An interview with Venga Digital...

Liam Vizzle, head of  the record label Venga Digital, has kindly shared some information with us about himself and some of the talent that he spends his time with. Check them out, you'll be grateful...

"These Dutch Masters were amongst our first signings at Venga Digital. Even then, before the "Mightyfools" moniker had even been born we knew they had something. Flash forward almost 2 years and they have the World in the palm of their hands, we couldn't be prouder... From anthem to anthem these guys go about their craft with ease and style oozes from every pore. These lads are here to stay, and we're right behind them".

Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Mightyfools!

Go visit them now, tell em we sent ya!

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"Another chap with a sharp rise to the top, Kelevra has been tearing the scene down for a few years now. Bringing an energy to his productions, unrivalled in fidget, and with Worldwide tours seemingly every month, there can only be one way further - UP".

Look out for brand new material from Kelevra, dropping soon on Venga Digital

Kelevra Myspace do yer worst!

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"Kyle Watson is seen as somewhat of a darling of South Africa. Clever productions and studio wizardry have also landed him a firm favourite of house music fans Worldwide. A canny ability to turn every beat into an interesting "section" of a track, this man has know-how, and execution to twist any sound into something playable".

Kyle Watson Myspace look him up and down...

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"TLGB is the new kid on the block. Pulling no punches, this bossa nova big bassy house proper English influenced production maestro is receiving props and support from every angle. A blog fave, "Graham" burst onto the scene with a series of clever bootlegs and remixes".

 This culminated in original and remix releases on Venga Digital.

TLGB Myspace fancy a drop of brandy?

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"Eats Everything, aka Dan is an artist experiencing a meteoric rise in reputation. Backed up with an unerring production swagger, his originals and remixes have attracted the ears of hot to trot DJs Worldwide. "Road to Jack" is a monster which dropped on Venga Digital last August".

Eats Everything Soundcloud ...Go scoff up some awesome music.

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"Much Much Much more to come from Jackinori. I think we've barely scratched the surface on this guy. The most local of our roster, hailing from Manchester... Jackinori arrived in a blaze of fidget/wonky glory, and now looks set to take this early promise onto the next level... with a series of new releases. Stay tuned".

Jackinori Myspace ...knows how to frow' a paaaaa'ey

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The head of the label Venga has definately got his head into the music recently. Liam is now committed to producing a remix for every single Venga Digital release. A tall order that is proving to be a fruitful one with industry-wide acclaim for his "Party House" style which breaks boundaries.

Liam Vizzle Soundcloud ...Disco-co-co-co

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"Fugly, aka Jimmy of Audiostalkers fame is our new big thang... Superb attention to detail in all his productions coupled with a laid back Swedish charisma is proving to be a hit with us, and with followers of Venga Digital".

This is the tip of the iceberg for Fugly - or should that be glacier??

Fugly Soundcloud ...Not that Fugly afterall!?

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"Say What!? is another exciting find. Brighton-based producer with a unique, assured approach to house music. With a raft of tight bootlegs and bumpy tom drum flavoured originals in his arsenal the best is yet to come".

Say What!?

Say What!? Soundcloud ...Ya Hear Me?

Check out these impressive DJs' ear raping original releases at the Venga Digital website. Each artist has their on EP there with original tunes and reworks by other members. This site is an absolute gold-mine of talent. I promise...

Venga's got me fidgetting... :)

CC.

The iPod Touch DJ 2 App.

The future's bright, the future's erm... multi coloured?

I don't own an iPod, just a Blackberry. So havn't been able to test this application myself. So our friends at macworld.com have compiled this review for the Next Generation Dj readers to ponder over.

image from iphone.appstorm.net

Touch DJ™ 2 by Amidio Inc is the most advanced DJ MP3 mixing application today.

AppSafari rated it at 4.5 out of 5; "Touch DJ is close to being the perfect ... music mixing iPhone app for both professional and aspiring DJs who want to take full advantage of the power of their iPhone and explore true mobile DJing at its finest."

Touch DJ offers scratching, looping, positioning, equalisation, effects and pitching. The futuristic user-friendly interface of Touch DJ and the highly advanced sound engine bring fantastic results comparable to what can be done with professional hardware equipment.

The technology is called "visual mixing" and it implies the graphic display of the track waveforms next to each other. The low-bass (kick) parts are detected and rendered in different colour compared to the rest of the frequencies, making beatmatching as easy as adjusting the tracks position and pitch so that the kick parts become visually matched.

Touch DJ is a completely new way to create stunning DJ mixes whenever you like. You can touch and feel your tracks, move around them, scratch them, loop them, and mix them even without prelistening.

As a bonus, Touch DJ is shipped with 25 dance tracks provided by DanceMusicHub.com so that you will be able to start jamming away instantly.

