DJ Times April 2014, Vol 27 No 4

ARMIN VAN BUUREN IT FEELS LIKE

AMERICA’S FIRST MAGAZINE FOR PROFESSIONAL DJs ESTABLISHED 1988

APRIL 2014

$4.95 US $6.95

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MIAMI MUSIC WEEK ISSUE WMC, ULTRA FEST & MORE! BEATING WINTER WEATHER HOW MOBILES RESPONDED

THIS IS WHAT

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PERFORMS UNDER PRESSURE

REMIX-STATION 500 The REMIX-STATION 500 features a diverse range of effects to change the development of music and produce new rhythms by adding sound sources, etc. It also features a “PRESSURE Controller” with knobs that can be operated not only by rotation but also, in an industry-first, by intuitively pressing to change effects parameters, enabling various musical arrangements to be made with a single knob. The device can also be used for music production and as a plug-in controller when connected to your PC/Mac, allowing you to produce music with the same effects and feeling of control you get when using the device for DJ play. It’s official...the Remix-Station 500 Performs Under Pressure.

Remix music with Rhythm FX, Scene FX, Release FX, and intuitive control thanks to the “PRESSURE Controller”

Can be used as a MIDI controller with support for USB-MIDI standard, and can be mounted on the Pioneer DJ X-Stand

QUANTIZE function analyzes music in real time and synchronizes effects

Soundcard enables connection to headphones or speakers directly

AUTO BPM function automatically measures and follows music tempo

Bundled with VST/AU/RTAS plug-in and builtin soundcard for intuitive music creation

REMIX STATION 500

INDUSTRY EVENTS…NOTABLES…MILESTONES

MIAMI MUSIC WEEK: WMC, ULTRA FEST & PLENTY MORE

By Jim Tremayne Miami Beach, Fla. – Once again, as the end of March nears, the DJ/dancemusic community sets to head south for what’s become known as Miami Music Week. In reality, it’s 10 full days and nights of club events, festivals, conferences and general dance-industry activity.

Highlighted by Winter Music Conference and Ultra Music Festival, Miami Music Week will find the DJ/dance-music industry getting its collective schmooze on, while thousands of EDM fans show up to party South Beachstyle. As usual, DJ Times will be there exhibiting, commiserating and flexing its brand from Sunday to Sunday.

Winter Music Conference: Running March 21-30 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the 29 th annual WMC will present 10 days and nights of DJ-driven events/parties, two days of exhibitions, and five days of seminars. Seminars sessions will include “A&R Listening Workshops” and will tackle such topics as “Innovations in DJ and Production Technology,” “Legal Issues and Advice” and “Club Culture.” WMC will also present a “Featured Q&A” session with Hardwell, plus the annual “DJ Spin-Off” and “VJ Challenge.”

Also, on March 27, WMC will also present its annual International Dance Music Awards, which will bestow honors in 57 categories to the industry’s best music, gear and personnel.

Ovum Party: Ultra Music Festival: After a Josh Wink celebrates 20 years.

2013 event that stretched to six days over back-to-back weekends, UMF will revert to one robust three-day weekend. Set for March 28-30 at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami, the 16th annual event expects to draw 165,000 fans to see EDM’s top talents playing on eight stages. Many of those stages will be heavy on production with contributions from visual pioneers V Squared Labs.

Mainstage performers for Friday, March 28 include Tiësto, Kaskade, Eric Prydz pres. Holo, Zedd, Diplo and Laidback Luke. For Saturday, March 29, they include Avicii, Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond, Alesso, Nicky Romero, Krewella and Martin Garrix. For Sunday, March 30, they include Hardwell, David Guetta, Steve Angello, Afrojack, Jack U, Sander van Doorn and Nervo.

Other Notable Events: Between March 27-30, Red Bull Guest House will take over the Gale South Beach Hotel with daily Rooftop Pool parties (2 to 8 p.m.) and late-night Breakfast Club parties (2:30 to 7 a.m.). Seven showcases from eight labels will feature more than 35 DJs. Rooftop Pool events include: Hot Creations (with Jamie Jones, Lee Foss and Art Department) on March 27; Owsla (with Skrillex) on March 28; Mad Decent on March 29; A Club Called Rhonda (with James Murphy and Tensnake) on March 30.

Breakfast Club events include: M_nus Records (with Richie Hawtin, Paco Osuna, Gaiser and more) on March 28; PMR Vs. LuckyMe (with Cyril Hahn, T. Williams, Cashmere Cat, Jacques Greene and more) on March 29; and Solomun +1 (with Solomun and Guy Gerber) on March 30.

SiriusXM Music Lounge at the W Hotel, March 26-28. As always, the exclusive soiree will include live-broadcast DJ sets and interviews with the industry’s main players. And you never know who will drop in for a chat or a spin.

Scheduled to appear at presstime: Armin van Buuren, Cedric Gervais, Andrew Rayel, Audien and Orjan Nilsen.

At Tree House on Thursday, March 27, Ovum Recordings will celebrate 20 years as a label with its annual bash. At presstime, DJ talent includes Ovum co-founder Josh Wink, Joris Voorn, Steve Bug, Ambivalent and D’Julz. Get your underground on.

Madness: Ultra Music Fest returns.

David Guetta: At Ultra Fest mainstage.

Hardwell: Set for WMC Q&A.

Skrillex: To play Red Bull Guest House.

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VOLUME 27 NUMBER 4

After a Landmark 2013, Armin van Buuren Looks to Top Himself Again With a Unique Arena Tour

BY JIM TREMAYNE

20 Glowing

Tensnake’s Groovy Debut Finds Him Fulfilling His Dreams of Youth

BY NATALIE RABEN

22 Weather Permitting

As Extreme Conditions Gripped the USA This Winter, DJs Had to Get Inventive When Fulfilling Their Gigs

BY JEFF STILES

DEPARTMENTS 7 Feedback

As Always, the Answers to All Your DJ-Related Questions

26 Making Tracks Mackie MRmk3 Monitors

28 Sounding Off

Audio Artery’s One DJ & Mixed in Key’s Flow

30 Mobile Profile

DJ Scores Big with Super Bowl Gigs

32 Business Line

The Right Way to Profile Your Customers

34 Gear

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

New Products from Roland, Pioneer & More

4

39 Grooves SAMPLINGS 8 Cash Cash Working Overtime

10 In the Studio With…

DEVolution

Phat Tracks from David Guetta, Claude Von Stroke & More

40 DJ Times Marketplace

Shop Here for All Your DJ-Related Supplies

41 Club Play Chart

The Hottest Records, As Reported by Our Top U.S. Record Pools

Cover Image By Chris Davison. Contents Image By Carli Hermes.

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FROM THE EDITOR

Armin’s Intense Year Even before EDM became a dominant musical force in America, Armin van Buuren was one DJ/producer who didn’t have to worry too much about maintaining his polarity with a stateside radio hit. After all, he’d been named top global DJ multiple times. He continued to headline top festivals and major clubs around the world. A State of Trance, his weekly radio mix show, kept growing in popularity. His professional life was good—and plenty lucrative.

But then in 2013, with the Grammy-nominated “This Is What It Feels Like” from his Intense album, he had his first big radio hit and, indeed, it opened up a new audience. So with that in mind, we flew down to South Florida this past December to see what 2013 really did feel like for van Buuren. We caught the Dutch DJ/producer (with featured vocalists Trevor Guthrie and Lauren Evans) performing in Sunrise, Fla., at Jingle Ball with top hitmakers like Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke. This would be a long way from playing Ibiza.

That fact wasn’t lost on van Buuren. Still, he embraced the opportunity, while still looking ahead to what 2014 had in store. Fast forward a few months and we have his current “Armin Only—Intense” world tour, which will hit a half-dozen North American markets in April and May. Expect a mixture of freestyle DJing and choreography, plus a few surprises. Van Buuren certainly isn’t standing still.

Other Music: In Samplings, new writer Julia Sachs connects with Cash Cash and finds out how and why the Jersey trio transitioned from band to DJ/EDM act. Motor City scribe Rachel Skotarczyk goes into the studio with U.K. duo DEVolution and sees how everything old (like 2-Step Garage) is new again. Closer to home, New York contributor Natalie Raben interviews German sensation Tensnake, who offers details on Glow, his ’80s-tinged debut album, which features contributions from the legendary Nile Rodgers.

In this month’s review columns, it’s all Wesley Bryant-King. In between building his own house in the Rocky Mountains, our Denver-based tech scribe found time to take on several new products. In Making Tracks, he tests out Mackie’s MRmk3 monitors in his studio and, for Sounding Off, he checks out new DJ software—Audio Artery’s One DJ and Mixed in Key’s Flow.

In the world of mobile entertainers, Business Line details “The Right Way to Profile Your Customers,” while Jeff Stiles takes a look at how DJs handled an especially brutal winter. In Mobile Profile, we visit with Ian Ali, a New Jersey DJ who greatly benefitted from having Super Bowl XLVIII played in his own backyard.

This being the April issue, we also take a look at Miami Music Week, which includes the 29th annual Winter Music Conference, the 16th annual Ultra Music Festival and plenty of other events (like the SiriusXM Music Lounge) that are sure to light up South Beach and beyond. We’ll dive deep into DJ-land and prep plenty for the schmoozing that awaits us. Pass the tanning butter.

And before we close, I want to give a shout out and offer thanks to the MUSIC Group (and its pro-audio brands Behringer, Klark Teknik and MIDAS) for inviting me to join an international contingent of press and distributors for its 25th anniversary celebration in Zhongshan, China.

In addition to visiting its current factory, we saw the building site of its future factory—several buildings over a million square feet ready to accommodate 10,000 workers making products for nearly every M.I. segment, including DJ. Impressive stuff. Congrats and thanks for the opportunity.

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

Cheers,

6

editor-in-chief Jim Tremayne jtremayne@testa.com

art director Janice Pupelis jpupelis@testa.com

editor-at-large Brian O’Connor boconnor@testa.com

production manager Steve Thorakos sthorakos@testa.com

chart coordinator Dan Miller dmiller@testa.com contributors Jody Amos Tom Banham Joe Bermudez Wesley Bryant-King Ally Byers Chris Caruso Shawn Christopher Paul Dailey Reed Dailey Chris Davis Josh Harris Robert LaFrance Michelle Loeb Lily Moayeri Phil Moffa Natalie Raben Scott Rubin Julia Sachs Jennifer Shapiro Jeff Stiles Emily Tan Phil Turnipseed Curtis Zack Innes Weir President/Publisher Vincent P. Testa FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TO ORDER SUBSCRIPTIONS, CALL 800-937-7678 VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.djtimes.com

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brand design & web development manager Fred Gumm fgumm@testa.com digital media manager Chris Davis cdavis@testa.com advertising manager Jon Rayvid jrayvid@testa.com art/production assistant Douglas Yelin dyelin@testa.com Circulation circulation@testa.com Classifieds classifiedsales@testa.com 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 © 2014 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 April 2014

Jim Tremayne Editor, DJ Times

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NAMM ORE GEAR GALE YOUR UPGRAD AGE ONLINE IM 2/4/2014 4:53:13 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.

After more than a year removed from its previous incarnation (October 2012), Moogfest—“The Synthesis of Technology, Art and Music”—is set to return to Asheville, N.C., home of Moog Music. Scheduled for April 2327, the event has expanded to five days and will add more technologyoriented sessions to complement its already popular mix of music and art.

Of course, DJ Times will participate, as it has in every year since the event moved to North Carolina.

The Music: The biggest news for Moogfest ’14 is that electronic-music pioneers Kraftwerk will play a pair of “Kraftwerk 3D” shows. But the iconic German group isn’t the only legendary act on the bill—Moogfest will also present Pet Shop Boys, Giorgio Moro‑ der, Bernie Worrell Orchestra and Chic feat. Nile Rodgers.

