Oct14

Practicing and Learning Music

Posted In: Music Conservatory

STUDENTS: Imagine learning music with your own personal accompanist! Imagine being able to practice your lessons without the usual drudgery! Imagine having fun with scales!

TEACHERS: Imagine sending your students home with their own personal robot-accompanist. Imagine programming the accompanist to play along with your student, producing absolutely precise rhythms and perfectly tuned pitches. For example, you could schedule a 30-minute routine of 12 major scales in two octaves, using each of the consecutive chromatic keys, with repetitions at tempos that increase at a rate of 5 beats per minute. Forget scale books: from now on, with a few simple settings, you can create your own electronic scale book, tailored specifically to your own musical needs, or those of your students.

ACCOMPLISHED MUSICIANS: Imagine having the services of a personal coach, on call 24 hours a day, to help you avoid sharpness or flatness, especially when playing at the extremes of your instrument’s natural range. Playing with the Harmonic Metronome to measure your accuracy, you will never have to be uncertain about pitch or rhythm ever again.

Scales, arpeggios, even chords – and with the upcoming Melodic Metronome, complete etudes: these are the elements that render all previous rhythmic metronomes obsolete. And, it’s so easy to use!

The Harmonic Metronome was developed by a musician for his own practice. What pleased him most was the pleasure that it imparted to his daily exercises. You only have to try the Harmonic Metronome once to be convinced. As one noted musician/conductor recently told the inventor, “You have revolutionized music.”

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Sep30

MP3 DJing – part 6

Posted In: Tutorials >

Previously we considered the first of two high-end MP3 mixing systems – PCDJ. This month, it’s the turn of Traktor DJ, another highly regarded piece of professional digital mixing software. Coming from Native Instruments – a firm who made their name creating state-of-the-art software synthesizers and soundshapers – it’s no surprise that Traktor DJ is lauded for the quality of its sound output and the flexibility of its filters, equalisers and effects.

These things should not be underestimated when choosing – it is important that you listen to music being played on the software you are considering, preferably in the environment where you will be playing it, in order to see if the sound quality is up to scratch. Anyone who’s ever had to DJ using a cheap mixer while their club’s usual one is off being repaired can vouch for the fact that these things matter!

Like PCDJ, Traktor comes in three versions. Firstly, there’s the free, home-based MP3 player (which won’t concern us here, other than the fact that it’s a good way to experience the sound quality without shelling out the cash). Next is Traktor DJ, which is more fully featured – it has beatmatching and synchronisation functions, and basic recording too, meaning you can start to produce DJ mixes using it.

But the all-singing, all-dancing release is Traktor DJ Studio 2.0 (£139.99). And as expected, the features list is mind boggling. Like PDCJ it can, if required, automatically adjust the gain on tracks to correlate the often wildly differing volumes of MP3s before you inadvertently deafen your audience.

It has an individual filter – Allen & Heath-style – for each deck (are you salivating yet?). Beatmatching takes one click. It can handle up to ten tempo-matched loops – all at once and in real time. And it can read two MP3s off one CD at once, meaning you can turn up at a Traktor-equipped club with just one CD containing a whole set’s-worth of MP3s! High-end features indeed.

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Sep30

Masterclass – Working with producers

Posted In: Tutorials >

Once upon a time – in the days before DAT, before the Internet, before virtual studios and all the rest of it – the only way you could work with another producer was to physically sit down behind the same mixing desk, in the same studio, at the same time. These days, that’s just not the case.

That said, I still prefer to work that way, because I don’t think anything beats working side-by-side with someone. In fact, every track on my ‘Klub Kollaborations’ album was put together that way, with the two of us in the studio together. That’s partly because most of the people featured on the album are DJs rather than producers – they can come up with some wicked ideas but they need me to push the buttons! But there are all sorts of reasons I find actually working side-by-side is the best way.

For a start, there’s the immediacy: you’re there in the same place, you can communicate. If someone has a great idea for doing a bassline “a bit like such-and-such a track”, they can whip the record out of their bag and play you it. Your ideas are flying back and forth in real-time – not via email messages and so on – and you get to see the other person’s immediate reaction to the track. You have an idea, you try it out and you can just tell by each other’s faces when something’s working.

Get your groove on
Working with Andy Farley on ‘Face Facts’, for instance, when we hit the groove that ended up being the basis of the track, we just looked at each other and knew straight away. Then we put it to the ultimate test: could we go for a fag with it playing and still not be bored with it? We could, so result! The way you can vibe off each other in the studio is something that’s hard to replicate when working long-distance.

