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1/27/2009 11:31:15 AM
iNd u St r y Ev ENt S…No t a bl ES…mil ESt o NES
NEWS
WINTER NAMM ’09: CONTROLLERS STEAL THE SHOW
By Jim Tremayne
Audio 4 DJ: Native Instruments’ 4-in/4-out interface.
weight amps. o pen l abs debuted its miKo l Xd , a 37-key portable keyboard workcenter. Calzone showed its i Series of d J cases. t rinity a udio showcased its indamix portable studio.
MARCH 2009
Native instruments introduced the a udio 4 d J, a 4-in/4-out, u Sb 2.0 audio interface speci cally designed for t raktor and other d J software. t he berlin-based company also debuted m a s c h i n e , a g ro ove production studio that Live Control: Akai’s APC40 was combines sequencer, developed with Ableton. sampler, and effects. Hercules showed its d J Control Steel software controller. Gemini Sound Products showed the PS828EFX 4-channel mixer with effects, the mm-1800 and mm-2400 mixers, the Cd mP-5000 all-in-one mixing station, the Cd mP-2600 rackmount multi-media player, the v HF Series of wireless mics, the XGa and XP series of amps, and the Gv X Series of loudspeakers. b ehinger showed its d JX-750 mixer. a merican d J Group reported a “stellar” show. New a d J lighting products included its t ri l Ed Series of color changers, the Galaxian effect, and the mega Pixel arch and bar. a merican a udio debuted its r adius 1000 Cd /mP3 player, Xl P Series amps and m-52 rack u Sb mixer. in addition to its beta t hree loudspeaker range, o mniSistem debuted the Sparkler, a 5-inch, 1-pound, threecolor, 10mW, laser projector. mb t released ve new l Ed lights for mobiles. Chauvet introduced: the 4ba r l Ed wash-light system; the d ouble d erby X l Ed light; the Kinta X l Ed effect; the l Ed mushroom effect; the l Ed Pinspot compact light; and the intimidator Spot 150 and Spot 250 moving-head units. Pioneer Pro d Js showed its Hd J2000 headphones. Korg introduced the microKo r G Xl synth with vocoder, a 37-note unit with analog modeling. m-a udio showed its t orq 1.5 d J software. a udio-t echnica debuted its a t H-m35 headphones. u ltrasone showed its d J1 and d J1 Pro headphones. yamaha showed its mSr 250 active speaker. Jb l Pro introduced its l Sr 2300 Series Studio monitor System. Crown showcased its Xt i6000 power amp. Peavey showed its iPS Series of light-
DJ TIMES
Anaheim, Calif.—a ccording to organizers, nearly 86,000 music-industry pros attended the 2009 Na mm show, held at the a naheim Convention Center this past January 15-18. Na mm reports that number to be 3percent decrease from the ’08 event. t he d J industry, however, remained stout with a show that showcased impressive controller technology for live-d J and studio apps. Numark industries exhibited the NS7 performance controller with Serato itch software and its Hd miX expandable all-in-one mobile d J system. a kai made news with its a PC40 controller that was created in partnership with a bleton, makers of the popular l ive software. meanwhile, Germany’s a bleton gave Na mm attendees a glimpse of l ive 8, the latest version that should be available this spring. its features include a new groove engine, improved warping techniques, live looping and five new effects. a bleton also announced Suite 8 and max for l ive, a product co-developed with Cycling ’74, which allows users to create new instruments, effects and extensions. a llen & Heath, distributed Stateside by a merican music & Sound, showed its Xone 22, an entry-level mixer to the Xone series. vestax, another a m&S-related company, showed its v Ci-600 controller for a bleton l ive, the v a i-40 and t u b -2 u Sb audio interfaces. d enon d J showed its new d N-S3700 digital media turntable and the d N-X1100 4-channel matrix mixer, which allows d Js to assign any of its eight inputs to any channel. r ane Corp. announced the release of Serato Scratch l iv E 1.9, which includes l iveFeed, giving the d J live control over any input stream, and the new SP-6 Sample Player. r ane also announced the release of Serato v ideo-Sl 1.1 and its support for r ane Sl 1 and mP 4 mixers. t he Stanton Group enjoyed a busy show: Stanton d J announced that it’s now delivering the SC System 1 set of digital controllers; Cerwin-vega showed its t S-42 sub and Cv P speaker series; and Kr K announced delivery of its Er Go studio acoustic room correction system.
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VOLUME 22 NUMBER 3
12 Profound Sounds 20 Now in His 20 Year of Holiday Making Music, Josh Wink Dials Down the Seriousness Report Card ’08 of Clubland, But Keeps th
In a Tough Economy, Many Mobiles Resorted to New Tactics to Rescue Their Bottom Line. BY JEFF STILES
Bombing the Dancefloo BY EMILY TAN
18 In the Mix
From Budget-Priced Pieces to Tricked-Out Digital Models, the DJ Market’s Mixer Category Has Become More Diverse Than Ever. BY MARTY PEREZ
DEPARTMENTS 6
Feedback
As Always, the Answers to All Your DJ-Related Questions
24 Making Tracks
Native Instruments’ KORE Electronic Experience
26 Sounding Off
Pioneer’s HDJ-2000 & Numark’s MixMeister Control
28 Mobile Profil
New England DJ Aces the Subcontractor Life
30 Business Line
Are Wedding Gigs Recession-Proof?
32 Gear
New Products from Chauvet, MBT & More
36 Grooves
Phat Tracks from Tom Middleton, DJ Jorj & More
38 DJ Times Marketplace 41 Club Play Chart
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
The Hottest Records, As Reported by Our Top U.S. Record Pools
SAMPLINGS 8
Sasha Funke Berlin Calling
10 In the Studio With… Evil Nine
Cover Photo by Rob Low Contents Photo by Ben Leuner
Shop Here for All Your DJ-Related Supplies
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Fr o m t HE Ed it o r
editor-in-chief Jim Tremayne jtremayne@testa.com editor-at-large Brian O’Connor boconnor@testa.com
A Nod to Wink
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
a sk any d J. t wenty years in the business is a milestone worth noting and, indeed, worth celebrating. but as successful as Josh Wink has been, it’s not his way to puff out his chest or toot his horn, even if it would be totally justi ed now that he’s completed his second decade in the d J business. His story is one we’ve always loved. before he became a hit-making artist and globetrotting jock, the Philadelphia-based Wink experienced relatively humble beginnings. Wink wasn’t just a mobile d J—before that, he was another mobile’s apprentice, a gear-hauler. a ll these years later, he’ll tell you that those early experiences informed his later work in the club and the studio. He learned the basics of sound—signal chain, wattage, positioning—and the fundamentals of d Jing—reading a crowd, adapting to the moment, programming a night. From there, his artistic instincts took over and he applied those skills to great effect. Now he returns to our pages in the wake of his latest full-length effort, When a Banana Was Just a Banana. With our Emily t an, he discusses the Cd , modern clubland, running his o vum label and his most recent anniversary—in his own understated way, of course. a s the presidential transition takes hold, the economy remains a hot topic and nervous subject. a s always, we take the pulse of the mobile Nation. t his month, our Jeff Stiles asks d Js how their most recent holiday season went and found out how some survived better than others. in this month’s business l ine, we ask entertainers and wedding planners if the wedding business is recession-proof. t he answers were certainly not unanimous. in our Samplings section, our l .a .-based scribe Justin Hampton discusses ghoulish breakbeats with britain’s Evil Nine. a lso, new contributor Polly l avin interviewed berlin’s Sascha Funke after he played the r ubberband party in miss l avin’s home in d ublin, ireland. t his month also offers our wrap-up from the 2009 Winter Na mm convention in a naheim, Calif. a s you’ll see, controllers were the big items for d Js at the show. but we also caught some cool proaudio, lighting and studio gear. it seems that the daunting economic times have not slowed down the research-and-development teams in d J gearland. Speaking of gear, we take a spin through the ever-evolving world of d J mixers and we review a pair of products in our Sounding o ff column this month—Pioneer’s Hd J-2000 headphones and Numark’s mixmeister Control unit. a dditionally, music-makers will enjoy Josh Harris’ look at Native instruments’ Ko r E Electronic Experience in the making t racks column. a nd there’s plenty more. Cheers,
Jim t remayne, Editor, DJ Times
chart coordinator Dan Miller dmiller@testa.com contributor s Jody Amos Joe Bermudez Wesley Bryant King Shawn Christopher Paul Dailey Justin Hampton Josh Harris Robert LaFrance Polly Lavin Lisa Loco Michelle Loeb Lily Moayeri Phil Moffa Scott Rubin Rahav Segev Jennifer Shapiro Nate Sherwood Jeff Stiles Emily Tan Phil Turnipseed Curtis Zack Stacy Zemon President/Publisher Vincent P. Testa
For Cust omer ser vi Ce and t o order su Bs Cri Ptions, Ca LL 800-937-7678 visit our we Bsite www.djtimes.com
d J t imes Sound & Communications t he music & Sound r etailer Sound & Communications blue book a merica’s best d J Clubworld international d J Expo it /a v r eport t he Club Show Convention t v News v t t v Studios
graphic designer/ar tist Janice Pupelis jpupelis@testa.com production manager Steve Thorakos sthorakos@testa.com promotions/web designer Phillip Taylor ptaylor@testa.com advertising manager John Grecco jgrecco@testa.com advertising & mark eting assistant Roman Kolomisky rkolomisky@testa.com Circulation circulation@testa.com Classified classifiedsales@testa.co operations manager Robin Hazan rhazan@testa.com Editorial and Sales o ffice d J t imes, 25 Willowdale a venue, Port Washington, New york, u Sa 11050-3779. (516) 767-2500 • Fa X (Editorial): (516) 944-8372 • Fa X (Sales/all other business): (516) 767-9335 • d Jtim ES@t ESt a . Com Editorial contributions should be addressed to t he Editor, d J t imes, 25 Willowdale a venue, Port Washington, Ny, u Sa , 110503779. u nsolicited manuscripts will be treated with care an d should be accompanied by return postage. d J t imes (iSSN 1045-9693) (u SPS 0004-153) is published monthly for $19.40 (u S), $39.99 (Canada), and $59.99 (all other countries), by d J Publishing, inc., 25 Willowdale a ve., Port Washington, Ny 110503779. Periodicals postage paid at Port Washington, Ny, and additional mailing offices Po Stma St Er : Send address changes to d J t imes, Po bo X 1767, lo WEll ma 01853-1767 d esign and contents are copyright © 2009 by d J Publishing, inc., and must not be reproduced in any manner except by permission of the publisher. Websites: www. djtimes.com and www.testa.com march 2009
visit our website: www.djtimes.com
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FEEd ba CK Live combo, please check the Ableton website (ableton.com) for all system requirements before your computer purchase. Also, check some sample CDs from websites like soundstosample.com. To start making tracks, you will need to build your sample library—and royaltyfree CDs and DVDs are a great way to get started. Good luck. – Josh Harris, DJ Times
This is Feedback, a monthly feature that fields questions from you, our readers, and funnels them out to industry professionals. If you have any questions about DJing – marketing, mixing, equipment or insurance, any at all – drop us a letter at DJ Times, 25 Willowdale Ave, Port Washington, NY 11050, fax us at (516) 944-8372 or e-mail us at djtimes@testa.com. If we do use your question, you’ll receive a free DJ Times T-shirt. And remember, the only dumb question is the question that is not asked.
DEAR JOE, Thanks for your kind words. If you want to pursue music production, I would encourage you to keep reading these pages, as we’ll be addressing your needs in an upcoming production feature very soon. Of course, each month we present our “Making Tracks” column, which spotlights studio hardware and software. Additionally, if you can swing it, you might want to attend our International
DJ Expo, set for August 10-13 at the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. As always, we’ll be presenting studio-specific seminars and panels that demonstrate techniques and offer solutions for your musicmaking needs. – Jim Tremayne, DJ Times
9AF ?;J7DE1 KAG 47F5:3
DEAR DJ TIMES, I’m into the breaks scene, and I want to begin making tracks on a home computer. Where can I start without investing too much money? On a modest budget, what can I buy? What kind of computer should I consider? What kind of software? Thank you, and I really love the magazine and your website. The stories are really helpful. – DJ Joe Blanks, Amarillo, Texas
DEAR JOE, I would advise that you buy a PC desktop—your choice obviously based on your budget. And I would also recommend that you purchase Ableton Live 7 sequencing software or the upcoming Live 8—the newest version available later this year. Ableton also offers an LE version with fewer features than the regular version—again, your call on which version you require or can afford. Ableton Live is unique in that it’s a digital audio workstation (DAW) that can be used for composing and arranging, in addition to offering live-performance applications. The software comes with built-in instruments and Ableton offers add-on instruments as well. If you are interested in creating DJ mixes, Ableton Live offers some excellent applications—most professional mix compilations today are created with Ableton Live. If you want to go with a desktop/Ableton
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Check out the latest PS and MM series professional mixers by Gemini. With so many styles and features to choose from...you might just want them ALL! Ranging from tabletop battle mixers to rack mountable mixers, you can be sure that the performance of the new PS and MM series mixers will provide the highest quality of sound. Whether you’re a club dj, a wedding dj, or a studio dj...Gemini has the best mixer to fit your needs.
