Category Archives: For the Love of Knowledge

Mixing as a DJ

By: Tony Fernandez

First, a DJ must have a passion about music. That’s what usually gets us going down the path of becoming a DJ: a love of music. Along the way we learn programming matters. We figure out that if you line up certain songs in a certain way, you have great crowd responses. We learn to read a crowd; another skill that once developed is indispensable in being able to command a floor / room.

Which brings us to an often-overlooked skill set every DJ should have in their arsenal: mixing (and to a little venting about those DJs who, sadly, couldn’t care less about it).

I believe mixing is something intrinsic to being DJ, a skill so fundamental, so integral, so elementary, and so organic (I’ll lay off the thesaurus now…) that I can’t fathom being a DJ without the ability to blend songs together. Why would anyone shun the ability to make themselves better, make their work better, and to set themselves apart from other DJs?

Mixing allows for a smooth, harmonious and melodious transition from one song to another. Mixing ensures there’s no “dead air” from song to song. Mixing grants your floor / crowd an uninterrupted progression of the musical journey you’re working so hard to create.

Do you want to represent yourself in the best possible way and let the music / mixing speak for your endeavors? Would you rather sound like a bunch of sneakers in the washing machine, or worse — like the local Clear Channel radio station? (Yes, I know Clear Channel is a thing of the past. That’s why I used that name. My lawyers said it was kosher.)

I once had a gentleman point out to me the “history” of DJing, going back to the 1930s. He mentioned prominent names and cited historical dates as hallmarks to bolster his position that these early pioneers were perfect examples of why it wasn’t necessary to concern ourselves with a trivial 3-5 seconds of meshed music.

Well, that is all well and good, but doesn’t mean squat. With all due respect to those pioneers, mobile DJs and club DJs aren’t partying like it’s 1929; today those “deejays” would be called radio personalities. I’ll acquiesce that I can’t do what they can do. I also say with 110% certainty, most radio personalities can’t do what today’s DJs can do.

I’ll challenge ANY DJ to pick 10 songs, that’s 9 segues.

Test A: Don’t mix a lick. Blend, don’t blend, and try to avoid having 4 out of 9 of those segues sound like straight up train wrecks that would have even Marlee Matlin grimacing.

Test B: Mix the tracks in a linear, harmonious fashion.

Then tell me how the floor reacts to each test.
I’m not a betting man, but I’ll lay heavy money the people in Test B are going to have a better experience than the people in Test A.

My point in all this: Learn your craft. Get your fundamentals down pat. If you don’t know how to mix, learn. It’s not that difficult. If I can do it, you can do it. You don’t have to be the Michael Jordan of mixing. Kevin McHale had a Hall of fame career off the bench.

Any mixing is better than no mixing, kinda like sex. Something simple, clean, quick and musical. It doesn’t take much. If you’re not mixing, you’re not DJing (yeah I said it.) Heck, there are apps on your phone that can mix.

There’s no excuse for a professional DJ not to mix. That’s what the Sync button is for.

Now go out there and learn something.

Based out of Richmond, VA, DJ Tony Fernandez has been a DJ, Remixer, Producer, Musical Soothsayer and Audio Gear Oracle since 1980. Find him on facebook. Email djtonytf@gmail.com

5 Life Hacks Every DJ Should Know

Sticky Fingers Free

By Glen Ervin

It’s a fact of DJ life: software crashes, hardware fails, cables fray; things go wrong – typically at the worst possible moment. No doubt you have your own Plan B in place when the inevitable happens; but just in case you missed that episode of MacGyver, here’s a look at a few essential seat-of-the-pants fail-safes.

  1. Ground Hum

If you’ve DJ’d for any length of time, especially with a laptop, midi-controller and a flat screen or two, you’re all-too familiar with the fingers-on-chalkboard sound of 60-cycle hum bleeding though your speakers.

For many the solution seems simple enough — drop the ground; lose the hum. But what you may not know is that simply removing the ground is never a safe option. A far better solution, one that won’t require routing through a ground lift (and the resulting loss of volume and tone), can be easily arrived at with the Ebtech Hum X Ground Loop Hum Exterminator. Easy to use, easy to install, can be used with any device with a 3-prong outlet and will not affect your audio signal.

Kill the hum, not the buzz (or your gear).

  1. Laptop Crash

If an RCA to 1/8” cable isn’t the first cable you run when you’re setting up, it should be. Routinely hook that bad boy up to your smartphone and the emergency playlist of party favorites you have at the ready and you’ll never have more than a few moments of downtime while you reboot.

For an extra layer of prep, keep your emergency playlist on auto play to completely eliminate any chance of dead air.

Also good to have for that pesky laptop switch.

  1. No Mic? Use your headphones!

Here’s something might have missed: If you’re ever in a pinch for a microphone you can always use a pair of headphones. Geek-speak aside, a microphone is pretty much the same as a speaker: both use a diaphragm and magnetic driver to convert sound to current.

How do you do it? Simple. Just grab the nearest pair of headphones and plug them into your mixer’s headphone input. Oddly enough, this seems to work best with cheaper iPhone type earpods, but typically whatever cans you’re wearing will do the job.

  1. Mixer Meltdown

Ouch. This is toughie to bounce back from: Your mixer craps out and you don’t have a back up.

Solution: A 1/8 to dual XLR male cables will let you bypass your new doorstop and route directly from your laptop to most powered speakers.