Another advantage of working more closely like this, is that you each get to hear everything each other does. Sometimes you think you’ve just made a real cock-up and the other person’s going “fucking hell, that sounds great!”. When you’re swapping DATs back and forth, it’s like you’re only really sharing about a tenth of your ideas – in the studio, you both get to hear everything.

Sometimes you end up making a totally different track from what you expected – working with Anne Savage on ‘Tgone’, I’d gone in thinking let’s do something quite anthemic, but as the ideas flew back and forth, we ended up doing something much more tech-y.

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Sep29

Learn to mix – Planning ahead

Posted In: Tutorials >

Last time we covered the basics of beat mixing, and presumably you’ve spent the intervening month practising how to get two records in time with each other. Is it getting easier? Good, because this month I’m going to move things on a bit and look at other things you should consider beyond simply lining up beats.

Firstly, and I can’t stress this enough: you need to purchase a decent pair of headphones. A workman is only as good as his tools, and you’re working with music so you need to hear it properly! Cueing up the record is the most important stage of the mix: this can dictate if the mix goes right or horribly wrong, so spend a little extra and get some professional quality headphones. You won’t regret it.

Before mixing in your next track you have to prepare it and plan ahead for the mix, and there are many things to take into consideration at this stage. Firstly remember that pressings of vinyl can vary, and the last thing you want is to lift the fader and the record blast out at twice the volume of the one currently playing! I always set the volume of the new track in my headphones. I do this by skipping simultaneously between the two tracks using the cue on the mixer. I then adjust the trim setting until I’m happy they’re at the same level. Depending on what mixer you are using you can also monitor this by reading the LED’s on the display.

Once you’re happy that you have the correct volume you must listen to make sure there are no offending frequencies. For instance, the new track may have a weaker kick drum than the one playing. If you simply mixed without planning, the new track would sound weak and empty compared to the big powerful track you’ve just been playing – and this could kill your dancefloor. So you slowly cut the bass of the current track playing as you’re mixing, to compensate for the weaker track coming in.

Also listen for clashing high frequencies like percussion: these can be controlled by cutting the hi-end EQ, making for a smoother mix. It’s also important to make sure that the two tracks won’t clash musically (in key). Some musical notes simply won’t go together and it sounds bloody awful when they don’t! Again, listen in your headphones to make sure this doesn’t happen. Imagine trying to do this in a club with a booming sound system – this is where you’ll be thankful for those professional headphones!

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Sep29

VJing – part 6

Posted In: Tutorials >

This time, we’re going to jump right in and talk about your first gig as a VJ. Before you rush into a gig thinking it’s going to be plain sailing, I want to back up and make sure you have made sure that every detail has been accounted for. In reality, you can’t make sure everything will go smoothly, but there are a lot of things to take care of before you arrive at a gig with laptop under your arm and plug in and play.

The first step is to scout out the terrain. Usually the promoter will either have a projector and rig installed in their club or they will want you to bring your own. When Twisted Focus started we used to hire in our projectors – you can rent great projectors at really reasonable prices if you’re prepared to ask around. And screens if you need them, although to start, a large white sheet is a good cheat that will work!

Make sure you know where the projector is going to beam its light to and try and have a run through in the club while it’s closed. This is going to save you loads of headaches later. This is the time to find out your cables are too short or your PC or laptop has nowhere to fit! Remember that people in the club, smokes machines, smoke, etc will influence how the club works when it’s full. Also remember to make sure the beam doesn’t get in everyone’s eyes.

The best gigs are usually when you can stand next to the DJ and mix in new visuals as they mix in new tracks. While this isn’t always possible, I’ve found that it’s vital that you befriend the DJ and let them know you’re not there to steal their thunder, only to enhance the night. That might sound silly but we’ve learned the hard way that it really makes the whole vibe of a night when you get on with the DJ. Remember: as great as the DJ may be, the visual aspect of it is something that you are the expert on, so stay humble and work with them, not against them.

Build it up
Okay, so now you’ve worked out where and how your equipment and projectors are going to work, it’s time to think about how you are going to work that crowd! While every VJ has their own style, I’ve found that everything that a DJ knows about warming up a night, applies in a visual sense.

We can learn a lot from that and apply it in our own way. For example, I love to play still images in black and white to warm up a crowd. I might do this for an hour or so whilst warming up and then add movies to the stills. Still in black and white though, then slowly I add some colour hues. I then like to add colour patterns and textures without any real identifying animations. I’m warming up people’s eyes and minds slowly.