1/26/2009 5:37:08 PM
Sa mPl iNGS
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
Sa SCHa Fu NKE’S bEr l iN bEa t S in the world of modern techno, Germany’s Sascha Funke stands out as one of its top d Js and most accomplished remixer/producers. t he b Pitch Control recording artist gained notice in 2003 with the release of Bravo, which offered wiry and warm sounds on memorable tracks like “Forms & Shapes.” but it was 2008’s Mango that really showcased his exceptional compositional talent. Fusing minimal beats with lush harmonies and evocative soundscapes—on the title track in particular—Funke earned global converts on and off the dance oor. a longtime resident of berlin’s in uential Watergate club, Funke’s deep d J talents are evident on the venue’s second mix-Cd installment, Watergate 02, which includes tasty tracks from Nathan Fake, Ellen a llien and Zander v t . DJ Times recently caught up with mr. Funke at the Spy club’s r ubberband party in d ublin, ireland. DJ Times: in addition to its spectacular setting on the r iver Spree, the Watergate has powerful l Ed lights and a very cozy atmosphere. What’s it like for a d J to play there? Funke: t he l Ed in uences me, but it’s not the main thing. t he low ceiling is a nice bonus that can inuence the mood of the club, but the d J has to connect the sound with the club. i have seen many international d Js play there, but they didn’t make the connection with the crowd. it can happen if you play a club you are not familiar with, but for me Watergate is the best club in berlin. DJ Times: “mango” strikes me as a very visual piece of music. What in uenced its creation? Funke: i’d say 60- to 70-percent of the album was made in a ix-enProvence [in southern France]. it’s in uenced by nature and life in the countryside. in the daytime, i spent two or three hours in the studio, then i went outside. you are surrounded by nature. you breathe and inhale the nature and the smells. t he view outside my studio window was green fields, horses and vineyards. DJ Times: you couldn’t have made it back in berlin? Funke: i was disconnected from the b erlin social scene. you feel
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The Funke Rider
2 t echnics Sl -1210 turntables 2 Pioneer Cd J-1000 mk2 Cd players 1 Pioneer d Jm-800 or a llen & Heath Xone mixer 2 monitor boxes, to be controlled by artist
alone; you can concentrate only on the music. you think about nothing. in berlin, it’s a beautiful city, but often you have so many options that it makes it quite dif cult to concentrate on the music. in a ix, i could focus and concentrate. DJ Times: When you design a sound, are you creating for the home listener or the club? Funke: it depends. it starts not with the sound, more with the mood that can come from a sound. u sually, i need a basic mood to follow and then i know after two or three hours what direction it takes, whether it is more clubby or home listening. For Mango, it was a very free way of making music and just collecting the moods i experienced. most of the sounds are based on samples—that’s why it’s not really a sound i create. t hat’s why i take a sample, re-arrange that sample and recreate the sound. DJ Times: Where did you get your samples? Funke: From many Cd s, just pop Cd s. i cut a tiny piece of a pop song and then i put it into my way of making music, and i re-work the sound. i sampled Kate bush—i don’t remember the song.t he piano on the second track of the album [“We a re Facing the Sun”] is from a Kate bush song. Sampling brings mood and warmth and feeling into a techno track. DJ Times: y ou toured Nor th a merica last year. What was that like? Funke: We had eight shows and, of these, six of the eight were quite successful. New york, San Francisco and montreal were the best. Sometimes you have smaller clubs with a very small crowd—150 people—that are completely fanatic. t hey know everything about you and they are very informed. a lso, in those cities, the curfew was at 6 a.m., and not at 3 a.m. in the other cities, that was a problem—that makes everything difcult because of the alcohol law. in berlin, there is no closing time! DJ Times: d o you feel that the day of the “superstar d J” is over? Funke: No, it’s not over. We need “superstar d Js” to generate the next generation of kids. it’s very important to have these. t en years ago, it was Sven v äth in Germany, so i would say the quality of the d Js in the top positions is better then 10 years ago. t he idols are playing better music than 10 years ago. – Polly Lavin
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iN t HE St u d io Wit H…
Ev il NiNE: GHo u l iSH br Ea KS
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
They Live! Evil Nine’s Tom Beaufoy (left) and Pat Pardy.
Examine many dance-producer combos and you’ll often nd unreformed rockers inside. Similarly, the retro-horror soundtrack shenanigans of They Live! (marine Parade) by nuschool breaks producers Evil Nine has its roots in what could have been a rock album. Group member Pat Pardy pins this stylistic shift on burnout suffered after touring heavily with partner t om beaufoy in support of their 2004 debut Cd , You Can Be Special Too. “When we rst got back in the studio,” he says, “we had kinda fallen out of love with dance music and started writing this anti-social rock record. a fter a while, we decided it was the wrong direction and made a conscious effort to be more electronic, and i think that really came through with the new album.” Certainly, what comes through is heavier distortion and emphasis on live instrumentation, particularly on tracks such as “t wist t he Knife” and “a ll t he Cash,” which are further heightened by an mC turn from d e nitive Jux label head El-P. d uring the album’s more rock-oriented
phase, the brighton, England-based duo jammed in a live room in their studio, later sampling and augmenting choice cuts in l ogic Pro. a s fans of early electronics from the ’70s and ’80s, Evil Nine stresses vibe over polish, as they record onto tape rst before exporting into l ogic, whether using outboard gear like moog voyager and Prodigy or a soft synth. From there, they’ll often distort the samples, sending them through PSP’s v intage Warmer digital simulation of analog compressor/limiter and then EQing them for additional warmth. (o ther favorite plug-ins include u r S’ Saturation, all a rturia’s offerings, GForce’s v irtual String machine, plus iK multimedia’s Sampletron, a mplitube Guitar and Samplemoog.) if necessary, they use Native instruments’ Kontakt to add extra lines onto the samples or they’ll pitchshift in a bleton l ive. t hey eschew mid i as well. “it helps give everything a less clinical edge,” believes Pardy. “it’s still hard to avoid quantizing sometimes, though, but you learn to ignore it after a while.” Pardy and b eaufoy have also retooled their
live set, taking a cue from a festival experience at d enmark’s r oskilde in 2005. “o nce we had nished our set, we rushed over to see Sonic youth,” Pardy recalls. “a fter their set, we turned to each other and said, ‘t hat’s how you do it!’” So, for the “t hey l ive!” tour, Pardy will use a bleton l ive for backing tracks and his main synth bank alongside mid i bass and keyboards. beaufoy will play bass, and they’ll be accompanied by a live drummer. o n d J dates in the past, b eaufoy would play solo off with Pioneer Cd J-1000s and an a llen & Heath mixer—“if the promoters read the rider,” adds Pardy. but this time around, Pardy will play the d J gig with beaufoy, triggering samples and playing synths with a bleton l ive 7. t he live sets will also feature videos based on d an mumford’s ghoulish album artwork, but we’ll have to wait for v Jing to fully develop within Evil Nine’s full-on spook show. “it’s a great area that we will be exploring in the future,” admits Pardy. “[but] at the moment, we’re trying to concentrate on playing and honing the musical side of things.” – Justin Hampton
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BY emilY taN
f
Now iN His 20tH Year of DJiNg,
t wo-thousand-nine marks 20 years in the d J booth for Josh Wink. t o lovers of acid house (and fans of notso-subgenre-speci c electronica), it may seem like the Philadelphia native has been at it longer than that—his mark on electronic music and its culture has been that unmistakable. but any d J would agree: t wo decades in the game is quite an accomplishment, even if you haven’t succeeded at almost every level. t hrough the years, he has gone from mobile-d J apprentice to global club star. Wink’s name may conjure up happy, hazy memories of nights at Philly’s Fluid club, or remembrances of clubbing in the u .K. during the later ‘90s when his inescapable Euro hits—“Higher State of Consciousness,” “d on’t l augh” and “a re you t here?”— ooded the airwaves, bombed the danceoor and entered the public’s psyche. t hat’s all good and well, according to Wink, but he’s more than just the acid house he’s come to embody, and his latest effort re ects a desire to return to a more innocent time in dance music. DJ Times rst learned about Wink’s fourth artist album, When A Banana Was Just A Banana (o vum), while interviewing him live on Sirius Xm Satellite r adio in miami during Winter music Confer-
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
pro ound sounds ence this past march. He spoke about a time before stubborn walls were erected between genres, an era when listeners were more open to cross pollination in music. a nd now, nearly a year later, a listen to the Cd bears that out. d iverse, but no less storming cuts like “Jus’ r ight,” “d olphin Smack,” and 2008 hit “Stay o ut a ll Night” go from big-room grooves to deep, dark vibes to irresistible, hypnotic pulses. it’s not a 303 tweakfest, but dance oors won’t mind at all. u nlike his previous artist efforts, which included turns from featured talent like u rsula r ucker and t rent r eznor, Banana is strictly dance oor. DJ Times recently caught up with Josh Wink to discuss this and much more. DJ Times: What’s the concept behind your new album, When A Banana Was Just A Banana? Josh Wink: i just want people to be a little less serious and more lighthearted about music. t hese are serious times and everybody’s so serious with music—its fads and trends, and who’s sounding like whom and all this kind of stuff. i like the innocent times, because maybe it was nostalgic. i feel this way about all genres, not just dance music. it’s because i like everything. i was listening to relatives at a holiday party and what they like or don’t like in music, and i don’t remember that so much, growing up. you’d make a mixtape for someone with everything you could get your hands on as a teenager. i feel too much of that has been lost. DJ Times: Few others do acid house as well as you. i don’t consider Banana an acid house album, though. a re you intentionally going in a new direction?
JosH wiNk Dials DowN tHe seriousNess of CluBlaND, But keeps BomBiNg tHe DaNCefloor
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MARCH 2009
DJ TIMES
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DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
Wink: t his isn’t necessarily a typical album, for me. i think of an album, a non-d J mix album, as something that i like to work with other people on, like working with vocalists or instrumentalists—i didn’t on this album. t his was just a way to release music over the years. it’s not a concept album. it became a concept album with the title, but it
was more or less tracks i’ve played over the years out, that d Js and colleagues and fans have asked what these tracks were. For me, it wasn’t sitting down and making a studio album with a concept and a feeling. t his, to me, was just a nice way to get some music out, because i don’t release albums that often. DJ Times: you’re revered by dance music fans and fellow d Js alike. d oes that put undue pressure on you when you’re thinking about releasing an album? Sasha’s told DJ Times he often feels people scrutinize his releases too much. d o you feel that way? Wink: i don’t think i get as much [pressure] as Sasha or people who are press darlings. i nd myself not being in the press as much as they are. it’s a great thing, because i have my balance. i have fun, cool press when i have something coming out, but the whole d J-lifestyle soap opera that the press has been covering doesn’t really cater to me too much. i don’t feel like i’m put under
a microscope so much. However, i feel that people sometimes do have expectations of artists, and when i’m d Jing, sometimes there’s a mix of people that wanna hear songs of mine that they consider hits. t hey wanna hear “Higher State o f Consciousness.” t hey wanna hear “Superfreak.” t hey wanna hear “a re you t here?” and “d on’t l augh.” t hey expect to hear that sound all night, but i don’t necessarily feel like i need to do that. i think if they’re true fans, they know that i play and make a wide variety of electronic music. DJ Times: Still, people love when you play acid material. Wink: i started in one area, but i don’t like necessarily playing one thing or making one thing. it always got boring if i do the same thing. i like ice cream, but i also like awesome chocolate. t here’s also different avors of ice cream and there are different types of food. When i d J, i entertain. i started as a mobile disc jockey entertainer. i grew up listening to Cash money and Jazzy Jeff. i try to balance with trying to educate people with my music and old music and new music, but i do that in a way that i entertain while keeping my integrity. i’m fortunate to be able to do it. i have fans that come out to hear me, but i also have people who come out to the club and they have no idea who’s d Jing. if i can touch a couple of people, i feel happy. DJ Times: Electronic music does offer you the ability to evolve artistically. Wink: music itself, through timely cycles, tends to re-emerge, re-identify, renew itself into a different genre of music. a nd that’s the beauty of this style of music. o K, house music in the ’90s was unbelievably big and in uential, then it went away for many people. Now, labels are making records that sound like the records that came out in the ’90s. t hat’s the cool thing about dance music. d isco happened in the ’70s, then 20 years later there’s a disco resurgence with people sampling it and rede ning what it is. a s a d J, i’m always torn as to how to answer questions, as a d J or producer. DJ Times: Which one are you, a d J or a producer, predominantly? Wink: Sometimes they’re different points of view. a s a producer, i can sit in the studio and make a track while not thinking of the dance oor. a s a d J, i have to think about the dance oor! i think people know me more as a producer. Several years ago, my parents asked me, “What do we tell our friends when they ask what our son does?” i said, “t ell them i’m an artist. i’m a music producer that makes dance music. instead of performing live at a venue or a festival, i d J at a venue, club or festival.” t hat’s how i always looked at it. i love both and i feel like i need both to do both the best. When i’m thinking of making a dance track in a studio and how it’d be to play it, i think of the build up, the hypnotic aspect of the groove, how it’ll feel on the dance oor at a huge festival. When i’m d Jing, i’m thinking about production ideas. So for me, they shake each other’s hands. i need both. DJ Times: d o you create other genres of music outside of dance music? Wink: a ctually…i’ve just done a bunch of music that i’ve lost. i lost a 500-gig hard drive with six years of sequences, sounds and work on it. it was a hard drive that went bust, and that was my backup hard drive. o n that drive was a lot of music that wasn’t necessarily dance music. a lot of people ask me questions like, “you’re at home—what kind of music do you listen to?” i listen to a lot of internet radio, music that creates a soundscape for my day. it’s like brian Eno would say for his Music For Airports theory—it’s music that’s there and you’re not really focusing on it too much, but you know it’s there. it creates a setting and aural atmosphere for your mood and day. t his is a lot of music i listen to at home. DJ Times: What type of internet radio stations do you listen to? Wink: i listen to internet radio stations that are total textures, rather than beats or rhythms. d J o live coined a term, “illbient.” ill meaning, “it’s so sick,” combined with ambient. i listen to a lot of avant-garde lm production, not typical Craig a rmstrong things, but even more weird and experimental. t hat makes me feel good and creates atmospheres. in the new year, i’m hoping to have my new studio set up and do a lot of things that i wanted to do and want to do and maybe release under different names. i really have a desire to produce bands—something combining my style of glitch production, not necessarily dance music, with something like a ir and combine it with a boards o f Canada sound. DJ Times: you get offered a lot of remix projects, but you turn down many of them. Why? Wink: Sometimes i get asked to do things and i turn them down. Someone approached me to contribute to an album by a movie star—i won’t name names—and they asked me to submit tracks for their album. i didn’t feel comfortable with that. it was a big, mainstream name. i didn’t feel comfortable because i think they wanted pop music and it’s not my forte. When i remixed d epeche mode, the money wasn’t the best, but it was a chance to remix a band i loved growing up. DJ Times: is the money important?
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DJ Times: you were using Final Scratch at one point. What’s your d J setup now? Wink: i was ver y happy and fortunate to be one of the first people to play with the new digital d J setup, which was Final Scratch, along with r ichie Hawtin and John a cquaviva. Stanton asked me to do more and be endorsed by it. i did it for several years and stopped using it, not because of the quality of the operating system, but because i didn’t necessarily like how i was d Jing with it. i felt like i was looking more at the computer than at the crowd. i felt like i had too much of a choice of music and i was playing too many classics. DJ Times: is it ever a bad thing to have too much of a choice in music? Wink: For me. i stopped using it. i haven’t gone back since. i’m interested in going back and trying the digital outlet again. i’ve also been d Jing vinyl and Cd s. in the past ve years, it’s been only Cd s. i still buy
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out to a bar. bar owners have said attendance has been o K, but their bar sales have gone down. DJ Times: d id you record Banana in your home studio? Wink: yes. i don’t travel with a computer, so i wasn’t able to work on it while traveling. i did a mixture of hardware sequencing, keys, drum machines and samplers, and i also have software-based systems.
