINSTREAM, STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF AND DON’T FOLLOW THE SHEEP!
Oh yeah — and the day I start making tracks with uptempo piepkicks, please shoot me then!
Check out Don's show on HCBXCast (Mixed by DJ Asylum) here: HCBXCast 74 - Don Distorted
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