DJ 101

OK, so here's my LONG overdue post on DJ'ing essentials. I continue to get this question regularly, so I figure it's still topical. Sorry about the long hiatus, but RL's been nuts, and in SL, I've been up to my eyeballs in gigs. Which isn't a bad thing, as I really love what I do, but it doesn't leave me much time to do other stuff, like write semi-coherent essays :D

Let's start w/ the basic necessities for today's particular lesson. We'll get into the finer points of music selection, technique, even setting up of your software later. For now, we're gonna just look at what you have to have to do it. DJ'ing in SL requires 4 things. You need a music library, obviously, stream software to play it, stream service for your listeners to hear it, and a venue in SL for folks to catch your show. Let's take those one at a time.

On the music library, MP3 files are the way to go, although I've used WMA formats also w/ success. I prefer MP3 Pro formatting myself, so I rip my CD's to that format. It preserves the best sound quality, but still makes the data sufficiently compressed that bandwidth doesn't become an issue. I'm assuming if you're in SL, you're already using at least DSL; dialup just doesn't cut it for SL, and it sure won't handle streaming and being in world at the same time. Streaming is kinda brutal on bandwidth and computer resources in general. Get used to lag on an all-new level of pain, LOL.

I prefer to use my own resources for music. Granted, I'm an admitted music freak w/ a ridiculously sized CD collection spanning just about every musical genre out there. It's also helpful to find a way to get new stuff "on the fly" as it were, in case you get a request for some obscure song you don't have. Good sources to obtain music on demand are a good thing. I have a subscription to Napster that I rely on heavily, although I've also used walmart.com and amazon.com for music, too.

WARNING: I know a lot of DJ's that use sites like BitTorrent, LimeWire, etc. to good effect as well, but I don't recommend it myself. Even though they claim to be bug-free, I know a lot of DJ's who've picked up a virus from 'em that's gutted their system, so be careful if you do it that way. Plus, this may or may not be illegal; the fur is still flying on that point last I checked, as it is w/ who's gonna get nailed if the big music companies ever go after those services. I prefer to pay for my music myself; my streaming is thus covered under Fair Use rather than being susceptible to claims of piracy.

I like to check out Billboard.com to stay on top of music trends, and Napster itself has a great entertainment news section. There are a host of resources out there for news on the music industry, on what's hot & what's not. Radio is also your friend; pay attention to what they're playing that you feel would be a good addition to your playlists. Plus, your audience itself will keep you updated via requests. You'll figure out what they like based on that, and their responses to what you play. It's generally easier if you specialize in a genre of music that you really like anyway, b/c you'll naturally stay abreast of music developments there. I'm an oddity in that I don't specialize, just b/c my tastes are so broad. I custom-tailor my sets based on the venue I"m playing.

Next up, stream software. If you're just starting out, I highly recommend WinAmp, but spend the $15 US for the pro version. It'll be faster and smoother, which will translate to a better experience for your audience, which makes you look good.

WARNING: Winamp doesn't like systems whose sound cards are half-duplex (which, logically, should be monoplex, but no one calls it that). WinAmp is very reliant on the sound card to process the music, and you really need the duplex so it can juggle input from the song that's playing and the next in the queue to do crossfading. Also, you have to have that if you want that smooth DJ style where you talk over the intro. It doesn't work well on half-duplex cards if you're tryin' to talk on the mic over the intro to the song (intro being that part that plays before the vocals start--NEVER stomp the vocals. Sounds unprofessional, and it screws w/ your listeners who're all fired up to sing along w/ their favorite band).

I personally use and absolutely LOVE emphatically SAM4 BC. I was a RL DJ for several years for a commercial radio station, and it's got all the features I like to control my show and keep it all running smoothly. It ain't cheap, though. If I remember right, it was $250 to $300 US. Worth every penny, though, if you're serious about really wanting to do this and do it right. SAM4 BC was designed, in fact, to run a full-time professional internet radio station. Even in automated mode, it'll make ya sound good. It's a LOT easier to set up, too, as it auto-selects the encoding format for your stream. Only thing it can't handle well is copy-protected stuff. Heck, it even figures traffic for commercials and can customize song rotations to keep from overplaying a hit until everyone gets sick of it, and it can take requests, all in automated mode if you're doing a full-time web-based radio station as opposed to just an occasional DJ gig.

Which brings me to stream. When you're DJ'ing in SL, you're sending data from your system to a bunch of other folks' systems simultaneously (not counting the sweating your system does just to maintain your presence in SL itself--toldja this was gonna be a tax on your system's resources & bandwidth). If you're playing a gig in a club w/ say, 15 folks in it, there's absolutely no way a garden-variety computer, or even a gaming monster, could do that and still function. Hence, stream.