Other major acts will include M.I.A., Flying Lotus, Zed’s Dead and Moderat.

Top DJs scheduled to play include Dil‑ lon Francis, Art Department, Audion, Green Velvet, Mark Farina, Metro Area, Sasha, RJD2, Soul Clap and TOKiMO‑ NSTA. Moogfest will also offer showcases curated by a number of labels, events and collectives, including Warp (Lon‑ don), Fool’s Gold (Brooklyn), DFA (New York), Ghostly International (Ann Arbor), Movement (Detroit), Winsdish Agency (LA and NYC), AF‑ ROPUNK (Brooklyn), Hopscotch (Ra‑ leigh), Switched On (Austin) and No.

19 (Toronto).

The Sessions: On the speaker sched‑ ule, Moogfest will present a slew of technology leaders and artists. They will include Roger Linn, Dave Smith, Giorgio Moroder, Tom Oberheim, Keith Emerson, Janelle Monáe, Brad‑

ford Cox, Dan Deacon, King Britt and Nick Zinner.

Moogfest will also present its 4th Annual Circuit Bending Challenge.

This year, Moog’s contest challenged entrants to take a battery-powered device and circuit-bend it into an in‑

strument capable of creating new and unique sounds for a total budget of $70 or less. At Moogfest, five finalists will battle to win three unique Moog products.

For the latest information on Moogfest ’14, please visit www.moogfest.com.

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SAMPLINGS Cash Cash: (from left) Jean Paul, Sam & Alex.

Meghan Benson

Back in 2008, you may not have known about Cash Cash unless you were a frequent Hot Topic shopper or avid attendee of the annual Vans Warped Tour. The band-turnedDJ-trio—currently consisting of brothers Jean Paul and Alexander Makhlouf and Samuel Frisch—began its music career as an alternative-pop/electronic group, but soon realized that producing was its true niche.

The last few years saw the New Jersey-

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

CASH CASH: WORKING OVERTIME

8

based trio break into the world of EDM with the release of its remix of Krewella’s hit “Alive,” as well as its own single “Take Me Home” (featuring Bebe Rexha) that premiered on Nicky Romero’s Protocol Radio.

As “Take Me Home” (from the “Overtime” EP) began to crash the pop charts, DJ Times connected with Jean Paul Makhlouf while he and the group prepared to kick off its three-month “Overtime Tour.”

DJ Times: Your EP, “Overtime,” is a lot different from the music you’ve released in the past. What inspired you to make this change?

Makhlouf: It was kind of just like going back to the drawing board and seeing where we shined and where we were weak. We’re stronger producers than we were a band/electronic group. We slowly evolved by remixing for other artists and that would raise the bar for our own production. We always leaned towards electronic; back in 2008, we were like a Cobra Starship kind of group. We were very heavy with synths and keyboards. Even back then, we would produce, record mix and master in our own home studio, so it was really easy for us to learn the tricks of tweaking different knobs and stuff like that.

DJ Times: Did the recent boom of EDM in the mainstream music world influence you at all?

Makhlouf: For us, I think it was kind of just the way the times were going, not the actual music industry. We came out of a place where we had gotten dropped from our record label and were wondering what to do. I was like, “I think we’ve taken it as far as we can go with being an electronic group and we should just be producers behind the scenes.

We can do a lot of collaborations and just do fun stuff,” and all of the sudden here we are.

DJ Times: Do you think we’re going to see a lot more artists and

bands converting to electronic dance music in the future?

Makhlouf: Maybe, I think it’s tough because it’s not really something you can just go into without the experience of DJing and producing. For us, we were producing music from the beginning so the transition was really easy. I definitely see different people trying to get into it.

DJ Times: What’s your onstage set up like now?

Makhlouf: It depends on where we’re playing. With a late-night set, we can’t really bring things like our sampler or a computer. A lot of times we’ll set up a tracked interface and we’ll trigger vocals or one-shots and that will go into the mixer where one of the guys can filter or beat master it. If we don’t have room for that, we’ll just do CDJs. DJ Times: So, why progressive house?

Makhlouf: We’ve always liked house

music, but we definitely change it up a lot. We’re always trying different instruments, sounds, and tempos because we get sick of staying at one tempo for too long.

DJ Times: Did the transition affect how you worked in the studio?

Did you ditch the live instruments?

Makhlouf: We try to incorporate instruments as much as we can just because it brings a sense and feel to the music that you can’t necessarily always get with a computer. We use a lot of piano and guitar.

DJ Times: So what do you use to produce now?

Makhlouf: We record, produce, mix, and master all of our music on Cubase.

DJ Times: What roles to each of you take in production?

Makhlouf: We all know how to produce and record because we came from that producing world.

Alex is more keyboard-oriented, so his brain is thinking more in chords and music theory, while I’m going by the emotion that I’m feeling in it. Sam is kind of in the middle. It’s a good dynamic between the three of us.

– Julia Sachs

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IN THE STUDIO WITH

DEVOLUTION:

simple, though.

DJ Times: From [2011’s] “Good Love,” there’s been a subtle, but definite, shift in style. What sorts of things influenced you to push your sound?

Devereux: I’m never too far from the ’90s, that ’90s garage/2step sound.

Devos: I’m obviously getting my influence from Pete actually revealing his records.When Pete was DJing garage in the ’90s I was listening to loads of heavy metal, Stevie Wonder and quite a lot of drum-n-bass. I think with “Good Love” it was our first entry into the commercial side of dubstep. We quickly realized there wasn’t much more to do with that sound— it was suddenly becoming something quite limited. The move back to house and garage started with the Stooshe remix [for 2012’s “Black Heart”] and that just felt very comfortable.

DJ Times: Pete, what led to you leaving Artful Dodger and why the long break between then and the creation of DEVolution?

Devereux: In a nutshell, it was due to the garage scene imploding.

It had run its course and, for what-

ever reason, it wasn’t the scene it was. We had put the album out, we rinsed a lot of singles and it was just a natural time point of proceedings to call it a day. It was also a very, very stressful time. I think we both just wanted a break from the pressures that come with it all.

DJ Times: In your mind, how has garage evolved from 2000 to 2014?

Devos: Well, garage was predominately 2-step earlier on. I think people have pushed for 2-step to sort of come back, but I don’t think it will take off now in the way it did originally.

Devereux: It was quite crewbased, the old 2-step scene, like So Solid Crew— very MC-based. Now there are MCs coming through on records, such as Scrufizzer, so that’s interesting.

DJ Times: If you had a crystal ball, what would the electronic scene look like in 2024?

Devereux: [Laughs] I think it would be a stadium gig headlined

by DEVolution, everyone watching it on their mobile phones, and there will be no one there— we will be playing to a place full of avatars.

– Rachel Skotarczyk

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

2ND TIME AROUND

10

For many recent converts to the sound of garage-infused house, it seems that DEVolution has only been on the scene for a short while.

The U.K. duo’s success with the 2013 “Arrival” EP (Black Butter Records) put them on the map and into the hands of established Black Butter DJs like Kidnap Kid, Woz, Gorgon City and Rudimental. And “Too Much Heaven,” their collab with R&B vocalist MNEK from their recent “Transitions” EP, has further established the pair as major genre players.

But Peter Devereux and Tom Devos have been making music together since 2011 and both have plenty of industry experience. Devos was an artist signed to Spinnin Records, while Devereax was one-half of Artful Dodger, a hitmaking 2-step garage act from the late ’90s. This second act has been well-considered.

With a follow-up album already in the works and a tour on the way, Devereaux and Devos connected with DJ Times.

DJ Times: How did the two of you connect?

Tom Devos: We started firstly on a project called BL&G [BootLeggers and Gangsters] with a white

label, two–sided, and it got to No. 1 on the drum-n-bass charts.

Pe t e r D eve re u x : I w a s a bootlegger and Tom was a gangster [laughs]—no, I think we were both probably ready for a change.

Tom had given up and sold all of his equipment… you need to be a certain type to work on your own with studios being lonely places.You need someone to bounce ideas off and enjoy gigs, etc. We had both been aware of each other as Southampton is a small town and, yeah, we got together four years ago.

DJ Times: How do you balance the creative energies in the studio?

Devos: I usually have an idea of something I want to do rhythmically—I’m always thinking about that consciously. We found, straight away, that we both do things that the other one doesn’t. We kind of fit together like a puzzle.

DJ Times: Speaking of the studio, what are you using these days?

Devos: We use Ableton for sequencing and various vintage synths for making our sounds, mostly classic Roland and Korg stuff. We love using UAD for plugins, like the Massive Passive and Ampex Tape simulator. It’s all pretty

DEVolution: (from left) Devos & Devereux.

Get Hexed

APRIL 2014

DJ TIMES 12

Miami Beach, Fla. – It’s the week before Christmas and I pile into an SUV with Armin van Buuren and crew at the Fontainebleau Hotel.

Before we know it, we’re streaking north up I-95, discussing van Buuren’s whirlwind year. Like many of his recent professional escapades, this trip will represent another first for the mega-popular DJ/producer, but it’s also the culmination of a previous 12 months unlike any other.

The destination? The Y100 Jingle Ball at the BB&T Center, a 20,000seat hockey arena in very suburban Broward County, 35 miles away from South Beach. As one of 12 stops on Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour, the event would see van Buuren sharing a concert stage with the year’s biggest hitmakers—Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Robin Thicke, Enrique Iglesias, Jason Derulo, etc.

And with his international smash— the Trevor Guthrie-fronted “This Is What It Feels Like”—still burning up radio, van Buuren finally had joined fellow DJs like David Guetta and Calvin Harris as a bonafide hitmaker himself. This would be another big night, but for an audience completely

13

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

DJ TIMES

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Coronation Gig: Armin joined onstage by King of The Netherlands Williem-Alexander & Queen Máxima.

14

different from clubland or the festival eco-system.

To the Stage: Following Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” is no easy feat these days, but van Buuren manages just fine with his twotune set. With van Buuren stationed in a mid-stage DJ booth, Lauren Evans belts out “Alone,” another trance-tinged anthem from van Buuren’s Intense fulllength. Then Guthrie strides out to deliver one of the many radio earworms the multitudes came to hear.

The opening piano chords ring out and Guthrie coos, “Nobody here knocking at my door…” On cue, the fans rise throughout the arena, seemingly with one collective thought: “Oh, I love that song!”

Soon they’re singing along with Guthrie and things are soaring—“And I don’t even know how I-I-I-I survive...”

When the drop comes, we find an arena full of 40-ish mothers pogoing with their middle-school-aged daughters. It’s a moment for sure and, perhaps, a new demo converted.

But it went like that for van Buuren in 2013. Not only did the Dutch DJ’s well-crafted single break onto American pop radio, it also earned a Grammy nomination in the “Best Dance Recording” category.

In April, his groundbreaking A State of Trance radio mix show celebrated episode 600 with a simulcast from a sold-out Madison Square

Garden. Aside from playing the world’s biggest summer festivals, van Buuren also DJed with the Royal Dutch Symphony Orchestra for the coronation celebration of his new monarch—The Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander. If that wasn’t enough, in July, he and his wife Erika welcomed a new son, Remy.

So, what does he have in store for 2014? Plenty. If you know anything about the goal-oriented van Buuren, it shouldn’t be surprising that he’s challenging himself further on his new “Armin Only—Intense” tour. The jaunt will find van Buuren rocking global arenas for six hours at a time, complete with freestyle DJ moments, choreography, guest vocalists and plenty of on-the-fly production. With a half-dozen Live Nation-promoted North American dates running through May, then gigs in Mexico, Australia and South Africa to follow, 2014 promises more mountains for van Buuren to climb.

Our I-95 convo went like this: DJ Times: Let’s talk about the tour. To me, it seems as if you’re in a better position than most DJs to do a big arena tour like this. You have a longer backstory, you have ASOT, a fanbase that’s built organically over the years and, now finally, a hit record.

