Please Check Out My Site....

BaZmO*

I've being personally DJing for about 12 years now. Nothing too serious, but I have played in a few clubs around town, DJed on Power FM for 2 years and have organised and played at more private parties than I care to remember.

Now with that in mind I've been looking at your site since last Friday and I've downloaded all your Productions and listened to them, and tbh they're really not my cup of tea so I'll leave it up to the others to comment on them.

However, I have also downloaded and listened to a couple of your Mixes and tbh I wasn't too impressed. It's not that the mixing is particulary bad or anything, it's just that I felt kinda cold after listening to them.

The Millenium House was alright but nothing I hadn't heard before.

The Nostalgia House Mix gets off to an awful start. Now I know you took offence to other posters comments about the first 2 songs clashing, but seriously dude, can you not hear how badly they go together? I could maybe understand if the tracks clashed further on into the mix but for the first 2 tracks to clash in a mix where you are trying to advertised your talents is just bad form imo.

The other mix that I listened to was the Nostalgia Trance Mix. (although I'm kinda surprised that you called it Trance??? Maybe I just have a different opinion of what Trance is, but that's by the by!)

The thing that struck me the most was that inspite of your criticism of Ministry CD's and the way they are "nakedly" mixed you then go and play 10mins of a song on a half hour mix before bringing in the next track. Again if you're trying to promote yourself it seems like an odd way to go about it.

I also didn't like the way you played Chicane over Greece 2000 the washy bits of Chicane just clashed too much for my liking and it should have been mixed out earlier than it was.

Just on the subject of tracks clashing. In all my years I have never come across a DJ that categorises tracks into what key they are in. Nearly all good DJs just know which tracks go well with each other. It's part of the skill of being a good DJ.

With regards to your website, I'd only be repeating what the others have said so far, and all of which I agree with.

Now, if you are still reading this you're probably thinking that I'm just another moany sh1te hawk that's just ripping the p1ss for the sake of it, well believe me I'm not, I'm just giving you an honest opinion. And in all fairness if you ask somebody for an opinion don't just dismiss it because it's something that you don't agree with.

It's also worth noting that if all you're getting is criticism well then maybe you need to have a look at what you're doing cos in all fairness there are bigger pr1cks out there that will tear you to shreds without batting an eyelid.

Anyway, good luck with it and don't be put off by a bit of criticism.

B.

Bri

Good post Bazmo.

Just should clarify that I used the Anthony Pappa quote to fully excerise my point...and followed it with the following:

Bri wrote:

"Even if your average DJ doesn't go half as far as this, you can be damn sure the good ones don't simply pile on tracks with similar BPMs and think no more about it."

Otherwise I agree with pretty much all you've said.

Zascar

Richie, some very good advice there. it can sometimes be difficult not to get defensive when someone is criticising something you have worked really hard on, but take a step back and try to look at subjectivly. I only had a quick flick through the mixes so can't comment on it yet, but here's a few pointers:

I burned the mixes on to cd to listen to in the car but the quality was just so bad I had to turn it off. Fair enough everybody doesn't want to download a 100mb file, but I would suggest giving options for different file sizes, or look into getting the mixes to stream at various bitrates. Personally I just cannot listen to bad quality music no matter how good the tunes are. Try to get a 128kb version up there. Lower quality emphasises imperfections.

I highly disagree with your not wanting to have a decent website. In such a competitive industry you have to use everything availible to promote yourself. I'm not a as well up on Irish DJ's as I used to be but there are a good few with excellent sites that they use to promote themselves. I assume a mate did the site as a favour. it really needs work. You don't have to be highly skilled to produce a nice site. Keep it simple but 'clean'. Post in the web design forum and ask for some help. Make sure to check out other DJ's sites and see how they approach it. I dabble in web design, if your serious I'll help you out. I just don't want to type pages of advice if its going to be ignored.
(ok just a little: Change the fonts to Verdana or Arial or something - size 2 - no bigger. Change the yellow. Don't use all capitals it doesn't look good. Find a better graphic for the header, One of the photos you have might work better. Ditch the skelteon. Get someone to do a better logo (font) for your name, easily done, makes a big difference. Ask in the web design forum. Some talented guys in there. Post a message and ask really nicely and I'm sure they will help you out.)

