Snoman R. Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques

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remix back. Deadlines can vary enormously with some labels expecting you to

turn around a professional remix in a matter of weeks while others may offer

a few months. It’s rare that any remixer is given longer than 4 months to com-

plete a mix, so before accepting a project you should ensure that you can per-

form it fast enough so as not to annoy the label and ruin your chances of being

offered any further projects.

Assuming that you have come to a mutual accord on the terms and condi-

tions of completing and delivering a remix, you need to reach an agreement

on how much you should be paid. It’s rare for any label to offer royalty-based

payments and, more often than not, a label will pay you a one-off fee – usually

half upfront and then the other half if the remix is accepted.

If it isn’t accepted then you could be expected to pay back the previous payment,

so this is something you should check before taking on the venture. The amount

you can expect to be paid is dependent on the label, the artist you’re remixing and

your past performance. Little known remixers can be paid as little as £500, and in

some cases, a label may ask you to remix for free, only agreeing to pay you when

the remix is returned and if they want to release it. This may not seem so great,

but as you produce more and more remixes, your name gets around and you

can begin to charge thousands. It’s not uncommon for a well-known remixer to

charge in excess of £5000 to remix a successful artist who’s signed to a big label.

No matter how large, or small, the payment it isn’t advisable to try and barter

for more money unless your remix happens to be selling incredibly well. If it

is, try contacting the label asking for royalties, but depending on the remix,

this can be a bit of a grey area. Many remixes usually ﬁ nd their way onto the B

side of a record and you could have a hard time trying to ascertain that it’s your

remix that’s selling the record and not the artist who’s featured on the A side.

CLEARING SAMPLES

If the remix has been created without the authorization from a record company

and it is doing particularly well in a club then you may need to look at releas-

ing it commercially. Ideally, the record company that released the original track

should be your ﬁ rst port of call because these will often charge less for the use

of their samples than if you signed to a rival label.

The subject of clearing samples has often been overly exaggerated as being a

long-winded, drawn–out, expensive process but this isn’t necessarily the case.

Since the ﬁ rst case of illegal sampling in 1991 when Gilbert O’Sullivan success-

fully sued Biz Markie, sampling other artist’s records has become an art form in

itself and numerous companies now exist to clear samples on your behalf.

Generally, from experience, most record companies and artists are only too

happy to work out a deal and allow you to use their samples simply because

they will receive an income for doing absolutely nothing. This is especially the

case if you can make an old, out of date record hip again. However, be warned

that if the record that has been sampled was originally a hit, then the record

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company and artist will take a bigger slice of any royalties. Similarly, the record

company holds all the cards when it comes to negotiations because you broke

the law in the ﬁ rst place by illegally sampling and releasing a track featuring

their artist or music.

This same principle applies even if you haven’t created a remix but have sam-

pled an artist to create your track. In these latter cases you have to be diplo-

matic as the record company will quite obviously try to take all the proceeds

from the record by arguing that the samples form a major part of the record.

For instance, say that you’ve constructed a track but only relied on a few small

guitar hits in the record. The record company will begin by arguing that they

contribute, say 90% towards the track, whereby you can argue that they only

contribute, say 40% to the music. They will then return by saying that it con-

tributes 70% to the music, where you can reply that they only contribute 50%

and so forth. Notably, you will have to be amenable since if the record com-

pany is not happy with your dealings they can simply refuse to release the track

while you watch an instant club hit disappear into obscurity.

A much better way is to avoid this type of negotiation by writing the track

but to clear the samples before pressing to vinyl and releasing it. This has the

immediate beneﬁ t that the record company doesn’t know if it will be a hit or

not, so you stand a better chance of getting a good deal. If the record is already

released and doing well in the clubs, then the sample’s owners know it’s a hit

and will try and squeeze you for as much money as possible.

