Wednesday, March 19, 2014

SHG Radio Show, Episode 201

Welcome to this week's edition of Subterranean Homesick Grooves™, a weekly electronica-based radio show presented originally on CHMA FM 106.9 at Mount Allison University in Atlantic Canada (but expanded to a distribution on other terrestrial radio stations), and also distributed as a global podcast through iTunes and numerous other sites. The show is normally programmed and mixed by Jonathan Clark (as DJ Bolivia), although some weeks feature guest mixes by other Canadian DJ's. The show encompasses many sub-genres within the realm of electronic dance music, but the main focus is definitely on tech-house and techno, and a small amount of progressive, trance, & minimal. Liner notes for this episode (SHG 201) can be seen below.

Para la información en español, vaya aquí.




Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:



In addition to being able to download each episode from SoundCloud, you can also visit our DJ Mixes folder on Dropbox (which allows for bulk downloads).  That folder hosts hundreds of episodes and other DJ mixes.  Here's the link:


And of course, you can download Bolivia's individual tracks from this link:



Here are Track Listings for episode 201:

01. Auvertone, "Leave It Behind" (Original Mix).
02. Gaetano C, "Saved" (Original Mix).
03. Hollen, "Trooper" (Original Mix).
04. Boza, "The Push" (Instrumental).
05. Danniel Selfmade, "Boomeer" (Original Mix).
06. Larry Cadge, "As Time Goes By" (Original Mix).
07. John Aguilar & Yas Cepeda, "I Am What I Am" (Original Mix).
08. Alex Denne, "Cantera" (Original Mix).
09. DJ Smilk & Juan Ddd, "Alquimia" (Original Mix).
10. Jabu & Juan Diazo, "Bombon" (Original Mix).
11. Andres Blows, "Driver" (Original Mix).
12. Stanny Abram & RanchaTek, "Poppin Monster" (Original Mix).



Here are links to either personal websites, Facebook pages, or [usually] the SoundCloud pages for a few of the original artists and remixers/producers listed above.



Auvertone (Montreal)
Gaetano C (Italy)
Hollen (Italy)
Boza (Canada)
Danniel Selfmade (Spain)
Larry Cadge (Britain)
John Aguilar (France)
Yas Cepeda (Spain)
Alex Denne (Spain)
DJ Smilk (Colombia)
Juan Ddd (Colombia)
Juan Ddd (Colombia)
Andres Blows (United States)
Stanny Abram (Slovenia)
RanchaTek (Serbia)


Subterranean Homesick Grooves is a weekly specialty EDM music show with a basic weekly audience base of about 1500 listeners per week through podcasting and direct downloads, another hundred or so listeners through SoundCloud, and an unknown number of listeners through terrestrial FM broadcast. If you're a radio station programming director, and would like to add Subterranean Homesick Grooves to your regular programming lineup, contact djbolivia@gmail.com for details. We currently release SHG as an advance download to a number of stations globally on a weekly basis (at no charge), and we welcome inquiries from additional outlets.


We also have a file containing complete track listings from all of DJ Bolivia's radio shows, studio mixes, and live sets. The PDF version can be viewed from within your browser by clicking directly. Both the PDF and the Excel versions can be downloaded by right-clicking and choosing the "save link as" option:

View as PDF file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.pdf
Download Excel file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.xlsx






Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Saturday, March 15, 2014

SHG Radio Show, Episode 200

Welcome to this week's edition of Subterranean Homesick Grooves™, a weekly electronica-based radio show presented originally on CHMA FM 106.9 at Mount Allison University in Atlantic Canada (but expanded to a distribution on other terrestrial radio stations), and also distributed as a global podcast through iTunes and numerous other sites. The show is normally programmed and mixed by Jonathan Clark (as DJ Bolivia), although some weeks feature guest mixes by other Canadian DJ's. The show encompasses many sub-genres within the realm of electronic dance music, but the main focus is definitely on tech-house and techno, and a small amount of progressive, trance, & minimal. Liner notes for this episode (SHG 200) can be seen below.

Para la información en español, vaya aquí.




Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:



In addition to being able to download each episode from SoundCloud, you can also visit our DJ Mixes folder on Dropbox (which allows for bulk downloads).  That folder hosts hundreds of episodes and other DJ mixes.  Here's the link:


And of course, you can download Bolivia's individual tracks from this link:



Here are Track Listings for episode 200:

01. Anie, "Pollengeflüster."
02. DJ PP & Gabriel Rocha, "Distrito Federal" (Original Mix).
03. Ego Valente, "My Way" (Original Mix).
04. Cosmonov, "Berlin" (Original Mix).
05. Stefano Noferini, "No Heading" (Original Mix).
06. Marco P, "The Voice" (Original Mix).
07. Beller, "Freakin Out" (Original Mix).
08. Darocha, "Believe In Yourself" (Original Mix).
09. Andres Blows, "Traveling" (Original Mix).
10. DJ Wady & Carlos Jimenez, "Spin The Box" (Original Mix).
11. George Privatti & Guille Placencia, "Garduf" (Original Mix).
12. Umek & Siwell, "Get Funk" (Original Mix).



Here are links to either personal websites, Facebook pages, or [usually] the SoundCloud pages for a few of the original artists and remixers/producers listed above.



Anie (Germany)
DJ PP/Gabriel Rocha (Uruguay)
Ego Valente (Spain)
Cosmonov (Hungary)
Stefano Noferini (Italy)
Marco P (Switzerland)
Darocha (Brazil)
Andres Blows (United States)
DJ Wady (United States)
Carlos Jimenez (Spain)
George Privatti (Spain)
Guille Placencia (Spain)
Umek (Slovenia)
Siwell (Italy)


Subterranean Homesick Grooves is a weekly specialty EDM music show with a basic weekly audience base of about 1500 listeners per week through podcasting and direct downloads, another hundred or so listeners through SoundCloud, and an unknown number of listeners through terrestrial FM broadcast. If you're a radio station programming director, and would like to add Subterranean Homesick Grooves to your regular programming lineup, contact djbolivia@gmail.com for details. We currently release SHG as an advance download to a number of stations globally on a weekly basis (at no charge), and we welcome inquiries from additional outlets.


We also have a file containing complete track listings from all of DJ Bolivia's radio shows, studio mixes, and live sets. The PDF version can be viewed from within your browser by clicking directly. Both the PDF and the Excel versions can be downloaded by right-clicking and choosing the "save link as" option:

View as PDF file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.pdf
Download Excel file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.xlsx






Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Thursday, March 6, 2014

SHG Radio Show, Episode 199

Welcome to this week's edition of Subterranean Homesick Grooves™, a weekly electronica-based radio show presented originally on CHMA FM 106.9 at Mount Allison University in Atlantic Canada (but expanded to a distribution on other terrestrial radio stations), and also distributed as a global podcast through iTunes and numerous other sites. The show is normally programmed and mixed by Jonathan Clark (as DJ Bolivia), although some weeks feature guest mixes by other Canadian DJ's. The show encompasses many sub-genres within the realm of electronic dance music, but the main focus is definitely on tech-house and techno, and a small amount of progressive, trance, & minimal. Liner notes for this episode (SHG 199) can be seen below.

Para la información en español, vaya aquí.




Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:



In addition to being able to download each episode from SoundCloud, you can also visit our DJ Mixes folder on Dropbox (which allows for bulk downloads).  That folder hosts hundreds of episodes and other DJ mixes.  Here's the link:


And of course, you can download Bolivia's individual tracks from this link:



Here are Track Listings for episode 199:

01. Luigi Madonna, "Primo" (Original Mix).
02. Sam Paganini, "Shade" (Mattew Jay Remix).
03. Audioleptika, "I See You" (Original Mix).
04. James Delato, "UFO's Dancer" (CutBox Remix).
05. Christian Smith & Wehbba, "Someone Else" (Original Mix).
06. David Zor & Pablo DePrieto, "Great Skill" (Original Mix).
07. Tony Verdu, "Shark Women" (Original Mix).
08. Mr Costy, "We Go" (Original Mix).
09. Funky Monkey B, "Go" (Original Mix).
10. DJ Wady & Carlos Jimenez, "Machete" (Original Mix).
11. Staffy & Mark Grandel, "Advanced Age" (Original Mix).
12. Hot Since 82, "Planes & Trains" (Dosem Remix).



Here are links to either personal websites, Facebook pages, or [usually] the SoundCloud pages for a few of the original artists and remixers/producers listed above.



