Month: August 2023

The morning commute is shrouded in fog

There’s a chill in the air as I take off my bog

The headlights reflect off the mist that is white

Making navigation tricky and sometimes a fright

The streetlights are but beacons of hope

I hope other drivers are not high on dope

The bus stop yet offers the shelter of trees

Where a few souls gather from the cold and the breeze

I muster the courage and take my first step

Away from the fog, my car slowly crept

The headlight guides me, its a haze of light

Through it all I gain hope and look toward the night

The fog is thick but I know where I’m going

And I can make it through this dull weekday morning

It’s a hard journey but I know I can do it

Turning into my works driveway, I knew I’d get through it.

So I’ve decided that regardless whether or not I am working a regular job, I’m going to start hitting the MPC One and SP404mk2 a bit harder in the coming days and weeks. I need to make more beats and I’m just about complete with my “beat tape”. I just need to make some finishing touches on a couple of them and remove some vocals I decided I don’t want in one of them. Life is short and I would hate to check out and not have put as much time into my music as possible.

I’ve been messing around with different DJ software a lot lately, so that has taken up a lot of my time, but I also admit that I gel and watch Twitch and Youtube a bit too much. I also need to complete this AI programming class I purchased a couple of weeks back. I have a blank notebook ready for me to take notes from the class. I just need to take the time and start watching the videos and lectures. I’m going to try and maybe spend an hour or two in the morning each day on that class. I’ll get up extra early like around 3 or 4 am to do that, then I’ll have the whole day ahead of me.

With my beats, at the very least I need to spend more time with them on the weekends and continue to try and get better. I was getting to a nice level and really doing some more intricate stuff with them, but I have to make sure I stay on it so I don’t forget the little tactics and tricks I was learning. I’ll try to make some beats in between looking for work tomorrow, and hopefully I can find a job very soon which will definitely force me into being a bit more efficient with my time. I remember when I was working at my last job, I was cranking out music because I wanted to make the most of the free time I had available.

I know a lot of people suffer from getting sucked into Youtube videos for hours, or Twitch streams. I see other people’s videos online talking about it. I know my wife has that happen to her, and she’ll even stay up until the wee hours of the morning watching Youtube. It’s addictive, and we’ve pretty much rid ourselves of regular TV in favor of those types of platforms. We have Netflix and Prime video, but no cable or cable-esque type services. Hopefully I can make the change and put more time into my music. Til next time…

I’m excited to get a new job. I’ve grown even more as a person since my last job, and I’m excited to work again. These last couple of years in general have been really eye opening for me and I’d like to put some of the principles and things I’ve learned into use in the work place. I understand its not going to be perfect, and that is fine. I’m the type of person that needs a work play balance. I can’t enjoy my “play” time if I haven’t put in a sufficient amount of “work” time.

Hopefully GOD will send the right job with the right people my way and it will be somewhere I can work and be of help to the company for some time to come. I would like to work in a fully remote position, but it doesn’t seem like the “universe” is going to allow that, so I’ll just take that for what it is. I hope I can get a job where I can get time off in the future. Next summer I’d like for my grandson to come visit us for a week and it would be nice to just hang out and us focus on him for the entire week. I’ve noticed a lot of companies have switched over to allowing people to have unlimited PTO, which I think is a great concept. As long as people don’t abuse it, which I doubt most would, it lets you be able to take adequate time off to spend with family, take care of a move and important things like that.

I’ll report on here when I find a job and how it goes when I’m working at it. Til next time…

The fires in Maui are so terrible. I pray that all the people they’ve found dead died from smoke inhalation and not being burned to death. That’s such a horrible death none of them deserve. Prayers up that the people their can rebound and get their community back to where it was quickly. Prayers up for those missing and for the families of those already confirmed deceased. When things like this happen, its a horrible situation, but all people can do is try to come back stronger. Have a blessed day!

So it’s no secret that Pioneer DJ overcharges for their products. They aren’t as bad as Technics, but they can still be a bit outrageous. The DJM-S11, which for all intents and purposes is pretty similar to the Rane 72 Mk2, costs $200 more than the Rane does. Its not built with an all metal construction like the Rane is, and the Rane has more sturdy effects levers as well. Pioneer uses plastic in their mixer builds for the most part so there really is no justifiable reason for the price hike, other than the fact that the product has the Pioneer name on it.

They are coming out with a new DJ turntable which looks very nice. It’s an analog digital hybrid turntable that doesn’t require control vinyl or Phase or anything like that to use Serato DJ pro or Rekordbox DJ in a DVS type orientation. It has cue pads on it that have a lot of the modes you’d want access to on it, including stems separation. It’s a very cool turntable, but at $1400 it costs way too much. Sure 2 of those turntables still cost as much as one Pioneer CDJ-3000, but the CDJs Pioneer sells are vastly overpriced as well. You can get a Denon “motorized” player for much less than a Pioneer “static” CDJ and it has way more features on it, including the motorized platter which gives the feel of using vinyl.

Pioneer makes amazing gear I will say that, but I don’t know why they choose to eliminate so many people from being able to purchase their products. If they lowered the price of that new turntable by $600, it would be accessible and reasonable for a LOT more people. Sure there will be those that buy it, but for the most part, the average DJ can’t justify spending that much on a turntable when something like the Reloop 8000 mk2 exists for only $799. It doesn’t have timecode built into it, but it does have pads and lets you do different pad modes in Serato DJ Pro among other cool features.

I would really like to see Pioneer stop gouging the DJ market with their insane pricing on their products. They could make so much more money if they priced things at the borderline of what most DJs would be tempted to buy their gear at. In a world where people are opting for Spotify or Tidal playlists over hiring a DJ, its harder for a lot of DJs to get “gigs” these days that pay a reasonable price. Also, the DJ market is oversaturated with DJs who learned how to DJ very quickly on a controller and are quite competent at it. There’s so much competition, that it can be hard for a DJ to land a gig at the rate they want to charge for it. Some of the newer DJs will undercut so much that you can’t compete. How do you expect DJs in a market like that to be able to afford such high priced gear?

Personally, I can’t see them making much of a profit off only clubs or events buying the gear. DJ equipment is a niche market as it is, and to price things so highly only makes your product even more niche. Hopefully, the poor sales of this product will prompt them to bring the price down and reconsider how they price their products moving forward. DJs love new innovative gear, but not if you have to sell a kidney on the dark web to afford it. Get it together Pioneer….