i want to be a DJ

Big Balls

FlutterinBantam wrote:

Well, in the unlikely event that that comment was directed at me-sorry

Quote of the week !

DanOB

i was actually pretty busy over the last week or two.. exams and all that..

im doing the Demo right now as i type, il PM a few of you with it soon..

Thanks

Liam Byrne

DanOB wrote:

im doing the Demo right now as i type

Hmmm......is multi-tasking a good idea in something as important as a demo ?

PRO: It shows you can do two things at once, e.g. talk and cue a song
CON: It might result in a poorer end result

Suggestion: At least for the demo, concentrate on just doing one thing at a time

Best of luck!

DanOB

**** it, all publicity is good publicity, same goes for criticism

http://obrien.files-upload.com/209142/Demo.mp3.html

DanOB

too late now lol

thanks anyway m8

The Muppet

DanOB wrote:

**** it, all publicity is good publicity, same goes for criticism

http://obrien.files-upload.com/209142/Demo.mp3.html

Links are poor (The up next is a no no.) . Voice is ok but the delivery could be better .

Don't be disheatened though it took guts to post the demo and the technicalities can be learned.

Good Luck if you choose to persue your ambition.

DanOB

yeah i was most worried about the voice..

so basically instead of "up next" its "this is"?

The Muppet

DanOB wrote:

yeah i was most worried about the voice..

so basically instead of "up next" its "this is"?

Hi dan

Giving a big list of songs you intend to play in the next hour is just lazy. Its just talking for the sake of talking. "That was the sound of "and "this is " are further examples of things you should not use.

Links should be short (30 sec max) original and interesting. If you have nothing to say say nothing.

That's just my opinion , maybe others will differ.

Where in Dublin are you situated?

DanOB

Glasnevin area..

i DO respect your opinion, dont doubt that for a second

Liam Byrne

DanOB wrote:

yeah i was most worried about the voice..

so basically instead of "up next" its "this is"?

Don't think of it that way; there are a million ways of saying what's "up next", including the radio mainstay that's normally used before ads or news when someone says "On the way, we've got....." - that's called forward-selling.

"This is" sounds lame if it's overused; "Here's XXXX" works, as does "Before that...." (if you've listed a few upcoming songs) or being conversational and leading in to the song with why you're playing it - e.g. if you've slowed it down and want to wind it back up again with a fast one, say something about that - e.g. "time to change the tempo, so we'll take one from XXXXX", and work it that way.

Voice is pretty OK, but the links are weak - while writing stuff down can make it sound over-rehearsed, you should at least have an idea of 80% of what you're going to say before opening your mouth/mike/mic; for a demo, it might even be an idea to have 100% of it scripted, but script it as you would actually say it and don't over-rehearse it as it will emphasise that it is rehearsed.

Example (and I don't mean to knock you, this is just advice) "Here we have with Toto - Africa"; that could be phrased WAY better; likewise with the "weather" link - it's disjointed and distracting. In a real scenario, this would be typed up, so check the Met Eireann website and use the real one in the demo!

Structure it a little better too; the songs are too contrasting, particularly when they're not finishing and there's no station idents to transition the tempo - if you can, try cutting the song in the middle so that you get to talk over an actual fadeout and show how you can do the transition with your voice - e.g. going from a slow song to a fast one or vice-versa.

What's there is also a little downbeat - there's no real energy or enthusiasm showing in your voice.....while some DJs can go WAY OTT on this, which is just as bad, you at least need to inject some in there.

I think I can also detect a little of your personality in there, particularly towards the end, but you need to let this stand out more.

Just my two cent of an opinion; if you listened to my first ever airchecks I did, a lot of the above might well have applied (and then some!).

So as a first attempt, not bad, but you'll need to be yourself and let that show in order to stand out in someone's mind - remember that a station manager could potentially be listening to 20 demos the day they listen to yours, so you need to catch their attention!

Best of luck!

The Muppet

DanOB wrote:

Glasnevin area..

You have a couple of Local and Hospital Stations near enough to you where you may be able to gain experience. Near FM is situated close to Northside Shopping centre and The Mater Hospital also has a Radio Station. Maybe you could give them a call and tell them of your interest in presenting. AFAIK they both run training programmes for presenters.

DanOB

i get you, and ill keep practicing thanks

DanOB

nice.. il check it out

catch--22

Fair play for posting the demo!

I had a listen and just a couple of suggestions;

No more than three minutes if you can, 5 is a bit long.

Only play 10-20 second clips of music...it's you that you're trying to sell...not the music.

