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B!LL!E

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Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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  • July 20, 2015 at 4:28 pm in reply to: For Beginner #2227061
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    hello K-shock

    I actually happen to own SB,
    I started out with SB this Feb, started as a resident DJ at a lounge bar since May.
    I ended up replacing the original resident DJ and still using SB.

    What I learned with using SB-Serato set up was
    really the basics: beat-matching / key mixing / eq’s / tempo change / what not
    that can be done without SB.
    but with SB, i was able to do: manual drum beats / effects / scratches (it can be done) / loops and rolls / mashups
    having a performance touch pad is a plus

    now i’ve been contemplating about eventual upgrade to SR or SX2,
    I guess I would consider SR as a “norm” quality of the controller…
    although having 4 decks/tracks would be alot easier and better, I wouldn’t count against SB

    I would recommend this not because i have it and use it on a regular basis
    but i would recommend it cause it will make you learn the basic and with given simple functions, you get to learn them appreciate them and perhaps make you want to learn more (via upgrade in a long run)
    So i think it should suffice your agenda of getting down with the basics.

    try amazon or local sam-ash store if u’re in US, look for deals and sales events.

    May 14, 2015 at 4:14 pm in reply to: Uneducated Newbie #2193961
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    Hi, Mike

    Glad to hear everything went ok.
    I would stay away from using Spotify period.
    Although i have not been in this DJ scene for long time (still paying my dues)
    but I’m fortunate to get paid to play every week so maybe my insight could help you out.

    sometimes forum can be a place for learning but best things are actual play-time.
    1. practicing with the equipment that you are going to play
    2. actually playing in public with your gears and songs will be the best practice
    3. finding your style and polishing up your skills

    with that said
    1. get yourself a starter controller
    2. i recommend DDJ-SB cuz they are affordable and does basic things (comes with serato-intro)
    3. upgrade serato-intro to full version (perhaps with expansion packs if you want, no serato flip for DDJ-SB though)
    4. SB already has basic mixer function anyways so it is fine for starting up.
    5. learn the program, learn the gear, learn the music by heart
    6. practice, practice, practice, play, play, play

    I always looking for articles and inputs for mixing and such but if knowledge doesn’t output into a performance, it’s not worth your time. Playing it out, trying new things, see how crowd reacts, see how you feel these things that matter.
    Anyways researching is always good, keep at it.
    But playing is the most crucial part, I think this is something where everyone here can agree (right??)

    anyways, stay away from spotify, pre-mixed playlist and whatnot.
    use what you have and explore out with new stuffs

    April 6, 2015 at 9:08 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2170241
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    so quick update from last friday

    Bar is full-packed
    more of 1st gen Korean-american crowd.
    Luckly I did my research, and got myself some hot underground korean hiphop and trap, american old 90’s hip hop(ah how can you not love this era?)
    so mix them until 12:00 with some Kpop as bridge.
    Full arsenal of Progressive House until 1AM, then slow it down for last calls until 1:45AM
    Got paid, unequip my gears, pack, and stay for more partying.

    my wife and i and our friends ended up drinkin’ til 5am.
    next day, boy you know how it is.

    Friend let me borrow him akai 25 key midi keyboard since he sold basically every gears he owned…except his keyboard
    anyhow, now i am just having fun with it. Really considering to produce in upcoming months,
    I’m limiting myself for tight budget on monitors, so i’m looking at KRK RP5G3-NA Rokit 5 Gen…anyone recommends this or can give some insight/feedback on this?

    on the other note: going to a show @ brooklyn tonight, hope i can beat the traffic *fingers crossed.

    March 31, 2015 at 9:58 pm in reply to: Complete beginner; afraid; advice appreciated #2166741
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    well NewDJ,
    should i call you NEW? 🙂

    anyways,
    I totally 100% understand and sympathize with your frustration regards to having a full time job you could care less about.

    Let’s just put thought of music aside for now,
    making money and being economically stable is what everyone strives for anyways right?
    Just remember everyone is going through same, there are definitely more fortunate folks when it comes down with money.
    so this isn’t just your problem, this is rather the problem of this day and age.