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Wink: money doesn’t necessarily make me happy. i can get really little money and play a really small club. but i can also play a huge stadium and get more money and it may not be the best thing i’ve enjoyed at all. t hat’s life. i’d like to work with a band and do something like that. i have a lot of ideas. DJ Times: Have you been offered to score lms or contribute music for movie soundtracks? Wink: i’ve actually been offered a couple of things and talked to producers and representatives, but they ended up going with more commercial producers. i think i scared them with my left kinda visions. [laughs] t hat’s the thing with my music: some people know my hits and they want that the whole time, but others want the weird, obscure stuff. i was talking about lters, muf ed sounds and eld recordings and i think i scared them. [laughs] i’d like to do stuff, but something that’s more weird and creative. DJ Times: you are one of the few d J/producers who seems to command almost universal respect from your peers. you’ve had big club hits in a merica and pop-chart hits in Europe, but you’ve also maintained your integrity as an artist over the years. Has that been dif cult? Wink: r espect from peers. t o me, that sounds really nice. i love it when colleagues and friends make compliments to me. my mom raised me saying, if you get a chance to influence people in a positive way, why not do that? i guess it’s translated into that. i feel very happy to have been releasing music for…2009 is going to be 20 years! i’ve been d Jing since i was 13, 14-years-old. t he fact that i’m able to do what i’m doing for so long. it’s such a fickle industry where people come and go. t hat i can feel the passion where i can get up and drink and eat music and the fact that i can still be doing what i did after 20 years, to think i started doing Sweet 16 parties and mobile d J gigs, i think of how dif cult it is to go out and buy music and try to get a d J gig and do all those kinds of things. DJ Times: How would you measure success? Wink: a lot of people just wanna be pop stars, and that’s ne for them. i had a lot of success in the ’90s and i didn’t necessarily enjoy that. “Higher State” was a huge track, as you know, and i signed a deal where i didn’t have control of the song and i had remixes that weren’t representative of me. i’m in a hotel room in Europe about to go to sleep and i turn on the t v, and i see a video of me that i didn’t know anything about. i had long dreads at the time and immigration of cers at the airport would recognize me. t here were huge posters of me everywhere. When you don’t get into the business for that reason, it’s weird when it comes and comes so heavily. i was making music for six, seven years before that. t hat year, 1995, was when they were released, but 1996 was when they took off. it was a great thing to have been able to open the doors and have it mean something in someone’s life and still to this day i feel the same way. i’m just happy to have the ability of making a living doing my art, that i have friends in the industry just as long who are still doing it. t he passion comes from still being interested in electronic music. DJ Times: Which producers are you into right now? Wink: Nic Fanciulli. We’re surprised, but happy to get cool tracks from people like him on o vum. l ast month, we had Steve l awler. We have someone named Gregor t resor, a German artist, and the follow-up release for d J yellow from Paris. We’re very happy to have had a lot of unknown and known names want to be on o vum. a lot of people, like l oco d ice, really wanna be on the o vum family. He so wanted to be in the o vum family. Same with Shlomi a ber—he released his big records on o vum and he then started to have success with his own label. Hopefully, we’ll have a new release from [Judge] Jules. DJ Times: a s an a merican world traveler, how did you feel about the recent presidential election? Wink: i was very excited when [o bama] won the election! t raveling internationally makes me a global human being rather than just an a merican. o ver the past year, i’ve really gotten to feel the excitement of change around the world. People would show up to my gigs—in Holland, ireland—wearing barack t -shirts! When i do festivals in England, Portugal, Spain or wherever, i see them. i was in England playing a big festival, Cream elds or t ribal Gathering, and the d J before me was Portuguese and there were two people in the crowd waving Portuguese ags like soccer supporters. i’ve never once been at a gig when someone came with an a merican ag, ever. [t he barack t -shirt] was the closest to that. Chris l iebing said to me, “Congratulations for your state turning blue!” [laughs] DJ Times: Have you seen the global economic crisis affect attendance at clubs? Wink: yeah. i realize a lot of people are taking their drinks at home before they go
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By Marty Perez
it’s easy to see that the mixer is the largest and most diverse product category in the d J industry. Whether you need an effect- lled rack model, a beginner’s tabletop unit, a hybrid piece, or a spiffy digital mixer that controls the latest software, the market is more loaded with choices than ever before. t hese days the tried-and-true d J-speci c companies are certainly leaning in the digital direction, but they still offer basic models for those who need them. a nd companies better known for pro audio products or even musical instruments have gotten into the game with some unique entries that handle a variety of applications. in this roundup of mixers, we take a look at some of the latest products you’ll nd at retail. if a company doesn’t have any spankin’ new pieces, we’ll offer a few solid alternative choices for you. Enjoy. t he latest from England’s Allen & Heath, distributed Stateside by a merican music & Sound, is the Xone:22. d eemed an entry-level unit from the famed Xone series, the mixer features a “lite” version of the analog voltage Control Filter system, frequency sweep and “mild to wild” resonance control. it also comes with three-band total kill EQ, crossfader curve control switch, and dual phono/line inputs. American Audio, af liated with longtime lighting manufacturer a merican d J, offers nearly 20 models, including the Q-Sd mixer. t he 4-channel unit includes an Sd Card slot, supporting up to 4Gb of music, plus a full feature set—balanced Xl r outs, 3-band EQ on each channel and t empo l ock function. o n the lower end, the company offers the Q-d 1 Pro, a 2-channel mixer, with 2-band EQ and a record-out function. t he latest from Audio Innovate is the a Em 100i. t he 2-channel scratch mixer features a built-in oscillator, analog lters and effects on both channels, superfast v Ca crossfader, and eight audio inputs.
from Budget-priced pieces to tricked-out Digital models, the DJ market’s
in the mi
x
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Behringer offers a broad range of mixers and its latest is the d JX750, a ve-channel unit with advanced digital effects, 3-band EQs, 3-way kill switches and bPm counter. behringer also makes a pair of mixer/controllers products for digital d Js—the bCd 2000 and bCd 3000, which comes with Native instruments t raktor 3 l E software. Known for its loudspeaker lines, B-52 Professional offers t he Prodigy all-in-one mixer/ workstation, a 4-channel unit with two scratching Cd /mP3 players and a pro a t a ight case. b-52 also makes t he ProdigyFX, which includes numerous onboard d SP effects. d igital d J system manufacturer Cortex, a member of the GCi family of companies, offers the miX-r 1u . t he single rackspace unit features two convertible phono/line channels, 2-band EQ and level gain on each channel, record output, and balanced Xl r master output. Denon DJ offers several mixer models, including the d N-X120, a compact mixer with two line and two phono/line (switchable) channels, fader start, and 3-band EQs, and the d N-X900 19-inch rackmount unit which boasts eight analog line inputs and three phono switchable, plus four digital ins and two digital outs. Spain’s Ecler has been quick to embrace the digital d J and its Ev o 5 mixer features mid i settings for Native instruments’ t raktor Pr o d J software. t he unit features a 12-channel FireWire sound card, 24bit/96kHz sound quality, exible mid i control and editable effects processor. Gemini Sound Products, another member of the GCi family of d J-related products, recently broke out the PS 828EFX, a 12-inch, 4-channel unit with built-in effects, and the mm-1800 and mm-2400, 19-inch units with EQs. t he company’s wide range of mixers also includes the PS-626u Sb, a 10-inch, 3-channel unit with u Sb connectivity. Gem Sound, well-known as a supplier for d Js on a budget, offers nine different mixer models for all applications, including the v Xm-80. t he 3-channel, 10-inch unit features 3-band EQ on each channel, master, record and booth outputs, v Ca G-Glide crossfader. in the past decade, Korg, well-known for its keyboards, has offered some unique mixer entries to the d J market. t hey include the 2-channel Km-202 and the 4-channel Km-402, both mixers integrated with the company’s popular Ka o SS pad. For production and live apps, Korg also offers its “core station” mixers—the 4-channel ZEr o 4 and the 8-channel ZEr o 8 mixers, which offer users a digital mixer, audio i/o , mid i controller and effect processor in one unit. r enowned multi-app mixer maker Mackie recently released a range of versatile units—the u .Series. billed as “hybrid mixers,” the series, which includes the u .420 and u .420d, offers applications for d Js, podcasters, remixer/producers, bands and more. a 4-channel production mixer with FireWire, the u .420d features a built-in d i box for instruments and 3-band “full-kill” active EQ. mackie also offers its d.4 and d.2 mixers with FireWire i/o . For PC-based jocks, M-Audio offers a pair of mixer/controller units—the X-Session Pro and (continued on page 42)
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mixer Category Has Become more Diverse than ever
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BY Jeff stiles o nce upon a time, the Christmas holidays were a season of happiness, joy, hope, peace and celebration. t his past holiday, however, seemed to be a time of peace and quiet, a period that experienced a lot of hope for more business. Ken Knotts of a ll-o ccasion d Js in a naheim, Calif., can easily remember what he refers to as the “good ol’ days,” when back in the late-’80s he was booked every night of the month in d ecember—whether it was a corporate event, private holiday party, a wedding reception, birthday party or a New year’s Eve event. “it’s not been that way since the early 1990s,” Knotts reminisces with a sigh. “o pen bars seemed to go away after somebody here in a naheim sued the host of a Christmas party, and we’ve seen the holiday market plunge ever since. “First, it scaled back to t hursday night, and then all weekend, with Friday, Saturday and Sunday bookings only, and then things scaled back again after 9/11 to just Friday and Saturday, with an occasional Sunday—plus New year’s Eve.” t his past d ecember, Knotts says his company was able to book just a few Saturdays and no New year’s Eve parties. “back in the day, i used to look forward to d ecember,” he says. “i always made enough money that month to last for several months of paying bills,
maybe take a little vacation for a few weeks and wait until wedding business picked up in the spring—but not any more.” d own in o rlando, Fla., JR Silva says Silva Entertainment experienced their share of cancellations. a few clients told Silva their company recently had to lay off staff, and that it would be poor taste to have a party at the end of such a dismal year. “We had returning clients, but no new ones,” Silva says. “a nd one thing i didn’t plan on was getting burned by a couple of returning clients. t hey paid late and a few are still outstanding, making me consider sending them to collections. i hate even thinking about it because they’ve been such good customers up until this past year, but i’ve already paid my talent and have yet to get paid.” a s a result of d ecember 2008, Silva says he’s planning on making some big changes for 2009 that will ensure proper payments in the future. “t he folks who paid late will get a tickle from me in July,” he explains. “t hey can reserve their date and their d J by prepaying, or i will allow the date to y open in a ugust with no regrets and no holds. “t he month of d ecember for us is no longer one where every weekend is jammed to the gills. it’s been slowing down in recent years to cover the rst three Saturdays, so i’m basically letting those who want to be last-minute bookings go. i’m even planning on closing the of ce on the 20th, just so i don’t have to even be around.” While most mobiles were experiencing slower 2008 holiday bookings due to the holiday downturn, Andrew Byrd says last year’s season was actually pretty busy for his d uluth, Ga.based music master d Js. Still, byrd says his company had a slower d ecember than any of the past 10-12 years. “it was a little slower than usual in d ecember, but we were apparently among the lucky ones because we only had one or two cancellations for the month of d ecember,” he says. “We did have three cancellations of our casino events, however. t hey were not really big events—the sandwich shop Subway, o utback Steakhouse, and the grocery chain Kroger—but every time i drive by these businesses, they’re relatively busy. “i’m trying to ‘reset’ now, while i have a couple of slower weeks, and get organized again to take on the new year.” byrd says all the companies that cancelled in 2008 attributed their cancellations to the current economic conditions.