Script all links and practice them so they sound fluid, unrehearsed and to the point.

As already mentioned....keep links brief and to the point.

A bit more energy into the links as well (but not TOO much). You want to make it sound like you're enjoying doing it etc!

Well done though....you're on the right track! And as Muppet mentioned.....go try and get work on the community stations...they will be a HUGE benefit to you!

FlutterinBantam

Well done.. fair play for posting the link.

Voice is very good,however the diction is poor. Very difficult to understand at times especially the longer sentences. You need to enunciate each word and not just let them all run into one another. For instance at the very end I could not figure out the "station name"

Elocution lessons??

Also you have the "Dublin Disease" of pronouncing "T" as "H" as in "but" pronounced "buh". This can get quite annoying to listen to, which is what you don't want.

Potential listeners need to understand what you are saying.

Also a small point you have the Dublin 9/3 syndrome of calling "news" "noos"

All this stuff can be sorted out easily,a previous poster suggested a little more "oomph" into the presentation and I would agree.


Hope you don't think thats too harsh,as its not meant to be and I congratulate you on a great effort.

DanOB

born in london so.. not technically the dublin disease.. il work on it tho

Chillwithcian

Big Balls wrote:

Don't wanna rain on your parade but I'd seriously consider some other line of career to follow.

Unless you are doing at least two jobs in the radio station you work in (and this is only the big cities and Dublin) you can forget about any sort of a decent salary. You do mention nightclubs though so if you do want to be a radio DJ then get used to them as you'll be doing 2/3 nights a week in them to make a decent crust.

Sure, the big names on stations (the best way of judging if they are on good money is, would the people on the street know their name or the name of their show) get paid well but chances are you will just be another DJ on a station.

People don't really move from their slot unless they are pushed and there are very few new shows coming up regularly in radio as a result.

It's not very often that it's a glamorous job and like I say, the money unless you are on a prime slot on a big station (and even then!) it is hard to not gig outside of your radio job hours.

I love the job I do but it's long hours and hard slog for very little reward and there'll always be some upstart snapping at your heels trying to rob your gig. There were days when DJs were afraid to take holiday leave as someone could well be doing your show when you got off the plane!

This is my honest view of a typical day in a large radio station in Ireland.

Best of luck with it, stick with it for a while and see how you get on.

Good advice....I dont think id want it as my long term position for life...media is such a vast large domain (with everything from productin, visual, sound and narrative)....im sure there are better opprotunities in some other field area.

meeeboards

Hummmm Was lookin at some of the comments of support and stuff for advice. Anyone wanna give me a listen and give me some pointers. This isnt a demo as such its just some recording i lashed togeather to whack on this thread. Let us know yer.... I got a stint in BCFE this September...

Cheers Guys!!!

http://h1.ripway.com/justindublin/January.mp3

FlutterinBantam

Positive first... nice pace, and tone is good,nice and lively.


Negative... presume you are not American so lose the American accent and you have major trouble with dis dat dese and dose.

Remember when someone listens for an hour or two these things grate badly on the ear.

I wish you the best of luck,you sound very enthusiastic.

meeeboards

Made a little change to that link....

Added another two links, one is very similar to the first one just longer...

tbh

you know -that's not bad at all. I'm more into speech radio, but if I heard you while I was flicking around I wouldn't be thinking "WTF is this guy doing". I'd agree with the bant about the "dese" and "dis" but that's totally solveable - the tone of your voice suits radio.

Fair play - good luck.

Chillwithcian

If you get into a station I reccomend having a look at the X-trax magazine for radio, (free for staff in licenced stations throughout Ireland and UK), Its full of interviews and interesting things to base your talk and insparation for radio around, I find it very helpfull.

TriedEveryName

Yeah, I'd be intersted in Radio too, but, I'd be more into the talking scenario (Such as that of Newstalk) rather than like 'DJ'ing you know? No? I guessed not anyway

But does anyone here know what to do to become that sort of a Radio Presenter, I know that I'd have to do Communications but thats as far as it goes with me....like what College do the Course?

Chillwithcian

check out www.qualifax.ie and type in 'media' and 'communications' when youre doing a search and itll bring up all the diffrent course details of media etc...
hope that helps
Cian

TriedEveryName

Chillwithcian wrote:

check out www.qualifax.ie and type in 'media' and 'communications' when youre doing a search and itll bring up all the diffrent course details of media etc...
hope that helps
Cian

Cheers, that was great. Thanks a Million

DanOB

yeah i was on the qualifax website before, seems good..

