DJ Mixes, Blogs, New tracks, videos, classics & more
Archive for October, 2009
DJ Mag – 2009 Top DJ’s List
Oct 27th
The DJ mag top DJ’s list for 2009, a popularity contest really rather based on Djing skill. Lots of people don’t bother taking much notice of it but I thought I’d post up the list which has been leaked, so if the list is right….
Armin Van Buuren is still number 1. Tiesto a non-mover at no.2. After a massively disappointing and rubbish new album recently, his name and the fact that he’s one of the famous DJ’s out there keeps him up there.
David Guetta moves up to number 3, thanks to his massively commercial and sometimes cheesy tracks.
Well done though to Gareth Emery, he moves up 14 places from last year into the top 10 at 9th place, above Sander Van Doorn.
I voted for Giuseppe Ottaviani. His new album was superb, he’s made some awesome tracks over the years including some classic stuff under his Nu-Nrg alias and he’s a hugely consistent, top quality producer, yet he doesn’t even feature in the list.
Confirmed list will be released tomorrow [Wed 28 Oct]
Top 10 [unconfirmed]:
1. Armin van Buuren (non-mover)
2. Tiesto (non-mover)
3. David Guetta (up 2)
4. Above & Beyond (non-mover)
5. Paul van Dyk (down 2)
6. Deadmau5 (up 5)
7. Ferry Corsten (down 1)
8. Markus Schulz (non-mover)
9. Gareth Emery (up 14)
10. Sander van Doorn (up 3)
Trance Classics – Solar Stone – Solarcoaster
Oct 21st
I first heard this track when I downloaded one of Tiesto’s 2002 sets from Amnesia about 5/6 years ago which featured this song as well as Paul Oakenfold’s Southern Sun and a number of other superb tracks.
Solarcoaster is a stunning, gentle uplifting track, with it’s soft female vocals and melodies makes it a great song to listen to when the sun sets over Ibiza, or just any time! Seven Cities is also another great tune from the English producer.
Fruity Loops Studio 8 Video 2
Oct 15th
Another quick video showing a few things I’ve done recently in Fruity Loops Studio 8. I’m still very much a beginner with the software and the MIDI keyboard, and I’m just using the basics / samples and seeing what I can come up with.
Trance Classic – Ayla – Ayla (DJ Taucher Remix)
Oct 14th
Another classic trance track from the late 90′s (1997). A legendary track produced by German Ingo Kunzi – the name “Ayla” was inspired by the name of a girl in the studio during his first recording, and er, not the hebrew meaning which is “mighty oak tree”, in Turkish it means radiance or aura of the moon.
Anyway, back to the track, as with any timeless classic in the series, it’s hard to describe and do it justice as to how good it is. DJ Taucher’s Remix was the most successful, but it was also remixed by Veracocha.
Ayla’s all-time top 5 tracks are:
Odysee Of Noises – Firedance
Energy52 – Cafe del Mar
Cosmic Baby – Space Track
Cygnus X – Orange Theme
William Orbit – Adagio For Strings
Tune of the Week – John O’Callaghan – Don’t Look Back (Remix)
Oct 12th
This week’s top tune is John Askew’s Remix of John O’Callaghan’s track “Don’t Look Back” in which the original featured on his new album “Never Fade Away”.
Stoneface & Terminal’s remix of “Out of Nowhere” is also good and features on the three-track release of remixes.
Quick Video – EQ In The Mix
Oct 9th
Here’s a quick video showing one way of using the EQ to make a smoother transition between two House tracks. I’d do it using equipment (which I’d prefer) but it’s hard to get the right angle and DJ at the same time so I did it in Traktor instead to show a close-up of the high-mid-low EQs.
There’s no right or wrong way to mix, just as long as it sounds good. This is just an example, different songs and genres will require different EQ methods (taking the bass away at different times, bringing the mid down more if they clash etc) Unlike in this video, it’s best to operate the two EQ knobs at the same time usually, so whilst taking away some bass on one side, you add bass on the other at the same time.
I hope it helps and it gives you an idea of how to use EQ effectively. Generally you’d change the EQ after every 4/8 bars.
There’s more info on the Traktor Pro software here as well as a link to buy it from amazon.
House Classic – Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You
Oct 9th
Stardust, aka Daft Punk, the French producers invented this new Filtered, looped, sampled House music and the trio of Thomas Bangalter, Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond collaborated for just this one track in the “Stardust” project.
Benjamin Diamond provided the vocals while Daft Punk duo Bangalter and Braxe provided the rest. It’s sampled from DJ Cardio’s track but they’ve given it a Funky filtered bassline.
It was a massive hit in 1998 peaking at #2, and I first listened to it when it appeared on a NOW Album when I was 11. French house is filtered, often sampled (most of Daft Punk’s tracks are) and super funky! A lot of french house I’ve heard often has a loop, sometimes 4 or even 2 beats. This track has a regular 4-beat loop whereas Colossus by Thomas Bagalter has a 2-beat loop. Alan Braxe’s Vertigo is the same.
Listen to a Preview below and buy it at amazon for just 69p
DJ Software – Traktor Pro
Oct 8th
I’ve just recently installed Traktor Pro on my system and it’s an excellent piece of software for DJing.
Though I’m not a big fan of DJing using a laptop and software, I simply use mine to choose tracks and make playlists, it’s useful to have to prepare tracks, analyze tracks (break points etc) maintain your digital music collection and so on.
I currently use USB sticks rather than CDs and will continue to do so rather than switch to software. The Denon DNS-1200 are superb CD players that allow you to connect USB sticks saving me the hassle of burning cds and keeping an ever-growing collection of 300+ cds.
I began DJing by checking out software to get used to the basics (beatmatching, basic blends etc) and used Virtual DJ, but Traktor outclasses it with it’s added features and far-superior professional interface.
Top 10 Tracks Update
Oct 8th
The Top 10 tracks list for House and Trance has been updated with a few new tracks featuring tune of the week Sander Van Doorn – Bastillon and 99th Floor Elevators – Hooked (Ben Preston Remix) which you can listen to and buy below:
View my top 10 tracks here