If you go for sample clearance before release, 80% of the time the record company

will offer clearance so long as their terms are accepted, but it’s unwise to attempt

to clear this yourself and you should look towards using a sample clearance com-

pany. Typically, these ﬁ rms charge around £300 –£400 for all the legwork involved

but they stand a much better chance of getting you a good deal when it comes

to paying for the sample’s clearance. This is especially the case if you’ve sampled

from a record that’s originally signed to a label from France, Germany or America.

From some very personal experience, these guys are notoriously difﬁ cult to deal

with and the cigar-chewing fat cats are equally adept at chewing you up and spit-

ting you out again unless you know exactly what you’re doing.

Of course, it is perfectly possible to clear samples on your own so long as you

adopt a professional nature but you will have to clear two copyrights: the

mechanical rights and the publishing rights. The mechanical rights, some-

times referred to as the ‘recording rights ’ or ‘master rights ’, concern the physical

recording of the music which, in many cases, belongs to the record company

since they have put up the money for the studio time.

The performance rights belong to the composer of the music but this is usually

handled by a speciﬁ c music publisher who deals with the performance of the

recording on behalf of the original artist. The ﬁ rst step to ﬁ nding out exactly

who these are is to speak to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society

(www.mcps.co.uk ). This organization has a list of every UK record label and

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music publisher and will have all the information on who owns the mechan-

ical and performance copyrights. Alongside this, they will give you the contact

details and offer advice on the best ways to deal with the situation.

If the record has been released through a large label, then clearing a sample is

quite clear-cut as most companies have adopted EMI’s online sample clearance

contracts. Using these, you simply ﬁ ll in an online form and wait for a response

from the clearance team. On the other hand, if the record is particularly old

(but still in copyright) or was released by a smaller label then you may ﬁ nd

yourself having to go to the middle of nowhere to ask for permission.

This can be particularly complicated if more than one artist was involved in the

original project as you’ll have to obtain permission from each one of them, or

their closest relatives if they’ve passed away. Typically, they will give permission

since it will earn them money, but it’s important to note that they do not have

to give approval or offer any reasons why they won’t. If they do consent then

you’ll have to come to a written agreement on how much they receive in royal-

ties and, in many cases, how much they want as an up-front payment.

The amount of money asked for varies and depends mostly on the popular-

ity of the artist. Famous artists such as The Beach Boys, Beatles and Michael

Jackson expect at least 80% of royalties and demand an incredibly substan-

tial cash sum up-front. As a guideline, when I went for sample clearance on

the mechanical rights to use a lick of Sting’s guitar it cost an up-front advance

of £10 000 along with 70% of any royalties while Barry White asked me for

an almost unbelievable £60 000 per word and half of any and all royalties.

Needless to say, his vocals never touched my sequencer …

On the other side of the coin, little known disco records from yesteryear usu-

ally demand £300 – 800 along with 20 –30% of all royalties, depending on how

much of the original is used in your music. On top of this, you also have to pay

for the publishing rights of the artist and again this varies depending on the

artist. Commonly, they will only ask for 20 –30% of all publishing royalties.

In some cases you’ll be confronted with the dilemma of the record company

saying yes and the artist saying no, and if this is the case, you’re pretty much

stuck. By law, you cannot include a sample in your music if the original artist

has refused permission, but if the artist has given consent and the record com-

pany has refused then there is work around. Since the record company only

owns the mechanical rights, you’re free to recreate the sample yourself or alter-

natively employ a company or studio to recreate the sample for you.

Above all, if you do plan to sample another artist’s record for use in a com-

mercial track then it’s prudent to join the Musicians Union. This costs around

£ 80 a year but they will offer to look over any contracts or agreements that you

have and ensure that legally you are protected just in case the record company

or original sampled artist change their minds. This has been known to happen

and it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

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A DJ’s Perspective

CHAPTER 23

It’s fair to assume that dance music would be nowhere if it wasn’t for the innu-

merable DJs spinning the vinyl and keeping us all up on the ﬂ oor. With this in

mind, it seems that there is no better way to close the book than to interview

a DJ and get his perspective on dance music and DJ’ing in general. For this,

I decided to interview DJ Cristo, a regular ﬁ gure on the international circuit,

contributor to DJ magazine (amongst many others), record reviewer and regu-

lar host on a Miami radio show to offer his comments. However, after discove-

ring just how much he had to say on the subject, it seemed more prudent to

simply hand over a few questions and leave the entire chapter to him.