Va n B u u re n : I a g re e .

I’ve been blessed with a really strong fanbase, really the best fans in the world, because they listen to the radio

show every week. If there’s one thing I’m proud of in my career is that I started the show at a time when even my manager thought I was crazy for doing a two-hour radio show every week: “Are you crazy? Nobody does that!”

DJ Times: Now everybody does it.

Van Buuren:Yes, it started a whole new thing with radio shows. Obviously, I wasn’t the first—we had Pete Tong and Judge Jules and all that. But for an independent DJ to do it on an independent radio station on a weekly basis—and displaying all his tracklists—it was a lotta work, but it was a new thing.

DJ Times: Back to the tour, what’s going to be different about this one?

Van Buuren: I want to give people the idea that when they come to my show, it’s going to be unique, something they haven’t seen before. So this is the biggest thing I’ve ever done and it’s unlike anything any DJ’s ever done, if I may say so. For me at this point in my career, it would be so much more easy to grab my USB key—which is in my left pocket right now—and tour the world. I’d grab my headphones and play “This Is What It Feels Like” everywhere, raise my hands, cash in and say, “Thank you very much!” I’ve done that.

I’ll still do that and I enjoy that—there’s nothing wrong with that…

DJ Times: But… Van Buuren: From a creative point of view, it’s not so

inspiring anymore because mixing itself is not as difficult as it was with vinyl or with the first CDJs. Now the thing practically mixes for you—I mean, you have to be a real idiot not to be able to mix with CDJs. You can do quick mash-ups, which we do— it’s fun, it’s OK. But I wanted more.

DJ Times: The technology affords that now.

Van Buuren: So yes, “Armin Only” is a six-hour, nonstop DJ set for which we’ve written specific software, so that the [tech] people backstage and at Front of House can see what I’m playing.

There are choreographed moments, but it’s still a live, freestyle DJ set. Every set that I play will be different.

There are all kinds of surprises that we’ll have in the show.

DJ Times: Some on-thefly production, then?

Van Buuren: Yes. I really wanna be able to tell a story during the night and I really believe this is where DJing is going. More than just playing records in an order, it’s interacting with people, giving them a full night of entertainment, something exciting that lifts the bar to the next level. I think I owe it to my audience and to myself to get

out there and do something new. Believe me, it would be much easier financially just to grab that USB key and play everywhere around the world.

DJ Times: Looking back on 2013, what was playing the royal event like for you?

The coronation of a king isn’t exactly like getting another club gig…

Van Buuren: Musically, it was a hurdle because I was asked only seven weeks before the actual event. So everyone had to get on their toes. Also, at that point, we had another tour going on— that same month, I played at Madison Square Garden for A State of Trance 600. It wasn’t like the whole team didn’t have enough on its mind already! But, you know, if the king calls, you just drop everything [laughs]. For Holland, it was a really big day.

Actually, it was one of the most glorious days I’ve ever felt in Holland. Everything came together.

DJ Times: Working with the orchestra must’ve been challenging.

Van Buuren: Yes, it was.

We ended up doing “Intense,” the opening song from the album, and they chose “The Bolero,” which has a pretty consistent rhythm pattern,

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DJ Times: You mentioned the Garden show—it’s a venue you’ll be playing again this year. What was that like for you?

Van Buuren: Call me naïve. I’d heard of the Garden before, but I didn’t know that it was such a legendary location. But I found out, for example, that John Lennon played his last concert there.

Michael Jackson and Madonna played there and it’s a big sports venue. It’s right in the middle of Manhattan and you can see it from the sky and it’s a pretty big deal [laughs].

I realized that this is holy ground for any artist to play.

It was a special night.

DJ Times: You’re seeing a lot of new people getting into this music now, some of them wanting to become a DJ. Do you remember what it was like to be a fan, before you were a DJ? Van Buuren: Well, I’m still a fan [laughs]. But yeah, when I started listening to dance music, there was no DJ industry, there was no scene in the U.S. When I listened to dance music for the first

time, it was 1988, then on through 1991. That’s when I bought my first turntables.

That’s when I started mixing.

At that point, there was not a lot of money to earn from the industry. You couldn’t even dream of being a real big DJ simply because there was no industry to support it. In The Netherlands, there were maybe one or two magazines that wrote about it, maybe one or two radio stations that played it. But there were a few events that drew 2,000 or 3,000 people—that was the beginning of everything.

DJ Times: What made you want to do this?

Van Buuren: When I was 8, a friend of mine started talking about a Dutch DJ named Ben Liebrand. He sampled the weather report from the news and he put it on the beat of Janet Jackson’s “Control.” He could put his voice right on the beat of Janet Jackson and I thought that was so cool, and it immediately sparked my attention. I was already interested in music, but I wanted to know how that was done.

DJ Times: Do you remember your first DJ setup?

Van Buuren: Yeah, I had a 2-channel Numark mixer with a modified cue so that

I could hear the master output, if I wanted. I also had two JB Systems belt-driven turntables because I didn’t have enough money to buy Technics turntables [laughs]…

DJ Times: A familiar story…

Van Buuren: They were OK—you could mix with them. But, yeah, when I got a Technics SL-1200 turntable that was a moment for me. At first, I only had one [laughs].

DJ Times: What advice would you give upstart DJs today?

Van Buuren: There are two very important bits of advice that I always give to DJs. Firstly, your quickest way to the top is to make a track that other DJs play because that’s how you’ll get noticed.

Make something that other people want to play. Secondly, make something that sounds current, but is unique. Don’t just copy stuff that’s already out there. If you’re going to make another “Animals” by Martin Garrix or another Deadmau5 track, remember, it’s already been done. It’s fine if you like that, but try not to sit on that wave and look for the next wave that will come. It’s difficult to predict. But it’s hard to make it to the top by copying what

effects that, at the press of a single key, sound like they took painstaking hours to create…

“Stutter Edit’s an effect that repeats fragments of audio at rhythmic intervals and it can be used on any track, whether it is the master fader, a bus, or a single audio track. Imagine accessing Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, or, well, BT at the push of a button.

Stutter Edit is capable of a great deal of sounddesign possibilties.”

– Phil Moffa, Sounding Off, July, 2011

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other people are already doing.

DJ Times: For the ASOT radio show, how do you manage to maintain such a long-running thing and keep it fresh?

Van Buuren: By doing skits and stupid little things like “The Oath” [laughs]. I think I made the show for myself maybe, first and foremost. I want to make a radio show that I would actually listen to and enjoy. I try to stay away from being boring or repetitive. Having said that, I think it’s important to have items that fans can fall back on, like the “Tune of the Week,” “The Classic,” “The Future Favorite.”

DJ Times: It certainly keeps them involved.

Van Buuren: I have to be honest: Without the support of the fans, I would’ve already [finished ASOT]. I think 500 would’ve been a great number to end it. I seriously considered that. But it just seems to get bigger and bigger with the events surrounding it now and the fans wanting it more and more.

DJ Times: How has it changed?

Van Buuren: The mixing is faster now. There are almost 30 tracks per show each week. Everything is shorter, so we’re really adjusting to the signs of the times. But the formula is still the same when I started—it’s still the

latest of trance and progressive in a two-hour, non-stop mix every week.

DJ Times: Obviously, you’re in a unique position as a tastemaker.

What producers are you feeling right now?

Van Buuren: The biggest names I’m excited about are Mark Sixma, Andrew Rayel, MaRLo—they do really well. Photographer and Simon Patterson are still really rocking it for me.

DJ Times: When you’re playing a club, what do you require in the booth?

Van Buuren: My current setup is a [Pioneer] DJM-2000 mixer with four CDJ-2000nexus players. As I said, we use the nexus players because we have the specific software written for those CDJs, so my team can see which tracks I’m playing and what visuals they can sync up. So, no matter how big or small the system, we can always work with the visuals.

DJ Times: What can fans expect from you in Miami for WMC/Ultra week?

Van Buuren: For Ultra, loads of new tracks. Actually, I’ll be premiering a few new ones in Miami. I’ll be doing A State of Trance on the stage again. I’ll be debuting a few new Gaia tracks, so I’m excited about that, too.

And we’ll be doing a live radio show to celebrate episode 650 of A State

of Trance—The New Horizons Tour.

DJ Times: Were you surprised that “This Is What It Feels Like” found such an audience, especially here in the States? What quality resonated with people?

Van Buuren: First and foremost, it’s a really good song and people can relate to it. The lyrics are very powerful, the melody is uplifting and it just has a natural feel. You try to do that with so many songs and it just doesn’t happen. With this one, it just did. A magic happened that you just cannot always capture. There’s something universal about it. And it proved my theory that a good song is a good song, no matter when it’s written or released. But there’s something melancholy about “This Is What It Feels Like” that just appeals to a bigger audience.

DJ Times: So what did the Grammy nomination mean to you and your team?

Van Buuren: I tried to explain this to them that, for an American artist, being nominated is a pretty big deal—it’s like an Oscar, I guess. But if you’re nominated for a Grammy and you come from The Netherlands… that is national news, headline news.

Yeah, it’s pretty surreal.

DJ Times: Why do you think we’ve seen such a cultural change in

the States for this music?

Van Buuren: Things are just different in the States. Radio is obviously a very important factor and I think that in 2008 there were a couple of tracks that were groundbreaking.

You had Fedde le Grand’s “Put Your Hands Up for Detroit” and the David Guetta tracks. A little before that, you had Delirium “Silence.” There were small signs. I actually remember in 2005 when P. Diddy came to Amnesia [in Ibiza] and he was standing in my DJ booth. Looking back, it was like, OK, he already knew that something was going to happen with electronic dance music in the States.

DJ Times: So playing a series of Jingle Balls is a far cry from playing Amnesia, right?

Van Buuren: Yes, but you know what I think? As an artist, there’s a natural flow in your life and if you follow that flow… I don’t want to do the same thing over and over again.

I want to evolve. It’s actually very exciting. It’s like we’re investing in our future clubbers [laughs]. For a lot of the [Jingle Ball] audience, it’s the first time they’ll see a live show and they’re with their mom or dad, and we’re introducing them to EDM. Having said that, I’d be more than happy to go back to Amnesia, or any club for that matter [laughs]. n

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APRIL 2014

DJ TIMES 20

Inspired by his older brother’s disco records, Marco Niemerski caught the music bug early.

“The first record I can remember I had in my hands was a Best of Chic record,” says Niemerski (aka Tensnake). “I remember I saw those guys there with suits, like having fun on the cover, and I grew up in the suburbs of Germany where it’s not very super-exciting and I was like, ‘I wanna do that one day’ or at least have as much fun as those dudes on the cover.”

And who knew that, one day many years later, he’d be having plenty of fun in the studio with Chic’s main man?

Indeed, on Glow—Tensnake’s bumping Astralwerks full-length—he collaborates with Nile Rodgers for two sleek movers (“Love Sublime” and “Good Enough to Keep”). The two “met” via Facebook message, sent by Tensnake to Rodgers on a whim. Talk about fulfilling the dreams of youth.

While Glow is his first artist album, Tensnake has been pumping out groove-laden, ’80s/’90s-tinged releases on indies for several years. The Ibiza anthem “Coma Cat,” which came out on Permanent Vacation in 2010, put Tensnake on the map. But don’t be fooled, there’s nothing sleepy about this snake. “It’s mainly about keeping it exciting for myself,” he says. “So, it’s always about doing something new, you know.”

In the midst of an especially frigid winter, DJ Times caught up with the Hamburg, Germany-based DJ/producer at Astralwerks’ Manhattan office and we discussed Glow, spinning, and his studio approach.

DJ Times: How did you approach the album as a whole?

Tensnake: In the beginning, I didn’t really have a creative idea. I just knew that I wanted to put an album together that you could listen to from the beginning to the end, that doesn’t get bored or too boring in the middle, that you could listen to before going out or when you come back home. And I knew that I did not want to put a collection of club tracks together, so then I had to justify myself putting out an album. Then the rest came together naturally.

