DJ Times October 2016, Vol 29 No 10

DOWN THE STRETCH

AMERICA’S FIRST MAGAZINE FOR PROFESSIONAL DJs ESTABLISHED 1988

OCTOBER 2016 $4.95 US $6.95 CANADA

DJ EXPO ’16 WRAP-UP

y SIGHTS & SOUNDS y NEW IDEAS & TIPS

PLUS:

NOISIA SANJOY PIONEER DJ DDJ-RR PROPELLERHEAD REASON 9 CAROLINA DJ VET GOES BIG

AMERICA’S

BEST

DJ

2016

P I O N E E R P R OA U D I O. C O M

NOTABLES…MILESTONES Anticipation: Crowd gathers for Expo giveaway.

vention staff really made t h e s h ow wo r k w i t h very few hiccups. So on Expo Floor: Showcasing the latest gear. behalf of all at DJ Expo and DJ Times, we again thank our exhibitors, panelists and attendees for their supaged by the turnout. “Every year the port for this and all our shows since turnout just gets better and better,” 1990. Stay tuned for announcements he said. “We get to meet both new early next year about DJ Expo 2017.” and returning attendees that really Response from Expo exhibitors appreciate the fact that we continue and attendees was upbeat: to return to Atlantic City. The show “The attendees at DJ Expo consisnever ceases to impress us year after tently appreciate the gear they touch year… Thank you, DJ Expo!” and deliver valuable feedback on our First-time exhibitor Dale Wittick designs,” said Chris Roman of inMuof PEEP Insurance in Hatboro, Pa., sic Brands in Cumberland, R.I. “This valued the engagement he experiyear was no exception. The world of enced with attendees. “We had a DJ gear was alive and no other show great show—definitely plan on rereally delivers that kind of energy! turning next year!” he enthused.

The DJ Expo is clearly the place to “The support I received from the be in August, no matter the venue.”

DJs was overwhelming. Being handed Brad Zell of QSC Audio in Costa 214 business cards from new and Mesa, Cal., concurred. “This was the prior insurance clients… can’t ask for best DJ Expo that QSC has particimore love than that.” pated in thus far,” he said, “Our demo Long-time exhibitors, like Electroroom was rocking non-stop, and the Voice, were happy to return. ““ElecQSC-sponsored seminar was welltro-Voice was thrilled to be a part of attended with engaging audience parDJ Expo 2016!” said Michael Doucot ticipation. It was a big success for of Electro-Voice in Burnsville, Minn.

QSC.” “We had a great turnout for each of Paul Saghbazarian of GLP/Cosmic our seminars and our booth traffic Truss in Sun Valley, Calif., was encour(continued on page 42)

OCTOBER 2016

The Winners: Jack Bermeo of LD DJs in Belleville, N.J., returned to the top of the Expo hill, as he took the main prize in the “DJ of the Year” competition for an unprecedented third time. Hosted by Mike Walter of Elite Entertainment, the annual event bestowed awards in a variety of categories to the best of America’s mobile entertainers. The Tinton Falls, N.J.-based Walter was honored by DJ Times during the evening, as he concluded 15 years as the event MC – Jake Jacobsen of Affair 2 Remember Entertainment in Hazlet, N.J., will succeed him in 2017.

Also, David Lachapelle of Belchertown, Mass, won the Ultimate DJ Giveaway. His haul included gear from the following sponsors: ADJ lighting (Mega Go Par64 Plus); Global Truss gear (DT-DJPRO all-in-one DJ booth/ lighting stand); JBL Professional (EON One PA system); and Pioneer DJ (DDJ-RZ controller, BULIT8 monitor system and HDJ-2000MK2 headphones).

The Reaction: “Coming into the show, we certainly had our moments of concern related to the venue and its unique situation,” said Vinny Testa, Publisher/President of Testa Communications. “But the Taj and the con-

DJ TIMES

RedOne: Grammy winner at Peavey party.

MetroMix Media

Success Story: Keynoter Markus Schulz.

ArtChick

Atlantic City, N.J. – Sometimes in AC, you can beat the odds—and DJ Expo did just that with another successful show at the Trump Taj Mahal this past Aug. 15-18.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding the show’s venue, which announced it would close after Labor Day, DJ Expo raged on. Produced by DJ Times magazine and its publisher Testa Communications, the show sold out its exhibit hall (200 booths) and saw a significant uptick in attendance (6,150 DJs, representing an 8-percent increase from the ’15 show).

The Show: As always, DJ Expo presented a loaded schedule of exhibits, seminars and parties that enjoyed participation from exhibitor/ sponsors like ADJ, Chauvet, Digital Music Pool, Electro-Voice, inMusic Brands, Peavey, Pioneer DJ, Promo Only and QSC Audio, among many others. It was DJ Expo’s 31st show in its 26 years.

DJ Expo presented informative “Keynote Q&A” sessions and performances from Grammy-winning producer RedOne, hitmaking trio Cash Cash, and two-time America’s Best DJ winner Markus Schulz. During the keynotes, the artists told their unique success stories, while explaining the career bumps they took along the way.

At parties sponsored by Digital Music Pool/Remix Top30 Countdown (hosted by Sean “Hollywood” Hamilton) and Peavey Electronics/RedOne Records (co-hosted by RedOne and Public Enemy’s Keith Shocklee), Expo attendees caught performances from DJs like Cash Cash, PonFetti and Nyla, plus artists like RedOne prodigy Samantha J and Expo favorite Jade Starling.

Expo attendees also enjoyed performances by hitmaking DJs like Morgan Page, Markus Schulz and Cazzette (during Promo Only’s Summer Sessions finale at Borgata’s Premier nightclub) and America’s Best DJ nominee Skribble, who closed out the Expo’s annual afterparty.

MetroMix Media

Joshua Carl

DJ EXPO 2016 RAGES ON, HITS NEW HEIGHTS

3

VOLUME 29

NUMBER 10

20 Down the Stretch

America’s Best DJ Summer Tour Winds Down in Clubland & at Major Festivals

BY DJ TIMES PHOTOGRAPHERS

22 DJ Expo ’16: It’s a Wrap!

12 America’s Best DJ 2016

With Dirtybird, Claude VonStroke Has Not Only Built a Successful U.S. Brand, He’s Created a Community

BY CHRIS CARUSO

Whether Reuniting with Industry Friends or Gaining Vital New Knowledge, Thousands Descended Upon DJ Expo.

Here’s What Went Down

BY JEFF STILES

24 DJ Expo in Pictures

Exhibits, Seminars & Parties – Here’s How It All Looked in Atlantic City

BY METROMIX MEDIA & ARTCHICK PHOTOGRAPHY

DEPARTMENTS 7 Feedback

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

26 Making Tracks

Contents Image By Paul Kelley

Propellerhead Reason 9

28 Sounding Off

Pioneer DJ DDJ-RR

30 Mobile Profile

Carolina Multi-Op Thinks Big

32 Business Line

Tips & Tricks from DJ Expo

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

34 Gear

4

New Products from ADJ, Blizzard & More

38 Grooves

Phat Tracks from Weiss, Zonderling & More

SAMPLINGS 8 Sanjoy

41 Club Play Chart

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

Bollywood Swingin’

10 In the Studio With…

Noisia

Cover Image By Galen Oakes

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T H E F I R S T A N D O N LY I N S T R U M E N T F O R T H E P R O D U C E R D J

FROM THE EDITOR

Revisited: DJ Expo & America’s Best DJ As Chris Caruso explains in this month’s cover story, Claude VonStroke isn’t just another DJ/ producer living the dream of stardom and travel. No, over a decade of work in the studio, on the road and as a principal of the Dirtybird music brand, he’s carried his career much further than most DJs could ever imagine. Fact is, with Dirtybird, he’s helped build a genuine community.

For starters, Dirtybird fans are among the most enthusiastic in the entire U.S. dance-music landscape. If you’ve ever attended a Dirtybird party, you know what I mean. Not only do these fans love the imprint’s unique party sounds (dancefloor bombs like 2005’s influential “Deep Throat”), but they proudly rock the brand’s gear at festival stages, one-off club events and, in particular, at the annual Dirtybird Campout.

So it should come as no surprise that Dirtybird and Claude VonStroke (aka Barclay Crenshaw) have hit a kind of cultural critical mass—this year, the fans voted him America’s Best DJ. Congrats, Barclay—you’ve earned it!

Additionally, in this issue, we take a photographic look back at the America’s Best DJ Summer Tour presented by DJ Times and Pioneer DJ, which hit top clubs like Las Vegas’ Hakkasan and major festivals like Baltimore’s Moonrise. Expect more shots next month from Omnia San Diego, where we’ll crown Claude VonStroke America’s Best DJ 2016.

Of course, our other big recap in this issue is DJ Expo, which ran this past Aug. 15-18 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. As you’ll see from our wrap-up on Page 3, the pre-event vibes were relatively ominous. Not only did two venue-related unions go on strike just over weeks prior to the show, but the venue announced that it would be closing after Labor Day. As organizers, we’d prepped for this event for an entire year, so imagine our surprise and trepidation. We certainly felt for all impacted by the labor strife, but with only a few weeks to go before the show, we had little choice but to move forward.

As I mentioned at the time, “We managed to produce the 1992 DJ Expo West in the immediate aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, so… we’ll make it through this one as well.” And we did, and better than we could’ve dreamed. Accordingly, big thanks go out to the venue, our convention services, exhibitors, speakers/keynoters and, of course, the attendees. Since 1990, you’ve made DJ Expo what it is—the longest-running, most-successful trade show/exhibition in the DJ industry.

We’re grateful.

So, in this issue, we deliver several takes from DJ Expo. In addition to the news wrap-up story, Jeff Stiles connects with several Expo attendees who offer their show reviews, peppered with some new ideas and heartfelt connections. Additionally, in Business Line, New Jersey-based DJ Gregg Hollmann details his Expo seminar highlights—and extracts the tips and tricks given by seminar presenters. In Mobile Profile, we meet with Expo presenter Fox Feltman, a North Carolina multi-op who been spinning for more than two decades.

In our Sampling section, our L.A-based scribe Lily Moayeri maintains her drum-n-bass hitting streak with an “In the Studio” entry with Dutch trio Noisia. Also, Mr. Caruso catches up with Sanjoy, a DJ/producer/songwriter who has melded Bollywood pop with modern EDM. In our tech-review departments, our Denver DJ Wesley Bryant-King puts Propellerhead’s DAW Reason 9 through its paces. Meanwhile, Chicago-based Reed Dailey handles Pioneer DJ’s DDJ-RR and offers his take on rekordbox dj.

In closing, a quick note at presstime: Want to send best wishes and posi-thoughts out to John Young of Disk Jockey News, who recently revealed he was prepping for a pair of upcoming eye surgeries. John’s always been a terrific and innovative supporter of this industry, not to mention a fabulous host at his Twin Cities confabs over the years. We send our best out to him, his wife Lori and his family.