Luigi Madonna (Italy)
Sam Paganini (Italy)
Audioleptika (Germany)
James Delato (Brazil)
Christian Smith (Brazil)
Wehbba (Brazil)
David Zor (Spain)
Pablo DePrieto (Spain)
Tony Verdu (Spain)
Mr Costy (Spain)
Funky Monkey B (Argentina)
DJ Wady (United States)
Carlos Jimenez (Spain)
Staffy (Hungary)
Mark Grandel (Hungary)
Hot Since 82 (Britain)
Mattew Jay (Italy)
Dosem (Spain)


Subterranean Homesick Grooves is a weekly specialty EDM music show with a basic weekly audience base of about 1500 listeners per week through podcasting and direct downloads, another hundred or so listeners through SoundCloud, and an unknown number of listeners through terrestrial FM broadcast. If you're a radio station programming director, and would like to add Subterranean Homesick Grooves to your regular programming lineup, contact djbolivia@gmail.com for details. We currently release SHG as an advance download to a number of stations globally on a weekly basis (at no charge), and we welcome inquiries from additional outlets.


We also have a file containing complete track listings from all of DJ Bolivia's radio shows, studio mixes, and live sets. The PDF version can be viewed from within your browser by clicking directly. Both the PDF and the Excel versions can be downloaded by right-clicking and choosing the "save link as" option:

View as PDF file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.pdf
Download Excel file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.xlsx





Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

How to CUE on a DJ Mixer - a Video Tutorial

When you're a DJ, playing on a DJ mixer that you're not familiar with can be a bit of an adventure. The most complicated part of learning a new mixer usually relates to trying to figure out how to cue music properly. Here's another DJ'ing tutorial video, for DJ's who are trying to understand how different manufacturers might set up their cue functions, and I used two popular brands (Pioneer vs Allen & Heath) to illustrate.





I have to say thanks to a friend of mine in London (UK), DJ Alex Black. She and I were talking about the challenges that DJ's face when switching to new mixers, so it was her that inspired the production of this video. She's a DJ that has some mixes online that I really, really enjoy, a mix of tech-house, deep house, and all that sort of style. You can follow her on Mixcloud at this link:

www.mixcloud.com/alex-simpson

 



If you like the sound of either of the tracks played during the breaks between sections, of them are available as free downloads. Go to SoundCloud and do a search for: "dj bolivia global underground"


I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:



If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:



Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:
    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia
    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia
    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com
    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Sunday, March 2, 2014

DJ'ing for Beginners, #4 of 4 Parts

If you've found this blog post through an organic search, I've just (early 2024) consolidated the information from several distinct blog posts into one link on my main website:


You may prefer going to that page right now, as it has all the info from the post below, plus a lot more.  But if you prefer the formatting of this blog post, feel free to carry on ...


The information that I covered in this part (#4) includes the following sections, which I talk about in more detail further down this page: Best ways to get booked, the future is in production work, closing remarks, and final tips & advice.

 



DJ'ing for Beginners, Part 4 of 4:

In this video I talk about the best ways to get booked, marketing yourself, editing tracks, making remixes, making your own tracks, and a large number of tips and advice. When it comes to production work, if you're interested in branching out into that, you'll eventually have to learn about things like: how sound works, sampling rates, bit rates, decibel scales, nyquist frequencies, dither, frequency spectrums, frequency ranges of various instruments, EQ'ing, using MIDI versus audio, virtual instruments, effects including reverb, echo, delay, chorus, flanger, compression, types of instruments, working with microphones and working with vocalists, mixing and mastering, and much more.




Here's the outline that I used when putting together this fourth part of the series:

Best Ways to Get Booked
- First, practice constantly.
- Meet other established DJ's. Learn from them, offer something in return.
- Ask DJ friends if they can put in a good word for you as an opener when they get booked.
- Make friends with DJ's or Managers of clubs. Also, become friends with all the staff. Don't get drunk and act like an idiot in the club.
- Once you've made some friends, ask if you can practice or play for the staff for an hour before the club opens.
- Become a promoter. Throw a party, play as an opener or closer. This has pros and cons.
- Make friends with promoters, and offer to help them with their events.
- Have business cards. Leave several cards with EACH club manager and other DJ's.
- Demo mixes – why they can be useful. And what their limitations are. "Fake" mixes, not actually demonstrating any talent.