    Now let’s put music back on,
    we all want to make money doing what we like to do whether it is music/art/whatever.
    The important key factor i want to advise you is this, patience.
    As a musician patience is one key factor for all types of musician,
    in order to write 1 good song, you must write at least 100 songs.
    in order to perform 1 good gig/concert/event you must practice countless hours
    (this is very similar to what Vintage is talking about, which i wholeheartedly agree)

    last thing i want to add is “don’t give up your dream” due to any circumstances.
    In order to achieve greatness, you must endure the hardship that comes with.

    I think DJ has many responsibilities, despite what public views DJ as.
    1. entertain
    2. educate without force feeding
    3. pure love for music
    4. idea of sharing
    5. idea of being in presence of good vibe around you through music.
    6. seeking to find good music via other artist or self-written works.
    7. seeking to improve in every aspect of your art.
    8. we have certain power during our given time

    Please do more soul-searching, perhaps a jedi-mind-meditation, and don’t give up.

    I sound cheesy as hell, but i join this community as a super-n00b DJ wanting to contribute as much because this place really helped me with my start up with DJing… so good luck, and let’s talk more about music and DJing.

    March 30, 2015 at 11:53 pm in reply to: Complete beginner; afraid; advice appreciated #2166121
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    hello, NewDJ

    as a recently taking on a role of DJ myself.
    and I’m sure other folks will tell you the somewhat similar advice.

    the reason for doing DJ should be sole love of music and you should not stress about the money.
    If you want DJing as your primary source of income, perhaps you should invest all you have got instead of wanting to “test the water”.
    Perhaps it would be a better idea to have a full time job and take DJ as side-job.
    Of course you have to invest time and effort (practicing, searching for good tunes and investment on gears, softwares, etc) in order to become a committed DJ that earns whatever income that maybe.

    I don’t mean to sound rude to you, but honestly I think you need perhaps more of soul-searching.
    My advice is if you are not 100% down with whatever you might face, perhaps you’re not ready for that mantle yourself.
    Whatever happens is how you perform, promote yourself, create a perhaps a public image in order to become what you desire.

    Rock-stars just doesn’t become a rockstar, unless you are bred becoming one by investment of others
    They have to be
    1. not just good, but friggin’ awesome
    2. have some kind of niche’ whatever is connecting with crowds and audience
    something larger than life you can’t just create overnight or decide to be one.
    It takes commitment and fortitude to drive yourself until the end (give all you got!)

    I work full time job that has nothing to do with music, but music always have been my dream and goal.
    for me chasing dream is fun and challenging, and i find myself wanting to do more than chasing all the time.
    so i don’t sleep when i should, i practice, research, do what i have to do to find my niche’

    but these real DJs here will probably tell you better advice, i just felt i should say something cuz i feel like i’ve been in your shoes before and wanted to shed some light (if any).

    wish you the best

    March 30, 2015 at 3:48 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2165831
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    well thank you peeps,
    will look into further about ableton vs logic.
    and will investigate and research further about studio monitors.

    well so last Friday was a full house packed 2 separate parties and regular patrons (thank the March Madness)
    I finally encountered the unthinkable…well i now know what it feels like from the other side.

    1. the girls from the parties wanted “hip-hop” so they could dance…(if they can’t dance to simple deep house i’m not sure if they CAN dance)
    2. i triggered my regular hip hop and trap…(they complained it is too hard for them to dance)
    3. so i bring out old school hip hop finally they were dancing (at this point i was little agitated, they keep talking to me wanting me to dish out every friggin’ songs, i’m not a jukebox right?)
    4. the owner came up to me telling me i don’t have to cater to them as much, basically told me to “just play whatever the hell you want, its your show”.
    5. so no more hip hop, i just dished out EDM in diff. genres.
    6. some other dudes came up to me “hey man, great tunes, you know the song by daft punk and that pharrell guy? lucky or something?”…. i had the song… i didn’t want to play it… he kept looking at me with puppy eyes…as a starting DJ with only 4 shows under my belt, i gave in. I somehow mixed in the daft punk version of the get lucky song… phew
    7. then randoms dudes kept requesting songs left and right… at that point i pulled “i can’t hear you” and “i’ll see what i can do”.
    8. other than that it was really super dope fun night. started at 10, ended at 2:30…

    so this is what i realized and still trying to figure out.

