AMERICA’S FIRST MAGAZINE FOR PROFESSIONAL DJs ESTABLISHED 1988 JUNE 2012
$6.95 CANADA $4.95 US
AMERICA’S BEST DJ 2011
TAKES HIS MUSIC TO THE PEOPLE
MIAMI MUSIC WEEK VISIONS OF ULTRA FEST & MORE
HOW BUSINESS GURUS HELP MOBILES PLUS:
CHUCKIE * MAYA JANE COLES SOCIAL-MEDIA TIPS * HERCULES’ PRO DJ KIT TEENAGE ENGINEERING OP-I SYNTH
INDUSTRY EVENTS…NOTABLES…MILESTONES
NEWS
DJ TIMES
JUNE 2012
AMERICA’S BEST DJ TO LAUNCH AT MOVEMENT FEST
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By Jim Tremayne Detroit—After a 2011 event that drew nearly 100,000 fans, Motown’s Movement festival will fill Hart Plaza again this Memorial Day weekend. Some of the world’s top DJs and electronic acts will perform on the festival’s five downtown Detroit stages that sit in the large shadow of the GM Renaissance Center and on the breezy banks of the Detroit River. Additionally, a slew of intriguing afterhours events are slated, including the Royale Voyage IV boat party featuring Danny Tenaglia on May 27. Movement is produced by Paxahau Event Productions. Set for May 26-28, Movement also will serve as the launch event for the America’s Best DJ promotion and its Summer Tour. Presented by title sponsor Pioneer DJ and DJ Times, the 20-event summer tour will support an online vote that will ultimately answer the eternal question: Who’s America’s Best DJ? (To vote and see the latest tour details, please visit www.AmericasBestDJ.net.) At Movement and other tour events—like Baltimore’s Starscape Festival on June 9, Upstate New York’s Camp Bisco on July 12-14, and a variety of major club gigs—DJ Times will maintain a dedicated America’s Best DJ exhibition booth and collect paper-ballot votes from fans supporting their favorite U.S.-based DJs. Both the voting and tour will run from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and the America’s Best DJ award show/ closing party will take place October 7 at Marquee Nightclub in Las Vegas. Fans who vote (in-person and online) and fans who keep up with America’s Best DJ on Facebook and Twitter can win a slew of product prizes from Pioneer DJ. Additionally, one lucky voter will win a trip for two to the Las Vegas award show/ closing party. Vote ABDJ and win. Visit ABDJ social media and win. Out of the 100 U.S.-based jocks nominated for the America’s Best DJ title, several will perform at Movement. They include Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Claude VonStroke, Derrick Carter, Dillon Francis, DJ Godfather, Josh Wink, Diplo (playing with Major Lazer), Mark Farina, and Stacey Pullen. In addition to Lil’ Louis, Public Enemy and Jeff Mills, Mainstage headliners featured at Movement include Carl Craig, DJ Sneak, Josh Wink, Kevin Saunderson, Marco Carola, Loco
Jazzy Jeff Returns to DJ Expo
Atlantic City, N.J.—The DJ Expo stands perched on the horizon and the stars are beginning to line up. Set for Aug. 13-16 at
Mainstage DJ: Claude VonStroke
Big Time: Motown’s Movement.
Dice, and Chris Liebing. Other notable DJ/artists at Movement include Richie Hawtin, Mr. C, Roni Size, Seth Troxler B2B Guy Gerber, Photek, Wolf + Lamb, and MK. Also, several ABDJ nominees will perform at Starscape’s four stages. They include Wolfgang Gartner, Kill the Noise, DJ Dan, Donald Glaude, Tittsworth, Dillon Francis and Dieselboy (playing a B2B set with Bare). The 2011 America’s Best DJ vote was the closest in its six-year history. Eventual winner, Kaskade edged a diverse group of top jocks that included Skrillex, Z-Trip, BT, Steve Aoki, Diplo, Wolfgang Gartner, A-Trak and Bassnectar. At promotion’s end, Kaskade was flown to Las Vegas and presented with a gold-plated Pioneer DJM-800 mixer from Davey Dave Arevalo, Pioneer’s Sr. Manager/Marketing Artist Relations. Afterward, he rocked a packed crowd at Marquee Nightclub, basking in the glory of being voted America’s Best DJ. Who will it be this year?
The Trump Taj Mahal, DJ Expo will offer exhibits, seminars and evening events, including a special after-hours party featuring DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Skribble (sponsored by PimpMyTurntables.com). For more on DJ Expo, please visit www.thedjexpo.com.
VOLUME 25 NUMBER 6
12 America’s Best DJ
After Earning the 2011 ABDJ Crown, Kaskade Prepares to Take His Music to the People with the “Freaks of Nature” Tour BY EMILY TAN
18 Who’s Your Guru?
How Does the Professional Wisdom of Business Gurus Help Mobile Entertainers & Their Bottom Lines? BY JEFF STILES
20 Miami Music Week
A Look Back in Pictures—Ultra Music Festival & More BY DJ TIMES PHOTOGRAPHERS
DEPARTMENTS 7 Feedback
As Always, the Answers to All Your DJ-Related Questions
24 Making Tracks
Teenage Engineering’s OP-1
26 Sounding Off
Hercules Pro DJ Kit
28 Mobile Profile
New Jersey’s DJ Iron Mike
30 Business Line
Taking Advantage of Social-Media Conversations
32 Gear
New Products from Rane, American DJ & More
38 Grooves
Phat Tracks from Joey Negro, Guy Gerber & More
40 DJ Times Marketplace
Shop Here for All Your DJ-Related Supplies
41 Club Play Chart
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SAMPLINGS 8 Chuckie
Global Appeal
10 In the Studio With…
Maya Jane Coles
JUNE 2012
The Hottest Records, As Reported by Our Top U.S. Record Pools
DJ TIMES
DJ TIMES
JUNE 2012
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FROM THE EDITOR
As the weather turns a little warmer, plenty of people seek a variety of seasonal activities— spring cleaning, baseball games, road trips. Over here at DJ Times, we definitely do the baseball, but mostly, springtime means two things: 1) preparation for DJ Expo, and 2) the launch of our annual America’s Best DJ promotion. First up, DJ Expo—set for Aug. 13-16 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J.—promises four huge days for our market and culture. Exhibits, seminars, parties and valuable networking opportunities provide DJ/attendees with a full schedule of enriching activities. In fact, we just confirmed a terrific after-hours party featuring legendary jocks DJ Jazzy Jeff and Skribble. We hope to see you there—for more info, please visit www.djexpo.com. On to America’s Best DJ and its Summer Tour Presented by Pioneer DJ & DJ Times. Look for more new ABDJ nominees than we’ve previously seen, plus a schedule of tour events that’ll include choice club dates and major festival outings. Running from Memorial Day to Labor Day, ABDJ voting will be conducted online and at the 20-plus summer events. Additionally, Pioneer DJ and DJ Times will give away more prizes than ever. Including a trip for two to the ABDJ Closing Party/Award Ceremony at Marquee nightclub in Las Vegas, prizes will include monthly giveaways via DJ Times’ social media sites (Facebook, Twitter). If you “Like” us on Facebook or “Follow” us on Twitter, you’ll become eligible to win gear from Pioneer DJ and free subscriptions from DJ Times. Speaking of ABDJ, this month’s cover boy is Kaskade—aka Ryan Raddon aka America’s Best DJ 2011. In previous interviews with us, Kaskade detailed his background and his determined rise up the DJ ranks. Now that he’s taken the ABDJ title and earned spots at high-profile festivals (like Electric Daisy Circus) and club residencies (like Marquee), Kaskade looks over the broadening EDM landscape and explains to our Emily Tan how he maintains his focus and energies. Thanks, Ryan, and keep up the good work. Thanks to a crew of terrific photographers—Nicole Cussell, Declan O’Driscoll, Justin JarchowMisch and Seth Browarnik—we’re able to give you a four-page spread of images from Miami Music Week, including Ultra Music Festival. We hope you enjoy the scenery. In Samplings, our Justin Hampton connects with youthful U.K. jock Maya Jane Coles, whose new DJ-Kicks mix comp has been gaining plenty of notice. Additionally, our Boston duo of Joe Bermudez and Angela Bray caught up with Chuckie as he hit Beantown. The Dirty Dutch DJ dishes on his hip-hop background and how he sees its future as a fusion with house music. From the mobile world, we visit with New Jersey’s DJ Iron Mike Bacon, who pursued a career path that he seemed to have mapped out from his days as an MTV-watching youth. In his monthly feature slot, our Iowa-based scribe Jeff Stiles asks top mobile entertainers: Which “business gurus” do you find the most inspiring? Also in Business Line, we offer more tips on how to best use social media to your advantage. In our Sounding Off column, Denver-based jock Wesley Bryant-King takes on a slew of Hercules’ newer DJ products—from controller and headphones to monitors and software. For Making Tracks, New York-based studio writer Phil Moffa handles the latest from Sweden’s Teenage Engineering—the OP-1 synth. If you’re reading this in Detroit at our Movement festival booth, where we’re kicking off America’s Best DJ, be sure to vote for your favorite jock and you’ll be automatically entered to win a slew of prizes. And enjoy Movement, one of America’s very best EDM festivals. Cheers,
Jim Tremayne, Editor, DJ Times
chart coordinator Dan Miller dmiller@testa.com contributors Jody Amos Joe Bermudez Angela Bray Wesley Bryant-King Shawn Christopher Paul Dailey Chris Davis Justin Hampton Josh Harris Russ Harris Robert LaFrance Polly Lavin Michelle Loeb Lily Moayeri Phil Moffa Natalie Raben Scott Rubin Jennifer Shapiro Nate Sherwood Jeff Stiles Emily Tan Phil Turnipseed Curtis Zack President/Publisher Vincent P. Testa
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operations manager Robin Hazan rhazan@testa.com Editorial and Sales Office: DJ Times, 25 Willowdale Avenue, Port Washington, New York, USA 11050-3779. (516) 767-2500 • FAX (Editorial): (516) 944-8372 • FAX (Sales/all other business): (516) 767-9335 • DJTIMES@TESTA. COM Editorial contributions should be addressed to The Editor, DJ Times, 25 Willowdale Avenue, Port Washington, NY, USA, 110503779. Unsolicited manuscripts will be treated with care an d should be accompanied by return postage. DJ Times (ISSN 1045-9693) (USPS 0004-153) is published monthly for $19.40 (US), $39.99 (Canada), and $59.99 (all other countries), by DJ Publishing, Inc., 25 Willowdale Ave., Port Washington, NY 110503779. Periodicals postage paid at Port Washington, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to DJ Times, PO BOX 1767, LOWELL MA 01853-1767 Design and contents are copyright © 2012 by DJ Publishing, Inc., and must not be reproduced in any manner except by permission of the publisher. Websites: www. djtimes.com and www.testa.com June 2012
visit our website: www.djtimes.com
JUNE 2012
Expo & ABDJ: Springtime Gets Busy
editor-at-large Brian O’Connor boconnor@testa.com
graphic designer/artist Janice Pupelis jpupelis@testa.com
DJ TIMES
editor-in-chief Jim Tremayne jtremayne@testa.com
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FEEDBACK
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Photek Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike American Audio VMS 4.1 Loopmasters Sound Libraries Winter Music Conference Report 4/6/2012 2:39:35 PM
This is Feedback, a monthly feature that fields questions from you, our readers, and funnels them out to in‑ dustry 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 ques‑ tion that is not asked. HELLO FRIENDS: We do read DJ Times every month and enjoy reading some interesting articles that you provide with your publication. I am a 60-years-old, clean-cut guy and close to retiring from my regu‑ lar full-time job of almost 30 years. We have been playing with our pro‑ fessional DJ equipment at home for quite a while and would love to become a party-wedding DJ music service in the near future. Can you give us advice in how to market our style? My wife and I took lessons in ball‑ room and swing dance and would like to apply that solid knowledge to our future service. We will pro‑ vide excellent selection of music genres for all ages. We strongly believe that quality will separate us from the rest. Can you reply with your honest opinion? Thank you and have a nice day! – Jorge & Monica Cano, Lancaster, Pa.
