Tag: Zouk

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My YouTube

Video Clip of DJ Inquisitive at Zouk, Singapore for the DMC World Championship Country Finals

This is the video clip of DJ Inquisitive recorded at Zouk during the DMC World Championship Singapore Finals as promised.  And yes, he is good.  The reigning champ has defended his title and will head to UK to compete for the World Supremacy title.

After all the hard earned experience in the post production work for my band’s videos at the jamming studios not ideal for sound recording, I thought I was well equipped to do the job here.  Took me a long time to figure out that applying effects on an upscale mono low bit-rate audio clip introduces a lot of high frequency noise.  Also, quite a few video encoding tools out there don’t handle mono audio clips well.

On a more positive note in the name of sharing, to clean up the mono audio recording of this clip, I pass the original recording through a clean solid state amp simulator with a flat boosted EQ setting and a 4×12 cabinet to add clarity to the muffled sound.  I then pass this to a compressor with a soft knee and a moderately boosted output gain to keep the sound hot but not too distorted.  Feel free to share the technique you use to clean up the sound recorded from a camera here. Hope you’ll enjoy watching this video.

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Party

Reigning Singapore DJ Champ Ate the Rest of the Contestants Alive at Zouk

So I was invited to attend the DJ Championship Singapore Finals at Zouk and took some rather exclusive photos on the lovely ladies from TDK Life on Record.  Gosh, I love my ‘job’.

Now, why would I wish to spoil the photo with my mug shot?  So I deployed my humble assistant journalist, my de facto model to record the moment of “yes we were there”.  Right after the shots, Cynthia grabbed my camera in one swift motion.  I was shocked by her eagerness to view my quite-possibly-award-winning pictures of the evening.  She held up the camera asked me point-blank with a smile, “I don’t look too bad compared to these models, do I?”

Uh-oh.  Red alert.  It is like that “Am I fat?” question that we guys have to face constantly in our lifetime – from our girlfriends, or sisters, or sisters’ girl friends, or girl friends’ sisters.  If I could choose, going back in time, between …

… the TDK Life on Record headsets these models were holding and my Sennheiser …

As the music was blasting on the dance floor, we tried out the two (headphone) models – ST-200, the street style Hi-fi studio headphones that comes in 3 designs (S$29.90) and ST-Pro400, the Professional DJ studio headphones (S$59.90) – and I must say they are pretty value for money.  They shielded most of the noise out and I was happily bobbing my head up and down to the music these (TDK Life on Record) models were playing.

As for the event, I don’t know which one is more distractive – the constant smooching from the couple less than a few inches away from my face or the constant technical problems faced by the DJs.  Nevertheless, it was eye opening to see them (the contestants) in action.  The blending of sound from the vinyl records played from two different turntables, the control of volume and speed and the precise timing of two music sources that can either be identical or different, the creation of the mad scratching sound, and the stop and go of the turntable in fabricating a dramatic entrance and exit feel – all orchestrated by the magical hands of the DJs.  And that’s not all.  The good ones are those who come with a personality, a pair of calm hands, and the creativity to construct a musical piece that rallies the mood of the crowd.  It is a skill, for sure.  Even with the markings on the vinyl records, things can go wrong.

When the reigning DMC Singapore champ, DJ Inquisitive, took the stage, he practically ate the rest of the contestants alive.  The crowd went wild.  Not surprisingly, he won the finals and will represent Singapore in the battling of the World Supremacy title in London.

Congratulations to all the contestants who made it out there on the stage.  And to DJ Inquisitive, best of luck in UK.  I will upload one video I have taken.  Perhaps on a Friday evening to get y’all in a party mood.

PS: Zouk cardholders get an S$10 discount off the TDK Life on Record headphones (ST-Pro400, ST-Pro300 and NC-100 models) at Cyberactive outlets.  Check them out if you are looking for one.

Related Post: Video Clip of DJ Inquisitive at Zouk, Singapore for the DMC World Championship Country Finals

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I See I Write

2008 DMC World DJ Championship Singapore Finals Sponsored by TDK Life on Record – See Y’all There!

Beijing Olympic may be over but the DMC World DJ Championship is heating up.  Cynthia and I will be heading to Zouk this Saturday (heats at 9pm, final at 11pm) and see who is going to represent Singapore to battle for the World Supremacy title at London this September.  Sounds exciting?  Damn right it’s going to be!

DJ Kid Fresh – 3 times World Champion – from Germany will be there to rock the house.  I’ve checked out his MySpace and he does have some pretty cool stuff.  I am told that the sponsor TDK Life on Record has commissioned DJ Perplex (2006, 2007 DMC Australian Champ) to mix a CD of up-and-coming artists from around the globe and the CD will be distributed during the show!  His music direction is more into a mesh of hip-hop, electro, and experimental.  Wanna download a sample (I heard it, it is good stuff)?

The rule is pretty simple.  Each contestant will be given 3 minutes at the elimination round to “bring it on”.  Final round will last for 6 minutes.  What the contestants allow to use are two turntables and one mixer as well as any stylus in the Ortofon range.  What this setup does is simply allowing the DJ to creatively mix the music from two different sources.  And because effects and modifications to the setup is not allow in this competition, it is really back to basic and put every DJ on the same ground.

Edit: My insider source tells me that there will be lovely ladies from TDK Life on Record to demo the TDK headphones.  They will be in around the area so do try them out when you have a chance (erm … the headphones)!  Zouk members will receive a discount over these headphones at Cyberactive.  Now, who is kind enough to lend me a Zouk card?!

Note: Zouk admission on Aug 30 for non-members (incl. 2 drinks) – S$18 before 10pm, S$25, S$30 after.

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Party

7pm – 5am: Of Dinner And Dance, Butter Factory, And Zouk

Till today, I still think that the best thing I can take away from my nine-to-five is the friendship I make. Some feel that the friends they meet as they get older are not as real or as close to those they met when they were young. The way I see it, as time goes by, we bound to lose touch with some good friends of ours. Actively making new friends and putting time and effort in nurturing friendship – old and new – is likely to be the only way to counter that. Some told me that they prefer to live their lives as hermits. My take is, we all want to be alone at times but none of us want to be lonely.

This year’s Dinner and Dance was different. It was a whole set of new colleagues and amongst them, two were my ex-colleagues. We were like having a mini-reunion during the Dinner and Dance. When the clock struck twelve, we headed to Butter Factory to have a real reunion with friends I met from the previous company. The party was smashing and Butter Factory ranks pretty high in my list of favorite clubbing scenes. After Butter Factory was closed at three, some of us moved to Zouk. Believe it or not, it was my first time stepping into Butter Factory … and into Zouk as well.