Have ‘em ready to run and your downtime will be minimum.

   5. The Ultimate Hack

While dead air might not be a matter of life and death, it can sure feel like it when 100 or more people are staring you down.

Remember: There is no panic button on your keyboard.

Stay Calm. It’s the ultimate life hack.

After being turned out to pasture following a 16-year club residency, Glen Ervin finds himself gainfully employed as Promo Only sales manager, media consultant and staff writer.

Is Out of Key Mixing All That Bad?

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By Brian Buonassissi

Being a keyboardist who took piano lessons as a kid and even dabbled as a semi-professional in a cover band (before my DJ’ing days started), I am well aware of key signatures and the importance of staying in key. If you played any part of a song with clashing keys, it would sound god-awful. Pretty soon, I could play by ear and would easily be able tell if something was in key or not.

Fast forward to the late 90s / early 2000s when mashups were the rage as a DJ (RIP DJ AM, the man who brought this genre to life). Production technology had progressed by that point where anybody could find instrumentals online or make a decent DIY acapella and mashups were popping up everywhere. Unfortunately, most of those making them had no music theory background and they relied on matching tempos and put matching keys on the backburner.

To this day, I am shocked with the amount of out-of-key mashups they are. I am very selective with the ones I use and discount 9 out of every 10. Worse yet, I see live mixing that is done in the same manner. I cringe when I hear it, and though your crowd may not know technically what is happening, trust me when I tell you that they can tell when it’s off.

Eventually, in-key mixing tools came to the market that helped non-trained DJs tremendously. Line up the numbers and you are set. Recently, Serato has integrated the technology into their software. There is really no excuse now NOT to have things properly aligned.

All of that said, I still do believe that there are occasions when “out of key” mixing is OK. It is related to just that – mixing from one song to the other. It actually can help build energy or transition from one feel in your set to another. There are a couple keys to this. You don’t want to stay too long in the mix and never do this with vocals. If you’ve listened to me mix live or heard any of my posted mixes online, you’ll notice I sneak it in there every now and then.

What are your thoughts? Do you believe in mixing in key? Does it matter?

Based out of NYC, DJ Brian B is a successful nationally traveling private event headlining DJ/MC. He runs a multi-city mobile business with offices in Orange County, Calif, Destin, FL and New York City. You can check find him at djbrianbofficial.com or bboyproductions.com

Record Pools: What they were and what they are now

By: Tony Fernandez 

What is a record pool?

A record pool is an association of regional, local, and industry leading DJs in their respective markets. Members are: Club DJs, Mixshow DJs, Radio DJs, Program Directors, Music Directors, and highly influential Mobile DJs. A Record pool could have 10, 100, or + 1,000 members. Some Record Pools today, have members in the +10,000 range. The MAIN qualification was that you were a WORKING DJ in your area / market.

The concept of a record pool was started in the mid 1970s by the illustrious David Mancuso in NYC. The purpose of which was to establish a grassroots pipeline of communication between the record labels and the working DJs in high profile clubs that were playing to a lot of people and breaking music.

Record labels agreed to supply Record Pools with promotional (advance release) music and, in return, the record pools would provide feedback to the record labels that was derived from the pool’s membership of working DJs.

Back in the day of 12” records and remixes, a member would, generally speaking, pay a monthly fee; in return, the DJ would receive 1-2 packages a month. That could be 40-60 pieces of music a month. In addition, the DJ would have to submit back to the pool director a chart of what they are playing and feedback on the pieces of music they received.

The feedback would be collected by the director and passed along to the record labels. This information would be used to gauge the popularity of potential singles to be released and worked to radio.

Where we’re at now…

With the development of the MP3 and the ability to download music anywhere, anytime on almost anything, the “true” purpose of a record pool has become blurred. While there are still traditional pools that are viable and performing a service, it seems like with the ushering in of the digital age coupled with the attitude of “I want ALL the music…” pools have become a centralized clearing house of distribution for tons of music. People’s (DJ’s) expectations have risen to the level of entitlement and guaranteed expectancy of having every/any track they want.

We see online a plethora of “record pools” that offer DJs “unlimited” content for a measly monthly fee. These aren’t pools. These are distribution centers that collect a fee from any “DJ” willing to pay.

Allow me make a stipulation…

There are record pools and there are remix services. These two things are NOT the same. Record pools provide music to their membership for feedback. Remix services take popular songs, or soon to be popular songs, and edit, remix, and make them more “DJ friendly”. These are two entirely different things. Legitimate remix services have permission from the record labels to remix the songs on their issues. We’ll cover remixes / bootlegs another time…

DJs are always looking for an edge. Something different. Something to distinguish themselves from the herd. It’s the nature of the beast. DJs embody an “alpha” mindset and want to be unique. Nothing wrong with that at all. Just be mindful that there’s a business side to the music business and getting your music from a proper source is a good thing.

Also know, there isn’t going to be ONE record pool or ONE remix

service that will have EVERY song you desire. That pool doesn’t exist. If you do “belong” to that pool, it’s probably not 100% kosher.

Happy music hunting.

Based out of Richmond, VA, DJ Tony Fernandez, has been DJaying, Remixing, Producing, a Musical Soothsayer and Audio Gear Oracle since 1980. Find him on facebook. Email djtonytf@gmail.com