You know, you just keep on working on songs and some you like more than the others and some fit together and then you know you build little piles of songs. It is like a puzzle and then it comes together. You don’t always know if it really works. You just keep on working and suddenly it makes all the sense. Hopefully...

DJ Times: What’s your favorite cut on the album?

Tensnake: I really love “No Color,” the instrumental track, and I really like “Feel of Love” with Jamie Lidell. I mean, every song is so different.

DJ Times: Your sound is such a modern synthesis of disco and ’80s, and each track kind of reflects the combination differently.

Tensnake: Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I love music from the ’80s, but also, it has been done, and we move on. So I try to make it modern with a little vintage touch.

DJ Times: Speaking of the ’80s, how did you link up with Nile Rodgers?

Tensnake: I heard that he was reaching out to producers and that he was looking for people. He beat cancer and I guess he just wanted to leave footmarks and to make music as much as possible. So I sent him a message on Facebook and got in touch with him. I didn’t expect a reply, but after 10-15 minutes, I had an inbox message from Nile Rodgers! I was like, “This can’t be!” I was jumping up and down.

DJ Times: What did the message say?

Tensnake: He was like, “Yo bro, love your stuff. I’m in Milano, just played a Chic show... I’ve got to check out your new stuff when I’m back in New York.” That’s how it came together and then it took a while. There was a little bit of silence and then I finally met him two years ago at The W in Miami [during WMC week]. He’s such a legend and I’m so happy for this massive comeback, which is due to Daft Punk. I mean, they were the first.

DJ Times: Seeing Nile Rodgers and Daft Punk on the Grammy Awards this year was pretty surreal.

Tensnake: I think the times are very exciting at the moment for music in general because, obviously, in America for a long time you had rock music and hip hop. You know, those were the big two genres here. Then suddenly, EDM exploded and the youth had to catch up with the electronic sounds. If people are always complaining about EDM—it’s too this, too that—I’m like, it doesn’t matter. Let everybody listen to what he wants to and, second, if 10-percent of those people discover the next step—house music—and that it comes from a city like Chicago or Detroit... I feel like there is a big window of change going on at the moment.

DJ Times: Let’s hear about your production process.

Tensnake: Well, my studio is pretty small, to be honest. I have a not-so-small collection of synths, like old-school synths, but they are not all hooked up all of the time just because my studio room is more like a project studio. I don’t have a mixing console, so I’m working in the box.

DJ Times: Your sequencer?

Tensnake: I work mainly in Ableton Live. I use it as a classic sequencer mainly in the arrangement view, not in the session view—there are two different views in Ableton Live. There’s like the modern way to go and I use it in the old-school way. For Glow, for the first time, I took everything on a hard drive with me and I went to London to the studio and I mixed it together with an engineer, Ash Workman. There’s a lot of retro and vintage touch in there and I wanted to sound more warmer and analog, so we mixed it on a big Trident mixing console, which is most famous, I would say, for the ’70s rock sound. It’s pretty rough-sounding, in a way, and not my favorite mixing console. I prefer the SSL desk from the ’80s. But yeah, that was good. We put everything back on tape, so we had tape saturation and we had the warmth of analog recording and that was pretty much the process of Glow.

DJ Times: How about your set-up in the DJ booth?

Tensnake: Well, when I started playing out, I only played live sets, which means I always have a MIDI controller with me. These days it’s the APC from Akai and a laptop. Then I got bored of my own sound. If you play every weekend, you just get bored and I didn’t have enough tracks to keep the set exciting for myself. So I started playing

APRIL 2014

DJ TIMES

Chic Sound: On “Glow,” Tensnake collaborated with Nile Rodgers.

regular DJ sets, but still with a laptop, so I don’t use CDJs when I come to the club. I bring my MIDI controller, which gives me some freedom. I have a patch, which was especially designed for me from a guy from U.K. It’s built-in and it’s called Max for Live, which is a nerdy little language in Ableton Live, and it just allows me to do instant edits and remixes of tracks.

DJ Times: On the fly, nice.

Tensnake: Yeah.You can do the same with CDJs.You know these days, the mixers have so many great effects in there and you’ve got sampling functions. You can loop, have white noise, whatever you want. It’s just a matter of what you prefer.

I think, long-term, I will switch to using CDJs for the clubs and then work on putting a live show together.

DJ Times: What are your top clubs right now?

Tensnake: Well, definitely the Robert Johnson [near Frankfurt, Germany]—it has a very good reputation. It’s not the biggest club. It’s quite small, but it’s by a river [The Main], so in summer, when the sun comes up… It’s also in an industrial area, so you can be as loud as you want to. You open the windows, people are smiley. It can be very beautiful. Also, the sound is super-crisp in there.

DJ Times: Where else?

Tensnake: It’s always great to play at Panorama Bar in Berlin. But I think that’s too easy. Everybody loves Panorama Bar. The Trouw in Amsterdam is a very good club. The people are very nice, the crowd is nice and the sound system is also very good. That’s a good one. And also, I have to say, I had a good time at The Electric Pickle in Miami.

Speaking of the States, I really love U Street Music Hall in Washington—it’s fantastic. I think it’s one of the best clubs in the States because the sound system is insane. It’s really good! Going back to Europe, maybe the Lux in Lisbon. That’s also a very nice club.

DJ Times: Top three producers of the moment?

Tensnake: I have to admit, I didn’t have enough time to listen to new stuff lately, but I really love Dusky. Everything they do is on fire at the moment.

They’re also really nice guys. One of my favorite albums from last year was [Pull My Hair Back] from Jessy Lanza.

It came out on HyperDub and it’s not a club album at all, but it’s a weird, minimal fusion of R&B and electronic music. It’s very good. It’s produced by Jeremy Greenspan who’s half of Junior Boys. It’s very beautiful, but he’s not a new producer. But it’s a brilliant album.

Number three? OK... Number three... ummm, Tensnake! n

21

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DJ TIMES 22

These past few years, Adam Weitz of A Sharp Production in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has been wondering if he might be related to a certain biblical character.

“I don’t know whether Noah was a relative of mine and God is simply giving me the burden, or if I’m just able to endure the stress,” he says, “but I seem to have personally been targeted with more storms, ice, flooding and snow and hurricane than ever before.

“As far as the winter weather, I’ll tell you it’s been as brutal here in Pennsylvania—and in Philadelphia, in particular, we’ve just been nailed all season.

And although I do sympathize with some of Atlanta’s recent ice, I think that Philadelphia has definitely gotten the brunt of the storms.”

Although Mark Haggerty of Denon & Doyle in the San Francisco Bay Area hasn’t had to deal with snow or ice, the serious drought in California has impacted that company’s business with longer-than-normal shipping times for products they order—and people being forced to move ceremonies indoors instead of using the typically beautiful outdoor settings in that state.

“We’ve not had a drop of rain since a freak shower back in September until the Super Bowl,” says Haggerty, “so I’d say that qualifies as a serious drought!”

The Midwest and Northeastern regions of the United States were basically shut down a few times earlier this year due to a “polar vortex” winter storm; Southern cities such as Atlanta and Raleigh came to standstills when snow and ice hit their typically balmy metropolitan regions, and California is in the midst of a drought of similarly biblical proportions.

How do mobile DJs best deal with extreme weather? How do we continue earning an income when weather events tend to keep most people (including our employees) inside their homes?

According to Artem Lomaz of Ninety-Three Entertainment in Ledgewood, N.J., inclement weather certainly poses its challenges to people in the mobileentertainment industry, and not just for clients who endure stress because of severe weather around the time of their celebrations.

“It does create anxiety for everyone involved, as no one wants to postpone a celebration—especially if friends and family have traveled from afar for the event,” he says. “It could keep guests who are traveling from making it due to the weather, which is disappointing for the guests of honor and their families.”

As far as it concerns Ninety-Three Entertainment, Lomaz says the mere threat of severe weather tends to change their company’s planning process. “I factor in additional hours for travel and preparation, depending on the severity of the weather,” he explains. “I typically like to get to my events as early as possible to begin preparing, but weather complications make me even more aware of the urgency to be at the venue as early as can be.

“Managing your travel time, preparation adjustments and the nerves of your clientele is essential in keeping everyone at ease, including yourself and your team members, at an already potentially stressful time. It’s certainly an inconvenience—one that us New Jersey residents are becoming all too familiar with—but with proper preparation, safety measures, and time and communication management, the show almost always certainly goes on.”

Lomaz says another important aspect to consider is protecting equipment from the elements. “Wherever we store our equipment between events, and even during the travel to events—in a car that’s freezing, for example—we must take measures to protecting our equipment,” he says.

“I bring additional covers and blankets to cover my equipment during cold travel, which allows the equipment to warm up quicker once we’re at our

designated venue and prepare to set up.

“In-between events, I also cover equipment in order to maintain a certain temperature around it so that it doesn’t get too hot or too cold while it’s being stored.”

While he doesn’t have any truly terrible horror stories to relate in terms of weather, Blake Eckelbarger (aka DJ Sticky Boots) in South Bend, Ind., says the snow coming off Lake Michigan can sometimes make conditions there pretty tough during the winter.

“We always have a small number of school dances that get canceled due to weather every winter,” he says. “We’re usually notified the morning of the event, since oftentimes school gets canceled altogether and so do all extracurricular events. But occasionally, a dance sponsor drops the ball and we aren’t notified.

“With the Internet and instant news-on-demand these days, I’m very proactive in following the schools we work with if I suspect an event will be canceled. But back in the day, more than once, we braved incredibly dangerous conditions to arrive at a school for an event—only to find the doors locked, or a solitary custodian who informed us the event was canceled and no one had bothered to tell us.”

Sticky Boots says that when one of his events is canceled due to a storm, they are eventually still paid per their contract, but that doesn’t make the drive back home any less white-knuckled.

“Today, having AAA for roadside assistance, an emergency, cold-weather, survival kit in the vehicles, plus at least one member of the staff on call to bail us out, if necessary, is a prerequisite in dealing with wintry conditions around here.

“We also keep our gear in a heated storage area, so it’s not so cold after loading in, but sometimes even then, just the journey to the gig and the load-in in sub-zero weather can lead to gear not performing as expected. It was especially bad in the days of CD players, when the lenses would fog up with condensation. We now simply try to leave as much time as possible prior to the show for warming up.”

While he’s experienced both extreme cold and extreme hot weather events from New York down to Miami and the Caribbean, DJ Carl Williams of DJCarl. com in New York City says he’s also experienced the cancellation of parties and weddings due to hurricanes.

“As a small business, it clearly hurts financially when an event has to be canceled due to acts of God,” says Williams. “I’ve been extremely fortunate to not have had

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DJ TIMES

many situations where parties had to be canceled due to the weather. In fact, during my career I’ve had more canceled weddings due to a change of heart either by a groom and/or bride than from bad weather.

“As far as equipment not working properly due to weather, I’ve also been lucky to have had no circumstances occur during the event—knock on wood.

However, I prefer to play in cold weather than in humid and hot weather. As professionals, we all know that keeping our gear cool is always better for it, so playing when it’s cold never concerns me. My only concern is if anyone will show up to a cold or windy event.

“Now, when it comes to humid and hot environments, such as in the Caribbean and Florida, anxiety does make preparation somewhat daunting. It’s a situation when I must have back-up equipment ready to go right away. These days, for example, I never want my music [laptop] to be in direct sunlight.”

Similar to Williams, JR Silva of Silver Entertainment in Orlando says he’s had gigs canceled and be rescheduled due to hurricanes coming to town.

“I can remember being at first frustrated because of a last-minute weatherrelated cancellation, and then an hour later being thankful that I was not on the road, or away from my family in such a storm,” Silva says. “I’ve found I need to go with the flow and, like the client, error on the side of caution or safety.”

