DJ Times August 2014, Vol 27 No 8

PLUS: DJs & WEDDING PLANNERS DJ DAN n DJ DAY-NA SÉBASTIEN LÉGER ABCs OF MOBILE SALES

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On Club Life & Beyond

DJ EXPO SHOW PREVIEW DJ QBERT TESTS NEW TURNTABLES www.djtimes.com

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

NEWS

DJ EXPO: STARS, SEMINARS & TECHNOLOGY ness in corporate events, private functions, collegiate and sporting events.

Elite Enter tainment’s Mike Walter will present a pair of panels: “Let the Music Play, Pt. 2” will offer fascinating stories about the songs and artists DJs spin on a regular basis, while “Maximizing the Marketing Opportunities of Social Media” will show DJs how to gain followers and fans, then effectively market to them. Also, other popular sessions—like Sean McKee’s “Mitzvah Massive” and “Party Games with Jake Jacobsen”—will return to DJ Expo.

Sponsored Seminars: At presstime, sponsored seminars are scheduled to be presented by: ADJ, Chauvet DJ, Event Chit Chat, Mackie and Pioneer DJ. Other Seminars: Joshua Carl’s pair of VJ-oriented seminars will include “Performance Video DJing & Technology” and “Video DJ Innovations for the Mobile/Corporate DJ.” Alan Kohn’s “DJ Country Dance Workshop” will discuss the genre’s music, dances and unique culture— and show you how a DJ can thrive by spinning country music.

Other annual favorites: “New Tech: Shopping for DJ Equipment,” moderated by DJ Times Editor Jim Tremayne, will discuss the latest technology trends. Frank Garcia’s “The Myths & Methods of Beatmixing” will walk you through the most-basic processes of DJing and explain why beatmixing remains an indispensible skill. “Remixers/Producers: Dancefloor Hitmakers,” moderated

by Tremayne, will present a panel of professionals who will offer industry information and studio tips.

At show’s end, DJ Expo will conduct its annual “Ultimate DJ System Giveaway.” One lucky attendee will take home a slew of gear from sponsors, including: ADJ (Mega Flat TRI Pak lighting system); Fastset (DJ Utility Table); Global Truss (America Arch System); Mackie (Thump Active Speaker system); Pioneer DJ (HDJ2000 headphones, DJM-900SRT mixer and two CDJ-2000 Nexus players); and VirtualDJ (DJ software for PC and Mac).

For the very latest on DJ Expo, please visit thedjexpo.com.

Jade Starling: Ready to captivate Scores.

Adventure Club: To headline Aug. 12 party.

Cash Cash: Set to play Borgata’s Mix.

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Atlantic City, N.J. – Mark your calendars, pro spinners, because DJ Expo is right around the corner.

The DJ industry’s longest-running show—24 years on—is set for Aug. 11-14 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. Produced by DJ Times and its publisher Testa Communications, DJ Expo will present four days of educational seminars and panels, three days of DJ-related exhibits, and three nights of sponsored evening entertainment.

On the party front, DJ Expo attendees will enjoy a star-studded slate of events. On Aug. 12, the Tuesday-night “Summer Sessions Finale” at the Borgata’s Mix club will present Adventure Club, Cash Cash, Syn Cole, GTA, Cole Plante and one surprise guest. (Hint: He’s a 2014 America’s Best DJ Nominee.)

Monday’s “Mobile Kick-Off Party,” hosted by Elite Entertainment’s Mike Walter at Scores Atlantic City, will present Pretty Poison hitmaker Jade Starling, who will debut material from her solo album, Captive. Wednesday’s “DJ of the Year” Competition—again helmed by Walter at Scores—will bestow awards to the best of the best from America’s Mobile Nation. Then later Wednesday night, Expo favorite DJ Skribble will rock the Ego Lounge during his annual afterparty.

On the Keynote Front: On Aug. 12, Lil Jon, one of America’s hottest hitmakers, will discuss his rise to the top in an exclusive DJ Expo “Keynote Q&A.” Beginning as an Atlanta party DJ, Lil Jon has gone on to a career full of highlights, including “Turn Down For What,” his recent smash collaboration with DJ Snake. Also, Scott Binder, the author of “Make Some Noise: Become the Ultimate DJ,” will present “The DJ Vision.”

Mobile-Oriented Seminars: Mike Kindlick’s “The C.S.I. of Customers: Customer. Service. Intelligence” will teach DJs how to profile your potential customers. Steve Moody’s “All-Star MCs” will share unique performance tips that’ll take your parties to the next level. KC Kokoruz’s “The Science of Marketing” will offer insight into why customers might buy your DJ services.

Doug Sandler’s “Spinning Connections into Lifelong Relationships” will show DJs the difference between how to close a deal and how to build a business relationship. Jerry Bazata’s “Business All-Star Panel” will help mobiles build additional core busi-

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VOLUME 27

NUMBER 8

12 Club Life & Beyond

The Ever-Evolving Tiësto Dishes on Sharpened Songcraft, Corporate Sponsors & the State of EDM

BY BRUCE TANTUM

20 Coast to Coast

Highlights from America’s Best DJ Summer Tour Presented by Pioneer DJ & DJ Times

BY DJ TIMES PHOTOGRAPHERS

22 Get Coordinated

Are Wedding Planners a Bane or a Bonus? DJs Chime In From Both Sides of the Aisle.

BY JEFF STILES

DEPARTMENTS 7 Feedback

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

24 Making Tracks

Sony’s Sound Forge Pro & SpectraLayers Pro

26 Sounding Off

Reloop RP-8000 Turntable

28 Mobile Profile

Cruising with Ohio’s DJ Day-Na

30 Business Line

DJ Expo Preview: Always Be Closing

32 Gear

New Products from ADJ, Pioneer DJ & More

38 Grooves

Phat Tracks from Flosstradamus, David Guetta & More

40 DJ Times Marketplace

Shop Here for All Your DJ-Related Supplies

41 Club Play Chart

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

4

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

SAMPLINGS 8 Sébastien Léger

Twenty Years On

10 In the Studio With…

DJ Dan

Cover & Contents Photos By Jordan Loyd

FROM THE EDITOR

Still On Top As we seem to do every few years, this issue we visit with Tiësto, who remains one of the most popular DJ/producers in the world. Ever since the early new century when I hooked up with him for a quickie interview at the bar in Miami’s Fountainebleau Hotel—this was back in the days when he was a Gatecrasher resident—the Dutch talent has broken out in ways that most DJs can only dream of. So, this month, longtime NYC-based DJ/scribe DJ Bruce Tantum connects with Tiësto, who details his sharpened songcraft, his corporate sponsors, the state of EDM, and more.

In Samplings, Chris Caruso visits with another set of mainstays to the DJ/dance music scene.

For the “In the Studio” department, he connects with longtime Cali favorite DJ Dan, who has scored three recent dancefloor hits with singles from his latest CD, Nothing But a Party. Additionally, Caruso reminisces with French house legend Sébastien Léger, whose celebrating his 20th year in the business.

Our technology review sections take on a little different flavor this month. While our Denverbased scribe Wesley Bryant-King gives a full accounting of Sony Creative Software’s latest studio products in the Making Tracks department, our Sounding Off column adds a new wrinkle. To review Reloop’s unique RP-8000 turntable, we handed the unit to a pair of very different DJs to get their specific angles. Boston-based Paul Dailey gives his take, as it relates to dancefloor/EDM DJs, and then the legendary DJ QBert—America’s Best DJ 2010—offers his evaluation, as it relates to turntablist/hip-hop jocks.

In the world of mobile entertainment, our Iowan scribe Jeff Stiles connects with DJs and asks about their experiences—pro and con—with wedding planners. In Mobile Profile, we visit with DJ Day-na, a Dayton, Ohio-based jock who has taken to cruising on the high seas. And in Business Line, Pennsylvania-based mobile Jason Klock previews his upcoming DJ Expo seminar “Manage Your Time, Master Your Sales” and explains how savvy DJs can “always be closing.”

In a feature photo spread, we also take you on a trip around the States for America’s Best DJ Summer Tour Presented by Pioneer DJ & DJ Times. So far, we’ve hit major clubs and festivals around the country, including Las Vegas’ Marquee Nightclub and Dayclub, plus Sin City’s Electric Daisy Carnival, Detroit’s Movement fest, Los Angeles’ Avalon club, and Chicago’s Spring Awakening festival and more. As always, at each event we set up a dedicated booth or table, taking votes for ABDJ nominees. Of course, voters can win prizes, like gear from Pioneer DJ, watches from G-Shock and a trip for two to the America’s Best DJ Award Ceremony/Closing Party at Vegas’ Marquee Nightclub on Oct. 12. As they say, you gotta be in it to win it.

And lastly, we must remind everyone that DJ Expo is right around the corner. Set for Aug. 11-14 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J., DJ Expo—produced by DJ Times and Testa Communications—will present three days of exhibits, four days of seminars and three nights of sponsored entertainment. As you can see from our News section on Page 3, we have a slew of new seminars announced and we expect that this show will be our very best. Hope to see you there.

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

Cheers,

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

Jim Tremayne Editor, DJ Times

6

DJ Times Sound & Communications The Music & Sound Retailer Sound & Communications Blue Book America’s Best DJ The DJ Expo IT/AV Report Convention TV News VTTV Studios

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 Vito Gelo vgelo@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 August 2014

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FEEDBACK M

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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.

DEAR DJ TIMES, Do you think superstar DJs like Avicii, Tiësto, Skrillex, Steve Aoki or Afrojack have a responsibility to their festival fans and audiences to warn them in public service announcements or online in social media against taking drugs?

These DJs are paid huge sums for their gigs. Don’t they, as the main attrac‑ tion, have an obligation to save lives?

Shouldn’t concern for young lives come before ego, money and spinning?

I certainly think so. These DJs have huge influence over their fans, follow‑ ers and EDM fanatics.

– Rich Unger, Sarasota Fla.

RICH, The fact is that many of these DJs have been stressing safe behavior for years already. Kaskade, Aoki and oth‑ ers have been doing PSAs for a long time now.

Also, mega-promoters like Insomniac and SFX have tons of PSAs and no‑ tices at the events, plus cops at the gates and drug dogs, which occasion‑ ally roam throughout the festivals. If that’s not a strong message pointing up the seriousness of the situation, I don’t know what is.

However, in the end, the DJs can’t be responsible for fans’ behavior any more than metal bands or country performers or NFL teams can be held specifically accountable for, say, excessive drinking (and driving) at their events. It’s a personal choice— though, quite often a bad one—but

to hang this on the DJs alone doesn’t strike me as realistic or fair. The fans who chose to imbibe know the poten‑ tial consequences—the warnings are all over.

But as we found in the U.K. nearly a generation ago, this music isn’t going away. People will still seek it out and have events—illegal or otherwise.

It’s always best (and safest, I believe) to hold these events out in the open

with security, medical care, etc., as opposed to skeevy warehouses off the beaten path.

A Little Recent History: After a fatality at EDC in 2010, the city of Los Ange‑ les decided it didn’t want to host the festival anymore—so Las Vegas took it over as host. Ultra Fest had a violent incident this past March and the Miami City Council voted on whether or not to have the festival back—ultimately,

they voted for its return. The money, it seems, isn’t just going to the DJs. It’s also going to the host cities and their local economies, so they have a much bigger say than the DJs in whether or not these festivals are going to continue.

Accordingly, it’s my belief that the bur‑ den of spreading the word on safety should be shared by all participants.