JORGE & MONICA: Congratulations, and welcome to the exciting world of mobile DJing. It’s a great career choice—it’s lots of work, but lots of fun as well. Nowadays it’s easier than ever to get your name out there because of the various forms of social media
that are available. Once you start do‑ ing some events—maybe you’ll need to start with non-weddings in the be‑ ginning—you can ask those clients who loved you and your performance style so much to write a great review or even record a video testimonial for you. Positive word-of-mouth is a great way to start building your reputation and you can use Facebook
and YouTube to show the world what others think of you. Also, I’m sure early on in your ca‑ reers you’ll be eager for knowledge. You’re already off to a great start by reading DJ Times every month, but to take your education to the next level, make sure you attend the DJ Expo in Atlantic City, N.J., every August. (This year, it’s set for Aug.
13-16 at the Trump Taj Mahal, please visit www.thedjexpo.com for the latest info.) Not only are the seminars great, but the networking opportunities are awesome and the evening activities are the best of any DJ convention. Hope to see you there! — Mike Walter, Elite Entertainment, Eatonton, N.J.
SAMPLINGS Known to clubbers for his Dirty Dutch sound, Chuckie has taken his hard-edged house vibes around the world several times since his 2009 breakout. Maintaining one of EDM’s busiest schedules, Chuckie—aka Clyde Sergio Narain, 33—has managed to increase his workload Stateside. In between Ibiza jaunts to play his Subliminal night residency at Pacha, this month’s travels take Chuckie to New York for Electric Daisy Carnival and Las Vegas for gigs at Marquee’s nightclub and dayclub and Tao nightclub. In addition to remixing artists like David Guetta, Sidney Samson and Robbie Rivera, he’s also dropped major party-starting tracks like “Let the Bass Kick,” “Mutfakta” (with Gregori Klosman), and his most recent, “Together.” DJ Times caught up with the Netherlands-based Chuckie in Boston, as he prepped for Miami Music Week/Ultra Music Festival. DJ Times: I recently got to see you DJ live, and I really liked the range of your set. You were playing everything Blur to Wynter Gordon... Chuckie: Yeah, it’s not about, “Look at me! Look at my music and whatever I’m doing and what I stand for.” Of course, I give them who I am, but I try and mix it up with whatever is needed on the dancefloor. I try to be that guy on the dancefloor who’s just trying to have a good time. DJ Times: Do you feel that a lot of local DJs forget to play for the crowd and try to be too cool and not play popular records like that? Chuckie: Let me put it like this: At a festival with 12,000 people, you gotta find the right barriers between entertainment and education. If you’re in a smaller club, you can go way deeper
self in this music and the fact that we have such a strong underground and a healthy commercial side. It’s crazy. I would say this is the next, new world music. It’s almost natural, even if you look at my story. It’s almost natural that it’s like a musical evolution. DJ Times: I discovered you with a bootleg with LMFAO over “Let the Bass Kick.” Did that record change your life? Chuckie: I would say that record changed a lot of lives for people. We’ve been doing this Dutch sound for many years; at a certain point, we even got tired of it because it was local and just the noise we knew. Then that record came out and kind of crossed over and it was like the biggest record in Miami. We had the music conference and I was like, “Whoa! This is really good!” Then a lot of Dutch DJs crossed over with their sound. I must say that I feel blessed that we got this little opportunity for everybody—if I can speak on behalf of DJs and producers from Holland. We are grinding like crazy, worldwide. DJ Times: What is it about Holland? Why so many world-class DJs? Chuckie: That’s really simple. You have to imagine that Holland is just a small country. We have like 17 million people and Amsterdam only is like one million people, and we have a lot of clubs, a lot of big festivals, but the competition is so big that automatically the standard is high. So, everybody’s stepping his game up no matter if you’re known or unknown. Everybody knows “this is at least what I have to do to make it.” I would say Holland is a really good warm-up territory to finally cross over to the rest of the world. DJ Times: You have so many records out that destroy dancefloors around the world. I can’t even pick one, so I’m going to let you. If you only had one you could play for your fans, what would it be? Chuckie: It’s really hard to say what I would have to play for my fans, but I would always say just play “Let The Bass Kick” one more time because that’s the record that did it for me. – Joe Bermudez & Angela Bray
DJ TIMES
and tell the story even better. So if I have one hour to do my thing, I try to give [the audience] the best of everything. DJ Times: Like a lot of other Dutch DJ/producers—Laidback Luke, Martijn ten Velden—you started in the hip hop world, right? Chuckie: Yeah. To be honest, guys like Armand Van Helden and Kenny “Dope” [Gonzalez] were my biggest examples way back. I was buying records and I was listening to music, and I was like, “Is this actually cool to like hip hop and house at the same time?” Then I was watching these guys’ stories, like Armand Van Helden. He put out a hiphop record and, at the same time, a house record, and I’m like, “You know what? It is actually cool.” So I started to believe even more in myself and began to develop my sound. DJ Times: It seems nowadays that mixing hip hop and house music is the cool thing with guys like Pitbull. I heard that you have an album that’s coming, too. Is that what it’s gonna be like? Chuckie: Most definitely. It’s at this point that house music, electronic music, embraces so many different genres that everybody can find him/her-
JUNE 2012
CHUCKIE: GLOBAL PHENOM
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IN THE STUDIO WITH
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been eclectic, [and] my parents’ taste in music definitely has something to do with that.” Her father designed Killing Joke’s provocative album covers, so she’s not a stranger to rock music or other sounds. But Coles’ production style, like her music, is decidedly minimal. “The software I use is Logic,” she says. “I started on Cubase originally, but I’ve been using Logic for the last seven or eight years. I don’t have any outboard gear, except a couple of old sound modules. I’ve mainly always worked software-based. I record a lot of sounds and textures myself through a mic and also use my guitars a lot and then I manipulate the sounds with effects. I also record a lot of vocals and manipulate them into different sounds and home-made percussion and all that. I mainly use the ESX24 within Logic and just sample in my own sounds.” As for her dubstep bass sounds, she gets most of them from acoustic bass guitars, which she later chops and filters within Logic. “Sometimes I use soft synths for bass though,” she says, “but I feel like
the track has so much more depth when the bass sound originates from a bass guitar.” While Coles may have started out as a studio head, her increasingly busy DJ schedule has her playing out in festivals and clubs around the world. She’s also recorded a BBC Essential Mix and her current DJ-Kicks mix, which features such deep delights as her exclusive track, “Not Listening.” In the booth, she’s found her groove with CDs, and lists venues like London’s Fabric, Berlin’s Panorama Bar and Watergate, and Miami’s Electric Pickle as current faves. But ultimately, the audience and vibe are the keys to a great night. “My sets can really vary and I don’t really plan what I’m going to play,” she says, “so there are so many factors that contribute to which direction I would go in. My ideal setting doesn’t matter spacewise, as long as the sound system is amazing and the crowd’s giving the same energy back as you are giving them. That’s the most important thing for me.” – Justin Hampton
JUNE 2012
Even in this age of unprecedented exposure for EDM around the globe, deep-house fans can take heart in knowing that 24-year-old Maya Jane Coles will be all theirs for much of the foreseeable future. Since jumping onto the scene in 2008 with the “Sick Panda” EP, Coles has charmed the Resident Advisor crowd and U.K. nightlifers with releases spanning from garage (“Little One”) to chilled-out dubstep under the Nocturnal Sunshine moniker. At press time, she’d just bagged a Winter Music Conference International Dance Music Award for “What They Say,” and she appears set to capitalize on her career’s momentum with an artist LP and appearances at Melt, Sonar, Benicassim and Ultra this festival season. Still, her appeal tends to be focused—perhaps because, with her forays into dubstep as well as synth-pop with the vocal She Is Danger project, she’s looking to get broader rather than bigger. “There’s definitely nothing wrong with just specializing in one genre,” she says. “I just love a lot of different things and wanna do them all! I’ve always
DJ TIMES
DJ TIMES
JUNE 2012
MAYA JANE COLES, FILTERED
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BY EMILY TAN
DJ TIMES
AFTER EARNING THE 2011 ABDJ CROWN, KASKADE PREPARES TO TAKE HIS MUSIC TO THE PEOPLE WITH THE “FREAKS OF NATURE” TOUR
JUNE 2012
AMERICA’S BEST DJ 13
Photos by Al Powers/Powers Imagery
JUNE 2012
DJ TIMES 14
Six months after taking the 2011 America’s Best DJ title, Kaskade remains a little giddy. To hear him tell it, he’s just as excited about DJing and making music as he ever was, certainly as much as when he fell in love with it all as a suburban Chicago teen listening to B96 radio and visiting the Gramaphone Records shop. Looking back at his career, Kaskade (aka Ryan Raddon) admits a little pride in getting nationwide recognition for all the work he’s put into it. At 41, he’s no overnight success who stumbled onto a suddenly hot EDM gravy train. No, Kaskade’s been there all his professional life. So scoring the most votes in the summer-long America’s Best DJ promotion and being honored for it at Las Vegas’ Marquee club (by ABDJ tour sponsors Pioneer DJ and DJ Times) served as a vital recognition point for a career spent making people happy with music, but also for the relative hardships of constant travel and time away from loved ones. It was another validation, showing that picking this DJ route wasn’t such a bad idea. His next move? Another summer-long endeavor—his nationwide “Freaks of Nature” tour. Lucky for him, the time is right, as his notoriety has never been higher. In addition to the press he’s gained from winning the America’s Best DJ vote, Kaskade
JUNE 2012
enjoyed a large feature in the New York Times, after selling out the Roseland Ballroom this past fall. (Though he’s been putting out music since 1997, having released seven artist albums so far, Kaskade was called “the new face of electronic dance music.”) But he also gained a degree of infamy for the riot that resulted from his Twitter message about a Hollywood block party in celebration of the Electric Daisy Carnival film premiere. Ironically, of all the DJs in the
Coachella festival and as he was prepping for his “Freaks Of Nature” tour, the L.A.-based Kaskade took a quiet moment to chat with DJ Times about his gradual career ascent, his evolving stage setup, and a declaration that we are merely on the cusp of even bigger things for EDM—and boy, there’s no stopping now. DJ Times: Congratulations are in order for your 2011 America’s Best DJ win! In terms of popularity and fan reaction, you beat out some incredibly impressive names. How does it feel? Kaskade: It’s exciting! It’s a lot of fun. And, hey, it’s been crazy since [Winter Music Conference in] Miami…
ing on the screen. It’s really my first chance of doing that. DJ Times: Will you also be triggering the visuals, or will you have a VJ with you? What’s your DJ setup going to be on this tour? Kaskade: I won’t be triggering any visuals. It’s the first time I’m doing MIDI-synced with lights and the art visuals, so it’s a lot more complicated. This is the first time I’m touring with Ableton Live also. It’s the first time I’ve integrated Ableton into my show. I’ve gone from DJing with vinyl to CDJs, then into the MP3 format right into the SD card. The CDJ is still a huge part of my process and what I’ll be using, but this is the first time I’ve integrated Ableton Live into my show in such a way. I have a MIDI controller with two Pioneer CDJs to augment it, because I feel so comfortable with the CDJs as an interface. It’s the first time I’ve integrated a laptop into my setup. This is the first time I’m taking a laptop on a show with me. I’m able to control more parameters than just two tracks this way. It’s a step into the future, really. DJ Times: What about the big LED screen you’ll have behind you? Kaskade: It also augments the show. I came up with the “Freaks Of Nature” tour and the butterfly con-