When we say stream, we're referring to use (usually rented) of space on a server somewhere out there that does streaming media services. It takes your one signal and replicates it to send it out to several other recipients simultaneously. Thus, your system is only carrying the strain of sending one signal, communicating to one server. That server you're sending to is specially configured to support streaming out to your 15 (or 30, or whatever) eager audience members via a stream URL.

Someone's paying rent on that stream service. Most DJ's I know have their own stream, but it's not always necessary, as some clubs rent their own stream account that they prefer DJ's log into themselves. Only one person can be logged into one particular stream account at a time, so be sure to log off of stream after you finish your set, or an administrator will have to come in to kick you out of that account the next time someone else needs to use it for that club.

Finally, the venue. The way SL is set up, media is configured per parcel. Even if you have stream, it's gotta be entered into that parcel's Streaming Media URL section by someone w/ permission. This can be made easier by having a "radio" object in SL that's scripted to switch through a set of preprogrammed URL's that DJ's or hosts have permissions to access; this method doesn't require that all DJ's or hosts, or whatever, have land rights on the parcel.

The last one seems like a no-brainer, but at least once every couple of weeks, I have someone come up to me in-world and ask if I like the song they're playing on Windows Media. If you don't have it streaming out, no one can hear it in-world, and even if you do have stream, if that URL isn't set up in the parcel's media URL, again, no one's gonna hear it. Folks CAN listen to your stream remotely via a music player on their PC if you give 'em your URL, but it's not gonna be coming over SL's media features, so you'd have to pass that URL to every person there and each one of 'em would have to fire up their music players and enter that URL into it to catch it as an internet radio show. Otherwise, someone w/ rights on the parcel's gonna have to plug that URL into that particular parcel's land settings to hear it (my stream IS a preset on the radios of several friends of mine at their sandboxes so they can tune into my club gigs while they're building elsewhere).

So, there you have the basics of what you'll need to obtain in order to jump into this venture. DJ'ing is very high on my list of favorite SL activities, so I find it highly rewarding. Not necessarily always lucrative in terms of generating L$; I'm not in SL for the money anyway, so I've never really tracked that aspect. To date, I've never cashed out any L$ into real US $'s. I kinda doubt it nets any huge profits by the time you figure stream rental and the cost of buying new music, not to mention SAM. But if fun's what you're looking for, well, it sure works for me :D.

Pending article--Introductory DJ'ing, or "Play That Funky Music, Elf-Boy"

As noted before, I'm both an SL Mentor and a SL DJ. One of the more common questions I get are requests from folks who've decided they really want to learn how to do that. So, fair warning, I'm gonna offer in this blog some general guidelines for how I got started, what equipment I use, and pointers for working the crowd and the mic. There are probably as many styles as there are DJ's, so feel free to adapt as you need to.

I learned my lesson from the last posting I did, which got completed several weeks after I started it due to a RL interruption, so I'm gonna split this into pieces small enough to be written in one setting. The last post also kinda turned into less a post than a freakin' essay, so hopefully, the short & sweet daily bits may actually also help keep me from lecturing too much or drafting a dissertation. Not gonna try to start it tonight, as it's waaay too late at night for me to launch into that now. But, keep your eyes peeled for upcoming posts.

On the rise and fall of clubs...

Yup, the trees are turning, and I FINALLY have some RL time to blog again! Lessee, what all have I been up to...? DJ'ing my hiney off, that's what. I'm now at GlamShack rockin' the sim between the live music Open Mic Night at the GOAT (Glamshack Outdoor Arts Theatre) and Jocelyn Sands's show, Club Amor, and now multiple gigs at Nocturne, plus I"m doing LOTS more private prn gigs. In fact, this week I'm honored to be doing a 4 hr in-character gig Wednesday night 10/29/08 for the wedding and coronation of Nax Sautereau, King of one of the biggest and most prosperous elven/fantasy multi-sim RP environments.

I've had some long-time favorites die out, though as the overall attendance of clubs in SL has declined somewhat, and the economy has lead to folks having to pull out of the club business. At long last, REDS is no longer with us. Wayne ran a GREAT club, but he just couldn't pull off the expenses of the club & land, even with the mall. Also, Blue Noise went on extended hiatus after Rhiannon had RL stuff blow up that pulled her out of world.

I've seen piles of new residents come in intent to become the next club empresario. I figured I should post a bit about clubs as a lucrative business in SL. In short, they ain't. NEVER go into opening a club thinking you're gonna make a pile off of it. Few, if any, do. In fact, few even break even.

