The Smooth DJ

Last night was our "live" final exam in the field at Air Conditioned Lounge in Santa Monica. In one word: Wow! Al and I were blown away how far you've come and how great your sets were. We don't think the night could've gone any better. For a Sunday, the place was bumpin, and you guys kept it movin all night. Thank you all for a great quarter. Like Al said last night, you inspired us.

The DJ booth was really cramped - all part of the unpredictability of DJing in a venue for the first time. You all handled it well and I'm glad that you experienced that.

Please let us know your comments about the night - about how you felt about the set, any thing you liked and didn't liked, or any other general feedback. Just leave it in the comments section below. Al and I took notes of your performances and will be putting in the grades this week.

I know some of you brought cameras, so please send me some pics or vids I'll put them up on the blog.

So who's ready for another gig? James let me know about an AIDS benefit Dance Marathon (26HRs!) at UCLA in Feb - and they're looking for DJs! No, you don't have to DJ for 26 hours, but probably one. They are taking applications - you can use us as references, and mention the UCLA class you took and your Air Conditioned gig when you apply. Thanks, James. Good lookin out.

Finally, I encourage you to keep in touch with us. Al and I are on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and all that jazz. Look us up, and let us know what you're up to now and then. And of course, we're gonna check out your gigs!

I didn't expect this to happen but my friend Jade went to bat for us and she got us a venue - Air Conditioned in Santa Monica. Doors open at 7pm - and you all have to be there on time. This is the real deal, folks.

I will have the flyer for you tonight, hopefully. Definitely by tomorrow. It's all for a good cause too. We are the entertainment for a cancer fundraiser (Lymphoma specifically). So we need people to show up, and I need all of you to promote promote promote this. Facebook and MySpace blasts, the works. AC is giving the charity 10% of receipts. The more peeps we bring in, the better.

You still need to show up for class on Saturday, btw! We have a guest, and course evaluations, and you have more practice time!

Place:
Air Conditioned
Santa Monica Address:
2819 Pico Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA, 90405 [ MAP ]

Tele. 310.829.3700

Doors @ 7pm (till 130am)
Bar and Apps available.
UPDATE: Flyer is ready and here.

I waited and waited to post this update because I was hoping we would have a confirmed venue by now. We don't. Although I have two leads still going, I'm starting to get doubtful here. If anything changes, I will post here. But for now, plan to be in class, and plan to do your set which we will grade. So next class is a must, please show up. We have course evaluations to do anyway.

We're also very lucky to have a guest speaker: Oliver Wang, AKA O-Dub, scholar, author, blogger, and resident DJ at Boogaloo[L.A] every thursday at Shortstop in Echo Park. He recently reviewed Kanye's new album 808s and Heartbreak for NPR. We're lucky to have him in class.

I've asked Oliver to talk about his DJing philosophy, discovering music, various tips and his approach for putting together sets, and more. Feel free to come armed with questions. Oliver will probably join us for an hour or so. The other 2 hours of class will be your performances - who knows, O-Dub may stick around and check out your sets.

I'll be at Shortstop this Thursday to listen to Oliver spin. Come on out and join me if you're around.

PS - I'm actually liking Kanye's new album. I thought I wouldn't. But it works. What do you guys think?

And what we'll be looking for when we grade your final sets:

1. Technical (Intro, Outro, No frequency clashing, sensible tempo/energy flow)

2. Presence (Looking at audience, added flare or showmanship, ie, do you look like you're DJing or playing mindsweeper up there?)

3. Creativity (Bonus: novel uses of effects and controllers. Extra Bonus for Video).

You'll aslo get a grade by grading your fellow students.

Last class, everyone performed. And Channa brought in some Planet Earth video that he put a mirror effect on which made for a sublime experience. I think this is great footage to DJ with, especially for electronica.

Erkon used his guitar in his set, along with some great Turkish grooves and some original recorded music. Very creative, Erkon. Good job.

Anna brought in one of those new Korg nanoKontrol MIDI controllers - I think these things are great bang for the buck. And compact to boot.

In other news, we are still in search of a venue. I think it's more likely we are going to have this on Dec 7th, a Sunday, rather than a Saturday. This is actually better for us because it increases our chances of getting a nicer venue. Al and I are still working on securing a location, but please let us know if you come across anything. I will post more info here as it develops.