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

Cheers,

6

Jim Tremayne Editor, DJ Times

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

assistant editor Chris Caruso ccaruso@testa.com chart coordinator Dan Miller dmiller@testa.com contributors Joe Bermudez Wesley Bryant-King Shawn Christopher Paul Dailey Reed Dailey Chris Davis Tony Fernandez Tommy D Funk Michelle Fetky Greg Hollmann Kelly Kasulis Mike Klasco Michelle Loeb Evan Maag Duanny Medrano Lily Moayeri Phil Moffa Natalie Raben Deanna Rilling Jeff Stiles Reisa Shanaman Emily Tan Bruce Tantum Phil Turnipseed Curtis Zack President/Publisher Vincent P. Testa FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TO ORDER SUBSCRIPTIONS, CALL 800-937-7678 VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.djtimes.com

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

digital art director Fred Gumm fgumm@testa.com social media coordinator Matt Van Dyke mvandyke@testa.com

advertising manager Tom McCarty tmccarty@testa.com marketplace advertising sales manager Ricky Pimentel rpimentel@testa.com art/production assistant Ricky Pimentel rpimentel@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 © 2016 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 October 2016

visit our website: www.djtimes.com

FEEDBACK KEEPS ROLLING

M I LY AMERICA’S FIRST MAGAZINE FOR PROFESSIONAL DJs ESTABLISHED 1988

SEPTEMBER 2016

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L E A R N M O R E & S TA R T Y O U R 3 0 - D AY F R E E R E K O R D B O X D J T R I A L T O D A Y A T: W W W. R E K O R D B O X . C O M

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19 3lau 20 GRiZ 21 RL Grime 22 Kill The Noise 23 Green Velvet 24 Tritonal 25 Justin Martin 26 Borgeous

35 MK 36 Pretty Lights 37 QBert 38 Soul Clap 39 12th Planet 40 Danny Tenaglia 41 Mija 42 Victor Calderone

27 Armand Van Helden 28 DJ Mustard 29 TJR 30 Skribble 31 Cash Cash 32 Flosstradamus 33 Kevin Saunderson 34 Maceo Plex

43 Lee Foss 44 AC Slater 45 BT 46 J.Phlip 47 Destructo 48 DJ Craze 49 DJ Shadow 50 Lauren Lane

DJ Expo ’16 Issue I DJ Expo ’16 Issue I DJ Expo ’16 Issue I DJ Expo ’16 Issue I DJ Expo ’16 Issue I DJ Expo ’16 Issue 04SE16_p001-052.indd 3

7/28/2016 1:16:32 PM

This is Feedback, a monthly feature that fields questions from you, our readers, and funnels them out to industry professionals. If you have any questions about DJing – marketing, mixing, equipment or insurance, any at all – drop us a letter at DJ Times, 25 Willowdale Ave, Port Washington, NY 11050, fax us at (516) 944‑8372 or e‑mail us at djtimes@testa.com.

If we do use your question, you’ll receive a free DJ Times T‑shirt. And remember, the only dumb question is the question that is not asked.

ABDJ ’16 The votes are in and Claude VonStroke has been voted America’s Best DJ 2016 by the fans.

After counting all the ballots cast online and at events during America’s Best DJ Summer Tour, which hit major festivals and club venues from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the Dirtybird co-founder (aka Barclay Crenshaw) landed on top and now he’s set to receive the golden Pioneer DJ DJM-900nexus mixer at the America’s Best DJ Award Ceremony/Closing Party at Omnia Nightclub San Diego on September 30. Congrats, Barclay.

Here’s how the voting for America’s Best DJ 2016 broke down—the Top 50.

1 Claude VonStroke 2 Kaskade 3 The Chainsmokers 4 Bassnectar 5 Skrillex 6 Dillon Francis 7 Diplo 8 Markus Schulz 9 JAUZ 10 Porter Robinson 11 A-Trak 12 Seven Lions 13 Krewella 14 DJ Dan 15 Dubfire 16 Carnage 17 Jazzy Jeff 18 NGHTMRE

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OCTOBER 2016

SAMPLINGS

8

SANJOY: BOLLYWOOD SWINGIN’

Since moving from Bangladesh to California in his childhood, Sanjoy has turned music into a universal language.

After getting his musical start as a youngster, the DJ/producer has fielded a wide variety of influences and given each his own unique spin.

From playing with pop bands in his early teens to learning to produce electronic-dance music and later relocating to India to producing for Bollywood musicals, Sanjoy’s work represents an intersection and melding of international cultures in a way few other people ever do.

This year, Sanjoy brought all of these experiences together on his debut LP Dance Under The Influence. Using his love of electronic music productions as a foundation, the 24-year-old producer tapped Indian popstars he’d become friends with over the years and got them sing in English for the first time. The end result? An undeniable breath of fresh air in a genre often focused on a safe, main-stage-ready dance bombs rather than musical innovation, and an album that manages to tell the story of its creator in stunning detail.

With Sanjoy’s new single “Obvious” in the pipeline as well as collaborations with producer Gazzo and singers Elliot Yamin and Colby O’Donis in the pipeline, we caught up with the prolific artist on a recent trip to New York.

DJ Times: What was your musical upbringing like?

Sanjoy: I moved from Bangladesh to San Jose when I was 11-years old. I came from a very musical family. My mom is a singer on TV and radio in Bangladesh, and she was the one who put me into percussion lessons and stuff like that at a very early age. Music was always a part of me since then. I used to play with my mom a little bit. When I moved here, that was my only escape because I wasn’t really fitting into this culture, you know? I couldn’t wear the same clothes they wore here. I couldn’t speak the same language—I had very broken English. Music was there always for me.

DJ Times: What sorts of music were you raised on and what did you start making?

Sanjoy: I learned Indian classical music. It’s kind of like the Western [classical music], but it’s based on Sanskrit, which is like a scripture language. When I came here, I had an interest in the Western classical music, so I took a little bit of piano lessons. When I discovered you could make music on a laptop with every sound that’s in your head, I figured out that I’ve always had that composer in me that could come up with tunes and sounds.

DJ Times: Did electronic music or Bollywood production come first?

Sanjoy: Electronic music production was my sound. I was making dance music since I was 13-years old; I used to listen to Booka Shade and their old records [as well as] Daft Punk and whatnot. I had cousins who lived in Europe, and they would mail me CDs back then for birthdays and stuff. I grew up with dance music; I couldn’t understand rap here, which was really big here. I was always drawn to beats, though, and [rappers’] beats were awesome. I would try and recreate that kind of a sound, and because I was doing that here, I had more of an authentic sound. I took that to Bollywood, and they were like, “Wow, this is what we’re trying to do and this would be a good fusion of Bollywood music with hip-hop or electronic dance music.”

DJ Times: How long were you producing Bollywood music for?

Sanjoy: I was doing that for around three to four years. I was back and forth all the time—I actually lived in Mumbai for about half a year and made songs for a couple of really big film stars there.

DJ Times: Did that location shift affect what you were doing with your own productions? (continue on page 40)

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IN THE STUDIO

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

NOISIA’S “OUTER EDGES”

10

Noisia runs a tight ship. The Netherlands-based trio best known for its drum-n-bass productions—although not exclusively so—has impressive headquarters in its hometown of Groningen.

The Noisia DJ ambassadors, Thijs de Vlieger and Martijn van Sonderen, travel often, while Nik Roos stays at De Noisia Kantoor mark III, the aforementioned headquarters that houses their studios, management team, and labels: Vision, Division, and Invisible. This is also where their weekly Noisia Radio program is recorded, showcasing material that doesn’t quite fit into their sets. And some of the ideas for their international Noisia Invites events, where they host a range of artists, depending on the location, are hatched here.

Noisia churns out a steady stream of releases, from themselves, with a wide cross-section of collaborators, and from artists with whom they have a musical connection. A full al-

bum of Noisia material, however, does not happen very often. Six years since the trio’s last full-length, Split The Atom, it returns with Outer Edges, an 18-track multi-genre behemoth. (Editor’s Note: At presstime, it was reported that the album had been leaked online and its release moved up six weeks.)

“An album is a chance to make a broad statement,” says Roos. “Outer Edges is similar to Split The Atom in the sense that we explored different genres and chose from a palette that is descriptive of us as artists. We didn’t try to make current-sounding tracks. It’s a blueprint for the period that follows. This is much more diverse, a listening album with each track being its own thing.”

The noticeably collaborator-free Outer Edges had a number of its tracks available online prior to its release. From highly stimulating tunes such as the intense “Vigilantes” and “Voodoos,” to the Ed Rush and Optical-inspired funky swings of “Tentacles” and “Straight Hook,” to the sharp compositions of “Mantra,” “Motion Blur,” and “Into Dust” to the half-time/beats cuts that make up a significant portion of the album, there’s plenty to take in.

The process for Outer Edges started with demo-listening sessions from each member. Then, as a group, they decided which ones they felt most excited about finishing together. Their three studios, which are networked, run Cubase with plug-ins from Fab Filter, iZotope, Native Instruments, and Melda.

Roos, whose specialty is drums, bass, and mixdowns, has some analog synths: Moog Sub 37, Korg SV-1, Roland FA-06. As the arrangements expert, van Sonderen uses a Roland HP 505 digital piano. And de Vlieger, who has gone over the top with the modular equipment and outboard pieces, has become the creator of strange sounds, chord sequences, and fringe elements.

“I have three different approaches to drums,” says Roos. “One is making (continue on page 40)

Noisia: (from left) Roos, de Vlieger & van Sonderen.

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

By Chris Caruso

12

Baltimore, Md. – It’s a painfully muggy day at Pimlico Race Course and 30,000 are gathered under the blazing sun for day two of Moonrise Festival.

Backstage, one of the revelers has somehow stumbled into the trailer of one Claude VonStroke and has begun to direct a soggy, but no less enthusiastic fanboy spiel toward the L.A.-based DJ/producer just minutes before he’s to take to the decks for a headlining set.

After a brief, but cordial exchange, the jacked-up fan finally, if confusingly, blurts: “You are my fucking dad!”

Surprisingly, VonStroke—otherwise known as Barclay Crenshaw—seems completely unfazed by the intrusion, or the inexplicable comment.

“I get this a lot,” he offers with a big grin. “I get this every day.”

Indeed, less than an hour before this strange encounter, the affable DJ was outside, personally grilling up ribs for a line of contest-winning superfans, while engaging in far more than the sterile meet-and-greet conversation.

You see, he’s truly a man of the people. While most performers are bequeathed a godlike status by elevated DJ booths and larger-than-life pyrotechnics, Crenshaw is on a mission to prove that the only things separating from the clubbers are a pair of Pioneer CDJ-2000s and a table.

In a world of $10,000-a-table VIP sections and thigh-sized bottles of Belvedere vodka in nightclubs, it’s an unorthodox mentality for a DJ to have. However, given that the origins of his Dirtybird label stretch back to DIY gatherings in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park over a decade ago, it’s no wonder Crenshaw rejects the idea of living his life beyond a velvet rope.

As the story goes, Dirtybird hatched in San Francisco from a group of like-minded friends—Worthy, brothers Justin and Christian Martin, and Crenshaw himself—who began to throw impromptu parties featuring groovy beats and piping-hot BBQs with a roaming soundsystem before its members started to churn out tunes themselves.

Those first few years laid the eggs for the collective’s massive influence on American underground dance music, with Claude VonStroke himself being responsible with for a pair of its particularly seminal releases: the croaky rumbles of the cheeky “Deep Throat” in 2005 and the synth-lead melancholy ode to his hometown “Who’s Afraid of De-

With Dirtybird, Claude VonStroke Has Not Only Built a Successful U.S. Brand,

DJ TIMES

Erik Voake

OCTOBER 2016

He’s Created a Community

13

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

Claude VonStroke: 3 Key Dirtybird Releases

14

With more than 10 years in the rearview mirror, Dirtybird has amassed a treasure trove of bootyshaking anthems in its collection. While all live up to the strict standards of the Dirtybird Players, a few somehow manage to shine even brighter than the rest. We tasked Claude VonStroke with naming the three releases he views as the label’s most important.

Claude VonStroke - “Deep Throat” (2005): “[This] was the first record that let us know that we would be able to stay open, and it was the first record that anybody called me on the phone and said, ‘I heard this guy is playing this over in Europe.’ That was the first time I knew anything had worked. “ Justin Martin – “Don’t Go” (2012): “When Justin Martin finished his first album [Ghettos & Gardens], this was a big record for us. It took Justin a long time to come out with that, but when he did I feel like it legitimized him in the roster as a big name.”

Get Real – Mind Yo Bizness/Snuffaluffagus EP (2016): “Just because it’s not typical that I work with anybody, and it’s a little bit out of my comfort zone. [Green Velvet is] pretty much the only person that I looked up to when I was starting because I only listened to hip-hop, so the only the only dance music person that I was like, ‘Holy shit,’ was Green Velvet/Cajmere.”