    1. i need extensive collection of wide range of music genre ( i still think i do, but more couldn’t hurt i guess)
    2. maybe just maybe i don’t have to appease/give in to requests thinking amateur mind..
    3. or playing request sometimes isn’t so bad (?) or is it?

    by the way thanks for putting up with my rants and stuff, this is probably the only place I talk about my DJ-related stuff, so i appreciate your time and effort to read through my rambles and kindly replies… this really helps me to move forward with my days. Thanks!

    March 26, 2015 at 6:56 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2163421
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    heh 🙂
    already knew about Logic being Apple, I do own Macbook pro myself.
    some people i know are hardcore apple-mac only folks, so they always make this argument that it’s only meant for MAC hence it will be stable (while i understand this already but i don’t think other programs would come short either)

    regardless,
    i will probably give both a try.

    on the other note,
    what are some good midi-controller/keyboard you guys would recommend as well?

    March 26, 2015 at 3:27 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2163311
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    so my step in terms of additional gear is getting new studio monitors.
    i would like to keep my budget rather economically so best $ value for quality, you know the drill.
    can someone recommend me some possible studio monitors that i should be looking into investing??

    also, somewhere along the line of producing, i don’t know which path (in terms of software) i should aim for?
    my top choices are Logic pro vs Ableton…
    i’m somewhat familiar with Logic when i used to do rockband music recording with my bands and my personal solo project, we used Logic Pro, but i didn’t do it myself most the time…so in the end I need to teach myself.
    so what are you guys using in terms of software when producing?

    March 23, 2015 at 8:04 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2161361
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    Thanks Rizki

    so last friday was all-day snow weather for us here in NJ/NY area.
    Another slow night, even had a bar fight happening (can’t kids control themselves these days? geez)
    apparently i had a following, commented on my 1st gig week prior, she said she loved my playlist. cool i guess,
    ended up servicing up to a fan with “requested song”.
    is it just me? i actually like doing “requested song” just to show appreciation to patrons who actually enjoys the music.

    few younger co-workers from my day time job showed up showed support, they showed much appreciation with trap selections i had.
    felt good, just was feeling little greedy to have more customers that night…

    I feel like i need to dig more deep house and nu-disco/techno section as this seems to be most appropriate background music @ 90% times. I just don’t want to end up sounding like a soundcloud deep house mix session though.

    i’m currently in experiment stage where i’m mixing 2 songs at once (mixing w eq and effects w volume control) to make it sound a like nice one track, also working on smoother transitions.

    March 20, 2015 at 6:06 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2159801
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    Thank you Vintage
    I will check that out

    thing about NJ is very weird.
    I’m originally from south NJ closer to Philly
    that area is heavy-Philly sports scene, Eagles/Phillies/Flyers/76ers

    where i am now, i’m in north NJ 10mins from NYC(literally a bridge apart)
    where we are more NY-oriented like Giants/Rangers/YANKEES or JETS/ISLANDERS/METS
    weird eh?

    Thank you for the encouragement. I will keep on spinnin’ and learn from bad nights/mistakes.
    Will be back to update after tonight~

    March 20, 2015 at 4:15 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2159711
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    Thank you Rizki, it’s awesome to know you have battled with helmet on field. One of these days I hope to achieve that.

    Here are some photos from NYC comic con 2012, me and my wife and our friend. (we ended up posing for stranger’s photo requests for straight 3-4 hours)
    @nyc comic con 2012

    @ nyc comic con 2012B

    So this is my 2nd week as a DJ @ local bar which is literally next to my apt.
    Just to share little more (my apologies from rambling and perhaps TMI) but I want to be part of this community in any way I can so here’s little bit more about me (I’m so not me-me-me person, it’s rather for pure perspective purpose)

    The bar crowd is predominantly Koreans, whether Korean-American or recently residing in US (or FOB, Fresh off the Boat)
    Anyways I’ve been going to this bar for awhile now before I started DJying, but IMO this spot is best in the area due to its hip-atmosphere and i really dig the vibe there.
    The area where we live in, it’s very similar to K-town in LA or K-town area in NYC (near 32nd st). So majority of public this area is Koreans. So the bar’s usual weekday playlist (not by me) is deep house mix and occasional K-pop/K-hip hop/etc.

