DanceMuse.net

This photo doesn’t really do it justice…

It shows part of my CD collection that I need to digitise.

Those shelves stand about 4ft tall and are stacked 2 CD piles deep. Anyone else out there digitised a collection like this? Any tools anyone can recommend – hardware or software?

At present it is many many hours in front of Windows Media Player, ripping and then manually entering and editing the meta data as it is normally all wrong or non existent for this type of dance music…

Tags: Muse, Music by NickCDJ
2 Comments »

I don’t have an iPhone but spotted this on the Ministry site and had to mention it. Taking advantage of the iPhone’s touch screen technology Ministry have created a real time music mixing program where you can mix and edit in real time a trance track. Looks like it comes with some pre-canned very familiar sounding samples that you can introduce and tweak in perfect beat matched time…

Click here for more Ministry of Sound videos.

Tags: Music, Tech by NickCDJ
2 Comments »

Well good to be back again and posting after a long time off!

Was down at Ministry of Sound last night to see Erick Morillo – coinciding with his new mix compilation ‘Strictly Erick Morillo’ (I recommend you pick up a copy of it – I have been playing in the background here for the past few weeks). 

I have to say when Erick is on form he is truly amazing and he was just that last night and absolutely smashed it! Mixing loads of old house tracks from Strictly label and others definitely got the room going. Moreso than other nights in the past he really worked the accapella side dropping the likes of ‘Missing’ by Everything But The Girl, Red Carpet’s ‘Alright’ to name but a few over underlying beat tracks.

The CDJs (Pioneer CDJ 1000’s) and the EFX (audio effects) units have taken the art of Djing to another level and Erick is at the top of it – live remixing of tracks using loops and effects to tease out highs and build breakdowns and his signature use of EQs to cut the track right out and then slowly bring it or something new back in is truly something that has to be seen and heard to be believed.

If you are into your DJing or even if you are the least bit curious to how it’s all done and ever get the chance and the venue gives you a decent point to see it watch what he is doing behind the decks. Pacha in Ibiza is great for this as there is a walkway above the DJ booth that you can look down on and watch it unfold. Watch the loops, the use of EFX and how he works the CDJs – amazing!

Tags: Gig, Muse, Music by Nick
No Comments »

For the dance music industry the Miami WMC marks the start of the dance music year. Tracks and new artists are introduced to the industry and punters alike over this week long event that has expanded in recent years to encompass many spin off parties, receptions, private villa bashes and parallel events. Recent years has seen the timing of the WMC coincide with the US’s Spring Break week – combined you can only begin to imagine the debauchery after a few Mohitos in the sun by the pool! Getting back to the topic at hand tracks are picked up here, played back in the UK and other underground clubs and then pushed/caned in Ibiza as/on white labels/cdrs. From here they are picked up and signed by more major labels and several months and an dance music events later (ADE, etc) start cutting across into the main stream. Phew! So what were the big standout tunes (if any?) this year? Watch this space as I hit up a few of the artists that were out there for their thoughts in the coming weeks.

 Every year as part of the WMC the Internatioanl Dance Music Awards (IDMAs) also are staged mid week by the pool of the resort hosting the conference. The full winners list can be found here at the WMC IDMA site but I will list a few highlights below:

Best Underground Dance Track – went to Home – Above & Beyond – Ultra Records – beating the other stiff competition of
Heater – Samim – Ministry of Sound, Anthem – Filo & Peri ft. Eric Lumiere – Ultra Records
Riff – Sander van Doorn – Ultra Records, Rise Up – Michael Procter – Mychan Records, and
Feels Like Home – Meck ft Dino – Yoshitoshi

Best House/Garage Track & Best Breaks/Electro Track – Love Is Gone – David Guetta and Chris Willis – Ultra Records

Best Progressive House/Trance Track – Let Go – Paul van Dyk – Mute

Best European DJ – Armin van Buuren beating Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, David Guetta, Ferry Corsten, Sander Kleinenberg

Best American DJ -  Gabriel & Dresden – beating the likes of Markus Schulz, Roger Sanchez, Christopher Lawrence, Danny Tenaglia and Deep Dish.

Best Global DJ   – Tiesto – beating Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Above and Beyond, Gabriel & Dresden, Carl Cox and Ferry Corsten.

Tiesto also won Best Full Length DJ Mix CD for In Search of Sunrise Vol. 6 – Tiesto – Nettwerk Records beating some tough competition with the likes of�
 A State of Trance 2007 – Armin van Buuren – Ultra Records, Anjunabeats Volume 5 – Above & Beyond – Ultra Records, In Between – Paul van Dyk – Mute and Mass Movement – Joe Bermudez – Nervous Records

Best Producer – Timbaland

Best Remixer – Robbie Rivera

Best Break-Through Artist (solo) – Sander van Doorn

Best Break-Through Artist (group) – Justice

Best Dance Artist (solo) – Bob Sinclar

Best Dance Artist (group) -  Daft Punk

Best Dance Artist (group) – Daft Punk
 beating  Above & Beyond, Chemical Brothers, Filo & Peri, Gabriel & Dresden, Freemasons, The Killers

Best Global Dance Record Label – Ministry of Sound edging out again stiff competition from

Black Hole Recordings (Tiesto’s label), Global Underground, Armada (Armin Van Buuren’s label) and the one and only Defected.

Best Global Club -  Amnesia Ibiza !

Pioneer totally cleaned up once again firmly establishing itself as the leader in digital DJ hardware picking up Best Manufacturer of the Year, Best Headphones – Pioneer HDJ-1000 (I must try em!), Best Mixer – Pioneer DJM800 (I want one!), Best CD Player – Pioneer CDJ-1000MK3 (must upgrade my MkIIs!), Best New Product of the Year – Pioneer CDJ 400.
Ableton Live 7.0 – Best Audio Editing Software of the Year & Best Audio DJ Software of the Year

finally Lifetime Achievement Award  posthumously went to Mel Cheren who died late last year. I was fortunate to interview Mel late early in 2007 and will post the interview to this site at a future date.

As I said the above are some of the highlights that caught my eye – complete list is online.

Tags: Muse, Music, News, Tech by Nick
1 Comment »

Some great video has been made available on youtube of Greg Wilson mixing live on UK TV 25 years ago to the day. Footage features some bad 80’s looks and more importantly scratching and phasing on 2 turntables and a bit of Greg’s trademark reel to reel action originally shown on Channel 4’s ‘The Tube’ show 25th Feb 1983…

For more background on the clip check out the full story here

Greg’s sites are definitely worth a look as well:

www.electrofunkroots.co.uk
www.myspace.com/djgregwilson

Tags: Music, Tech by Nick
No Comments »

Is this on? Can you read me?

Welcome to my new blog covering all things dance music. As the description says -

“a place for thoughts, comments, ideas, reviews and reflection on electronic music, DJs, artists, news and events from the dance music industry…”

Please kick back and enjoy this blog, comment where you will and feel free to contribute and get in touch if you would like. DJ and producer Danny Tenaglia was onto something when he came up with that seminal classic track ‘Music is The Answer’:

Music is the answer
to your problems
Keep on moving
then you can solve them
If you feel that you can take no more
and your feet are headed for the door
Gotta keep on dancin and prancin…

Tags: Muse, Music by Nick
4 Comments »