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iN a tougH eCoNomY, maNY moBiles resorteD to New taCtiCs to resCue tHeir Bottom liNe
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DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
“What surprised me most about this was that all the events were booked—and then cancelled—in a timeframe of a week or two,” he says, “t hey were very late in the game in terms of the booking date, yet cancelled effectively just days later.” many of byrd’s competitors, he says, mentioned to him that they were not even working during key weekend dates during the month of d ecember. t his, he says, was a bit of an eye-opener for him. “When your successful counterparts, who are usually as busy as you are, sit at home on a Saturday in d ecember, it’s disturbing,” he admits. “t here’s no better time than the present to lend a helping hand to a fellow entertainer. yet the economy is slowing down, and certainly the special-events business is taking a toll as a result of local, national and international economic conditions.” a ll in all, byrd says d Js who have very solid ties to the special-events industry will be in a much better situation to endure the current slowdown. “i’m more concerned about the smaller companies—newer operations and individual operators—as they typically don’t have the foundation or resources to do so,” he says. “a s a multi-system and multi-market business, we are continuously modifying our approach on how we conduct business, not fundamentally, mind you, but modifying things as market conditions change. t he advertising and marketing parameters are constantly changing as well, especially given that we have operations in multiple geographical areas and rates we can charge, though business overhead costs and conditions are different in every market. “my main concern is that the current generation of entertainers hasn’t seen an economic matter of this magnitude at any previous time, and the larger concerns are: 1) How long will it last and 2) How bad will it get? “a nother very interesting situation i’ve witnessed recently is to see some of the folks who were carrying the ag for the message of $1,200+ d Js are now charging anything but that. in fact, a competitor in one of our operating markets in Georgia that was a strong supporter of that effort was charging $275 for d ecember 2008 holiday events. What do you make of that?” Next door in r ock Hill, S.C., Kevin Porter says that, even though he typically has a gig every New year’s Eve, in 2008 he spent the night at home
watching the ball drop in t imes Square. Still, his d ecember was fairly decent. “i had nine events for the three weeks, including seven new clients and two repeat clients,” says the owner of Elite Entertainment. “i also booked two events for one d J and one event for two other d Js, yet all of those events except one cancelled. “t o do a late cancellation [a week prior] and then refusing to cancel, i have led for a case against them hoping the judge can resolve the disagreement.” Has Porter altered his company’s business/advertising/marketing plan as a result of the shrinking economy? “Possibly, but to be honest with you i had nine bookings including the two the rst weekend of 2009 and, so far, i’m booking at the same rate i’ve been charging for two years,” he says. “i will not raise my rate this year, but at the same time i don’t see reducing it when quoting for dates four months and out.” back down in birmingham, a la., Geoff Carlisle of Ja mm Entertainment Services feels his company was very lucky with their totals for d ecember 2008 and their fourth-quarter overall. “We were able to hit the same number for sales as in 2007, even though most businesses are suffering due to the economic downturn,” Carlisle says. “it seems that businesses that concentrate on a speci c area of business, such as the wedding industry, are hurting more than those that are more diversi ed. i have talked with many photographers who concentrate only on weddings, for example, and they all say that their sales were way down compared to 2007.” Still, Carlisle says holiday season 2008 for his company seemed a little soft compared to the previous year. “Some companies chose not to have parties at all, even if they could afford it, because it was bad Pr ,” he says. “i personally think the media caused most of the scare in people, which has in turn created the tightening of the money being spent on extra things such as holiday parties. We had to be more aggressive in our calls to potential clients to get them to book, and then we had a lot of last-minute bookings with companies that decided that they wanted a party.” Carlisle says their latest d ecember season was a mix of holiday parties, weddings and other events that altogether helped make the numbers for Ja mm. a nd, as far as 2009 goes, the numbers are being made. “We’re keeping our ngers crossed for the rst quarter,” he says. “a s professional d Js, we offer other services that help sell us or allow us to add on the options to create more income, such as Game Show mania, Photo Shoppe booth, ambient lighting are just a few of the other options that clients seemed to like. “So far we’ve been lucky. We increased our prices a couple of years ago, so i guess the only thought is that we want try to increase them again this year as we planned, and just wait it out.” back in the midwest, Erin Crowley reports that his madison, Wis.-based d J service suffered a dismal season for 2008 parties. “For musical memories Entertainment, it was a dismal season for holiday parties,” he says. “my typical ve or six holiday parties [for a single op] went down to one—yes, one, and even that was in January. “a ll of my regular clients did not rebook me, and most of them i’ve had for over three years. Even my brother-in-law, whose company i’ve been d Jing at for eight years, called and said they were not having one this year. “a sking other d J friends, they’ve all said the same thing: i hope next year the economy bounces back and holiday parties are back in style.” Worse yet, Mark Haggerty in the bay a rea of California says even 12-year clients for d enon & d oyle Entertainment did not repeat for the holidays in 2008. “Since Christmas fell on a t hursday last year, it really impacted two weekends of business,” Haggerty says. “a lso, New year’s Eve was scaled back to three gigs, while we usually do eight to 10 that night. “Fortunately, many of our loyal clients and a few new ones kept us busy. a mong them were law rms, tech companies, insurance companies and telecommunications rms. We also did the San Francisco 49ers football team’s company party.” d own the coast in Cali’s o range County, Knotts says most of the reason for the holiday downturn—at least in his locale—is due to bottom feeders who are using pirated or cheaply obtained music libraries, or else those who are simply charging extremely low rates for their services. “many d Js are advertising on mySpace at prices that were considered good in the mid-’80s—for example, $400 for four hours of play time—and i’ve even seen guys asking for less money to go out and d J,” says Knotts. “r egardless of how much education you give a customer these days, they look at the price and still think d Js are an off-the-shelf item, as if they can get comparative service regardless of how inexpensive a d J goes out for. “i’ve seen the industry change dramatically [for the worse] over the last few years. t his recent slowdown is like being a plumber all your life, working for a good wage, and then all of the sudden, nobody is using pipes anymore!” Hopefully, a “stimulated economy” will mean better results for mobile entertainers in 2009. n
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ma k in g t r a c k s
st u d io …h a r d w a r e…so f t w a r e…
By Josh Harris
BUNDLE UP: KORE ELECTRONIC EXPERIENCE
KORE Electronic Experience: Native Instruments’ arsenal of synth and drum sounds.
a side from all of the great-sounding presets, you get a wonderful browser that allows easy searching. o ne of my least favorite things to do during production is to sit and scroll through sounds. a nytime i can cut down on the time it takes to do that, i am happy. searching for sounds can sometimes take away from good creative momentum, but it’s certainly something that any producer or synth programmer needs to do during the track-making process. Luckily, this browser is clearly laid out and extremely easy to search by instrument groups or soundpack. i think n i did a fantastic job in choosing the patches for k .e.e. it’s very well balanced between all of the different instrument groups.
Looking for an arsenal of sounds that bundle up with a powerful software instrument and multi-effects unit? w ell, n ative instruments may have what you’re seeking. most remixer/producers know that n ative instruments has always been a leader in the virtual synth world, and the Berlin-based company scored a major hit when it introduced the k omplete Soundpack Extravaganza f or those of you who love to tweak effects, the d eep t ransformations soundbundles several years ago. more recently, n i developed ko r e, a pack will be up your alley. its 150 different effects and 1,200 sound variations powerful software and hardware workstation that runs off the company’s ko r e player. f rom that success came ko r e 2 and now are based on combinations of f m8, r eaktor, g uitar r ig, a bsynth, plus 30 effects from ko r e. You can morph between the different effect settings. t he Best of ko r e electronic experience. r eaktor soundpack contains 200 patches from r eaktor 5’s k ee is a Lite k o r e Player bundled with a ensembles: synths, sound generators and drum machines. “best-of ” n i’s virtual synth collection from six “Aside from all of the massive expansion also contains 200 patches, but these of its ko r e soundpacks: f m8 t ransient a ttacks; great-sounding presets, are completely new synth sounds. t he 200 sounds in the Best of r eaktor, Vol 1; massive expansion Vol. 1; Best of a bsynth were chosen from all versions of a bsynth. Best of a bsynth; synthetic d rums r eloaded; and you get a wonderful browser synthetic d rums r eloaded was taken from synthetic d rums d eep t ransformations. (in the boxed version, a 1 and synthetic d rums 2, and there are eight variations per voucher is included for a free seventh soundpack that allows easy searching.” kit along with the ko r e effects. t he drums kits cover house, from the n i online shop.) techno, hip-hop, electro, minimal house and drum-n-bass t he k .e.e. library comes with 800 synth sounds and 150 effects. t he Lite k ore player can run as either a stand-alone genres. it’s important to note that ko r e electronic experience does allow some editsynth or a plug-in (Vst , a u , r t a s under Pro t ools 7). t he sounds in ing of the sounds. t here are eight variations of each patch and they can be acthis collection will also run under the ko r e 2 and ko r e players cessed by the a -h buttons. t he adjacent slider allows you to seamlessly morph respectively. system r equirements: mac o sX 10.4.x / 10.5, g 5 1.8 g h z or between the different variations, instead of selecting the a -h buttons. each patch has parameters that can be tweaked via the g lobal c ontroller’s knobs and butintel c ore d uo 1.66 g h z, 1 g B r a m; w in XP/Vista (32 Bit), Pentons. t hese knobs and buttons can be manipulated by a mid i controller. if you tium/a thlon 1.4 g h z, 1 g B r a m. t his product needs a 32-bit compatible environment to operate under 64-bit versions of w indows are using k .e.e. in stand-alone mode, you will need to con gure your mid i ins and outs from within the a udio and mid i settings menu. XP/Vista.
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
Installation & Impressions
installation was painless, but be prepared to register your product with n i. it will be much easier for you if you install on a computer that is online, but you can do an of ine activation via the n i service c enter’s of ine activation mode—1 g B of free disk space is required. f or this review, i used a macbook 2.0 g hz intel d uo c ore with 2g B r a m and a bleton Live 7. a s an owner of several n i products, i was already familiar with most of the included soundpacks. i booted up Live 7 and was ready to roll.
Conclusion
f or those of you who already own a version of n ative instruments’ k omplete 5, then ko r e electronic experience might be a bit redundant for you. h owever, if you are looking to get into some great-sounding n ative instrument patches to help your production, then i highly recommend ko r e electronic experience. f or a list price of $229 for the boxed version or $189 for the download version, you can’t go wrong and you’ll nd a home for these sounds in your tracks with just about any style of production. If you have any questions for Josh Harris or Making Tracks, please send them to djtimes@testa.com.
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so u n d in g o f f
c o n t r o LLer s…Pr o a u d io …h ea d Ph o n es
By Paul Dailey & Dave Gadbois
HOT CANS & COMPLETE CONTROL
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
Pioneer HDJ-2000 Headphones
w hen i heard that Pioneer was releasing a new pair of d J headphones, i was initially underwhelmed by the idea, to say the least. i have been reviewing gear for more than 10 years and, while every audio company of note has headphones in its line-up, very few really stand out. it’s been my experience that each new edition comes with an updated look, an added mw of power capacity here or 1k h z of frequency response there. in the end, most units are pretty similar—with the same features, the same weak swivel joints, and the same audio cord problems they had a decade ago. enter the h d J-2000 ($349 ma P), the latest edition to the Pioneer Pro d J line with some real solutions to these long-standing design aws. o ut of the box, the h d J-2000 headphones look great. t hey’re molded from strong, well-made materials and their silver-and-black design provides a great look from an aesthetic standpoint. t hey feature a lightly padded headband and memory-foam ear cups that are treated in leather—it’s softer and more comfortable than anything on the market.t hese luxury features, along with the lightest total weight in their space, helped me to truly melt into these cans. i wore them for hours on end, with no neck strain or fatigue of any kind. t he biggest area of innovation relates to the overall build quality of the headband and cups—and how those changes are likely to affect long-term durability. t he headband itself is made of exible magnesium, adding strength and the ability to stand up to the rigors of the road. Both cups not only swivel 90 degrees for d Js that prefer to monitor on their shoulders, but actually click and stay in place that way. t here is also an auto-swivel spring that brings the left cup back into place whenever you take your ear away. in addition, Pioneer added a detachable/replaceable, mini-XLr , coiled headphone cord, making replacement of worn cables quick and easy. o n the surface, these may seem like small touches, but they clearly show that Pioneer didn’t just rebrand its older h d J-1000 headphones—they put some real r &d and thought into the h d J-2000s. d Js spoke and Pioneer listened. i got my head around my pair and got down to an initial sound test. i started with some jazz, and the h d J-2000s performed beautifully. t he Pioneers were warm, smooth and even. t hey did color the source material a bit, but in the world of digital music, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. switching to techno, i found the h d J-2000s delivered impressive sound and were a pleasure to work with. t he h d J-2000s were engineered to emphasize frequencies that d Js often rely on, and the kicks and hi-hats came through loud and clear. w hile their bass response, especially in relation to the kick (or bass drum) was fantastic,
This month, it’s all about headphones and digital control. Massachusetts jock Paul Dailey takes on Pioneer’s HDJ-2000 headphones, while Alabama’s Dave Gadbois puts Numark’s MixMeister Control surface through its paces.
Pioneer’s HDJ-2000: Pioneer’s HDJ-2000: A durable A sturdy, sturdy, durable headphone headphone solution. solution.
Numark’s MixMeister Control: Multi-purpose hardware.
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they were a bit underwhelming when it comes to sub bass. a fter using these cans in multiple settings—including four different three-hour sessions both in my studio and out in the field—i have to say the Pioneer h d J-2000 are right at the top of my list of favorite headphones. t hey sound miles better than Pioneer’s predecessor (the Pioneer h d J-1000s), and they’re lighter and more comfortable than nearly any pair in their market space. a dd to that silky smooth leather and memory foam on their cups, detachable/replaceable audio cord, and an ultra durable magnesium core, and you have a near faultless pair of professional headphones. t he $349 price tag may be steep for some d Js, but this looks like one pair of headphones that you won’t have to replace.
together. a s important as these two knobs are, i wish they were more accessible. t he overall controller has a lot of real estate and the only cramped area seems to be where those knobs are. t he other knobs at issue for me controlled the headphone and master volume. w hen using with mixmeister, they were very sensitive and you really have to learn how to adjust them. t hroughout the board, there are two types of knobs, smooth and indented (clicks when you turn it). it would have made setting the volumes more precise if they had used an indented
knob. a lso, i would’ve preferred an indented jog wheel. a gain, that’s just me—i’m picky. But, for your own comfort level, you should be aware of the sensitivity and the relationship of the knob to the program feature. in closing, if you already own mixmeister f usion software and want to take it on the road, this controller is the best way to exploit all its great features. mixmeister c ontrol allows you to physically participate so your mix becomes a performance and not just a click and drag. if you don’t own a mid i control surface, then this is a box you should consider.
w hy? n ot only because it comes bundled with what i think is the best audio mixing program on the market, but because it can control every mid i-compatible program and that’s a vast majority of the available software on the market now. a t $299 ma P, this is a multi-purpose tool, one i recommend as a buy. so thumbs-up for n umark’s mixmeister c ontrol, and i’ll see you at the top. If you have any questions for Sounding Off, please send them to djtimes@ testa.com.
Numark MixMeister Control
a s a longtime fan of mixmeister’s f usion d J software, i was curious to see if the new n umark mixmeister c ontrol surface could help improve an already impressive solution for digital d Js. n ot being much of a knob tweaker, i had mastered the software using just the mouse and keyboard. a fter receiving the controller, i installed the newest version of mixmeister—f usion Live is included with the piece—and then connected the controller to my laptop via u sB. my laptop had no problem finding the box and there was no need to load any drivers—it was effortless. t he board is 11.5-inches deep and 17-inches wide and fits very nicely in front of my 15-inch laptop. it has 40 knobs, 53 buttons (plus one jog wheel), all of which are programmable due to the control surface being mid i compatible. t his also allows you to use this controller with any software that uses mid i data to operate, so other d J, audio or even VJ software can be controlled by this hardware. t he controller allows you to quickly manipulate all of the features in the mixmeister program. You can preview tracks, add them to the playlist, loop, and change volume and eQ settings, plus adjust any effects you have added. a ll of these changes can be made to four independent stereo tracks and can be made quickly and without a mouse. i didn’t get a chance to test it with other software, but as easily as it loaded and worked with mixmeister, i have no doubt it would work with other mid i compatible programs. a fter using this board for a few days i only had a few issues and these were completely personal quibbles and not failures of the controller. k nob placement was one thing i had to focus on. f or me, the browser and preview knobs are a bit crowded
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mo BiLe Pr o f iLe
c a r eer s…in n o Va t io n s…su c c ess st o r ies
Derry, N.H.—it started, like so many things get started, in a barbershop. it was there that 17-year-old Billy r ears was bragging about his d J skills and how much fun he was going to have playing an upcoming dance. Just a few heads down, within earshot was Joey d ion, who snipped away while grinning, and then offered a throw-down to the upstart jock: “if you really want to learn how to d J,” said d ion, “come with me and i’ll show you how it’s done.” t his barbershop braggadocio proved rewarding for r ears. h e went out with d J Joey to a wedding, and sealed forever what he wanted to do with his career. “it opened my eyes to something new and extremely exciting,” says r ears. “i’d never seen interactive d Jing, getting on the oor and doing ice breakers, getting the crowd involved and using props. i did not realize until that night that, if you get out there on the oor and show people how
By Sharon K. O’Neill
NEW ENGLAND DJ ACES THE SUBCONTRACTOR LIFE No Second Banana: Billy Rears is perfectly happy sub-contracting for a living.