I’d like to begin my chapter by saying that it is a great privilege to be asked

to contribute my words of wisdom to this phenomenal book by Rick – dance

music stalwart and luminary who is one of the most knowledgeable, astute

guys I know on dance music production scene. When he talks shop, I listen. He

has a constant string of quality productions and remixes under his belt – longer

than my arm and all under various pseudonyms – even I can’t keep up and I’m

a reviewer! His dance music and remix seminars are also incredibly insightful

and it’s great to at last see words written about such a specialist area as dance

music by someone who’s actually actively involved in it for a change.

WHAT IS A PROMO AND HOW DO REACTION

SHEETS WORK?

A promo is a record or CD that record companies release way before it’s due to

be released to the general public, normally to gauge how well a track is going to

do commercially when it eventually goes on general release. For this, they use

promotional companies who push their tracks and ensure that they land in the

right hands – that is, from the top DJs right the way down the scale. These com-

panies have a massive list of nationwide club, bar and radio DJs of all levels,

scenes and genres, most of whom are also members of the mailing lists of Power

in London, which is one of the biggest and most powerful in the industry.

Getting on these lists isn’t a walk in the park. All DJs must ﬁ rst apply to an

organization such as Music Power and pay an annual subscription to them

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before they can apply to the promotional companies. In order to be accepted

on these you don’t necessarily have to be Carl Cox but you do need to be a pro-

ﬁ cient DJ playing regularly enough to reasonable-size crowds. Even then, the

selection process can be rigorous because they need to know they can depend

on their DJs to support, play and chart the tracks that they want to promote.

Notably, most jocks ( acronym of Disc Jockey) that are on these lists are profes-

sional or semi-professional and are on the club or radio circuit.

Incidentally, the funding from the DJs/members goes towards keeping the whole

ship aﬂ oat as it were. If they didn’t pay to subscribe, there would be a massive

reduction on the number of ‘free’ records sent out and fewer records being pro-

moted in far smaller quantities. This would have a major impact on the vast

majority of DJs, reducing the number of weekly chart returns to hugely inﬂ uential

magazines like Music Week. If this ceased, so would one of the central strands of

generating interest in music both through club and radio play, and through club

chart success. The charts have a fundamental role in gauging records and it would

have a devastating effect on promotional companies and smaller labels alike.

Nevertheless, if you are selected to be onto these lists, you have to maintain

your position and abide by certain rules in order to remain on them. It’s naive

to think that you can just sit back and receive numerous free records because

when you receive a promo copy, you also receive a reaction form that has to be

ﬁ lled in and returned. This is basically a sheet that details the artists, title, label

and some history about the track, including where it originated from, who’s

currently spinning it, which big DJs are supporting it and which radio stations

are playing it. At the bottom of the form are a number of boxes for your input

which need to be completed. These are for your opinions on how well the track

went down at the club/bar/venue (i.e. your dance ﬂ oor) along with marks out

of 10 for how well it was received by the crowds. It also asks whether the track

was enquired about (by Joe Public), which position it occupies in your charts

out of 20 other promo records and what clubs you’re currently playing at.

When you have gathered all this information and completed the forms, you

then need to return them. However, not only do you have to return them to

the original promo company but also to all the relevant magazines, via post,

fax and e-mail, because this goes towards compiling charts magazines such as

Record Mirror, DJ, Music Week, Seven and DMC Update to just name a few, along

with all the E-groups and internet charts such as the inﬂ uential DMC DJ chart

(www.dmcworld.com ). What’s more, every DJ signed to the promo company

lists is closely monitored from their chart performance response and staying

on the list can depend on how often and how high you place their records. Of

course, you must always stay true to yourself because you are what you play,

but you do have to be willing to meet the promo company halfway, otherwise

they have the power to remove you if they feel that you’re unacceptable. This is

a very competitive business and nothing comes easy. That said, one of the many

good points (apart from obviously receiving free vinyl!) is being able to see the

changes in trends. I’m lucky enough to be sent all the big tracks along with hav-

ing the privilege of receiving all the peculiar tracks that are just about to break.