Key Features include...

+ Unique futuristic interface
+ 64 bit sonic processing engine
+ Tactile track control
+ 2 mixing modes: visual and split (left ch->master, right->cue)
+ 2x 3-band EQ
+ 2x FX (LP Filter)
+ 2x Vinyl spin up, spin down, break effects
+ 2x Set cue, loop points
+ Freeze tracks
+ Onboard sampler with 3 sample slots (upload/record your own .wav samples)
+ 25 bundled dance tracks provided by DanceMusicHub.com
+ Twitter and Facebook integration
+ Built-in help

After downloading, visit promo site http://amidio.com/dj for important info. about how to upload your own tracks into the app.

There's no excuse not to play your music everywhere now.

Soon the whole world will be fidgettin'. Muhahaha :)

CC.

Fellow DJ Blogging Sites.

There’s no doubt that blogging is one of the foundations of the current web. You can find just about anything on blogs which brings us to the point of this article: blogs that teach you how to DJ.

The best thing about blogging is being able to reach out to other bloggers and make a connection. Additionally, anyone reading this post will get the extra benefit of finding other sources for DJ tutorials other than Next Generation DJ. These blogs have been around for quite some time which means they have a lot of content to check out – perfect for the beginner DJ.

DJTechTools

DJTechTools is a perfect mix of DJ gear and tutorials with many great reviews about the past and current gear used for DJing as well as plenty of tutorials and tips on how to DJ.

The design of the site is very slick and attractive with plenty of in-depth analysis of the gear being reviews and featured – plenty of pictures too! Every so often there is a tutorial post that is well thought out and insightful.

DJTechTools should be on your RSS feed to keep up with the newest gear while getting a bit of learning done at the same time.

The DJ Master Course Blog

The DJ Master Course blog is a new addition to the DJ tutorial blog but it’s already filling up with very thorough tutorial posts. This blog is in part with a promotion to the DJ Master Course product.

I can’t say for sure how many posts will eventually make its way onto the blog since one of the main intent is to sell the course but in the meantime they’re worth checking out.

DJ-Advice

DJ-Advice is another blog similar to the DJ Master Course blog – it’s partially meant to sell a DJ tutorial product. The reason I placed this on the list however is that there are many well written posts about learning how to DJ.

DJ-Advice covers quite a range of topics such as DJ tips, eqipment, videos and more. Even if you won’t end up buying the guide, it’s still a great resource to get a few tips from a different perspective.

TheMixingDJ

TheMixingDJ is another DJ tutorial blog that has just started to take off as well. TheMixingDJ has already become one of the best DJ blogs because each post is well thought out and stocked with good information.

TheMixingDJ starts you right where you need to begin if you’re anxious to jump into DJing: beatmatching. As the blog has progressed, it’s opened up to gear reviews, mixing and continues to grow over time.

This is a blog I’m going to keep an eye on. Each post gets a bit better with the content. You should definitely check this blog out to get additional DJ tips and tricks.

BeatMixed

Last, but not least, comes the cream of the crop, in my opinion, for DJ blogs. Beatmixed has it all, literally. There are tons of DJ tutorials, gear and album reviews, community interaction, interviews and it dates all the way back to 2003!

There’s not much that has slipped through the eyes of Beatmixed over the years, it’s almost like an archive of how gear and electronic music has progressed over the last few years.

Many of the posts are just quick, one-offs directing you to other tutorial sites or whatever tickles the fancy of the day but each one is worth checking out because they’re always interesting.
Matt Hite, the writer of Beatmixed, is very involved with the blog. The tutorials section is very extensive, collecting links from around the net including some off beat stuff. You can spend a couple days going through the archives but it’s definitely worth it.

It’s kind of a shame that there aren’t many DJ tutorial blogs available on the net. The thing that makes blogging different from websites is the different vibe you get in comparison to something that may have been written as if it was a publication.

Luckily there are plenty of DJ tutorial websites which I’ll tell you about soon enough. These differ a bit from blogging in terms of style but for the meantime you can check out these five DJ tutorial blogs.

Feel free to leave a comment if you can think of any more DJ tutorial blogging sites that I may have missed.

Peace...

CC.

My Top 5 Dubstep Artists

Dubstep is the fastest rising genre of music on the planet today, and with it's exciting fidget-style sounds and distorted basslines, I figured that it's only fair to round up my favourite Dubstep artists.

I love Dubstep, it’s still really young compared to genres like house, trance and techno so we’re still seeing the genre branch into various sub-genres, each with its own flair.

This post really isn’t about the overall top 5 Dubstep artists, I am meerly listing my own favorite and if you’d like to add your own top 5 list, just leave a comment at the end along with a few links so everyone else can hear that fidgitty goodness.