– Jim Tremayne, DJ Times

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

SAMPLINGS

8

When it comes to French house-music royalty, Sébastien Léger stands tall amongst an elite set of pioneers and innovators. His storied career as both a DJ and a producer is long, illustrious compilation of top-notch production, a diverse output, and a signature that’s undeniably his own, as evidenced by classics like 2002’s “Victory,” 2005’s “Take Your Pills,” and 2011’s “Polymod.”

This year marks an important milestone for the French legend, as he is celebrating his 20th year in the industry. Despite the nostalgic look back on his continued success, Léger is showing no signs of slowing down. In addition to recently dropping Diamond Bridge, a punchy, groove-laden EP on 1605 Music, he’s taken on a packed set of summer tour dates, which will take him to the Americas, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

We talked to the Amsterdam-based Léger to get his take on the two decades of work, his views on DJing today, and his preferred gear setups.

DJ Times: In your view, how has the art of DJing evolved?

Léger: In my career, not too much. I used to play vinyl for 15 years and now I play on CDJs, which is the closest you can get today. I’m not a laptop DJ. I have nothing against it; it’s just really annoying when DJs before or after me connect their cables and shit while I’m focusing on doing something. In general though, the art of DJing is a little bit gone now, crushed by marketing, fake likes, and PR strategies. I’d also say that the art of producing is gone as well, as we all now produce something that has to be obvious, dancefloorfriendly, and with a lot less risk just to manage to get gigs. I’m not the kind of person to be nostalgic, but it was healthier before.

DJ Times: What’s your preferred DJ setup?

Léger: Two or three CDJ-2000s—non-Nexus—and a Pioneer DJM-900.

The reason I ask for the non-Nexus CDJs is because I prefer the layout on the screen—it shows the order of my music exactly as it shows in my rekordbox, while Nexus CDJs put it all upside down. It takes me ages to find music with them, while it’s instant on a non-Nexus. My flow is constant and nice, which is very important when you have more than 3,000 tracks like I do.

DJ Times: You’ve recently released a Loopmasters Sample Pack. What’s your current production setup in terms of hardware and software?

Léger: Simpler than ever. Ableton Live 9 with very few plug-ins.

DJ Times: What do you have coming up next for the rest of 2014?

Léger: I have a new EP on 1605 Music called Diamond Bridge. It’s something different from what they are used to releasing. I also have a remix for DJ Sneak [“Sneak Attack” on House Gangsta] that should be released during the summer. I’m slowly finding my way back into the studio after a long break, due to lots of travel and flat inspiration.

DJ Times: What’s the relationship between DJing and producing?

Do you prefer one or the other?

Léger: I prefer DJing to producing. The only bad part of DJing is constantly traveling. By travelling, I mean taking lots planes, waiting in hotels, etc.; nothing like “tourist” traveling. I’ve always been a DJ, and I started as a DJ. DJ Times: How do they give back to each other?

Léger: Nowadays you cannot pretend to have a DJ career if you don’t produce your own music, apart from a very few exceptions of established, “older” DJs. It requires a lot more talent to produce than DJ, as 75-percent of the population on earth is a DJ now. A very good DJ might not be a good producer and vice-versa. I have this weird way of working that during my DJ sets I rarely play my own tracks. I feel that the best tracks that work on a dancefloor are, in many ways, the simplest and somehow irrelevant, not timeless.

I prefer to produce stuff that can last long into the future without necessarily being playable by DJs like me!

– Chris Caruso

SÉBASTIEN LÉGER: 20 YEARS ON

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Léger’s Latest: Diamond Bridge on 1605 Music.

IN THE STUDIO WITH

DJ DAN: NOTHING BUT A PARTY

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Rukes.com

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

DJ Dan’s latest CD racked up three big club hits.

Los Angeles — As a club and rave staple for over 20 years, DJ Dan been described as the hardest working man in dance music.

The description is an apt one, as just this year DJ Dan has managed to release a brand new album, in between his constant touring and the running of his own InStereo record label.

The studio album, Nothing But A Party, is a jam-packed collection of 20 tracks, including new collaborations, unheard originals, and the Beatport House Top 10 singles “Shake That,” “Jacked Up Funk” and “Engine No. 9.”

We connected with the busy DJ/producer (aka Daniel Wherrett) shortly after his Electric Daisy Carnival performance in Las Vegas to talk about his latest projects and an infamous incident from earlier this year at Baltimore’s Red Maple Club.

DJ Times: Someone at a Baltimore club tried to punch you in the DJ booth when you wouldn’t play a song that was requested.

What exactly happened?

DJ Dan: That club on Thursday nights is a strict undergroundhouse night. I actually would have been kicked off by the promoter if I had played this girl’s request! What had happened this particular evening was a fluke, really. The club had been packed with my loyal hardcore fans and the vibe had been amazing all night long. Eventually, these two people came in without any knowledge of the night, and the girl started aggressively demanding tracks that I just did not have, nor would I ever play. Like I said, I don’t have an issue with requests, if you know what the theme is.

DJ Times: Why’s that?

DJ Dan: The first DJ gig I ever got hired for was a residency at a Top-40 club playing all night for five hours straight. Requests were always welcome because sometimes they would inspire an entire block of great songs that I hadn’t even thought of. Let’s face it, when you are hired to play at a Top-40 club, you are there to make the crowd, the bar and the management happy. You are there to do that job and there is a real skill in doing that for five hours. I learned so much from playing that gig—I think every single DJ out there should have to take a gig like this as DJ bootcamp. It really makes you think on your toes and it ultimately taught me how to program better, even at my underground events.

DJ Times: What goes into running your label InStereo Recordings, in addition to your full DJ/ production careers?

DJ Dan: My label has been going for 12 years now and it has been a labor of love. I started the label as a source for talented up-and-coming producers to have an outlet to release their music.

Most of the artists on my label are friends that I believe in, and—if needed—I give them advice, direction and even mixing and mastering tips, so we can get the best-sounding tunes possible. Mike Balance and divaDanielle work with me on the label as well, and we all have our individual roles.

DJ Times: What’s the process?

DJ Dan: I prepare all my track ideas, samples, etc., in my personal studio space and then Mike takes over and makes everything sound amazing!

During the day, I handle all my DJ gig negotiations as well as A&R and negotiation of all deals for the label. Mike also handles artwork, additional production, banking and delivery of all final masters ready for retail. Danielle works with me during the day on promotions, sending out promos, website updates and social media. Danielle is also in charge of organizing all of our InStereo club events.

DJ Times: What went into the creative process of the new album?

DJ Dan: I worked on this album for a year and collaborated with some of my favorite producers at the moment, including TJR, UMEK, Mes, Phunk Investigation, and Mike Balance. My last album, Disko Funk Odyssey, had a disco theme to it and I wanted this one to have a hip-house meets techhouse approach. All tracks were inspired by a lifetime of record collecting. Some tracks I wanted to sample I was still searching for, so I had to search high and low for some of these rare gems and pay top dollar via mail order from various private collectors. Once I got my dream records together I started grabbing my favorite records out of my personal record collection and started chopping up samples for days! I love the art of sampling.

If it weren’t for sampling, Daft Punk’s Homework would have never existed.

DJ Times: As someone who’s played for over two decades, is there one particular element of DJ/dance/club culture that’s changed the most?

DJ Dan: The sound systems—they’ve become their own entities really. Like when you hear Funktion1 or TurboSound, you almost want to go just to hear the dynamics on the system. Also, clubs used to be pretty rough and raw back in the day. Now, they are more posh and have themes that they invest a lot of time and money into. It’s the same way with the underground parties. I love all of this!

– Chris Caruso

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DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

The Ever-Evolving Tiësto Holds Forth on Sharpened Songcraft, Corporate Sponsors & the State of EDM

Photos By Jordan Loyd

By Bruce Tantum New York City – “I happened to see an old copy of DJ Times from around 2001, with me on the cover, just last week— I thought, wow, so much has happened to me since then. It’s been wild.”

Tijs Verwest, the Dutch DJ/ producer known to millions of dance-music aficionados as Tiësto, has just a hint of wonder in his voice when he says this during our recent Manhattan interview. This doesn’t come across as false modesty; instead, it’s uttered with a touch of astonishment that after all this time, he’s still one of the scene’s most popular figures.

And needless to say, the ride has been wild. Since that long-ago cover, the 45-year-old has performed at festivals and megaclubs the world over, not to mention the opening ceremony at the 2004 Summer Olympics; graced the top rungs of numerous top-DJ lists (Mix-

Top Guns: Tiësto’s Favorite Producers

De Oro: “I’m really enjoying him quite a lot. He’s just so good at what he does, and he has one of the most original sounds around right now. He’s new—well, not super-new—but I think people are really now finding out about him.”

Avicii: “Of course, he’s is one of my favorites. I’m amazed at what he’s achieved in just a couple of years, and I’m amazed at what he can do; he can produce so many different styles. I always keep my eye on him.”

Hardwell: “He is just so good at sound quality. His sounds are warm, but still so full of energy. That’s something that not many people can pull off, but it’s something he seems to do naturally.”

—B.T.

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mag even went so far as to hail him as The Greatest DJ of All Time in 2011); released a slew of world-conquering mixes, including the first seven installments of the groundbreaking In Search of Sunrise series; and produced five artist albums, his latest being the hot-off-the-presses A Town Called Paradise (Musical Freedom/PM:AM/Universal).

But the narrative of Tiësto’s career, starting with his ’80s beginnings as a local-party spinner in his hometown of Breda, Holland, isn’t a quest for stardom; instead, it’s one of continuing evolution. He began his recording life in the early ’90s as a gabber and hardcore producer, working under aliases like DJ Limited and DJ Joker. But by the end of that decade, he had shifted his attention to the music he’s most associated with: trance.

Actually, “shifting his attention” is a bit of an understatement—along with a handful of others (Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk and erstwhile production partner Ferry Corsten among them), Tiësto basically owned the music, and helped muscle its fluorescent rhythms into one of the leading beats of the raving universe.

Though he’s still known to many as a trance demigod—and tracks like “Adagio for Strings” and his remix of Delirium’s “Silence” are among the genre’s stone-cold classics—in the late ’00s, particularly with the release of 2009’s Kaleidoscope, he largely left trance behind in favor of punchy, catchy cuts that were closer in spirit to house, electro and dance-rock than anything he had produced before. That guest-heavy LP—which included Calvin Harris, Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke, Nelly Furtado and Jónsi of Sigur Rós—confounded some of his trance-happy fans, not to mention the critics; on his website, Tiësto himself calls the release “controversial.”

And now, five years later, there’s A Town Called Paradise. It’s as sleek and streamlined a collection as you’d expect from the veteran, a machinetooled, hypermelodic tunefest that manages to range in vibe from heartrending introspection to balls-to-the-wall bacchanalia. Refreshingly, the DNA of the producer’s chugging, euphoric hands-in-the-air trance is on display, gracefully merging with Kaleidoscope’s pop tendencies—but his sound has matured into something much closer to pure pop songcraft, as appropriate for prime-time radio play as it is for festival season. It’s not for nothing that the two singles released thus far off the album—the dreamy ode to escape “Red Lights” and the fist-pumping party anthem “Wasted” (complete with its sweetly salacious video)—have soared as high in the world’s singles charts as they have in the dance rankings. Like Kaleidoscope, it’s another star-studded affair, with Sultan & Ned Shepard, Hardwell and Firebeatz among those helping out on the production side, and Matthew Koma, Icona Pop, Krewella, Ladyhawke, Cruickshank, and DBX among those on the mic.

But A Town Called Paradise is much more than a series of star-studded cameo cuts—instead, it’s another major step in the growth of Tiësto as an artist, one working hard to break free of preconceptions. Not that he’s given up on pure dance music; among other things, the superstar is currently slinging his pumping rhythms at Las Vegas’ Hakkasan club, where he’s in the midst of a 20-month residency, and he remains one of the world’s most popular spinners. DJ Times caught up with the superstar just as A Town Called Paradise was hitting the stores to talk about the album, corporate sponsorships and lots more.

