Saturday, January 10, 2009

Day 10: Teach me something I don't know

Today has been a bit of an unexpected trip down memory lane as it goes. As mentioned yesterday I have been fiddling with midi in all it's 'works out the box' charm =/

This very much brought back strong sense of deja vu, as I sat there working out how to assign nobs and things. Then an hour or two of aimlessly clicking things, compulsively working my way through EVERY sound on FM8 and twisting dials at random.




Shoes: the new political activists weapon of choice.

Tho in my defense I did at one point even look at the manual...! That almost never happens. I am however proud to say I followed a few youtube tutorials for wonking out some cool bass, and I do genuinely feel like I made some (albeit minor) progress.

Me mate Luke is coming over tomorrow for a bit of a bass off, so that promises to be good. I might even record and post our efforts here just for a laugh. Anyways ok so its slow progress, but progress none the less, and that's what it is all about.

Look forward to tomorrows post, where I hope to have a bit of a spill about what this is all really about, and how I am planning to go about it. I could have done that on day one proper, but it might have got lost amongst the other hilarious and insightful banter...

until tomorrow

peace&&love

bang!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Day 9: Square eyes.

Man do my eyes hurt. Not only am I working like a dog all day staring at not one, but two monitors... when I come home, what do you think the first thing I do is... only myself to blame I guess.

But How can I NOT play with my new midi controller. It's impossible. It has reminded me however how frustrating this whole thing is (production). I had a dabble a few years back when Cubase and Logic were the boys, none of this Ableton nonsense. It annoyed the shit out of me then, so I don't know why I thought it might be any different this time! OK, so it is a bit better, but SOOOOO much to learn.

New respect for all producers that much is true.

Image is non related, I image searched for "sex bass" as I had been having a bit of a wobble on Native Instruments' excellent Massive.

I can see this will definitely get more fun as I get in to it more for sure. In the mean time here are the fruits of my measly labour:

wobble wobble wobble









In the meantime I am off to stare at another screen on the sofa for a bit.

peace&&love

bang!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Day 8: Thrills and Bellyaches

Yo Bangers...

Today wasn't the best day ever. Got up went to work, that was all fine, but then half way through the day I took a funny turn, and had to come home. I spent the after noon face down on the Sofa.

A few cups of tea later and am feeling closer to normal... gotta find time to update the bang haven't I!

Obviously as you can imagine not loads of progress toward DJ super stardom today... but surprisingly not a total write off.

While idly browsing the days offerings from the blogs etc I came across an interesting article... but what was more interesting was the web-page the article came from.
What is even more remarkable is how I never knew about these guys earlier. The rave in question is Bang Face. Judging by their site they are a bunch of mad heads, who live for the Rave. My kind of people. The reason why I say I am surprised not to have heard of them before, is that I consider myself a true blood raver. From 94 onwards I could be found in warehouses across the nation. I loved Gabba, Drum and Bass and Rave... EXACTLY what these guys do.

Man they have me watering at the mouth with their weekender.

So I fired em off an email pimping my wares, which is the first people I have sent anything to, FINGERS CROSSED, and PS if you are reading this BangFacers... let me know and I will fire you off a hard edge set that will make you wet your pants.

So not entirely a wasted day. Also did a bit of myspacing, adding various cool dudes, adding a few links etc.

What am I on about, this is probably the most productive I've been so far!

peace&&love

bang!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Day 7: A self-evident and necessary truth

Well that's what Google tells me "Axiom" Means, and I saw it as a fitting title for the post considering Axiom 25 MIDI controller arrived today!!! WOOO... etc. Isn't she pretty:



Part of my cunning plan, which I admit I *still* haven't outlined in this blog was that, to make it as a DJ, you need to produce music. Not only is production an excellent way to get your name about, it also obviously hones your skills as a DJ, giving you a better understanding of the music you are playing.