Okay? Let’s get into it…


1. BENGA.

Benga, from Croydon, South London, is one third of the supergroup that is Magnetic Man and  is part of the Tempa record label. Benga released the cross-over anthem Night with DMZ's Coki in early 2008. Here it is...

2. SKREAM.

Skream, from Bromley, London, is one of dubstep's first and most prominent producers, he has played an important role in the genre's development and is also one third of the group Magnetic Man.

3. RUSKO.

Rusko, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, is a fellow northener. I nearly placed him at the top of the list for this reason alone but wisely resisted the urge. He has been around for only a few years but is already making his name at the absolute peak of the game.

4. SKRILLEX.

Skrillex, from Los Angeles, California, USA, is a part of the Atlantic and Sony BMG record labels. He is known for his harsh distorted bassline sounds and is greeted with open arms when he travels across the pond.

5. FLUX PAVILLION.

Flux Pavillion, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, is an up and coming Dubstep artist making all the right moves at the minute, this exciting prodigy is assigned to the Circus / UKF labels and his brand new track has been destroying raves across the world!

Just so I don’t get on anyone’s nerves, I do like a load of other Dubstep artists out there but again, these are my favourites. Go ahead and list your own in the comments to pick up on any of the others that deserve the limelight. Just like any other genre’s, Dubstep is ever changing so this list will change over time – at the end of the day though, it’s about the music, not just the artists so if someone drops something amazing, get behind it 100 per cent.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got for ya – go and fidget somewhere else.

CC.

The Electro Vibe Is Spreading.

Is Electro music finally becoming recognised?

I say this because when I switch on the music channels or the radio, it seems like Pop and Hip Hop songs are increasingly using Electronic music as their basis now.

But is this a good thing?

I never hold myself to any high standard or pretentiousness but in some ways, it’s sickening to hear how so many artists are using dirty Electro basslines, filter effects and 4/4 beats as their background music nowadays.

The real stem of the problem is that it gives a false representation of the Electronic music genres.

Take the Black Eyed Peas for example...

Now this piece of garbage has almost 100,000,000 views on YouTube and counting. It is a 'tune' that has a cheesy bassline that doesn't do the true genre of Electro any favours at all. Not to mention the lyrics are a cover of a rubbish Pop song.

Music like this should not be credited. It is a bad attempt at creating a commercialised version of Electro music. The true Electro giants should deserve credit where it's due...

Take this for example...

Or even this...

Now these are genuine Electro tunes, however do not get the recognition they deserve from the mainstream public. Dirty, filthy basslines are what we crave and by listening to that Poppy/Electronic/RnB/Hip Hop disaster of a mash up, the public are being led to believe that Electro music is cheap and tacky.

Although having said that, people like this are idiots anyway, so it's probably a good thing because it keeps them out of our clubs where the true Fidget Electro heads are at.

Rant over!

CC.

About us...

This group is for up and coming DJ's who wish to promote themselves and their music to the Next Generation DJ Community.

We have great  profile reviews and mixes to support them in their gain for national recognition. We are the first rung of the ladder on the course to stardom. Get yourself noticed!

This is a close group that aims to help members in anyway they can with their future developments of the new wave of club music productions and promotions on a professional level.

Members of the public can also get some background on up and coming DJ's and can listen to the developments and new sound that is progressing day by day in the industry.

Please join and come and see what Next Generation DJ are all about...

CC.

Equipment: Hints and Tips...

A DJ without equipment is just a regular member of the public, but choosing the right equipment to buy can be a real struggle for beginners or inexperienced DJ's.
Regardless of the type of DJ you choose to become, there is always a basic set of equipment each DJ must purchase:

• 2 x Turntables
• 1 x Mixer
• 1 x Headphones
• 1 Pair of monitor speakers (optional)
• 1 Pair of PA speakers (optional)

Not a big list, but a vitally important one.

One mistake which is often made by enthusiastic DJ's is choosing equipment in a rush. The best advice we can give would be to research what would suit you the best and pay for quality equipment that will last you for years to come... A good carpenter would choose a reliable set of chisels and look after them because they are the tools of his/her trade... The concept is the same for DJ's and their equipment.

Firstly, let's look at turntables...

In order to keep up to date with the newest technology, I would recommend buying CD turntables rather than vinyl turntables. However, if you like the old-skool way of DJ'ing and want to buy some vinyl turntables then I would suggest buying Technics 1210's.

Technics 1210's are not the most expensive turntable out there but are one of the most reliable. They are built like army tanks, are direct drive, and have the best quality of sound that money can buy.

The next generation of DJ's however should be looking for turntables that are a bit more hi-tech...