– C.C.

Bryan Mitchell

troit?” in 2006.

In the years since its formation, the core family of Dirtybird has expanded to include other partyready favorites like J.Phlip, Ardalan, and Kill Frenzy, all of whom have helped the imprint earn its reputation as a purveyor of a style they’ve dubbed booty-bass. Combining the funky swagger of hip-hop with the basslines of tech-house, it’s a genre that manages to split the difference between club-ready grooves and festival-primed drops and caused the group to steadily amass a devoted following thanks to its lack of pretension and good vibes.

This populist movement seems to have come to a head this year. After celebrating a decade of Dirtybird in 2015 with a series of anniversary parties across the country and the three-day Dirtybird Campout festival in Southern California, Crenshaw was voted America’s Best DJ 2016 by his rabid fans all over the country.

Ahead of his official crowning at Omnia San Diego, we caught up with the Big Bird himself to dive deep into just what’s gone into his and the Dirtybird’s stratospheric ascent to the top of the American dance scene and how it left big-room EDM, dubstep, and trap in the dust.

DJ Times: You celebrated a decade of Dirtybird last year, 10 years of “Who’s Afraid of Detroit” this year, and you just were voted America’s Best DJ 2016. What’s that like?

Barclay Crenshaw: [laughs] It’s kind of a shock to win this because I always thought of us [Dirtybird] as a really underground label and that we were galaxies away from these top guys that are just dominating the universe. It’s amazing that people would vote for me and vote for our sound.

DJ Times: It speaks to the proliferation of Dirtybird in recent times.

Why do you think the label and the events have been such a hit, especially in the last two or three years?

Crenshaw: I will definitely say that there were two things that were significant: 1) I had a sub-label that was sucking a lot of time up—it was awesome, but I had to kill my baby and just say we’re concentrating on Dirtybird—and 2) I said, “We’re just going to try to crush at our home, and I’m not going to go to Europe 40 times for like the next two years.”

That was a conscious decision, and I’m paying for it in Europe a little bit, but we actually said that we were going to really concentrate on making our parties great and making everyone feel like they belong there, making sure all the artists feel at-home when they come play for us. Even at The Birdhouse events that aren’t Dirtybird, our whole philosophy is to take care of the artists, make them happy, give them presents— DJ Times: Make them want to

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OCTOBER 2016

DJ TIMES 16

come back.

Crenshaw: Yeah. Sometimes I’ll show up to a festival stage, and they’ll be like, “Yeah everybody drank all the booze. We have a quarter of a bottle of peach schnapps and some orange juice in the corner, and the sound guy went home.” We never want that to happen at any of our parties.

DJ Times: With Dirtybird, it feels as though the event portion is just as important as the music and the label itself. What impact do you think the Dirtybird BBQs—even going as far back as the original ones—had on the identity of Dirtybird?

Crenshaw: I think you if you go to one of our parties that we throw— not a promoter—you can really see what the group of friends is all about and how the company is run as a family. You can get the vibe that we’re just happy to be doing it, and that we want to have fun. It’s not really that serious. We want to be professional, but we’re not serious, mean people.

DJ Times: It splits the difference of the all-inclusive nature of an EDM festival and the tech-house scene, but it doesn’t have the pretentiousness of those underground clubs.

Crenshaw: I mean, we just want it to be fun. That’s all we’re striving for: fun for everyone, from the guy cooking the food to the DJs to everyone.

DJ Times: It feels like all of the 10 years of work culminated last year with Dirtybird Campout. Not many labels can throw a three-day festival.

Crenshaw: It changed everything for us, I think.

DJ Times: When did the first rumblings of that happen?

Crenshaw: That was just an act of will. I couldn’t get it to happen, so I said, “I don’t give a shit—we’re doing it anyway.” So I made a flyer, and I posted it on the internet with no venue, no production partner, no date, and nobody saying they’d play it.

We had… “maybe these people will do it and maybe these people will do it,” but we didn’t like the choices, and my No.1 choice was Do Lab, but they were doing something else when I wanted to do it. Because I posted the flyer—to which everyone called me saying, “Are you fucking insane?

Because you aren’t doing this party”—Do Lab said, “We just saw this flyer online. If you still need help…”

I said, “Oh my god! Let’s meet up in Venice and have a meeting!” Three days later we signed a contract. It’s incredible. I’m so happy they came on board because they were the perfect partners—they’re just like us. It just worked out.

DJ Times: Dirtybird seems to have become very intertwined with festival culture in the past few years, whether it’s seeing kids wearing bracelets dedicated to it or pins, hats, etc. The Holy Ship! crowd in particu-

Tug-Tug: CVS at Dirtybird Campout.

Katie Laskowska Amanda McHugh

Campout Party: CVS with Ardalan & J.Phlip.

lar seems to have latched on; it feels like that was a big moment for the brand.

Crenshaw: Gary [Richards] that runs HARD Events was actually my next-door neighbor for two years, and he tried to sign my very first album on a napkin in a bar [laughs].

I didn’t do it because I didn’t really know anything about him—I was still up in San Francisco. Gary has always been a super-friend to Dirtybird, so he’s booked everybody at all of his stuff. Because of that, it made everybody else go, “Oh, we’ve got to book those guys.”

DJ Times: Dirtybird’s roots are in San Francisco. There’s something about the city that gives rise to DJ collectives—you guys, Honey Soundsystem—and there are a lot of small pockets of groups.

Crenshaw: San Francisco is the cliquiest music town in the universe.

DJ Times: Why is that?

Crenshaw: I’ll even tell you that I couldn’t get into the first clique that I tried to get into. It was the Eklektic drum-n-bass little group of Compound Music. I tried to get into this community, but…

DJ Times: What’s it about the party scene there that lends itself to that?

Crenshaw: That is the way the party scene evolves and works in San Francisco. It means that local guys can play to 3,000 people, but no one will go to the big techno DJ from Europe. It’s very insular. It’s almost like Sunset has to book the biggest guy in Europe for anybody to give a shit that he’s coming. You have to get blessed by one of the crews because the people just get used to going to a party where they know they’re going to see everyone they know.

DJ Times: So it’s more of a family vibe?

Crenshaw: Yeah. You either go to Sunset or Green Gorilla, Wicked, [Dax Present’s] parties, or whatever, but there’s all kinds of little crews.

That’s just the way San Francisco is.

That’s also why Dirtybird never got super huge when we were only in San Francisco. When I moved to Los Angeles, the music industry side really opened up.

DJ Times: When was that?

Crenshaw: Probably three and a half or four years ago. Makes sense, doesn’t it? We still run half the label out of San Francisco; the label manager’s there and our main tour and production guy is there. Justin [Martin] still lives there, Ardalan lives there.

DJ Times: You’ve recently landed a Las Vegas residency for The Birdhouse at Daylight Beach Club and The Light nightclub, which is pretty (continued on page 40)

AMERICA’S BEST DJ SUMMER TOUR WINDS DOWN IN CLUBLAND & AT MAJOR FESTIVALS As the America’s Best DJ Summer Tour Presented by Pioneer DJ & DJ Times wound down, it hit a few popular spots. They included Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore for Moonrise Festival, Hakkasan Nightclub in Las Vegas and Dirtybird BBQ in Detroit. It all looked like this:

DOWN THE STRETCH

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1 Oh, Hi! Claude VonStroke at Dirtybird BBQ. Dirtybird

2 Drop the Bass: NGHTMRE in B’more.

Ashley Andrews

3 Magic: Unicorn votes at ABDJ booth.

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4 Festival Fans: ABDJ booth at Moonrise.

DJ Times

5 Dirtybird BBQ: Justin Martin in Motown.

Dirtybird

6 Flosstradamus: J2K at Moonrise.

Ashley Andrews

7 Dirtybird BBQ: J.Phlip in Detroit.

Dirtybird

8 Vegas, Baby: 3lau at Hakkasan.

Joe Janet

9 Moonrise Fest: Bassnectar in Baltimore.

Ashley Andrews

10 Feel the Volume: Jauz in Baltimore.

Ashley Andrews

11 Say It Loud: GRiZ in Baltimore.

Ashley Andrews

12 Pimlico Scene: Mija at Moonrise.

Ashley Andrews

13 Moonrise: Lee Foss in the mix.

Ashley Andrews

14 Capped: Claude VonStroke in B’more.

Ashley Andrews

15 3lau Haus: Hakkasan in Vegas.

Joe Janet

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When his son passed away on May 1, 2016, the last thing on the mind of Ray Martinez was attending the DJ Expo this year in Atlantic City, N.J. But many people offered their thoughts and prayers to Martinez and his family, and he decided to travel from Goodyear, Ariz., to attend the show after all.

“Emotionally, I didn’t think I was going to attend, but it turned out being the best decision I made,” says Martinez, who has been entertaining as Ray Mar Productions since 1974. “The DJ community is a special group of people, and the support, love, hugs and friendship was just what

they took away from the experience.

Did they learn new tricks? Did they find new friends? New products?

New music? New knowledge from a seminar?

Denny McConnell of Music to You Entertainment in Reading, Pa., says he’s attended every DJ Expo in Atlantic City that’s been held, and that he always takes home something he can use to help build his company of 42 years.

“I always meet new people in the hallways and this year was no different,” McConnell says of the 2016 show. “As for new games, I came away with a fun new game performed by Keith Alan during the ‘DJ of The Year’ competition, and Betsy Fischer told me that the game I performed during the same competition worked really well at a mitzvah she did the following weekend.”

Although he personally didn’t buy anything from the exhibit floor this year, McConnell says he did see a couple new toys that might interest him in the future.

“Overall, the Expo has and always will have something for the beginners and the veterans alike, and that’s why I attend every year,” says Martinez. “I see friends I’ve made at the Expo who I only get to see once a year because of where I live, so for me it’s sort of like a reunion.

“I always enjoyed having lunch and dinner with different groups each

Mike Walter announced that he’s stepping down as MC and producer of the annual event after 15 years. At the event, he was honored by DJ Times with a commemorative plaque for his service.

“Although I’m very happy for his successor, Jake Jacobsen, who I’m sure will honor the competition and event with his own brand of creativity,” says Lomaz, “it’s also difficult to see Mike stepping away from a role at which he excelled. I’m extremely happy and excited for him, and I’m grateful for the years I was able to witness his annual creations.”

There were a variety of key lessons, demonstrations and

2016: IT’S A WRAP!

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

By Jeff Stiles

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I needed and they were there to support me.

“Thank you to N.A.M.E. & A.D.J.A., NJDJN and Think Tank, but special thanks to Sean ‘Big Daddy’ McKee, Luke Renchan, Carol Keslar and Heather and Joe Staniszewski for their love and encouragement but mostly a shoulder to cry on. Home is where your friends are and where you need to be.”

W h i l e M a r t i n e z ’s E x p o experience was unique, not to mention cathartic, it also speaks to the event’s ability to bring people together. Of course, most jocks coming to DJ Expo were also seeking networking opportunities with like-minded people, though, perhaps for more business-specific goals.

We p o l l e d D J s f r o m throughout the country who attended DJ Expo 2016, held this past Aug. 15-18 at the Trump Taj Mahal, asking what

day and night. In fact, if you’re reading this and have never attended DJ Times’ Expo, what are you waiting for?”

Another Northeasterner, Artem Lomaz of NinetyThree Entertainment, says this year’s DJ Expo was “stellar as always.”

“From the unique elements on the showroom floor—where I purchased some RCF speakers that have been on my wish list for awhile—to the incredible seminars to the networking happening at every corner, it’s a trip I look forward to all year long,” says Lomaz of Roxbury, N.J. “Items of special note for me were Mike Walter’s seminar, which focused on performance improvement—a special thank you to his team for the technical production each day of the Expo—Steve Moody’s presentation highlighting the importance of personality and genuine excitement, and Randy Bartlett’s exceptional brand of humor, directness and charm.