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Sep28

MP3 DJing – part 7

Posted In: Tutorials >

Whether or not you need a hardware controller to help with your MP3 DJing depends upon how often you use MP3s, whether you’re a ‘guest’ DJ or a resident, or indeed a mobile DJ setting up your own gear wherever you go. It also depends upon your DJing style – do you wish to manipulate your MP3s, or just play them as they are?

There’s an awful lot of hardware out there. A cursory search of the Internet conjures up dozens of weird and wonderful products from manufacturers worldwide. Whether it’s advisable to pay a small untried company a whack of cash for a new piece of equipment is highly debatable, though! Also, there’s every chance that what you think you’re looking for simply isn’t available, in which case, hold fire: things will undoubtedly look different this time next year.

Consider carefully what you are trying to do, and then source your hardware from a reputable UK company who can offer not only advice but also the all-important guarantee should things go wrong (as they often do, especially with new technology).

So, what’s out there? Well, firstly, your computer is a piece of hardware! By tapping the keys, you are using it like you would any other MP3 controller. If you are a mobile DJ, you can easily plug your microphone into the mic in, and mix an MP3 playlist with existing software out of the line-out, straight into a PA system. You can do a whole gig from your laptop.

Chances are, though, you’ll want to use an external mixer, if only for headphone cueing. If you want to use MP3s exclusively, you might consider D-Vinyl’s Soundgraph 2020 system. This is a hardware controller which is unique in offering not only dual MP3 use, but a crossfader too, so you can put one unit in front of you and DJ to your heart’s content without ever touching the PC. It has to be said that in use, I’ve heard mixed reports of this system. It also has a curious vertical crossfader, so try before you buy.

But say you want to use record decks or CDs too. Or you are playing in clubs which already have a mixer, but you want to use your MP3s there. Here, you’ll probably want to take your laptop along and plug in on the night. There are interfaces available which allow you to do just that – they give you line outs for both your virtual MP3 ‘decks’, which can be given spare channels, so you can headphone cue and the like. You still have to do everything else on the keyboard, though. Most MP3 DJ software recommends a compatible multiple line-out soundcard to do the job.

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Sep28

Masterclass – Remix Contracts

Posted In: Tutorials >

When you’re first starting out as a producer, the chance to remix the work of a much better-known artist – or even just to do a few mix-swaps with other up-and-coming producers – is a very tempting prospect, and indeed, something that it’s vital to do if you want to get your name better known. However, remixing is not without its pitfalls – there are a few potential hazards any novice producer should be aware of.

And sad to say, I’m the classic example of one of them! When I remixed Run DMC’s ‘It’s Like That’, they hadn’t hired me to do it, I just handed it to them on a silver platter. They offered me a flat fee of a few thousand dollars and I just accepted it. And of course the record went on to be a No 1 hit in 22 countries and sell nearly five million copies, and I never saw a penny more. Suffice to say I’ve learned from that experience.

The first piece of advice I’d give any new or and up-and-coming producer, though, is to consider carefully what you agree to remix. I used to take on many remix offers, but then I started to read that I was “never going to be cool” because I’d remixed pop acts and the like. Sometimes there’s money in it, but you’ve got to decide what it is you’re in this for. Credibility? Fame? Self-satisfaction? Cash? Then you can pick the remixes that will help you achieve those goals.

The next thing I’d say is… learn from my mistakes and be careful what kind of financial arrangement you come to. Now, here you may get offered a flat fee, a points-only deal where you get no money upfront but royalties later, or a combination of the two. Sometimes there will be room to negotiate and other times you’ll just be told ‘take it or leave it’.

If you do get the chance to discuss conditions and you think the record stands a chance of doing reasonably well, then you’re probably better off going for less money upfront and better points. But in these current times, when fewer dance tracks are crossing over big-time, it’s hard to judge.

If you’re struggling to make ends meet, a decent cash payment upfront could be a lifesaver. Plus, with so many budding producers vying for attention these days, it may be that if the chance to associate your name with a big record comes up you just have to jump at it, even if the deal’s not perfect. So there are no easy answers – I’m just suggesting some things you need to think about.

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Sep27

Learn to mix – Advanced tricks

Posted In: Tutorials >

So you’ve had a couple of months to practise your cueing and beat mixing. By now you should be pretty confident on the good old wheels of steel and able to beatmix two records together without too much trouble. Now it’s time to impress your friends with a few tricks – after all you’ve been making them to listen to your best mix for the past few weeks!

There are an endless amount of tricks that you can perform using your turntables and mixer. It’s down to you the individual to think of new tricks, invent them: it will make your set individual. But for now I’m going to quickly run through a few of the family favourites with you.