    When I do my thing,
    I start off with deep house->nu disco/techno->hip hop->trap->back to electro house and just blast the night away (hoping to make people want to go clubbing after 1am)
    Sometimes occasionally mix in Indie-K-hip hop or new K-Pop tracks just to “please” the vibe.

    But I think i’m starting to struggle,
    Tonight will be my 3rd night playing in 2 weeks, my first night last week (Friday) was a blast,
    2nd night was slow night so i couldn’t really help the vibe as much as i wanted to…
    Just played little bit last night to do sound check and experiment with new acquired tracks.
    The owner says he loves my choice of songs and playlist and keeps emphasizing about reading the crowd and being lounge bar DJ is all about catering to the audience/what they are drinking/not going too crazy. (which i understand & agree wholeheartedly)
    So i’m purposely holding back the “crazy sounds”, and thinking that patrons probably won’t give a crap about me and my songs unless it’s pure garbage (which i don’t mind what they think of me and my music). All I want to do is entertain them ultimately and help the vibe for whatever they are drinking for.
    I’m struggling because I’m perhaps too eager to please people…and I feel like I’m lacking skills and definitely insecure.
    With that said here’s the breakdown of my gear

    DDJ-SB (i didn’t want to invest heavy from the start)
    Serato DJ (with Flip which i dont think i can even use & effects expansion pack)
    Macbook pro 13′ 2013

    I suck at scratching so i don’t even try live,
    my usual thing is mix in song where there are drops, breaks or getting too repetitive and boring (of course in key or relative keys),
    sometimes i play 2 tracks at once
    effects and eqs

    but other than that, i have not been able to add any new tricks yet.

    i don’t know what’s next stage for me…please help~~
    (wow that was really long, which is more than what i intended to write, sorry)

    March 19, 2015 at 9:15 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2159321
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    i just realized you are wearing a clone trooper helmet.
    you just made me respect you even more, I happened to own vader/storm trooper helmet as well.
    kudos!

    March 19, 2015 at 9:14 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2159311
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    Hi Rizki

    I think i was building more of dark energy when I started to feel that rock music was dying out in early 2000’s
    and when EDM really start to take off (i don’t even recall when that was)
    I just wanted to blame something/someone for decline&death of rock music.
    Which is really childish and immature reason at all…I just ended up blaming it on DJ’s without knowing what they were doing.

    It’s really stupid Rizki, I admit it now DJ world is so much more than what i have thought and there’s so much passion and fun. because it deals with all kind of music, not just EDM in the end.

    It’s also really contradictory on my part, because i “enjoyed” clubbing. I basically spent hours and hours clubbing and loved the scene, so how could i looked down upon something I already “enjoyed”. I think it was pure jealousy that “my type” of music was dying out and something else was gravitating the momentum. I guess I didn’t want to jump the bandwagon at that point, I didn’t want to become general population, I wanted to be different yet I’m still clubbing just like everyone.
    This probably makes me sound like a total jerk, and I probably had my head shoved up my behind.

    What’s more important than the past now is
    I have tons of respect for DJs and new music genre and I admit my fallible immature logic of my past.
    I still have tons of stuff that I want/have to learn, and I am eager to learn more.
    This site has been my go to website for self studying and it has helped me a lot. I just wanted to say and show my gratitude here because you guys are the ones that really deserves respects.

    So forgive my past-ego-filled-foolish-arrogance. that part of me is dead for sure.
    This year has been a new revelation, more of a new awakening for me in regards of music.

    March 17, 2015 at 7:11 pm in reply to: Hello from NJ USA #2157481
    B!LL!E
    Participant

    Thank you deathy!

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