Stripping the Mix - for Radio Hits

The good old 'Radio Edit' - a lost art, or something that should be left back in the major label days where it belongs? Do you need to do one, and if so, how should you go about it? Let's turn that FM dial and tune in for a closer look...

Traditionally, the radio edit was something that would take an album track of four or five minutes down to a more radio-friendly timescale - something that could get played in between standard pop tracks, so it would need to be below three and a half minutes. It also needed to remove any swearing! It was less often used for underground music, as mainstream radio never used to play much dance or electronic music (and you don't get too many cuss words in the latest Richie Hawtin blipfest). But as we roll into 2011, dance music is everywhere; from the Black Eyed Peas to Rusko, electro house to dubstep, you can't escape it on the radio - even on regional, commercial radio stations. So it's definitely worth thinking about.

It's also useful to remember that while it may be hard to get a track on a big national radio show, regional shows will often feature new and local talent, and not only will this bring in some small royalties, but they are often seen as 'feeder' shows for the bigger stations in the same company; tracks can often get picked up from a small show and taken onwards. So it's certainly worth taking into account the radio market when you're finalising your single.

The first thing you should consider is your intro and outro. Do you have a 32-bar drum track on each end? Radio DJs don't usually beatmatch, so we can lose most of those straight off. Maybe chop them down to 8 or 16 bars, and where you might previously have had new elements coming in every 8 bars (for instance), try doubling the speed at which things happen, to keep the listeners interest.

Of course, though, you're not trying to end up with something that sounds like it was made by a DJ with attention-deficit-disorder. What you really want is something that will catch the listener's ear from the first second. And a drum track that just builds up really fast won't necessarily do that. So why not think about taking one of the major elements from later in the track, and layering it over the intro? A prominent sample, a leadline, maybe some of the vocal. This will not only help catch the listener's ear, but also attract the interest of the people who make the playlists at the station too!

If your track has a verse and chorus structure, then it's often a good idea to take some of the harmonies in the chorus, and use them in the intro; as they will naturally flow nicely into the verse, this will help your intro build up to the main part of the track, and since people tend to remember the choruses of songs, they should recognise your track straight away.

A good example of this is Beyonce's track 'Crazy In Love'. Everyone knows the chorus is the best bit, it's the payoff, the bit that everyone recognises, the hands in the air moment when it comes on in the club. As such, there's basically no intro; bang, straight into the chorus. Twice! And no outro either - it's the chorus again. Or, in early 2011, Nero's dubstep track 'You And Me'. It's basically chorus from beginning to end; no drum intro, just a big build-up into a punchline of vocals. So be ruthless; identify the best bits of your track and make sure they're represented prominently, early on. Your author has even gone so far as to skip out a verse entirely if it helps the track get to the point more snappily. The singer might not be too happy, but the record label certainly will...

Don't forget to have a look at the mixdown, too. Again, this isn't something for DJs to play out in the club, so it doesn't need a tonne of sub-bass - in fact, that will probably make it sound worse, when it's coming out of an old car stereo or small transistor radio in mono (you did check the mono sum of your mix to make sure it sounds OK, right?).

Small speakers can tend to distort when confronted with a booming sub. So roll off a few dB of sub bass, and make sure the important parts - the lead melodies, any vocals - are bright and present at the front of the mix.

And that, in a nutshell, is the world of the radio edit. You can do it after the mixdown, if you're handy with the scissors it doesn't take too long, and it will give your promotion campaign a whole extra angle to go for. So don't just target the club DJs, get busy and see if you might not just have a pop hit on your hands...

10 Questions with: Tom Oldfield - Graphic Designer & Webmaster

What do you do here at Prime Loops?

I'm Tom, and I'm the one who makes all those product covers you've been gazing at here at Prime Loops, including the newsletter and many parts of the website.

How did you get into graphic design?

I'm a hardened photoshop geek who started out in web and digital art at 15, using computers that would take a week to do artwork that I can now do in a day. Now I breathe HTML, eat CSS3 and sleep pixels, and try not to bore my workmates too much with geeky trivia about the computers and web tools we use.


And when did you join Prime Loops?

I've been with Prime Loops since the beginning, designing all the graphics and helping it grow from humble beginnings back in my hometown into the monstrous world-famous audio powerhouse it is today.


What's been your biggest achievement of 2010?

It's been another year of Prime Loops releases, at least one a week - and that's a whole lot of covers and newsletters. On top of that I've also been very involved in technical aspects of the website, setting up servers, working on system configurations and a whole host of other things you wouldn't necessarily understand, all to keep the Prime Loops ship sailing! My Design portfolio of my Prime Loops work is so huge now, it's a continual achievement, and since I got into design, I've always wanted to do album covers - now it's like I do one (or more) every week!


What moments will you never forget??