Introducing the CD turntable...

CD turntables have quickly become the newest and best way to mix music. They have seen a rise since the late 90's and are now the most popular way in which professional DJ's spread their sounds. Music being produced on CD's is easier to access and cheaper to buy than vinyl records and the CD decks come with awesome gear built into them.

With the addition of the internet, DJ's can buy their tracks on websites like Beatport, iTunes and many other online retailers. They then burn the tracks onto CD and are ready to use them in their mixes without even having to leave their seat. The absence of needles, slip mats and cartridges is another benefit of CD turntables.

It's no doubt that the Pioneer CDJ-800′s and CDJ-1000′s have become the standard for CD turntables. The CDJ’s are used globally in clubs, bedrooms and most parties for their reliability and features. So I would recommend buying a pair of these. However, if you're lucky enough to have an extra few pennies to spare, you might want to look at the CDJ-2000's.

The next thing you will need to buy is a reliable mixer...

A mixer connects all the pieces together; speakers, turntables amplifiers and most of the other equipment will all be connected to the mixer. If you was to compare a full set of decks to the human anatomy, the mixer would be the heart. It is the beating heart of the set-up and a good mixer will help you to create some monster beats.

To be honest, most mixers have pretty similar capabilities so it is not essential to buy the most expensive one you can find. As long as you buy one that has the basic requirements for DJing i.e. a crossfader, the knobs (bass, synth, snares etc.), input/output connections for turntables etc., a headphone jack, and a sound meter. Also, it may be wise to get one that has the flick switch to 'kill' the bass, synth and snare. This can add some fun effects once you master the basics of DJing.

I would recommend the DJM-800 mixer, or the DJM-400 as a cheaper alternative.

Pictured is the DJM-400: A multi-platform mixer with professional capabilities. Reliable, affordable and capable of effective music creations.

Almost essential to every DJ set up is a proper pair of DJ headphones...

Headphones provide DJ's with a way to listen to cued tracks in one ear while monitoring the track currently being played; the basics of beat matching.

As a DJ, you’re going to be in situations where the music is extremely loud all the while people are shouting and making noises. The DJ headphones provide a way to drown out the sound so you can accurately listen to your mix.

You’ll want to get a pair of headphones which can handle the lows and highs of the music you’re playing. You should look for closed ear headphones, the kind which completely wrap up and cover your ears, these give you an added touch of isolation without completely blocking out all noise and are very comfortable.

There are many sets of headphones that match these criteria, however because I've inserted photos for the other bits of equipment, I thought I'd show you my favourites. The Pioneer HDJ-1000's...

Now you have the equipment to mix the tunes and hear the sounds yourself, it's time to let the world hear you.

You're just a good pair of quality speakers away from shake shake shake shaking tha room!!!...

PA speakers are meant to be loud and bassy, these are the speakers you see in front of the booth and around the dance floor. They have a large dynamic range and can handle the abuse of cranking up the tunes to peak levels for prolonged periods of time.

Active PA speakers are your best bet because they include the amplifier and power supply within the cabinet, making it very easy to lug around from venue to venue.

My favourite are the Mackie S215's...

SO NOW YOU'RE GOOD TO GO!!!

You can check local shops, or browse online for cheaper equipment. There are always people selling their gear to upgrade or DJs that are getting out of the game.

If possible, try to test out every piece before you buy; make sure nothing is broken and that it will work well with your other pieces of equipment

DJing can be a lot of fun and open up a world of opportunity.

Now, get out there and start mixing!

CC.

All pictures shown are the property of Google images.

Armin Van Buuren's rise to becoming DJ Mag's #1 DJ

Timeline on Dipity.

DJ Festival Hotspots This Summer... with links to their line-ups

View DJ Festival Hotspots This Summer in a larger map


Radio 1's Big Weekend.




The Parklife Weekender.

Glastonbury Festival.

The Beat - Herder Festival.

T in The Park.

Global Gathering.



V Festival.

Reading and Leeds Festival.

Creamfields.

So there you have it, the hottest festivals, on the hottest days of the year, with the hottest acts and the hottest girls. Hehe.

Too much excitement, need to give my head a wobble...

CC.

Next Generation DJ - Computer Assisted Reporting.

Up and coming DJ's are difficult to find on the internet; as professional DJ's, production companies and music websites dominate the web. In order to go through the internet with a fine-toothed comb, I used some more specific search engines to locate some useful websites that may be of interest....

• http://www.houseplanet.dj/
• http://www.djtechtools.com/
• http://vengadigital.co.uk/
• http://www.dontstayin.com/
• uk-djs.net
• bizbash.com
• http://www.speed-of-sound.co.uk/
• In New Dj's We Trust (BBC Radio 1 programme).

CC.