Aqua Serenity Music

Archive for the ‘Dj Mix’ Category

Stereo MCs – tune ‘em in and up! When Gee Street started gaining popularity, Stereo MCs’ debut album 33-45-78 (1989) was released. Although this album was recorded on a tight budget which along with DJ Cesare had drummer Owen If and backing singer, Cath Coffey was a great hit.

Their first British hip hop single named “Elevate My Mind” was released in1990. This single belonged to Stereo MCs and was the first British hip hop single to go to the U.S. R&B chart. Also where they were based out, the indie dance scene was gaining momentum for Stereo MCs. They tied up with the Jungle Brothers. A number of hip hop tracks emerged as a result of this alliance such as Supernatural (1990), and remixes such as U2, Queen Latifah, PM Dawn, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Electronic and Monie Love. These producers are still very well known. Most of the remixes by them are under the name of Ultimatum.

The fame they gained through the live shows made way for their famous album Connected, which was released in 1992. On the UK Album charts, this album went up to No.2. The album contained hits like “Connected”, “Creation”, “Step It Up” and “Ground Level”. Due to these tracks, the BRIT Awards for Best Album and Best Group were won by Stereo MCs. When music publisher Spirit Songs was started by Birch and Hallam, the status of rock star was confirmed by the Stereo MCs by having taken an eternity to come out with the follow up of Connected. The reason given was that they did not want to come out with something similar to the earlier one.

For the purpose of their live shows, Stereo MCs put together a live band. This band had famous singers, Verona Davis and Andrea Bedassie in it. They were one of the very few hip hop bands who played at rock music festivals. Stereo MCs is a hip hop band in the English arena. Their very won recording studio called the Gee Street recording studio and record label was founded by Rob Birch (the vocalist) and Nick Hallam (DJ/producer). They started this endeavor with the money they were left with from leaving the flat they were living in London. Traveling on buses to early gigs carrying bags full of tapes instead of getting a backing band, the studio was set up.

Stereo MCs then released remixes of “Frozen” by Madonna and “Jungle Brother” by the Jungle Brothers in 1998. This confirmed that they were back in form and were still keeping alive in the hip hop arena. In 2000, Stereo MCs came out with a DJ mix of DJ-Kicks series for Studio K7. Another remix was done by them for Madonna, called “Music”. The album, Deep Down & Dirty was released in 2001. They then went on a tour which included slots opening for Jane’s Addiction, the band which was reunited recently. In 2005, Stereo MCs released an album, “Paradise”, the most recent one.

The Stereo MCs, with their numerous albums and remixes have gained immense popularity.

In the hugely competitive club music industry, the number of talented artists battling for a small number of DJ slots is constantly rising. Therefore any edge that gives you an advantage over a fellow aspiring DJ can be crucial. This perhaps explains why so many people are turning to professionally taught DJ courses to reach that next level.

With so many DJ courses available and the impending investment of a large chunk of your bank balance, choosing where to go can be a daunting task though.

Firstly you need to ask yourself what level you are starting from and for how long would you like to study?

If you have never touched a set of decks before then it makes sense to seek out a beginners course but if you already know how to beat-match you may feel ready to move onto more complex techniques such as scratching and using more than two decks. Your best bet if you are on a tight budget, in terms of money or time, may be a crash course over a week or weekend. But a longer course would arguably give you better overall value as you have time to practice, let the new techniques sink in and have access to a professional tutor to answer any questions that crop up during that time.

Secondly, what location suits you?

Perhaps you would like to take the opportunity to venture to pastures new or even study abroad. Or if you are unable to move within commuting distance of a DJ school, it is worth checking out one of the many online courses available.

Don’t rush in to it!

Now is the time to scour the internet and conduct some in-depth research on your potential destinations. If available, request to be sent the prospectus as these may contain some additional information to the website.

Find out who the tutors are and research their credentials; for instance if you are interested in DJing Hip Hop then you will gain more from a tutor with experience in that genre. Taking a DJ course also represents a fantastic opportunity to start generating some industry contacts through your tutors, so take into account who they have worked with in the past and if they still have links within the scene that you want to break into.

Feedback from actual students who have attended the institution is often the best indicator of the experience to expect.  The web is a brimming resource of this sort of discussion, so find some relevant forums and search ‘DJ courses’ within them. If you can’t find what you are looking for be proactive and post the question yourself; invariably people are happy to pass on their knowledge and advice. For additional information on selecting a school visit DJ courses.

Once you have narrowed your options down, pay them a visit for a look round, most colleges provide regular guest tours on which you can see the facilities first hand. It’s a chance to get a feel for the general atmosphere of the place, find out how up to date the equipment is and ask any other burning questions that you may have.