DJ Times: I’ve been listening to A Town Called Paradise a lot in the run up to this interview, and now most of the songs’ melodies are completely stuck in my head. Are strong hooks something you strive for?

Tiësto: I think it’s something that comes completely naturally to me.

I don’t really think about it. When I hear something I like, I just say to myself, “I guess this is the hook.” [Laughs] DJ Times: So writing hooks is a natural part of the writing process for you?

Tiësto: I think so. This whole album really came from the heart. It’s very organic; I didn’t think about anything. The one thing I did want to do was to make more song-oriented tracks, rather than DJ tracks. It’s definitely a song-driven album.

DJ Times: Your previous album, Kaleidoscope, was also song-driven, but experimented with fairly wide range of dance-pop formats. This one comes across as more focused, and also a bit more like prime-time Tiësto, especially in its sound design. Would it be fair to call A Town Called Paradise a return to form?

Tiësto: In a way, yes; it is a bit back-to-basics. But at the same time, I think it’s different than anything I’ve done before. It might not sound like Kaleidoscope, but it doesn’t sound like the Elements of Life album either, or any of my old trance albums. But I do think I learned a lot from making Kaleidoscope, and I think this one is a great improvement. When I was

doing Kaleidoscope, the aim was to make songdriven dance tracks, but I didn’t really know how to do it, so that album ended up as more of a mixture of things.

DJ Times: And you feel like you’ve made strides in creating the sound that you want to with this new set?

Tiësto: Definitely. This album is really close to what I stand for, how I DJ, what I like to listen to and what I like to make nowadays. It’s much closer to what I am today.

DJ Times: The album seems to be split between outright party rockers, and more introspective, emotional cuts.

Was that by design?

T i ë s t o : Ye a h , t h a t was on purpose. There are two sides of me, almost like two different characters. I love to party and listen to crazy music and do crazy stuff… but I’m also very romantic. I like love songs with emotional lyrics and warm sounds. That kind of music seems sexy to me. So yeah, both of those styles are in the album.

DJ Times: I’m guessing that the video for “Wasted” is a reflection of your party-animal side.

Tiësto: Oh, for sure.

[Laughs] That was fun to do. It’s the after-party after the after-party.

DJ Times: As usual for you, the album features a hefty list of collaborators. When you’re working with guest vocalists, what’s the process like?

Do you simply send them a track and see what you get back, or is it more collaborative than that?

Tiësto: It really depends on the track.

With some tracks, it can go back and forth for a year, or even a year and a half. But with some of the tracks, I would just get sent a vocal, and I’d be like, wow, this is just perfect. Every track has a different story; they all come together differently.

DJ Times: How do you choose your vocalists?

Tiësto: I don’t look at

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whether they are famous or not. I just look for great-sounding vocals and great lyrics. Those are the only important things, really. With most of the people I worked with on the album, I had never really heard of them before I met them. A lot of them came through suggestions, like people saying, “You should check out this guy or that guy.” Like Cruickshank or DBX; I had never really heard of them before. Even Matthew Koma was not on my radar before I started working with him on “Wasted.”

DJ Times: His voice seems like such a natural fit for that track, and for “Written in Reverse” as well.

Tiësto: That’s true, and a lot of other DJs have worked with him, but I never really thought about it. But then we started working on “Wasted” and I just realized how perfect he was for that one. And that went so well that we just ended up writing some more songs together. He’s amazing, and just so talented.

DJ Times: What’s your process like? Is it an everyday thing for you, or do you have to force yourself into a room to get work done?

Tiësto: That goes both ways. Sometimes I’ll take a week and lock myself into the studio; I’ll use that time to try to do a lot of different things, discover new equipment or whatever.

Other times, I’ll work on a song a little bit, let it go for a while, and maybe come back to it later. It’s a combination of methods, really—whatever feels right at the time. But a lot of it is decided by my DJing life, which is generally something of an ongoing process. [Laughs] You never really have time off. You just do what you can when you can do it.

DJ Times: I guess it’s the kind of job where you’re always working, at least in some vague sense.

Tiësto: You’ve got that right. But for me, it doesn’t feel like work—it’s a way of life.

DJ Times: And a lot of people would say it’s a pretty good way of life.

Tiësto: I’m not complaining!

DJ Times: You recently played an album release at New York City’s Terminal 5, with many of the vocalists on the album—Kona, Icona Pop and others—performing live. Do you feel that it’s important to do more than just play songs when you are DJing?

Tiësto: Not really, actually. Simply playing records is still the best way to DJ, I think. For the album release, yes, it’s a special moment in my career. It’s been five years since I’ve released an album, and I wanted all the singers to be there, so it really felt like a release party.

But it’s not something that I’m going to do all over the world. For one thing, it’s hard to get all these people in the same place at the same time!

DJ Times: It’s impressive that you got Icona Pop to appear at the party. They’ve gotten

“Back in the day, you could play a track for 10 minutes, and nobody would be bored. And now, I feel like something has to happen every three or four minutes, or even quicker. I think that’s why people started doing mash-ups—people couldn’t concentrate on one song for very long.”

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quite big in the past year or so.

Tiësto: Yeah, they’re huge now.

We were actually friends before they got famous, but I was still lucky they could come. But what I’d like to do going forward is make some nice videos with the vocalists so we can have some kind of interactive visuals with them, so I can tour with artists being there in some kind of virtual way.

DJ Times: What is your DJing methodology nowadays?

Tiësto: I’m pretty much oldschool, really. I don’t use much software, or even effects; I really just like playing tracks. I don’t use much gear at all, to be honest. I don’t like to play off laptops, and I like to use [Pioneer] CDJ-2000s—three of them—along with a Pioneer DJM-900nexus mixer.

Also, I don’t really prepare much before my set. The way I look at it is, I’m just gonna go out and play a bunch of songs and see how the crowd reacts.

DJ Times: So you are actually still out there DJing?

Tiësto: Yeah, it’s almost all improvised. Almost the only thing that isn’t improvised is the opening track— I’m always going to open with an instrumental track. But after that, who knows? I mean, at some point I have to play the tracks from the album, but (continued on page 42)

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TO Highlights From America’s Best DJ Summer Tour Presented by Pioneer DJ & DJ Times 1

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10 The initial leg of America’s Best DJ Summer Tour Presented

by Pioneer DJ & DJ Times saw us hit five major U.S. cities— Detroit, Providence, New York, Chicago and Las Vegas.

The events included: Movement festival in Detroit with 17 America’s Best DJ nominees, including Baauer, Carl Craig, Claude Von Stroke, DJ Godfather, Flosstradamus, Green Velvet, Jeff Mills, Just Blaze, Justin Martin, Kevin Saunderson, Lee Foss, Maceo Plex, The Martinez Brothers, Marques Wyatt, Mike Huckaby, Miguel Migs and Stacey Pullen; Club Therapy in Providence with Boris; Marquee New York with Stacey Pullen; Spring Awakening in Chicago with 13 ABDJ noms, including Alvin Risk, A-Trak, 3lau, Carnage, Claude Von Stroke, Derrick Carter, Dillon Francis, Diplo, Green Velvet, Kill the Noise, Markus Schulz, Pretty Lights and Steve Aoki; Marquee Nightclub in Las Vegas with Porter Robinson; Tao Beach in Las Vegas with Carnage; and Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas with 21 ABDJ noms, including A-Trak, Bassnectar, 3lau, Carnage, Cedric Gervais, Claude Von Stroke, Crizzly, Dillon Francis, Diplo, DJ Dan, Flosstradamus, Green Velvet, Justin Martin, Kill the Noise, Krewella, Markus Schulz (with New World Punx), Seven Lions, Steve Aoki,The Martinez Brothers,Tommie Sunshine & 12th Planet.

As always, DJ Times was there, collecting ballots for the DJs and giving fans chances to win plenty of prizes—like Pioneer gear and a trip for two to Las Vegas for the ABDJ Closing Party/Award Ceremony at Marquee Nightclub on Oct. 12. It all looked like this:

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1 Ka-Boom: A scene at EDC in Vegas Doug Van Sant 2 ABDJ Nom: DJ Godfather in Detroit.

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3 Chi-Town: Alvin Risk at Spring Awakening. Ismael Valenzuela 4 On Top: A-Track at Spring Awakening. Ismael Valenzuela 5 At Movement: Justin Martin in the mix.

6 Action-Packed: Pioneer’s EDC booth. kmrpro.com - @kmrintl 7 EDC: Behold the logo. Insomniac 8 ABDJ Booth: Chicago voters get down.

9 Vegas, Baby: Carnage at Tao Beach. Rockbear AUGUST 2014

10 Mesmerizing: Jeff Mills at Movement.

11 Providence: Boris with at friend at Therapy. Tony Dispirito 12 Hometown Hero: Kevin Saunderson at Movement.

13 Spring Awakening: ABDJ booth in Chicago.

14 Mo-Town: Lee Foss at Movement.

15 Hairy Scene: Bassnectar at EDC. Insomniac

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By Jeff Stiles

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

Are Wedding Planners

22

a Bane or a Bonus?

DJs Chime In From Both Sides of the Aisle.

Steve Croce of Silver Sound Disc Jockeys in Philadelphia recently had a client whose over-the-top obsession with music selection was becoming a certifiable nightmare.

Enter Sarah Morrison of Philly’s All About Events, who has become Steve’s favorite wedding coordinator.

“The bride,” explains Croce, “had numerous special dietary, lighting and sound requirements that all demanded a person who could operate outside the scope of performing the tasks and act like the captain of the ship. Sarah helped me avoid what would have become a boiling stomach ulcer.

“Because of my working relationship with this particular coordinator, I was able to explain my annoyances with the bride without her passing judgment on me or deeming me ‘hard to work with.’

“Sarah was able to reassure and pacify the bride into accepting that I was going to do a great job. And I did—enough to elicit a $200 tip from the father of the bride.”

The relationship between the mobile DJ and a wedding coordinator can often be tense.

These folks can be a huge help in coordinating everything, actually making a DJ’s job easier.

But what about when they get in the way?

We polled DJs about the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to wedding coordinators.

“In my experiences in the past,” Croce recalls, “wedding coordinators were bitter and cantankerous people who lorded their station over DJs, behaving like self-appointed royalty.

“More recently, I’ve found the younger generation to not only be more pleasant and helpful, but genuinely interested in making every professional in the room look good. As a result, we all can perform more harmoniously and can concentrate in executing the master plan.”

Over the Midwest, K.C. Kokoruz of Spinnin Discs in Arlington Heights, Ill., says his staff works with wedding coordinators on a regular basis, with varying degrees of success.

“Some of them are amazing, while some—just like some DJs—are horrible,” Kokoruz says. “Recently, we were handed an agenda from the in-house wedding planners at a venue, and their agenda was so far off that we finished dinner over 45 minutes before dancing was scheduled to start.

“The bride also called us the day before their rehearsal, saying they would need a ceremo-

with celebrities, DJ Carl Williams in New York City says he’s grateful to book many high-end events due to referrals from wedding planners. “ H o w e v e r, I ’ v e a l s o worked with some planners who are very one-dimensional,” he adds. “Their only concern is how the wedding looks and not how it functions or flows. For example, there should always be a clear path from the reception lobby to the dancefloor so that introductions can be executed smoothly. This clear path also accommodates the catering staff to service dinner to the guests efficiently throughout the night.

“Another example is to place the DJ where one would place a band, which is front and center in front of the dancefloor. This allows the DJ or band to engage with the guests when it’s time to dance and party. Too many times I’ve worked with planners who place me in a corner where there are tables between me and the dancefloor.