“Other highlights were Sean ‘Big Daddy’ McKee’s ‘Mitzvah Madness’ seminar and Jake Jacobsen’s games seminar, both of which exceeded their deservingly high expectations.”

Speaking of bar/bat mitzvahs and games, Lomaz says a tremendous moment during the Expo—as well as being a milestone for the DJ industry—was seeing Randi Rae being awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at McKee’s seminar. “It’s a well-deserved honor,” he says.

Every year the DJ Expo concludes with the “DJ of the Year” competition, which bestows honors to mobile DJs in a variety of categories, including the top honor.

“I have to send my congratulations out to Jack Bermeo on winning ‘DJ of the Year,’ which marks his third title,” says Lomaz, “certainly not an easy feat to accomplish.”

The competition was not without mixed emotions, however, as

nuggets for Lomaz to learn from this year, but he says the unanimous key takeaway came in the form of a quote from Canadian entertainer Pascal Levesque.

“As part of Steve Moody’s All-Star MCs panel, he stated that ‘dancing is the shortcut to happiness.’ How can any DJ entertainer not love that?”

It was the eighth year attending the DJ Expo for Todd Mofree from Party With Todd in Albany, N.Y. He says it’s a vital annual experience.

“My seven prior visits were always met with excitement and an intense desire to learn everything about my craft that can be taught, observed and experienced,” he says. “As a mobile entertainer for over 20 years, the Expo is the one time of year where I can meet with friends from around the country and the world on equal ground.

“Yes, 99-percent of us have

Whether Reuniting with Industry Friends or Gaining Vital New Knowledge, Thousands Descended Upon DJ Expo.

Here’s What Went Down.

room floor in awe,” he says.

“It was literally packed with everything any DJ would ever want or need in terms of lighting, sound and audio equipment. My favorite—lasers— streaked above our heads. It was just an incredible experience of sights, sounds and a few deals.”

Mofree says this year the DJ Expo was a little unique for him, due to the fact he’d been selected to compete in the “DJ of the Year” competition.

“My learning experience was overshadowed by the terrifying and exhilarating thought of standing in front of hundreds of my peers and performing a routine of 10 minutes or less that would either make me look like a total ass… or not,” he explains.

“For my part, I decided to teach a dance that I made up to the song ‘Uptown Funk.’

In over 25 years of being an

says. “It doesn’t require any props, it gets everyone with a cell phone involved, and it’s quick and easy to explain. I was pleased to see that he won Best New Game in the competition this year.”

KoKoruz says the DJ Expo is great for putting faces on names he interacts with online during the year, and reports that he picked up a case in the exhibit hall for a Pioneer controller he had just bought a few weeks earlier. Yet, he says it’s the seminars that were the highlight of his annual Expo experience.

“The seminar from Brian Buonassissi of B-Boy Productions was the highlight of my seminar-watching,” he says. “His seminar, ‘Why Your Client’s Experience Matters,’ was great. He had such a unique insight into things to think about with our clients, and he gave practical real examples to inspire us to create a better experience for them. I hope we hear more from Brian in years to come.”

Back up in the far corner of the Northeast, Jerry Bazata of Jaz Music & Entertainment in Ogunquit, Maine, has been attending the DJ Expo now for 16 years, and thanks all those who attended his seminar this year on “The Art of Communication.”

“The new product panel and the attendees were all very engaging in conversation and idea-sharing,” he says. “It afforded me the opportunity to meet a whole new set of DJs from all parts of the country and meet up with old friends. The water-cooler conversations that occurred in the hallways and outside the show floor were definitely focused on the tools and information that seminar attendees were able to implement quickly to gain more wedding and corporate business.

“The trade show this year was a wealth of knowledge, specifically as it related to the quickly growing speaker market and how the competition is responding to technology demands. The sound rooms

with Electro-Voice, QSC Audio, BassBoss and Pioneer really enhanced the experience for attendees.”

Bazata says his favorite bits from the show were the Speed Quizzing seminar and the unveiling of new products from Chauvet Lighting and American Audio.

“Speed Quizzing, which was originally developed in London, has penetrated the U.S. market, integrating smartphone technology to efficiently run trivia games at any venue,” he explains. “Bill Adams and his team provided a great hands-on seminar on Monday to introduce attendees to what will surely become the gold standard for trivia nights along with an additional source of income.

“Chauvet featured their new products, and the hits of the show for me were the Pin Spots and GigBar 2.0—both of which are a definite must for any mobile DJ. I understand these sold out in the first day of the show, and then the orders were stacking up quickly.

“The Pin Spots are batteryoperated, with a magnet on the base so they can be placed easily in any location—perfect for accenting the bridal table, wedding cake, an ice sculpture or lighting accents around the room when traditional uplighting may not work. The GigBar 2.0 adds the best of lighting with par wash lighting, moonflowers, strobes and a twocolor laser. Both are offered at very reasonable price points and affordability.

“And American Audio has developed a very affordable, but powerful battery-operated speaker for PA, wedding ceremonies or small off-site events.

I’ve struggled with finding the right battery-operated speaker—based on sound quality, portability and reliability—and the new American Audio EISGo-EBT seems to be the perfect solution.”

As for purchases, Bazata says the duct tape no longer does the trick on his old set of headphones, so this year he bought a pair of the Audio Technica M50 headphones due to their sound quality, comfortability and noise suppression.

“Overall, the investment of my time and money was a positive for the continued growth of my DJ business,” he says, “and will definitely benefit my bottom line going into the future.” n

OCTOBER 2016

entertainer, this moment was probably the most terrifying 10 minutes I’ve ever spent with a microphone in my hand. In my mind, every single person in that room was judging me, but after a few minutes of total fear I settled into my routine and found that I was totally enjoying my 10 seconds of fame.”

Reflecting back, Mofree reports that DJ Expo 2016 was an incredible experience that he’d recommend to any person in the industry.

“From bedroom DJs to club and mobile entertainers—or even someone who just loves music and the entertainment industry—I invite them to attend as a student, spectator or participant and take away what they want,” he says. “From the parties to the newest technologies to the learning to the new friendships, the takeaways are well worth the price of admission.”

K.C. KoKoruz of The Keith Christopher Entertainment Group in Chicago says he was heartened to see industry stalwarts gain recognition for their contributions. “It was nice to see Randi Rae and Mike Walter both honored for their work for the show as well as to the industry.”

As far as new tricks, KoKoruz says one especially stood out for him.

“Mark Brenneisen of Total Entertainment Music taught an awesome scavenger hunt game done on a cellphone that was incredible,” he

DJ TIMES

Type-A personalities, but the DJ Expo seems to keep the over-competitiveness to a minimum. These people are my friends, my family. We are there to learn and trade ideas.”

Mofree says this year’s seminars were especially fantastic, as he learned from industry superstars about everything from marketing our companies to sharpening our skills on the microphone to learning new games to performing better at bar mitzvahs and weddings.

And then there was what he calls “The Floor” (aka the DJ Expo’s exhibit hall).

“I walked around the show-

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24 Exhibits, Seminars & Parties – Here’s How It All Looked in Atlantic City

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1. Giveaway Winner: David Lachapelle enjoys the moment. MetroMix Media 2. Light It Up: Samantha J at Peavey party. ArtChick 3. Pioneer DJ: Creme mixing. MetroMix Media 4. RCF Booth: Where’s the afterparty? MetroMix Media 5. Electro-Voice Booth: Attendees signed in. MetroMix Media 6. ADJ Booth: Blinded by the light. MetroMix Media 7. Vinyl Diva: Ria at Peavey party. ArtChick 8. DJ of the Year: Jack Bermeo flanked by Mike Walter & Dom Sestito. Elite Entertainment 9. Grammy Winner: RedOne at his keynote. ArtChick 10. In Control: Melissa Nikita at Denon booth.

ArtChick 11. Opening Party: Jade Starling hits a note. MetroMix Media 12. Producer Panel: Skribble & Anthony Acid. MetroMix Media 13. Keynoter: CashCash’s J.P. Makhlouf. MetroMix Media 14. Exhibit Hall: Expo’s showfloor stayed busy. ArtChick

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MAKING TRACKS STUDIO…HARDWARE…SOFTWARE…

Reason 9: Maintains unique space in DAW market.

As I’ve noted before on these pages, it truly is a great time to be a musician or producer. Not only is it easier (and cheaper) than ever before to get music recorded and polished, but the array of tools to get the job done is remarkably broad.

The centerpiece of nearly any recording set-up these days is the Digital Audio Workstation, or DAW, and one of the veterans of this space is Sweden’s Propellerhead Software. If their DAW—Reason—was a kid, he or she would be getting their driver’s license right about now. Having originated clear back in 2000, Propellerhead recently rolled up its latest Reason incarnation, Reason 9, and with it, continues both to improve the

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

REASON 9: UPDATES & NEW SOUNDS

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product, and keep it anchored to a unique spot in the DAW market.

The Basics: I’ve reviewed Reason in the past for these pages, but it’s probably worth a quick, basic overview for those unfamiliar.

What makes Reason unique among DAWs is its approach. Sure, it has the stuff you’d expect and find in any DAW, notably a timeline view of both audio and MIDI material. But the design paradigm for Reason is based on skeuomorphism. In short, it means that the user interface of the product is modeled on the visual interfaces and general appearance of comparable, real-life, non-virtual counterparts. In Reason, this is presented in the form of a virtual equipment rack, and on the front, the rack components (synths, effects, etc.) look like rack-mounted hardware, replete with knobs you can “turn” and switches you can “throw” with your mouse. Flip the rack around, and you can “wire” things together with virtualized patch cables.

Skeuomorphism was all the rage for a time (remember earlier versions of iOS for iPhone and iPad where the calendar looked like a desk blotter, anyone?), but most modern software applications have recognized that technology users no longer need any usability training wheels. Reason, however, sticks to its guns, and while to my deeply technology-focused eyes it looks a bit archaic, it is this design approach that makes Reason… well, Reason. And I’m not sure I’d change it even if I was the software guy in charge of the product.

As I’ve noted in past coverage of Reason, the biggest issue I have the with user interface isn’t the skeuomorphic design, it’s the fact that the design doesn’t work well on smaller monitors, and Reason 9 doesn’t

improve that. In my view, it makes the software suitable for studio use on large monitors—and a bit less so on-the-go, especially if it’s running on a smaller form factor laptop.

Once you get beyond the interface, the biggest issue I have is with Reason’s lack of support for industry-standard plug-ins, such as VST or Audio Units, which continues with this latest update.

It’s a “walled-garden” approach that brings both benefits (predictability and potentially more stability) and drawbacks (your choices are limited to what Propellerhead and its partners offer).

What’s New in Reason 9?

DAW upgrades these days are starting to feel much more evolutionary than revolutionary. It’s almost as if software engineers have run out of wild, new ideas, or they’ve pushed the hardware envelopes as far as they can.

Whatever the reality, Reason 9 isn’t an exception in my view, and while it absolutely iterates on the maturity of the product, and adds polish all around, it does not bring huge amounts of innovation to the table in the process for the $129 price tag that existing Reason users will have to pony-up to get it. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

In any case, one of the metatrends in the music-making space

By Wesley Bryant-King

is the increasing availability of tools that help automate aspects of the music creation process. Reason brings their spin on this to Version 9 in the form of a new rack device called Players. These specialized plug-ins help take simplistic musical concepts, and expand upon them.

The Players include Scales & Chords, which help keep you from playing wrong (out of scale) notes, as well as helping you to craft compelling and accurate chord progressions that form the harmonic basis of most music. Note Echo is perhaps one of the cooler Players; while it behaves like a delay effect adapted to a sequencer environment, its ability to manipulate pitch in the process brings some really interesting options to the table for crafting some pretty cool ear candy. Finally, Dual Arpeggio is, as the name suggests, a dual arpeggiator—one that brings some interesting new layering and texturing capabilities to Reason’s instruments.

It goes without saying, perhaps, that all three of the Players can be stacked and layered in whatever order you want, multiplying the net creative effect. Propellerhead’s teaser videos for Reason 9 stoked my appetite, and tinkering around with them on my own in the software made me want to spend a lot more time with it than I’d planned for this review.

Pretty cool stuff, honestly.

The remainder of the new enhancements in Reason 9 truly do fall into the “very useful, but not Earth-shattering” category in my view, but that comes from the perspective of someone who uses a range of DAWs— not just Reason alone.

One of those enhancements is the new audio-pitch editor. Without question, audio-pitch editing has been around for a long time now, but it’s been the domain of plug-ins—generally from one or the other of the two industry leaders in the space. Propellerhead now offers these capabilities out-of-the-box, allowing you to adjust both pitch and timing of vocal recordings, perfecting them as desired, and helping compensate for less-than-perfect takes. The value of these types of tools is hard to dismiss; it’s pretty much “must-have” capability for most of today’s music genres, and Reason’s implementation of the concept is both effective, and easy to use.

Similarly, Reason 9’s new audio-to-MIDI functionality brings to Reason capabilities that have been available in the product’s competition for some time now. Be that as it may, the ability to whistle, hum or sing notes and have them translated to MIDI and then patch them to synths (like leads or bass lines) can be pretty useful—especially for those whose keyboard skills (for instance) might be more limited than they’d like. (continued on page 40)

In testing this capability, it performs not unlike the implementations I’ve seen in other products of similar features, which is to say, it’s not 100-percent perfect or accurate in its conversions. But once the MIDI translation is done, you can easily manipulate the notes to your heart’s content, so perfection isn’t really the point.

Reason 9 also brings a range of workflow enhancements to the software, improving usability and productivity, with additions like bouncing in place, reversing MIDI, and more, while new visual themes help you tailor the software to your preferences.

Finally, Propellerhead spent a lot of time creating a wide range of new presets for the product as well. The company claims to have added 1,000 new patches, which both new musicians and seasoned veterans alike will opt to use either as-is, or as starting points for crafting sounds without the hassle of doing so completely from scratch. In browsing some of the library, I can attest to the quality of these additions; lots of fuel there for your creative fires to be sure, and honestly, Reason’s presets have always been among its high points.

I particularly like Thor, Reason’s so-called “polysonic” synth. The provided patches cover a massive range of audible territory, from really nice digital pianos to rich, textural trance leads, to deep basses and wild sound effects, and it seems like there’s barely a dud among them. It’s probably one of the reasons that diehard Reason fans don’t seem to notice, or care, that they can’t bring in VSTs or AUs. With this much to choose from already included, who needs them?

Conclusions: To be certain, Reason 9 brings a fair amount of fresh “newness” to the table in a unique approach to music creation and production that continues to fill an important niche in the DAW marketplace. With valuable new creative capabilities like Players, and long-awaited features such as vocal-pitch editing, the product may not blaze huge new trails here—but it does enhance the product in ways that the product’s core audience will surely appreciate.

The $129 upgrade price tag is hardly the king’s ransom, but whether a Reason user will feel like putting out the money will depend on how useful the new capabilities might be in their particular situation.

Players: Version 9’s new device enhances creativity.

SOUNDING OFF PLAYBACK…PRO AUDIO…PROCESSING

By Reed Dailey This past summer, Pioneer DJ released the DDJ-RR controller, which comes bundled with the company’s rekordbox dj software, and I’m still excited about it. Why? Give me a minute and I’ll count the ways…

But first, let’s talk controllers and related software (aka Digital DJ Solutions or DDS). As most of you know, two biggest players in the DJ-software market are Serato DJ and Native Instruments Traktor. But plenty of DJ companies are angling to become another player in that world—and with rekordbox dj, Pioneer DJ has made a big play.

Initially starting out as a content-management system, Pioneer DJ’s original rekordbox offered DJs a solution to organize tracks and metadata (labels, colors, tags, cue points, etc.), which enabled an easy plug-and-play experience for those using the company’s trademark CDJ players. This solution was great because now DJs didn’t have to burn CDs—they just did all the prep work on their laptops, moved the updated digital files from rekordbox to their USB sticks, walked into the gig and… away they went.

Of course, as Pioneer DJ is a major brand for venues and festivals worldwide, it would decide to build upon its already-successful content-management system. So, as we saw the launch of the XDJ-RX—Pioneer DJ’s first all-in-one player that used a similar controller feel to its existing controller line—it included an onboard screen powered by rekordbox. In reality, it was like a “plus version” of rekordbox because it worked like a CDJ-controller hybrid, acting similarly to other DDS, but “powered” from a USB stick.

So, with a content-management in rekordbox, an all-in-one player in the XDJ-RX (which used the platform), it was only a matter of time until Pioneer released its stand-alone DDS—rekordbox dj. So, let’s get back to the DDJ-RR, which got me so excited in the first place…

DDJ-RR: For about the last year, Pioneer DJ has had a controller that was either a dedicated rekordbox dj controller (DDJ-RZ and DDJ-RX) or one that enabled its Serato-designed controllers to work with its new DDS. But the difference with the new DDJ-RR ($699 list) is two things.

First, Pioneer DJ added features on the controller that weren’t on the Serato versions of that controller, which essentially means that the DDJ-RR has more

bells and whistles. They include extra ins/outs, RGB backlighting on pads, VU meters, needle search and more.

The second is the fact that Pioneer DJ is beginning to give away its software for free (or, in this case, bundling with a hardware purchase), getting DJs accustomed, then making its hardware play. (The DDJ-RR comes with rekordbox dj “Plus Pack.”)

The System: Taking a page from Apple’s playbook, Pioneer DJ isn’t just producing strong hardware or software—it’s seamlessly integrating the two, creating a true DJ system.

Again, from the hardware perspective, the compact DDJ-RR—which Pioneer DJ calls “the little brother to the DDJ-RZ and DDJ-RX” controllers—includes some premier features.

What do I love? What initially grabbed my attention was the addition of responsive LED lighting in the center of its platter, which makes a big difference for DJs who like to scratch, DJs using a lot of cue points or DJs who play in dark settings.

The second nice move was the addition of the PC Master Out, which allows DJs to play master output through a computer’s internal speakers or a connected desktop speaker, while using the controller for headphones at the same time. This makes prep-work easier than ever. These additions make this nifty unit a fully functioning rock-star, in my book.

Workflow & Progression: Usually, to get the premier features, such as four channels or, for scratch DJs who like the center-LED-responsive lighting, DJs had to shell out about a grand. Now with the DDJ-RR, DJs get all the joys for flagship control and quality for $300 less in cost.

Also, crucially for some DJs, this system basically allows you to go from laptop to controller to CDJs without having to do extra work because it’s all the same system. Nifty.

Conclusion: Well-done, Pioneer DJ. We know that the digital-DJ world is evolving at the speed of light. But, as always, we’re curious to know what else Pioneer DJ has up its sleeve.

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

DDJ-RR: New features, bundled with rekordbox dj.

28

PIONEER DJ’S DDJ-RR & REKORDBOX DJ

MOBILE PROFILE CAREERS…INNOVATIONS…SUCCESS STORIES

By Stu Kearns New Bern, N.C. — Like so many DJs, for Fox Feltman, it all began in a skating rink when he was a New Jersey teenager.

“I always wanted to be a DJ,” says Feltman, who was 13 the first time he got behind the decks. “I used to pretend to be a radio DJ as a small kid with my Fisher-Price turntable and mic. Who knew I would spend 24 years running radio stations?”

It wasn’t until he started doing weddings and performing at clubs, in 1988, when he realized that a nice living could be made behind the wheels of steel — even if only part-time to supplement his career in radio.

“It was always a part time/hobby because of my radio career,” he says.

“I always knew DJing would be there as a back-up.”

By 1990, he had started a company — Sound Waves. “In 1993, I changed

Before going multi-op, Feltman spent years in radio.

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

CAROLINA DJ THINKS BIG

30

it as I started a partnership with the radio station I was working at and the company was then called Party Time DJs.” In 2003, the name changed again as Feltman moved to an area where Party Time DJs already existed. To avoid infringement, his company became BTA Entertainment — short for Black Tie Affair. “It was actually the clients and vendors that used the initials,” he says, “we just stuck with it.”

The challenges he faced were common ones: Competition and marketing. “I was in Jersey,” he says, “even back then, everyone and their brother was a DJ.” Those challenges were hard to overcome, but luckily Feltman had the radio station behind him. “I was able to run commercials and a percentage went back to the station,” he recalls. “At the time, the radio stations also put on their own bridal shows to make money, so we did those and hosted them.”

And eventually, it was the weddings — and the favorable reviews he received — that helped distinguish Feltman’s service. “I find the WeddingWire awards and testimonials

very valuable,” he says. “As DJs, we know the awards mean very little.

But the clients see that we have these awards and it means something to them. The testimonials mean very little if you have five or 10 of them.

But when you have 100, 300, 600 — that means something to the client.

It tells them of your experience, and what previous clients felt about what you have done for them.”

Eventually, Feltman moved to the east coast of North Carolina — the market is called Eastern North Carolina. It consists of four bigger cities: New Bern, “which is the hub on the water and a beautiful place to live and get married,” says Feltman; Greenville, which is home of East Carolina University; Jacksonville, home to U.S. Marine base, Camp LeJeune; and Morehead City, which is where the beaches are.

“We do have a big number of destination weddings along the coast,” says Feltman, who explains that there are a few DJ companies in the market, but mostly single part-time DJs. “The nightclub scene has ended for now and has turned into a lot of smaller bars.”

When asked how he generates

gigs, Feltman says that, in the beginning it was from hitting the pavement, stopping by the venues, and doing bridal shows. “Now, I still do that,” he says, “however, for our company, we came up with a very unique brand for our market that makes us very different from the rest.”

When pressed about his unique brand and how he arrived at it, Feltman said he wanted to be different than every other DJ in the market.

“We looked outside the box, and decided to be very interactive,” he says.

“The Brand is ‘Being Fun, Different and Unique.’ We changed up the market’s timeline and rebranded it. Instead of opening dancing, we do dance sets with interaction between each set.

We found a way to get everyone on the floor for the first dance set, and we really made the Father/Daughter dance very special, and we interact with young and old alike.”

Feltman says his company also came up with a 15-minute grand finale. “Being different,” he says, “has really set us apart from the rest.”

Of course, the wedding association he started, and the two bridal shows he produces every year, are also adequate providers.

Feldman says he loves being a multi-op. “The truth is, if you find the right people, multi-op is very easy,” he says. “All of my entertainers are trained the same way, so we are all interchangeable as, again, we present a brand and all do the same things with our own personality and client input.”

On the gear front, Feltman mixes and matches brands. “I use Virtual DJ—been a user since 2005,” he says.

“I use a Denon MC6000 [mixer/controller], Sennheiser mics, plus I have a Cortex HDC-3000 [controller] ready to fire at any time in case of a crash.”

For PA purposes, Feltman has a new entry that he expects to bolster his existing audio arsenal. “I just purchased the new JBL EON ONEs at DJ Expo—love them,” he says.

“Prior to that, I was using the Bose [L1] Compacts. I also have JBL 615s, as well as units from Electro-Voice and QSC. I also use the Alto Stealth Wireless system at every gig—I love that system so much. Gives me freedom to put the speakers anywhere I need them.”

For lighting, Feltman employs plenty of products from Chauvet. “I started using the Chauvet Gigbar,” he says, “when it came out in late 2014.

It’s a stand-alone system with IRC remote. Plus, I use the Chauvet Wash FX [compact wash light]. It works great for me.”

Asked where he sees his business in five years, he didn’t hesitate. “Right now, I need to find more entertainers,” he says. “We are turning down dates, and can’t handle those hot dates. I would like to add two to three more entertainers, and I would like to expand into a few more nearby markets.”

But his big goal over the next few years? “That’s easy,” he says. “To open a wedding venue.”

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DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

By Gregg Hollman

32

This year’s DJ Expo, held Aug. 15-18 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J., once again featured useful educational content delivered via the tried-and-true annual feature seminars, supplemented by a track of specialty presentations geared towards a variety of interests.

Here are some of the highlights: All-Star MC Secrets Revealed.

Chaired by Mar yland mobile Steve Moody, this year’s panelists included Christopher Atwood (Absolute Celebrations), Pascal Levesque, George Kramedas, Joe Bunn (Bunn DJ Company) and Adam Weitz (A Sharp Productions).

Atwood suggested that when dancefloors are empty, it’s time for MCs to work harder. One way to quickly pack the floor is to use passive-aggressive guiltbased techniques. For example, the MC invites “all the couples who are happily in love” to enjoy a slow dance.

Atwood also recommends interacting with guests via text message. One recommended product for texting is JammText (for more info visit mixcityinc. com).

Kramedas is another MC who endorses the use of fun, guiltbased techniques (subject to the consent of the wedding couple).

For example, in his “Conga Love Line,” he entices guests to join by stating that “the longer the line, the longer the marriage.”

Kramedas also recommends using grandparent dances at events.

His top song pick for this special dance is “Grandpa” by The Judds.

Canadian Pascal Levesque reminds wedding guests to “get involved” and that their participation is the greatest wedding gift to the bride and groom.

Moderator Moody agreed, stating that “people want to

help and all you need to do is ask.” When teaching dances, Levesque instructs on the fly so that no dead air is created and energy levels remain high. He added, “Dancing is a shortcut to happiness.” To further put dancers in the mood, Levesque often uses music videos of dancing cartoon characters.

Bunn focused his remarks on microphones and mic technique, advising MCs to speak in a conversational tone, not in a big radio announcer voice. When presenting the microphone to a guest about to deliver a toast, the MC should serve as a “toast whisperer” reminding the speaker in a whisper to hold the microphone right up to their mouth.

Weitz advised that for m a x i mu m e m o t i o n a l i mpact for a Father-Daughter Dance, the proper sequence of events is (1) for the father to deliver his customary toast, followed by (2) presentation of the video montage, and concluded with (3) the

TRICKS FROM DJ EXPO ’16 guests on a more personal level. MCs should never ask to do things that they themselves are not willing to do. DJs should never judge a crowd too early. Focus on what is working — and keep smiling.

Finally, Walter challenged DJs to ask themselves, “What is your why?”

In other words, to stay inspired as DJ-entertainers, we must occasionally remind ourselves why we got into this business in the first place.

Social Media Madness. Wedding specialist K.C. KoKoruz (Keith Christopher Entertainment Group) stressed that the most important metric in social media is the level of engagement (click-throughs, likes, comments, shares) — not the number of followers. On the Facebook insights section, page managers can easily discern the success of posts and identify characteristics of winning posts.

KoKoruz recommends that DJs consistently Father-Daughter Dance. For post to their Facebook business page, and then grand entrances, Weitz likes from the business page share these posts to one’s to get guests on their feet personal page. Personal friends who enjoy the and to the dancefloor early, content will eventually like your business page. creating a “catwalk-style” Regarding the rhythm of brides on social megrand entrance that raisdia, most consume vast amounts of information es energy levels and looks during their engagement. DJs should seek to be a great on video. Finally, Weitz provider of useful information during this period recommends that MCs acand take care to craft interesting and informative knowledge the bridal party storylines. After the wedding, most brides lose with a shout-out during the interest in weddings and tend to unfollow their grand finale. wedding vendors.

More Keys to a Great DJ The big mistake that KoKoruz sees DJs making & MC Performance. Mike on social media is the self-centered “look-at-me” Walter (Elite Enter tainstyle of posts. Even the popular “V-Log” tends to ment) dispensed a wealth be self-indulgent with the DJ focusing on himof tips relevant to music self and his equipment. KoKoruz states that DJs programming/mixing, MCing should always ask themselves before posting, “Is and sales/marketing. Walthis post interesting and/or educational?” ter states that DJs must do As a successful case study, KoKoruz cited the their homework and evalu“Tasty” instructional videos that teach viewers ate a playlist in depth prior how to prepare gourmet dishes in just a minute to the wedding, familiarizing or two.

DJs must strive to be better storytellers. themselves with any unWhile not mentioned in KoKoruz’s seminar, known tracks. one DJ company who I believe does an excellent A thoughtfully crafted job in storytelling and creating user engagement and skillfully mixed dance on social media is Jack Bermeo’s LJ Productions. set results in a better party Check out LJ’s Instagram account at “LJDJs” for a experience for guests. DJs sampler of its posts. Bermeo takes a typical event can review video footage photo and then adds a thought provoking meme of past events to observe to make it more interesting to viewers. how well (or not) dancers For those DJs dabbling in Facebook Live video responded to an incoming simulcasts, KoKoruz advises that you script out track. Rather than always scenes in advance and do not wing it. Without being agreeable, a part of proper advance thought on the reasons for the providing great customer live broadcast, the DJ could inadvertently come service is occasionally quesacross poorly. Finally, KoKoruz reminds those of tioning a client’s playlist by us posting videos on YouTube to tag them propsaying, “Let’s talk about this.” erly as YouTube is a huge search engine owned by Walter recommends that Google.

MCs break the “fourth wall” Stay tuned next month for more tips and tricks allowing themselves to indispensed from the 2016 DJ Expo. teract with and entertain

Are you an equipped DJ? At Full Compass, being Equipped means getting the very best gear at the very best prices. Let us help you get equipped – visit our website at fullcompass.com/dj or call our experienced team at 844-511-9944.

GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

Beam Me Up

Grove Is in the Heart

Bang Zoom

ADJ Products 6122 S. Eastern Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90040 (323) 582-2650 www.americandj.com The ADJ Ninja 5RX is a multi-beam effect that features four independently-tilting mirrors and a range of color/GOBO effects, as well as a Philips Platinum 5R lamp. The unit’s stepper motors come with micro stepping, built-in tilt macros and an effective Tilt Invert feature. There are 15 colors to choose from, including shades like hot pink, orange and purple. Features include a five-degree beam angle, 0-100 percent electronic dimming and 12 built-in lightshows in Show Mode.

Native Instruments 6725 Sunset Boulevard, 5th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90028 (866) 556-6487 www.native-instruments.com

Blizzard Lighting N16 W23390 Stoneridge Dr. Suite E Waukesha, WI 53188 (414) 395-8365 www.blizzardlighting.com

Native Instruments’ Sierra Grove Maschine Expansion is designed for hip-hop, soul and R&B producers. It features a variety of sounds including saturated drums, funk-influenced electric keys and other guitar, bass and synth samples. The expansion offers additional special kits including sound effects and talk back vocals, as well as exclusive presets for the company’s Monark and Massive synths, plus the Maschine drum synths. A compact version is also available as an iMaschine Expansion.

The Colorise Zoom RGBAW fixture from Blizzard Lighting come fitted with 36x 3W RGBAW LEDs, a diffused optical lens and a natural convection cooling system. The company’s AnyFi wireless DMX receiver is built into the unit, allowing for support of standard 2.4Ghz and W-DMX signal types. Available in black or white, the unit features a 10- to 40-degree zoomable beam angle, built-in preset color and white color temperature settings, variable electronic dimmer and strobe, color calibration settings, and 32-bit dimming curve settings.

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

Plugin & Tonic

34

Plugin Alliance 1200 Pacific Ave. #290 Santa Cruz, CA 95060 www.Plugin-Alliance.com Fault is a one-of-a-kind plug-in designed by Unfiltered Audio that features three main processors and three customizable feedback paths.

There is a stereo Frequency Shifter, as well as dual-channel Pitch Shifters that execute fractional-semitone to full-octave shifts. Fault comes with two independent Delays, as well as Unfiltered Audio’s flagship modulation system, which provides six freely assignable modulators—sine LFO, sawtooth/triangle LFO, square-wave LFO, input follower, sample-and-hold noise, and a macro control knob—with drag-and-drop virtual patching to every control knob and switch in the plugin’s GUI.

LOUD 45 Hz • 133 dB

ART 745-A Looking for Mr. GigBAR Chauvet 5200 NW 108th Ave. Sunrise, FL 33351 (800) 762-1084 www.chauvetlighting.com Chauvet’s GigBAR 2 builds upon its predecessor, the GigBAR IRC, by including UV in its pars and strobes for increased color mixing and effects. The unit comes with built-in automated and sound-activated programs that can be controlled from the display, IRC, wireless foot switch or DMX. GigBAR 2 includes a pair of LED Derby fixtures, LED pars, a laser, and four high-power, LED strobe lights all mounted on one bar. It comes with four individually adjustable and interchangeable heads, as well as an adjustable red and green laser.

SUB 8004-AS

RUSH Hour Harman International 400 Atlantic Street Stamford, CT 06901 (203) 328-3500 www.harman.com Martin by HARMAN expanded the RUSH lighting series with the RUSH MH 8 Mini Profile. Designed for mobile DJs, the unit features a compact 18W LED profile moving head and Osram 18W cold white LED with a 14-degree beam angle. Separate effects wheels, a DMX interface and sound to light control are all included to create a full range of gobos and colors. Additional features include electronic dimming, strobe and manual focus.

LOW 30 Hz • 136 dB

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GEAR AUDIO…LIGHTING…STUFF

Magma Carta

Man on the Moon

Cover Me

Mixware, LLC 11070 Fleetwood St, Unit F Sun Valley, CA 91352 (818) 578-4030 www.mixware.net

OmniSistem 6403 S 208th St Kent, WA 98032 (253) 395-9500 www.omnisistem.com

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

The Magma CRTL Case MCX8000 is designed to fit the Denon MCX-8000 and is compatible with Decksaver covers. The case is made with Durashock-molded EVA foam and a water-repellent polyester exterior shell. The lid is lined with high density egg-crate foam padding in order to protect faders, knobs and pads, and interior foam padding is found throughout. Additional features include rivet-reinforced carrying handles and detachable shoulder strap.

OmniSistem announced the Lunar One, a 12 x 10W RGBW Cree LED movinghead that features unlimited axis rotation. The Lunar One creates 12 beams of light that can be fully controlled by either six- or 16-channel DMX control, as well as via a sound active mode that features programmable speed control.

Gator Cases has released the GPA Cover Series of speaker slip covers designed for the market’s hottest compact speaker cabinets.

Three models are available to fit 8-, 10- and 12-inch speaker cabinets such as the QSC K Series, Yamaha DXR Series and Turbosound iQ Series. The series is constructed of rugged water-resistant polyester with a waterproof backing built-in. The inside of the cover features a padded, soft-lined interior for additional protection. Aside from the 12-inch version, handle holes on the top of the covers align with the built-in handles of the speaker providing access for quickly moving while leaving the cover on.

Wireless Control

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

JBL Professional 8500 Balboa Blvd.

Northridge, CA 91329 (800) 397-1881 www.jblpro.com

36

JBL Professional by HARMAN has introduced the PRX800W high-powered portable PA system, which features wireless control and sophisticated DSP, so users can quickly set up and configure a system from a mobile tablet. PRX800W also features class-leading power and a lightweight design that eases transportation. The PRX Connect mobile app for iOS and Android connects wirelessly to each unit in the system simultaneously, providing full control over the powerful DSP built in to each speaker. With control over 8-band parametric EQ, speaker delay, mute, gain and more, PRX Connect helps users achieve the perfect sound for their performances.

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TRACKS…MIXES…COMPILATIONS

Zonderling

Weiss

Styline

Dave Seamon

Demuir

youANDme

GUEST REVIEWER: SIN MORERA

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

“LIKE THIS” (ORIGINAL MIX)

38

Adrian Hour Toolroom On Mark Knight’s label, still one of the hottest dance imprints today, this tech-house track drops some old-school flavor with its sassy vocal samples and nasty stabs that really color this rumbling track. This one’s a banger.