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
Main Event: In Front of Rears MacBook with Serato Scratch Live Rane MP 2016S rotary mixer Denon DN-HC4500 controller JBL Eon G2 speakers Shure Wireless and wired mics
to have a good time, it could make the night.” a s they were loading out that night, d ion mentioned that one day he’d like to be a d J booking agent; Billy r ears kept that nugget of information in the back of his mind, tucked away while he went to college to pursue his dream, that of a radio d J. f ul lling a desire he rst acquired as a teenager, when his mother introduced him to a local d J talent, r ears enrolled at massachusetts c ommunications c ollege in Boston, but it took only eight weeks to realize why the radio-d J life wasn’t for him. “o nce i got there i realized there wasn’t a lot of income,” he says, “especially compared to the type of money Joey was showing me as a wedding d J. t hat made it a no-brainer.” s o after dropping out and returning to n ew h ampshire, r ears called d ion, now the owner of the n ashua-based main event d isc Jockey service, and began his education. h e learned how to be interactive, how to lead dances, how to mingle, the art of call-and-response, and some stagecraft. in short, it took his d Jing to a new level. in 1999, he agreed to be d ion’s rst sub-contractor. “t he only thing i take from Joey is his talent,” says r ears, who owns his own equipment. “if he wants to show me new stuff, i train with him now and again and, from what i earn he takes a small cut. i’m very cool with Joey doing the booking. it takes a lot of stress off me. i can concentrate on the gigs and improving my skills. i stay with Joey because he gets me high-quality gigs. i go into some pretty fancy halls, if i had to do that myself it would have taken me a long time to get in these places.” r ears also generates gigs for himself by appearing at bridal shows for main event. h e estimates that 60-percent of his gigs come to him this way—from him standing behind the booth at the show, handing out promo d Vd s, and performing at bridal showcases. “t hat’s when we give the brides a 30-minute taste of what we can do for them,” he says. o nce the bride reaches out to d J Joey, r ears gets the contract and goes to work. “o nce he books the gig, i’ll call the brides and grooms, at least one month ahead of time, and occasionally a bride and groom will want to
meet me before they book me.” r ears’ big “draw” is his introductions. “i always want them to rock, so i’ll make sure the bride and groom select real uptempo music, as long as it relates to them,” he says, citing a recent example where he played “eye of the t iger” as an intro for a couple where the groom was a boxer. a s for making sure the dancefloor stays lively, r ears has his fall-back tactics. “sometimes when the party starts to die down, i always remind myself to put on a smile,” he says. “Let everyone know you’re having a good time, and people will start to have a good time. it’s really all about what they see; there are some gigs, like bar gigs or karaoke gigs, where that really helps.” a nd for weddings? “i get out there and dance with the crowd, and i’ll mingle a little bit, get on the dancefloor and dance. i ’m there to show people how to have a good time, even if they don’t feel like being out that night.” o f course, being a subcontractor frees up a lot of daytime. h e does his share of karaoke gigs and birthday parties, and will choose to use his downtime wisely. “i’ve been getting back into the radio game, on a street team for 95.7,” he says. “it’s similar to my mobile d Jing, as far as being on the microphone. t hat’s what i’d like to try to do during the week during my downtime. i figure, i’m on the microphone every weekend doing events, so it’d be nice to do it during the week as well.” But doing mobiles, he feels, is his calling. “i ’ll do the mobiles forever, and it’s not about the money. t he money is definitely good, but i have a passion for it, like it’s something i should be doing. a fter a gig i’m all pumped up. it’s almost like a high, and i read DJ Times, that de nitely keeps the passion going—and i’m not just saying that!”
“IT TAKES A LOT OF STRESS OFF ME. I CAN CONCENTRATE ON THE GIGS AND IMPROVING MY SKILLS.”
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Defining DJs since 198 www.djtimes.com 048MR09_p001-044.indd 29
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Bu sin ess Lin e
sa Les…ma r k et in g …so Lu t io n s…
By Sharon K. O’Neill
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
ARE WEDDINGS RECESSION-PROOF? OPINIONS DIFFER
is the wedding industry recession-proof? several d Js we’ve spoken to recently seem to think so. “i have yet to witness any gloom and doom in this economy,” says minneapolis-based d J Bill h ermann. “i’m not an economist, but the phones are always a little slow before f ebruary, anyway. a fter that, that’s when i’ll truly know how bad it is out there, or if it is at all.” Perhaps a better indication of the state of the wedding industry can be gleaned from those who are dealing with multiple vendors—like a wedding planner. DJ Times scouted a few and got their take. “i think that weddings are de nitely recession proof,” says t rish epps, owner of Pure d ymonds events in Virginia Beach. “t here are too many people in the world getting engaged every day for there not to be any money for vendors in this eld of work.” epps follows this statement with a qualifier. “Brides are being more conscious of their budget,” she says. “a lot of couples are paying for their own wedding instead of the parents paying for it.” epps also points out that some brides are buying silk owers instead of freshly cut; ordering buffets instead of per plate, and eliminating such extravagances as doves and multiple bridal party members. “Brides are cutting back by only getting the items they need,” she says. c atherine moore, for s tart to f inish event & w edding Planning in c hugiak, a laska, also sees brides and their families taking on more weddingrelated responsibilities, especially catering and, to every d J’s dismay, music programming. “i see lots of cutbacks,” says moore, who’s been in the industry for 14 years. “t hey’re also using church bands or iPods instead of a d J, and many brides are reusing dresses, buying secondhand. i think that some of
us vendors and planners will have to take some cutbacks if we want to stay a oat.” Leslie ellison, a professional bridal consultant from the Lexington, s .c .-based d reamy a ffairs w edding and event Planners, concurs. “i have seen a huge shift in the wedding industry these past six months,” she says. “in 2008, the average budget of my brides was $30,000; most of my brides for 2009 have drastically cut their budgets to an average of $20,000.” a nd one of the first things ellison’s couples are willing to downsize? t he wedding band. “t hey are now using a d J instead of a band,” she says. “t he difference alone between the cost of a band and a d J can pay for their oral bill.” t hat’s good news for d Js, at least in s outh c arolina, although not for parents of the bride and groom. “t he past six months have been an extremely stressful time for the parents who are paying for the wedding,” says ellison. “some parents had planned to borrow money from their 401k plan for the dream wedding, but when the stock market crashed months ago, most parents lost tens of thousands of dollars from their fund, requiring them to take out equity loans or to reduce or completely cut out some of the wedding items that their daughter had originally envisioned for her wedding.” o ne aspect of the wedding impacted by this is the size of the guest list. “in the past, the parents had old friends, neighbors and coworkers on the wedding guest list, but many of those guests have been cut in order to stay within their slimmer budget,” says ellison. “t his has caused many parents stress and embarrassment, due to the fact that the wedding etiquette from their youth was to invite everyone the parents knew or everyone
who knew the couple. n ow, with limited budgets, the parents can no longer include their old friends and colleagues. t he parents are looking at paying around $100 per person for each guest on the list, so adding 10 people to the list is adding another $1,000 to the budget.” You remember steve martin in The Father of The Bride? h is character, g eorge Banks, who demands that his wife and daughter take people off the wedding list, now resonates all too clearly with many parents who are faced with making the same demands, in order to stay within a limited budget. o f course, it’s not all gloom and doom. it’s sometimes a matter of nding a selling point in the muck of a recession. “s ome couples don’t realize that wedding consultants can save them a lot of money and time,” says c atherine h ahn, owner of the milwaukee-based Your d ream w edding & events. “f or instance, we have worked with many vendors in their area and, so if they are looking for a great d J with a competitive price, as a consultant we can help couples lower their costs by negotiating with vendors, especially if we have a great rapport with them. a lso, because we have done many weddings and have worked with many vendors, it saves the couple time from having to look for vendors and they can also know whether they are a good company to hire.” w hat does this all mean for d Js? t he economy will recover and, until then, as long as d Js can sell against iPods, you should be in good shape. “i just tell any clients, who are considering using an iPod, that an iPod can’t read the oor,” says h ermann. “a n iPod doesn’t know the bride and the groom—and an iPod definitely doesn’t have a heart.”
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Profile: Joe Bermudez
13 of 20
Real Name: Joe Bermudez Home: Boston, Mass. Age: 32 Profession: DJ/Producer Affiliation(s): Sirius XM Satellite Radio Hobby: Hanging out with really, really hot chicks. Last Book Read: “Highway to Hell: The Life & Times of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott” by Clinton Walker Last Film Seen: “Quantum of Solace” staring Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. Latest Accomplishment: Having a track (“Holiday”) on Hilary Duff’s new Best-Of CD.
Greatest Accomplishment:
Getting to do what I love for a living.
I’VE BEEN READING DJ TIMES SINCE: 1999.
Why I Do What I Do: I have a real passion for music and there is no better feeling that to share that excitement with as many people as possible. One Tune That Never Leaves My Record Box: This past year, it has definitely been “Baditude” by Spoon, Harris and Obernick. Best Party Moment: My 27th
birthday party in Mexico City. The 2,000+ people in attendance all sang “Happy Birthday” to me in Spanish. I didn’t understand a single word, but thought it was the coolest thing ever. Worst Party Moment: I played in Miami once when the fire alarm kept going off at the club. Each time this would kill the power to the DJ booth making for a very long and frustrating night.
Profile: Beginning as a young club jock in Maine, Bermudez worked his way up the industry ladder to
global-DJ status. A longtime music reviewer for DJ Times, Bermudez took his talents to New England radio and gradually began to turn out remixes for a variety of artists (Kelly Clarkson, Justice, Hillary Duff). Eventually, he made the move to satellite radio and saw his profile rise. In 2008, he finished in the Top 20 of DJ Times’ America’s Best DJ poll, showing that his immediate future looks bright. I Started Reading DJ Times In: 1999.
DJ Times: Fits every Profile C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
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g ea r
a u d io …Lig h t in g …st u f f
Major Subject
Spray Can
DVJ Vision 55 Washington Street, Suite 702 Brooklyn NY 11201 (877) DVJ-VISION www.dvjvision.com
MBT Lighting & Sound PO Box 30819 Charleston, SC 29417 (800) 845-1922 www.musicorp.com
a ttention, video jocks: subject Zerp is a double a V-album specially edited to synchronize with musical patterns, rhythms and tones. its soundtrack comprises minimal, techno, dubstep and ambient music. t he rst disc is an hour long and plays on any d Vd player, while the second disc is a c d -r o m containing 56 samples and loops taken directly from subject Zero’s imagery. t he samples can be uploaded to VJ software.
mBt Lighting and sound’s Led sPr a Y is a “d erby-style” effect that uses 63 red, green, and blue Led s across seven lenses to create semicircular patterns that ash and pulse to the beat of the music. a stronger version, the Led sPr a Yd mX, utilizes 189 Led s in red, green, blue and white. it includes built-in, sound active programs for ashing, sweeping effects in stand-alone or master/slave modes.
Vice VersaPort American Audio 4295 Charter Street Los Angeles, CA 90058 (800) 322-6337 www.americanaudio.us
t he VersaPort is a sound card with four input channels and four output channels. it uses a u sB connection to connect to a Pc or mac while a c d player, turntable and mixer are also connected. it includes microphone and headphone level controls, as well as a sio drivers. it’s compliant with a variety of software programs, including ms d irectsound, a udition and g arage Band.
Jimmy Mac
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
algoriddim GmbH Dorfstr. 46 82319 Starnberg Germany www.djay-software.com
a ttention, digital d Js: djay 2.2 software from algoriddim interacts with a pple’s trackpad technology to let users control almost all of the turntable-style user interface’s functions via multi-t ouch nger gestures. t wo- nger gestures, which are supported on all mac notebooks featuring two- nger scrolling, let users scratch mP3s on the virtual turntables, crossfade between songs and adjust speed, volume and equalizer sliders. r otate gestures similar to an iPod’s clickwheel allow for browsing djay’s built-in it unes library.
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g ea r
a u d io …Lig h t in g …st u f f
Eight Ball Digidesign 2001 Junipero Serra Blvd Daly City, CA 94014 (800) 333-2137 www.digidesign.com
d igidesign is shipping Pro t ools 8. t he latest version of the software comes with more than 70 bundled plug-ins and virtual instruments, including new instruments like mini g rand piano, Boom drum machine, d B-33 tonewheel organ, Vacuum tube-modeled synthesizer, and Xpand!2 sample player. a fully-integrated mid i and score editors is included, and the program makes it easier to transpose music in real time in the edit window.
Table of Elementz ModernBeats, Inc. P.O. Box 360992 Los Angeles, CA 90036 (512) 255-5999 www.modernbeats.com
Straight from the Cart Grundorf Corporation 721 Ninth Avenue Council Bluffs, IA 51501 (712) 322-3900 www.grundorf.com
t he r oad-r unner collapsible cart has a frame redesigned to handle heavier loads and a handle with a shock-absorbing, padded, comfort grip. measuring 9.63-x-16.5-x-23 inches collapsed, the unit comes with a platform lock equipped with a spring and a slotted lock keeper.
modernBeats’ Bass elementz sample Library contains both Bass elementz 1 and 2. Bass guitar bites, riffs, chords, and bends designed speci cally for urban, hip hop music production are recorded at four tempos and in four key signatures on basses from spector, w arwick, f ender and others. a total of 60 software sampler presets are included in the download.
t orq 1.5 d J software is now available for mac o s X and w indows. m-a udio describes the program as “[merging] live d J performance and advanced music production.” it features a new tool bar, mid i clock, t empo a nchors, t empo master and zplane élastique time stretching. t he new software is available as a free upgrade for customers who bought and registered a t orq system on or after January 17, 2008.
DJ TIMES
M-Audio USA 5795 Martin Rd. Irwindale, CA 91706 (626) 633-9050 www.m-audio.com
MARCH 2009
Torq in the Road
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g ea r
a u d io …Lig h t in g …st u f f
I Am Legend Chauvet Lighting 3000 N. 29th Court Hollywood, FL 33020 (800) 762-1084 www.chauvetlighting.com
c hauvet released the Legend 6500 and its scaled-down version, the Legend 4500. t he former is a 14-channel intelligent Led moving yoke. it offers full r g Bw mixing capability, along with adjustable color temperatures, instantly-triggered color changes, and “color consistency ensured by tight binning requirements.” t he latter is a r g Bw wash with what c hauvet calls “an output that surpasses a 700w h id xture in certain segments of the color spectrum.”
Beginner’s Luck American Music & Sound 5304 Derry Avenue, Suite C Agoura Hills, California 91301 (866) 474-7711 www.americanmusicandsound.com
t he Xone:22 is an entry-level product in a llen & h eath’s line of mixers. t his two-channel analog mixer features a “lite” version of the analog Voltage c ontrol f ilter system offering low-pass and high-pass lters, frequency sweep and “mild to wild” resonance control. it also comes with three-band total kill eQ, crossfader curve control switch, and dual phono/line inputs.