Phasing
This is where you play two copies of the same tune at exactly the same time. The effect sounds wild! Because both tracks are playing at exactly the same, the frequencies clash with each other and cancel themselves out, and the result sounds like the track is going through a trippy effect: all the sounds are swishing around the room and the bass frequencies come and go.

We’ll imagine you’re doing this in your set. So, grab two copies of the same record. When you’ve mixed the record in that you want to phase, you need to quickly cue in the duplicate copy. You need to find the exact same place as the one that is playing (use the shaded areas on the vinyl as a ‘map’ to lead you to the exact point). When you have the track playing in time and the same speed you need to lift the fader so that it is playing through the sound system along with the other.

Make sure the EQ and volume are at the same level. Now adjust the pitch control a tiny bit (2 mm) and get ready to bring the track back in time. This will pull the track slightly in and out of time giving you a more wild phasing effect. Remember not to play with this for too long, as you have to get ready to prepare your next record for mixing!!

Delay
While you have your two duplicate records to hand, try this live delay trick. This sounds especially good on vocal tracks: it sounds like there is a delay on the track and creates a cool trick as if it is repeating itself… re-re, pea-pea, ting–ting, it–it, self-self (get it?). As with phasing, cue the second record at the exact same point as the other. This is the tricky part, you need to pause the record that you have cued by one or two beats, then play it again. Now it’s playing slightly behind the other in your headphones. It sounds weird but practise keeping it in time.

Here comes the fun part. It’s best to use the cross-fader for this; you need to skip from the track playing to the duplicate track then back. You’ll hear the same part being played back on itself, then skip back to the original track. Keep flicking back and forth and remember to move the crossfader quickly – we only want one record playing at a time The more you practise the more you feel ‘rhythms’ within the delays, and you’ll soon find yourself completely changing the groove of the track, creating a magic moment.

Spinbacks
A spinback pretty much explains itself: you literally stop the record playing and spin it back with your fingertips. This creates a crazy effect, as if the whole track has stopped and gone backwards into hyperspace. You need to practise this before you try and perform it live in a set. There’s no rule to where you use one or how you use one, it’s up to you to experiment, but the natural place to perform one is at the end of each bar as it will sound more natural here.

Whilst your track is playing, count yourself in 1, 2, 3, 4 then stop the record with your fingertips and flick it backwards. DON’T flick too hard, otherwise you’ll skip the stylus. Make sure you perform the flick instantly otherwise there will be a short gap between the record stopping and flicking backwards. You can extend the spinback by continuing to spin the record backwards with your fingertips.

A favourite place to perform a spinback is at the end of a track. As you are mixing in a new track and you are ready to mix out the old track, spin it back! It can create a mini crescendo to introduce the new track. Remember to keep an eye on the volume of the track that is spinning back, as due to the track playing at high speed it can sometimes leap up in volume and be ear-piercing, so prepare to drop the volume of your outgoing track if needed.

EQ
You can create some magical moments by simply using the EQ on your mixer. By cutting the bass of the track playing, you make your own breakdown. You can make it more intense by slowly adding more midrange, creating an intense build, then at the right moment slamming the bass back in and getting the midrange back to neutral. The weight of the bass cutting back in will rock the dance floor!

Depending on how good your mixer is, you can create a filter type effect by adjusting the high and mid frequencies. This works well on a chunky track with plenty of percussion. Work the two EQs against each other; it actually sounds like you have a filter over the track. This can liven up a minimal track.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is do all the aforementioned tricks in moderation. There’s nothing worse than someone fiddling around with all your favourites tunes – it can make for sonic overload and kill your dancefloor. But used sparingly, tricks like these can liven up your set no end. Have fun practising and I’ll see you next month!

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Sep27

Club Promotion – Decor

Posted In: Tutorials >

It may seem a strange subject for an article about club promoting. Buying extra equipment? Surely that’s the job of the venue? Well, yeah, but only if you’ve been lucky enough to get the Ministry Of Sound. Chances are, though, that you’re DJing in the Mutz Nutz underneath Debenhams, where things aren’t exactly ideal in this area. In our experience, the majority of promoters do make temporary improvements of one kind or other to their venues. The basic premise is: spend money to improve your night, especially if there is local competition, but do it wisely.

Tangled’s first night was held in the plush bar of a hotel in Manchester. We actually hired in a whole PA for the event out of necessity. But it’s more likely that you’ll be wanting to add to what’s already there, for specific reasons. One scenario: a two-room venue with a decent system in only one of the rooms. So you need to hire or buy a PA for room two. Another scenario: the club has rubbish lighting. It’s a pub in the daytime. So buy a couple of decent lights and a strobe and fit them! You only need spend a couple of hundred pounds, and put brackets on the ceiling – all your stuff can leave with you at the end of the night.

