Mixes By DJ S&M

Mixes basically provide an example of what DJ's sound like when performing, sometimes they're used as demos to send to potential bookers, other times they're just handed out to fans who want to hear their local hero outside of clubs. There are differnt types of mix that you'll generally hear, some DJ's just plug a recorder into the mixer when they're playing live and create a CD from their live performance, others create the mix on their home setup playing for themselves. Most commercial mix CD's you'll get in the shops these days are created on a computer using software like pro-tools to make sure that there isn't even the slightest hint of a trainwreck.

Personally I'm in the second Category, I'll work out a mix that sounds good on CD and then play it, tweak it and plan it until I play the perfect version with almost no mistakes. When you consider that one mistake an hour into the mix will make me start from scratch you can appreciate that this is no mean feat, it usually takes me about 5 hours of testing and practising to get a final version I'm satified with. Sometimes I'll burn this version to CD, listen to it a couple of times and then go back to change a couple of tracks, I want my mixes to stand up to repeated listens and they should stand up to commercially produced mixes. I'd love to have the courage to put out a CD which was recorded live, but typically a live gig is too long or too short, and since you're playing for an audience that's reacting to what you play the track arrangement might be less than perfect for those people who want to listen in cars. As for computer mixed CD's - gimme a break - most of my mixes are designed to work as demos, I've already proven to my managers that I can program computers, I don't need to tell every promoter in the city I do this as well.

Recently I decided that I wanted to update my site more often, so I added a second set of mixes to the site, these are more spontaneous, less planned and no re-recording will be allowed. I'm planning to release a new mix every week and only make it available for a week, this will be in paralel to my more refined demo mixes, in fact some ideas may crossover to find themselves in a demo.

And so.... without further ado - onto the Mixes.

Demo Mixes

April Foolishness - April 2004 - Digital Silliness
Deep Or Dumb? - August 2002 - Feel Good House Music
Tension Breaker - April 2002 - Chunky Funky Breaks
Stalkers Anonymous - January 2002 - Dark Tribal Progressive House
Make Mine a '99- November 2001 - Old Trance Anthems
Black And White Breaks - October 2001 - Nu-Breaks
Bathroom Breaks - How easy is a prog house DJ's job? 9 tracks in 70+ minutes
Pitch Black - April 2001 - Prog Breaks, house and a wee bit of techno and trance...

If you're a promoter I can produce CD copies for your listening pleasure - just ask.

Wart's n' All Weekly Mixes

Big Picture - November 22nd - Easy on the ear house music.
Dark Sparks - October 25th - Dark Techy/progressive/plain old House
Pacific Sunset - October 18th - Prog house you can chill out to.
Off The Hook - October 11th - Funky and Fun House music.
Dirty - October 4th - Breaky House, or Housey Breaks.

All of these were only available for one week, if you missed one then it's gone for good - pay more attention in the future ;-)

Nowadays most of my mix recording is going into my weekly radio show for kHz Networks - theDMZ aims to cover everything and educate people who're stuck on one kind of music.

Check it out