“I don’t think placing the sweetheart table front and center and placing the DJ in the corner is the best scenario for any event. Many brides and grooms spend relatively little time at their tables during their wedding receptions.”

Williams remembers once working with a wedding planner who actually insisted that his speakers be covered with white linens.

“This has been a real issue for me, because I’ve communicated that the speakers need air circulation to properly work,” he says. “What makes this request more frustrating is that she’s never asked a band to cover their black, ugly speakers.”

But all in all, DJ Carl is happy to report that he has worked with some awesome planners who believe in both form and function, and who work hard to make their events stress-free for everyone involved—including both vendors and guests.

“They recommend the best vendors and alleviate the micro-managing,” he says. “They understand

that the event needs to flow from start to finish, with no pressure to stick with times.

People are not robots, so if we’re not flowing to the actual designated times then that’s fine. These awesome planners ensure we are doing our jobs and helps us in any way possible to make the process simple, easy and fun.

Like everything in life, if one takes a balanced approach to doing something it should be successful.”

Back over in Pennsylvania, Dave Stephenson of A Time For Music & Memories in Douglassville says he’s encountered a number of wedding coordinators who refer to themselves as such simply because they once helped a friend plan for her wedding.

“It takes more than that, as you also need to understand all aspects of the wedding industry,” Stephenson says, “just like DJs should know about what the other vendors do and try to understand what their jobs entail.

“I’ve worked with some incredible people who were trained and continue to educate their brides. These are the ones I love working with and will go out of my way to work with and recommend.

They carry a lot of weight so I want to make sure I’m in their books.

“Being organized and professional is the key they look for, and this includes having good equipment and being energetic, fun and easy to work with.”

Of course, Stephenson has also encountered wedding coordinators from hell. “The downside are the ones who have no clue what they’re doing and want to be the boss,” he says. “These are the ones who make your night one that you dread and just want to be over with. I meet with all my brides and go over everything, but sometimes we get some coordinators who want to change things to what they think the bride wants.

“I’ve had a few cases in which I’ve had to go to the bride and ask if they had wanted a change the coordinator said they wanted, and on a few occasions had to tell the coordinator politely to take a break—then tell

them I’m following my planner from the bride.

“Then again, I’ve worked with some—like LEO Designs and Philadelphia Event Planners—that go above and beyond to make sure their customers walk away with the ‘Wow Effect.’ I wonder how they do it, but those are a few of the ones I’ve had great experiences with.”

Stephenson notes that some DJ companies are now attempting to reach out to clients and offer an attendant for the bride and groom to guide them throughout their special day.

“This is not being a coordinator—this is a ‘helper’ that they offer,” he explains.

“I think you need to really be trained in that field to be able to offer that service. The bottom line is there are good and bad in every profession, and we need to ask the bride if they have someone who will be running the day and if they’re a true planner or just a friend helping out. Reach o u t a n d i n t ro d u c e yo u rself ahead of the event and ask them how you can help them.”

John Lindsay of Round Up Country Western Nightclub in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has seen it before as well.

“We’ve all encountered a wedding coordinator from hell,” he offers, “and it’s usually someone who’s so glued to their formula and timeline that they’re unable or unwilling to adapt as the event unfolds. And with some, if you point out a reason to change something will just get huffy and do it their way no matter what, which has led to some tragic and comical results over my 20-plus years of DJing.

“Sometimes I just want to sic the photographer on them,” he jokes.

Charles Bernard of DJX Studio in Plymouth, Mass., stresses professionalism, no matter the circumstances. ““When a coordinator makes your job impossible,” he says, “just find a way.”

Carlos Russin of 5-Star Entertainment in Belmont, N.H., has a simpler solution.

“Just rock it,” he says. “Seriously, none of the guests are gonna remember the coordinator after the event is over! n

AUGUST 2014

“This may sound minor, but any DJ who has had to cross a large ballroom to chase down a best man prior to a toast knows the value of having someone sweat those details for them. Coordinators make sure the vendors are taken care of, and it allows the DJ the luxury of being just that—a DJ.” Still, Shafer quickly concedes that, as much as a wedding coordinator can simplify the job of a DJ, they can also make things far more difficult.

“Coordinators who don’t communicate well—sending timelines within 24 hours of the event, making changes on the day of the event, asking a DJ to announce something ‘Immediately,’ changing the timeline within seconds of a formality, or remaining outside the room for most of the event—those coordinators add unnecessary stress to the DJ, as well as to the other vendors.”

S h a fe r s ay s t h a t ove rcoordinating (or too many ‘chiefs’) can also become an issue. “I once worked an event where there were just 54 guests, and the coordinator had five assistants with her in the room,” she recalls.

“I had no idea who to ask about anything, and spent a lot of time and energy going from person to person asking the same questions.

“The best coordinators understand and respect each vendor’s job and position, and take control without getting in the way. They can give direction while still allowing the DJ to be the absolute best at what they do. The event ticks along smoothly, finishes on time, and every vendor comes out looking like a superstar.”

Shafer adds that, at the events during which she works with a coordinator, the higher percentage almost always comes with a nice gratuity.

“Most DJs don’t get tipped at each and every wedding they work—although there are some who will tell you they do—but of the weddings in which I work with coordinators, I would venture to say that eight out of 10 comes with extra cash at the end of the night.”

Because he often works

DJ TIMES

ny system as well. She was upset about the $300 up-charge, and I know she wouldn’t have been had it been told to her months in advance.

“These planners had actually bragged about how they had worked this venue 30plus times last year. I asked the coordinator why then did we get a last-minute call for a ceremony system and why was their agenda over 45 minutes off? They just looked at me cluelessly.”

Kokoruz says he and his staff typically just ignore bad event planners. “Not out of disrespect to them, but we have a responsibility to the client to make sure their wedding goes smoothly,” he says.

“I realize it may be costing me referrals from these coordinators, but I’d rather not work with a bad planner.

“At least DJs need to buy equipment before they get started—all wedding planners need are business cards and a bad gmail account.”

Known in the Southeast as “not the typical female DJ,” Maria Shafer of Orlando’s Music By Maria can attest to the fact that interacting with wedding coordinators is sometimes a sticky subject for mobile DJs. “To use a sports analogy, typically the DJ works as the quarterback at an event,” she says. “Thanks to the microphone, the DJ has the unique ability among the other vendors to move and instruct the crowd. Meanwhile, the coordinator works as the coach—delivering the plays and making sure the vendors are all in sync.

“I know some DJs who don’t like working with them, but honestly I think a coach can be a great addition to a team on the day of the game.”

Shafer says that, in when properly trained, a good coordinator makes everyone’s job simpler.

“A DJ, for example, is given a timeline rather than having to create one,” she says, “and it’s usually received a week prior so he or she is more than prepared. Rather than map out the whole event, the DJ only needs to speak to the client about music and introductions. They make sure that people and vendors are in place prior to formalities.

23

MAKING TRACKS STUDIO…HARDWARE…SOFTWARE…

Sound Forge Pro: A powerful editing tool & more.

SpectraLayers Pro: Like Photoshop for audio.

SONY CREATIVE SOFTWARE: NEW STUDIO TRICKS

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

By Wesley Bryant-King

24

It’s been over a decade now since Sony purchased the desktop software business from Madison, Wis.-based Sonic Foundry. With the purchase, Sony took over such venerable applications as ACID (a pioneering music application), Sound Forge (audio editing), and Vegas (video editing), both in the professional versions and the company’s “Studio” versions targeted to home and amateur users.

Since then, Sony has continued to invest in what is now known as Sony Creative Software. Even as Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software, including Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, and the like have continued to evolve and include more wave editing capabilities than ever, Sound Forge seeks to remain relevant. And Sony has chosen to bring innovative new capabilities to market in the form of SpectraLayers Pro—software for spectral audio editing, or said another way, to be to audio editing what Adobe Photoshop is to image editing.

This past January at the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif., Sony introduced a significant new upgrade to the applications on the Mac side of the house. (Both applications are available for both Windows and Mac.) The biggest change is the company bringing true interoperability between the two to the Mac side of the house—replicating capabilities already present in the Windows versions.

It’s important to note that, unlike the aforementioned Adobe product, versions between Windows and Mac are not in-sync. Sound Forge Pro Mac is at version 2, while the Windows side is at version 11.

So while both of these applications (Sound Forge Pro and SpectraLayers Pro) are the subject of this review, I’m looking specifically at the Mac side, although Windows users will enjoy very similar (if not identical) capabilities.

Sound Forge: To make an analogy, today’s DAWs are sort of a music-making Swiss Army Knife. It would be easy to come to the conclusion that a standalone wave editor just isn’t really needed anymore; with Ableton Live, for example,

I can slice, dice, and Julienne fry all sorts of audio pretty easily, and render the result back to a WAV file. But while a Swiss Army Knife can uncork a bottle of wine and cut all manner of things with ease, I’m sure there’s not a single professional chef would give up their chef’s knives for one—and so it is with audio.

Sound Forge Pro Mac proves its worth and relevance by doing audio editing very well, and ostensibly providing greater control than a DAW when it comes to mastering, handling of metadata, and alternate outputs formats.

The capabilities of Sound Forge Pro Mac are perhaps not those that inspire tons of excitement, but using a purpose-built tool has its benefits in terms of usability. It gives you what you’d expect, including audio normalization, channel conversion, and the usual editing capabilities. The event-based editing capabilities—improved in version 2—let you define segments of an audio file separately, and manipulate them individually with ease, while the included Zplane time-stretching functionality does just what the name suggests—stretching time—with minimal artifacts in the finished result.

New with Sound Forge Pro Mac are improvements to the user interface (more on that later), CALM-compliant metering, support for FLAC (which expands the already comprehensive file format support), new plug-ins, and the inclusion of iZotope’s popular Nectar Elements plug-in.

As an aside, CALM is the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, which directed the FCC to establish rules regarding the loudness levels of television commercials relative to the programs in which they appear. CALM itself, and the methodology to comply with it, is a big deal to Sound Forge’s numerous broadcasting users, but may also be of interest to audio engineers of all stripes looking to jump on the trend of using available headroom more wisely—despite that being at odds with the pronounced “the louder, the better” methodology that has ruled the audio mastering

world (especially in EDM) for years.

Having used other Sony applications in the past (including ACID, and the home version of Vegas, called “Movie Studio”) since well before the Sony acquisition, I found Sound Forge to have a user experience that harmonizes well with the rest of the software family. I’m not entirely sure that’s a compliment; the user interface approach taken by the Sony team is arguably a bit old-school, with a focus on putting access to functionality mostly inside nested menus, accessed as drop-downs from the menu bar. You’ll find almost no icons on the screen, and very little “eye candy.”

The approach seems at odds with today’s leading software applications, such as the “ribbon” of the Microsoft Office suite, and putting everything in the menu system results in a Spartan interface that is perhaps a bit lacking in intuitiveness.

That being said, you get used to the approach quickly enough, and I can easily see Sound Forge Pro Mac becoming my go-to standalone editing tool. Whether massaging audio clips for projects, dealing with format conversion, or even just quickly trimming demos, it’s easier and in many cases more powerful than loading my DAW for such routine tasks. Sony suggests using Sound Forge for mastering as well, but it’s this use case where I can’t so easily see the benefits vs. staying within the DAW environment. In the latter, tweaks can be made to individual tracks when needed, and for me, it frequently is during the mastering process. But I’m working to remain open-minded when it comes time to master my next project.