The Future is in Production Work
- Production work is now possible by bedroom producers thanks to low-priced software and equipment.
- Even if you never produce professional-quality tracks for public distribution, you might find a bit of amateur production work to be fun.
- Learning the basics of production, even if you never attempt to do it professionally, will help you understand the physics and structure of music better, and that will make you a better DJ.
- How to get started, schools versus learning on your own.
- A list of things that you'll need to learn: how sound works, sampling rates, bit rates, decibel scales, nyquist frequencies, dither, frequency spectrums, frequency ranges of various instruments, EQ'ing, using MIDI versus audio, virtual instruments, effects including reverb, echo, delay, chorus, flanger, compression, types of instruments, working with microphones and working with vocalists, mixing and mastering, and much more.
- Talk about all the different software that is used in production work.
- A soft start: re-editing versions of your favourite tracks.
- Move on to doing remixes of existing tracks.
- Producing your own music from scratch.
- Legalities of playing your own personal remixes.
- Learning some Music Theory can be useful. Also, learning to play instruments is fun.

Closing Remarks, Final Tips & Advice
- You will not become a DJ overnight. If you want to do it, you're going to have to put in literally months or even a year or more of practice and getting to know people.
- Your purpose is to entertain the crowd, not to entertain yourself.
- Always think about safety. Safety of yourself, safety of your dancers. Know what you are expected to do in the case of a power failure, or various other types of emergencies. Where are the nearest fire extinguishers and how does the venue's fire suppression system work? Where are the emergency exits?
- Additional research: read lots of books. Show a number of recommended books.
- Always carry a small flashlight (or two), and maybe a leatherman.
- Always check out your sound quality, whether in a club or doing mobile. Reccie beforehand too. Learn about how sound works, and especially about acoustics.
- Understand gain staging as a way to have clean sounds and avoiding distortion.
- Be professional in a business sense. Use contracts. Ask for deposits, get paid before you play, unless you've got an ongoing relationship with the venue.
- Personal development: get a driver's license, pay attention to personal hygiene, dress appropriately, make sure you can stay sober at some events, make sure you always keep your word. There are a lot of flaky and undependable DJ's out there. Having a reputation as someone who is dependable goes a long, long way in the industry.
- Don't diss other DJ's or producers or people in the scene, thinking that it makes you look better in comparison. Focus on peoples' good points, and if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all.
- You'll be nervous the first time that you play at any new venue. Accept it. That usually goes away after you're onto your third or fourth track of the night. Again, don't use alcohol.
- Fun Staff: DJ Hero videogame.
- Remember who pays you: the promoters and managers. They want someone who is reliable.
- Know your music. There are tens of thousands of popular songs out there, in dozens of genres. If you're a specialty DJ, this may not matter, but if you're a mobile or even a mainstream club DJ, you're going to need to know a lot of music. You can never spend too much time researching and discovering “new” (or old) music.
- Don't be scared to dance.




I didn't need to link to any of my other videos in this part of the DJ'ing for Beginners series. However, I'll probably have a link here shortly to a "Extras That I Forgot To Talk About" video. Give me two or three days?



Finally, if you'd like to download or listen to an audio transcript of this video, as an mp3 from Soundcloud, here's the link:




If you like the sound of any of the tracks played during the breaks between sections, I've got all of them available as free downloads. Go to SoundCloud and do a search for: "dj bolivia global underground"


I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:



If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:



Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:
    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia
    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia
    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com
    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Saturday, March 1, 2014

DJ'ing for Beginners, #3 of 4 Parts

If you've found this blog post through an organic search, I've just (early 2024) consolidated the information from several distinct blog posts into one link on my main website:


You may prefer going to that page right now, as it has all the info from the post below, plus a lot more.  But if you prefer the formatting of this blog post, feel free to carry on ...


The information that I covered in this part (#3) includes the following sections, which I talk about in more detail further down this page: Programming and set flow, do you need to beat mix, examining some popular DJ software, & thoughts about Ableton Live?

 



DJ'ing for Beginners, Part 3 of 4:

In this video I talk about music programming, set flow, mixing styles, beat-mixing (bars and beats and phrasing), mixing in key, DJ software, Ableton Live, and much more.