Being in Florida, Silva says he often gets asked to do quite a few parties outdoors, by the pool and in the sun.

“One thing clients have a hard time understanding, and it’s particularly obvious, but heat and DJ equipment do not mix,” he says. “And like Hawaii, we often encounter a tropical rain around 4 in the afternoon. You can feel the air shift and you may or may not have enough time to put your gear away or cover up with a tarp. When I learn that an event is being held outside, I immediately ask my client if there is a tent being provided, or if I have to bring one along.

“Many clients have not thought things through, so I have to bring it up because without a canopy I may or may not be able to read the screen on my mixer, laptop or music controller. Clients are quite naive to this and often want me to bring the tent myself, which I do, but I feel this is an ‘add-on’—more to reserve and deliver—and not a given.

“I always have to feel things out and decide in my sales process if I’m dealing with a smart event planner or not. A smart event planner or caterer in my

market is considerate of the weather and how it affects both the guest and the talent.”

Back in the Midwest, Michael Lenstra of Alexxus Entertainment in Dubuque, Iowa, says there’s no more scenic a location to get married than in a vineyard during the autumn season, with Mother Nature providing a vivid color palette in the background.

At least that was the intention of one of his couples that scheduled their ceremony at Park Farm Winery in Bankston, Iowa, in October of 2012.

But what they didn’t account for was that Mother Nature would instead provide an all-day downpour, complete with below-normal temperatures.

“All the outdoor pictures were canceled,” he recalls, “the wedding party huddled into the winery’s hospitality room seeking warmth, and to add to the disappointment of the day dinner—which featured ribeyes and chicken fillets cooked over a charcoal grill—was over an hour late because the coals would not get hot enough.

“As an entertainer, all we could do is try to make light of the situation by playing some of those ‘rain’ songs, such as ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain’ by CCR and ‘Rain on the Scarecrow’ by John Mellencamp, along with a few slow songs to create some body heat.”

Fortunately, since that awkward reception of two years ago, Lenstra says that particular winery has put a new policy in place by not booking any outdoor weddings before May 1 or after September 30.

Back over in Pennsylvania, Scott Goldoor of Signature DJs in Plymouth Meeting says that over his years of DJing he’s had about a dozen times when one of his venues experienced a power outage. In these cases, he says he uses a car power inverter to keep a party or wedding reception going.

Goldoor recalls one event at a country club with 150 guests, during which the power went out and no generator could be located. “This happened about halfway through the cocktail hour, so the ovens in the kitchen were not operational,” he says. “The venue lit candles, and had a handful of small battery-operated fans from the kitchen they brought into the ballroom to keep the guests comfortable.

“I simply brought my SUV right up to the front door, which was the closest point of access to the club, and then ran about 150 feet of extension cord in through the front door to where I was set up in this particular ballroom.”

Of course, it was a drain on the vehicle’s battery, but Goldoor says he would rather have had the show go on than not at all (and would figure out getting a ride home if the battery died).

“For the first hour or so, I actually let my truck run, then turned the power off, and everything still ran fine, and DJed the party, people danced and the kitchen brought out some cold cuts and other snacks for the guests.

At the end of the night, numerous people came up to me and couldn’t have enough praise and accolades for thinking so quickly and on my feet.”

Other than 10-15 minutes of downtime when he pulled his truck up to the door and got everything situated, Goldoor reports that the party turned out to be a successful event.

“That club has been recommending Signature DJs for almost 20 years now,” he says, “and I personally also DJed the general manager’s wedding about 10 years ago.”

Then again, sometimes generators do come in extremely handy. Just ask the aforementioned Adam Weitz, who learned from his experiences during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy—with torrential rain and even tornadoes touching down all around—that sometimes an alternative source of electricity can quickly pay for itself.

“During Hurricane Sandy in 2013, we were booked for a gig, and suddenly we had to deal with entertaining at a venue with no power,” he recalls.

“I went to Home Depot with a friend to buy four emergency generators, and from what I charged the client to bring generators to the party, I not only got back the money for buying those generators, but I also sold two of them later—so we ended up making money. (continued on page 42)

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MAKING TRACKS STUDIO…HARDWARE…SOFTWARE…

MR8mk3: Offers 85 watts of RMS power.

MR10Smk3: Sub extends low end to 35 Hz.

TIGHT MONITORS: MACKIE’S MRMK3 SERIES

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

By Wesley Bryant-King

26

Perhaps more than any other single investment you’ll make in a home studio, monitors are the most important.

No matter the quality of the rest of your studio components, inferior monitors will render everything else moot, skewing your perception of what it is you’re actually doing in your mix.

Seattle’s LOUD Technologies, parent of the Mackie brand, have rolled out some pretty innovative new loudspeakers in the recent past, including the DLM series loudspeakers (for mobile DJs and similar applications), which I reviewed in these pages in 2013. While Mackie’s new MRmk3 Series studio monitors may not embody the sorts of technical innovation that the DLM line represented, they’re still a pretty strong new contender in the mid-price band for monitors.

For this review, Mackie loaned me a pair of MR8mk3 monitors—the 8-inch version. While the company also makes a 6.5-inch and 5.25-inch version of the product, in my personal view, 8-inch main drivers are the smallest I’d consider for serious use, and given the attractive price point ($250 a piece, street price), I’m not sure there’s a solid case to be made for going smaller, other than perhaps home-theater use and similar applications.

Mackie also loaned an MR10Smk3, the matching companion sub-woofer.

With a 10-inch driver, the MR10Smk3 extends the low end to 35 Hz, while

allowing you to position the output of the low end of the bass spectrum on the floor where it arguably is most effective. The addition of the sub runs roughly $350 street price.

I’m a bit dubious about the use of sub-woofers for true studio monitoring and mastering applications; with this particular configuration (used with the 8-inch monitors), you’re gaining just 3 Hz of low-end according to Mackie’s own specs. In any event, in my experience, I’ve found using a sub-woofer in the studio skews the EQ balance of my mixes a bit, probably due in part to the challenges involved in tuning them to the room. Your mileage may vary, of course, and for outside-the-studio applications, the ability to add thunderous bass might well be a plus. Additionally, with the higher low-end specs of the smaller monitors (46 Hz for the 6.5-inch model, and 57 Hz for the 5.25-inch model), adding the sub might be the only way to get the full frequency spectrum you’re looking for.

Obviously, the MRmk3 series are all self-powered, with integrated amps perfectly matched to the drivers. The MR8mk3 monitors sport a 1-inch silk dome tweeter along with the 8-inch poly main driver, with RMS power of 85 watts for ample sound in the studio, while MR10mk3 sub pumps 120 watts.

I appreciated the physical design of the monitors. Both drivers are a bit recessed, making them perhaps slightly less vulnerable to casual physical damage (although with their largely unprotected drivers, virtually all studio monitors require some care when placing or moving them). And the slick, backlit Mackie logo on the front bezel to indicate “power on” was a nice, branded touch. Otherwise, physically speaking, they are roughly the same dimensions and weight as most 8-inch driver-based monitors I’ve worked with.

Connectivity to the MR8mk3 units follows the industry trend toward full flexibility—you can feed audio with XLR, balanced ¼-inch TRS, or unbalanced RCA connectors. The back panel also features a rotary level control, plus two levels of bass boost, and one level each of high-end cut and boost, all for tuning the monitors to your environment.

When you add the MR10Smk3 to the mix, the connectivity needs a little more robustness. Input to the sub is via XLR or balanced ¼-inch TRS, while output back to the monitors is provided as ¼-inch TRS only. For tuning, it provides a polarity reversal switch, plus a crossover frequency adjustment control (variable), and a rotary level control as well, with 0 as its center point, and up to 30 db of cut or up to 6 db of boost, depending on the direction your turn the knob.

The MR8mk3 monitors sport a rear-port design that the company says provides smoother, extended-bass response. Front vs. rear porting seems to be one of those things that engineers and marketers like to argue; I’m not convinced I’ve observed any substantive difference in one vs. the other, but to be certain, even without the matching sub, these babies have healthy, pure bass response according to my somewhat subjective testing gear. (My ears, to be specific.)

Listening back to past projects whose sound I know quite well, the reproduction seemed to me to be crisp, tight, and flat—as I would want it to be. And after a few weeks of testing in the studio, I have to say I’ve come to like them there. They sound great, they have a nice aesthetic, and given their great price point, I feel confident they’d make a great addition to nearly any home studio, whether you’re upgrading from smaller drivers, or equipping your first studio from a standing start.

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SOUNDING OFF PLAYBACK…PRO AUDIO…PROCESSING

SOFTWARE DUO: ONE DJ & FLOW One DJ: Slice & dice to your heart’s content.

Flow: Great for mixshows, podcasts & more.

By Wesley Bryant-King

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

It should go without saying that the growing interest in EDM over the past few years has spawned an expanding interest in DJing and the culture that goes along with it. Today, we have DJs of all experience levels and varying aspirations—from global stars to bedroom wannabes and everywhere in between—wanting to use professional-grade tools to learn, hone and perform the craft.

And while the big names in the business are still going strong, there are also newcomers wanting to get a piece of the action.

And so it is with DJ software.

Where Native Instruments’ Traktor, Atomix Productions’ Virtual DJ, and Serato Audio Research’s Serato DJ may well be the long-established players, some new entrants are on the scene, bringing along for the ride some new approaches. In this article, I take a look at two of these new entrants: Audio Artery’s One DJ, and Mixed in Key’s Flow.

One DJ: Finland’s Audio Artery introduced One DJ to the market in late 2013. I first saw an early demo of One DJ clear back at Winter NAMM 2012, and felt right away that some out-of-the-box thinking was brought to bear on the project. When I finally

28

One DJ supports live editing of tracks, letting you chop things up and move them around.

got the opportunity to review it, I was pretty stoked to dig in—which I did with the recently shipped 1.5 update of the software.

On the surface, One DJ presents a fairly standard approach to things that’s not unlike established applications: two decks, waveform displays, standard mixer controls like EQ and faders, and a browser interface for managing your music library. Plus, it supports a small range of controllers, and has MIDI Learn to support others.

But beyond the surface lies the unique capabilities of One DJ— namely what the company calls its “smart user interface,” and modular audio routing support.

The smart user interface allows you to configure your virtual “gear,” such as players, effects banks, browsers, and other elements, adding or removing as desired. The interface also allows fast zooming and unzooming to improve visibility and control when needed—handy on smaller laptop screens. You can also move things around, creating custom layouts that meet your own needs.

One DJ also supports live editing of tracks, letting you chop things up and move them around—perhaps most useful for mash-up jocks, but also providing any DJ a means to trim unwanted breakdowns or other undesirable segments out of otherwise satisfactory tracks, or for maximizing the strongest parts of any given mix.

Also among One DJ’s unique capabilities is a sophisticated audiorouting capability. Frankly, I’ve always envisioned something like this for

DAWs and the like as well, but in short, it’s an interactive, visual way of configuring the signal flow, fine-tuning it as you see fit.

Getting up to speed with One DJ was simple and straightforward enough—at least with the basics— but it wasn’t without some amount of heartburn.

To star t, the One DJ website shows that the American Audio VMS 4 is a natively supported controller, and since it’s the only such controller I had in my possession, I thought it best and easiest to start there.

One DJ provides a single-step wizard that supposedly gets things going, but while the mappings were generally correct, the main channel faders seemed to be double-mapped; one fader controlled the audio in both players, while another controlled just one of them. The crossfader was backward as well. In both cases, I couldn’t seem to figure out where the problem was, or how to fix it. Frankly, this probably says more about the difficulty of supporting all the myriad controllers on the market in any reasonable way than anything about One DJ specifically, but it was disappointing just the same.

Perhaps the greater disappointment was that, on my iMac, One DJ performed somewhat slowly in terms of the user interface. Movement of the waveforms was jerky rather than smooth, and mouse click response was slower than expected as well.