SpectraLayers Pro: SpectraLayers is a more recent addition to the Sony Creative Software family, having been acquired from the original French developer a few years ago. That developer, a wunderkind programmer who still codes the product, envisioned a new way to edit audio, and SpectraLayers is the result. As I mentioned earlier, the best analogy is Photoshop for audio.

Explaining SpectraLayers is challenging—which

is the word I would use for the software’s learning curve as well. The user interface for this product departs from Sound Forge, and from the usual approach of Sony’s software; it bears almost no family resemblance, but even with the inclusion of various icons, it has a Spartan, utilitarian design. It does take some getting used to, but the investment of time is rewarded by a rich, capable environment that brings some interesting creative capabilities to the table.

One of the demos I saw at NAMM demonstrated the use of SpectraLayers Pro to remove a police car siren from the background of an audio interview. Using the tool, it’s easy to visually isolate a specific piece of spectrum, such as that siren, then manipulate that “layer” individually (for example, muting it). While that’s interesting, it’s not the sort of creative use that might be of interest to you or me, but the product offers those capabilities in spades.

For a start, the ability to isolate very specific sounds from a composite audio track lets you repurpose or reuse them—bringing interesting new possibilities for sampling from other sources, or manipulating found sounds. From very narrow segments, to entire frequency bands with sharp cut-offs on the edges, you can mark layers from the original, pull them out, process them, the reintegrate them.

This ability to cleanly process specific “chunks” versus an entire audio track brings home some interesting possibilities.

However, things get even more interesting with the product’s spectral casting, and spectral molding capabilities. Both are difficult to explain, but I’ll have a go at it. Spectral casting is similar to ducking or side-chain compression, but with an effect that can be far more pronounced. For example, if you had two tracks—one vocal and one music bed—you can carve out the spectral imprint of the vocal from the music bed in an ultraprecise manner, and to the extent desired, allowing the vocal to have space to be heard.

Spectral molding is the opposite.

Take that vocal track again, and now pair it with, for example, a sustained string pad track. Instead of carving out a hole for the vocal, we can imprint or mold the vocal’s spectral characteristics into the string pad. It has the spectral shape of the vocal, but with the audible components of the pad. If you’re thinking vocoder, you’re on the right track here. But it’s a vocoder on steroids, one that has an eerily accurate character that’s truly unlike anything I’ve personally heard before.

As I’m so used to working in my DAW and have my workflow so well defined, adding SpectraLayers Pro into

my workflow will take some pondering; it’s not a plug-in—so you wouldn’t merely drop it into the DAW. As a result, it requires some forethought, but quite honestly I think its capabilities are worth the effort, and I look forward to tinkering in more depth on my next project.

Conclusions: Before I wrap up, it’s worth mentioning that Sony’s made a big issue of the new Sound Forge Pro/ SpectraLayers Pro interoperability on the Mac side. For users who utilize both of the applications, I can see this being a big benefit, since it’s lets you

move smoothly and easily between the two applications when working on common projects—peeling off a track in Sound Forge, processing it with SpectraLayers Pro, and sending the result back, all seamlessly. Being new to both applications, I’ve not quite yet appreciated the benefits of this new capability, but I’m sure I will with time.

I do, however, appreciate the value proposition for Sony’s Audio Master Suite—the “two-fer” combination of both Sound Forge ($299 alone), and SpectraLayers Pro ($399 alone).

Buy both in the Suite package, and the outlay is a more palatable $499.

(Existing users can take advantage of attractive upgrade pricing for either or both.)

In any event, Sound Forge Pro has already won its place on my studio workstation machine, and SpectraLayers Pro has a home there, too—even as I work to get better up-to-speed on its broad capabilities. In both cases, I find each of the applications to be a great addition to my studio bag of tricks—as I believe virtually any serious studio junkie would as well.

CAST YOUR VOTE Win a Trip for 2 to Las Vegas for the America’s Best DJ Closing Party! t Alvin Risk t Armand Van Helden t A-Trak t Baauer t Bad Boy Bill t Bassnectar t Blake Jarrell t 3lau t BT t Carl Craig t Carnage t Cedric Gervais t Christopher Lawrence t Claude VonStroke t Crizzly t Crystal Method t Danny Tenaglia t David Morales t Dennis Ferrer t Derrick Carter t Designer Drugs t Dieselboy t Dillon Francis t Diplo t Disco Fries t DJ Bl3nd t DJ Boris t DJ Craze t DJ Creme t DJ Dan t DJ Enferno t DJ Godfather t DJ Shadow t DJ Shiftee t DJ Skribble t Dubfire t DVS1 t Erick Morillo t Faust & Shortee t Felix Da Housecat t Filo & Peri t Flosstradamus t François K t Gabriel & Dresden t George Acosta t Girl Talk t Grandmaster Flash t Green Velvet t Jazzy Jeff t Jeff Mills t Josh Wink t Just Blaze t Justin Martin t Kevin Saunderson t Kill The Noise t Krewella t Kristina Sky t Lee Foss t Louie Vega t Maceo Plex t Manufactured Superstars t Mark Farina t Markus Schulz t Marques Wyatt t Martinez Brothers t Matthew Dear t Max Vangeli t Mike Huckaby t Miguel Migs t Mix Master Mike t Moby t Morgan Page t Nicolas Jaar t Porter Robinson t Pretty Lights t QBert t Reid Speed t RL Grime t Robbie Rivera t Roger Sanchez t Roonie G t Saeed Younan t Seven Lions t Sharam t Shogun t Skrillex t Sleepy & Boo t Soul Clap t Stacey Pullen t Steve Aoki t TOKiMONSTA t Tommie Sunshine t Tritonal t Trouble & Bass Crew t 12th Planet t Vice t Victor Calderone t Wolf + Lamb t Wolfgang Gartner t Z-Trip

2007 Jonathan Peters

2008 George Acosta

2009 Christopher Lawrence

2010 Z-Trip

2011 QBert

2011 & ’13 Kaskade

2012 Markus Schulz

Inaugurated in 2006, America’s Best DJ is a competition presented by Pioneer DJ & DJ Times that determines the premier US-based DJ. Each year, DJ Times nominates 100 DJs, and fans can vote for their favorites from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

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SOUNDING OFF PLAYBACK…PRO AUDIO…PROCESSING

RELOOP RP-8000: STURDY, UNIQUE TURNTABLE

By Paul Dailey & DJ QBert Instead of having two products reviewed by a pair of scribes, this month we offer one product reviewed twice—again by two different writers, but this time from very different DJ angles. In looking at Reloop’s unique RP-8000 turntable, our Boston-based Paul Dailey gives the dance-music-DJ perspective, while the legendary, Bay Area-based DJ QBert brings the hip-hop/turntablist view. Enjoy.

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

Reloop RP-8000 by Paul Dailey

26

While it’s true that the entire hip-hop genre owes much of its very existence to the turntable, it’s also true that dance music’s roots are tightly tied to the game-changing product as well.

From crude pitch manipulations with the DJ dragging his finger across the platter to further advancements in torque, tone-arm stability and faster, more unwavering pitch control, the ascents of the dance-music-DJ culture and vinyl turntables are rightly aligned.

With the proliferation of digital DJing and the retirement of the mighty Technics SL-1200 unit by parent company Panasonic in late 2010, turntables have been supplanted in many instances by slick, well-conceived controllers, which often emulate the basic controls of a turntable plus a thousand advanced features that frankly leave traditional decks in the dust.

Enter Reloop, a progressive German company (distributed Stateside by American Music & Sound) that is known for pushing invent i ve b o u n d s , a n d i t s n e w R P - 8 0 0 0 ( $ 7 9 9 MAP), a turntable for the digital generation.

Out of the box, the RP-8000 looks amazing with a design that is evocative of the legendary Tech 12, but rooted in its own innovation, truly distinct from

Double-Duty: Direct drive, digital control.

its competition. It looks and feels like a tank—a sleek, modern, fully 21 st Century tank—with an analog heart, surrounded by cutting-edge additions and enhancements.

From the get-go, you see this advanced design in action, with dual start/stop buttons (making operation much easier for those who prefer battle mode), adjustable brake and torque adjustment knobs, digital-pitch display and modifiable pitch increments, fast-acting reverse and power, USB and audio cords that connect to the rear of the unit, as opposed to the troublesome hardwired version from turntables of the past. Another cool feature of the RP-8000 is the ability to daisy-chain up to four turntables, requiring only one USB port. This is a very well-considered way to fully integrate your decks with your chosen DJ software and hardware.

The tone arm is sturdy and well-made, the body is heavy and displays great shock and sound isolation characteristics—and the overall feel is professional-grade all the way. Reloop does not offer a straight tone arm, which may cause some DJs with heavy hands to balk. But I found no discernible difference in cutting and scratching between my Stanton straight-arm unit and the extremely stable RP8000. If an S tone arm can hold the groove this well, there is simply no reason to subject your precious vinyl (or control records for that matter) to the undue wear that comes with straight tone arms.

As a standalone turntable, the RP-8000 is as solid as any I have used—and that is before we even mention the advanced MIDI functionality that truly take this to another level. These controls take the functionality you might expect with the use of a Novation Dicer or Korg nanoKEY and super-charge it. How? By adding eight drum pads

and four modes (cue, loop, sample and drumroll mode) for triggering samples/effects, and a rotating dial that allows you to search and load tracks in one step—without ever touching your laptop. These controls are intuitive and well laid out, offering skintight integration with Serato and solid support for Traktor via a supplied tsi file.

The line of attractive, back-lit, thick rubber pads performed well for me, never causing an audible artifact or a bounce in the tone arm. You cannot beat on them like they are part of an Akai MPC or Native Instruments Maschine controller—after all, they are right next to the platter. But you would really need to work to get the needle to jump. Skipping was a non-issue in my testing.

With the RP-8000, Reloop hit a home run in terms of features, stability and functionality. It is an advanced piece of kit that was well designed, well considered, and looks amazing. DJs looking to embrace their love of turntables and take that adoration into the future have finally have their muse.Very well done.

Reloop RP-8000 by DJ QBert

With the discontinuation of the Technics SL1200 turntable, DJs have been on the hunt for the next best thing. Despite the abundance of DJ controllers in the market today, it is still evident that the turntable is still the weapon of choice for many jocks, especially performance-based DJs who scratch, juggle and manipulate sounds in so many ways. As a background, I’ve been using Technics turntables for over 30 years, so it’s no easy feat to come close to its iconic design and functionality.

Throughout the years, my Thud Rumble colleagues and I have helped design some alternative turntables—including the Vestax PDX models, the

QFO All-In-One turntable and some upcoming units. (In recent years, I have been seen using the Stanton STR8-150 turntables.) The best features I find useful for scratch DJs from this unit are the high torque that can withstand the most aggressive scratch techniques, extended pitch for a wider range of sound manipulation and the straight tone arm for an almost skipless scratching experience.

First Impressions: Out of the box, the first things that you notice on this turntable are the MIDI buttons (more on this later) and the beautiful glossy finish. The box packaging comes in full-color; if you stacked these with all the other packages, this would definitely catch your attention at retail.

Inside comes with the standard Styrofoam to hold the turntables and platter separately and cardboard wedges for the cables (power, RCA, USBs), target light, counterweight and manual.

A quick glance will show that some parts used are the same as the other super OEM turntables in the market today. The platter looks and feels the same as the Stanton STR8-150, although there’s a slight overhang on the MIDI controls. The stock S-arm design is similar to the Stanton ST-150 and had me wishing that they made a straight-arm version of this turntable as well. The extended pitch controls (with LED display readout), torque adjustment and start/brake adjustment knobs are a nice touch, but could’ve been placed somewhere more accessible, in my opinion. I still prefer the Technicsstyle target lights vs. the super OEM removable LED lights that the new turntables have.