I'm doing a week's work experience in fm104 starting on the 11th of june.. does anyone know what i can expect?

DanOB

Thought id upload another Demo of myself..

http://files-upload.com/315107/Demo17-06-07.mp3.html

let me know what u think

-Dan

projectmayhem

DanOB wrote:

Thought id upload another Demo of myself..

http://files-upload.com/315107/Demo17-06-07.mp3.html

let me know what u think

-Dan

i know you're going for the "overnight" shift but you sound kind of bored.

also, you're sort of selling yourself short with the 10 second ramp-ups to songs, is that the kind of radio you want to do? or are you just catering to what you believe radio stations want?

DanOB

projectmayhem wrote:

i know you're going for the "overnight" shift but you sound kind of bored.

also, you're sort of selling yourself short with the 10 second ramp-ups to songs, is that the kind of radio you want to do? or are you just catering to what you believe radio stations want?

it IS a learning process for me.. and im taking notes.. so no 10 second ramp-ups, is that what your saying? i was under the impression that Demo'n is a demonstration of you DJ'ing, and presenting, and linking, not the music you play

projectmayhem

DanOB wrote:

it IS a learning process for me.. and im taking notes.. so no 10 second ramp-ups, is that what your saying? i was under the impression that Demo'n is a demonstration of you DJ'ing, and presenting, and linking, not the music you play

demoing is exactly what you said it is. and you're doing perfect examples of demo's, but your sliding yourself into a category of bog-standard irish radio jockery that has nothing different to offer.

by the way, best way to learn how to DJ is internet radio and/or podcasts (obviously the music differs since you can't just throw linkin park on without paying for it)...

DanOB

http://gamerradioirl.forumhosters.net/

way ahead of u buddy

projectmayhem

DanOB wrote:

http://gamerradioirl.forumhosters.net/

way ahead of u buddy

wow i remember your post about that in the games forum and never made the connection to you

DanOB

if you know much about games it may mean something when i tell you that we're doing MidLans this year..

Slicklink

DanOB wrote:

Thought id upload another Demo of myself..

http://files-upload.com/315107/Demo17-06-07.mp3.html

let me know what u think

-Dan

Dan,

I took the time to download that. This is meant to be constructive criticism and is not meant to be negative. The first thing you should remember is that practice make perfect.

The first thing I noticed is that your links do not have a beginning and an end. If you are trying to prove to a prospective employer that you are the man for his station and are going to lift the liners to chop between the demo then you should learn from that station how they construct their links. An example of what I mean is that you are obviously a fan of FM104.
From listening to FM104, they probably start all their links with "Dublin Hits Music Station Fm104" and end their links with "Dublin Hits Music Station Fm104". In between that you should talk about either the artist you have just played or are going to play (forward announcing/back announcing), OR play a request OR push something else that is happening on the station OR during your program e.g. a giveaway.

Your links are too short. I suggest that you try doing the link dry first rather than hiding behind the music. Construct your link. And this is a quick suggestion, tape 104 or 98 in the afternoon. Listen to that link. Write it down. Now, do that link in the same way in your own voice.

On the demo itself.....

Voice. Spit out your words, be more upbeat.

Pace: Slow down. You are rushing your words. Watch your "th's".

Content: Your demo has too many requests on it. More content! No "big Shout outs" "no thanks for the compliment requests!" Listen to Andy Preston or whoever and tape their link and try and do it yourself without the music.

One last bit of advice ......If you are going to link a piece of music do not crash the song!

Do another demo and stick it up here. Lastly...... persist.

Regards

Slick

petals

DanOB wrote:

yes, theres always one, or two, depending on the money involved, that want to do a certain Career..

i for instance want to be a DJ, doing both radio programmes and nightclub work too...

now i was at the FAS exhibition earlier this year in Dublin, and i was speaking to a guy from Tralee who does a course that helps you "become the perfect radio DJ"
this is a FAS course, and what i want to know is, would i have better luck pursuing a BA in Media Studies, or Communications for example.


also on a seperate issue, im starting an online radio station aimed at the irish gaming community, you can find the thread in Games forum.. help appreciated


sincerelly, dan

I think the best thing is a recognised course and EXPERIENCE (And who you know helps and all )

Personally i've done work ex in 98fm, spin, east coast. I've been to 2fm (but that was for a competition anyways)
Also did the radio academy.. and I've got me a degree in music and I'm about to start a diploma in Communications and then hopefully go on to do a masters in radio and television production........... anyone wanna hire me?