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The record companies certainly have it sussed and it’s a very ﬁ nely tuned hype

machine, but you must understand that while you’ll receive plenty of vinyl way

before the general public, the big boys such as Judge Jules and Pete Tong will

receive more exclusive records than you will. These guys are very highly tar-

geted because of their heavy inﬂ uence on the radio and club circuits. Average-

level DJs will receive the same records eventually, but it will be much later than

the bigger players. It’s a well-oiled machine and it all adds to the allure of the

exclusivity of promos.

As many music enthusiasts will already be aware of, it’s also easy enough to buy

promos from various record shops and websites as I used to for many years. By

doing so you’re onto a winner because you get your hands on a top tune weeks

before it’s released, and if you’re especially lucky it might be a TP for a bargain

price. This, however, can have a polarity shift effect because when a tune (typ-

ically on vinyl) becomes in demand a buzz will circulate around it and it will

increase exponentially in value. This is especially the case if it’s on an independ-

ent label or a TP/white label and subsequently becomes signed to a big UK

record company. With internet ‘shops’ such as eBay, previously unsigned mater-

ial becomes responsible for extreme bidding wars, where DJs and collectors want

the promo before the ofﬁ cial release date. This happened just recently with a

double pack of the artist Jurgen Vries and ‘The opera song ’ featuring Charlotte

Church. When I last looked, it was being bid at well over $100 and that’s just for

a piece of vinyl! It also largely depends on the current trends, and a simple sup-

ply and demand structure is in place that determines the price of the records. For

instance, coloured vinyl always seems to be in vogue, and despite the fact that

some vinyl connoisseurs will argue that the sound quality suffers, it’s neverthe-

less highly sought after and some people will pay ridiculous prices for it.

IN YOUR OPINION WHAT ‘ WORKS ’ ON THE

DANCE FLOOR?

I feel that for a track to work on the dance ﬂ oor all the basic elements have to be

there. Firstly, for a DJ to be able to mix in and out of tracks, I ﬁ nd that it’s generally

best to have a steady build-up of beats and drum loops, along with a solid, crisp

pattern. It’s a very loud environment in clubs, so it helps if there is a minimum

of 16 bars of crisp percussion to begin with. In fact, 32 bars are even better but

this obviously depends on how long the track is and on the style of music. Even

with shorter tracks of any genre, though, 16 bars of percussion are necessary for the

intro and outro, as you can build and structure a set using these, slowly progressing

as the night goes on. Also, most jocks will thank you for making tracks ‘DJ friendly ’

by not starting the track with loads of percussion and some melodies too. These

are incredibly difﬁ cult to mix and make your life that little bit harder.

I spend a lot of time playing house and trance, and like most genres of music

it’s true to say that it is somewhat formulated. The drum patterns and rolls are

very similar and many of the melodies share plenty of similarities in the sounds

that are used. That said, people who really love dance music understand that

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it is a vibe as well – a feel-good factor – and this is what really separates the

music. Dance music has to have soul and it has to connect with you on the

right level. When I buy new tunes (yes, even with promos we still buy lots of

vinyl, especially imports) I can hear immediately if a track has the right elem-

ents. It has to stand out from the rest with an indeﬁ nable groove, that extra-

special something that makes you want to move your feet. I also often ﬁ nd that

sometimes the simplest riffs create the best reaction on the dance ﬂ oor. Tracks

like Layo and Bushwacka’s Love Story with the acappella vocal of Finally over the

top is a massive tune in clubs at the moment, reaching anthem status of late .

Also, Jam X and De Leon’s Can U Dig It?, which sampled a famous 1980s riff

in a trance style, is doing incredibly well. Both these use very simple melodies

but to a devastating effect that sends the crowds nuts.