DJ TIMES
“[EDM] has been bubbling in the underground for 20 some years. This is our moment and nobody is going to take this world, the family man Ryan Raddon is away from probably the last one you’d expect to be starting any urban conflicts. us!” Just before playing California’s
DJ Times: This “Freaks Of Nature” summer tour looks to be pretty extensive with 50 cities. Seems like a huge undertaking… Kaskade: It’s the largest tour I’ve ever done, for sure. Last year I signed on for the Identity Festival for 20 shows…. well, this is a lot in one month. I’m even squeezing some Ibiza shows in there during this tour, so it’ll be more like 65 shows in a matter of three months. DJ Times: In terms of the live entertainment value, what’s different on this tour that perhaps your fans have not seen from you before? Kaskade: Identify Festival was the first time I tested out building my own stage and having my own stage concept to match my music. I’ve taken that and gone a lot farther with it. I started from the ground up with an entirely new stage and concept— it debuted at Coachella. That’s the stage I take on the road with me on the “Freaks Of Nature” tour. In terms of the physical concept of the stage itself, I’ve also spent countless hours on the visuals that will be onstage, syncing them up with songs. For me, say for a specific song I wrote, I might be like, “Tonight I want a different feel and a different look on the screen.” I want to do something new and fresh, not just have a girl in a bikini danc-
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cept. People look at my career over the last 12 years, and people have said that I’ve been able to do dance and still have my own style. I wanted the stage concept and the entire tour to have that feel, so I came up with the butterfly as my concept. The stage moves around and changes quite a bit throughout the show. For me, it’s about content that you’re seeing while you’re listening, to make it a total experience. That’s unique to my
different from when my content has been completely planned throughout. Going into Coachella, I’ve never rehearsed so much to make my show where I want it to be! It’s what EDM is about now, really. It used to be about going to clubs and playing the hits. Now, it’s an elaborate stage presentation. It’s performance art. People are familiar with my music, but now I made sure the content they’re looking at is as good as it can be. DJ Times: Because dance music has invaded American pop culture again, traditional news outlets like The New York Times and even the Forbes blog have started running stories on dance music, albeit from an outsider’s perspective. But, even now, there are
ment and nobody is going to take this away from us! We’re prepared because it’s taken so long, because so many people say this is their art form. They won’t be able to tear it down this time. DJ Times: This has gotten almost too big for politics… Kaskade: With the so-called RAVE Act [in 2003], they tried to make it unlawful to dance, but it’s not gonna happen this time. The cat’s out of the bag. It’s been going this way for a while. I remember in 2003, I think, I played Electric Daisy Carnival that year, and I remember looking out at 90,000 people. It was amazing to me that these people hadn’t been paying attention earlier! This is the largest subculture going on right now. It’s shocking how it’s taken so long! My life has been revolving around this for years. DJ Times: With the, ahem, riot you caused in L.A. last year during the movie premiere for the EDC documentary, I’ve got to ask: What’s your take on social media? Did the response to your tweet surprise you? Kaskade: I’m always blown away where this is at! I would’ve said that 10 years ago when five people came to my shows. I’ve always been shocked and happy that people (continued on page 42)
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“It’s a little terrifying seeing the thing you love [EDM] getting exploited, but it’s also cool to see music. I played Ultra Music Festival new people and I can count the screens. They are amazing and there’s a humondiscover this gous stage, but even though I have music.” my own guy come with me, it’ll be
still some who rant online about DJs not being artists or even performers. As a songwriter yourself and an EDM DJ/producer at the top of your game, what do you say to those who still refuse to acknowledge EDM as a genre, or DJs and producers as performers and artists? Kaskade: Any time you have a new genre that emerges, there’s always resistance [laughs]. This has been going on forever! When punk emerged or when rock came on, it was the same thing—it’s been going on forever. I think EDM is just going the same route right now. It’s what hip-hop was in the early-’80’s, and later having people like Bill O’Reilly shaking their fingers at it because they didn’t understand it. Those guys don’t know it. DJ Times: They have no idea… Kaskade: You can’t tell me what I’ve written and produced, because you haven’t listened to it! We’re experiencing this in a lot of ways. [EDC promoter] Insomniac Inc. is having its problems with the law just because there’s so much money involved right now and so many people are paying attention. That’s the downside of success. With that comes a lot of scrutiny. But you know what? This has been bubbling in the underground for 20 some years. This is our mo-
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• Size-defying 126-dB maximum SPL • Intuitive input panel for easy control and connectivity
mics • dsp • amps • speakers www.electrovoice.com
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• Custom-designed woofers and drivers deliver legendary EV sound quality
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mics • dsp • amps • speakers
www.electrovoice.com
WHO’S YOUR GURU?
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When multiple personas prevail, you should market to each segment separately and consider using landing pages (or separate websites) to get the visitor to the most relevant content. In other words, avoid trying to be all things to all clients. “Secondly, give your site visitors something to aspire to. Berg writes that, ‘Most advertising is aspirational: It makes us aspire to be like the people we see in the ads who are using a particular product or brand.’ This discussion was thought-provoking and really got me thinking about what specific images should be incorporated into our website, such as ‘Who is the typical Ambient DJ bride?’ Berg also addresses the question about whether a business owner should include photos of him or herself on a website, and the answer may surprise the reader. “Thirdly, in evaluating prospective advertising programs, revenue-per-click is a far more relevant metric than cost-per-click. As Berg reminds us, ‘Advertising is not about costs; it’s about the return on your investment.’ High-profile/cost advertising programs are not necessarily bad, nor are inexpensive advertising programs necessarily good. “Fourthly, talk to your audience about them, not about you. Disc jockeys in particular love to talk about themselves, yet Berg once again pulls out the smelling salts and reminds us that our website should be about them (the customer) and not about us (the service provider). Does the copy on your website follow this common-sense principle? “And lastly, incorporate more calls to action. Each page on your website should have a call to action. This can be done with variety and in good taste. These calls to action can increase the probability that a customer will contact you and not leave your site (and go toward a competitor’s).” Up in the Northeast, Jerry Bazata of DJ Jaz Music & Entertainment in Ogunquit, Maine, names Jack Hubbard of St. Meyer & Hubbard as his favorite business guru. Bazata has even talked about Hubbard at his own DJ seminars, and credits Hubbard’s insight, training and business acumen as leading to the success of both his DJ business and also his own professional career as a vice-president for Bank of America. “I attended a small business convention in Orlando, Fla., in April of 2004,” recalls Jerry, “and there I had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with Jack, the chairman and chief sales officer at St. Meyer & and Hubbard, a company focused on the training and development of sales professionals within the financial services industry. “Jack’s seminar focused on creating a contact strategy, engaging a prospect in a first phone call or face-to-face meeting. At that time, Jack’s approach stepped outside the basic cold-calling curriculum and focused on several activities that would set the initial stage for building trust and winning the prospect’s confidence. Though there were hundreds of attendees at the conference, Jack took the time to personally meet with me and provide coaching surrounding my sales strategies.” As soon as Bazata returned to his office, he says he immediately and with ease interwove the skills he learned during the seminar into his daily routine. “With the aid of additional phone coaching calls from Jack, I gained the confidence and necessary skills to obtain new business simply by changing the conversation I was having with clients,” he explains. “There was no magic trick or secret script that opened doors with new prospects, but I learned simply to develop a level of trust and purpose during meetings with potential clients. Because of that trust, I realized prospects will want to have a meeting or discussion with us. This ultimately leads to the primary objective, which is earning more business.” Practically speaking, Bazata says it’s become easy to utilize the skills he learned from Hubbard and integrate them into his DJ business. “At first, it seemed awkward and cumbersome, as conversations with brides is clearly the antithesis of having a conversation with the president of a manufacturing company,” Bazata says. “Then it hit me—I needed to modify the conversation and apply the ‘Ask Don’t Tell’ policy. Mobile DJs focus their prospecting calls on discussions focused on them (persuasion, price, etc.) rather than on the client’s needs. “How do I shift my discussion from one surrounding the ‘price tag’ only? I do this by taking the buying cycle and breaking it down into a five-step process:
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Down in sunny Arizona, DJ Ray Martinez suggests a subscription to Success Magazine is all it takes to keep him motivated when it comes to business improvement. “Darren Hardy is the publisher and helps all people in business, big or small,” says Martinez, a 38year DJ veteran based in Goodyear, Ariz. “Hardy even sends out weekly e-mails of inspiration and motivation, with many great tips—and it even comes with a monthly CD in the magazine. It’s a must-read for all who want to move up to the next level in business and in life.” We spoke with jocks all over the country about which business gurus they check up on regularly, to find out what blogs and books and live seminars are most helpful for their bottom-lines. Rather than blindly following any particular guru, Gregg Hollmann of Ambient DJ Service in East Windsor, N.J., says he prefers to take bits and pieces from various motivational sources and apply them to his company’s specific situations. He quickly names off the late Steve Jobs, DJ Cassidy (DJ to President Obama, Oprah, Jay-Z and the Kardashians), sales expert Jeffrey Gitomer, social-media expert Gary Vaynerchuk and wedding sales/marketing expert Alan Berg as his top picks. “Those individuals inspire me in the following disciplines: 1) quality product/service and innovation, 2) differentiation of services, 3) sales and marketing and 4) social media,” says Hollmann. “And all four of these disciplines are very important to the long-term success of a mobile DJ company.” In particular, Hollmann cites Alan Berg—formerly with The Knot—as a natural salesman who understands the bridal market, Ambient DJ’s main target. He says he’s paid money in the past to hear Berg speak, and has purchased two of his products: His book “If Your Website Was An Employee Would It Fire You?” and his DVD titled “Close More Sales, Today!” Hollmann says he actually wrote a review about Berg’s book on his own blog, and discovered five takeaways: “Berg does a great job in cutting to the chase and providing real-life case studies, both in the wedding industry and in the world of Fortune 500 companies such as Best Buy,” he says. “First of all, a website should speak directly to its target audience. To do this, a business owner should define a detailed customer ‘persona,’ or perhaps multiple personas if servicing different segments.