Considering my system performs well for other music applications, including my DAW, this was a bit surprising.

Finally, with flexibility and power comes complexity. While the interface configurability is novel, it involved a lot of clicking, and lots of menus. As with any software, practice makes perfect—but it was a bit intimidating. Thankfully for most new users, the default interface is likely just fine as-is.

One final nit I might have to pick with One DJ: It appears that metadata is not stored in a central database as with many DJ applications, but rather, with small files stored to the file system alongside the audio file.

That makes for a lot of file-system detritus—not a plus in my view.

In any event, One DJ is new to the market, it’s currently in its 1.5 version, and as such, one can be confident that it’ll continue to improve over time. And despite some minor annoyances here and there, it’s usable, offers a number of innovations and, at just 50 Euro (roughly $68 at press time), is worth consideration—especially among DJs looking for greater control over their working environment, and an ability to slice and dice material to their heart’s content.

Flow: Mixed in Key is perhaps best known for its product of the same name—a solution that’s become synonymous with making the art of harmonic mixing something that’s within reach of any DJ. The company has been hard at work cranking out additional offerings for their DJ software repertoire, including MetaBliss for managing metadata tags in digital music libraries. And now the com(continued on page 42)

MOBILE PROFILE CAREERS…INNOVATIONS…SUCCESS STORIES

DJ SCORES BIG WITH SUPER BOWL GIGS

Ian Ali: Club skills, corporate gigs.

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

By Neil Cortez

30

Union, N.J.—Perhaps being born on the Island of Trinidad, where music is ranked as a life necessity right between water and food, would inevitably lead one to a life of working behind the decks—or at least that’s a good working theory for Ian Ali. “I grew up around electronics and a father who DJed—Disco Tazz,” says Ali, current owner of Lifetime Entertainment.

When he moved to Jersey City, N.J., at the age of five, he was again influenced, this time by his cousin Andy’s teenage friends. “They had a pair of belt-driven Technics and a Radio Shack Realistic mixer,” he says. “I practiced whenever I got the chance on borrowed gear until my father bought me my first pair of Technics 1200s by my 12th birthday.”

He soon convinced his seventh-grade teacher that he could DJ, and the teacher allowed him to spin the Halloween dance that year. The result was his first paid gig. By high school, Ali quickly made friends with a high-school senior, Archer, who was spinning at all the dances.

“I performed a quick demo at his house and I instantly became his newest record carrier/backup DJ,” he says. “After being seen spinning at these dances, I was approached by students to DJ their house parties and Sweet 16s. I then created a DJ group called B.O.S.S. Productions [Boys of Superior Sounds], which had members in all the local high schools. That led to playing more dances as well as larger local events. My father and I built all of my own speaker cabinets, so we were known for having a larger sound system than the other groups.”

When he first started B.O.S.S., all gigs were generated by word of mouth— much like it is today. Says Ali, “Chatty teenagers pre-Facebook were the best form of advertisement.”

After high school, Ali became friends with nightclub promoters in New York City, and spun at clubs for a good 10 years before teaming up with a buddy, MC Mike Wolk, and transitioned into doing private parties. “I took that experience and club-style mixing to the private-party scene and became very popular,” he says. “Although my guys and I are very diverse and can play for any crowd, we all have a similar background. We can seamlessly transition from Sinatra to Jay Z to EDM and make it all work. Some of my guys are from established DJ groups, like Elite Camp and Illvibe Collective, and are still involved in the club scene and frequently make exclusive remixes for us to use at private functions.”

Today, Ali and crew, now known as Lifetime Entertainment, between weddings and corporate events book about 100 gigs a year. “Thankfully, I have a great team of guys that I turn to for support,” he says. “Many of my guys have

been in the business for years and share the same passion I do for customer satisfaction. We have frequent meetings to discuss things that work and figure out how to improve on things that need fine tuning.”

Gear-wise, Ali always uses Serato DJ software, two Pioneer CDJ2000nexus players, a Rane Sixty-Two mixer, a Shure ULX-P wireless system and Elation lighting, including the Platinum Spot 5R fixture. Depending on the gig’s size, he’ll use an ElectroVoice ZXA5 active speaker system or JBL Pro VERTEC Line Arrays with Crown I-Tech amps.

In the past two years, Ali and crew have developed a larger corporate client base. “I’ve reached out to more event planners who trust me with their large events,” he says. “Besides DJing, I also have a large inventory of microphones, LCD and projection screens, line-array speaker systems, and digital mixing boards for my corporate shows. I believe networking with other industry folks is very important. As in other business, landing gigs often boils down to who you know.”

This “who you know” ethos led to multiple events at Jersey City’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, becoming friends with several folks that work there.

The fruits of these relationships led to a referral for a pair of events that any DJ would do cartwheels over: Pre- and post-Super Bowl parties for

the NFL’s Denver Broncos, who were staying at the hotel. Says Ali: “I played everything from rock/classic-rock tunes, which they play at Denver’s stadium, to hip hop. I had a wide variety of ages to work, so I tried to keep everyone involved.”

Playing a party for the Broncos after they lost the big game wasn’t as easy, says Ali, even though the event also included a performance by The Roots. “Yes, it was challenging,” he says, “but the Broncos brought over 2,000 family and friends to the game, so the players did eventually partake.

At first, it was quiet, but everyone loosened up.”

Still, by all accounts, the players thought Ali was a hit, and if they had asked him what DJs he listens to, he would have said: “DJ Five out of Las Vegas, as well as Joe Maz out of Miami. Five has a certain aggressiveness on the decks, which sounds great on a solid sound system. Joe Maz uses a lot of wordplay in his mixing, which any DJ would appreciate. I think it’s a good practice for DJs to go out and listen to other guys for inspiration.”

We asked Ali where he’d like his business to be in five years: “Although weddings are my mainstay, I would like to grow my corporate business,” he says. “I would eventually like to work more of a normal schedule rather than working every weekend missing out on time with family and friends.”

BUSINESS LINE SALES…MARKETING…SOLUTIONS…

By Rick Coyle

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

THE RIGHT WAY TO PROFILE YOUR CUSTOMERS

32

“Getting a client to talk and react about their past will lead you to planning their future.”

– Mike Kindlick

Michael Kindlick at Jam On Sound Productions, Inc., in Reading, Pa., has devised a “customer-profiling” system, a behavioral-analysis methodology that helps DJs earn the trust of potential clients to increase bookings.

His system, distilled from his years as a high-school teacher, will be the subject of his DJ Expo seminar in Atlantic City, N.J., this August: “The C.S.I. of Customers: Customer. Service. Intelligence.”

THE ABCS OF PROFILING & BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS According to Kindlick, profiling is understanding a person’s behavior— the way they walk, talk, their facial expressions, how they react to questions and the environment around them.

“How a person reacts to questions and how they carry or present themselves helps to understand who that person is,” says Kindlick, who uses the term “behavioral analysis” instead of “profiling” to avoid negative connotations. “And knowing as much about a person’s background and characteristics will help you organize the specific details to create an event designed to their needs, and, in turn, help you gain their trust.”

HOW CLASSROOM TEACHING INFORMS YOUR BUSINESS Kindlick credits his experience as a teacher that has enabled him to analyze customer behavior. “In a classroom of 30 students,” he says, “each one is different and most likely will learn on all different levels. Each has their own personality. A teacher must possess the ability to reach students on their level of interest and learning style. There are seven levels of learning and all relate to the basic senses.

“Some students learn visually, others learn through sound enhancement, others will pick up on things they touch. Some learn more in groups, others learn better alone. To understand how a student will learn best, a teacher must understand who that student is and reach them on the level that fits their learning style. Tap into their strengths and help improve their weaknesses. Just as a good teacher should profile and understand his/her students, a good DJ can do the same with his/her clients.”

GAINING YOUR CLIENT’S TRUST Kindlick says you can “amaze” potential clients with how much you know about them by asking the right questions—and knowing the wrong ones. “Your questions should come from their personal information,” he says. “If you ask questions right away about their event, you are setting yourself up for your profiling to fail. This sounds strange but it’s true.”

Instead, Kindlick sticks to process and improv: “No couple or client is the same, so to ask all clients the exact same questions is doing what every other DJ company is doing. Now, should you not ask the general questions? What banquet hall? How many guests? Of course, but they need to come at the right time. I begin with two personal questions followed by one general question. This order depends on what and how they answer and react.

“For example, let’s say I start out by seeing a bride and groom that come into the office holding hands, smiling, firm handshake with me. I might lead off with, ‘So tell me how you two met?’ You can see they are in love and happy to be there with you. This will get them talking about themselves and who they are. You know by their body language, analyze how they react to you and one another and lead with your next question off of their first response. I might follow this up with, ‘How did he propose?’ If they answer short, maybe it wasn’t that exciting or planned.

“This tells you about their organization and how this may reflect their planning of the event. If the marriage proposal was elaborate, this means they will put the same effort into the event. My event question depends on their previous body language response. Getting a client to talk and react about their past will lead you to planning their future.”

THE WRONG QUESTION Kindlick says if a couple is talking about themselves and enjoying doing so, the DJ should recognize that they want to put themselves at the front. So following up with a question about their guests would take away the point of the first question. “If they appear shy and reserved with responses, then leading into a question about their family or guest needs at

the event might be the way to go,” he says. “It all depends on how well you learn to analyze a person’s behavior and the way they present themselves.

A person will feel at ease to be themselves if you show them you understand them and know things about them that they are not expecting you to know.”

HOW CAN A DJ PROFIT? If a customer is profiled, and prioritized by budget and what is important to them, you know whether or not you can offer them your “bellsand-whistle extras.” Says Kindlick: “Identifying customers to upsell is easy. They sell themselves when they ask about the extras. The basic-need customers will value your expertise, and will know that you understand who they are, and that you’ll help them to feel comfortable with you as compared to another company that is less expensive. Done properly, you can expect a closing sale rate of minimum of 90-percent or higher.”

YOUR “IEP—INDIVUDALIZED ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM” Simply put, says Kindlick, “IEP is about making the event a complete reflection of the client. Different from any other event because when you understand who they are from asking the necessary questions you will know what to suggest to them, what advice to give and how their event should be planned.”

This, of course, starts with their budget. “Never talk budget right away, profile first, ask questions second followed up by budget and prioritizing their event to what is important to them. You can help a client prioritize their budget around their answers.

You will know from the way they carry themselves and the answers they give to fit their budget around if DJ is important or not. Whatever their budget may be, they can be educated to spend the most amount of their budget on the No.-1 priority and break the budget down with less and less spent as they work their way down their list of event priorities.

“What is important to one client may not be to another, so breaking their budget down by priority will create an event designed to their values, and if done from profiling you can help them decide what may or may not be important. This will also keep them on budget and not have them spend more than they wish— one of their biggest complaints.”

Two top players, one crowd-pleasing system: Crown’s XLS DriveCore™ Series amps and JBL’s new JRX200 Series speakers.

Portable and powerful, the XLS Series provides crossovers, limiters, and multiple inputs to plug in anything and play anywhere. With an updated high performance compression driver and JBL designed low frequency woofer, the JRX200 series ensures you sound great every time you play.

For high performance that’s highly affordable, take the stage with Crown and JBL.

For more information please visit www.crownaudio.com LIFE IS A STAGE. ROCK IT. EVERY DAY.

©2013 Harman International Industries, Inc.

GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

Actively Speaking American Audio 6122 S. Eastern Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90040 (323) 582-2650 www.adjaudio.com American Audio has released the CPX Series of active loudspeakers. Perfect for mobile entertainers, the CPX Series features four 2-way models. They include: CPX-8A—200-watt system that features an 8-inch woofer and a 25MM voice coil on the driver; CPX-10A—250-watt system that features a 10-inch woofer and a 25MM voice coil; CPX-12A—500-watt system with a 12-inch woofer and a 65MM voice coil; and CPX-15A—500-watt system with a 15-inch woofer with a 75MM voice coil. Each system includes Class D amplifiers and each model is bi-amped with an active, time-aligned crossover. Clipping and thermal protections are also built-in.