I would also say that familiarity in dance records is a good thing. Take Room

5’s Make Luv and Listen to the Music , I, along with a few other DJs, managed to

get hold of a copy approximately a year before the UK label Positiva snapped it

up. I used to play it out and get an average reaction from the crowd, but, when

it became more popular and featured on a certain deodorant advert the reac-

tion when played out was outstanding. People would cheer and sing along to it

as it became the favourite tune of the moment. Familiarity plays a large role in

the scene. Ultimately, though, a track has to have a thumping, pounding four-

to-the-ﬂ oor-groove that just makes you want to shake your butt. And from the

many years I’ve been spinning vinyl and playing everything from house to pro-

gressive to techno to trance, I have to say that the hands in the air, spine tin-

gling euphoria (trance) always seems to get the best reactions from the crowd.

COULD YOU DESCRIBE SOME DJ TECHNIQUES?

This is possibly the most difﬁ cult question to answer because there are so many

genres of dance music and each has a slightly different method of mixing. The

basic principles are all the same but some require more skill than others, along

with some dexterity and ﬂ air thrown in too. DJ’ing and mixing has come a long

way since the early 1980s. It originally started when New York DJs like Cool

Herc (one of the founders of hip-hop and DJ’ing) used to use two rickety old

turntables with rotary pitch control, a stereophonic mixer (with no cross-fader)

to cut, scratch and mix two copies of the same record together. The breaks from

old soul, jazz and funk records were mixed so that the music played continu-

ously while MCs (acronym for Master of Ceremony) such as KRS 1, MC Shan,

Sugar Hill gang, Steady B and Afrika Bambaata would rap fresh rhymes over

the top. This was the birth of DJ’ing as we know it today and many hip-hop

artists are still cutting up old soul and funk tracks to make fresh beats. Early

idols of mine such as the legendary Jazzy Jeff, who invented the transformer

cut/scratch, with partner in crime, quirky rapper Will Smith led the way for a

plethora of DJs to experiment, create and innovate. In England, back in the late

1970s, a little known fact, believe it or not, is that one of the ﬁ rst non-dance

music DJs (as we know it) to ‘mix’ two records together was none other than

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Sir Jimmy Savvile – how’s about that then! In fact, years ago he was one of the

ﬁ rst guys on air at the BBC to fashion this technique.

Nowadays, hip-hop DJ’ing aside, this same mixing principle still applies and the

typical DJ technique is to mix and ‘beat match ’ two songs together. This is to

physically blend and craft the sounds together to make one continuous sound

and to do this, and do it well, is an art form in itself that is dependent on the

genre. For example, a techno DJ will mix differently than a drum ‘n’ bass DJ

would, while a house DJ will spin much differently than would a hip-hop DJ.

There are lots of different techniques and to describe them all would take me a

long, long time, so I’ll describe them brieﬂ y. Firstly, there’s the technique known

as the blend. This is used mainly in house-style mixing but is also common with

trance and consists of merging two tracks together, keeping them in sync so you

can fade from one to the other. Personally, I get both tracks in sync and also in

key, with room to build both to a crescendo, as they tend to be quite epic.

Hip-hop DJs use ‘cutting’ techniques where you use the cross-fader in conjunc-

tion with the turntable, bringing in parts of the track as you manipulate the

faders and ‘cut’ parts of the track, beat or vocal up. A classic set-up of the decks

for hip-hop DJs is to turn them around vertically so that the pitch and tone

arm is at the top (as the pitch control is rarely used much with this style), giv-

ing more room to manoeuvre for techniques like scratching – which is cueing

up a beat, noise or vocal on the up beat, and physically moving the record back

and forth quickly to create a ‘scratch ‘ ( Figure 23.1 ).

