Author: DJ GodsOwn

I not too long ago picked up the Sony MDR 7506 headphones. They are touted for use in music production or audio production of any type really. I’ll do a more in depth review of them on my review page eventually, but I wanted to put up a post about them this beautiful 4th of July afternoon. Basically the headphones are industry standard and you can find pictures on the internet of producers like Dr. Dre, Kanye West, and others sporting them. When I got them I wasn’t sure what to expect, but after using them for a bit I see why they are so highly praised. They really do let you hear everything in the audio you are putting together. When I first got them I heard noise artifacts in a couple of tracks on a beat I was making and I was able to apply a noise gate to get rid of it. I’m not a huge fan of Dr. Dre’s beats, but his mixing and mastering is top notch. You’ll never hear a noisy, low volume track coming from that guy, and I’m sure him using these headphones is a big reason for that. You’d think headphones this highly touted would be expensive but they don’t cost that much, and Amazon has them on sale right now. If you’re into audio production of any type I highly recommend them. The word is that if they sound good on the MDR 7506s they will sound good on anything.

A relationship is not easy. When you hear that a couple has been married for 20, 50 plus years you best believe that each of them made a lot of compromises along the way. For example, my wife is a night owl. She likes to stay up until the wee hours and do arts and crafts. She enjoys the silence of the night and she feels most creative then. We live in a 1 bedroom so my DJ equipment, computer, and music production stuff is in the living room and her arts and crafts things are in the bedroom along with her desk she works at. I’ll be trying to sleep and she has her little desk lamp on which sometimes wakes me up in the middle of the night because of the brightness. I can be a light sleeper as is, and the bright light just pulls me right out of REM sleep and I’m awake for 30 mins before falling back asleep. We got into a little tiff about it the other night and I talked to a friend and they suggested I buy a dark eye mask to wear when I go to sleep. Now I could be bullheaded and say “NO!, she needs to go to sleep at a reasonable hour and stop having the light on at night”, but that would take from her one of the joys of her existence. So I got the mask and it’s going to work out just fine. She can stay up and I can get a restful nights sleep. That’s the type of stuff I’m talking about. She lets me do my annoying scratching all the time so it’s the least I can do for her. If you’re going to stay together, you have to compromise. It’s very important to not be overly stubborn with your partner. We’re all just trying to find a piece of happiness between slaving away at work and paying bills, so whatever you can do to help your partner achieve that happiness you should do. That’s it for my rant. I’ll try to post a bit more often as I always find myself saying on this blog. Still practicing my scratching and I’ve incorporated some beat juggling practice more as well. I’ll post again before the end of the week on some thoughts about what’s going on in the world right now. Til next time…..

What’s going on people? It’s been a bit but I am committed to keeping this site updated. I have a few more reviews I need to do. I upgraded from a Reloop Elite mixer to a Pioneer DJM S11 battle mixer recently in celebration of a new job I got in IT and my wife getting a bonus at work. It’s a sick mixer and I asked the Lord if I could get one to help me in my Djing some time back when it first released. I know God isn’t about material things, but I definitely put work in on the DJ equipment I get and Djing gives me something constructive to do with my free time. The idle mind can be the devils workshop so I like to keep busy with my music. I’ve been really looking into manifestation and I have a notebook where I am writing down the things I want to be in fruition. Some are personal but related to this site I want to be an amazing scratcher and turntablist so I put it out there to the universe. The numbers 3,6, and 9 are very important to the universe so I utilize them in my manifestation techniques. Some things have come to pass and I’m still plugging away at others, but it can’t hurt to do it. I definitely believe in the power of those numbers as I’ve seen them at work in a variety of aspects of life. Prayer to the Most High God is also very important so I include that in my work as well. Anyway I’m off to get in some quality practice while I’m off work, but I would definitely suggest to anyone reading to give manifestation a try. I’m going to add some more reviews to the site soon and actually update the spirituality part of the site so I can share some of the things I’ve discovered in my 40 years on this planet. Peace, love, and light to anyone reading and take care of yourself.

Hey what’s up reader? I just wanted to post a blog entry on here to keep the site going. I’m still practicing away at my scratching. I really love turntablism and the whole journey of trying to become a better scratcher and soon beat juggler. I was thinking today as I was making my coffee how lucky new DJs are. Back in the day when DJs were learning to scratch they really had no frame of reference. Think about how you have to grind and repetitively practice scratches in order to get better at them. I do it because I see Youtube videos, Instagram posts, and Facebook posts of people doing the scratches so I know it can be done. I have a goal I’m trying to reach. Back in the day before the internet or in the internet’s infancy, DJs really didn’t have much to compare to. They didn’t know if a particular scratch was possible to perfect but they kept forging forward and trying. It’s a testament to the drive of mankind. I really admire those early DJs who kept practicing and drilling and discovering new scratch patterns and fader techniques. Without them, we wouldn’t have the wealth of information we have today. It’s a great time to get into Djing and turntablism. I’m really looking forward to the day when I consider myself a good scratcher and/or beat juggler. Even better when I become great at it. Until that time comes I’ll be in front of my decks working away at it and putting in the time. Peace, love, and light to you all.