If you follow the guidelines in this article on finding a DJ course and combine it with hard work and determination, then opportunities to play out in bars and clubs will soon fall your way and your DJ career will get the kick-start it needs.

Okay, so you’ve had your moment of inspiration ; you’ve written the song, recorded all the parts, finished all the programming and added loads of fancy tricks to your production. There’s only one thing left to do – the mix. It shouldn’t take too long should it? After all, mixing should simply be a matter of balancing the different tracks until it sounds “right”? The difficult part is deciding what’s “right” in the first place. There are guidelines, and some basic rules to ensure that your record doesn’t end up being unlistenable, but generally speaking it comes down to taste.

This can make it very tricky to know when something is finished, and a good reason for employing a dedicated mix engineer to mix your material for you. Assuming they are working with a good recording to start with, a decent mix engineer will make your track come to life. They also have the benefit of being impartial, which means they can help you through the process of realising that the project is finished and it’s time to move on, no matter how hard this may seem!

When I’m mixing, I often find a pattern in the process I go through in order to finish a track. I tend to know when things are starting to sound “right” and “finished”, so I usually print a mix and have a break. Later on I’ll have a listen to the mix and make notes about things that may be wrong, usually simple stuff like “guitar verse 2 too loud” or “kick drum gets lost in middle 8″, that sort of thing. So I’ll go back to the mix and make minor adjustments and then print it. Usually I’m happy with this mix, and in my experience I’ve found that the more your revisit your original decisions, the easier it is to move away from the original “vibe” of the track. It can quickly become a balancing act between paying attention to detail and “mixing the life out of it”.

This is a problem that I often encounter with artists, (who can be very hard to satisfy) as the pursuit of perfection can be a very long and often disappointing journey! But equally it can lead to fantastic results, it’s just a question of knowing how far to go. The truth is you probably got a lot of things right to start with, and trying to perfect your mix too much can end up in a track that sounds lifeless and undynamic (perfect?!) This is why people talk about trying to keep things “raw” and not too “polished”. Music that has been “overmixed” is a sound that we associate with background music ; smooth, inoffensive and not requiring your attention. Not characteristics that most of us want to be applied to our music!

But knowing when to stop can be very difficult, because you can pretty much always find something wrong with your own work. It’s important to remember that everyone else will hear your music differently to you. Assuming that the song and the recording is “good” to start with, and you’re not deliberately trying to break the rules by panning everything hard left and having nothing in the right speaker, not many people will notice that the hi hat is maybe a little bit louder than you think it should be. They’ll be listening to the melody, the words and the beat.

I once worked with a band who seemed really happy during the recording session, but as soon as they heard the mixes decided the results were not what they wanted, even though everyone else who heard it thought it was great. Why were they expecting the mix to sound so radically different? Probably because they had a sound in their head, an idea of what they thought they sounded like rather than what they actually sounded like. They demonstrated this by giving me loads of reference tracks to listen to, and saying “we want it to sound like this”, to which my reply was “but you don’t sound like this!”

It’s this pursuit than can lead to endless tweaking, changing and revisiting. There’s a romanticism involved with music that can distort your understanding of your art, which is why having an outside opinion can make it easier to make decisions about things like mixing. And of course, the opinions you really want are not other band members or even mix engineers – it’s the music buying public! In this case, I went along with the band’s wishes to change things and we spent a long time slowly turning the mixes into a flat, watered down version of the original. They were happy, but from an objective point of view the music had nowhere near the energy or fun that it had to start with. Eventually I put my foot down before it turned into an Enya record.

This is not to say that there’s nothing to learn from the artist’s pursuit of perfection ; it’s easy to get into a routine if you’re mixing a lot of material, so if somebody suggests something a little bit crazy it’s nearly always worth trying, because they may lead you to some great place you may not have found on your own, and encourage you to try new things. You just have to know when to stop, and try and have the discipline to stick to your guns if you know that something is “right” and shouldn’t be changed. For example, Be wary when people ask you for bass, more bass and even more bass, to the point where your mix is unplayable on anything other than an ipod ( with the bass turned right down! )

The best rule to follow when learning the basics of mixing is the rule of simply trying things out. Do a mix, stick it on a CD then play it in a car and on your ipod. Play it on as many different systems as you can find. Try turning off your computer screen when you’re listening back to the mix – looking at the arrangement on screen gives you visual cues about what’s coming next, and can influence what you think you’re hearing. If you’re getting things “wrong” it should be very easy to tell the difference between your mix and a commercial CD, as things like too much bass or top end tend to show themselves up everywhere. It’s also a good idea to trust your instincts, and when something “feels” right it can very often sound right too.

Just remember, if you find yourself at a point where you’ve got files called “I Love You Baby Mix 23″ you’re probably in trouble. Go back and have a listen to “mix 1″, you may be surprised what you find.