FIGURE 23.1

The hip-hop scratching

technique

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There’s also the rougher cutting and chopping style used in drum ‘n ’ bass and

breakbeat (the music’s a lot faster, as is the style of mixing), which consists

of using the percussion from one record and mixing it with different elements

from another. These are all advance techniques that are difﬁ cult to encapsu-

late in words and the only real way to learn them is to watch the ‘masters’ at

work and pick up on their tactics. What’s more, a lot of these techniques can be

applied to various styles, it depends on how dextrous and creative you are.

WHAT GEAR WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO THOSE

WANTING TO DJ’ING?

The classic set-up for a DJ is two decks and a mixer (even though you probably

want to start mixing on six decks, it’s best to start out with the classic set-up

for now). To those just starting out, I would recommend investing in a pair of

second-hand belt drive decks. However, there are plenty of arguments when it

comes to this kind of advice, since some will recommend that you should go

straight to the professional decks immediately. This is because when you get to

a club they will almost deﬁ nitely have the ‘industry standard ’ Technics (which

they invariably will the world over). I disagree.

I learnt the hard way by using cheap gear and building my way up and I still

believe that this is deﬁ nitely the way to go. By taking your apprenticeship on less

than pro equipment, it puts you in good stead when you get to the pro gear, and

keeps your skills sharp. If you can mix on wobbly old belt drive decks near per-

fectly, then you can mix on anything in any condition – once you have learnt to

adjust the differences of the two. As a result, I recommend the Gemini PT2000s

or the Numark range, but there are literally hundreds of starter decks and pack-

ages available. Alongside these you’ll also need a cheap two-channel mixer to

start mixing and matching beats (if they’re not included in the starter pack) and

I’d recommend the Kam Made To Fade or the Gemini 626. These can be hooked

directly into your hi-ﬁ system through the AUX-IN and it saves you additional

expenditure having to purchase an amp and speakers. Conversely, if you want to

mix with CD rather than vinyl, then, if you’re just starting out, get a second-hand

pair of Pioneer CDJ100s, or 500s (the old models), and learn the basics on these.

When you feel you are ready, you can then step up to the intermediate or pro

equipment, depending on what level you are at and what your budget is.

PROFESSIONAL TURNTABLES

There was a time when the mighty Technics deck reigned supreme and

remained unchallenged and, although they still are, there are some serious

contenders in the turntable ring. There are now three viable and dependable

main makes of pro turntables:

■ Technics

■ Vestax

■ Stanton

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The Technics 1200 and 1210Mk2 ‘wheels of steel ’ professional turntables have

been knocking around for well over 20 years and are still the industry-standard

turntables in serious clubs the world over. They have heavyweight clout and

are the ﬁ rm favourites of DJs; they were the DMC world mixing champion-

ship’s only turntable for well over a decade. That said, they have released only

two variations on the theme since the initial production of the Mk2. The lim-

ited edition 1210Mk3 was released a few years ago (and is still selling well), and

now they are set to release their newest models, the 1210Mk5 and 5G. These

all retain the classic sexy design with slight improvements on performance, yet

keeping the old familiar feeling with the torque strength. This has been a prob-

lem with other decks from different manufacturers as DJs are only used to the

Technics ’ design and feel. Any professional relying on a set standard of equip-

ment for a performance wants to know exactly how it works, where everything

is and how it reacts. It’s dreadful arriving at a gig, especially abroad, only to

ﬁ nd a deck you’re not familiar with. In fact, because of this I now specify what

equipment I will use in my contract, and I only stipulate Technics or Stanton

turntables ( Figure 23.2 ).

Vestax has, over the years, come on leaps and bounds in the turntable market,

having been a manufacturer of quality mixers for many years which are favou-

rite installations in pro DJ booths worldwide . Of late, they have turned their

intricate knowledge to decks with their quality PDX range, including the PDX

D3s, and PDX2000/2300. Although the features of these decks bafﬂ ed many

DJs, as they started to include features like ultra pitch, instant reverse, digital

pitch display, joystick controls, etc., they proved their worth, though, especially

FIGURE 23.2

The requisite Technics

SL-1210MK5.

Photograph printed

with permission.