LOST GROOVE

It has been more than two years since I last had my hands on decks. I'm afraid I'm rusty by now and will need to refine my skills if I ever want to go back to spinning. I miss the nightly gigs I used to have back in Bicol as a resident DJ of a club there. I miss the feel of vinyl grooves in my fingers, and having to scratch on the first beat of the bar before starting the mix even though it is not necessary.

On the bus on my way to work tonight, I was listening to my playlist of house music on my phone. Although I brought along my PSP, I opted to just listen to the music instead and daydream (or nightdream) about the past years.

The crowd took a break and there are only a few on the floor. It was a few more hours before the club closes, and most are already tired dancing to my previous sets of RnB and HipHop. It is strange that I specialize in house music, yet it seem so hard to me to push for acceptance from my crowd, as they more prefer urban music than real club music.

I pushed the playing track into a backward spin, while slowly introducing the other deck as I scratch the first beat of Kaskade's remix of Here I Am by David Morales. The people on the floor turned to look at me, as if asking what the hell I was doing it for. Throwing them a smile, I killed the upfader on the outgoing and let the vinyl go on the other deck.

Some people got up from their tables and soon after the floor filled up. The perfect house pattern of the song makes me jump to it, as my wife beside me dances with me. We each have on the booth a bottle of SanMig Light, from friends of us in the crowd. Good tracks, despite the crowd not knowing it, always have the effect that makes them go wild.

From my crate, I took the vinyl for Robyn's Be Mine, and laid it on the other deck. I set the tonearm to the beginning of the track and then put on the headphone and pressed the PFL (pre-fader listening) button. I took the tonearm back to the beginning of the track and then scratched the first beat in sync with the beat of the current song playing. Then I let go of it to be able to adjust the BPM. I took one ear off the headphone to hear the playing track from the monitor on the booth, while still being able to hear the incoming track on the other ear.

Shortly after the first few beats, the incoming song goes a bit faster than the other, and I have to tap a bit on the pitch bend button and adjust two notches below on the pitch slider. I let the incoming song playing, and making adjustments accordingly as it goes off-sync. Stopped the incoming deck and returned the tonearm to the beginning of the track, again scratching to the beat of the outgoing song waiting for the first beat of a bar. I have let the incoming ride the beat of the outgoing on my headphone to check if it is perfectly in sync for at least 32 beats.

Went back to enjoying the currently playing song, while the next song is cued on the other deck. As the outgoing song nears the end, breaking down to just the music, I let the incoming track go and then adjusted the channel's low EQ to just half (I don't know with other DJs, I always adjust the bass of the incoming as I do the mix mostly when there still is substantial music instruments on the song). Slowly, I push the upfader on the incoming's channel to blend with the outgoing. While doing this, I also am adjusting the high EQ of the outgoing by small increments.

Kaskade's Big Room Remix of Here I Am by David Morales has this perfect house beat pattern, while Robyn's Be Mine has this off-beat snare where supposedly the hihat cymbal should be. It is a joy to introduce the off-beat snare into the typical house beat. AS the mix progresses, the two tracks are always in perfect sync and the melodies from the two are blending very nicely. I have started to introduce the bassline of the incoming by slowly turning up its low EQ, and I started to slowly slide down the upfader for the outgoing. Then suddenly both the track goes into a breakdown where the outgoing will be shifting to just drums, while the incoming goes into full swing. I killed the upfader for the outgoing and let the incoming take the main feed.

Just another perfect mix. And the crowd went wilder.

I wish I have my own decks. So I don't have to dream about mixing ever again.