Surface Area Numark 200 Scenic View Drive Cumberland, RI 02864 (401) 658-3131 www.numark.com
t he o mni c ontrol from n umark is a d J control surface with a built-in 24-bit audio interface. n ative instruments t raktor Le 3 and mixmeister f usion Live d J software are included in the unit, which plugs directly into any sound system. f eatures include ultra–low latency 44.1kh z and 88.2kh z audio a sio drivers and two stereo outputs.
Boys and Girls Neutrik USA 195 Lehigh Avenue Lakewood, NJ 08701 (732) 901-9488 www.neutrikusa.com
n eutrik’s convertc o n is “the world’s rst unisex three-pin XLr connector,” according to the company. a vailable with black chrome housing and gold contacts, the unit includes both male and female cable connectors, between which users can switch by sliding the housing back and forth.
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
Humbox Along PowerFX Systems AB P.O. Box 20061 SE-104 60 Stockholm, Sweden +46 (-8) -660 99 10 www.powerfx.com
t he h umBox Vs t i Vocal s ynth from Powerf X includes 10 voice banks and 50 vocal style characteristics that can be used for scat melodies, solo lines, non verbal backing vocals and original sound effects. t his Pc -only plug-in also offers volume and pitch envelope settings.
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g ea r
a u d io …Lig h t in g …st u f f
More Than Meets the IPR Peavey Electronics 711 A Street Meridian, MS 39301 (601) 483-5365 www.peavey.com
Peavey iPr series ampli ers feature two channels with independent, 100 h z crossovers. t hey come housed in a lightweight aluminum chassis and sport Led indicators on the front panel. t he models have a protection-circuitry suite that includes d d t speaker protection, as well as d c , t emp, signal and a ctive safeguards. iPr series ampli ers are designed with a resonant switch-mode power supply and a high-speed class d topology.
048MR09_p001-044.indd 35
Mad Maxx FBT USA P.O. Box 8144 Berlin, CT. 06037 (800) 333-9383 www.fbtusa.net
f Bt u sa ’s h i maxx 40a lightweight powered polypropylene speaker is a two-way system that sports a 12-inch B&c neodymium magnet woofer with a die-cast aluminum frame and a three-inch voice coil. t here are two input channels on the control panel—one includes a volume control, three-band eQ, a mic/line switch, ground lift switch, a balanced n eutrik combo input jack and balanced XLr signal out; the other has stereo r c a jacks and an individual volume control to which a c d or mP3 player can be connected.
1/26/2009 5:42:22 PM
g r o o Ves
t r a c k s…miXes…c o mPiLa t io n s
Tom Middleton
Alec Sun Drae
“INNOVATION” u Vinyl Life u t ape t heory a dance oor-friendly mosh of hip-house, electro and retro analog sounds. t he “sebastian marciano r emix” takes a straight kick and morphs into a funk-drenched groover with ecks of synth stabs. t he “skribble & slynkee vs. Vinyl Life” pushes in a more twisted direction, but doesn’t skimp on the big bumpin’ vibes.
– Jim Tremayne WHEN A BANANA WAS JUST A BANANA u Josh Wink u o vum w hile he can still rock the 303 acid sound, w ink also explores many diverse and organic sounds here. t hroughout the deep tribal of “Jus’ r ight,” the darker techno blasts of “c ounter c lock 319,” and the ’80s
John Digweed
throwback sound of “minimum 23,” the album is cohesive, experimental, decidedly expressive, and immensely enjoyable all at the same time.
– Robert LaFrance
Stan Kolev
a funky bassline, trippy vocals, anthemic keys and a massive break, this one also maintains some soul. mixes from soul a vengers and Presidential sounds offer an edge as well. a n epic, feel-good opus
“ES E ZULU”
– Shawn Christopher
u DJ Jorj u Papa t raxx t ribal drums backed up by a solid bassline and 303 rhythms are the order of the day for this new release on the Papa offshoot. t hree mixes here, though the club version stands out.
– Curtis Zack “REMEMBER THE LOVE (THE IMS ANTHEM 2008)” u Tom Middleton u io music middleton, who created this track live at the inaugural international music summit in ibiza, drops a classy, retro-house vibe here. w ith
“SOMA FUNK” u Stan Kolev u r eady mix w ith ve mixes here, make sure you check out the chunky and bouncy vibe of “Big a l’s t ech h ouse mix.” a lso, “n osmo Vs. k ris B’s intro mix” and “d J’s r emix” have smooth electro grooves, with the former dropping a sweet ambient intro. a nd the synth work on the “Yves & t ristan’s r emix” is excellent. k olev keeps up the momentum.
– Phil Turnipseed
“LIVE AND DIRECT” u Delicious & Abigail Bailey u c r 2 r ecords a rockin’ double-c d comp mixed by d anish house duo d elicious and a bigail Bailey. Both c d s are slamming with hot tracks from mark mendes’ “Beneath You,” a dam shaw’s “six d egrees” and smith & selway’s “t otal d eparture.” a nd check r ocha & Lewinger’s percolating mix of d elicious/Bailey’s own track, “Bounce.”
– Joe Bermudez
DJ Jorj
PAST PRESENT FUTURE: BEDROCK 10 u Various Artists u Bedrock r ecords f or Bedrock’s 10th anniversary, label chief John d igweed offers a deep retro-compilation that includes progressive treats like Jim r ivers’ recent hit “empathy,” moonface’s 2001 track “u g et so g ive” (2001) and, of course, Bedrock’s classic ’99 cut “h eaven scent.” h ere’s to another decade of quality.
– Joe Bermudez “DO IT LIKE THIS” u Jake Island feat. Alec Sun Drae u t oolroom Longplayer island’s sublime production fuses exquisitely with a lec sun d rae’s soothing, seductive vocals. c razy P injects their live, ultra-funky ow in the mix and sur-i-k an serves up his sophisticated blend of techy keys, deep-house vibes and groovy basslines. a lso, check island’s “d eep soul mix” for blissful grooves and atmospheric vibes.
– Shawn Christopher “HOT & COLD” u SoopaSoul u Jalapeno r ecords g et ready for a terri c skate-jammy party record. d ionne c harles’ vocals, which recall a female James Brown, fuse perfectly with the vibrant horns and funk-drenched guitar licks. Plenty of cool vibes and soul here.
– Shawn Christopher
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
“MOROCCO” u J Rogers & Rozanski u Blipswitch t his mindbender includes ethereal, sublime keys, hypnotic rhythms, warping basslines, and an infectious groove. t he k enneth scott h ashishan mix is the choice here. d eep, dark and twisted—a real corker.
– Shawn Christopher
“HABLANDO” u Vandalism u Vicious it probably doesn’t need stating, but this is Vandalism’s take on the classic r amirez track. a lthough probably not their best remix, this will still do plenty of damage when it’s released.
– Curtis Zack
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1/26/2009 5:42:34 PM
g r o o Ves
t r a c k s…miXes…c o mPiLa t io n s
Download
Corner
Abigail Bailey
Josh Wink
“FRENCH LOVE” EP u Knee Deep u k nee d eep t hree disco ed cuts here and the pick is the devilishly catchy “a ll n ight,” which makes this worth getting even without the other two tracks.
– Curtis Zack “AROUND LOVE” u Marquito u Panevino “a round Love” is quite simply a classic-sounding piece of u .s. garage, and this one won’t fail to
appeal to fans of the genre. a good vocal performance, heavenly strings and a great bassline—all the right ingredients for everyone to sing along to this.
– Curtis Zack “KINETIC”
u Golden Girls u f loorplay a t f c ’s tech-house remix of the rave-era classic gets an instant reaction with every play. in truth, it’s basically the sample dropped over house drums, but it works.
– Curtis Zack
048MR09_p001-044.indd 37
each month in this space, DJ Times digs through the virtual crates to give you a quick sample of the plethora of extraordinary tracks available exclusively on legal download—care of our favorite next-generation “record” stores (e.g. Beatport, it unes, etc). “Mojo Rojo” (Organ Dub Mix) by Hector Couto [Coraza Records]. d ark and progressive, this groover from the Boston-based label combines a bit of boom-slap from the minimal side, some subtle tribal percussion, rich organ tones and wobbly bass—the result is a truly tasty! f ound at beatport.com. “Thrapp” (Marco G vs. Amin Golestan Remix) by Paul Thomas & Funkagenda [Little Mountain Recordings]. r un for cover or dance your ass off—those are the only two options. t his is a full-on, peak-time audio assault with enormous kick rolls, pumping shuf ed synth stabs and evil bass that would scare the devil himself. f ound at djdownload.com. “Where is Neil?” (Original Mix) by Rhythm Code [Size Recordings]. steve a ngello’s label continues to explore quality underground sounds with this aggressive, techno-inspired oor ller. its dramatic break and acid-splashed buildup resolves into an addictive, pumping jam. f ound at d ancetracksd igital.com. – Robert LaFrance
“GHOST IN MY MIND” EP u Miniboy u c hakaboom a two-track tech-house stunner from the Brazilian imprint. c heck the tough synth work and deep
groove on “w eapon to d estroy,” while “g hosts in my mind” offers a chunkier, garage-house feel.
– Phil Turnipseed
1/26/2009 5:42:41 PM
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DJ TIMES
E L E F I L A
Y R A N I D SS OR
39 1/26/2009 5:43:05 PM
Profile: Miguel Migs
Profile: Russ Harris
2 of 20 Real Name: Miguel Steward Alias ( if ap p l ic ab l e) : Miguel Migs Home: San F rancisco Age: 35 Profession: All things music.
Profile: Josh Wink
1 of 20
Affiliations: Salted Music Hobby: Juggling chainsaws on V enice Beach for spare change. Last Book Read: “The Secret Life of Water” by Masaro Emoto. Last ilm een: “American Gangster” avorite uote: “Be the best person you can be, treat
Profile: Roger Sanchez
others with kindness and respect and be a creative individual with your own mind! ” (Migs)
Greatest Accomplishment: My friends and my music. Real Name: Josh Wink Alias: V ariations of Wink and some other names thrown in. Home: Philadelphia, PA. Age: 26 ; ) Profession: Producer/DJ/Owner, Ovum Recordings Hobbies: Cooking/Athletics Last Books Read: “Stealing Buddha Dinner” by Bich Minh Nguyen; “Born Standing U p: A Comic’s Life” by Steve Martin; and “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson Last Film Seen: “Z eitgeist” Favorite Quote: “I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.” Latest Accomplishment: Doing what I do! Greatest Accomplishment: S t ill doing what I do! MP3, CD, or Vinyl: All baby! However, digitally speaking...MP3 is easier to store! One Tune That Never Leaves Your Record Box: “Higher State of Consciousness” by Wink. To this day, people still want to hear me play it. My Big Musical Project For 2008 Is: Working on new WiNK LP on Ovum. F irst in a long time! Best Event/Gig Moment: In 2, my first gig outside of the , a ew ear s ve arty in music was very new for people. A great line-up and a great party.
ome when electronic dance
Worst Event/Gig Moment: Happy to say it doesn’t happen too often. But, I try not to remember them when they do. Profile: In the mid-’90s, Wink rattled off a series of global hits that are now considered club classics— “Higher State of Consciousness,” “I’m Ready” & “Don’t Laugh.” He also founded Ovum Recordings, and in the new decade he cranked out faves like “How’s Your Evening So F ar? ” and “Superfreak (F reak).” When he’s not jetting to the world’s top venues, the Philly native can be found spinning his monthly “Last Wednesday” party at cozy hometown club, F luid. I STARTED READING DJ TIMES IN: 1988! I WAS A MOBILE DJ IN THE ’80S. HAPPY IT’S STILL AROUND!
my new 8 -piece band, Petalpusher, and my upcoming album Th o se Th in g s R emix ed . I will probably also start on a new album later this year as well.
DJ Times: Fits every Profile C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
Latest Accomplishment: I’m a Daddy and soon to be Husband ! !
Best Gi Moment: Performing with my new band, Petalpusher, right after Lenny Kravitz at the Oracle event last December.
Greatest Accomplishment: My beautiful daughter Soleil Why I Do What I Do: F or The Love Of House MP
Worst Gi
Moment: Having to play super sick with a horrible stomach u in Miami in , getting some kind of shot from a nurse in the booth while I’m almost vomiting and hallucinating from the high fever I had.
ne Tune That Never Leaves My Bi
Musical Pro ect or
Profile: s a
, Migs found fame playing chilled, ali avored deep house. Later, his productions (like his Petalpusher tracks for Naked Music) became staples for global DJs who appreciated his funky, soulful grooves. Migs has also done remixes for a slew of artists (from Macy Gray to Lionel Richie) and in 2004 he founded his own imprint, Salted Music. In ’07, he released Th o se Th in g s, one of the year’s top U S electronic albums. He continues to pursue a busy international schedule.
I
TART D R ADING D
TIM
3 of 20
Home: New York Age: 4 0 Profession: DJ / Musician Affiliations: Release Yourself / Stealth / Pacha Hobby: Reading Last Book Read: “Century Rain” by Alastair Reynolds Last ilm een: I Am Legend avorite uote: “Nice to be important but much more important to be nice”
MP3, CD, or Vinyl: I’m cool with CD and vinyl. ne Tune That Never Leaves our Record Box: My Mikey Dread reggae accapellas. My Bi Musical Pro ect for Is: My label Salted Music,
Best Gi
D or
inyl: ll
are fine with me
our Record Box: “Turn On The Music” by Roger Sanchez Is: Working on a single for Billie Ray Martin and my new album.
Moment: Release Yourself @
Pacha, Ibiza
Profile: Just another mobile DJ from Queens who found astronomical success? Hardly. Before he gained the glory afforded by a Grammy Award (for his remix of No Doubt’s “Hella Good”) or a long-running Ibiza residency (Release Yourself at acha , the ominican merican producer was inspired by s deep house music tradition. is first club hit, s uv ancin , set him on the path and his international pop smash, 200 s nother hance, solidified his status as one of our greatest global DJ/producers.
