Drumming a passion

Drumming is an art and the oldest known instrument and that is why I have a very strong passion for it. Drums where my first instrument to learn how to play. Now I 'm a multi-instrumentalist I play anything with strings on it and piano. But I really can't stay away from my drum set for very long it is like a magnet and I'm a piece of steel. That is where the passionate part comes in and you can include percussion instruments as well. I recently bought the Simmons SD7PK electronic kit but out of necessity I had to turn it into a hybrid kit half real and half electronic. You see when I would record with it you couldn't hear the kick drum no matter where I panned in the mix “big problem”. So I went down to the local pawn shop and bought a used black Pearl 22” kick drum that someone had gotten rid of separately I was in luck. So I removed the bottom bracket in the front on the Simmons rack frame installed the Pearl kick drum with a few new heads problem solved now I could here the kick in the mix. Now this kind of set up requires a few things I had to add a small six channel mixer and some good Audix microphones so I could record the real part to the mix. This is my setup I ran a Audix D6 in front of the kick drum (you can use the D6 for bass cabinet recording as well and it sounds great) an Audix i5 to my cowbell and woodblocks and a Audix i5 to my tambourine all of them ran back to the first three channels of the small mixer. Then I take the outs from the Simmons power module left and right plug them into a stereo channel on the mixer for the electronic toms, snare and cymbals then I ran the main outs on the mixer to my recording setup and that is how you can record an hybrid kit. Pretty easy to do now I know that none of the drummers from past did this but now we have better technology and if you are truly passionate about playing drums like I am this is a good place to start. For more drumming tips or lessons go to www.musicanddjinstructionalmedia.com  

Understanding Live Sound

Live sound applies to both the musician and the DJ. The first thing you need to learn about sound is sound itself. What is sound? Sound is nothing more than waves of changing air pressure that cause your eardrums to move. Sound starts with a physical resonant source this could be your vocal cords, a speaker or anything else that makes sound. This vibration causes air to move. And when this moving air hits your eardrum, your eardrum will resonate in proportion with the source. This is the essence of sound. It takes all three ingredients; a source, a medium to pass it through and something to receive it. OK now let's talk about dispersion. Dispersion is the direction that sound will go, after it has left the source. You'll usually hear the term dispersion in reference to live PA speakers. You know, 90X60, 60X40 and so on. Once sound leaves a piezo or compression driver it needs to be controlled. A horn attached to a driver will do just that. At the base of the horn, is the throat. The throat is a narrow channel that the sound squeezes through. Once the sound leaves the throat, it wants to explosively spread out in all directions. Now it's up to the horn flare to control the angles of dispersion. Some horn designs are better than others though. If you have a 90X60 horn, you would expect that all the frequencies would be dispersed in this pattern. This is not always the case. The best horn designs that we deal with are waveguides and constant directivity or CD horns. These are both designed to disperse all audible frequencies in the specified angles. Waveguides look like round dishes and naturally, they give a cone shaped dispersion. CD horns are what you see in most PA cabinets today. They offer a more horizontal dispersion. www.musicanddjinstructionalmedia.com 

DJ Beatmatching and Mixing Techniques

A lot of new DJs start to get beatmatching down and then they quickly jump onto advanced mixing techniques. They can't learn the advanced mixing techniques and they don't understand why.... Here is why:

You need to get the basics of Beatmatching, Cueing, Throwing, Pitch Riding and other fundamental skills down before moving on. Learning different mixes or effects before you can beatmatch flawlessly every time is like trying to put up the different floors of a building before digging out and pouring the foundation. It's the total mastery of these commonly overlooked basic skills that allows the pro DJs you love to effortlessly put together mix after mix. You can learn more advanced tips here www.musicanddjinstructionalmedia.com The thing that all Pro DJs have locked down that amateur DJs don't is that their levels are TIGHT. The volume (level) of each of their tracks is perfect so the tracks blend together well. When an amateur is bringing in a new song, he or she will usually misjudge the volume of the song and will bring in the song too loud or too quiet. If a song is brought in too loud it is overpowering. If a song is brought in too quiet it kills the energy of the mix. The pros have their levels nailed perfectly and here is how they do it: Before you bring in the next song that you have beatmatched, get it playing in your headphones. Once the song is playing listen to both songs at the same time in your headphones by choosing both channels using the headphone "cue" button or dial on your mixer. Now that you can hear both songs playing in your headphones, turn all of the EQs up on the song you are going to mix in, so it sounds normal. (When you mix a new song it is common to have one or all of the Bass, Mid or High EQs turned down so the certain parts of the new song, like a melody, won't clash with the song that is currently playing.) Put your headphones on both ears and simply switch back and forth between songs using the "cue" dial on your mixer. You can hear the first song and then the new song... then back to the current song that is playing out loud.. then back to the new song. Doing this and adjusting the "gain" knobs will get you're levels right and everyone listening will think you are a total pro! Pitch Riding is one of those skills that really separates the Pro DJs and the intermediate DJs that can mix but make mistakes. Its only the DJs with perfect mixing that get the big gigs. "Trainspotting" is when you sit behind, or to the side, of the DJ booth and watch every move the DJ makes. Its called trainspotting because this is how DJs catch other DJs "trainwrecking" (which is a term that refers to the sound your mix makes if you don't have the beats matched – a train crashing). Trainspotting is awesome because you can see little tricks DJs use and you quickly learn how they mix their songs together. You can then try the same tricks at home. Keep what works for you and forget the tricks that don't. Some of the best mixes and tricks are learned this way. You can learn even more DJ tips from here www.musicanddjinstructionalmedia.com