Think about it. In RL, clubs make their money off of drink sales and cover charges. Employee Neither of these apply in the SL environment. I know of no club in SL that does cover charges. If there is such a beast, good luck competing w/ all the free ones. Further, you have to actually PAY to keep tier up on the place, plus any fees you gotta pay staff. So, in this equation, if it's only a club, you WILL have expenses coming out, but no money required to come in. Most clubs take donations, but those are voluntary.

I maintain that looking at the club business in RL as the business model to use in SL is a disastrous proposition for those reasons. A far better model to use is FM radio. You don't pay a fee to turn on your radio, or dial into a particular station. You, the listener, is NOT where the radio makes the money it has to have to pay its building lease, or the multiple millions of dollars worth of sensitive equipment even a small station has to have, or the fees to subscribe to the music services that provide them with a music library, or the staff to run the thing.

Regular commercial radio stations make their money from one source: advertisements. The music is there to draw listeners, and those annoying damn commercials that play a few times per hour are what fund it. Local merchants (and nationals as well) buy time, usually in 30 second increments, for the opportunity to announce their goods & services at points during the different dayparts. Generally, the most lucrative are, in order of price, morning drive time (usually 6-10 AM) and afternoon drive time (2-6 PM) b/c that's when you have the most listeners--getting ready for & driving to work, and getting out of work & driving home. That means, the most ears getting to hear how wonderful the sponsor's stuff is. Radio stations don't compete for listeners b/c it means more instant dollars from folks tuning in; they compete for listeners b/c it makes them more desirable as advertising venues, which is ultimately what keeps the station afloat.

SL clubs are like radio stations. Lots of overhead to entertain folks, but those being entertained don't themselves pay any fee for that entertainment. Some clubs figure this out. They have a mall attached, so as folks enter the club, they pass through a vendor area which might generate a sale right there. At the very least, it will probably get more eyeballs seeing their wares so at some point in the future, if you're looking for a new outfit, you'll remember that cool new suit that RFyre had in the mall as you were boppin' into Nocturne for the Vampire Formal, or whatever. Plus, the club MIGHT get some additional traffic from folks actually coming JUST to shop. But that's a bonus.

Downside--malls = lag, which can actually work against the club. If it's too much, folks might decide against going there. I know of several lagtastic clubs I avoid like the plague for that very reason. Embarrassingly, many don't have a mall. Rather, they have a misguided owner who doesn't get that a zillion particle poofers and special effects generate more of the lagfest effect than they do any kind of wow factor. You have to balance looking cool and having income against folks actually being able to move, let alone have fun there. It IS possible to get it right. The clubs I work all do it well; if they didn't, I wouldn't be working there.

So, why on earth would anyone want to do this thing? One simple reason: love of having fun and hanging out w/ folks. If it's worth it to you to do that, that's reason enough. That's the rationale we take on Club Amor. We take donations, but that's about it. No mall, no ad space, no nada. Fortunately, our patrons love us and what we do there enough to keep the donations streaming in enough to almost meet expenses. We don't do it at Amor for the money. Neither does Nocturne or the GlamShack. They do it purely for the full-tilt fun of having a place for folks to get together regularly and have a great time. Livvie, Lan and I make up the difference via buying L$ or earning it through our other enterprises, like my DJ work, or Livvie's building skills.

Hell, even then, I don't really do the DJ'ing for the money, nor does Livvie build (or, increasingly, DJ--she's become pretty darn good, I admit) for the money, really. We do what we do, DJ'ing AND running a club, simply for the fun of it. We do it because we really, genuinely love what we do, and we love the folks who come out and join in the fun. And that, ultimately, is the best reason I can think of for doing ANYTHING in SL.

Checkin' in

Wow, where has the time gone to? Seems like June just rocketed past. Was an extremely busy month, though. I'm proud to announce several milestones rolled past in that month. My long-time girlfriend (of about a year, which is forever in SL) and I formalized our relationship by partnering up officially in a glorious ceremony hosted by old friends at Emerald Island. Also, Bid4aCure wrapped up its campaign with a bang in a pair of auctions at The Escape Club on Journey Island. Kudos to Jocelyn for pulling off another brilliant campaign! We blasted past last year's amount raised, hit this year's goal and kept running significantly past that! Thanks again, everyone who contributed in any way! 100% of the income generated is donated to the American Diabetes Association/Diabetes UK to fund further research in eliminating this growing scourge.
While I SHOULD have exact final tallies, umm, I kinda don't have it at this writing (blushes at his lack of preparation for writing his blog). However, I'll have it shortly, and I'll update this posting accordingly.

The bad blogger updates again!