IN:
I
TART D R ADING D
TIM
in:
Latest Accomplishment: Releasing my debut album E ar Th erap y this past year. Greatest Accomplishment: Hitting # 5 on B il l b o ard’ s Club Dance Chart last year with “Drums In The Club”. Why I Do What I Do: I’m always picking music apart and tell myself “I can do that”. I love the creative process of starting out with an idea, forming it & molding it & tweaking it on a computer & keyboard, & then having a crowd rock out to it. There’s nothing more satisfying. This Tune Never Leaves My Record Box: “Z ombie Nation” by Kernkraft 4 00. Best Event/Gig Moment: Getting to take pictures & sign autographs after my set like a superstar at my first record release party. Worst Event/Gig Moment: Playing at a wedding during a heat wave in a un-air conditioned hall and moving my sound and light system outside & inside of the hall trying to beat the heat only to have the air conditioning fi ed later on. Profile: As one of the Midwest’s more successful mobile operators, DJ Russ Harris and his Show on the Road Productions have kept Chicagoland parties hopping since 198 8 . In recent years, Harris began to create special remixes and mash-ups for his company’s events and he later parlayed that studio experience into an artist career. I STARTED READING DJ TIMES IN: 1995
DJ Times: Fits every Profile
DJ Times: Fits every Profile
4 of 20
Name: Russ Harris Home: Chicago / Aurora, IL Age: 35 Profession: Owner, Show On The Road Productions; DJ / Artist / Remixer / Producer Hobby: Stephen King collector Last Book Read: “ H arry P o t t er an d Th e Deat h ly H allo w s” Last Film Seen: “No Country F or Old Men”
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
DJ Times: Fits every Profile C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
Profile: Andrew Grant
Profile: DJ Dan
Profession: Dreamer; Resident DJ, Circoloco @ DC10, Ibiza, Spain. Affiliations: Circoloco, Religio.Audio, Barraca Music. Hobby: Searching for people looking to get rid of old records. Last Book Read: “ How To Install Your M-Audio Oxygen8 v2 MIDI Controller” Last ilm een: John Waters’ “Cecil B. Demented”
Profile: Colette 4 of 20 Real Name: Colette Marino Home: Los Angeles, CA
Alias: DJ Colette
Age: 32 Profession: DJ/V ocalist
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS
Hobby: Cooking. I’ve become somewhat of a foodie in the past two years. Last Book Read: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire Last Film Seen: Wristcutters Claim To Fame: Singing live while deejaying, one of the founding members of the Superjane collective. Latest Accomplishment: My second artist album, “PU SH” on OM Records
Real Name: Daniel Wherrett Alias: DJ Dan H o me: Los Angeles Age: Timeless Profession: International Partier of Mystery
Greatest Accomplishment: I put together a band last year with three of my writing partners. We’ve been working on music for the last eight years and to be able to perform on stage together has been incredible. I ve always wanted to be in a band and to finally have that experience is thrilling and frightening all at the same time.
Affiliations: InStereo Recordings/AM Only/The Ascot Club Hobby: Over-the-top theme parties at my house Last Book Read: “The Power of laim To ame: Being Intention” by Wayne W. Dyer Last ilm een: “Juno” one of the first est oast s to travel internationally, spawning the fusion of funky house and breaks. avorite uote: our playing small does not serve the world.
Why I Do What I Do: Music is my greatest addiction. I’ve been enthralled with music since the age of three and thirty years later I can’t picture myself doing anything else. One Tune That Never Leaves My Record Box: “What Will She Do F or Love” is probably the only track of mine that I have performed at every single show. It’s one of my favorite songs to sing and is usually my most req uested track to play. I’m doing a bigger band
tour this year.
Best Party Moment: Coachella 2006 . I’ve always been a huge fan of this festival and having the opportunity to be a part of it was phenomenal. Worst Party Moment: I played a rave in Detroit and 30 police officers in riot gear stormed the booth and yelled at me to shut the music off. efinitely not a fun way to end a party. Profile: A founding member of the female DJ collective SuperJane, Colette has toured the world as a singing DJ and scored chart-topping hits (like “What Will She Do F or Love”) and best-selling albums (“Push” and “Hypnotized”). Her music has been licensed for national ad campaigns Motorola and film pro ects The evil ears rada .
I STARTED READING DJ TIMES IN: 1994
Latest Accomplishment: tarting production on my first artist album, and being able to work with so many other talented producers Greatest Accomplishment: Becoming one of the top DJs in the world and re launching my record label, In tereo . Why I Do What I Do: I’ve loved music since I was born and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I still have the same fiery obsession to put music together, create energy, and see it light people up on the dance oor. MP D or inyl: files on and erato ne Tune That Never Leaves our Record Box: isco Muff by The irt iggers. My Bi Musical Pro ects or Are: side from releasing new tracks on my In tereo label and my artist album, I m launching the label s podcast by re releasing some of my old classic mi tapes. Best Gi Moment: The unky Tekno Tribe reunion party at The ndup in an rancisco this past ew ears ay. I wasn t originally on the line up, but when I went on at around a.m., I surprised the crowd and it was ama ing I had never played at The ndup before and had always wanted to getting to do it with the unky Tekno Tribe crew made it e tra special. Worst Gi Moment: rriving at consecutive gigs in ene uela and Me ico ity that were shut down by police, ying on very little sleep, and then being stranded at the hotel in Me ico ity by the promoters with no transportation, no e planation, and no pay. Then arriving back home and getting tons of angry emails from fans in ene uela and Me ico saying that they d heard that I d refused to play.
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
Profile: DJ Rekha 11 of 20
8 of 20
Profile: Jody Amos
Name: Mike Walter Alias: None— I was never that cool. Name Of Your Company: Elite Entertainment Home: Originally Queens, N.Y., been in New Jersey since ’8 8 . Age: (Gulp) 4 1
Real Name: Rekha Malhotra Alias: DJ Rekha Home: London, U .K./Westbury, Long Island, but currently Brooklyn, N.Y. Age: 37 Profession: DJ/Cultural Instigator/Chief Rocker of Sangament, Inc. Hobby: Being Punjabi, Cooking Last Book Read: “The Importance of Music to Girls” by Lavinia Greenlaw Last Film Seen: “Persepolis”
10 of 20
Profession: Mobile disc jockey, business owner. Hobbies: Writing, reading, movies, traveling. Last Book Read: “ Before I Get Old: A History of The Who” by Dave Marsh Last Film Seen: “ Sweeney Todd” L atest A c c o mp l ish ment: My DV D entitled, Train in g Y o u r N ex t G reat DJ. Greatest Accomplishment: Building Elite Entertainment to where we are— over 1,200 gigs a year and a strong enough reputation to make all the “Best Of” lists every year.
I Started Reading DJ Times In: 88. My first ob in the Mobile DJ Industry was working for John Murphy at Star DJ’s. He started getting the magazine right away and it was always around the office.
DJ Times: Fits every Profile
20
9 of 20
Profile: One of America’s more successful mobile operators, Walter has become the permanent host of the International DJ Expo’s prestigious “DJ of the Year Awards,” which bestows honors to mobiles in a variety of categories. His upbeat demeanor, can-do attitude and MC abilities help make the show an annual success.
I tarted Readin D Times In: the issue ith Armand an elden on the cover
DJ TIM E S IN : 1 9 9 5
Profile: Three
Why I Do What I Do: On the business side, I really enjoy teaching people how to DJ and watching them grow as entertainers. On the performance side, I still enjoy doing events and getting the accolades that go along with them. One Tune That Never Fails To Get The Party Started and Why: “Jump Around” by House Of Pain Best Event/Gig Moment: Every year, doing the “DJ of the Year” competition in Atlantic City during the International po. It s such a high profile, high pressure event and, on top of that, my parents are always there, which only adds to it. Worst Event/Gig Moment: Doing my monthly “networking” event on September 13, 2001.
Profile: It’s a long way from Baltimore to Ibiza, but Andrew Grant has completed the route. Beginning as a party DJ in his hometown, Grant became inspired by the DJs playing New York’s Twilo club and bought a one-way ticket to the Spanish party island with nothing but his records and an armful of mixtapes. It certainly worked out. Seven years on, he s still a resident at ircoloco at 0, the island s top afterhours event and one of the world s most in uential parties. The Lesson: Hold on tight to your dreams, DJs.
DJ Times: Fits every Profile TI
Profile: Mike Walter
Latest Accomplishment: A&R Manager for Barraca Music, a new music label offshoot of the club in V alencia, Spain. Greatest Accomplishment: nly missing one ight this year. ne Tune That Never Leaves our Record Box: “The Bells” by Jeff Mills MP D or inyl: Play more vinyl! Best Party Moment: Playing after Norman “F atboy Slim” Cook on the infamous DC10 terrace. Worst Party Moment: Arriving at a snowy warehouse party in orth arolina after driving five hours, only to find 8 0 people and a generator to power the eq uipment, circa 1994 .
Profile: s one of the first indigenous est oast s to break out from the acific Time one, an s been called The eople s and merica s ardest orking . ver the years, he s been a member of the legendary unky Tekno Tribe and his productions like eedle amage The ipper Track , oose aboose and The hone Track have lit up clubs and the rave circuit alike.
I STA RTE D RE A DIN G
DJ Times: Fits every Profile
Name: Jody Amos
Claim To Fame: Bringing Bhangra to the masses Latest Accomplishment: Making Italian meatballs with homemade sauce. Greatest Accomplishment: Getting a picture in the N ew Y o rk Times of my mom dancing.
Age: 35 Profession: Owner of a San F rancisco Bay Area
Why I Do What I Do: F ree drinks One Tune That Never Leaves Your Record Box: “Real Love” by Mary J. Blige
Home: Livermore, Calif.
mobile-DJ company with over 20 DJs. M y C o mp any : Amos Productions Hobby: Motorcycle riding
My Big Musical Project for 2008-09 Is: Ableton Live + Bollywood Remixes + Bhangra Mash-ups + Importing everything into Serato
Last Book Read: “What To Expect When Your Wife
Best Party Moment: Basement Bhangra 10th Anniversary at Hammerstein Ballroom
Is Expanding” by Cader Books & Thomas Hill. My wife recently had our first child.
Last Film Seen: “I Am Legend” Favorite Quote: onfidence The feeling you have
Worst Party Moment: Anytime there is a power failure during a gig
just before you fully comprehend the situation.”
Profile: F or more than a decade, Ms. Malhotra
Latest Accomplishment: The Knot’s Pick – Best Greatest Accomplishment: My company in
general. I never thought I would be able to do this as a full-time career and be successful at it.
Why I Do What I Do: Cheerleaders. Back in 198 7
a few cheerleaders asked me to play the music for them at my high school’s football and basketball games. After graduating, I bought my own gear and started my own business. If it wasn’t for the cheerleaders, I probably wouldn’t be doing any of this today.
Affiliations: Hallucination Limited (label), Three A.M., Second-Hand Satellites Hobby: Music, people and travel. Last Book Read: “The Alchemist” by Paolo Coelho Last ilm een: “Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner”
MP3, CD, or Vinyl: MP3s with Serato Scratch LIV E. One Song That Never Leaves Your Record Box: “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” by Michael
Latest Accomplishment: F inally launching the Hallucination Recordings & allucination imited back catalogs digitally via eatport and finishing my Theme rom Madchester single. Greatest Accomplishment: Respect from my peers.
Jackson
I STA RTE D RE A DIN G
I STARTED READING DJ TIMES IN: 1993.
Best Event/Gig Moment: I recently produced a
Why I Do What I Do: This path chose me as much as I chose it, but I simply can’t stop chasing the feeling I get when it all comes together in real time... the music, people and atmosphere. ne Tune That Never Leaves our Record Box: “Outta Limits” by Mission Control Best Party Moment: My first time playing at Twilo in as my e periences in that room in the early 0s when it was Sound F actory with Junior V asq uez were huge for me... or playing for Wicked Crew at Townsend (RIP) in San F rancisco 2002. Worst Party Moment: ot so much a party moment, but I finished ing a party in Miami and went straight to the airport to y to Tampa, la. I fell straight asleep, slept through the landing ... and woke up mid ight to ew rleans bviously, this was well before .
DJ Times: Fits every Profile
has run Basement Bhangra, one of New York City’s most successful parties and, in doing so, has become one of our great musical ambassadors. Her 2007 CD, DJ R ek h a P resen t s B asemen t B h an g ra, offers a tasty sampling of the event, which merges traditional Bhangra music of South Asia and hip-hop beats of today. In 2000, Rekha founded Sangament sangam is indi for con uence a place where two rivers ow together , a production company that provides music consulting services and produces live events like Basement Bhangra and Bollywood Disco.
of Weddings 2007 – Best DJ Company in Northern California
Real Name: Christopher Milo Alias: Three Home: New York City Age: Too young to know better... Profession: Purveyor of the recorded arts.
Profile: staple of lorida s nascent electronic scene, along with abbit in the Moon and others, Three s remi ing skills have earned him respect far beyond the Sunshine State. His genre-bending passion for cutting-edge music spans house, techno and all things beyond. Currently opening for Sasha’s latest “Involver” tour, Three has enjoyed his jaunts around the world from Argentina to Japan— but his ongoing Snatch residency in Tampa may be American dance music’s best kept secret. DJ TIM E S IN :
local awards show and after-party. My crew and I did the all the production staging, props, dance oor, large video screens, live cameras and all DMX programming for the table lighting, dance oor lighting, and accent lighting. My team also coordinated the “red carpet” pre-show interviews with the guests, which were then played live inside the event. The event all came together perfectly. The energy level was so high that the dance oor was packed all night long. To produce an event at this level and have everything go awless was uite an achievement for me. Worst Event/Gig Moment: Doing an outdoor wedding at a local winery and a fight broke out among some drunken guests. One of them took off in a hurry in his car and hit a power line which blacked out the winery and the entire city block. Game over. I’ v e B een Reading DJ Times Sinc e: 1993. I used to go to Tower Records every month to buy one.
2.
DJ Times: Fits every Profile C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
DJ Times: Fits every Profile
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
DJ Times: Fits every Profile
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
Profile: Quentin Harris Real Name: Quentin Harris Home: Detroit/New York City Age: What’s That?
12 of 20
Profession: Musician, Producer, DJ – in that order. Affiliations: Club Shelter, Kiss My Black Ass, King Street, Strictly Rhythm
Profile: Joe Bermudez
Hobby: Cooking Last Book Read: “This
Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” by Daniel J. Levitin. Last ilm loverfield avorite uote: “All music is relative and comes from the same source”— Quentin Harris.
Hilary Duff’s new Best-Of CD.
Greatest Accomplishment:
Getting to do what I love for a living.
I’VE BEEN READING DJ TIMES SINCE: 1999.