Not only that, having exclusive tunes is obviously cool, and also serves as good bargaining chips with other DJs etc.


Most of all obviously is the pleasure of making music.

Annoyingly as I have been on a computer all day at work, I am torn between my boyish desire to rinse this bad boy out, and a strong desire to just mong out. I've had a bit of a tinker to quench the thirst... and I needed to blog it obviously.

Think I'll leave it at that for now, and spend tomorrow reading the manual in work :D

peace&&love

bang!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Day 6: Face the Music...

Ok, so 6 days in to a blog about making it as a DJ, it's about time we had some music.

This mix is a bit indulgent, as it's kind of a culmination of some killer tunes I have been itching to play, plus some 'bigguns' from 08, in an end of year annual stylee.

However, what it does do nicely is give you a fairly good idea of the sound that I am playing with at the moment.

Bass heavy is how I am feeling it, and I do LOVE a bit of old skool rave influence (nods knowingly at Hostage).

I have been trying to get in to Dub Step for a while now, but haven't quite made the cross over yet... it's mad popular in my home town, maybe I'll start getting it just as it burns out due to commercialisation or other such predictable ending.

Anyways, I digress... here you go "Phase 1" or the Bang the DJ series (that's month1 to you and me).

Bang the DJ - Phase 1 mix

Feel free to flame, criticise, request tune IDs etc by commenting below:

peace&&love

bang!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Day 5: And we're on the starting blocks...

Hello bangers, OK as I mentioned yesterday what this project really needs is a good scoring system to measure progress with. The following is what I have come up with so far. I am fully expecting to have to tweak this slightly over time to make it appropriate, but for now here's how it goes.

Points for playing out:
Non-flyered(or name not on flyer) club, general slot, less than 500 people=
5

Non-flyered(or name not on flyer) club, general slot, more than 500 people=
10

Name on flyer, less than 500 people=
10

Name on flyer, more than 500 people=
15

Headline set less than 500=
25

Headline set more than 500=
35

Low ranking Ibiza set(name on flyer)=
80

Set on organized Internet radio
5

Set on Broadcast radio= 40

Headline Ibiza set (Space, Eden, Pacha etc) =
365

Press coverage:
Article on-line less than 200 words=
5

Print media less than 200 words=
8

Article on-line more than 200 words=
8

Print media more than 200 words=
10

On-line main feature(or RA, Datatransmission etc)=
15

Print media main feature=
20 - 30 (depending.)

Music production:

Tune or remix published on blog=
8

Tune or remix officially released (mp3)=
40

As above but on vinyl=
80

Bang the DJ Fabric Live CD etc=
365

:D


I reckon that's not a bad starting scale, if it proves to be a bit wonky I will adjust, and back adjust any current score accordingly. I might try and draw up some pretty graphs etc as we go...

Current score:
0/365

peace&&love

bang!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Day 4: I should probably start already!

Ok, it's all my fault, I basically haven't faced up to the fact its the new year yet. I've been lounging and pissing it up since NYE and therefore getting nothing of any note done.

I have decided that what I need to do is come up with some sort of scoring system. A means of tracking progress if nothing else. This will all be worth nothing if I kinda float along, then play a few gigs maybe, then declare the whole thing a success/failure. I need cold hard numbers, binaries, graphs etc. Irrefutable evidence of the outcome either way.

I have therefore decided upon a scoring scale. Seeing as part of this project is focused on doing it in one year, I thought a scale of 365 would be appropriate. Obviously the scale is fairly arbitrary, as long as the weight of the scoring system is set correctly. By that I mean a target score of 365 is no good if I give myself 1 point for playing a Space Ibiza headline set, and 200 points for writing a blog post.

So yes, my target score is 365. However the scoring system (what points I will earn for various things) needs full non Sunday consideration. I promise to grace this with a full featured, non rushed, non hang over post tomorrow. Where it will be safe to say we can really get going.

peace&&love

bang!