Noise Makers

Lend Me a Pioneer Pioneer Electronics 1925 E. Dominguez Street Long Beach, CA 90810 (310) 952-2000 www.pioneerdjusa.com The DDJ-SZ from Pioneer is the latest product in the company’s family of Serato DJ software compatible controllers. The new unit is 35-percent bigger than the existing DDJ-SX model. It features the same 8.1-inch jog wheel found on the company’s CDJ players. The DDJ-SZ features two USB ports, eight extra-large velocity-sensitive performance pads, and four effects buttons—hot cue, roll, slicer and sampler. Two built-in 24-bit soundcards, low-jitter clock and a Wolfson highperformance digital-to-analog converter are used for accurate audio playback.

Thrown for a Reloop

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

RELOOP USA American Music & Sound 22020 Clarendon Street, Suite 305 Woodland Hills, CA 91367 (800) 431-2609 www.americanmusicandsound.com

34

The Reloop RP-7000 and RP-7000 LTD are high-torque, club-standard turntables that sport a sturdy construction, metal housing and scratch-resistant painted metallic finish. The units offer three selectable pitch ranges— plus/minus 8-percent, plus/minus 16-percent, and plus/minus 50-percent—as well as a high-resolution digital fader, reverse button, line/phono switch, and an adjustable start/stop time from 0.2 to 6 seconds. There are rubber inlays for reduced vibrations and ambient noise, as well as shock-proof feet and a vibration-resistant base.

Hal Leonard Corporation PO Box 13819 Milwaukee, WI 53213 (973) 337-5034 www.hallleonard.com Artist, producer and record-label owner Scott Binder released his new book, “Make Some Noise,” a comprehensive DJ guide that focuses on such topics as spinning while playing with a live instrument, goal setting, marketing, and choosing your music genre. The 200-page book is filled with one-page spotlights from some of the world’s biggest DJs, including Infected Mushroom, Judge Jules, R3hab, Todd Terry, DJ Chus, Max Graham, Umek, and Prok & Fitch.

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GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

Duke of Yorkville Yorkville Sound USA 4625 Witmer Industrial Estate Niagara Falls, NY 14305 (716) 297-2920 www.yorkville.com Yorkville Sound has introduced a line of Parasource Series powered subwoofers.The 900-watt PS12S is a 12‐inch active subwoofer designed for club venues. The 1,000-watt PS15S is a 15-inch active subwoofer for medium-sized club and concert applications, while the 1,200-watt PS18S is an 18-inch active subwoofer for larger mobile and club DJ applications and live sound systems. All three models sport a 15mm Birch plywood cabinet construction, Ultrathane painted finish, custom designed perforated all‐metal grille and all‐metal handles.

Classic Moves Roland Corporation US 5100 S. Eastern Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90040 (323) 890-3200 www.rolandus.com Roland has released four new music-making products in its AIRA series. They include the TR-8 Rhythm Performer, TB-3 Touch Bassline, VT-3 Voice Transformer, and SYSTEM-1 PLUG-OUT Synthesizer.

At the heart of AIRA is the newly developed Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) that faithfully captures the sound and feel of some of Roland’s most revered classics—like the TR-808, TR-909 and TB-303. It utilizes original design specs, consultation with original engineers, and a detailed part-by-part analysis of each analog circuit using Roland’s collection of pristinely archived drum machines and synthesizers.

Tweaker Tweaker Little Star Mixware LLC 11070 Fleetwood St, Unit F Sun Valley, CA 91352 (786) 362-5757 www.mixware.net Electrix Tweaker Live 9 Edition allows users to fully control their Ableton Live 9 session “and eliminates the need for a large and cumbersome rig,” according to the company. The unit features an integrated MIDI interface that allows it to sync with other devices, including drum machines, sequencers, or another computer running Ableton Live. It sports a clean, intuitive interface, multi-color LED visual feedback and a reinforced ABS and metal construction with a brushed aluminum top panel.

On the Right Trak

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

iXimix www.iximix.com

36

TrakProDJ Deluxe, the iOS MIDI controller for Native Instruments Traktor Pro, is now available in a new updated version. TrakProDJ Deluxe v2.5 now includes full support for Traktor’s RemixDeck technology. It is compatible with PC and Mac operating systems, and TrakProDJ also exists as a universal app that runs on both iPad and iPhone.

Features include four decks, assignable crossfader, four-channel mixer, loop control and low latency CoreMidi Wifi.

GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

25th Anniversary Moments

Jam Master Jay: When Run-DMC Came to Town…

Headphone of the Class Sennheiser Electronic Corporation 1 Enterprise Drive Old Lyme, CT 06371 (877)-736-6434 www.sennheiser.com Sennheiser has introduced a new line of professional DJ and mixing headphones that includes three new models. The HD8 DJ is designed for DJs, while the HD7 DJ offers a dynamic sound that works well for playing live and the HD6 MIX is aimed at studio-based music creation. The ear cups, which swivel 210 degrees for one-ear monitoring, come with an elliptical shape and two interchangeable ear pads—one in soft velour; the other in leatherette material. Both coiled and straight 3m highperformance cables are included.

“We were on tour with real bands, but we were the headliners because ‘It’s Like That’ and ‘Sucker MCs’ was so hot. Nobody knew who we were [or what we looked like], but the records were blazing—they’re on the radio all day long.

“We’d get to the venue and the promoter is paying us a G or something. The same promoter might’ve paid The Temptations the same thousand a week ago—they were a whole band!

But we’d come in and, back in the day, we just had one Calzone case with [turntables and] one big-ass GLI mixer in it.

“So it comes out and the promoter says, ‘Where’s the rest of the equipment? Where’s the

Stick Your Nekkst Out Behringer 18912 North Creek Pkwy, Ste 200 Bothell, WA 98011 (425) 672-0816 www.behringer.com The 150-watt K6 and 180-watt K10S subwoofer are the latest addition to Behringer’s Nekkst Series of bi-amped studio monitors. Both models come equipped with deformationresistant, glass-fiber cone woofers, which the company says results in deep, tight bass and smear-proof mids.

In addition, the models come with an ultra-high resolution, silk-dome tweeter and a high-density composite enclosure that reduces low-frequency distortion.

band?’

“I’d be like, ‘Yo! I am the band.’”

– Jam Master Jay, June 2000

READ ENTIRE INTERVIEW ONLINE djtimes.com

GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

One Direction EASTWEST www.soundsonline.com In celebration of its 25th anniversary, EASTWEST introduced its 25th Anniversary Collection. Thirty previously-released and discontinued titles have been reengineered and re-programmed to work in the PLAY software. For example, the construction kits and multi-channel drum kits are now all on different channels in the PLAY mixer, allowing the user to mix and customize everything. The 25th Anniversary Collection is available for download from the company’s website.

Tracks & Field House of Tracks www.houseoftracks.com House of Tracks is a platform for music producers looking to get their music out to media companies, TV producers, event organizers and more. Participating artists create a virtual label on House of Tracks where they can upload their tracks to the site. All submissions will then be assessed by House of Tracks professionals to ensure quality and if approved, they are put on sale for use in DJ sets, advertisements and more.

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

Rock Me Like a Hurricane Haze

38

Chauvet 5200 NW 108th Ave. Sunrise, FL 33351 (800) 762-1084 www.chauvetlighting.com The Hurricane Haze 3D from Chauvet is a water-based haze machine that delivers a higher output with less heat-up time than its predecessor, the Hurricane Haze 2D. The unit comes with a built-in digital display that sets DMX functions and haze and fan stand-alone settings. Additional features include a silent running fan and an automatic shut off when the tank is empty.

GROOVES TRACKS…MIXES…COMPILATIONS

Rebecca & Fiona

Designer Drugs

Celeda

“Keep believin’ that you can and that you will!” Meanwhile, the “Techno Dub Mix” provides more than a few tingles with its tasty Moroder-esque flourishes. The bitch is back.

– Jim Tremayne “HEAR AND NOW” u Karizma Feat. Osunlade u R2 Terrence Parker

Osunlade’s edit of “Hear and Now” is full of ethereal keys, whimsical pads, funky bassline stabs and hypnotic, memorizing, soulful vocals.Yoruba Soul brings some fluid flair to “One Note Jam” with a rich, smooth and techy take.

Xenia Beliayeva

– Shawn Christopher

“SHOT ME DOWN” u David Guetta feat. Skylar Grey u Jack Back A clear departure from Guetta’s pop anthems of the past few years, this track sees Skylar Grey taking the reigns of the chorus of Nancy Sinatra’s iconic “Bang Bang.” An explosive frenzy of percussion-laden drops and grinding pops gives the undeniable feeling that the French DJ/producer is aiming straight for the clubs and festivals once again—and that he’s a massive Kill Bill fan.

– Chris Caruso “CANDY LOVE” u Rebecca & Fiona u Ultra Records Infusing dance elements into moody alt-pop rather than keeping with the straightforward electro of their singles and sets of 2013, Rebecca & Fiona deliver a haunting plea to self-destructive lovers with their signature Lolita vocals. Opening with lone piano strikes that give away to a chorus filled with reverbed synth explosions, the track is an atmospheric mid-tempo corker.

– Chris Caruso

THE DRUGS ARE IN CONTROL u Designer Drugs u Ultra Records The NYC-based duo veers away from the electro-punk sound of their 2011 debut for a more synth-based, progressive approach. Don’t think they’ve lost their edge, though, as tracks like “Crystal” and “The Drugs Are In Control” prove they’re still making some of the grimiest electro-house around.

– Chris Caruso “CALLING FOR YOU”

u Balcazar & Sordo, Dance Spirit + disCerN feat. Shawni u Culprit This wicked, heavy house piece has a deep, undulating and thunderous bassline, haunting vocals, massive effects and an epic breakdown. Aidan Lavelle’s remix strips it down a bit and gives it a techy edge with some great key stabs that are heavy on the reverb and delay.

– Shawn Christopher

DIRTYBIRD BBQ u Claude VonStroke u dirtybird CVS’ dirtybird BBQ is a dominating collection of hip-hop-influenced, rumpshaking, bass-filled house tunes from the likes of Justin Martin, Catz ‘n Dogz, Justin Jay and VonStroke himself, to name a few. Bust this one out when the snow melts, and don’t miss the merciless “Drop It,” the grimey filth of “Da Noyz,” or the techy G-funk of “Le Voyou.”

– Chris Davis “WHEN LOVES THE FEELING” u Terrence Parker u GFY Black Label Detroit legend Terrence Parker brings us this outstanding hands-in-the-air, feel-good, disco-flavored house piece. A tight four-to-the-floor beat, an uplifting, soulful vocal snippet and a mammoth piano riff bring this all together. The “Lenny RX and Kenny Summit Remix” pulls back on the tempo and kicks up the funk. Solid single here!

– Shawn Christopher

– Jim Tremayne “KEEP BELIEVIN’” u Celeda u deeperBPM One of house music’s most distinctive voices returns with another commanding effort, this one produced by Twisted vet Adam Freemer. Over a chuggy, hip-grinding groove, Celeda takes center-stage on the main mix—

DJ TIMES

Deep and melancholy, the original pumps out a moody and minimal pulse—early evening fare, for sure. But check the thunderous and hipswinging “Larry Cadge Remix,” which kicks with more purpose and offers a delightfully dark and swirling groove for 3 a.m. or later.