So I decided to take a scratch class with DJ Vekked, whom is a multiple time DMC World DJ champion. I learned a lot from my first session with him. In particular he showed me how important pitch was when scratching. You can ask 5 different DJs to do a chirp scratch repeatedly and if they all use different pitches it will sound different from each one of them. I would try to change up the pitch of my scratching but I’m more focused on it now. I’m drilling doing pitch changes on the scratches I know how to do and I’m already seeing better results in the sounds of my scratches. A lot of DJs don’t scratch right now because they don’t want to put the effort it takes into becoming proficient at it. You have to do the boring monotonous drills as well as the fun freestyling. I would suggest to any Dj that they give scratching a try though. You will never master it and there’s always something new to learn. Have a great rest of the week!

I haven’t really been on my MPC One in a few months. I kind of put it to the side when I started sim racing as another side hobby. Today I turned it on and cranked out a decent beat. It sounds like an old school Kanye West beat. I had forgotten how fun it was to make music for a minute there. The MPC One is such an easy device to use and I really love the MPC workflow. I didn’t do any sampling, but just loaded up some kicks, snares, hats and bass sounds was a lot of fun to put together creatively. I have to make sure I stay in my music. It’s really therapeutic for me and keeps me grounded. After I made the beat I loaded it onto my laptop with Serato and scratched over it which always puts a big smile on my face. There’s nothing like scratching over a beat you yourself made. It really amazes me what a home user can do with this technology. Things producers couldn’t dream of doing 20 or 30 years ago, we can do with the press of a few buttons or mouse clicks. Also, with all the beats I’ve made none of them sound exactly alike. There’s so many sounds and samples out there to choose from, that every project you start can have a unique fresh feel to it. I stopped my subscription to Splice because I had so many sounds that I hadn’t used and I was just collecting more and more with each monthly charge. With all that’s going on in these times, it’s nice that we have some things that can bring us some joy from time to time. Making music, for me, is one of those things. I have to remind myself to stay on my DJ decks and stay on my MPC and keep the good vibrations of the music coming.

So I once read that it’s impossible for a human being to multi-task, and technically that’s true. Your mind can only focus on one thing at a time to do it properly and correctly. This morning I’m scratching and doing sit-ups and push-ups in between. I’ve done 100 crunches and have to finish 60 more push-ups to get to 100. I work a physical job so you have to keep yourself strong and in shape. It feels real good when I exercise and stretch in the morning. Stretching is also very important. Before I start scratching I stretch my hands and fingers so they are nice and loose. Between my job delivering packages to people and driving, as well as constantly being on my turntables my hands get tight and sore. I know it’s not easy to exercise, but you have to make the time to do it. Wake up a bit earlier in the morning and while you’re getting your lunch together, drop down and do 25 push-ups or crunches. If you like to watch the news in the morning (even though it’s fabricated mostly), get some exercise in during the commercial breaks or something like that. Fitness is very important. I’ve lost a ton of weight during coronavirus whereas most people have put on weight. I went from a size 42 pants to a size 36. I feel good and I’m moving a lot better to. Take care of the body that God gave you and it will take care of you. Be breezy!

So I’m still rocking with my Reloop Elite and 2x Audio Technica 1240XP decks. When the Pioneer DJM-S11 came out, I thought it looked pretty cool, but it wasn’t worth spending $2k to upgrade from my Reloop Elite when the form factor and functionality is pretty much the same. Sure there’s a pretty screen and all that, but other than that and a few other little things it hasn’t changed much from the features my Elite has. I was thinking the other day, “What else can they do with a DJ mixer?”. In 5 years what are the mixers coming out then going to have on them feature wise? We’re still waiting on Serato and Rekordbox to release the next add-on that’s a killer feature. Until that happens, the mixers that are coming out are just going to be re-hashing the same technology. The last thing Serato released was Scratch Bank I believe and that was able to be implemented in current mixers. I think the companies making mixers are going to have to think outside the box in terms of adding features to their upcoming mixers. The DDJ-Rev7 for example has it’s own hardware Scratch Bank where you can trigger scratch sounds that are actually on the DJ controller. It will take things like that to make the mixers coming out in the next few generations to be a worthwhile upgrade from the current mixers. Off the top of my head I can’t think of what they can do to set the next mixers apart, but that’s probably why I’m not on the R&D Team of a DJ gear company. I’m sure if I really sat and pondered on it I could come up with something cool. I will say that I am excited for the future of DJ Gear, but the DJ software companies are also going to have to step their game up and start coming out with new plugins/addons that allow for more creativity which can then be accessed from the next iterations of mixers and controllers. Scratch bank was a great idea and we need more ideas like that. Time will tell where the industry goes and I’m happy to be along for the ride.

With all the negativity that’s going on in the world, it’s still a beautiful day to be alive. I got a dope wife, a roof over my head, a crazy DJ setup I can scratch on in my free time, and Gran Turismo 7 just came out on PS4 which I play using my force feedback steering wheel and pedals. It’s always good to start the day with a positive affirmation and with being grateful for the things you have instead of feeling down/being negative about the things you don’t have. I’m going to attack the day full bore and find my joy in it no matter what. Before 7am I was up and scratching on the decks while listening to the old Church of What’s Happening Now podcasts with Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt. I feel good and I’ve even been lifting weights a bit this morning. Starting the day off feeling strong is always a great thing. It’s the end of the week and this week was pretty good for me all being said. I wish the world as a whole was in a better place of peace, but I will continue to pray to the Most High asking for that peace and I’ll do what I can in my little pocket of the world to bring that peace. Keep your head up and keep moving forward. Tomorrow may be a brighter day so don’t give up today.