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MOVE OVER SETH GODIN & SCOTT ADAMS, THERE’S A NEW CROP OF BUSINESS GURUS
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Upland, California, 21 years ago, he invested most of his earnings back into his business. “We’re not a huge company, but we focus on quality instead of quantity,” Yoffe says. “We tend to spend a great deal of time training our teams so they know our expectations.” As a DJ company owner, Yoffe says he basically wanted to do something he didn’t see anyone else doing, and that was to partner with various venues and invest financially by purchasing both sound and lighting gear to be permanently installed in these facilities. “This benefits the venue in several ways,” he says. “First, they get to know our company, and we work as a team to ensure each event goes well and clients are happy. Second, it eliminates the venue having to deal with unprofessional DJs that don’t know what they’re doing and make their venue look bad. Third is the ability for a venue to show off their banquet rooms by simply flipping a switch that automatically uplights the whole room, which is a huge seller.” Yoffe says there are several facilities in his part of California that use his company a great deal, while there are others at which they are exclusive. In one venue in particular they book 120 events a year. The fees charged by Entertainment Express are higher than any other company in their market, he says, and he makes sure everyone working for him is an employee, not a subcontractor. “Our employees are treated well and respected, which is the reason my average employee has 10 years of experience,” he says. “Employees have to feel valued.” And as a result, Yoffe is proud to report that his company was not negatively impacted by the recent downturn in the economy, and in fact their business has actually grown over the past four years straight. “The last couple of years have been the best my company has ever experienced,” claims this DJ guru. “It sounds strange but truly is honest!” n
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1. Understand the need for my service. What are the circumstances that led to the initial contact? It’s much more than simply needing music for a wedding. 2. Recognize there is more to uncover than just budget. How can you best assist with the planning of their event? What experience does the client want during their event? 3. Evaluate all options. While research is only a click away, how do I change the conversation so I’m not trapped in a sales pitch when what’s really needed is help and advice? 4. Resolve all concerns and mitigating the potential risk of buyer’s remorse. 5. Implement a solution that leads to the sale. Based upon steps 1-4, I can prepare a customized wedding package that is created with value, service and professionalism in mind, not price. “Jack’s book has especially proven to be an invaluable resource and an integral party of my sales strategy,” continues Bazata. “The process has enabled me to effectively improve sales, leading to yearafter-year growth in revenues for my DJ business. For mobile DJs who have attended my seminars at the DJ Expo, I can provide insight and best practices to winning new businesses utilizing Jack Hubbard’s methodology.” Forget all the popular sales gurus such as Seth Godin, Scott Adams and Richard Branson, says Ken Knotts of All Occasion Entertainment in Anaheim, Calif. According to Knotts, Scott Yoffe of Southern California is “The One” to follow. “Seriously, forget about all the stupid egos of aspiring DJs who think they are the next big thing,” says Knotts. “The guy who is a DJ and runs a business the way everybody else wishes they could is Scott Yoffe. A person could ask Scott for photos and all the information about how he runs an extremely successful DJ business that allows him to leave it to his employees so he can travel the world—and with plenty of money in his pocket.” Knotts explains that Yoffe’s huge success has much to do with the fact that he has developed an exclusive agreement with a multi-ballroom catering facility in his area of Southern California, which has allowed him to do all the entertainment booking for the facility. His DJ packages start at $2,500 for a wedding reception and more for a ceremony. He has several systems installed along with lights in different rooms, so he has no need to set up and tear down equipment for each show. “He has guys selling his packages out of his office for him when he’s away (for a commission) and he does very well each weekend at the Padua Hills catering facility,” Knotts says. “His company also does a good business at other local mobile DJ gigs around the ‘Inland Empire’ area.” We contacted Scott Yoffe and asked how and why he’s been able to gain the respect and admiration of other DJ business owners, and he explained that when he formed Entertainment Express in
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1 Superjocks: Tiësto & Avicii connect. 2 Lit Up: Above & Beyond’s Jono Grant. 3 Group Therapy: Above & Beyond wows ’em. 4 Whiz Kid: Porter Robinson in the mix. • By Declan O’Driscoll 5 Smokin’: Davide Squillace drops a beat. • By Nicole Cussell 6 Hair-Raising: Zeds Dead at Ultra Fest. • By Justin Jarchow-Misch 7 Techno Twins: Steve Lawler & Stacey Pullen. • By Nicole Cussell 8 Bayfront Bash: Mat Zo at the Group Therapy party. 9 Ovum Party: Josh Wink, pre-Fire Dept. visit. • By Declan O’Driscoll 10 Interview, eh? Skrillex on Canada’s BPM-TV. • By Declan O’Driscoll 11 In the Arena: Carl Cox gets massive. • By Nicole Cussell 12 Whee! Crowd surfing at Mekka. • By Nicole Cussell 13 Mad at Mansion: Steve Aoki & crew whoop it up. • By Declan O’Driscoll 14 Big Boom: Richie Hawtin slams Ultra. • By Nicole Cussell 15 Hello: Laidback Luke greets his fans. • By Justin Jarchow-Misch 16 UMF Moment: Madonna flanks Avicii. • By Seth Browarnik/worldredeye.com 17 Attention, Please: Nü Rave fashion statement. • By Declan O’Driscoll 18 Smog vs. Basshead: Dirtyphonics rocks Mekka. • By Nicole Cussell 19 Energy Flash: Ultra fans get buzzed. • By Justin Jarchow-Misch
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Miami, Fla.—The 10 days that included Winter Music Conference, Miami Music Week and Ultra Music Festival—March 16-25—provided plenty of thrills for EDM fans and a slew of great photo opportunities for shutterbugs. Day events, evening blow-outs, afterparties… DJs were playing around the clock on South Beach and in downtown Miami. As always, the biggest event was Ultra Fest, which drew over 165,000 to Bayfront Park from March 23 to 25 and presented the very best DJ/ artists from the global EDM community, including Kraftwerk, Laidback Luke, Skrillex, Carl Cox, Ritchie Hawtin, Afrojack, Avicii (with a very special guest), Zeds Dead and more. Maintaining a dedicated exhibit booth, DJ Times was proud to serve as a media sponsor for the three-day event. Additionally, at Mekka on March 22, DJ Times co-sponsored the Smog vs. Basshead party, a subwoofer-taxing event featuring some of bass music’s top talents, like 12th Planet, Dirtyphonics and Trouble & Bass crew. Here’s what it all looked like: 12
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A LOOK BACK IN PICTURES AT ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL & MORE
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20 No Sugar Added: Miss Kitten at Nikki Beach. • By Nicole Cussell 21 Audiofly & M.A.N.D.Y.: Luca Saporito with Philipp Jung. • By Nicole Cussell 22 Levels: Avicii at Music Loves Fashion. 23 Day Party: Ed Banger chief Pedro Winter. • By Declan O’Driscoll 24 Smog Vs. Basshead: Gals at Mekka. • By Nicole Cussell 25 Ka-Boom: Confetti Blast at Bayfront Park. 26 Big Heart: Fans at Bayfront Park. 27 Reach Out: Ultra fans get wild. By Justin Jarchow-Misch 28 Big Moment: Miike Snow at Ultra. By Justin Jarchow-Misch 29 Mansion Mama: Mim Nervo with Afrojack. • By Declan O’Driscoll 30 Take Over Control: Afrojack blasts Ultra. • By Justin Jarchow-Misch 31 Numbers: Kraftwerk clocks in at UMF. • By Nicole Cussell 32 Get Wild: Ultra fans let loose. • By Justin Jarchow-Misch 33 Berlin Calling: Brandt Brauer Frick gets grooving. • By Nicole Cussell 34 Video Stars: Above & Beyond at Bayfront Park. 35 Up Close: Skrillex at Music Loves Fashion event.
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MAKING TRACKS STUDIO…HARDWARE…SOFTWARE…
Is it a synthesizer or is it a toy? That’s the question the OP-1 may stir up at first glance. The hotly in-demand unit from Sweden’s Teenage Engineering design team is smaller than the average QWERTY keyboard, with keys that have a similar feel. It features simulated tape recording, several different synthesizer engines and drum machines, sequencers, effects, sampling, and even FM radio. It is powered by a 16-hour battery, possesses an internal speaker, has connectivity for recording and headphones, and it can even function as a MIDI keyboard controller. With such a broad
ByPhil Moffa
arpeggiator called Endless that allows you to string together up to 256 notes that can be transposed, reversed, swung, and played with different preset rest patterns. The Grid sequencer works in the 16step fashion of the old Roland boxes. The Tombola is perhaps the most unique and attention-grabbing sequencer of the lot. It features a spinning six-sided figure that has notes (displayed as tiny blue dots) ring out when they bounce off of the walls according to Mass and Gravity settings. Finally, the Finger step sequencer shows a graphical display of a pair of either human keyboard players or gorilla drummers. The Tape section features a 4-track virtual reel-to-reel tape machine capable of up to six minutes at a resolution of 16 bit/44.1 kHz at normal speed. Takes can be edited, overdubbed, and manipulated with certain tricks like looping, break, and reverse. It really does behave as a tape machine; you can hear the tape playing back when rewinding, fast forwarding, and scrubbing. There are even several advanced recording features where the tape speed can be manipulated. All of the individually recorded tracks can be seen on your computer as six-minute AIFF files when the OP-1 is USB connected in disk mode in the tape folder. Finally, comes the Mixer mode. The 4-track mixer has levels and pan positions for each of the four tape tracks followed by a Low, Mid, High EQ section. This EQ is global to all four Teenage Engineering’s OP-1: tracks. Next is a Master Effect section, Synth engines, FX and LFOs. which has the same effects choices as the synth and drum sections, but configured for stereo. Finally, the Master Out section has a L/R balance and Drive controls. actually very interesting sounding and offer quite Drive is essentially a pretty decent mastering lima wide range of timbres. A very powerful LFO seciter that can be pushed pretty hard to create some tion rounds out the sound sculpting. The traditional interesting raw distortion. LFO style of rhythmic modulation, tremolo, and When it is time to bounce down the multi-track vibrato are available, but there’s also the ability to recording to 2-track, you enter Album mode, which use external modulators to affect any synthesizer gives you a turntable graphic on the display. Basiparameters. These external sources amazingly incally, you have two sides to the album that are sixclude G-Force, which means moving the OP-1 minute stereo files that record whatever occurs around in the air, the mic/line inputs, or the built-in after hitting record and then playing back the tape. FM radio. I’m sure this is the first place I’ve seen This includes any tape tricks, mixer adjustments, many of these modulators. The Drum mode is similar to the Synth engine, EQ, or effects parameters that are adjusted during album recording. The album AIFF files are accessed but has its own style of sampler and dynamic enin USB disk mode. velope. Basically, any 12-second AIFF file that is put The OP-1 ($849 at teenageengineering.com) is a into the OP-1 hard drive in the user folder can be fun and unique little instrument that will certainly chopped and laid out across the keyboard. It is then inspire a different approach to music creation. possible to use the effects and LFO section to afWhile I can imagine it being difficult to produce fect the sounds. In the latest 1.2 operating system, a club-ready track entirely in the box, the various a new percussion synthesizer is available with variways of grabbing sound off the internal memory ous waveforms and modulators. The OP-1 offers several types of sequencers, make post-production very easy. At the very least, it can be a source of sounds that can be sampled some of them rather unique, that are perhaps its into a full-size DAW. Its portability is a plus, and strongest compositional tools. Without them, it is when paired with a laptop, it can be the perfect worth noting, there is no other way to play in pertraveling MIDI controller. fect or quantized time. There is a step sequencer/ Phase, and Sampler. While space is limited here to describe them all, just know that there is a wide variety of sounds attainable and also a few presets for each of the engines as well.The ability to sample from the built-in mic, the 1/8-inch mic/line input, or onto the internal hard drive via USB connection also opens the door to include any sound six seconds or under. Each synth has a basic ADSR amplitude envelope and an effect. The effects choices include Delay, Grid (a 3-D feedback plate), Phone, Punch (low pass filter), and Spring (reverb). These effects are
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feature set, the OP-1 suggests that it is a powerful instrument, plus a whole lot more. Upon first powering up and navigating around, it is hard to not notice the striking OLED screen and the amazing color graphics that the OP-1 displays. To the left of the screen is a built-in speaker and volume control pot. Of course, you won’t get much bass from it, but that’s what the 1/8-inch headphone/line outputs are for. I will say that the speaker is plenty loud for working without headphones. Also, across the top panel are four color-coded encoders that correspond to different parameters on the graphical interface depending on what mode you are in. A dedicated help button can be pressed to get information about whatever mode you are working with or which note is being depressed. I didn’t find the help mode to be too informative, but the manual certainly was. The four main modes of the OP-1 are Synthesizer, Drum, Tape, and Mixer. More color coding on these buttons allows you to quickly see keys that relate to functions in the different modes. Sound begins with the Synthesizer section. Here it is possible to choose from eight different synth engines—FM, Cluster, Dr Wave, Digital, String, Pulse,
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OP-1: UNIQUE, PORTABLE SYNTH
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DJUCED: Hercules software.