About your final sets, don't kill yourself. Aim for a great 10 minutes. If you want to go longer, do so as long as your comfortable. Don't forget to look at the audience. And Channa, we're throwing you up there, so work on something before you leave the country!

So we do have our classroom available on the 6th. Al and I will be there practicing or working on something, so please feel free to drop on by if you need help with anything. I think we also have to do course evaluations, which are really important, so we might have to have you come in and do that anyway. I can't remember if you can do this online. Also, we may have a guest speaker, in which case, I will announce that here and you should all come in in that case.

Other odds & ends: VDMX is a realtime video mixing and effects software that can be an alternative to Quartz Composer. It is more user friendly than Quartz in that it is a higher level of control, whereas QC is very low level and you have to do things by hand. VDMX is not free, but you can get a trial and check it out. There are some tutorials here.

subOctave is a VJ from SF with some creative mashups. Check him out.

Below the fold, some photos from class. How do you rotate an image in HTML??? Oh well.

Continue reading "Odds & Ends" »

Here's a quick tutorial on how to grab flash videos off the web. First of all, this is Safari specific. If you use Firefox, there are probably other methods (use Google and look it up if you really want to know).

1. From the page where the flash video you want is embedded, from "Window" menu in Safari, pick "Activity".

Continue reading "How to Grab Flash Videos From the Web to use in your DJ Sets" »

Announcements: Our next and last class is Nov. 15th. We're gonna have an optional extra session from about 1:30pm on for people who have missed lectures or who need help. This is your LAST chance to get feedback from us on your final performance/set. So please come prepared.

Dec 6th is showtime, and we need help finding a venue. Please put your feelers out there and give us some ideas. We probably don't need a super large space. The hope is we can put on a good show for our friends and fellow artists. Just email me or Al and let us know if you can help secure a location, or have any leads. This is important! Get on it.

Last class was pretty much a workshop. We had Channa lead the way with an acoustic performance that showcased another powerful aspect of Ableton: live instrumentation, recording and sampling on the fly. So you can see the possibilities here for adding novel aspects to your DJ set. That was straight ill, Channa.

Blake pointed us towards one of the coolest MIDI controllers I've ever seen - an motion capture exo-skeleton called Gypsy from the UK. At $1000 bucks an arm, it's pricey but not ridiculously so. Your imagination is the only limitation with this thing. Good lookin out, Blake.

Reminder - we have class this Saturday, Halloween hangovers notwithstanding.

Also, if you're interested in checking out other DJ's sets, there's a few good ones here.

Things we covered: some DJing tips, more about controllers, an intro to Quartz Composer and Video, and Effects in Ableton.

DJing Tips for Ableton we talked about:

1. Work Vertically. Al and I don't go more than 4 tracks wide, and we work our way down (and up) when we are performing sets. And Group stuff that sounds good together so you don't have to hunt around much.

2. You can drag your clips in the clip view back into your file browser, and Ableton will remember those clips as is - ie, specific loops, the stop/start marker, etc. That way you don't have to set it every time. You can save loops that work well and then recall them anytime. You can also drag and drop groups of clips that mix well together, and bring those in to any project in the future, or even during a live set on the fly.

3. Use meaningful names. It's easy to forget which clip is what, so useful naming helps. Name the intros, the choruses, and even use lyrics out of the song to remind you what the vocals say. You can use your own naming convention, such that D can mean drums, and B can mean Bassline, and C means chorus, etc.

4. More on warping - other tips: turn off that metronome once in a while and rock your body to the beat just like you're on the dance floor. Your body moves with the beat and you'll be able to pluck out that one in your head because you'll feel it. When you've located a "1", move any numbered marker there, right click and set it to your 1.1.1. If the marker doesn't move (because of anchors on either side), double click it to yellow and it will move. Next, right click again and say "warp from here straight". Adjust your next few bars, then hop to bar 30 or so and check there, and then check and align near the end.

With some hip-hop, it's easier to pick up the 2nd and 4th beats per bar. You can then use those markers (the X.2 and X.4) to line up those 2nd and 4th beats and it works just as well. So, what is the 2nd and 4th beat in hip-hop? Usually the beat you clap your hands to (a snare). Listen to the clip: Hip-hop hooray (clap) hooo (clap) heyyyyy (clap) Hoooo (clap). etc. It's easier to hear that sometimes.