Here's the outline that I used when putting together this third part of the series:

Programming and Set Flow:
- Think about “contingencies,” ie. problems that might happen, and plan how you'd react to solve them.
- Theory about BPM's and energy levels. Gradually rising, sudden drops.
- Different mixing styles, drawn out versus abrupt.
- The importance of programming. Programming is 80% of your job. If you don't play songs that people like, it doesn't matter how technically skilled you are!
- For those of you playing venues where there will be more than one DJ, learn to be good at being an opening or closing DJ. Understand what the roles are for these two positions within a lineup. If you're the only DJ, you still need to think in terms of “warm-up” and “busy dance floor.”
- Dealing with an empty dance floor. Do you play your great tracks early, or save them?
- Never play a track twice in a night.
- Dealing with Requests.
- Using a microphone effectively.
- What if you need to go to the washroom?

Do you need to Beat Mix?
- Radio mixing, and "chop" mixing or "drop" mixing.
- What is beat mixing/matching?
- Understand counting, bars/beats, and phrasing.
- Maintaining a flow is the most important.
- Planning out a set in advance. Pros and cons. Mostly cons.
- Beat-mixing on CD players. I have a sample mix online.
- Beat-mixing on vinyl. I have a sample mix online.
- Using the cross fader, or not.
- If you're getting frustrated when learning to beat-mix, just walk away for a bit. It's not easy. Practice is the only way to get better, but don't practice when you're frustrated.
- Mixing in Key.

Let's Examine some popular DJ Software:
- DJ'ing software changes very frequently, every couple of years. Rather than reviewing various programs in this video, and making it stale within a year or two, I'll be producing a separate set of review videos. Not available yet.
- General notes about using laptops, CPU, hard drive size, windows versus PC, etc.
- Summary of some of the programs that are currently available, including Virtual DJ, Serato, Traktor, Deckadance, AtomixMP3, DSS DJ, and PCDJ DEX.

What About Ableton Live?
- What is it used for? Can be used for production, for DJ'ing, for remixing, for live PA (performance art) in front of audiences, etc.
- DJ'ing capabilities: it is set up differently than all of the other DJ-specific programs. It seems more like a production suite, but in some ways, it is the most powerful software for DJ'ing.
- Incorporating production work into your set.
- Making a studio DJ mix, my first popular videos.
- Learning to DJ live with Ableton. Mention video series.




Here are all the other videos that were mentioned in Part 3 of the "DJ'ing For Beginners" series:


DJ'ing for Beginners: Beat-Mixing on CD Players:





Sample DJ Set on CD's (SHG 150) using the DJ's CUE perspective:





Sample DJ Set on CD's (SHG 156) using the DJ's CUE perspective:





DJ'ing for Beginners: Beat-Mixing on Vinyl:





Sample DJ Set on Vinyl (SHG 160) using the DJ's CUE perspective:





Sample DJ Set on Ableton (SHG 155) using the Audience's audio perspective:





Sample DJ Set on Ableton (SHG 155) using the DJ's CUE perspective:





Warping Tracks in Ableton:





Making a Studio DJ Mix using Ableton:





Mastering & Marketing your DJ Mix:





First Video in the "Live DJ Performances with Ableton" series:






Finally, if you'd like to download or listen to an audio transcript of this video, as an mp3 from Soundcloud, here's the link:




If you like the sound of any of the tracks played during the breaks between sections, I've got all of them available as free downloads. Go to SoundCloud and do a search for: "dj bolivia global underground"


I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:



If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:



Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:
    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia
    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia
    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com
    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

DJ'ing for Beginners, #2 of 4 Parts

If you've found this blog post through an organic search, I've just (early 2024) consolidated the information from several distinct blog posts into one link on my main website:


You may prefer going to that page right now, as it has all the info from the post below, plus a lot more.  But if you prefer the formatting of this blog post, feel free to carry on ...


 

 

DJ'ing for Beginners, Part 2 of 4:

In this video I talk about licensing, purchasing music legitimately, getting professional noise-attenuating hearing protectors, and most importantly, go over the purpose of a large number of pieces of equipment that DJ's will regularly encounter: mixers, headphones, pitch-controlled CD players, turntables, effects units, MIDI controllers, amps, speakers, subwoofers, monitors, compressors, graphic EQ's, crossovers, dance floor lighting, smoke & fog machines, microphones, cords & cabling, types of plugs, flight cases, and much more.