SOUNDING OFF PLAYBACK…PRO
By Wesley Bryant-King The French company Guillemot may not be a household name, but its Hercules line of products has certainly become one in recent years. And in addition to its range of consumer products (including webcams, WiFi devices, and sound cards), the company has an expanding line of DJ products under the Hercules name as well. As the art of DJing continues to broaden its appeal to the masses, bedroom jocks, aspiring newcomers, and even regular music hobbyists are looking for more tools that deliver an authentic DJ experience—one that might well take them some distance down the “pro road” should they choose to go there. It seems as though that’s just the market Hercules is going after with some of its recent product introductions—three of which I recently had the opportunity to take for a spin: the DJ Control Air controller/audio interface, the XPS 2.0 80 DJ monitors, and two of the company’s new DJ headphones, the DJ-Pro and DJ-Adv. So how do they stack-up? First Impressions: The DJ Control Air is not Hercules’ first DJ controller, and I’ve had the chance to use several of them over the years. All have been decent, affordable, compact devices with solid construction, suitable for a wide range of DJs. The DJ Control Air departs a bit from this formula. First, it’s offered at a very aggressive price point—around $170, street price. Second, it departs from the Hercules all-steel construction in favor of lightweight materials. Third, the company has upped the design aesthetic a few notches, so it makes a pretty sexy first impression. And lastly, the company has exchanged bundled third-party software for their own offering, dubbed DJUCED. DJUCED gives a good first impression. It’s slick looking, and the various controls shown were intuitive enough to figure out. Those controls include everything you would expect: some basic effects, looping, transport controls of course, waveform displays, and a way to browse your tracks. That latter element is the only thing I found lacking right-off: There were only six horizontal rows shown for browsing folders and tracks (using the particular “skin” that fit my display best, anyhow), and I saw no way to increase the number at the sacrifice of the size of the rest of the display, and no way to temporarily zoom or expand the size of the list. Finding the desired track to play was, as a result, more frustrating than it needed to be. But functionally, it seems to provide everything the entry-level to intermediate DJ might need. Any aspiring DJ needs a decent set of monitors, and the XPS 2.0 80 monitor speaker pair is designed to put them within reach. With a street price of around $150 for the pair, they are indeed affordable. While looks are always subjective, I find that while they may not be as dialed-up on the design front at the DJ Control Air, they’re hardly unattractive sitting in the studio. The main drivers are just 4 inches in size, and with only 40W RMS of power, my expectations were somewhat low. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the overall sound quality and bass response. The two front-mounted ports do their job in helping the monitors deliver unexpected punch, and the front-mounted bass and treble controls in the right monitor make coarse adjustments fast and easy. While not surprising given the power rating, they do top out at a lower overall sound level than I might ideally have hoped. But for the price? I was pretty impressed with them. DJ headphones are a highly personal sort of choice, and one that frequently involves some trade-offs. For example, wide swing, multi-axis cup rotation is a great convenience—but it can sometimes drive one nuts trying to get both sides in position to go on one’s head. With the DJ-Pro (about $170 street) and DJ-Adv (about $130 street), Hercules has taken the arguably most common approach—the cups rotate 90-degrees horizontally and 180-degrees vertically, accommodating most DJs’ styles. Both models also offer a nicety—a detachable cord that can be inserted on either side. I like to wear my headphones around my neck with the cups toward my body when not in use; but that’s not
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how these came from the factory. Twist-pull-insert-twist, and they matched my preference within seconds. Both models of headphones are of similar plastic construction. In fact, they seem virtually identical, except that the DJ-Pro has a coiled cord with a longer reach, a storage pouch, slightly better frequency response specs, and slightly better power handling specs as well. Both fold-up tight, and both come with an adapter to allow use with ¼-inch or 1/8-inch plugs. Both also come with a two-year warranty. Set-Up & Use: For testing, I put together an all-Hercules DJ set-up on my laptop, using all the components mentioned. Installation for the DJ Control Air and DJUCED involved little more than inserting the included CD-ROM and following the instructions. Surprisingly (but pleasantly so), the DJ Control Air uses a multichannel ASIO driver infrastructure on Windows machines. Some other controllers at this price point appear to the computer to be multiple, conventional sound “cards” to the computer, which may limit software compatibility, and which can introduce added latency as well. (On the Mac—not tested for this review—the native CoreAudio system is used.) Once the DJ Control Air was connected, and the installation process completed, I was nearly in business. Plugging the DJ-Pro headphones into the front of the DJ Control Air, and connecting the XPS 2.0 80 monitors to the back of the controller, completed the entire set-up process. One minor, but still disconcerting aspect to the XPS 2.0 80 monitors: The power cord (which connects the monitors’ external power supply brick to a wall outlet) uses a non-polarized, IEC 60320 C7/C8 connector—commonly used with laptop power supplies, A/V equipment, etc. The 18-volt DC output of the power supply has a polarized C7/C8 connector, which might be familiar to many DJs as the power cord type used by Pioneer CDJs—and most commonly used to provide 120-volt AC mains power, not low-voltage DC power. A person unfamiliar with this particular product could very easily make assumptions, and plug 120-volt AC power directly into the product (bypassing the power brick), as the un-polarized plug very easily fits right into the polarized receptacle on the back of the right-channel speaker. What would happen? Hard telling, but I doubt the monitor set would survive the oversight. A redesign with a connector type normally used with low-voltage DC power seems well-advised simply in the name of personal and fire safety. Cranking everything up, I found that the DJ Control Air is a fairly Spartan controller in some respects, but it has everything one needs. The EQ knobs have a nice, tactile center detent. The faders have good resistance, with the pitch faders having a very defined center detent (a good thing in my view). The rotary encoders (platters) have a good feel as well. About the only complaint in the tactile department is that the four pads on either side, used for loop and effect control, are very much like drum pads on a MIDI drum controller; they don’t really have any “click” feel like the rest of the (smaller) buttons on the DJ Control Air, but merely touch on and off. Not a big deal, really. Another oddity is the decision to use up and down buttons for the front panel headphone volume. A continuous rotary control, as is conventional, would seem a better choice, but the use of buttons does give the front panel a
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HERCULES: GREAT KIT FOR UPSTARTS
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DJ-Adv: Hercules headphones.
DJ Control Air: Hercules controller/interface.
relatively flat surface, so it can rest on that side in a carry bag. Given that the USB cable on the back panel doesn’t detach (not ideal in my view), resting on the front or the sides in a bag would be the only options. Between the DJ Control Air and DJUCED, using the setup was intuitive and natural, and I was delivering a competent set from the very start. As mentioned briefly earlier, DJUCED uses a system of “skins” to control the layout and appearance of the software. The supplied skins appear to vary primarily in the target screen dimensions (in pixels) they are designed for, rather than radically changing layouts. The “cheat sheet” included with the controller shows a sample picture of the DJUCED screen, with the elements labeled. It depicts a sequencer section on the right side, and a sampler section on the left of the DJUCED layout. I was unable to find a skin that revealed these elements on the screen, nor was I able to find any on/off preferences settings or options to do so. Absent any actual documentation beyond the cheat sheet, it’s not clear whether these features made it to the production version of the software, or if perhaps it requires some special step to “unlock” them. As is common in controller/interfaces at the low- to mid-price range, audio
XPS 2.0 80: Hercules DJ monitors.
levels during cueing are different than the baseline monitoring level, and vary during the crossover of a mix. Given just how common an issue this is among these sorts of products across the spectrum, I speculate that improving it (or rather, not doing so) is a cost-control issue. That being said, it’s a bit of polish I’d like to see addressed. As I said earlier, the XPS 2.0 80 monitors were a pleasant surprise, especially for the price. Using the DJ-Pro headphones was also a good experience. They have a nice sound, and the clamping pressure—while somewhat tight—seemed about right for typical DJ applications. (I’m not sure I would find them quite so satisfactory for extended wear; high clamping pressures always seem to be fatiguing due to the pressure against my eyeglass frames. Those who don’t wear glasses would doubtlessly not have this issue.) I lack the equipment to do a fair, scientific, spectral analysis of the frequency response of the headphones. Subjectively, I did find that both the DJ-Adv and DJ-Pro seem to favor the low- and high-end a tad bit, but not wildly so. And I did like the chunky feel that they have in the hand; they were easy to handle, (continued on page 42)
MOBILE PROFILE CAREERS…INNOVATIONS…SUCCESS STORIES
JERSEY JOCK GETS WITH THE PROGRAM By John Burke
Tony Bennett records, funk and disco—wedding material. “I was always into hip hop and R&B,” he says, “and what I learned along the way is you don’t have to stick to a genre.” Bacon joined one DJ company, but was turned off by the owner’s insistence on controlling his employees. Too many practice sessions, too much adherence. “I didn’t feel like it was my kind of thing,” he says. At the time, Iron Mike was working in construction, but it was a cold winter in 2006, and jobs were scarce, so he looked through Craigslist and found an ad from Gregg Hollmann at Ambient DJ Service in East Windsor, N.J. “He was looking for a DJ, but he wasn’t looking to mold anyone. He was looking for someone who played what they play, as long as it wasn’t too far out there.” Soon, Bacon was booked most weekends, but learned to adjust his programming to suit the needs of clients. “My policy when it comes to weddings… I say to clients that it’s their day, whatever they want. They can have as much influence or as little influence as they want. I’ve had a couple that had every song, with times, structured for the duration of the reception. At one point, they had me playing U2’s ‘One,’ at the peak of the night, but I stuck with it, and the best man came up to me and said, ‘Hey man, this isn’t working.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s what your brother wants.’ He said, ‘Look, I talked to him and he said throw the playlist out. Do whatever you do.’” A P-Funk tune, then KC and the Sunshine Band, and everybody got on the floor. “On the flip side,” says Mike, “I had one couple who said, ‘All we want is hip hop, freestyle and some reggae—can you do that?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And then we rocked it and they had the night of their life.” Bacon currently subcontracts about 20 gigs annually for Ambient DJ Service, and has been able to parlay that into a nice side business on his own—weddings, Sweet 16s, graduation parties, mostly. He pays attention to Beatport, crooklynclan.net, the Billboard charts, and Hot97.com to stay current, and keeps his Pioneer CDJ-1000s and DJM-400 mixer, and Technics decks in top shape. “I’m pretty simple when it comes to mixing,” he says. “I scratch and mix, but I don’t need a big board.” To indulge his right to party, Iron Mike plays a bar every Friday night, Brewster’s Pub, the owners of which weren’t initially concerned about his following, letting him build over time, a tactic that has paid off. After starting four years ago with 30 people at the East Windsor bar, Mike, with the promotional help of his fiancé Bella, now draws about 150 on a good night. “It’s a good gig, and they let me do my thing—they don’t limit me to playing clean versions,” he says. “I just go in and have the ability to play anything, and that’s really the DJ dream.”
