History Behind the Music – Dj-3T

In the beginning, I always wanted to do the DJ thing, but didn’t know exactly what format to do.

Even though there was a lot of good music, some DJs would throw a song in that throw off the vibe and energy. I later on would do that to myself inadvertently till I learned my music. All I knew is I wanted to drive that bus of groovy tunes.

Then with the scene came mix CDs. I thought to myself, “Hey, I could do that!” I was going to do the vinyl, however it was not affordable or feasible for my situation. In 2004 after recording Applicable Beats with Psychotik Orbit, I discovered software that would let me use computers to spin music. I could speed it up, slow it down, and nudge it. I was not aware of multi-media players at the time.

The software had a BPM ( beats per minute ) counter that was somewhat accurate, however I had to use my ear to fine tune things. In 2004, the first mix I did was a disaster and was deleted from the MiniDisk I recorded it on. In 2005, things got better where I recorded 3 sets and 2 of those sets I listen to from time to time. Nothing from 2005 has been released publicly.

In 2005, I had a laptop and a desktop running through a Numark mixer. The Proliferated Breaks mix is in my collection. I cant post because the MP3 Tags are non-existent. This means that I can’t identify the tracks on the mix for track name and artist.

This setup was notoriously noisy because of the ground loop situation.

I did not know how to fix the noise, I just wanted to play. The MiniDisk recorder made noise on top of the computer power supply noise made it to the final mix. TastyBreaks, Paranoia, Infected Dope 1, 2, and Global Devastation had some awesome tracks but the quality is sub par because I had no solution at the time.

I would use the Roland SP-808 with a laptop and Numark Mixer for effects during the TastyBreaks, and Paranoia sets. Here are some short videos from the Paranoia set.

Breakbeat Mix Rhythmc Bliss vs Agent K & Deuce from Paranoia

Johnny Cage vs. The Goodfellas – Paranoia

I got new laptops that ran Windows XP in 2012 and I has some issues with ground loop, however Area 51 came out better than the mixes before. Area 51 was the last set I recorded with the Numark mixer pictured above. I ordered a Behringer DJX750 from ebay. Seismic Bass is the first set I recorded with the Behringer DJX750. I like the fact that I would be able to high, mids, and bass cuts on it. It had a crossfader bleed. I replaced the crossfader on it and it still had the bleed issue. I recorded as set or 2 with the laptops connected to it, and there were no noise issues, however nothing would be released until years later in 2015.

After taking time off and doing rock albums, I decided to get into digital multi-media players. Computers were somewhat un-reliable to use the way that I was using them. They would crash during sets with no recourse. The dedicated players were much more reliable. At the time I had to commute to and from work on the train through center city Philadelphia. I would have layover time at the Jefferson (Market station at the time). I would go to the electronic shops and window shop. One day in 2015, I purchased the NDX-500s and brought them home in this big box on the train. I set them up, did some break sets with some music that was old to me.

By early 2015, I experimented with House music not really expecting anything, however it changed my life. I started with electro breaks never really thought about spinning house music. I loved all the house music I was getting and wanted to be able to listen to it.

My first house mixes were a combination of electro house, deep house, minimal house, soul house, and tech house. I didn’t understand the difference or what they were at the time. The problem I had was that my dj mixes would come out with high and low energy, but I wanted more consistent energy.

Even though some mixes came out ok, it took me a year to realize that there are the different sub-genres of house music and what they are. Most notable dj sets for 2015 Funk N House, The Labyrinth, Imsoniperial, and Transcend (Recorded with the combination XDJ-1000 MK1s & Behringer DJX750 Mixer).

Imsoniperial would be the last set I record with the Numark NDX-500 players. Even though the NDX-500 players sounded great, certain functions were inaccurate, and I felt like I was using that Magnavox boombox I had back1992. They limited my creative abilities and didn’t suit my agenda. I had been watching YouTube videos about the Pioneer DJ equipment and was impressed. I thought long and hard and then decided to get a pair of Pioneer XDJ-1000 MK1s. By the summer of 2015, the Pioneer XDJ-1000 MK1s were in the process of being shipped out to me.

Imsoniperial was the last set that I recorded using the NDX500s in the setup.

When I received the XDJ-1000 MK1s, I didn’t know how to work them. I put the files on a memory stick wondering why the wavforms were not showing. They would be created by the player during playback on the unit if I loaded track that wah. The Rekordbox software is required to analyze the tracks and make the wavforms show up before playback.

After a significant learning curve and a bunch of failed sets, I recorded Transcend on the setup pictured above.

Even though the price is high, It was as close as I could get to club standard without going all out for the CDJ-2000NXS2s. The XDJ-1000s had the 3 CUE Points (Which I wasn’t using at the time), Slip mode, beat jumping, SYNC, Quantize, Touch Screen, Looping and a whole bunch of features that would take me a few years to discover. When I first started using the XDJ-1000MK1s, I did everything manual as If I was still on the Numark NDX500s.

The one thing I liked about the Numark NDXs, is when you pitch bend, there is no weird sound that I get from the Pioneer XDJ-1000s MK1s.

By some time in 2016, I began to sort my files by the sub-genres, I was able achieve much better results. I understood what was what and how it sounds.

