One of the key promotional tools I use for booking gigs as well as finding potential artists to book is the electronic press kit or EPK. As a resident for Blasthaus promotions in San Francisco, I get a fair number of people asking to play our shows with artists such as Fake Blood, Boys Noize and Vitalic. The first thing we ask for is always a mix and their EPK, which are quick ways to evaluate how serious someone is about their DJing. Fundamentally an EPK houses content that explains why someone should be interested in booking you for a gig. Surprisingly few DJs bother to put one together. Even fewer are effective. If you want an edge in the challenging world of professional DJing get organized and get together an effective EPK. Here’s how.
Author Archive
VCM 600 Review
As the line between producing and DJing becomes more obscure, companies like Vestax are creating products that are aimed at filling the grey area. With its traditional-style mixing console layout and excellent build quality, the VCM 600 makes it possible to bring the studio to the club and comes with its own mapping tucked inside Ableton Live. It’s easy to set up and use for both studio applications and live performances, so let’s take a closer look and see if it might be right for you. Continue reading VCM 600 Review
Remixing Without Stems
Swimming to the top of today’s hyper-crowded pool of talented Djs can be a menacing task. Everyone’s grandma is now djing with auto beat matching software and music blogs are serving up endless supplies of hot tracks that everyone has within a few weeks. In this increasingly level playing field, one of the best ways to set yourself apart from the crowd is to produce custom edits and remixes of popular tracks. You are probably wondering how that might be possible without acapellas or stems (parts of a song). In this article we are going to look at one way to extract stems from a finished song you already have and use those stems to create a custom remix. Continue reading Remixing Without Stems
Solid “Gold” State Hard Drives
There might not be an occupation in the world better suited to showcase the newest incarnations of Solid State Drives than DJing. Performing with a laptop is comparable to putting your gear into a rugby match- anything goes and it’s best to prepare for the worst. Not only are you blocking drunken requests while crossfading, but bass from the speakers is constantly threatening to send your hard drive into a panicked seizure. In these messy environments we find ourselves playing, Solid State Drives make a lot of sense, but are they ready for prime time djing? Lets take a look.
Sync External Hardware to Traktor
By Nisus
One of the greatest things about digital DJing is the opportunity to incorporate a multitude of performance tools into your sets. Not being limited to the turntables as an interface has opened the door to a wonderful world of controllers full of knobs and faders. While controllers have given us the power to mangle and mix sound, they have also put us back in touch with the instrumentality of live music performance.
DJing is a musical gateway drug. It makes sense that once you get used to using a controller as an instrument, you might want to start using the plethora of sound-producing instruments in a similar way. In this article, I look at integrating actual hardware synths into Traktor. Watch out though; before you know it, you’ll be wanting to play Phrygian dominant scales in your sets like Moldover.