It also comes with three speed settings, 33 RPM,

45 RPM and 78 RPM (by pressing both 33/45 buttons; useful for playing old 10-inch records). There’s also a reverse switch, a much-needed function, especially for sampling. Again, I prefer the old-school design that finds it installed in one or both start/ stop buttons as a double-tap function.

The side control comes with RCA ports (with phono/line switch which is useless for vinyl players since most mixers have phono inputs anyways). It has a USB port for connecting to a computer and another USB for linking multiple turntables. The voltage switch 110V/220V is a nice addition, although I prefer a universal power supply (available in most DJ mixers now) that requires no switching.

The power cable is the skinny two-prong type; again, I prefer an angled-UPC (D-plug type).

Feel & Operation: One of the most important features of any turntable is its feel; that’s why it’s so hard to replace the Technics SL1200s. That’s in part on both the platter and motor design. The RP8000s make up for it by having a torque-adjustment knob which could mimic a Technics turntable torque and also be high torque like the STR8150s. The start/brake adjustment is also there to simulate various start and brake settings—from an instant start/stop to a slow setting. It is important to note that no turntable has been able to emulate the classic Technics SL-1200 brake. Nonetheless, I’m confident that the RP-8000 can withstand the most grueling DJ tasks—from mixing and juggling to the most intense scratching.

MIDI Functions: This collection of MIDI functions was the main reason this turntable is de-

signed and the main reason that the modern DJ should and will buy this. With advancements in DVS technology, it became almost necessary for DJs to have an extra controller to enhance their performances. The cue, loop, samples, user banks and associated buttons (8x), strategically placed at the bottom of the turntable, if you’re set up battle style, is the perfect complement to a DJ mixer without the same control functions (e.g., Reloop RMX-80, Reloop RMX-40, etc.). The rubber design responds well to cue-point pushing and sample triggering. A crate/track scroll and load knob is already available for a quick access to your digital files. Using these controls is a matter of preference, especially if you already own a DJ mixer with the control function (e.g., Rane Sixty-Two, Traktor Kontrol Z2, etc.), which renders these controls redundant. It is “plug-and-play” with Serato DJ, but still needs to be mapped manually with Serato Scratch Live, Traktor Scratch Pro and other DVS. Overall: These are best-looking turntables in the market right now. The MIDI control is a great design addition to current turntables and is definitely its strongest feature. The look, weight and construction make this ideal for mobile and touring DJs as well. Its strong motor will last countless hours of DJing, even with the most demanding DJ skills.

There’s not much you can improve in turntable designs (unless they install a toggle switch for quick scratching), but the Reloop RP-8000 turntable is a great improvement and will surely carve its own place among the dopest turntables.

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MOBILE PROFILE CAREERS…INNOVATIONS…SUCCESS STORIES

OHIO DJ TAKES TO THE HIGH SEAS

DJ Day-na has spun 20-plus Disney cruises.

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

By Stu Kearns

28

Dayton, Ohio—“Get to know yourself,” says DJ Day-na. “Love who you are and become your own best friend.”

It might sound like gooey New Age self-help stuff, but it was the most valuable advice DJ Day-na received when starting her DJ business—that, and “build a strong support system.”

“I know it may sound funny to some people,” she says, “but only you know yourself better than anyone else and that will certainly benefit you when making personal or professional decisions. Without a doubt, getting to know myself has helped carve my path to the success I’ve achieved, as well as helped me overcome tribulations.”

This scratch and beat-heavy journey of Day-na’s self-discovery began while hanging out with a group of collegiate Ohio DJs who booked campus events and local bars and nightclubs. “After being their ‘groupie’ for awhile, I became eager and curious to see what it was like behind the 1’s and 2’s,” she says. “When the owner of the mobile-DJ company asked if I’d be interested in giving it a shot, I couldn’t resist.”

And so it began. For Day-na, known as Dayna Solomon at the time, a fan of all types of music and known to be the first to hit the dancefloor at a club, DJing seemed to be a magical fit. “I still remember my first night spinning in the nightclub,” she says. “I was very nervous, but super-pumped at the same time. Once I felt the vibe of the crowd and the beats of the music that created this dynamic energy in the room, I was hooked. It truly was an exhilarating experience and I had to pursue it further.”

When she decided to pursue it further, the biggest challenge was deciding on the most effective marketing strategies for the business. “It is definitely more complex than I realized,” she says. “I researched various advertising avenues, figured out my target market and how to reach them, and decided on how much to invest in what.”

It helps that there never seems to be a lack of events in her market of Southwest Ohio. “It’s definitely competitive around here, but I try not to look at it that way,” she says. “I stay focused on my craft, niche, and target market hoping that will all help my business shine and attract the clientele and events I’m aiming for. My business is unique to this area because I am a solo-op, non-cheesy, professional female DJ/MC who can beatmatch. People know what to expect when they hire me because of the way I brand myself.”

Through what she calls the “good ol’ trial-anderror method, combined with common sense and groundwork,” she developed a clearer picture of what would be profitable to her business—for starters, weddings. She packages her three options as Silver, White Gold and Platinum.

“I did put some thought behind the names of my wedding packages,” she says. “I wanted to keep them simple and only offer three choices.

I’ve incorporated the disco ball into my logo. If I were to describe the appearance of a disco ball, I’d say it’s shiny and silver in color. From there I came up with the idea of using the precious metals names, because they remind me of the color of a disco ball. When I was brainstorming on which metal to use for what package, I looked at the description of them. Silver is the most common and least expensive, white gold is a combination of metals, and platinum is the most expensive. Thus, I felt they reflected the pricing and structure of the packages I created.”

But she got her most exciting gig when she got a call two years ago from Scratch Events, a division of New York City-based Scratch Music Group (another division is the world-renowned Scratch DJ Academy, which was co-developed (continued ion page 42)

BUSINESS LINE SALES…MARKETING…SOLUTIONS… Jason Klock, founder of multi-op Klock Entertainment in Harrisburg, Pa., began attending the DJ Expo several years ago and, like many DJs, sat on the sidelines and eagerly absorbed the information. Slowly, year after year, he got more comfortable and started contributing to the question-and-answer periods at the end of seminars. Then he was invited on a panel.

This year, he’ll be moderating one of his own, “Manage Your Time, Master Your Sales.” We asked Klock about the seminar.

By Con Carney How does research apply to my DJ business?

DJ EXPO PREVIEW: HOW DJS CAN ALWAYS BE CLOSING

Jason Klock: Research towards your business is extremely important, especially market research and your own region’s market research. Knowing what to charge, how much you can charge, and what your market cap is will help you be able to focus in on what goals to set for your company. I plan to discuss things I did for market research and establishing a starting point to set goals.

The goals you set should be a combination of financial and general business/effort goals. After doing research and assuming you are growing your business, you should be able to make some educated guesses as to what should be an achievable, but yet not too easy of a sales goal (monthly, quarterly and annually). Don’t make goals that are unreachable, but make them a challenge that causes you to push forward and continue to overachieve a standard. Additionally you should have an annual revenue goal, a personal earnings goal, and other goals that follow that are not financial. Other goals may consist of how many MCs you’d like to employ, how many events you’d like to book. I also recommend personal goals such as family time, relaxation time and personal fitness. These goals with help you balance the business of life and work. I plan to discuss ways on implementing this goals and working towards to achieve them.

Should my goals be merely financial?

Can you give us a little bit of your sales process here?

When your phone rings or you receive an email, how are you handling your leads?

What is the process you take prospects through to earn their trust and business? In this segment of the seminar, I plan to guide everyone through how my company handles leads and converts the sale. Although there is no right or wrong answer to how you handle a lead, we’ve experienced success with our formula of calls, emails, appointments, and marketing to clients.

When it comes to time management and organizing my day, what should I not be doing?

As for presentation, how should I appear to a potential client?

Presentation of your company is key, from first impression to a potential client at a bridal show to first impression when you load in at a new venue. However, in this part of the seminar, I will be focusing in on the presentation of your company to potential clients, be it face-to-face, at an Expo event, first impression over the phone, and our sales presentation in our office.

Take Action—what does this mean?

When you’re selling anything in life or trying to achieve your goals, it is important to take action and not procrastinate. Procrastination is one of the worst habits. “Don’t delay, sell today.” Call that client back immediately. If they are calling you, they are also calling at least three competitors. Moreover, if you want to grow your business, take action on your game plan and goals you’ve set forth.

Well, we all know that on a nice day it is tempting to go golfing, head to the pool bar, or kick up the feet on the back deck and patio. Although, it is important to make time for these things in life, it is extremely important as an entrepreneur to not get distracted with the freedom it brings. You have to work hard to play hard and to be successful you can’t play hard first. Procrastinating, wasting time, and spending time on things that don’t make you money are some of the highest-rated distractions to a self-employed business person. Moreover, I’ll be discussing ways of just staying organized.

Our business and industry is extremely chaotic at times because our schedule revolves around our clients.

It seems very obvious that you would want to plan ahead, but many people don’t. The further you plan ahead, the less likely you are to be scrambling and stressing at the last minute, whether this be for events, prepping for a sales appointment, achieving a sales goal, etc. I plan to discuss strategizing planning ahead for certain things in business, sales, and personal goals.

Seems obvious, but what do I need to know?

It is important to make sure that you and your staff are always working their assets. If everyone on your team focuses on what they are best at, you will be able to fuel your engine and exceed and succeed even quicker.

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

How do I know which stuff to delegate to staff?

30

What are some things I can do to close a sale?

One of the most important things—and one of the hardest things to do in the sales process—is to properly ask for the sale. I will discuss how we ask for the sale and, in my opinion, the right ways to ask for the sale. More importantly, when you close the sale, what is the next thing you should do to stay successful?

There’s the motto, “Always Be Closing.” How do I do that?

Sometimes it is more than just closing the “sale”—it’s the sales process. Always be gathering the next step, the next goal, and the next big thing in your business endeavors.

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GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

The Sound and the Fog Fury

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO-DJ

ADJ Products 6122 S. Eastern Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90040 (323) 582-2650 www.americandj.com

Monster USA 455 Valley Drive Brisbane, CA 94005 (877) 800-8989 www.monsterproducts.com

ADJ has released the Fog Fury series, a new line of room-filling fog machines equipped with high performance Italian-made piston-action pumps and a special heating element design that uses an oil-type transmission to prevent clogging. The line includes four models—the 1000, 2000, 3000 and 3000 WiFLY—which come with 650W, 1,100W and 1,600W heaters, respectively. Models feature a new in-tank LED indicator system that lets users know when the fog fluid is running low.

The 3000 WiFLY also comes with DMX controller-operated wireless technology.

The Monster GO-DJ is a stand-alone, portable DJ rig and music production studio that the company says is “small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.” The unit features a touchscreen interface with turntables and musical pads, as well as hardware knobs, a crossfader, seven special effects, 24 default sample sounds, a 16-beat step sequencer and a line-in 1/8-inch headphone jack. Its 16-Beat Routine Composer/Step Sequencer features a BPM controller, editable preset rhythmic patterns, and user/custom rhythmic patterns. The Monster GO-DJ comes with 2GB of internal memory.

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

Stick it to the Man

32

Pioneer DJ 1925 E. Dominguez Street Long Beach, CA 90810 (310) 952-2000 www.pioneerdjusa.com Pioneer has announced a new memory stick designed for use with the company’s latest flagship CDJ players with USB inputs. These USB memory sticks provide 16 GB of memory and feature a see-through acrylic block with an etched rekordbox logo that emits a blue glow when plugged into a USB port. The body and protective cap are made of a heavy-gauge brushed aluminum with the Pioneer logo laser etched onto the side of the cap.