As the others said, fair play for getting out there and doing it. Its not going to be easy but don't give up. You play a wide range of music which is good, but try to concentrate on the one you like best, and work more on that. I like the way you are really into the old skool stuff, and the tribute to Tony, haven't listed to it yet, but go all out on what you love most.

Well done, keep doing everything you can to learn, impove and progress. Any questions let me know.

Rollo Tamasi

one think i'd recommend to you about your site: there is no need to zip the sample mp3 files. Its a bit annoying having to download a 20second sound clip, then open it with winzip and then play in a media player.

You might as well just leave it as a mp3 download and not a .zip download, your not gaining anything on compression anyway for such a small file.

Ask your mate who made the site to find out streaming audio for your site also, its pretty straight forward and looks proper bling on any website.

Rollo Tamasi

DJ RichieParker wrote:

I understand what your saying but i dont agree with it , if someone wants to download a mix or a production they are not going to stop because they see a skeleton dancing or no title on the page..............

i would

DJ RichieParker

well i know the sound is muck, the lad who designed it said it would take too long to download if i had it any better quality, but i do want to change to better quality no matter how long they take to download, but yer man said it would take too long to upload and download, so their is a website forum here,cool cuz i do want to change some stuff..

you mentioned one thing there that i really find difficult which is homming in on what sound i really like, i know basicaly any dj or producer who is anyone is known for a particular sound, thats what i want, like my plan is to take down the nostalgia mixes and just have stuff that i play currently, i felt i just had to add them as well i love old stuff, but i do want to home in on a sound and im going to take off the nostalgia mixes so as people wont get loads of diferent styles and not know what im really into allthough i did try to stress what im into..

But even to narrow it down to techno n house which i do know is the stuff i want to move forward with, there are so many splinter genres within those main genres, funky,deep,acid,uplifting,chilled,jacking,industrial the fecking list goes on and that was just for the house n techno, so what im tryna say is that im finding it difficult to decide on what style of house/techno to go forward with, like over the years ive collected loads of genres so now that i want to move forward with a certain style i get so far with it and realise that i need a lot more of that style, like if i just collected house and techno from the start id be grand but ive collected loads of stuff..

Any way fair play to ya for mentioning that point about homming in on a sound and getting know for that sound because its what im really battling with at the mo

DJ RichieParker

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

i would

well we all have skelletons in our closet rollo but dont be too afraid of them

Rollo Tamasi

i hope we're not talking about what i think we're talking about ritchie?
cuz thats a whole new thread!! :eek:

DJ RichieParker

ah know just kidding, check out the dj comp thread are ya interested, i wreckon it could get going

Zascar

Glad you took heed to that point.Your probably a far more talented DJ that me, and you probably know a whole lot more about dance music that I do but I think once you reach a certin level you come to realise certain things... I always believe that you have to find what your best and and love the most, and concentrate on that. You've less chance at succeedinn at somehting if you try everyhting equally hard on may diffenet things, you have to give it all to one specific area.

I LOVE dance music, but almost exclusivly House. Most genres from Feep & Funky to Tribal and Chunky, but my taste does not span as far as your does, and that that its hard to pick a favouite and speciality. Respect for the emphasis on the Nostalgic (old skook) stuff, and fair play for being into Tony D Vit etc that all good. Personlly I think a DJ has to draw the line somehwere and can't try to be great at everyting. I suppose you also have to think if what is going to be your best bet for chances of success. The old skool stuff is cool but there would probably be less of a market for it than e.g. house in terms of getting work etc.

Yeah deffo get better quality mixes up there, and don't worry about the download times etc, so many people have boradband now, I have a 2mb line and can download 100mb file in about 10 mins... Just give the option for the smaller one just in case.

Some very small changes woudl make a big difference to your site. PM me and if you get me passwords etc I'll do some work on it for you