DJ TIMES
Plainsboro, N.J.—Since he was a three-year-old, diving off his parent’s living room couch while watching MTV and the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right (to Party),” Mike Bacon has known he’s possessed the key ingredient to any DJ’s arsenal: a rabid, if not unhealthy, love for music. “I would not only play tapes and make pause-button mixes like every other budding DJ, but I also had a pretend radio show,” says the 30-year-old Bacon (aka DJ Iron Mike), “and I’d have my buddies call me and make requests, and I’d record them and mix it into my pretend show.” But it wasn’t until March 8, 1997—he remembers the exact day—when Iron Mike began to map out a future that included music. “I had a buddy over my house, and I was doing mixes with two Sony boom boxes, and I’d blend them together, and my buddy thought it was just awesome. I knew then that the sound was inferior, and I needed proper equipment to take it to the next level.” Other signs soon surfaced. In his hometown, teenagers would gather at monthly firehouse dances. The first night he went, Bacon noticed the dancefloor was lagging. “The DJ there was a little bit older, late 20s, maybe 30, and he wasn’t quite getting the crowd involved,” he says. “I asked him if I could look at his book, he had a bunch of Promo Only CDs. I suggested he play an Outkast song, ‘ATLiens,’ and Mary J Blige’s ‘Everything,’ a club mix. He played them and the crowd got into it, and he gave me this approving look. Then he said, ‘Bring your music next month.’ “So I came the next time with my box of CDs and a notepad, and I’d write down the numbers of the tracks to play. I was programming for him. But he said, ‘I don’t want to play these songs—I want you to.’ I said OK, and it was my first time playing the Denon CD player, the split-second response time on the play button just blew me away. We had a good party that night, and we built that party up from 50 people to where 1,500 people were showing up every month. Ironically, because there were so many kids at the house, doing what kids do, we were breaking the fire code. Of all places, we were breaking the fire code at the firehouse—those parties were great.” Iron Mike continued working with that DJ for a while, but they drifted apart. “He always told me weddings were where this business was at,” he recalls. “But my head was into college parties. That was the game plan, and I played at every college in New Jersey.” Of course, at the time, Bacon’s college “game plan” didn’t include making a lot of money. But time has a way of changing such things. “I didn’t get into this for the money,” he admits, “but by 2003, it got to the point where DJing was all I wanted to do to make money.” That’s when Bacon started taking seriously the idea of doing weddings. He began scouring flea markets to get records, and would stockpile Sinatra and
JUNE 2012
DJ Iron Mike began creating DJ sets as a child.
29
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SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS:— ARE YOU LISTENING? sidering trips to Las Vegas. For DJ business owners, of course, this will mean people considering getting married. As an example, Rappaport in his book used Harrah’s, which sought to increase bookings by sharpening its messaging to increase relevance and resonance with potential guests. Using a social-media listening effort to identify the most important conversation topics and themes, they sought to answer questions like, “What do people look forward to?” and “What will make their stay special?” Working with a major ad agency, the hotel chain did the following: * Scraped the top 50 posts from leading travel web site TripAdvisor. com, which overflows with consumer reviews and comments. * They broke them down into key topics and put them in order of importance. * They drew insights from them to recommend changes to communications and the Harrah’s website.
For most DJ business owners, message monitoring means finding people who are considering getting married.
According to Rappaport, Harrah’s learned that travelers frequently discussed the “iconic views” from, and the hotel amenities at, its Paris Las Vegas Hotel. It acted on these insights by changing its home page to show the view and nearby attractions, and started communicating details about the stay experience and features such as room size, menus, and spa services. As a result, Harrah’s marketing
Alterian SM2 (www.alternian. com/socialmedia): SM2 (formerly known as Techrigy) monitors mainstream media, blogs, and social media, and allows users to set alerts for selected conversations and topics. The program computes sentiments around each discussion and aggregates them to provide an overview of social media trends. Discussion clustering classifies and graphs all discussions around your business. Charts offer drill-down capability, to see the buzz generating trends, and are customizable. Brain Juicer (www.brainjuicer. com): This service specializes in insights development and validation, concept testing, product evaluation, communications testing, sales forecasting, and brand personality tracking. The company uses listening research to support its services, such as predictive markets, hybrid qualitative tools, (MindReader), visual ethnographer (FamCam), and, most recently, a “robot” avatar programmed to study
trends in the Twitter environments. B r a n d w a t c h ( w w w. b r a n d watch.com): Brandwatch uses its own program, called Crawler, which visits microblogging sites like Twitter; blogs including Blogger and WordPress; video sites like YouTube and Vimeo; social networks like Facebook and MySpace; discussion forums and news sites. Brandwatch also “cleans” the results by filtering out most irrelevant data, like ads and spam, which may match on key terms but are unrelated to the area of study. People use Crawler to collate information on topics called “queries,” which are uploaded to a workspace where users can view all the web activity trends on multiple topics simultaneously. BurrellesLuce (www.burrelles luce.com): BurrellesLuce provides media contacts, media monitoring, and media measurement. Offering humanedited and automated services, they cover traditional and online sources, including social media and paid sources. Their automated metrics include: story volume, media type, audience segment, and DMA. Custom metrics add finer layers of analysis: tone, share of voice, key messages, prominence, and marketing power. ChatThreads (www.chattreads. com): ChatThreads touchpoint service seeks to help brands quantify the reach, purchase, and trial impact of all their points of contact with consumers. Touchpoints evaluates many different media of consumer contact, including sampling; word of mouth; and online social, mobile, gaming, customer service, retail and traditional media. All parts of the transaction funnel are considered to provide a picture of how consumers are receiving a brand’s marketing efforts. Dashboards show real-time results of brand buzz, where available, while monthly insight reports assess data in a more detailed way—looking at how each touchpoint is performing compared to others in terms of share of voice (SOV); how other related brands are performing, if and how touchpoints are leading to purchase, and more. The conversations online are a key indicator to what your customers are thinking. Are you listening? Listen First! by Stephen D. Rappaport is available on Amazon.com and bookstores nationwide.
JUNE 2012
By Stu Fine
people claimed that web ad changes boosted online bookings by doubledigit percentage. But can you? The Harrah’s case reinforces an important point about social media listening research: any size company, from startups to global giants, can do basic work quickly and affordably. Simple and straightforward methods—requiring little more than a web browser, search box, cut and paste skills and following listening research principles—can yield productive insights. Although this example focused on travel, studies like these can tackle any topic—including DJ services, which can track wedding websites and bridal forums to add to the conversation and offer solutions to problems. DJs, of course, can measure, analyze and act on social media activity by using a variety of social media sources. The following tools, as per Rappaport, can help you track mentions of you and your company, your competitors, topics and issues, words or phrases of interest, and key influencers (people, blogs or sites). The primary purposes for monitoring are public relations, including reputation management, company and brand protection, and customer service, outreach and engagement. Pricing and licensing schemes vary—either a flat rate per user per month or tiered fees based on quantity, such as number of keywords tracked or the number of results returned.
DJ TIMES
Not too many DJ businesses can count on word-of-mouth to generate all their bookings. Like the rest of the business world, social media has acted like a spigot from which consumer insights flow, and these responses lead to an increase of growth and an enhanced branding message. Beyond just posting messaging on Facebook and Twitter, however, more and more DJs have been using socialmedia message monitoring to listen to people they’re interested in, and locating the conversation hubs where they talk about your services. For Harrah’s Casino, as described in a recent book Listen First! by Stephen D. Rappaport, this meant people con-
31
GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF
Channel Z Rane 10802 47th Ave. W. Mukilteo, WA 98275 (425) 355-6000 www.rane.com Rane and Serato have released three new mixers—the Rane Sixty-One, SixtyTwo and Z-Trip Limited Edition Sixty-Two. The Sixty-Two supports two computers and includes the SP-6 sample player, software and hardware effects, and two-deck digital vinyl simulation. Software controls are included for the SP-6, as well as for Library, Loops, and Cues. Z-Trip’s Limited Edition Sixty-Two Z Mixer takes the functionality of the Sixty-Two and adds a face plate design by Shepard Fairey and custom purple cables. The Rane Sixty-One supports one computer and features an integrated 20-channel sound card.
Are We Having Fun Yet? American DJ 6122 S. Eastern Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90040 (800) 322-6337 www.americandj.com American DJ’s Fun Factor LED houses both an LED moonflower effect and a white LED strobe. The Fun Factor LED uses more than 280 LEDs, five lenses and four strobe strips to create the effects, which can be run in DMX Control, Master/Slave and Sound Active modes. The moonflower effect is powered by 210 LEDs—60 red, 75 green, 45 blue and 30 white—while the strobe effect is created with 72 white LEDs. Both effects can be used together or independently.
Just Dance Future Loops www.futureloops.com Dance Percussion 02 is a collection of 353 percussion loops and 129 one shots from Future Loops. Designed for a variety of dance genres—including House, Techno, Progressive, Electro, Breakbeat and Chill-Out— Dance Percussion 02 features live performances all recorded at 128 BPM. The collection includes 114 conga loops, 126 bongo loops and 113 djembe loops. The one shots come up with fully customized percussion grooves.
Paint it Black
DJ TIMES
Pioneer DJ has released a new black chrome version of the company’s popular HDJ-2000 headphones, joining the original silver HDJ-2000s and the black HJD-2000-Ks. The headphones offer a high-fidelity frequency response of 5 Hz to 30,000 Hz and feature a removable mini-XLR connector, stereo/mono switch for one-ear monitoring, and voice coil rolled at the “optimum width and frequency [to] produce excellent balance from bass to treble,” according to the company. A matching HDJ-HC01 carrying case, which comes equipped with storage for accessories like SD cards and USB memory sticks, is sold separately.
JUNE 2012
Pioneer Electronics 1925 E. Dominguez Street Long Beach, CA 90810 (310) 952-2000 www.pioneerdjusa.com
33
LIL’ LOUIS
THE WIZARD
PUBLIC ENEMY
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DJ GODFATHER DRU
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DJ PSYCHO
EARL
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CALICO
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CLAUDE VONSTROKE
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dOP EDDIE
CARLO LIO
DERRICK CARTER
DOPPLEREFFEKT FOWLKES
ERNO
DANIEL ANDRES DILLON FRANCIS
DROOG THE
CASSY
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INFERNO
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FILSONIK B2B PATRICK (NY) GREG WILSON GRiZ HEIDI HOT NATURED (JAMIE JONES & LEE FOSS) IAN POOLEY
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JOHN ARNOLD
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JOSH WINK JUAN ATKINS KEEF BOXX KEVIN SAUNDERSON KEYS N KRATES KYLE HALL B2B JAY DANIEL LINDSTRØM
LOCO DICE
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MARK FARINA (MUSHROOM JAZZ SET)
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MATTHEW HAWTIN MAYA JANE COLES MICHAEL MAYER MICHAL MENERT MIKE HUCKABY MINNESOTA MR. C
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NINA KRAVIZ NO REGULAR PLAY OktoRed PHIL AGOSTA PHOTEK PIRAHNAHEAD PROJECT 313 PURSUIT GROOVES
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WOLF + LAMB ZEDS DEAD
DJ TIMES
JUNE 2012
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34
GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF
The Little Engine That Could D&M Professional 1100 Maplewood Dr. Itasca, IL 60143 (630) 741-0330 www.d-mpro.com Denon DJ’s Engine music management software is available as a free download from the App Store and can be installed on MAC, PC, iPad and entry-level ������������������� computers like netbooks. Engine integrates with iTunes and catalogs all of the user’s music files so that they can be transferred from a hard drive or USB stick. According to the company, Engine “continues to work within the devices and external media storage” even in the event of computer failure.
150 Proof Chauvet 5200 NW 108th Ave. Sunrise, FL 33351 (800) 762-1084 www.chauvetlighting.com Chauvet released the Intimidator Spot LED 150 and Intimidator Wash LED 150, designed for mobile DJs and club applications, especially with low ceilings. The Intimidator Spot LED 150 is powered by a 15-watt white LED and uses nine gobos and nine colors on separate wheels to create upwards of 80 different effects. The Intimidator Wash LED 150 features quad-colored RGBW LED and high-quality optics for color mixing. Both units feature built-in automated programs, dimming features, built-in movement macros and move-in-black features.
Rig the Game IK Multimedia 1153 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway Sunrise FL, 33323 (954) 846-9101 www.ikmultimedia.com DJ Rig is IK Multimedia’s new double-deck DJ mixing app for iPhone and iPod Touch. The program comes with a host of real-time effects, including reverb, delay and flanger, various pass-through filter effects, distortion, resonance effects and a new stutter effect. Effects are controlled with the XY touch interface and are automatically synched to the tempo of the song. DJ Rig features an “on-thefly” sampler that can access sounds from nine built-in sound banks, as well as CloneDeck, the new turntable modeling technology that provides realistic turntable “scratching” feel and sound.
Sir, Yes SR
DJ TIMES
The Gemini SR Series includes three active monitor configurations and one active subwoofer. The SR-5, SR-6 and SR-8 monitors are housed in black cabinets and feature neodymium drivers on soft-dome tweeters and bi-amped designs with volume and high frequency controls. These three models are equipped with five-, six-and-a-half- and eight-inch glass aramid composite woofers, respectively. Meanwhile, the SR-10Sub sports a 10-inch woofer with 175 watts of high-efficiency Class D amplification.
JUNE 2012
GCI Technologies 1 Mayfield Ave. Edison, NJ 08837 (732) 346-0061 www.gci-technologies.com
35
GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF
Call Me Hal Hal Leonard Corporation PO Box 13819 Milwaukee, WI 53213 (414) 774-3630 www.halleonard.com Hal Leonard Books has published Spin Now!, the new book and DVDROM from LA-based DJ, turntablist, producer, and classroom instructor DJ Shortee. The book teaches everything necessary to start mixing tunes. Topics include the basics of cueing, scratching, and dropping on “the one”; how to identify beats, count music, sync tempos, and match keys; and how to set up different gear and how to operate it correctly, among others. The included DVD-ROM contains specific exercises that follow the advice in the book, including material that lets users play along in real time.
The Social Network Alpha Books 375 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 (800) 631-8571 www.idiotsguides.com The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Facebook Marketing offers DJs strategic guidance on how to make the most of Facebook’s marketing tools, as well as why to use them, when to use them, how to make the most of them and how to integrate them into an overall marketing strategy. Written by successful PR leader and an expert social networker, the book covers such topics as setting up a successful brand strategy, making services appeal to distinct audiences, and using social networking to get customers into business doors.
Leave the Light On MBT Lighting and Sound 2456 Remount Road, Suite 305 North Charleston, SC 29406 (800) 845-1922 www.mbtlighting.com MBT Lighting and Sound introduced two new centerpiece effect lights. The LED8PLUS8 creates sweeping “flowering” effects utilizing eight scanning mirrors and 15 bright red, green and blue LED lights. The LEDSAUCER creates an effect the company describes as “a demented carnival ride effect.” It comes equipped with three bright, color-changing tricolor LEDs and a round head, covered with 20 clear lenses, that “spins while its entire support also turns and tilts,” according to MBT. Both models run in stand-alone mode or linked in master/slave fashion and controlled by a DMX controller.
Thumb Vestax
Control virtually any DJ application and/or lighting control application via MIDI and keystroke mapping.
The VCI-380 is the new two-channel DJ controller from Vestax. It comes bundled with Serato ITCH and comes equipped with FSR pads that trigger five different performance modes in Serato ITCH—Slicer, Roll, Sampler, Loop and Hot Cue. The unit features a built-in mixer, a 24Bit/48kHz audio interface, and jog wheels with LED needlepoint embedded in them for better visual monitoring. Additional features include EQ, fader curve control, and Pad FX, which applies FX to the five performance modes using after touch.
JUNE 2012
play the light®
American Music & Sound 22020 Clarendon St, Suite 305 Woodland Hills, CA 91367 (800) 431-2609 www.americanmusicandsound.com
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GROOVES TRACKS…MIXES…COMPILATIONS
Frankie Knuckles and Eric Kupper go straight for the jugular with this Black Ivory-sampling gem. The vocals come courtesy of B Slade, for a throwback to the big vocal tunes of the ’90s.
– Curtis Zack “NOTHING INSIDE”
u Sander van Doorn & Mayaeni u Doorn Records Surprisingly soothing for such dark subject matter, this tune’s radiant hues are painted by Sander’s warm symphonic melodies. And check Mayaeni’s soulful voice—haunting and ethereal. – Chris Davis
“BIPOLAR” EP u Mat Zo u AnjunaBeats A festival of trancey electro blips and beats, Mat Zo’s latest offers plenty of melodic undertones as well. “Ring On It” kicks the funkiest of beats, while the title track puts you at the controls of a spaceship—yes, that’s a good thing.
– Natalie Raben
“SOUNDS IN THE AIR”
u Joey Negro u Z Records
u Guy Gerber u Visionquest This haunting techy house EP overflows with dark rhythms, exhilarating effects, enchanting vocals and somber keys. Check “Snake Pit Dub” (only available digitally), a wicked, stripped-down DJ tool with a devastating breakdown, and “One Day in May,” a true party-starter with a funky bassline.
– Shawn Christopher
Old-school sounds courtesy of Martin Ikin (aka Soul Purpose) on his remix of Joey Negro. Skippy hats and big-vibe chords support the vocal samples perfectly and do some serious speaker damage.
u Loui & Scibi u Diamondhouse
This Shane D rework has the groove, the vocals and the first-rate production to make this a summer smash.
– Curtis Zack “KEEP ON WONDERING”
u DJ Fudge u Tejal
Super soulfulness here—a quality bassline and crisp percussion ensure this has all the right ingredients to make you move.
– Curtis Zack “DANCEHOLIC’S” EP u Mr. G u Holic Trax Four body-moving cuts here and we love the title track’s stinging bassline, as well as the trippy house flava of “Don’t Ever Dub.” Both “Don’t Ever Give Up” and “Guidance” deliver smooth, deep-house vibes and round out a very enjoyable set.
– Curtis Zack
– Phil Turnipseed
“SUNDOWN” u Grant Nelson u Swing City Nelson continues to deliver the goods, with a natural follow-up to “Spellbound.” More devastating piano and awesome grooves delivered as only Grant can do it.
– Curtis Zack
Corner
Download
“THE MIRROR GAME” EP
Pirupa
“GIVING YOU THE LIGHT”
“DANCIN’ FOR MY LIFE”
u Seb Skalski & Mista P u Purple Forming part of what is probably the essential WMC sampler, this Michelle Weeks-featured track is one you will hear all season. The combo of a great piano hook, Weeks’ imitable vocal and great production from the Swiss pair makes this essential listening.
– Curtis Zack
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 nextgeneration “record” stores (e.g. Beatport, iTunes, etc). “Sonar” (Original Mix) by Alex Acosta [Kult]: This track is all about the build-up. In fact, the track starts sans kick with low-slung, filtered-down percussion, and risers that seem to go on forever. After the tension peaks, we’re hit with a solid, bass-heavy groove accentuated with some tribal percussion— only to find ourselves into another build. Peak-hour stuff for sure! Found at beatport.com. “Broken Links” (Original Mix) by Noah Pred [Affin]: Funky, trippy, dubby—a yummy slab of tech-house. The head-nodding pitch-bent bassline keeps the momentum, while dark synth stabs, dubby echos, and reverberated synths bounce around the stereo field. Found at itunes.com “Mia” (Rodriguez Jr. Remix) by Dog Days [Gruuv]: Remember ’90s house? This outstanding release is sure to trigger the flashbacks with its diva vocals, chord stabs, and 808 snares. But the modern sub-bass techy groove brings it alive with a fresh sound that’s sure to rock today’s dancefloors. Found at beatport.com – Robert LaFrance
JUNE 2012
u Directors Cut u Nocturnal Groove
DJ TIMES
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EDUCATE
The DJ market on why your products are the best.
EXPAND
Starscape 35
Your business into an established, but still fast-growing, market.
Yamaha 15
INCREASE
Brand recognition with DJs of all kinds.
While every care is taken to ensure that these listings are accurate and complete, DJ Times does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors.
SELL
Equipment & supplies to an audience that is ready to buy.
JUNE 2012
9
DJ TIMES
Denon
41
Compiled As Of April 27, 2012
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 40
Kelly Clarkson Dev And Enrique Iglesias Madonna Blush Katy Perry David Guetta F/ Sia Erika Jayne Jessie J Rihanna Afro Jack And Shermanology Beyonce Hayla Body Lingo Deborah Cox Gloria Estefan Madonna Nash Kristina Korban Nicki Minaj Chris Brown Lucas Prata F/ Lenny B Taio Cruz F/ Flo Rida David Guetta F/ Nicki Minaj Madonna Eric Turner F/Lupe Fiasco &Tinie Tempah Linda Clifford Swedish House Mafia Vs Knife Party Wynter Gordon Swedish House Mafia Melanie Amaro Florence And The Machine Raquela Daniela Lauren Hildebrandt F/ Basstoy Parralox Gotye F Kimbra Stacey Jackson Madison Park NiRe AllDai Mika Newton J. Dash
National Urban Pool Chart
Stronger RCA Naked Universal Republic Girl Gone Wild Interscope Dance On Farwest Part Of Me Capitol Titanium Capitol Party People Pretty Mess Domino Universal Republic You Da One Island/Def Jam Cant Stop Me Robbins Love On Top Columbia I’m Free Halya-Dauman Yum Yum Gatorbait If It Wasn’t For Love Verve Hotel Nacional (remix) Verve Dirty Little Secret Mad Charm This Is Your Night Dauman Starships Universal Republic Turn Up The Music Jive First Night Of My Life Popnotch Hangover Universal Turn Me On Capitol Give Me All Your Luvin’ Interscope Angels & Stars Capitol How Long Nu & Improved Antidote Capitol Buy My Love Big Beat Greyhound Capitol R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Big Beat Shake It Out Universal Republic Tell To My Heart ISV Love Me Enough To Lie Robbins Devil Blue Plate Creep Sub Terrane Somebody That I Used ... Universal Republic Is This Love 3B1G Sunrise BasicLux Inside Out Capitol Don’t Dumb Me Down Friendship Transformer Stereofame
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 40
Travis Porter Ayy Ladies RCA Estelle Thank You Atlantic Rihanna F/ Calvin Harris We Found Love Def Jam Tyga Rack City Universal Republic Jay-Z & Kanye West Gotta Have It Atlantic Lil Wayne & Bruno Mars Mirror Universal J. Cole F/ Trey Songz Can’t Get Enough Columbia Mary J Blige & Drake Mr. Wrong Interscope Chris Brown Strip RCA Beyonce Love On Top Columbia LoveRance F/ 50 Cent Up Interscope Ophishal American Way Megablast Fat Joe F/ Chris Brown Another Round Terrace Drake & Lil Wayne The Motto Universal Brandy+Monica It All Belongs To Me RCA Drake+Weekend Crew Love Universal Young Jezzy F/Ne-Yo Leave You Alone Def Jam T.I. F/ Big Krit I’m Flexin’ Atlantic Younf Jeezy F/ Jay Z & Andre 3000 I Do Island/Def Jam Wale F/ Lloyd Sabotage Warner Brothers Bruno Mars It Will Rain Elektra R. Kelly Share My Love Jive Wiz Khalifa F/ Snoop Dogg & Bruno Mars Young, Wild & Free Roadrunner Miguel Girls Like You Sony Busta Rhymes F/ Chris Brown Why Stop Now Universal Republic Ca$h Out Cashin Out Epic J. Cole & Missy Elliott Noboyd’s Perfect Columbia J. Dash Transformer Stereofame Rihanna F/ Jay-Z Talk That Talk Def Jam Rihanna Birthday Cake Def Jam Chris Brown Turn Up The Music Jive Jennifer Hudson F/ Rick Ross & Ne-Yo Think Like A Man Epic Tank Next Breath Atlantic Drake & Rihanna Take Care Universal Meek Mill F/ Young Chris House Party Warner Brothers Trey Songz Sex Aint Better Than Love Atlantic Future Same Damn Time Epic Nicki Minaj F/ Chris Brown Right By My Side Universal Rihanna You Da One Island/Def Jam John Legend F/ Ludacris Tonight(Best You Ever Had) Epic
Most Added Tracks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Lauren Hildebrandt F/ BASSTOY Devil NiRe AllDai Inside Out Swedish House Mafia Greyhound U.V.U.K. Blink Stacey Jackson Is This Love Mika Newton Don’t Dumb Me Down Madonna Girl Gone Wild Gotye F Kimbra Somebody That I Used ... Monikkr F/ Lydia Hrela Illegal Nicki Minaj Starships
Most Added Tracks Blue Plate Capitol Capitol Robbins 3B1G Friendship Interscope Universal Republic Rocandence RCDS Universal Republic
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
John Legend F/ Ludacris Elle Varner Dj Khaled F/C. Brown Jill Scott Young Nino Beyonce Rebecca Ferguson Future Nicki Minaj F/ Chris Brown Tyga F/ Lil Wayne
Tonight(Best You Ever Had) Refill Take It To The Head Blessed Lookin Good Dance For You Nothing’s Real But Love Same Damn Time Right By My Side Faded
Epic RCA Universal Warner Brothers Stack Money Columbia Columbia Epic Universal Universal
Reporting Pools ✦ Dixie Dance Kings - Alpharetta, GA; Dan Miller ✦ Flamingo R - Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Julio ✦ Lets Dance / IRS - Chicago, IL; Lorri Annarella ✦ Masspool - Saugus, MA; Gary Canavo ✦ OMAP - Washington, DC; Al Chasen ✦ Central Ohio - Columbus, OH; Fred Dowdy ✦ NW Dance Music - Shoreline, WA; John England ✦ Philly Spinners Assoc. - Bensalem, PA; Fred Kolet ✦ Pittsburgh DJ - Pittsburgh, PA; Jim Kolich ✦ Soundworks - San Francisco, CA; Sam Labelle ✦ Rickett’s Record Pool - Saddle Brook, NJ; Bill Rickett ✦ Pacific Coast - Long Beach, CA; Steve Tsepelis
Looking for these titles? You can hear them and buy them at www.dancekings.com. Just click on the links in the chart. DDK has limited memberships available for qualified DJs in the US. We service CDs and MP3s in dance and urban formats. Feedback and membership dues required. 770-740-0356
45791
Kaskade
(continued from page 16) are listening and paying attention. With social media, it’s just easier for 230,000 people to get my message. The thing in L.A., I was just… it’s early afternoon, and I had no idea that 5,000 people would show up. That entire block was really… that’s a testament to the scene in general and how excited people are about the music! I’m not surprised at how into it people are, and I understand how rabid they are. DJ Times: This upsurge in your fanbase has been really organic. Kaskade: I don’t have any commercial support. I’m on a tiny indie dance label [Ultra Records] out of New York City. I don’t have the marketing budget of the majors. The marketing budget I have for the next five years is what some major-label artists will spend just today! In order to find my music and find me, you already have to be a fan and be into this. So, I’m not surprised when people on Facebook or Twitter are that into it. DJ Times: How does that kind of enthusiasm compare to when you were coming up and becoming a fan of DJ-driven music? Kaskade: That’s how it was 20 years ago when I got into this. I had to drive 20 miles to the Gramaphone Records shop [in Chicago]. Nobody on mainstream radio was plugging it. That’s why, when The New York Times writes an article, it’s difficult for people to understand that. This isn’t music we’ve shoved down anyone’s throat. This has been going on in the underground for a long time. The people who love it really love it! That’s what adds this community aspect to it in general. DJ Times: How thrilled are you to see commercial radio nowadays supporting dance music? Do you feel
somewhat vindicated? Kaskade: We’re right in the middle of the pop transition, and here it is. It used to be at EDC, you’d look at people on the bill and Moby was the only guy on a major label. But now, the top four, five acts have majorlabel signings. We’re in the middle of the transition of going from the underground to the mainstream. It’s happening right now as we speak. My neighbor, the banker, is discovering it right now. There’s good and bad to that. There are a lot of cool things and some that are not so cool. It’s a little terrifying seeing the thing you love getting exploited in so many ways, but it’s also cool to see new people discover this music. DJ Times: You’re still playing a residency at Marquee in Las Vegas. The America’s Best DJ awards party there last year demonstrated how passionate your fans can be. Tell us about your residency going forward? Kaskade: I’m doing a couple of pool parties this summer. I play once at Marquee night club; then I do Memorial Day at their day club. Vegas, in general, is just unbelievable. It’s really becoming America’s hotspot for nightclubs and music. Vegas has the infrastructure, some of the greatest hotels and entertainment and nightclubs. DJ Times: Las Vegas has really exploded. Kaskade: Three years ago, when I signed on at Encore Beach Club in Vegas, everyone was like, “You are crazy! EDM in Vegas will never work!” [laughs] It’s so funny that halfway through the season, it was just, like, “We turned away 5,000 people at the door! We should’ve built this place bigger!” [laughs] Before that, everyone was like, “EDM will never work in Vegas because it’s a hip-hop
town.” It was full that next year. Then, Tiësto signed up for a residency. The residency thing was such a new concept when I signed up to do it. Now, there are the top 10 to 12 guys having residencies, or more. There are a lot of guys [DJs]. So many people are moving to L.A., and to America. So many DJ/producers are moving here. DJ Times: You beat out some incredibly impressive names on your way to win the America’s Best DJ crown. What does winning ABDJ mean to you? Kaskade: It is very humbling, because I’m in the midst of my peers and many people I look up to musically over the years. So many of these guys, I’ve seen their shows. It’s humbling, but it’s something I take a lot of pride in. I’m very proud to have received this honor just because I am an American and I’ve been doing this a long time. We’ve had an amazing scene for a very long time. We gave birth to this music. This is truly an American art form. DJ Times: But not everybody knows that. Kaskade: So many people who are getting into this music now don’t know the history of what’s gone into making this so great. There are a lot of things that led up to this moment where EDM attracts 300,000 people, or with Coachella you can’t get a mile close to it, or Ultra Music Festival sells out to nearly 200,000 people. There have been a lot of people fostering the scene before money got into it. My small role and the recognition that I’ve gotten, I take so much pride in that. I’ve been a part of the California scene for 13 years, and 1997 was my first record release! I’ve been part of the American scene that’s so fresh and dynamic. I’m so proud of it.
DJ Times: What do you tell the aspiring DJ/producers then, those who look up to you and think to themselves, “How the heck am I ever going to be the next Kaskade?” Kaskade: [laughs] That’s the wrong way to look at it! You don’t look at the end, because then it’s overwhelming. Don’t try to be me— be you! Do what you do! Find what you love about music and find your scene and work really hard at it, and if you’re doing what you love, it’ll never seem like work. Spending 20 hours a day working on a track you love, that time will fly by. Just recognize your strengths and what you do best, and try to give it your all, and do it honestly. There was no money in house music a decade or 15 years ago and I was doing it because I loved it. It was my passion, and the fact that it’s brought me to this place… I’m doing what I love. n
Sounding Off
(continued from page 27) easy to position, and nice to use. Conclusions: With the DJ Control Air controller/audio interface with DJUCED, XPS 2.0 80 monitors, and DJ-Adv (or DJ-Pro) headphones, Hercules successfully delivers a competent, capable kit of all the moving parts an aspiring or new DJ needs to add to his or her computer to enter the world of DJing, and does so at a very attractive (if not plain amazing) total street price of less than $500. A great-looking controller, capable software, a decent set of monitors and a nice pair of headphones are not only within reach of virtually anyone, but these tools are no doubt capable of continuing to serve the needs of a DJ until well after they’ve developed their chops and honed their style.
On Returning: PvD Revs His Engine
Paul van Dyk, Next Month in DJ Times
DJ TIMES
Because I’m back, bitches!
JUNE 2012
So what?
Photos by Christoph Kostlin
OK, I left the spotlight for a minute…
43
KEITH SHOCKLEE As a founding member of Public Enemy Keith Shocklee has been defining and defying musical genres for over 30 years. “The future is the past! We’re taking new music to the streets in New York… it’s how we did it before Public Enemy and it’s happening again today - very organic and powerful.” Keith and his mobile DJ’s, Power5, trust their PRX600 speakers to deliver devastating grooves night after night. “PRX’s bang hard! We record on JBL LSR4300 monitors and when we perform live our PRX’s sound identical, just ten times louder. And, at 3:00 am after the smoke clears, their lightweight is heaven. JBL is the bomb!”
Photos by: James DeMaria
Learn more at jblpro.com/prx600 Check out Keith at keithshocklee.com
POWERFUL. RUGGED. VERSATILE.
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