Heard from LustreLounge that they will not have their usual Saturday nights anymore!! This means I will only be playing at private functions! This gives me a bit of space to try out some other venues and concentrate on my PhD :->
Went around looking for some good clubs/bars/pubs for House music in Cairns. Found a place called "Inbox Cafe" where the DJ (Psytron) was playing some funky, deep house tunes. Stayed there for about an hour. Nice setup consisting of Technics 1210's and a few Yamaha speakers going around the bar. It was an internet cafe + bar + cafe with some friendly staff. The day before I left for Melbourne we went to a nightclub called 1936. The resident DJ was playing a combination of RnB and Commercial House (my my my, push up, four to the floor, like a prayer etc.). The PA system there was amazing!! Some of the lights were controlled by the DJ but the smoke machines kept going on and off -- not sure who controlled those or whether they were timed. Had a drink and headed back to the hotel to leave for Melbourne the next morning :-(
Had another DJ replace me at Lustre because I had to go to Cairns for a week. There was an engagement party on at Lustre on the night and they absolutely needed a good DJ that plays 70's 80's funk based music! I'm lucky I wasn't playing. Looks like he played some good music, met most requests, and had some fun doing it. He was a bit surprised that there weren't any 'monitor' speakers to listen to yourself mix more closely and recommended it to the bar staff. Hope they consider it :-)
Bought a Technics 1200mkII !! Cost me $500 which was a pretty good price for a second hand turntable less than a year old and in perfect condition. The dude had put up the advertisement up on inthemix.com.au and he was nice enough to drop it off. Have to buy one more turntable but one will do for now. I think my parents are planning to buy me the second one for Christmas woohoo! Hmm better not get my hopes up :-/
I just found that I had installed my first software for DJying -- PCDJ Red Demo, on 9th Dec. 2001 and Mixmeister 2 weeks later, both on my laptop.
At this time I was, practically (although not officially) living with a bunch of guys (a.k.a. the "The Howse of Da Boyz"). All I did those days was come home after Uni., chat, get my compulsory two hours of advice for the day (I was going through a break-up) and have an in-house DJ Competition with housemates; DJ Enveen (a.k.a. Naveen R.) and DJ CJ (a.k.a. MCJ/Chandaka). Newtana (Nuwan M.) would be the judge and pick one of us as the champ for the night.
Come to think of it, I never actually won, so these guys would have been better DJs than me if they took DJing seriously!! They were doing all sorts of fancy tricks like loops and beat matching. Despite the lag on my 300 Mhz laptop, their mixes actually didn't sound too awful. Hmm I wonder if they're reading this post. Just to make sure they do, I'll repeat their names so Mr. Google indexes this post.
Here we go: Naveen Ruwanpura met Chandaka Fernando on Nuwan Malawara Arachchi, so Chandaka Fernando had to make sure that Naveen Ruwanpura doesn't drink too much water, or else Nuwan Malawara Arachchi would need to have a shower, since Naveen Ruwanpura would do the number one on Nuwan Malawara Arachchi. Chandaka Fernando would then have to be blamed on Naveen Ruwanpura's behalf, and to be even, Nuwan Malawara Arachchi would have to do the number two on Chandaka Fernando while Naveen Ruwanpura cleans himself up.
Played Vinyl for the second time! -- was funner ;-) The bar guy (and 1/3rd manager) said that was the best he's heard me mix! Not sure why though, probably had something to do with me playing Vinyl ;-) I'm actually starting to enjoy House music and would prefer playing house over RnB/Hip-hop, mainly because I'm not as experienced with RnB/Hip-Hop.
Tried out Vinyl for the first time -- it was fun! Was fairly similar to mixing with CDs, main difference was that there was no countdown timer saying when the song is ending. Have to get used to seeing the tonearm move towards the end of the song. Also found it convenient to beatmatch since I can push/pull the Vinyl rather than pressing those damned "+/-" buttons (which are not even standardised on different CDJs). I joined a forum called "inthemix.com.au" and asked them all the questions about Vinyl before I played at Lustre.
Bought 15 Vinyl's from a place called "Collector's Corner" just 10 minutes from RMIT! There was a special and most Vinyls worth around $10 were given to me for $4 because I bought in groups of 5. Most of the music was funky/disco house but some of them weren't upbeat enough for dancing -- but will do for the first hour or last hour at Lustre :-)
Received 50x 12" Vinyl House/Disco Records I won at eBay. Most of these are old stuff but can't expect much better for $1.50 per record (including shipping costs). Have to either buy a second hand turntable to listen to these at home, or go to Lustre early and listen to some of them before I can mix them.
Had a 19th party at Lustre. It was wasn't a private party but it was a hell of a fun loving crowd! Most of the requests were for commercial house. They had heaps of fun. This was also my first day on the turntables. I bought a U.S. house/breaks record from HMV with just 3 tracks and mixed them in mostly towards the end when I started breaks. The turntables were easier in certain aspects than the Denon, especially when adjusting the pitch momentarily. The pitch control needed a bit of getting used to because it doesn't have a digital display/ high precision markings.
visitors.