All’s Well That Gigwell Gigwell 530 Howard Street Suite 370 San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 409-9467 www.bookongigwell.com Gigwell Productivity Suite is the first product from Gigwell, a cloudbased DJ booking platform that boasts a board of advisors that includes luminaries of the dance music industry, big data analytics and machine learning. Currently in beta, Gigwell launched with eight carefully selected booking and management agencies representing over 300 artists worldwide. The service offers end-to-end workflow automation for booking and management agencies, managing all artist bookings, track payments, negotiate contracts, talent availabilities and track revenue goals.

GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

Turn the Beatmix Around American Music & Sound 22020 Clarendon St, Suite 305 Woodland Hills, CA 91367 (800) 431-2609 www.AmericanMusicAndSound.com The Reloop Beatmix 4 is a four-channel pad controller for Serato.

It features dedicated equalizer and gain dials, line-faders, crossfader, dedicated volume fader, 16 multi-color drum pads and touch-sensitive jog wheels with aluminum platters. There is LED technology on the surface and border of the jog wheels to show users the virtual needle position. The unit comes with 3cm drum pads that control cue points, trigger loops, select various loop lengths and trigger samples. It also features a Split Mode that allows users to both control cue points and trigger samples at the same time.

From Head to Serato Serato Private Bag 92015, AMSC Auckland 1142 New Zealand +64 9 379 4944 www.serato.com Serato announced updates to three of its products. The first major update for Serato Video adds such new features as Video Mix Recording, Audio/Video Linked FX, Free Visualizer content from I LOVE QC, Syphon Support and Windows 8 / Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks support. Serato Video is now built into the codebase of Serato DJ, which is available in version 1.6.1. Finally, Serato Remote now includes a slicer that chops a track into eight slices that can be re-triggered in any order using eight performance pads.

Nuthin’ but a G Thang

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

Gator Cases 18922 N. Dale Mabry Hwy Lutz, FL 33548 (813) 221-4191 www.gatorcases.com

34

Gator’s G-Club series carry bags are designed to transport Roland’s AIRA line of performance modules. The line includes two models, the G-Club Control messenger bag and the G-Club Bakpak-LG, both of which have orange interior lining. The messenger bag is made of a lightweight durable nylon and features a large padded compartment and additional storage for laptops up to 17 inches, headphones and other accessories. The backpack features a large padded section and thick padded adjustable straps.

GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

25th Anniversary Moments

Living Legend Chauvet 5200 NW 108th Ave. Sunrise, FL 33351 (800) 762-1084 www.chauvetlighting.com The Legend 412Z compact LED wash fixture from Chauvet utilizes 12 powerful 10-watt Quad-Color RGBW LEDs to create smoothly-blended color washes. The Legend 412Z features an eight- to 33-degree zoom that allows the unit to function as a wide-angle wash or throw concentrated beams 40 feet, depending on the venue.

Additional features include individual zone control, flicker-free operation, multi-voltage operation, and a newly-designed speed system for “incredibly fast pan/tilt movement,” according to the company.

Daft Punk: We Are the Robots “Criticizing the Vocoder is like asking bands in the ’60s, ‘Why do you use the electric guitar?’ It’s just a tool… no big deal.

Creation is interaction.

“The healthy thing is that people either loved it or hated it. At least people were not neutral. The worst thing when you make art is for people to not even be moved by it.”

– Daft Punk, May 2001

Just Dance Future Loops www.futureloops.com Future Loops released EDM FX Tools, a collection of sound FX that is specifically geared towards dance genres like House, Complextro, Mainroom and Progressive, but can also be used with Dubstep, DNB, Trap or Breaks. Available in WAV format, EDM FX Tools is divided into six categories of FX: Rise Ups, General FX, Impacts, Upfilters, Arcade FX and Downsweeps. All 233MB of content in EDM FX Tools is 100-percent royalty free.

READ ENTIRE INTERVIEW ONLINE djtimes.com

GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

Rytm is Gonna Get You

Fix You

Elektron Music Machines 1340 E. 6th St #632 Los Angeles, CA 90021 www.elektron.se

The Fray Fix 121 Amersfort Place Brooklyn NY 11210 www.thefrayfix.com

Analog Rytm from Elektron is an eight- voice analog drum machine that features a specialized analog percussion sound generator for each voice. The unit features an FX send section that includes a reverb and a delay, as well as 12 backlit, multi-colored, pressure and velocity sensitive pads that are used in tandem with the step sequencer. Additional features include 16-bit sample playback, individual voice outputs, live oriented beat control and drive storage for projects, patterns, kits, songs, sounds and samples.

The Fray Fix is designed to solve the problem of fraying MacBooks Magsafe power cords. They are made with heat-resistant silicon and are designed to secure themselves around the block of a power cord and supply it “with the necessary support through a stress relief attached to it,” according to the company. The Fray Fix works with all the connection heads for the Magsafe power cords, including the Magsafe 2 connector head. It can be purchased from the company’s website or Amazon.

From Dusk Til Dawn

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

Dawn Pro Audio 3015 Kustom Drive Hebron, KY 41048 (800) 524-0441 www.dawnproaudio.com

36

The T100 System is a full-range 600-watt speaker system that features SystemLink technology, which distributes the audio input at any single speaker to every daisy-chained speaker in the system.

There is a three-channel mixer in each speaker tower, featuring two channels that accept both a ¼-inch line-level input and an XLR microphone input (balanced), and one channel that accepts a 1/8-inch headphone or line-level stereo input. High and low EQ adjustment and volume control are provided on each channel, and there is a separate master volume control for each loudspeaker.

GROOVES TRACKS…MIXES…COMPILATIONS “LOVERS ON THE SUN”

u David Guetta feat. Sam Martin The French superstar is back with his next radio smash. The track was co-produced by Avicii, whose country-goes-EDM aesthetic is on display with twanging guitars and reverb-heavy whistles.

Guest vocalist Martin delivers a signature-Guetta soaring chorus that precedes a euphoric drop of rolling synths that’s ready for the summer rays.

– Chris Caruso “FLOWER PARTS” EP

u Rachel Lyn u Air London “Citrine” turns things on at a medium-heat, the techy bassline billowing under protracted synths. Kris Wadsworth’s take goes deep-

er, rounding off the hard edges into cavernous mechanical techno. “Flower Parts” is next, with metallic rhythms clacking atop monstrous subbass. Tracks 4 and 5 are a departure from the previous, and relatively forgettable, but all in all, rising starlet Lyn has crafted a decidedly mature EP.

– Chris Davis

David Guetta

“ALL OUT” u Anna Lunoe u Ultra Records As the first single from the Australian DJ/producer’s EP on Ultra, the track’s laid-back house vibes are a far cry from the jungle bass of her last release “BDD.” Lunoe’s vocals sound smooth as silk on the sedated chorus, while the chilled-out bassline features elements of bouncing bass of underground house. – Chris Caruso

Flosstradamus

Rachel Lyn

Anna Lunoe

ProX

Live Performance Gear

Borgore

Monarchy

“LIVING WITHOUT YOU” (REMIXES) u Monarchy u Ultra Records The British synthpop duo’s interstellar electro-ballad is reworked for club floors of all Nervo sorts on this package. MK’s pair of remixes shine, with the addictive piano-house of his “Letting Go Remix” complemented by the darker sub-bass of his “Save Your Life Remix.” Bassheads need to look no further than Henrix and Sick Samurai’s offerings, while nu disco fans will appreciate the “Great Good Fine OK” mix.

NEW GORE ORDER u Borgore u Buygore/Dim Mak

– Chris Caruso

Hulking bass and raunchy raps are the name of the game here. The beyond-graphic “Syrup” is a slimy dubstep hammer, while the trapped-out nursery rhymes of “Ratchet” is a future party favorite. Surprisingly, his ventures into big-room house are his most successful, with the grinding electro of “Piñata” and synth punches of “Be Ourselves” being particularly memorable. – Chris Caruso

“TTU (TOO TURNT UP)” u Flosstradamus u Ultra Records Flosstradamus hit the trap apex once again with a banger starring Southern rap partystarter Waka Flocka Flame. The cavernous sub-bass is punctuated by synthetic horns and Flocka’s commands to “Turnup,” and Flossy even throw in a punishing hardstyle section for the EDM new-school. – Chris Davis ...with our

BLACK on BLACK

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

hardware option!

38

“DUB LIFE”EP u Genetikal Twins & Dubwell u InfraDigRecords On this dark and moody, but excellent EP, the mixes of “Still Dark” are just pure brilliance with funky drums, dirty chords and some very cool vocal hits. And the “Light IDR, Jonathan Jou & Martin Zeque Remix” is a Nu-Disco killer. Finally, the “other” track, “How Hard,” delivers bouncier, tech-house flavor, but still with a hint of darkness.

– Phil Turnipseed “MABEL” EP u Lil Silva u True Panther/Good Years A five-track EP heavy on atmospheric reverb, Mabel is led by a title single ripe with sizzling synths and beat-repeated bass bounces that echo the release’s minimalistic indiehouse vibe. A pair of collaborations with alt-pop chanteuse Banks are spacey Future R&B cuts reminiscent of SBTRKT’s work with Sampha. – Chris Caruso

August 11-14, 2014 | Trump Taj Mahal | Atlantic City, NJ REGISTER AT THEDJEXPO.COM Be at The Casbah on Wednesday, August 13, for DJ Expo’s annual competition, when the best of the best from the Mobile Nation compete in a variety of performance categories, including “DJ of the Year.”

If you’re a mobile DJ/entertainer/performer & you think you’ve got the goods to compete in Atlantic City, please contact us (djtimes@testa.com) with a Subject Line reading “DJ of the Year.”

Maybe you’ll take home this year’s honors!

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MP3s in 6

Compiled As July 10, 2014

NATIONAL CROSSOVER POOL CHART

NATIONAL URBAN POOL CHART

1 Calvin Harris 2 Bimbo Jones And Beverly Knight 3 Rita Ora 4 Katy Perry 5 Beyonce 6 DJ Cassidy F/ Robin Thicke & Jessi 7 Jennifer Lopez 8 Iggy Azalea F/ Charli XCX 9 Ariana And The Rose 10 Cher 11 Coldplay F/ Avicii 12 Alina Artts 13 Janine Berenson 14 Duke Dumont 15 Anything But Monday 16 Diva Demolition 17 Neon Trees 18 Afrojack F/ Wrabel 19 Gia 20 Ariana Grande/ Iggy Azalea 21 Lady Gaga 22 SilverLand And Stix F/ Lankee 23 RPM Project F/ Eva Solas 24 Bello Boys F/ Kat DeLuna 25 Chromeo 26 Paramore 27 Bellatrax F/ Sophia May 28 Kylie Minogue 29 Naughty Boy F/ Sam Smith 30 VenSun 31 Suzanne Palmer 32 Kylie Minogue 33 Cascada 34 Five Knives 35 Josh Harris F/ Kristin Dennis 36 Beyonce 37 Nadia Forde 38 Malea 39 Rev-Players 40 Aiden Jude F/ Nafsica

1 KCamp F/ 2 Chains 2 Beyonce 3 Chris Brown F/ Lil Wayne&French Mon 4 Usher 5 Lil Wayne F/ Drake 6 Future F/ Pharrel/ Pusha T / Casino 7 Jhene Aiko 8 Jay Z F/ Beyonce 9 Iggy Azalea F/ Charli XCX 10 Tinashe F/ School Boy Q 11 Wiz Khalifa 12 Yo Gotti F/ Rich Homie Quan 13 Kid Ink F/ Chris Brown 14 Schoolboy Q F/ BJ The Chicago Kid 15 Ca$h Out 16 Future F/ Kanye West 17 Young Money F/ Drake 18 Anthony Lewis F/ Billy Bang 19 Trey Songz 20 Ne-YO F/ JEEZY