A bonus of investing in equipment is that you can then hire it back to other promoters using the venue. Tangled has a 5K PA in its second room which it has actually managed to buy – the weekly hire fees from other promoters pay for its upkeep, meaning we effectively have a great PA system which costs us nothing.

Changing rooms
On the subject of club décor, it’s interesting to note two different schools of thought. I was talking to a respected promoter friend once about whether we should spend a few thousand pounds on décor and he said something that’s always stuck with me: “No-one goes clubbing for the décor.” He’s right: when did you last leave a great club night and say to your mates, “The décor in there was fantastic! I’m going there again!” This theory basically says that £500 spent on décor could always be spent better elsewhere.

But the other school of thought says making your venue look great shows you’re professional, shows you’re serious, gives the right impression. On balance, I’d say it depends on your night – if you’re trying to run a glam, rich, posey night, maybe look at the décor. But I suspect that, as you’re clutching this magazine, you’re trying to run a club which majors on the music and the DJs. Your crowd hopefully will be too busy dancing to look around them. Your venue, anyway, will be full enough for the décor to be obscured by masses of bodies.

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Sep26

Masterclass – Mixing in key

Posted In: Make Beats

If you really want to progress your mixing to the next level, then learning to mix in key is the obvious next step. If you listen to a DJ in a club, or on a mix CD, it’s this that makes the difference between a mix that’s merely okay, and a mix that makes you sit back and say “wow, that’s amazing”.

But what is mixing in key, exactly? Basically, it’s the art of choosing your records so that not only do the beats match up, but the musical elements are in harmony also. All records are in a certain key, whether it’s A, C, G or whatever, and there are certain other keys that will go with those keys and others that won’t. So mixing in key is all about knowing which is which! It’s not, I should point out right now, about only playing records that are in the same key all night: do that and you’d soon find you had a pretty narrow repertoire to choose from!

The way round it is this. When you’re making music on a keyboard, if you play a chord, you get three notes around the one key. So when you have a three-note chord, that gives you the three options: the key and two other keys you can mix with that one key that will all work. And then you start getting harmonies, basically, and that’s how you start playing other records that are in harmony, without necessarily staying in the same key.

The first thing you have to do, though, is work out what key a record is in in the first place. And that’s not something I can really tell you how to do now: you need to know a little bit about making music before you’ll get this one! So while I, for instance, can’t actually play the piano, I do know what notes make up what chords, and that gives you the keys you can work with. So for instance, G minor will mix with G, C and D minor, and the relative major would be B flat.

Not that I’m a geek but…
What I personally do is mark my records with a label saying what key they’re in. I’ve got over 20,000 records at home, and each and every one of them is marked with both the key it’s in, and the BPMs. That way, my brain is freed to work creatively in the mix: I’m not scrabbling about in my box thinking, will this go with this? Now to be honest, knowing what will go with what is something that most DJs pick up instinctively over time anyway, but there’s two advantages to using this method. Firstly, it’s fool-proof: it takes all the guesswork out of it. If you think two things will go together and they don’t, and you’re playing in a club, then it’s already too late: half the club has already turned round and gone, ‘eurgh’. So doing it this way is safer.

Secondly, I don’t get a lot of time to practise between gigs at home: I’m playing four or five nights a week, and I’m getting sent new records every day. So keying my records is a good guide for me to play a live set without any practice, but still sound as professional as possible. It means I can mix together two records I’ve only heard a couple of times, and still be sure I’m not going to end up with horribly clashing basslines!

The other thing you have to bear in mind if you’re going to try this is that using the pitch control will of course affect what key the record is in. I’m not quite sure of the mathematics of it all, but as a rule of thumb, each time you raise or lower the pitch by 4 or 4.5 per cent, you’ll raise or lower the key by a semitone. So a record that’s in the key of G when played at the zero, ‘green light’ position, will be in the key of A flat if you pitch it up to plus four.

Mixing in key does seem to be particularly popular among the progressive house fraternity, admittedly, but it’s a skill that can be applied to all genres of music. After all, there are very few records that consist entirely of drumbeats! For instance, I’ve got plenty of drum & bass records that have some lovely warm pads and swirling synths: work out what key those are in and you can pull off some fantastic mixes. You know when you hear these mix CDs and you think, that goes so well, how does he do it? Well, now you know the answer!

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