Here's the outline that I used when putting together this second part of the series:

Reviewing Equipment
- When to buy budget gear, and when to go for quality. "Buy cheap, buy twice."
- Mixers. Differences between DJ-specific and general audio/studio consoles. Different types of DJ mixers, ie. scratch mixers. Brands include Pioneer, Allen & Heath, Rane, Behringer, Denon, Numark, and Vestax. How many channels do you need?
- Headphones. Lots of variety here. You can choose between traditional cans (noise-cancelling padding surrounding ears) vs in-ear buds. In-ear buds are probably not good for playing at shows, because they don't have the noise-cancelling feature, but I use them at home a lot in quieter environments.
- Turntables. The Technics 1200 was the standard for decades. Technics, Stanton, Vestax, Gemini, Numark, KAM, Denon. Get direct drive, not belt-driven. Straight tone-arms are generally not as good as curved tone arms (in practice) even though they should be better for scratch DJ's. Lots to learn here, ie. needles and stylus and balancing tone-arm and anti-skating.
- Pitch Control CD Players. Pioneer are the standard, but there are also Denon, Tascam, Marantz, Numark, Stanton, Vestax, and American DJ. It's nice to get one with a waveform display.
- Laptops, tablets, phones, and MP3 players: long-term DJ's will look down upon DJ's working from purely digital equipment, but the truth is that these items are a cost-effective way to get started as a beginning DJ. More importantly, for a majority of DJ's, they actually have some significant advantages compared to old-school equipment like turntables. There are things like the iDJ2 for iPod. Make sure your laptop is set for performance, wifi is off, no unnecessary windows open. Talk about the benefits of having a sound card that lets you cue.
- Effects Machines. Examples are Korg's Kaos Pad or Kaossilator, the Pioneer RMX 1000 and EFX 1000, the Alesis Air, and the Behringer Tweakalizer.
- Controllers. Talk about the general point of having MIDI controllers of various types.
- Amps/amplifiers: You need these to get sound out of your speakers. An audio signal by itself is not enough, it needs to be boosted very significantly through a speaker. What is a receiver: an amp with a radio tuner in it.
- Speakers & Subs & Monitors. Speaker = top = main. Sub = subwoofer = bass bin. Monitors are just a type of speaker, used primarily for the benefit of the performer rather than the audience.
- Compressors. These are tricky to understand and to use properly, but they can help you manage the dynamic range and output volume from your system.
- Graphic EQ's (equalizers). Used to adjust narrow frequency bands within the overall spectrum. - Crossovers. Used to split an audio signal into different frequency bands (ie. low/high or low/medium/high) to route the proper part of the audio frequency spectrum to the correct speaker in systems with several types of speakers.
- Dance floor lighting. What's out there? Lasers, gobos, and more. Mention LED lighting being much cooler than the old halogen lights.
- Smoke & fog machines. I don't usually use these because of the risk of setting off a fire suppression system in some venues.
- Microphones. You need a dynamic microphone, not a condenser microphone. Condenser mics are designed for studio use, and need a special power supply called "phantom power" which is not normally found in a DJ setup.
- Understand cords and cabling and different types of plugs. For starters: TS, TRS, XLR, SPDIF, USB, Speakon, RCA/Phono, 5pin DIN, Low-Z vs High-Z, 1/8” male, 1/4” male.
- Buy flight cases to protect your gear. They're worth it if you ever expect to move your gear around!

Bad Ways to Try to Save Money
- Getting a license, and staying legal.
- Buying music legitimately, instead of pirating it: legitimacy, plus usually better quality.
- Playing remixes that you've done yourself - this is a grey area, and rules vary from country to country.
- Many DJ's cannot or do not make a living through DJ'ing. However, it is possible.
- Buy a set of professional noise-attenuating hearing protectors. You need your hearing to last for the rest of your life.




Here are all the other videos that were mentioned in Part 2 of the "DJ'ing For Beginners" series:


A detailed examination of the Mobile DJ industry:





Guide to Understanding Audio & DJ Mixers:





Setting Up Turntables:





Learning about MIDI Controllers for DJ'ing or Audio Production:





Understanding Decibel Systems:





Understanding Compression (start at 21 minute mark):






Finally, if you'd like to download or listen to an audio transcript of this video, as an mp3 from Soundcloud, here's the link:




If you like the sound of any of the tracks played during the breaks between sections, I've got all of them available as free downloads. Go to SoundCloud and do a search for: "dj bolivia global underground"

Finally, if you're looking for more basic information about turntables, check out this link:

djbolivia.ca/turntables





I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:



If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:



Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:
    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia
    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia
    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com
    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

DJ'ing for Beginners, #1 of 4 Parts

If you've found this blog post through an organic search, I've just (early 2024) consolidated the information from several distinct blog posts into one link on my main website:


You may prefer going to that page right now, as it has all the info from the post below, plus a lot more.  But if you prefer the formatting of this blog post, feel free to carry on ...