APRIL 2014

“PRECIOUS” u Xenia Beliayeva & Ilya Demin u Smiley Fingers

39

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MP3s in 56

Compiled As february 25, 2014

National Crossover Pool Chart 1 Audio Playground Hands Up In The Air 2 Katy Perry Dark Horse 3 Pitbull F/ Ke$ha Timber 4 Kim Cameron Now You’re Mine 5 Beyonce Blow 6 Avicii Hey Brother 7 Bastille Pompeii 8 Peppermint Heaven So Unbelievable 9 Katy Perry Unconditionally 10 Michele Lea Cannonball 11 Zedd F/ Hayley Williams Stay The Night 12 Cher Take It Like A Man 13 Fall Out Boy Alone Together 14 Kwanza Jones Vicious 15 Carey Nokey Incredible 16 Eminem F/ Rihanna The Monster 17 My Crazy Girlfriend Go F**k Yourself 18 Claire Games 19 Elli Goulding Burn 20 John Newman Love Me Again 21 One Republic Counting Stars 22 Dvbbs & Borgeous Tsunami 23 Amy Weber F/ Sean Kingston Dance Of Life 24 Alina Artts Bounce 25 Ariana Grande Right There 26 Ayah Marar Beg Borrow Steal 27 Tiesto Red Lights 28 Kristine W So Close To Me 29 Lorde Royals 30 Cash Cash Take Me Home 31 MAOR Exit 27 32 Mia Martina F/ Dev Danse 33 Kylie Minogue Into The Blue(Remixes) 34 Army Of Lovers Crucified 2013 35 Lady Gaga Do What U Want 36 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. If You Didn’t See Me 37 Katia Erase Replace 38 Jade Starling F/ Lee Dagger Insomniak 39 Anything But Monday 99 Bottles Of Beer 40 Eddie Amador You Better Work

National Urban Pool Chart Sony/Canada Capitol Universal Side FX Columbia Island Capitol Megahit Capitol Columbia Interscope Warner Brothers Island/Def Jam Innovative Ent. Last Quarter Interscope Capitol Astralwerks Interscope Republic Interscope Doorn Dauman REC Republic Radikal Casablanca Fly Again Lava Big Beat CP Warner Brothers Stack Money Interscope Warner Brothers Global Groove Chemikal Ent. ABM Citrusonic

Most Added Tracks 1 DJ Cassidy F/ Robin Thicke & Jessie J 2 Anything But Monday 3 Shakira F/ Rihanna 4 Kylie Minogue 5 Daft Punk 6 Mel B 7 Carey Nokey 8 Josh Harris F/ Colleen Kelly 9 Kristine W 10 Claire

Reporting Pools

Calling All Hearts 99 Bottles Of Beer Can’t Remember To Forget Into The Blue(Remixes) Give Life Back To Music For Once In My Life Incredible Fighting Off The Heartache So Close To Me Games

Columbia ABM Warner Brothers Warner Brothers Columbia SBB Last Quarter Amathus Fly Again Astralwerks

n Dixie Dance Kings - Atlanta, GA; Dan Miller n Masspool - Saugus, MA; Gary Canavo n OMAP - Washington, DC; Al Chasen n Dj Stickyboots - Goshen, IN; Blake Eckelbarger n MetroMix - Pittsburgh, PA; John Hohman n Pittsburgh DJ - Pittsburgh, PA; Jim Kolich n Soundworks - San Francisco, CA; Sam Labelle n Majik Boys - Los Angeles, CA; Jeremy Martorano n New York Music Pool - Levittown, NY; Jackie McCloy n WPTV-Prty 105FM Frd MdMx - New York, NY; Mike Rizzo n MOOD Spins - Seattle, WA; Randy Schlager n DeeJay Creativity - Pflugerville, TX; Scott Smith n Northeast Record Pool - Revere, MA; Justin Testa n Pacific Coast - Long Beach, CA; Steve Tsepelis n Next Music Pool - Los Angeles, CA; Bob Ketchter n KDON - Sunnyvale, CA; DJ Classic 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

1 Kid Ink F/ Chris Brown 2 Ty Dolla $ign F/ B.O.B. 3 Beyonce F/ Jayz 4 Drake 5 YG F/ Jeezy & Rich Homie Quan 6 Eminem F/ Rihanna 7 Sage The Gemini 8 T-Pain F/ B.O.B. 9 Lorde 10 Trey Songz 11 Drake F/ 2 Chains & Bif Sean 12 Rico Love 13 Dj Infamous F/Jeezy/ Ludacris/Juicy 14 Jayz 15 Chris Brown F/ Lil Wayne&French Mon 16 August Alsina F/ Trinidad James 17 Pharrell Williams 18 Beyonce 19 R. Kelly 20 Snootie Wild F/ Yo Gotti

Show Me Paranoid Drunk In Love The Language My Hitta The Monster Gas Pedal Up Down Royals Na Na All Me They Don’t Know Double Cup Tom Ford Loyal I Luv This Sh*t Happy Partition Cookie Yayo

RCA Atlantic Columbia Republic Island/Def Jam Interscope Universal RCA Lava Atlantic Cash Money Interscope EOne Roc Nation RCA Island/Def Jam Columbia Columbia RCA Epic

Most Added Tracks 1 2 3 4 5

Sevyn Streeter Pharrell Williams Lil Boosie & Webbie Snootie Wild F/ Yo Gotti Future F/ Pharrel/ Pusha T and Casino

Next Happy Show Da World Yayo Move That Doh

Atlantic Columbia Tricoastal Epic Epic

NEW National Latin Dance Pool Chart 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Juanes La Luz (Remix) Jorge Santana feat Aki S. Gracias Madrecita (Remix) Grupo Niche Tocando El Cielo J Quiles Orgullo (Remix) Gabriel Coronel Desnudo (Remix) Charlie Zaa Digo Yo Mauro Mosquera La Ruñidera Brenda K Starr Te Voy A Enamorar Kalimente Interesada Leslie Grace Odio No Odiarte Marc Anthony Cambio De Piel Joey Montana feat Pitbull Love & Party (Remix) Jau D Un Vaje Prince Royce Te Robare Enrique Iglesias & Romeo Santos DLG feat. Ricky Luis Fuistes Ken & Tony Otra Noche Los Cadillacs Bom Bom Aniceto Molina La Jerigonza Toby Love Hey

Universal The Misha Music Co. PPM USA Rich Music Warner Musica Entity Codiscos The 360 Site Sueño Top Stop Music Sony Universal Cutting Sony Locos Universal Platinum Web. Crossover Promo Crossover Promotions AJ Music Top Stop Music

Most Added Tracks 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Victor Manuel Johnny Sky Chan Junior Daddy Yankee Gloria Trevi feat Yunel Cruz

Ando Por Las Nubes With Or Without You Margarita La Nueva y La Ex No Queria Lastimarte

Sony Premium Latin Salsa Y Timba Akela Familia Universal

Reporting Latin Pools n Latinos Unidos Record Pool n Salsamania Latin Record Pool n Lobo/Bass Record

Pool n Urban Tropics Music Pool n North East Record Pool n Mixx Hitts Record Pool n Ritmo Camacho Record Pool n Ritmo Internacional Record Pool n DJ Latinos Record Pool n Mass Pool n Record Pool Latino n V.I.P. Chicago Record Pool.

Sounding Off

(continued from page 28) pany has introduced their first DJperformance application, Flow.

When I first opened Flow and began to play with it, I found it difficult not to jump to the conclusion that it sits roughly halfway between conventional digital DJ software applications, and a category of mixing applications that purport to be for “DJing,” but in reality are more about letting the masses put together mixtapes without having to learn how to be a DJ. Whether the folks at Mixed in Key would concur, I’m not certain, but what seems clear is that Flow is all about keeping things beat-aligned and smoothly transitioned, while allowing to you chop up and mash up in real-time.

The software is segmented into three distinct functional areas: Preparation, Play and Export. They are precisely what you might logically expect each to be.

In the Preparation department, when you bring a track into Flow, the software performs some complex analysis, which includes accurately identifying downbeats, figuring out the key the song is in, using Mixed in Key’s “Camelot” notation system, Mixed in Key’s “energy level” indication (a recent addition to that software application), and, of course, BPM. The software also divides the song into smaller parts, which are clearly marked on the song-wide waveform display when you’re mixing.

You can punch in on these breaks, or anywhere actually, and the software will keep everything perfectly in-beat automatically, and even do some magical blending to smooth things out.

Play is, of course, where the work happens. The user interface is dirt simple: two decks and, in the middle,

EQ and faders. Underneath is the library of material you’ve brought in during the Preparation phase of things. The interface is quite Spartan, and it’s by design, according to the company—you can focus on the material, and the software will take care of all the hard stuff. And aside from looping, there are no effects or other functions to clutter the display or overload the brain.

Flow supports controllers through standard MIDI mapping. The software’s wizard-based mapping exercise is easy and quick to complete and, in my testing, was remarkably smart about things. Of course, there’s just not that much functionality to map—but, that said, it works well.

On the Export portion of Flow, you can see that the software keeps track of all your DJ sets, including when you played, what you played, in what order you played things, how you played them. At the click of a button, you can save off a recording of the entire set, just as you played it. Pretty slick, but more about this in a moment.

While the company says Flow is designed for professional DJs, in my view, it’ll take a pretty open-minded professional to fully embrace Flow.

Considering that many DJs still consider digital DJing to be a walk in the park with all the “real work” being done for you (a fact not actually borne out by my most pro-grade DJ applications), that case could be made more strongly when it comes to Flow. There is no transport control beyond the play and sync buttons—no platters to fine-tune the beat-match. The company says it’s worked very hard to make Flow accurate when it comes to identifying

downbeats, and it should never be necessary to fine-tune a beat-match. I have to say, in my testing, they’re right on that point. But it does rather shift the focus of the art of DJing away from the technical aspects of the art, and more toward the content aspects—what are you playing? And are you playing it “stock” as recorded, or are you bringing something to the table by reimagining the tracks?

I had a very difficult time finding any real faults with Flow. As long as you can embrace its concept, it works quite nicely. I wasn’t so pleased to discover that the “export to disk” feature isn’t as magical as it seems; by default, Flow actually records every set to disc automatically. On the Mac, they are

recorded as M4A files, and are saved to a directory within the user’s standard Music folder. You can delete them on-demand, and you can configure the software not to do this, if you choose.

As I said earlier, provided you can embrace its Spartan look and functionality, as well as its unique point of view, Flow works quite nicely, and at just under $60, it’s affordable enough to justify a personal look to see how it suits you. Worst case? It makes for a very straightforward system for recording mixshows, podcasts, and demos with minimal brain damage, while letting you experiment with the potential mash-ups and on-thefly remixing in a virtually error-free environment.

Weather Permitting

(continued from page 23) “We ended up looking like heroes, because these large generators not only powered the entertainment, but also powered the venue as well. The clients were extremely grateful and the parties went on as planned.”

One of the particular things Weitz stresses for his staff is to get to their events as early as possible.

“Although I understand and can respect if they really don’t want to work in this weather, we need to know in advance,” he says. “If they’re going to do that, please do us a favor and let us know early, because we have people who have Ford F150s and SUVs and trailers, and people who just know how to drive in this weather.

“I can understand if it’s something that’s going to brutalize the party so that even the guests would not be able to make it, but two inches of snow and ice and rain is not some-

thing that should stop any entertainer from getting to where they need to be.”

Weitz says he’s also careful to tell his staff, when they’re working in winter weather, to dress appropriately.

“Dress as if you’re skiing, with bibs and ski jackets and gloves,” he explains. “Some of these DJs don’t understand: They come in jeans and a t-shirt and a hoodie, because they don’t think they’re going to be too involved. We try to explain that the more prepared they are for these types of contingencies the better.

“As an entertainment company, we want to educate our clients on having winter parties. We don’t want to scare them, but we want to let them know that these things do happen, and being prepared is the best possible thing they can do. But the old adage says, ‘The show must go on.’” n

Uner: Sing Me Spanish Techno

DJ TIMES

APRIL 2014

In Spain, we love our techno.

42

In fact, we go mad for it.

And I mean… muy loco.

Uner Next Month in DJ Times

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