Summer Columbia I Found Out Radikal I Will Never Let You Down Sony Birthday Capitol Partition Columbia Calling All Hearts Columbia I Luh Ya Papi Capitol Fancy 19 Recordings In Your Bed Pookiebird I Walk Alone Warner Brothers Sky Full Of Stars Parlophone Bounce REC Strong Global Groove I Got You Astralwerks Sweat ABM Can’t Wait Spitfire Sleeping With A Friend Island/Def Jam Ten Feet Tall Def Jam Bombs Away Global Groove Problem Republic G.U.Y. Interscope Golden Ryal Sara Panache Last Call Radikal Jealous (I Ain’t With It) Warner Brothers Ain’t It Fun Fueled By Ramen Falling For You Tazmania I Was Gonna Cancel Warner Brothers La La La Capitol The Dragon Flies Sea To Sun Surrender Music Plant Into The Blue(Remixes) Warner Brothers Blink Robbins Rising Red Bull You Make Me Dance Amathus Pretty Hurts Columbia Love Is In The Air Fayden Give Water Music 4AM Amathus Tonight Shap

Most Added Tracks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Janine Berenson Bello Boys F/ Kat Deluna Amy Grant F/ Dave Aude Aiden Jude F/ Nafsica Rita Ora Chron Bingo Players Coldplay F/ Avicii Ann Nesby Shakira

Strong Last Call Baby Baby Tonight I Will Never Let You Down Bass In Me Knock You Out Sky Full Of Stars Living My Life Dare (La La)

REPORTING POOLS

Global Groove Radikal Capitol Global Groove Sony Global Groove Priority Parlophone Arrow RCA

n Lets Dance / IRS - Chicago, IL; Lorri Annarella n Next Music Pool - Los Angeles, CA; Bob Ketchter n Masspool - Saugus, MA; Gary Canavo n OMAP - Washington, DC; Al Chasen n Dj Stickyboots - Goshen, NJ; Blake Eckelbarge n Fusion Radio - Chicago, IL; Manny Esparza n Pittsburgh DJ - Pittsburgh, PA; Jim Kolich n Soundworks - San Francisco, CA; Sam Labelle n New York Music Pool - Levittown, NY; Jackie McCloy n Dixie Dance Kings - Alpharetta, GA; Dan Miller n WPTV-Prty 105FM Frd MdMx - New York, NY; Mike Rizzo n MOOD Spins - Seattle, WA; Randy Schlager n DeeJay Creativity - Austin, TX; Scott Smith n Northeast Record Pool - Revere, MA; Justin Testa n Pacific Coast Long Beach, CA; Steve Tsepelis Looking for these titles? You can hear them and buy them at www.dancekings.com. Just click on the links in the chart.

DDK has limited memberships available for qualified DJs in the US. We service CDs and MP3s in dance and urban formats. Feedback and membership dues required.

770-740-0356

Cut Her Off Partition Loyal Good Kisser Believe Me Move That Doh The Worst Part II ( On The Run) Fancy 2 On We Dem Boyz I Know Main Chick Studio She Twerkin I Won Trophies Candy Rain Na Na Money Can’t Buy

Interscope Columbia RCA RCA Cash Money Epic Island/Def Jam Rock-a-fella 19 Recordings RCA Atlantic Epic RCA Interscope EOne Epic Republic The Chemists Atlantic Capitol

Most Added Tracks 1 2 3 4 5

T.I. F/ Iggy Azalea Young Thug Rae Sremmurd Schoolboy Q F/ BJ The Chicago Kid Mariah Carey

No Mediocre Columbia Danny Glover Atlantic No Flex Zone Interscope Studio Interscope You Don’t Know What I Do Def Jam

NEW NATIONAL LATIN DANCE POOL CHART 1. Adassa Vs Don Candiani 2. Don Omar 3. Enrique Iglesias feat Gente de Zona 4. David Bisbal 5. DJ Cubanito feat Oba Frank lords 6. Gabriel Coronel 7. J Martin 8. Angelucho Copacabana 9. Toby Love 10. Johnny Sky 11. Benavides 12. Gallardo & Falcon 13. Ruina Nueva 14. Froilan Jay 15. Romeo Santos feat Drake 16. Magic Juan 17. Zawezo 18. El Melon 19. Chan Junior 20. Gretchen feat Gocho

Young Love Pura Vida Bailando No Amanece (Remix) La Casa De Pepe Yo Te Ame (Remix) Ni Una Lagrima Mas Soy Latino El Aire Que REspiro One More Night Tu principe Azul Pegao’ (Remix) Salsa Coño La Suegra Odio Embrujado Dirnk Up Lentejuelas Margarita Tu Princesa

Kult Latino Music Universal Universal Universal Toy Robot Warner PPE Mr. Yuca Sony Premium Latin Benavides 3rd. World Music Fama Mundial Bungalo/Universal Sony Top Stop Music Digital Launch Melon Chanson Universal

La Persona Ideal Y Ahora Me Voy Chipilin La Vida El V.I.P.

Grupo 360 360 group Demand Venevision Sueños

Most Added Tracks 1. Grupo Karis 2. NG2 3. Tarzana 4. Henry Santos feat Maffio 5. Kalimete

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.

Mobile

Tiesto

(continued from page 17) I really don’t know in what order or anything.

DJ Times: That’s actually quite refreshing. So many big-name DJs seem to know exactly what they’re going to play and when they’re going to play it.

Tiësto: I couldn’t work that way.

It would just be too boring to play the same set every night from start to finish. I wouldn’t be very happy doing that.

DJ Times: It would become almost like working on an assembly line.

Tiësto: Yeah, especially for DJs. If you’re a live artist, it’s still a challenge to get all the notes right every night, even if you play the same songs.

At least, that’s what I’m guessing.

But yes—there are DJs who play the same exact set every night. I don’t know how they do it. Or even why they do it!

DJ Times: You teamed up with 7Up for the release party, with that partnership continuing throughout 2014. It seems as though cooperate America is investing heavily in the EDM scene. How do you feel about that?

Tiësto: I think it’s very important—in a way, especially for people who aren’t huge followers of the music, it really helps to increase awareness. But it has to be a cool brand; you can’t have a brand that you don’t really like sponsoring your tour. I would never team up with a chickensoup company or something like that.

DJ Times: I take it you are a fan of this particular brand.

Tiësto: It is definitely in my top three drinks! [Laughs]. I grew up on it as a kid. I love to work with brands like Apple or 7Up. Since I use them

every day, it doesn’t feel unnatural. It doesn’t even feel cooperate, if that makes any sense. Also, 7Up has the #7x7UP program, which is putting a lot of money into young talented DJs who I serve as the mentor for. So yeah, I think this kind of thing is amazing for the scene. I think if brands like that want to be involved in dance music, it’s a win-win situation for everybody involved.

DJ Times: So you’re not worried that it might turn fans off?

Tiësto: I don’t think so. So many things have corporate sponsorship now, so I think people accept it.

DJ Times: Speaking of changing perceptions, do you feel that kids look at dance music nowadays is different than how older fans do?

Younger people often haven’t been introduced to the music through clubbing; a lot of them come to the sound via the internet, or perhaps through festivals. Do you think that has had any effect on how they perceive dance music?

Tiësto: Yeah, absolutely. There’s a huge difference. If you grew up in the clubs, you’ve experienced the scene in a very different way than if you discovered the music some other way. And I think that attention spans are a lot shorter nowadays with the younger crowd, too—I guess because of the internet. Back in the day, you could play a track for 10 minutes, and nobody would be bored. And now, I feel like something has to happen every three or four minutes, or even quicker. I think that’s why people started doing mash-ups—people couldn’t concentrate on one song for very long.

DJ Times: Of course, when you

first started out playing vinyl, quick mixing was a bit tougher.

Tiësto: It’s definitely more possible to do now.

DJ Times: Are you ever in a situation when you do get to play tracks in their entirety any more?

Tiësto: Not too often. But like I was saying before, I do get to play plenty of sets where it’s basically just me DJing. I have my residency at Hakkasan [in Las Vegas], for instance, and I always play for at least three hours, sometimes four. I can play the tracks a little longer in that kind of situation.

It’s really like a journey, one where I can play lots of different styles. That’s how I love to play. Sometimes at festivals, you don’t get much more than an hour, and you’re in between six or seven of the top DJs in the world.

DJ Times: You really have to go big in that kind of situation, I would imagine.

Tiësto: I would say that what you really have to do is stand out in whatever way you can. You have to play something different than the other DJs. But there’s not really time to let a set evolve in any way; it can be kind of tough. So I’m really happy that I took the Hakkasan residency. On a personal level, it’s one of greatest moves I did last year.

DJ Times: You actually moved to Vegas, right?

Tiësto: Yeah, and it’s so great. The scene there is so new and so fresh, the club itself is brand new, and I really feel at home there. I really enjoy it. It’s where I think I have the most fun as a DJ. DJ Times: And you don’t have to worry about rain there, either. n Tiësto: No, never at all!

(continued from page 28) with the late Jam Master Jay of RunD.M.C.). “They have the largest team of DJs nationwide who entertain guests at various events,” she says, “and they were looking for a female DJ for a retail event in Ohio. After working a number of events for them, I inquired about other opportunities and that’s when I found out they had a cruise division as well.”

Naturally, she jumped on that opportunity and requested to be considered for it. “I’ve now had the enjoyment of sailing the high seas and visiting exotic locations as a guest DJ on 20 Disney cruises and four Celebrity cruises,” she says, adding, “Tough job, I know—but someone’s gotta do it!”

We asked Day-na where she expects to be in five years and she struck a characteristically positive tone. “If you asked me that five years ago I would have told you something completely different than where I am now,” she says. “Life is full of unexpected surprises, challenges, and blessings that can alter your path and lead you to things you never imagined. Overall, I see my business growing and offering more than just DJ services. My background is in multimedia journalism, so I would love to incorporate those roots into the business. I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I’m not ready to share quite yet, but I am in the research and development stages. In addition, part of my job on the cruises consists of teaching DJ 101 lessons, which has been a very rewarding experience. So that has inspired me to want to share my passion with youth locally and be an influence on future rockstar n mobile DJs!”

DJ TIMES

AUGUST 2014

Mike Huckaby: Detroit Techno Mentor

42

I love being a DJ/producer…

Who teaches the craft to others.

I just hate grading all this homework.

Mike Huckaby, Next Month in DJ Times

THE BOLD SHAPE OF PERFORMANCE

M U LT I P U R P O S E S E L F - P O W E R E D S O U N D R E I N F O R C E M E N T

More than just another great JBL sound system, the new EON615 is a true step forward in technology developed specifically to deliver the best sound possible regardless of its application. Completely rethinking how truly good an affordable selfcontained, portable PA system can be, JBL engineers purposely designed and built the EON615 from the ground up featuring JBL’s advanced waveguide technology, JBL designed and manufactured transducers, and convenient, wireless remote control of its onboard DSP EQ parameters via Bluetooth. This total redesign of the EON platform leverages the latest technologies in cabinet materials, acoustic science, transducer design and user friendliness that delivers the extraordinary quality of a high-end studio monitor in a fully professional, highly flexible, easy to use, portable system for today’s working musicians and sound providers.

REVOLUTIONARY WAVEGUIDES The EON615’s extraordinary performance results from a breakthrough approach to waveguide design for both high frequency and low frequency components. The result is consistent HF and LF response and high intelligibility throughout its entire 90 degree coverage pattern. These characteristics are the foundation of high-end studio monitor sound, now available for the first time in a portable, affordable system.

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