Those of you who've been coming to my site for a while would remember the Diary Section I used to have on here. Things got out of hand for a while, with everyone wanting to do one - submitting one entry, then buggering off. So, when I redesigned the site, I took them offline for a while. Then Sparky came along. Not only does he not care that I tend to be a bit lazy about uploading his stuff, he's writing some interesting stuff. For all the experienced Dj's on here, it'll be a good reminder of what it used to be like. For all the new Dj's out there - find assurance that it's not JUST you... anyway...

Hi I'm mark, I'm 18 and I live in Dublin Ireland. Recess has kindly agreed to allow me to make a fool of myself telling you all about my experiences as a beginner dj and trust me I'm very beginner.

Anyway first things first I've just left school and have started a diploma in sound engineering. I've wanted to buy decks and try my hand at being a superstar ever since I first got into dance music (mainly hard dance/trance etc) about 3 years ago. I'd already started buying some records and had a few but I've never had the money to make the investment so its put on hold for quite a while. That was until I started my college course and saw the perfect excuse to doop my parents into being my guarantor for a student loan on the pretext that my decks were mandatory for my course (I didn't think it would work either but it did).

Date: October 10 2004;

So I've gotten home and, after recovering from the shock caused by the lack of substance to the manual provided with the stantons, I set them up as best I could. So I've 1400 euro worth of equipment in front of me and these tunes to choose from;

Lee Haslam “here comes the pain” Tidy Trax
Anne savage “real freaks” Tidy Trax
Paul Maddox “tension” Tidy Trax
Dj Shredda “chainsaw” Tidy Trax
(I'll explain the apparent obsession with the Tidy label later)
The Mad Gay Mafia “the judas ep” ef.adrine(I think) Dariush “IRA” nukleuz
Lisa Pin-up “blow your mind (I am the woman)” nukleuz

So these are what was in front of me so of course I got stuck in and an hour later after getting sick of the white noise I was creating by flicking switches and pushes thing up and down thinking I was a God.

I stopped.

After much frustration I finally decided there was no way I was just going to teach myself. I came to this very website and printed of every tutorial recess has written and read from beginning to end then took out the beginner section and slowly went threw what was being said.

Ok enough waffling.

Date: October 12 2004;

The first few trys were needless to say a disaster but then the releasing the cued record on the downbeat of the live record thing just seemed to click and I could do it over and over again I was very pleased when this only had taken maybe 20mins. This was good and I felt more sure that my money was spent wisely (premature feeling I admit).

I then started messing around with the pitch control of the live record and began trying to match the beats; this was slightly harder but the fact you know how much faster or slower you've moved the live track it still wasn't too difficult. The first rut I fell into was trying to figure out if the cued track was faster or slower, but I came up with a solution which might be cheating but here it is anyway. When I first heard the beats slipping away from each other i'd put my headphones on and listen to the cued track in the particular tracks I was using, and there was a double beat every bar( I know that's not how your music teacher described it but ill try and do better)

The beats would go like this,

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boomboom, boom, etc

So when the beats were matched naturally enough they would(in my mind) look like this;

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boomboom, boom,
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boomboom, boom,

Then they would go out of whack and I'd throw on my headphones and listen the beats would be like this at that stage,

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boomboom, boom,
----------------Boom, boom, boom, boom, boomboom, boom,

I only covered my right ear with the headphones and then listened for the double beat from the live track with my left ear. When I heard it, i'd wait for the next - then when I did, i'd listen to see whether the double beat on the cued track came before or after it. I'd then adjust the pitch of the cued track and start again. I found this worked well and could adjust the slider pretty accurately and would usually have the tunes going at the same speed after the second try.

Let's hope it all ends up this easy!! See you all in the next update...... Sparky.

DATE: 8th November
Ok hello again. Unfortunately I've realised since my last entry that while what I said about beat matching works well when the two tracks are changed - it doesn't work at all when using two separate tunes and this has led me back to trial and error which I find frustrating (especially seen as i'm getting bored of my records) but I have noticed a big improvement the last few days, if I do say so myself.

I've just got paid so I went out record shopping to get some new material but unfortunately im also tired of the usual labels like tidy and nukleuz that HMV and tower records usually carry and as I live in Dublin i'm hardly in the mecca for small record shops (anyone know anywhere good mail me chalfontmoore@yahoo.com). So I went on the net and my first stop was Hard to Find Records. I went here because I saw the advertisement for it in djmag and it said they have mp3 samples online so I thought that would be very handy. I think this site is excellent it's real easy to use and to set-up your own account. These are the tunes that I ordered and received very promptly two days later...

Tiesto “parade of athletes” Black hole recordings
Andy Moore “contagious” Passion records
Adz,colin romeo ~& Greg Tate “ global meltdown” Passion records
Masmada “darkside” Deprivation recordings (unbelieveably good b-side)
Kam pain “scarface” Passion records
Kam pain “boom boom” Passion records
“Gangstah” Fragile

Sorry I haven’t been able to help more with the beatmatching side of things but when I figure it out so I can do it 100% of the time youll be the first to know. Cya later.

Date: 12th December
So it’s been a while and in a way yes I have just been skiving but only because college is long and hard I haven’t been getting too much practise in. However there have been a few good things happening since I last talked to you. Most importantly while I don’t think I have vastly improved, the times when i'm mixing that I just think “yes that was perfect” are getting more and more frequent - which I was starting to think would never be the case! Which is yet further proof that you should stick in there no matter what (as long as you still love the tunes) and you will get it because if I can anyone can.

Secondly I’ve gotten a crap load of new records not only dance records (which I did get some new great ones) but I raided my granddads house for my uncles old record collection and man did I hit jackpot. I think I got about 30 records ranging from the late 60’s beatles to the much more recent and shitter chris de burgh (you cant get it right all the time). Anyway I still haven’t reached the attic were im told there are bout 150 more. I definitley recommend this to anyone starting out because even though I was relatively familiar with most types of music from just general listening and passing interest, expanding your musical horizons is going to be invaluable to you as a part of your djing career (if you want one) as whole.

Can't really talk too much longer as its my birthday today and im going out to get locked. But before I go I just want to mention that me and a mate have been thinking of promoting a night in the near future and although there are as of yet no hard plans the general idea will be to have each dj doing 1 ˝ to 2 hour sets with the last half hour “battling” the next dj if you have any advice on organising a night and everything that goes with it please mail me on Sparky_dj_12@yahoo.com.

Cya next time.


Date: 19th January
Ok so i'm back. I've been pretty last over the Christmas period coz I've been sick and stuff so I only got back to the dj’ing last week. However I was surprised when I did, I found everything that bit easier - ok it wasn’t perfect but it was a whole lot better than what it was. Unfortunately I’m still using the same records as i'm broke for the next while. Can't wait to get a few euro together to get some new ones. My tastes have been getting slightly mellower from the pure hard-dance I was into. A lot of my mates told me this would happen that I would “mature” into a different, more “musical” genre. At first I thought this would never happen as hard-dance is what made me buy decks in the first place, however I think its pretty limiting creatively wise now that I've been mixing for a little while.

So I've turned to something that’s almost the same but has that extra variety of music in it which is hard-trance. But now im back to square one as far as knowing what labels and producers to buy so once again if you have any advice my e-mail is above. It would be appreciated greatly. So that’s another quick waffle from me over talk to you next time.

DJ "SPARKY"