---

Welcome to my "DJ'ing for Beginners" tutorial series. I've wanted to put this information online for about ten years, and just recently I finally decided that I was ready to do it properly.

What I've done is to record the tutorial in four parts, since each part is fairly long. I also had to add an "extras" section after everything else was online, to cover some things that I noticed I had missed. Overall, the series is close to five hours in length, so each individual video in the series is slightly over an hour long. The information that I covered in this part (#1) includes the following sections, which I talk about in more detail further down this page: Introduction, why would you want to DJ, different ways to perform, and styles & techniques.

  



DJ'ing for Beginners, Part 1 of 4:

In this video I talk about my own experiences within the industry, reasons why you'd want to be a DJ, different career paths (mobile, festivals, club resident, radio, etc), different ways to perform, the pros and cons of vinyl vs CD vs digital, some basic beat-mixing and turntablism background, and more.




Here's the outline that I used when putting together this first part of the series:

Introduction
- Introduction, background, education, career, my own musical tastes.
- Background as a DJ and a club manager.
- Future plans as a producer & teacher, and plans for future videos.
- The general format of this video and series, as an overview with lots of links to subjects that need to be covered in more detail.
- If you're on mobile, you can't see annotations, so the blog postings will also provide the useful links to other videos.
- Mentioning books.

Why Would You Want To DJ?
- Fun, social, and a great career if you enjoy music.
- Don't take the social aspects too far. Have fun, but stay in control when you're performing.
- Different types of DJ's, including: mobile DJ's, club residents, playing at parties and festivals, radio DJ's.
- Many DJ's cannot or do not make a living through DJ'ing. However, it is possible.
- How to "make it big" as a DJ.

Different Ways to Perform
- Originally, vinyl was the most common realistic alternative. Now, there are literally dozens of ways of performing.
- Traditional methods: vinyl.
- Switch to CD players, with pitch control.
- Nice to be able to have waveform display on CD players.
- Hybrid turntables, ie. vinyl plus CD plus mp3. Not popular, discontinued.
- You can use software with time-encoded vinyl to play mp3's and other digital files.
- Laptop DJ's: pros and cons.
- DJ software that is digital only.
- DJ software that incorporates time-encoded manipulation.
- Ableton Live.
- Purchasing music: vinyl vs CD vs mp3. Characteristics of each, ie. 7" vs 12" vs LP, compilation CD's, bit rates on mp3's, etc.
- Future possibilities: DJ'ing from tablets and phones.
- Live PA, performance art.

Styles & Techniques:
- Beat mixing or beat matching.
- Different styles of music, ie. EDM, mainstream, hip hope, etc.
- Turntablism.
- You need a background in audio equipment.
- Taking requests and playing for the crowd, versus playing a unique style.



Virtual DJ

If you're interested in learning to DJ with digital software on a laptop, the three main options are Virtual DJ, Serato, and Traktor.  I haven't done a tutorial series for Serato or Traktor yet (coming in the winter of 2017/2018), but here's a link to the Virtual DJ for Beginners" tutorial series that I haven't mentioned anywhere else:





Here are all the other videos that were mentioned in Part 1 of the "DJ'ing For Beginners" series:


A detailed examination of the Mobile DJ industry:





An introduction to Turntablism (from DJ Angello):





"Long Train Running" routine by Skratch Bastid & Chris Karns:





Also worth checking out is the Studio Scratches channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/studioscratches/about


Finally, if you'd like to download or listen to an audio transcript of this video, as an mp3 from Soundcloud, here's the link:



If you like the sound of any of the tracks played during the breaks between sections, I've got all of them available as free downloads. Go to SoundCloud and do a search for: "dj bolivia global underground"


I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:



If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:



Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:
    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia
    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia
    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com
    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca