Click Here For Details!
Click Here For Details!
Click Here For Details!
More of the mix as the record spins!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Get Ready To Party Halloween Weekend On Guam!
Click Here For Details!
Click Here For Details!
Click Here For Details!
More of the mix as the record spins!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Mix Tip Of The Day!
How To Get Hired As A DJ!
Word of Mouth
The best way to be hired for an event is by word of mouth. There are plenty of non-club based events, such as weddings or private parties, that require the services of a DJ. This is how I am hired for a majority of my performances, even for large corporations. Nothing is better than a friend vouching for you as a quality DJ. The hard part is not making your friend look foolish. The trick about word of mouth, is generating it. For unknown, beginning DJ’s this is the most important aspect in obtaining your next gig.
Offer A Free Gig
Becoming recognized is hard in Second Life, it seems everyone wants to be a DJ. Club owners have shared their frustrations concerning hiring quality DJ’s for their events. Often event owners overpay for a low quality result and restart the process for seeking a new DJ. In the past, I would frequent offer my services for free for an event, usually for an hour. This acted as my demo, and provided a way to generate word of mouth to event attendees, managers and hosts. If they liked me, they would tell their friends, tell other managers of clubs they worked, or were eager to join my event group. Additionally, if the club owner or manager was pleased with my hour performance, they were eager to hire me for a reoccurring event at their venue. Even if your not offered a slot, you’ve put your name out there for the world to hear.
Create Events
Throw party's featureing you or your crew as the DJs! Donate your time also to Non Profit Organizations. This way people start to get to know you and notice you as a person and personality.
Image
Always show a great image when in the public eye. Meet and greet people with the up most respect. Image is everything!
Search the Classifieds and Places
While the classifieds search cannot search for the term “DJ” (too short of a word), searching for “DJ Club”, “DJ Wanted”, or “DJ Hire” provides enough hits to clubs and venues that you can approach with your services. I would also search classifieds for newly opened clubs, their attendance may be low, but they are always seeking new DJ’s. Performing the same search in places can provide the same results.
Here's What's Going On This Weekend!
Deeznutz 40oz Party! Click Here For More Details!
Kamaka's 30th Birthday! Click Here For Details!
More of The Guam Experience as time fly's by!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Mix Tip Of The Day!
Turning The Dance Floor!
TURNING THE DANCE FLOOR - is a term that is used to describe the way you handle your crowd in relation to the Gig you are performing at. We all like to see the dance floor packed, it's great for our ego, but at times it's not so great with the bar manager. If you're playing a wedding or private function, your main job is to keep the people up on the floor, so you play great dance songs and you really don't have to worry about it. Playing at a bar or club is quite different. The club owner wants profits, your the key to those profits. Everything else aside, you need to "Turn the Dance floor" - quite simple, yet very important. Every time you play a song there are people who are dancing, then there are the people who are drinking. Here is the problem. The people dancing are not spending money and the people drinking are not getting hot and sweaty so they drink less. While it's great to have the dancers happy, you must make sure that they only dance to 2 or 3 songs in a row. So you change the type of music after say the 3rd song. Most likely you will find that the people dancing will sit down (their now hot and thirsty and ready to spend $) and the new style of music will induce a new round of drinkers up to the dance floor ( so that they can get hot and thirsty again) you could have 3 different styles of music which would mean that you would get three different sets of people up on the dance floor (or sitting down and drinking) every 9 songs (3x3). This is a proved way to get people to spend more money per evening, which makes the bar owner happy and makes you the DJ to Hire because you bring in more cash. The patrons will be pleased with this also. Time to drink, dance and socialize. Everyone wins when you turn the dance floor......
More of the mix as the record spins!!
Check Out The Wrexxshop DJs At These Events!
Team Jessica Fundraiser
The Dee Cruz 40oz Birthday Bash
October 17th
@ Ralphy's Lounge
FM104 Club 360
October 30th
@ The Venue
More of the mix as the record spins!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Mix Tip Of The Day!
How To Become A Radio Personality!
1. First find your voice. Remember, when doing radio it is important to think of your dialog as if you are having a conversation with one person. Be yourself, yet also speak clearly and distinctly. One's speaking voice and radio voice are usually not exactly the same, but they're not too different either. To find your voice simply record yourself with a tape recorder or some other recording device.
2. Review your tapes religiously. One should always be searching for improvement. Review timing, rhythm, and vocal quality. One should not seem monotone or one-dimensional, that makes for boring radio and it is difficult for listeners to pay attention. The goal should be to have a motivated voice with clear and distinct pronunciation.
3. If it is appropriate in your position to do jokes on the air or something of that nature, do so, but be funny. Write out material beforehand and run it by other people. Be topical, but not too focused on any one topic. A good exercise to prepare for this is to watch or read the news and try to develop a joke for as many articles as possible.
4. When making announcements, take the proper amount of time to pause between sentences. Give the listener a second to absorb it all, but not much more or it will seem like dead air. When you're giving the name or number of an establishment, speak more slowly than usual. Allow people time to write the information down fairly easily.
5. Develop your own on-air personality. Perhaps this will involve a catch-phrase or a theme song. Make people excited that you are on the air. Even if it's just traffic updates, make your presence known. Sound enthusiastic, personable and passionate about what's being announced. Last but certainly not least, say the call letters with the utmost pride.
More of the mix as the record spins!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Mix Tip Of The Day!
The Art Of Scratching!
Information provided by http://www.famousdjs.com/
What is hamster and regular style and which should I use?
"Hamster" style means scratching with the crossfader reversed, so when you move the fader to the left, the right turntable comes on and vice versa. Some people find this a more natural way to scratch (me included). The main thing is to choose a style that you prefer and stick to it. Switching between styles at the beginning will only slow up your progress. Don't be influenced by the style other people use, for example, just because QBert scratches hamster it doesn't mean you should.
What records do I scratch with?
Scratching takes years to master. If you want to become good, you'll be doing LOTS of practice. Every time you perform a scratch on a certain sample, you're wearing it away. It's essential not to practice with your treasured vinyl collection! Get yourself a couple of battle records to practice with and when they wear away, get some more. I'd recommend SuperSeal, because it has some common sounds and fresh arranged so they're skipless.
What are "skipless" records?
Imagine you stuck a little label on your record at the 12 o'clock mark. When you play the record, the label will go round and pass the same point every so often. Skipless records work by having the same sample at exactly the same point spread over several rotations. This means that if the needle skips forwards or backwards a couple of grooves, it'll land in exactly the same spot on the same sample. When you start out, you might be a little heavy handed and the needle skipping can be very frustrating. Buying battle records that have skipless sections is one way to get around this.
What scratches should I learn first?
Nearly all scratches are based on simple foundation scratches. It's important to start with the very basic scratches first. A lot of DJs will try and learn crabs and 2-clicks before they learn anything else simply because to them they sound impressive. That's not the best way to learn. If you wanted to learn how to play a guitar, you wouldn't pick one up and try playing a Hendrix solo - you'd start by playing single notes and work from there - scratching is no different. If you want the beat I used for the examples, It was a free loop made by DJ Toadstyle. Once you have it, you can loop it up using the Focus Looper I posted, or in the program of your choice.
What are the foundation scratches?
Baby - The baby scratch is the first scratch anyone should learn. All you're doing is moving the record back and forth in time with the music. There are various ways to perform it. Here's a little file with some examples:
Marches - Marches are a combination of babies and forwards. This is the first combo you'll learn. As with all scratches, you're aiming to have solid record control and get a clean and even sound. Here's an example using combinations of forwards and some of the different baby scratches mentioned above
Drags - A drag can be performed either forwards or backwards. What you're doing is slowing the record down rather than letting the sample play at it's regular speed.
Tips - A tip is like a really short baby. All you're doing is moving the record back and forth over a short distance to catch just the start of the sound
Stabs - Stabs are a little like forwards except you're only catching the very start of the sound. You can also change the pitch of the sound by pushing the record forwards at different speeds.
Chirps - The record movement of a chirp is the same as a baby. If you've practiced your baby scratches so they're nice and clean then give chirps a try. Start with the fader open, then move the record forwards. As soon as you hear the sound start to play, close the fader, but continue moving the record as if you were doing a baby. As you move the record backwards, just before you get to the start of the sample again, open the fader. What you're doing is using the fader to cut away a large portion of the sample. This gives a crisp, defined sound.
Tears - There are many different tear combinations. An easy one to learn first is the 1 forward, 2 back tear
Transforms - A transform is a technique, not a specific scratch. The fader starts closed and ends closed. What you're basically doing is snapping the fader on and off to chop up a sound. Transforms can be done over the top of other scratches including babies and tears to add more definition to the sound.
Dicing - Transforming over the top of tears is called dicing. There's two ways to speed up something like dicing. First off you can do the exact same record movement, but just do it faster. That will speed up the pitch of the sound too obviously. The other way is to do the tear over a shorter distance which means you can move the record slower. The fader movement is the same either way.
Why is it better to learn these scratches first?
An example of a more advanced scratch is the crab orbit. You move the record forwards and backwards while crabbing the crossfader. What you're doing with the record is a baby scratch. If you haven't practiced the basic faderless baby scratch, then you won't have a nice consistent motion so your advanced scratches will sound sloppy. If you practice all the basic techniques above, then when you move on to flares, 2-clicks, orbits etc. you'll have a head start over people who jumped straight in trying to do them, plus your scratching will sound clean and precise. Even if you only get a few of the basics down, you can use these techniques when you're doing a set to add an extra dimension to your mixing. A few simple scratches here and there sound a lot better than sloppy attempts at complex ones.
What are some good practice tips?
Start off slow. Don't get frustrated if you don't sound good to begin with. That happens to everyone. Keep working on the basics and you'll soon improve. Practice as often as you can and for as long as you can.
Recording your practices is a great idea. Listen back to them and you'll hear where you're good and where you're not so good. That way you can work on the techniques where you might be falling behind. I've got practices from a couple of years ago on tape. When I'm feeling like I'm not progressing and I want to give up, I listen to those and I can hear how much better I've got. It's a bit of an ego boost you might say. Hehe.
Practice with other DJs if possible. If you can hook up in person with another DJ and scratch together in what's called a Q&A session, then you'll pick tips up off each other. You'll also be more inspired to practice and it's a lot more fun than learning alone.
Once you start to get certain scratches down and you can do them consistently, speed things up by increasing the pitch of the record you're scratching over. At first you might not be able to keep up, but keep at it and your arms and hands will soon get used to it.
Finally, remember that there is no right and wrong. If you do a scratch slightly differently to someone else, then so what? Everyone develops their own way of doing techniques, which is why watching DVD's may give you the false impression that a certain scratch has to be done a certain way. Originality is extremely important. You can start out by copying other people, because that's a good way to learn, but you'll eventually reach the stage where you have a style of your own and that's what sets you apart from everyone else.
I hope this helps the people who want to get started. It's a lengthy read, but I've tried to make the tutorial easy to understand. Remember, this is a beginners guide for those just starting out, or those that want to build a strong foundation for their more advanced scratches. More of the mix as the record spins!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The Mix Tip Of The Day!
DJ Dress Attire!
The total packaging includes the music, lighting, sound effects, lively banter, other effects such as bubbles and smoke, and of course the DJ must present it all in a manner which matches his or her music style.
But what does this mean exactly? It really is very simple. All it means is that the DJ should endeavor to create a look that matches the genre of music and the style of performance that they intend to deliver to the audience at a particular event. For a DJ who plays acid or house music in a club, the DJ should naturally be dressed in hip clothes the audience would be likely to buy.
As a Club DJ, you don't have to wear stylish sunglasses or have gelled hair but you do want to present a slick, sexy image that the audience (women!) will admire. More of the mix as the record spins!
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