SIN MORERA

TRACKS…MIXES…COMPILATIONS “REFLECTION” EP

youANDme & The Analog Roland Orchestra ft. Black Soda u Poker Flat Poker Flat has assembled a solid EP of contrasting sounds built upon the original “Reflection.” The “Dub Tool” will be the highlight for the desolate techno crowd, while tribal-techno DJs will favor the Hyenah remix—the fave here—for its groovy percussion. Check the “Acid Mix” if you’re looking for a good squelch.

Red Rack’em

– Chris K. Davis “NIGHTFALLS” EP u Dave Seaman u Selador

Adrian Hour

The British house veteran celebrates his label’s 50th release with a fourtrack package of his own. The nocturnal grooves of the original mix make it a late-night house affair, sampling vocal elements from Ananda Project’s 2000 release “Cascade of Colors” and dropping into a waterfall of synth stabs perfect for peak-hour slots. Lee Van Dowski’s rework makes things a little bouncier and punchier, but the OC & Verde remix is the standout with its massive progressive house entrancement.

– Chris Caruso “BE FREE” u Zonderling u Hexagon Super-catchy and surely to be a festival favorite, “Be Free” finds the Dutch duo balancing a wobbly, echoey, but irresistible synth hook with deep-house rhythms for a winner of a track.

Toto Chiavetta

– Jennifer Harmon “THIS PLEASURE NEEDS PAIN” (UNSYMPATHY)

ådå u Strangelove This update on the original tech-house track (“Unsympathy”) drops a breathy, new female vocal that punches up the cut’s ominous vibes, thumping kicks and hip-grinding groove. Hypnotizing.

– Jennifer Harmon “WONKY BASSLINE DISCO BANGER” u Red Rack’em u Classic Music Company Red Rack’em delivers a quirky, but superb record with strokes of infectious disco brilliance. “Wonky Baseline Disco Banger” this a perfect track for underground DJs looking for something different. Unique and totally fun.

– Tommy D Funk “YOU’RE SUNSHINE” u Weiss u Toolroom Weiss returns with a huge club monster—and what a tune! With its oldschool piano riff and insanely sexy/hooky vocal, “You’re Sunshine” rocks a proper house 4/4 beat, dipping and diving to a euphoric climax.

– Tommy D Funk IMPERMANENCE u Toto Chiavetta u Yoruba A full-on deep, techy, afro-house album that’s making waves on the underground house scene. Jazzy horns (“Tenor”), funky basslines (“Take Care”), spoken-word passages (“Anylonger”)—it’s all here with a variety of tremendous grooves. And make sure you check the sassy, nu-disco-ish “Revolution Has Come.”

– Tommy D Funk

– Jennifer Harmon TRUSKOOL u Demuir u Magnetic Recordings Toronto’s Demuir delivers a superb underground-house full-length that serves as a tasty melting pot of fused sub-genres (jackin’, soulful, techy, disco). Fave cut: “Mi Nah Chase No Pum Pum.”

– Tommy D Funk

DJ TIMES

Rough and rugged six-track effort that offers some variety. While “Get Down” delivers a bumpin’, bouncy groove, “Suicide Squad” drops crisp hi-hats to go with a disjointed synth accent and an old-school break that runs throughout. Sexy tech-house “Usual Suspects” recalls Hybrid’s better moments, whereas “Sytheth” gets trippier with an enormo electrohouse drop. Tight.

OCTOBER 2016

THE POWER HOUSE COLLECTION u Styline u Maskade

39

Noisia

(continued from page 10) everything with synths: Serum and Native Instruments FM8. That can go from really synthetic-sounding to trying to make stuff that doesn’t sound synthetic. ‘Get Deaded,’ the snare is five instances of Serum, the kick is four instances of Serum and seven instances of rides and hats and cymbals.

“On the second drop, we threw in sounds I made in Superior Drummer, which are recorded drum kits. That’s the second way, using Superior Drummer VST, where you put together a drum kit of different parts, tune them individually and send the mikes to different outputs then mix like you’re

in a big recording studio, that way you can make your own breakbeats and sample them. The third way is to use an old sampled funk break, cut it apart, split it to multiple channels, and see how you can make it sound better or change the programming.”

As one of the few drum-n-bass acts which plays headlining timeslots at festivals, Noisia’s latest material comes with a new audio/visual presentation which includes all three members. This is designed by Roos, who is very clear that this is not a live show.

“The music we make,” he says, “it doesn’t make sense to have the VSTs

in real-time if there’s not that much you’re going to change or play live.

We tried to design as much of the experience with the lights and visuals being very deliberate and triggered live by the MIDI signals. When [van Sonderen] starts mixing a song, he sends MIDI and OSC to me and our lighting tech. All the faders are also being sent to visuals and I can control the layers and effects from my station on stage. [De Vlieger] isolates certain elements of the songs running them through his modular set-up.

“I’ve got an Ableton Live project with all the MIDI from the songs that

are in the show,” he continues, explaining the development process in the studio. “I’m going track by track and deciding what MIDI is going to trigger which layer of the visuals. To give me an idea of the combination, I have made visualizations of the lights made by our lighting tech, also based on the same MIDI. I can see which notes he’s targeting, and what the lights are doing on his cue. If he’s taking the snare, I’ll take the kick, or he does one section and I’ll black out or illuminate another one. During the show, it’s all cued live.”

– Lily Moayeri

all there, so it was a no-brainer for me to have my friends sing on my album.

DJ Times: When did work on Dance Under The Influence begin?

Sanjoy: Two years ago. I’ve always wanted to do an album, but with my Bollywood work, I never got to put out the music that I was making.

When I finally decided that I wanted to focus on my artist side and build myself, that’s when I was like, “Let’s bring the talent in from India, and let’s collaborate with some good people.”

We’ve got Stephen [Rezza], Natalie [Hawkins], and Brandon [Van Duyn], who are all amazing songwriters who I sit and write with all the time. We decided to pick a couple of good songs and productions and write some songs for people to sing.

DJ Times: From a production standpoint, are you mostly in the box?

Sanjoy: It depends. I use a lot of live instruments like guitars. When I track vocals, I like it to all be in analog—I like the analog compressors. I

grew up using that kind of equipment, so why not? It sort of differentiates me from some of the other producers that are entirely in the box—not that I have anything against that. It gives me an extra edge to use live instruments.

DJ Times: When did DJing come into the mix for you?

Sanjoy: It came after production when I realized I would be the only person to play my own music [laughs].

I started with high-school parties where I would remix all these popular songs and then stick my songs in between them. I love connecting with people—even live—so I’m very energetic when I perform. I saw that even my friends were into it.

DJ Times: What’s your preferred DAW in the studio?

Sanjoy: I heavily use Propellerhead’s Reason and Ableton Live for production and sound design. Lately I’ve been using [PreSonus’] Studio One 3 for mixing and mastering as

well. I think each of the DAWs has their own advantages, and I love being able to use different DAWs for the same project. I think you can really re-imagine certain things once you stem out a project and take it from one DAW to another.

DJ Times: What are your favorite plug-ins?

Sanjoy: I love the Reason effects [Scream, Pulveriser], Rack Extensions [Keys, Parsec], Massive, Serum, U-he Diva, the Fab Filter Bundle for EQ and compression. I love Ableton’s sampler device because I sample a lot of Indian instruments and have built my own library of them. It’s really easy to play them out on the keyboard now using sampler or Kontakt.

DJ Times: Your DJing setup?

Sanjoy: Four Pioneer CDJs and a Nexus 900 mixer. Sometimes I use a Serato and vinyl setup, too. However, that’s if I am playing an open-format set and can scratch and juggle.

—Chris Caruso

OK.” DJ Times: On the surface , it sounds like an underhanded compliment, but it’s a pretty good one given Vegas.

Crenshaw: Vegas is crazy. You get every comment possible. “No one cares that you’re playing. You realize that, right?” I’ve heard every comment, but I think that if a guy that plays my kind of music can crack that crowd, it will be better for everyone.

DJ Times: Do you think now is the time for that music to crack into there?

Crenshaw: I feel like it’s still tough.

We’re doing well, but I don’t have an offer for next year. Nobody’s like, “Can we get you 100%?” It’s not a 14-date residency—it’s like a five-day one.

DJ Times: It speaks to you that you play Movement Detroit, Paradise

at DC-10 in Ibiza, Moonrise Festival in Baltimore here, and Las Vegas all in a single summer.

Crenshaw: The only other guy that can do that is Green Velvet [laughs].

DJ Times: How do you exist between all of them and maintain your identity?

Crenshaw: That’s where I always wanted to be! I ended up where I wanted to be.

DJ Times: Everywhere?

Crenshaw: I don’t want someone to book a festival [and see me] and say, “No, we don’t book any of that at all.” I want to always be on the list just ’cause everything has to be represented at a festival. I want to play DC-10 and the coolest parties ever, and also two years ago I told my management, “Just put me on the main stage and I’ll eat shit after the festival

trap guy. Just do it.” I did it a bunch of a times and even though it was a fucking nightmare, I picked up a bunch of fans. Not everyone was freaking out, but I know I picked up a bunch of fans by doing that.

DJ Times: From a DJing perspective, how do you play a set at DC-10 versus one in Vegas?

Crenshaw: You’d be surprised that it’s not that different. Can you believe that? I’m telling you, it’s not that different.

DJ Times: So you don’t have to cater to a Vegas crowd that’s characteristically not Claude VonStroke?

Crenshaw: My whole thing is that I’m not going to change the music that much. If I have a Vegas residency, you can’t talk shit about it because I’m playing pretty much the same music that I would play at the coolest club in the world. If I can’t play that in Vegas,

Sanjoy

(continued from page 8) Sanjoy: Yeah, I got focused totally into Hindi music, so I put out a couple of Hindi electronic dance records which did really well for me.

That’s what gave me my core fanbase, but then I realized people over here [in America] weren’t latching onto the language that much because they didn’t understand what I was talking about in the song. Now I’m releasing my own songs that I’m writing with my friends in English.

DJ Times: You’ve been releasing songs featuring Bollywood singers singing in English for the first time.

Did that just come about naturally?

Sanjoy: Yeah! I’ve become friends with all of them—they’re really big popstars in India—since I had recorded them for Bollywood films. We had a friendship growing, and I thought how cool would it be [to record] since they’re such great singers doing playback singing and are really experienced in the studio and have to match the actors’ emotions. Everything was

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

Claude VonStroke

40

(continued from page 16) unexpected given your sound. How did that happen?

Crenshaw: Everything’s been unexpected this year! I have to give this one up to my agents Lee Anderson and Max Braun at AM Only who are just rockstars. They just made it happen. I don’t know how they made it happen. They just made it happen!

DJ Times: Now did you play at all out there when Disclosure was playing?

