Dann Huff Interview and S-Gear Presets (Part 2)
- Details
- Published: 14 May 2025
Legendary session guitarist Dann Huff sits down once again with Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects), and the pair delve deeper into Dann’s session career with more of the hit records that Dann played on. Dann once again uses S-Gear to approximate his signature clean sound.
Download the S-Gear presets here!
It was an absolute pleasure to watch last year’s interview with Dann Huff, hosted by the knowledgeable Mason Marangella from Vertex Effects. We’re delighted to see another installment with Dann and Mason, and eager to learn more about Dann's career…
Part 2 : The Stories Behind Dann Huff's Most Legendary Sessions
In this second interview, Dann talks about his approach to finding the right guitar parts for these songs, the art of being a studio player. Many of the songs were heavily synthesizer based but always melodic, the key was to find a guitar part that compliments and adds magic to the composition. Dann goes on to describe himself as the ‘shadow man’, in reference to advice he once got from the late songwriting legend Burt Bacharach, ‘listen for the melody and shadow that’.
Songs convered in the new interview:
Michael Bolton "Soul Provider"
Michael Jackson "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"
Patti LaBelle "On My Own"
Michael W. Smith "Cross Of Gold"
Watch the Interview on YouTube
The 2024 interview:
Dann describes this double chorus clean sound as "a sound that could cut through all the synthesizers of the 80's". During studio sessions for many famous songs, Dann's sound would come from two chorus units in series, followed by a harmonizer (+/- 9 cents) and then into stereo delay.
In the interview, Dann demonstrates and explains his guitar parts on these legendary songs from the 80's and 90's, including Michael Jackson, Man In The Mirror; Peter Cetera, Glory of Love; Amy Grant, Lead Me On... and more!
Watch the Interview on YouTube
Dann Huff - Vertex - Presets
Notes:
- To import an S-Gear preset or bank, download the .sfx file, Drag & Drop to S-Gear. For detailed instructions, see the following how-to video.
- For the interview, Dann used the basic 'Core Clean' preset, then added two chorus plug-ins, C1 Chorus and AIR Chorus (both ship with ProTools). Download the ProTools track preset here: Dann Signature Huff Clean - ProTools Track Preset
- For the more heavily detuned effects that you can hear on many of the hit records, Dann would have used a harmonizer set to (+/- 9 cents). S-Gear doesn't currently have a harmonizer effect, check out H3000 plug-in by Eventide.