Greatest Accomplishment: Working with a lot of great artists and musicians that I have grown up listening to and admiring. Why I Do What I Do: A girl came up to me and told me a song that I made stopped her from committing suicide, which lets me know that music can really heal and help people. MP D or inyl: All three. You have to use the tools given to you. ne Tune That Never Leaves our Record Box: “Hate Won’t Change Me” by Byron Stingily Musical Pro ect or
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
13 of 20
Real Name: Joe Bermudez Home: Boston, Mass. Age: 32 Profession: DJ/Producer Affiliation(s): Sirius XM Satellite Radio Hobby: Hanging out with really, really hot chicks. Last Book Read: “Highway to Hell: The Life & Times of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott” by Clinton Walker Last Film Seen: “Quantum of Solace” staring Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. Latest Accomplishment: Having a track (“Holiday”) on
Seen:
My Bi
7 of 20
Name: Andrew Grant Home: 2 bedroom, 1 bath, terrace apartment in Ibiza, Spain, from which I fell from last year. Age: F orgot due to concussion caused by fall from aforementioned terrace.
6 of 20
DJ Times: Fits every Profile
Is:
A concept album that will bring people together through music. Best vent Gi Moment: Avalon in NYC in which I DJed and played live keyboards while vocalists U ltra Naté , Jason Walker, Ari Gold & Colton F ord sang on the mic. It was a very magical night. Worst vent Gi Moment: Playing a party where I had no business being booked and finding out later that the promoter ust goes online to find the hottest DJs and books them so he can have a great resume as a promoter, regardless of whether or not what they play is suitable for the party.
Profile: A former R&B session musician who’s recorded with the likes of Aretha F ranklin (on trumpet), the Detroit native is now one of America’s most popular deep-house talents. In addition to gaining status as a global DJ, Harris has become the go-to guy for soulful remix work. He’s re-rubbed cuts from pop stars like Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, and Alicia Keys, plus he s done definitive mi es for club artists like King Street labelmate Dennis F errer (“Touched the Sky”). Whether it’s Tenaglia, Krivit or Morales, if a house DJ wants to go deep, he knows he can call on Quentin Harris for q uality.
I
D
B N R ADING TIM IN :
Why I Do What I Do: I have a real passion for music and there is no better feeling that to share that excitement with as many people as possible. One Tune That Never Leaves My Record Box: This past year, it has definitely been “Baditude” by Spoon, Harris and Obernick. Best Party Moment: My 27th birthday party in Mexico City. The 2,000+ people in attendance all sang “Happy Birthday” to me in Spanish. I didn’t understand a single word, but thought it was the coolest thing ever. Worst Party Moment: I played in Miami once when the fire alarm kept going off at the club. Each time this would kill the power to the DJ booth making for a very long and frustrating night. Profile: Beginning as a young club jock in Maine, Bermudez worked his way up the industry ladder to global-DJ status. A longtime music reviewer for DJ Times, Bermudez took his talents to New England radio and gradually began to turn out remixes for a variety of artists (Kelly Clarkson, Justice, Hillary Duff). Eventually, he made the move to satellite radio and saw his profile rise. In 2008, he finished in the Top 20 of DJ Times’ America’s Best DJ poll, showing that his immediate future looks bright. I Started Reading DJ Times In: 1999.
DJ Times: Fits every Profile C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
DJ Times: Fits every Profile C E L E B R AT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S
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C o mp il ed A s O f Janu ary 1 9 , 2 0 0 9
National Crossover Pool Chart 1 2 3 4 5 6
7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 4 0
Pussycat Dolls Madonna Kreesha Turner India Mariah Carey Janice Grace Leann Rimes Cascada Killers Britney Spears Alyson Darude Nikka Costa Annagrace Robyn Lady Gaga Luvndreams Lasgo V elvet The V eronicas Kim Leoni Weezer Lady Gaga Dj Rad F / Z oe Groove State Room F or Two Enriq ue Iglesias Carla Prather W/ Jer Groove Enforcers F / Lula Beyonce Judy Torres Joseph Trip Thottle Pepper Mashay Dynamic Destony Sir Ivan Alanis Morissette F illy Pearl F uture
I Hate This Part Miles Away Don’t Call Me Baby Can’t Get No Sleep I Stay In Love Wanna Be Beautiful What I Cannot Change F aded Human Womanizer Adios Barcelona I Ran Stuck To You You Make Me F eel Cobrastyle Poker F ace (remix) Heaven Can Wait Out Of My Mind Chemistry U ntouched Rmxs Medicine Troublemaker Just Dance Remixs 2 Sweet Serenityjust Get Sexy Re-mixes Roots Before Branches Away I Am A Little Closer 2008 Last Night A DJ... Single Ladies Hell No Your Love Still Haunts Me Drop Z one Does Your Mamma Know My Angel F or What It’s Worth Rmx Not As We Sweat It’s Bad
National Urban Pool Chart
Interscope Warner Brothers Capitol Angel Eyes Island Jaguar Curb Robbins Island Jive PM Media Robbins Stax Records Robbins Interscope Interscope TC Robbins Robbins Warner Brothers Robbins DGC Interscope ISV Play Lab Warner Brothers Interscope F orever Soul ISV Kult Columbia Contagious Koch EsNtion Silver F reckle Bandit Dynamic Peaceman Warner Brothers Robbins Cream
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 4 0
Beyonce Dolla T-Pain F / Ludacris 5 0 Cent Jim Jones & R. Brown T-Pain Akon F / Lil’ Wayne Kanye West Ludacris F t. T-pain Busta Rhymes John Legend Keyshia Cole Jazmine Sullivan Big Boi F / MJB Nina Sky F / Rick Ros Jane Three Mafia Ciara F / T-Pain Game Brothas Lee Carr Kam Kutta Neyo Britney Spears Ron Brownz Sam Gotti Kc Jockey Bun-B Richgirl Busy Signal Recca & Tic Toc Yung F razier Golden Chyl Lockwise MIA Mic Boogie Jason Derulo E-4 0 Z -RO Mariah Carey Beast The Rev.
Most Added Tracks 1 2 3
Mariah Carey Nouveau Riche Enriq ue Iglesias 4 Killers 5 Jacinta 6 Lady Gaga 7 Madonna 8 Lasgo 9 Sasha 10 Pussycat Dolls
I Stay In Love Stay Away Human Electric U niverse Poker F ace (remix) Miles Away Out Of My Mind Let’s F ly Away (remix) I Hate This Part
Single Ladies Make A Toast Chopped ‘ N’ Screwed Get U p Pop Champagne F reeze I’m So Paid Heartless One More Drink Arab Money Green Light Playa Cardz Right Bust Your Windows Sumthin’s Gotta Give Curtain Call Screensaver That s ight Go Girl We Tha Game Brothas Breathe I’m A Winner Miss Independant Circus Jumpin’ Out The Window I’m A Rap Star Rub Your Body You’re Everything 24 s Tic Toc Go Hard Call On Me Don’t Hesitate Wise U p V ol 1 Paper Planes Everbody’s Doin’ It Algebra The Recipe Crack I Stay In Love Haters Ain’t Sayin’...
Columbia Jive Jive Interscope Def Jam Jive Interscope Def Jam Def Jam U niversal Columbia Columbia J Records LaF ace J Records Jive olumbia LaF ace Big Rich Jive Blank Disk Def Jam Jive U niversal Make Sweet Sadies Rap-a-lot Jive Interscope Big Rich Coastal Down Stairs Lockwise Interscope Costa F uture History Warner Brothers Rap-a-lot Island Southpaw
Most Added Tracks Island ISV Interscope Island Chunky Interscope Warner Brothers Robbins Ladybug Darling Interscope
1 2 3
Britney Spears Soul:ID Jay Rock F /Lil Wayne 4 E-4 0 5 Dolla 6 Kevin Rudolph 7 Jazmine Sullivan 8 Busy Signal 9 Richgirl 10 Recca & Tic Toc
Circus Believe All My Life The Recipe Make A Toast Let It Rock Lions, Tigers & Bears Tic Toc 24 s Go Hard
Jive Abb Warner Brothers Warner Brothers Jive U nited J Records Interscope Jive Big Rich
Reporting Pools ✦ Lets Dance / IRS - Chicago, IL; Lorri Annarella ✦ OMAP - Washington, DC; Al Chasen ✦ Central Ohio - Columbus, OH; F red Dowdy ✦ NW Dance Music - Seattle, WA; John England ✦ Philly Spinners Assoc. - Cherry Hill, NJ; F red Kolet ✦ New York Music Pool - Levittown, NY; Jackie McCloy ✦ Dixie Dance Kings - Alpharetta, GA; Dan Miller ✦ Hawaii DJ Association R - Honolulu, HI; Kevin Okada ✦ Rickett’s Record Pool - Saddle Brook, NJ; Bill Rickett ✦
acific
oast
ong each,
teve Tsepelis
Looking for these titles? You can hear them and buy them at www.dancekings.com. Just click on the links in the chart. ''. KDV OLPLWHG PHPEHUVKLSV DYDLODEOH IRU TXDOL¿HG '-V LQ WKH 86 :H VHUYLFH &'V DQG 03 V LQ GDQFH DQG XUEDQ IRUPDWV )HHGEDFN DQG PHPEHUVKLS GXHV UHTXLUHG
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Josh w ink
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a lot of vinyl and i get a lot of vinyl as promotion, and i put everything to c d . something that makes a d J stand apart nowadays is the ability to play and buy vinyl, because there’s a lot that isn’t out there digitally. i mean, shit, i run a record company! Luckily, we still sell a lot of vinyl. DJ Times: d o you still go to d J shops and retail outlets? it’s been a tough time for them and distributors. Wink: i love the aspect of the electronic community, of being social and hanging out in a record store. i love to hang out with the owner and share with other d Js. w hen i travel the world, i look forward to doing this. w hen i travel, i try to make time to go to record shops for vinyl or c d s. a d J nowadays has a couple of choices: he can buy the same music everybody has available online, or he can also go out and buy music that is more limited. i love doing both. some of these records i buy or get via promo aren’t available online, at least for a while. w e’re seeing our numbers on o vum go up, digitally. it’s expensive to press a vinyl—petroleum has gone up in price. d istributors are going out of business and owing us thousands of dollars and we can’t claim that money back. r ight now, i’ve been d Jing solely with c d s, a sampler and an effects unit. DJ Times: w hat’s your take on the relevance of the d J, looking towards the future? Wink: my colleagues and i talk about the whole aspect of programs that allow people to match beats. t raktor s cratch has this beat-sync function, as does a bleton Live. t here are more people who are d Jing.w hen i started, being a d J wasn’t the cool or hip thing. n ow, it’s a cool or hip
thing and a way to get champagne or girls or whatever. i think there are a lot of people who’ve started hobbying with d Jing again, whereas for a time that had stopped. n ow, people can go online and buy music responsibly through digital record stores. i think d Jing will still be around and do its job. DJ Times: h ow do you maintain your underground cred, as a d J? Wink: t here’s always a ght in the industry about what’s underground versus what’s commercial. i don’t like to argue this because you can play the cheesiest track in a big venue and you can play the same track in the most raw, underground club and it’ll still work because it’s subjective. n ow also is the aspect of programs that’ll mix for the d J. d Js like r ichie h awtin and c hris Liebing have given up controllers for computers that can beat match for them. imagine taking the beat-matching aspect away and allowing their time to be focused on programming and doing other things like looping or bringing more production through their computers. it’s like playing with four digital turntables instead of two. You may have a loop of d aft Punk on one turntable and three other turntables doing other things. t hat, to me, is cool. a d J needs to entertain, but a d J also needs to know how to program. a nybody can buy a computer program and the top 10 songs online and go out and rock a party, but who knows if that d J will stay around? DJ Times: You travel the world and see those clubs, but what are your impressions of the a merican scene? Wink: in a merica, we want bottle service and to hear hip hop, the hits, the party. t he whole thing is mash-ups and it all becomes this party kinda thing. i like the fact that people go out and do their homework and learn about all
kinds of music. i listen to a lot of mash-up d Js and it seems like all they’re trying to do is out-wow everybody. f or me, that doesn’t work. t he clientele that goes out in Vegas to hear mash-ups wanna hear every chorus of every song, but then get bored after two minutes. a t times, i really wish i had a bout of amnesia where i could listen to music as i heard it for the rst time. i don’t listen to music like that because i’ve spent my whole life in the music business and i have opinions and views and history about everything. i wish i could listen to music in that innocent way, again, to listen with innocent ears and without being judgmental. n
mixers
(continued from page 19)
the t orq Xponent. w ell-suited to work with digital systems like ma udio’s t orq, each unit offers tactile control, an integrated u s B audio interface and intuitive mid i-learn capabilities. Longtime supplier Numark Industries recently released 13 units from three different mixer ranges. including the c 1, c 2, c 3, c 3f X and c 3u sB models, the feature- lled c series is geared for clubs or mobiles preferring a standard, 19-inch rackmount setup. t he m-series includes five tabletop scratch units—the m1, m1 u s B, m2, m3 and m4. t he X-series has three all-digital tabletop scratch units—the X1u sB, X6 and X9. Pioneer Pro DJ’s most recent releases include the revolutionary s Vm-1000 audio/video mixer and the d Jm-700, a slightly scaled-down version of its feature-loaded d Jm-
800. n onetheless, the d Jm-700 offers 49 fully assignable mid i points, 13 effects and, according to Pioneer, it has the “world’s rst effect frequency lter,” a feature which allows d Js to limit the frequency bands subjected to effects. Rane C orp. has upgraded its t t m-56 mixer, which now includes universal internal power supply, four phono/line switchable inputs, ¼-inch and 3.5-mm headphone jacks and new kill switches. t he company also offers its mP4 compact rackmount mixer and the t t m 57sL for integration with serato scratch LiVe software. Stanton’s range of mixers includes: the r m s eries (rackmount units r m.406, r m.404, r m.402); the m series (tabletop units m.304, m.303, m.212, m.202, m.201); the s a s eries (scratch units s a .5 and s a .3); and the smX series (compact rack units smX.211, smX.202 and smX.201). Technics, best-known for its legendary turntables, offers a pair of mixers: the 2-channel s h -eX1200 and the more robust s h -mZ1200, a 4-channel unit that offers send/return effects loop, and 3-band eQs on each channel. UREI by Soundcraft has ve models including the 7-channel 1605, the 4-channel 1603 and the 2-channel 1601, a battle mixer with 3-band eQ on both channels and a comprehensive a ux/f X section. d istributed s tateside by a merican music & s ound, Japan’s Vestax has made products for all performers, from battle jocks to digital d Js. its recent Pmc 580Pro allows d Js to control six separate effects and different parameters at the same time and comes with u sB connection and sPd if digital io . Vestax’s Pmc -05Pro3 d X allows d Js to work with software via audio interface. n
CL: Trance’s Jolly Swagman?
DJ TIMES MARCH 2009
… which is kinda ironic now…
In 2008, I was voted America’s Best DJ …
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…because I’ve moved to Australia. c hristopher Lawrence, next month in d J t imes
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