So, what's new w/ me in the past few wks? Well, the plans for Bid4aCure keep rolling right along. We're still signing up designers who are donating goods for the auction--big YAY for the legendary SL spirit of pitching in for a good cause! I'll know a bit more about progress after we all get together tomorrow for our next planning meeting tomorrow.

In other news, Club Amor has been landscaped and beta tested and is READY TO ROLLLLLLL! I still gotta say, even though she's my sis, she's designed the prettiest club I've ever seen. Fantastic build.

And that's pretty much the extent of my SL involvements of late, LOL. Between helping get the club rolling and getting folks involved w/ Bid4aCure, that's been the lion's share of my SL involvements. No cool site touring, no sparring (although I DID build a pretty damn decent battleground so Entropy has a better space to stomp me in). However, I'm extremely proud of my activities w/ both of these events. If anyone out there wants to get involved in this stuff, please please please IM me in-world, or reply to me here. There's never too many folks in worthy projects like these.

Club Amor

OK, so I've been a bad blogger. RL's been screwing w/ me significantly. However, I DO have big news to report! My sis, who is one of the best club host/managers I've ever know (and in my line of work, I know a LOT) has decided to take the plunge and go forth into club ownership! We're all waaaaay excited by this, as she's a lady of warmth, style and class who really knows how to make everyone feel at home and yet have a complete BLAST (she's also a major goofball, so that kinda helps :-) ). The land's been bought, the club's been built (again, by her, cuz she's just that damn good); it's just down to the finishing touches on Club Amor and planning the opening.

Note that the goal of Club Amor has never been, nor will ever be, to be the hottest, biggest lagfest in SL. Really, we just got started talking about the times we missed when we were all at another long lost & lamented club. We missed having a place that was kinda like home; a place dedicated to the sheer joy of just hanging out w/ beloved friends who've become really more like family. And that, my friends, is the best part of SL anyway. Soooo, if you ever get the urge to check out a great place blending elegance w/o pretentiousness, where you can just come in, relax and hang out, check out Club Amor! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ocean%20Estate%203/235/241/23

Bid4aCure

Big news!!! The always amazing DJ Jocelyn Sands is again spearheading the annual Bid 4 a Cure event! Further, she's honored yours truly to become a part of this worthy endeavor to bring relief and raise money for research to tackle and hopefully some day eliminate diabetes.

Diabetes, especially Type II, is experiencing a massive upsurge globally. I can remember as a kid, it was "oh, that thing that Mary Tyler Moore has, along w/ that girl in my school who had to take shots after lunch." These days, few of us are untouched by it, either by having it directly, or by having someone--or more commonly, several someones--close to us who have been stricken by it out of the blue.

InType II, the body still produces insulin (unlike Type I), but for some reason, the insulin the body makes has become ineffective, with net results nigh-identical to Type I. Thing is, most folks who develop Type II usually don't know they have it until they've already risked or even done major damage to their bodies. While the primary effects of the illness themselves can lead to shutdowns of the body (coma and eventually death), there are other more pernicious effects as the sugar-saturated blood clogs the fine blood vessels of the body to cause organ failures, major system disruptions, and all manner of serious complications.

I (Arc's player) am in the healthcare profession, and we're suddenly seeing PILES of newly diagnosed diabetics who've suddenly had to relearn how to live their lives. Diet becomes no longer a question of vanity or self-improvement; it can quite literally be daily life-or-death decisions. Further, it triggers an onslaught of overall massive metabolic changes that impact cardiovascular, renal, endocrine, and even neurological and cognitive functioning. It is, quite simply, life-altering.

There is hope, however. Ongoing research is making great strides in offering new treatments to both monitor and control blood sugar effectively to close the life expectancy gap between diabetics and the unafflicted population. Thing is, research takes money, and every drop in the bucket adds up.

To that end, Jocelyn is hosting a massive series of charity auctions of fine virtual goods and services from some of the best designers in the Second Life virtual world. The auctions are set up for the 15th and the 29th of June; additionally, there will be "insulin syringe" donation kiosks set up all around the virtual world. All proceeds will be donated to ongoing research to limit the effects of this illness, with the long-range goal to eventually find a cure to make the dreaded daily insulin shots a thing of the past.

Let's all support Jocelyn in this noble endeavor!!! While I can't build much more than a plywood box, I (Arc) WILL be among the celebrities offered up in the "Win a date with..." auctions. Many of SL's top designers have also committed to donate dresses, houses, furniture, etc. to the cause.

There'll be 2 separate auctions, planned for 6/15 and 6/29. The venue has yet to be decided, although I'll have a SLURL for you as soon as that gets firmed up (based on prior turnouts, we're gonna need a pretty big space for the auction & associated parties, and there are a few sites in the running). Hope to see you there!