The XDJ-1000 MK1s were great I used them from 2015-2021, then sold them on ebay when I got the Pioneer Dj XDJ-RX2 which I will discuss later. I recorded Transcend on the XDJ-1000 MK1 and Behringer DJX750 and loved the way it came out. It took me a decade to upload that set for no real good reason. I had to go back and find the folder with the source content and figure out what tracks were on it. The folder contained 423 tracks, and I used only 16 of them to make that cd. During the process of track-listing and uploading Transcend, I realized that there were 407 tracks that I can use. So much was going on in life at the time that I did not realize it then. I loaded all 423 tracks into the Pioneer just to use 16. I would not do that today. I like to load a little more than enough to get to the music without scrolling too much.

I ran this setup during what I call during the Sweet 16 (2016). Most notable mixes were Can’t Stop Electro, Soultastik, Get Loud, inTransit, Hard 4 House, and House Calls. Even though the combination of the Pioneer Media Players and Behringer yielded a thin sounding bass response, the quality, mixes, and track selection was good because I came to a better understanding of what I was doing.

I returned to spinning a bunch of electro breaks in 2017.

I started the year off in the spring with the Spring 2017 Promo, Bass Tweakerz Vol. 1, Bass Tweakerz Vol.2, Dank Breaks and In Famous Bass.

I was sold on the fact that on the Pioneer DJ DJM-900NXS2 4-Channel Digital Pro-DJ Mixer provide a digital signal for the computer via USB. It also provided thick bass response and a good quality of sound. All 4 Electro Vol. 1 (electro House Mix), Intelli Bass ( Future/Bass House mix), and Astro Breaks 2019 were sets recorded using the 900NXS2.

All 4 Electro Vol 1 – Electro House

Time After Bass – Electro Breaks

On the Pioneer Dj DJM-900 Nexus 2 and XDJ-1000 MK1 setup I would go on to record sets such as Time After Bass, That Rona Bass, From Coast to Bass, Mind 4 Bass, Bass on Deck and my personal favorite Extraterrestrial Bass. This setup produced a sound that was warm to my ears and rich in bass. The disadvantages that I saw was the limitation of CUE points and the fact that you had to go to the performance screen to access this function on the touch screen. Then I had an issue at various times where the XDJ-1000s would adjust the opposite deck that I am trying to adjust. For instance if I was pitch bending on the left side, the system would send the command to the right side deck. So slowing down the track playing on the left would be slowing down the track on the right and it would throw me off. I contacted Pioneer regarding the issue, but received no response. I even had a deck crash and go into the emergency loop mode.

Some time in 2021, I ordered the Pioneer DJ XDJ-RX2.

The layout of the Pioneer Dj XDJ-RX2 is really nice in my opinion and is the best kit I ever had so far.

• It provides 8 cue points for each deck. It is almost like having 2 XDJ-1000s in one unit.
• It weighs about 20lbs alone and 100lbs in a good flight case.
• Performing on this unit is like driving a sports car as opposed to mothers minivan.
• There are many creative options available. ( It has many of the effects of the previous setup, but laid out in a more ergonomic fashion. I regret not exploring more of the effects on the previous setup.
• One of my favorites is the fact that I can change the progress of a song on the fly without going to a backscreen on the display. (I can start a song in the middle, hit the breakdown, go to the beginning, on the fly).

After years of using this RX2, my pro tip is to keep it in slip mode for an ultimate performance and take it out of slip when changing the track. Put it back and slip after the track is loaded and playing.

Every time I go to perform on it, I always learn something new. It could be a new technique that gets incorporated to the mix. Likewise if I didn’t use it for a while, I would forget things.

The first set I used the RX2 for was the Unchartered Horizons breakbeat set. I had a subscription to a record pool at that time as well that made for a decent selection of tracks. I called it unchartered because the concept of the controller, ‘all in one’ setup was new to me. The RX2 had mostly the same behaviors and functions as the XDJ-1000s, So I used that to my advantage.

Right after, I recorded Rock N Bass. What I learned on this set is that if you have two tracks where the breakdowns match, you can blend them and let the beat hit for a nice effect.

To be honest, with all the equipment on the market, I would not do a set on anything other than a Pioneer RX2 or RX3.

I chose the RX2 because I did not want to have to rely on connecting a computer or laptop to make it work. The all in one is cool because you can take it and some USB sticks to a place and rock out. The trick is to use the good and fast USB sticks, and the unit will perform flawlessly. If you use any substandard USB sticks, you are setting yourself up for problems. I don’t need any unit locking up while I am recording.

The sound is just as good as having the DJM-900 Nexus 2. The bass hits and is plentiful. Setting it up requires the power supply, audio cables for the monitors in the booth and 2 fast USB memory sticks (1 for the music library, the other for recording).

The XDJ-RX2 allows me to record my sets as a wav file on the USB in slot #2. Pro tip: I recommend recording on the USB and on the pc with Audacity as a back-up. I also use the webcam above the unit with the display on a dim setting. I ran out of space on a USB during recording, the unit kept playing from my library and it was being recorded on the PC running Audacity (back-up). This saved the day. So after this, I have dedicated a 64 GB USB as opposed to the 2 GB USB I had before because of this incident.

Also If I am doing a 20 song set, I load no more than 50 tracks per set. This is because there is less songs that are not being played to track select through to get to the material being played. My collection is too big to have a bunch that I would not need at the given time.

TO BE CONTINUED ..