Crenshaw: Yes. I went on Disclosure’s whole U.S. tour on a bus with them coming out of Campout. The Disclosure guys really crossed over, and then I piggybacked on their night, which might’ve made the Vegas guys say, “Oh, nobody’s leaving when this guy is on.” That was a comment I actually got from someone: “Everyone usually leaves during the last set, and they’re not leaving, so maybe you’re

MP3s in 6

Compiled As September 12, 2016

NATIONAL CROSSOVER POOL CHART

NATIONAL URBAN POOL CHART

1 Calvin Harris F/ Rihanna 2 Major Lazer F/ Justin Bieber& MØ 3 Chainsmokers F/ Halsey 4 Zayn 5 Adele 6 Salt Ashes 7 Britney Spears F/ G Eazy 8 Sir Ivan 9 Joe Bermudez F/ Louise Carver 10 Axwell & Ingrosso 11 Justin Timberlake 12 Meghan Trainor 13 Selina Gomez 14 Rob Thomas 15 Drake F/ Wizkid & Kyla 16 Pitbull F/ Enrique Iglesias 17 Pink 18 DjGozzi & The Extraordomary Gentlemen 19 Ariana Grande 20 David Lei Brandt 21 Cash Cash F/ Sophia Reyes 22 Alicia Keys 23 Kristine W. 24 Enrique Iglesias 25 Katy Perry 26 Mike Taylor 27 Sia F/ Sean Paul 28 Beyonce 29 Disclosure 30 Alan Walker 31 Dawn Tallman 32 Billy Rae Martin 33 Karine Hannah & Dave Aude 34 Rosabel F/ Jeanie Tracy 35 Dj Snake F/ Justin Bieber 36 Betty Who 37 Drake F/ Rihanna 38 Jay Cool 39 Fifth Harmony 40 Dirtyfreqs + Vassy

1 Rihanna 2 Drake Ft Wizkid & Kyla 3 Dj Khaled Ft Drake 4 Drake Ft Popcaan 5 Future 6 Usher Ft Young Thug 7 Tory Lanez 8 Beyonce 9 Fetty Wap 10 Wale 11 50 Cent Ft Chris Brown 12 T.I. Ft Marsha Ambrosius 13 Jidenna 14 Ayo Jay 15 Fat Joe Ft. Remy Ma & French Montana 16 Dj Mustard Ft Nicki Minaj & Jeremih 17 Belly Ft Kehlani 18 Dae Dae 19 Dj Drama Ft Chris Brown, Skeme & Lyquin 20 Dj Khaled Ft Jay Z & Future

Most Added Tracks

1 David Lei Brandt 2 DjGozzi & The Extraordomary Gentlemen 3 Dawn Tallman 4 Katy Perry 5 Betty Who 6 Fifth Harmony 7 Charlie Puth F/ Selena Gomez 8 Drake Ft Rihanna 9 Kristine W. 10 Britney Spears Ft G-Eazy

This Is What You Came For Roc Nation Cold Water Def Jam Closer Columbia Like I Would RCA Send My Love Columbia Save It Radikal Make Me RCA Imagine Peaceman Sunrise 617 Records Thinking About You Def Jam Can’t Stop This Feeling RCA Me Too Epic Kill’em With Kindness Interscope Pieces Atlantic One Dance Republic Messin’ Around RCA Just Like Fire RCA Beautiful Life (feat. J Walker) Overdrive Into You Republic She Got It Take Fo’ How To Love Big Beat In Common RCA Out There Fly Again Duel El Corazon Sony Rise Capitol Body High Restless Cheap Thrills RCA Sorry Columbia Boss Capitol Faded RCA Teardrops Slaag The Glittering Gutter Sire Victory Republic Living For Love Carrillo Let Me Love You Interscope I Love You Always RCA Too Good Republic Senorita JayCoolCharisma All In My Head Epic T.U.T.P. (Turn Up The Party) Radikal She Got It THEAUDIOKIDS Beautiful Life (feat. J. Walker) Overdrive Teardrops Slaag Rise Capitol I Love You Always RCA All In My Head Epic We Don’t Talk Anymore Atlantic Too Good Republic Out There Fly Again Make Me RCA

REPORTING POOLS Peter K. Productions - ;Peter K n Masspool - Saugus, MA; Gary Canavo n OMAP Washington, DC; Al Chasen n Dj Stickyboots - Goshen, NJ; Blake Eckelbarger n Victors - Milwaukee, WI; Chris Egner n Nexus Radio - Chicago, IL; Manny Esparza n MetroMix - Pittsburgh, PA; John Hohman n Next Music Pool - Los Angeles, CA; Bob Ketcher n Soundworks - San Francisco, CA; Sam Labelle n Klubjumpers - San Antonio, TX; Dan Mathews n New York Music Pool - New York, NY; Jackie McCloy n Dixie Dance Kings Alpharetta, GA; Dan Miller n WPTV-Prty 105FM Frd MdMx - New York, NY; Mike Rizzo n DJ Rafy Nieves - San Juan, PR; Rafy Nieves n DJ Laszlo - Las Vegas, NV; Laszlo Szenasi 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

Needed Me One Dance For Free Controlla Wicked No Limit Luv Hold Up Wake Up My PYT No Romeo, No Juliet Dope Little Bit More Your Number All The Way Up Don’t Hurt Me You Wat U Mean (Aye Aye Aye) Wishing I Got The Keys

Roc Nation Republic Epic Republic Epic RCA Interscope Columbia RFG Atlantic Capitol Roc Nation Epic RCA Empire Roc Nation Roc Nation Polydor One We The Best

Most Added Tracks 1 2 3 4 5

Sevyn Streeter Ft Gucci Mane Rae Sremmurd Yo Gotti Ft E-40 J-Soul Drake Ft Rihanna

Prolly Atlantic Black Beatles Ft Gucci Mane Interscope Wait For It Epic Slow Wine Cash Money Too Good Republic

NATIONAL LATIN DANCE POOL CHART 1.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

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13.

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15 16.

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Charly Black Rey Chavez Jay Cool Farruko ft KY Mani Marley Jandres Hector “Pichy” Perez Prince Royce Daddy Yankee J Balvin A Sanz ft M Anthony Alfredito Linares Beck ft. Muelas De Gallo Tito Nieves De La Ghetto Juan Magan ft Luciana Grupo Niche Pedro Arroyo Wito Colon Alsikiatra Jav Teran ft. Buda Khan Domenic Marte

Gyal You A Party Animal Lo Aprendi Contigo Señorita (RMX) Chillax Te Voy a Amar Zumbele La Carretera Shaky Shaky Bobo Deja Que Te Bese Ain’t No Sunsunshine Wow Yo Se Que Es Mentira Acercate Baila Conmigo Niche Como Yo Perdoname Quiero Ser Mas Que Amigos Como Se Mata El Gusano PowerFrom My Love Como Quisiera

Aftercluv J&N JayCool Charisma Latin Hits South Star SBD Prod.

Sony Universal Universal Latin Hits DJ Gonzo Prod.

Capitol TN Creations Warner Music Universal 360 Group Promo WJ Wave Factory Jiat Music Direct Balance

Most Added Tracks 1.

2.

3.

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Rocko y Blasty Chino & Nacho Toby Love Giro Juan Jose Mesa

Besitos de Colores Andas En Mi Cabeza No Le Heches la Culpa Y Entendi No Te Extrañes

RBP Machete Sony Giro Prod.

Cafe

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.

then we shouldn’t be doing it. It’s not like I’m going to Vegas and saying I have to play a bunch of Katy Perry songs because we’re in Vegas—that’s not going to happen. I’m not changing.

I’m bending to Vegas to me! I don’t think it’s bendable, but I’m trying.

DJ Times: Is it a similar notion to you bending Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money” from its pop nature to your sound?

Crenshaw: I think that one was right on the border of what I’m comfortable with. The dub I was totally cool with and the vocal version they just demanded, but I hated that version. Nothing against Rihanna… if Rihanna asked me to make a hip-hop beat and she sang on it and I didn’t have to have my name on it, I would totally do it.

DJ Times: Last year at Campout you started performing under your real name Barclay Crenshaw with an afterhours set. How would you describe the sound and what are the plans for it?

Crenshaw: It’s like instrumental hip-hop from the ’90s, but produced from a different planet. I’m almost done with the whole album. I’ve been working on it for five, six months.

DJ Times: When you studied production at Point Blank it was under a dubstep course, not a house one, right?

Crenshaw: I took a bass-music course, yeah. I take those kind of things all the time and I’m a member of MacProVideo.com and I take their tutorials like every month. I love it because you cannot even believe how deep Ableton Live and Maschine and all these programs are. It’s ridiculous.

Nobody knows how anything works, by the way. There’s five guys who know; Eprom’s one who knows how

everything works.

DJ Times: And you two did a collaborative EP together [2015’s Crawled Eagle on STX and BRX].

Crenshaw: He blew my mind. I was just sitting there going, “Holy shit.”

DJ Times: From a studio perspective, you’re using Ableton Live. Are you using a lot of outboard synths?

Crenshaw: Yes! A lot of outboard synths. I probably have six or seven synths, and I’ve been using them a lot—more than usual. When it’s that half-time sound, it’s not totally dependent on being perfect. In house, it can be a little bit off, but when you get down to like 80 BPM, there’s a little bit of leeway in there and you can just be like wuh-wah-wuh-wah.

You can just play it live more.

DJ Times: Are you using the same gear for your house stuff?

Crenshaw: No. On the Barclay Crenshaw project, I went into Red Bull Studios for two weeks and recorded all live musicians. That was the base of the project. Not all the songs are using that material, but I’d say half have real live players as the samples. There’s no samples; I never sample.

DJ Times: Is this all going to exist in addition to Claude VonStroke and Dirtybird?

Crenshaw: Yes, but I’m not going to do double touring [laughs].

DJ Times: How has Dirtybird’s sound evolved, changed, and adapted over 10 years?

Crenshaw: I think that we’ve DJed so many gigs that we understand better what works in the nightclub, which I don’t necessarily think makes the tracks better. They’re just more DJable. Sometimes I miss those weirder ones. I’m actually looking for

weirder ones again.

DJ Times: Is that why you have the new Dirtybird sub-label?

Crenshaw: That’s because what started to happen is I have myself, Justin [Martin], Ardalan—there’s like three to four people who always turn in a record or two a year. We only do like 11 records [each year]. If everyone just turns in the records they usually do, then we’re done. I can’t do Dateless, I can’t do Ciszak, I can’t introduce anyone. It’s more like a “here’s a new person.” We’re going to work them in and see how they do.

DJ Times: The roster of the label itself has expanded and changed over the decade. You’ve added J.Phlip, Will Clarke, Shiba San, and more.What are you looking for when you’re bringing someone into the fold?

Crenshaw: You’d be surprised at all the people who came in and didn’t really hang around: Julio Bashmore, Breach, Riva Starr, Tim Green, Eats Everything. We started all those guys!

DJ Times: Could they just not hang with the crew?

Crenshaw: I actually think they were very smart because [Dirtybird] is very American. And you just have to go out on your own if you want to get to a certain level.

DJ Times: Are you ever afraid of Dirtybird ever getting “too big”?

Crenshaw: That’s a great question. Yes, but I don’t think we’re really there. I don’t think so because when I see a single DJ have like 30,000 people watch them, we’re not even really close to that. We’ve got 10 guys and we’re maybe playing to 6,000 people.

DJ Times: Are you still thinking of capping the Dirtybird Campout?

Crenshaw: Yeah. We did raise it up a little bit this year, but that’s because last year we basically just broke

even. You have to make something! I don’t think Campout would be as fun if it was a 20,000-person festival. It would be more of a company.

DJ Times: You and the label have never been bigger. Where do you go from here with that? Is it keep on keeping on or do you have your eyes set on other things?

Crenshaw: Well, I’m definitely going to make a bunch of Claude VonStroke music for next year— whether that’s going to be an album, I don’t know yet. We’re bad planners [laughs]! I hope that everyone turns in great music, and they always do.

I’m just winging it! For me personally, I really hope my other project works and I kind of like do them in tandem a little bit. n

Expo

(continued from page 3) was excellent all week long. This was the perfect place for EV to showcase our entire powered-speaker lineup in a single place, which really helped attendees find the perfect one for their needs. Thanks to all who came by to visit us – see you next year!”

Attendees and presenters found plenty of value. “This year’s DJ Expo really had it all – whether you were looking for DJ-101 stuff or more advanced help, nothing was in short supply,” said Brian Buonassissi of BBoy Productions in New York City.

“The Expo floor was ver y busy and the influx of new vendors really made it a great experience. The nightlife parties also were really onpoint. Fantastic work once again by DJ Times!”

“DJ Expo,” said Sam Maxion of Oakland, Calif., “is a must attend event for all DJs worldwide.” n

Lady Waks: Breaks of the Game

DJ TIMES

OCTOBER 2016

For awhile it seems, breakbeats went away…

42

But… they’re coming back.

I’ll make sure of it.

Lady Waks, Next Month in DJ Times

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