Some people know where they were when the moon landing happened, or when Kennedy was shot. Me, I remember different history within my lifetime: where I was when I found out Captain Beefheart had died. Respect to a legend, and to an early pioneer of the strange and unexpected.


Who's been your favourite newcomer of the year?

To music? I'm a pretty atypical music consumer... I tend to be blind to hype, and deaf to new releases while they're charting; It's more about what can remain in one's playlists for years later. Wild Beasts' "Two Dancers" has been all over my Spotify lately, though. They're newcomer-ish, and certainly straight out of leftfield with a sound like that.


What's the best live gig you have been to recently?

For an epic gig of epic sounds and epic storytelling when they played their whole concept album at London's Electric Ballroom venue, for their ability to turn right around after that and make a fine folkstomper of an album that could have been released in the 90s, and for gaining the stature to make giants like Peter Buck one of their own, it's kinda got to be The Decemberists.


Do you have any other artists you look up to?

I've also got some kudos for Kanye West on the side for being able to look inwards at himself through the fourth wall and write a whole album about the curious cutout caricature world that fame can become. And for putting King Crimson earworms in my head.


What's your favourite label at the moment?

I don't have much in the way of high regard for labels now that there's an internet out there and the existence of labels has become near-meaningless! I'm all about the self-promotion, for musicians, artists, or any other kinds of talent.


What musical hardware gets you going?

I'm a player of stringed instruments, but they're hardly all portable or easy to cleanly record. I've been meaning to become a more competent keyboardist, since I'm not that bad a producer on the rare occasions that I have the time to create some audio. Instead, I've found myself recently using my shiny new iPad to make strange experimental sound pieces and musique concrete using various synths, especially those with non-traditional input methods, like Reactable, Bebot, and more... If you see me in a band in the future playing an iPad held up to my mouth like a Talkbox, or hand drumming with midi trigger pads strapped to my knees, don't be too surprised!

Does Free Music Pay Off?

You've seen it pushed on every forum and industry blog from here to Timbuktu - give your tracks away for free and wait for the money to roll in. 'Free' is better than 'paid'. But is it really? Does it work, and should you give it a whirl? Read on.

Over the last few years, and especially recently, the idea of giving away free tracks has become very common. In fact, it's pretty much the established wisdom - you have to give something away free to the bloggers, the hungry masses, and this will help you boost your profile. People have even given away free albums, or on a 'pay what you want' basis. It's everywhere now.

So, it's everywhere, and you for that reason you shouldn't dismiss it, but don't just jump in head-first. First, it's important to think why you're giving something away for free, and what the 'angle' is. If you're just giving something away, for the love of it, then that's fine - but it won't necessarily help your profile. You can't put something up on your Soundcloud account, not really promote it, and wait for the hits to roll in; there are lots of people doing exactly the same thing. The fact that it's free doesn't really set it apart from all the other free things out there. But if you're releasing a single or EP on a label, and are prepared to give away one of the tracks, that's a different thing - you're setting yourself slightly apart from the other million releases out there, and that's something you can emphasise in your promotion campaign.

Blogs aren't always interested in mails that say 'my track is out now in shops'. But if they can offer something more to their readers, then they may help you promote your release. You'll notice the mentions of 'promotion' there, and this is something that's really important now. It's no longer the case that a free track alone is enough, and will generate its own publicity; you have to promote it just as much as you would if it was a 'real' release. You should be sending it to blogs - lots of blogs - posting on forums, hitting up your mailing list if you have one, getting your friends to tweet about it, and so on. As such, of course, if you're going to promote it like it was a real release, you need to make sure it's as good as a real release! The last thing you want is for it to work against you - someone checks out your free track, it's a bit substandard, and instead of winning a fan, you have just persuaded someone that you're not very good. So quality control is extremely important.

Another thing to consider is what you can expect, results-wise, from the process. A good free release will certainly boost your profile to a degree; if you can get it on plenty of blogs, websites, magazines, and into free music archives, you can expect a significant bump in people's awareness of you; you can check this with google insights. If you're diligent with your promo, you may even see a lift of 50 - 100% in searches for your artist name. This will, however, be extremely transient - maybe even for just a week or so, such is the internet generation's constant hunger for the new.

So if you're not getting money from it, and it only lasts briefly, is there a point? Yes; but only if you build on it. You need to make sure that you're able to direct all this traffic to your website or facebook page; you could even set up a topspin or bandcamp account that will collect an email address from downloaders. If you do that, though, make sure people can preview the track before they have to give up their email address, as it can put some people off. What you can also do, however, is to use it as proof; mail some local promoters and ask for gigs. Mail some local papers and try to get a small feature in the night-life section, based on how this local artist is getting global coverage from their DIY promo efforts. Also, as you make contact with blogs and websites, use it to build a relationship - as you say thanks for the coverage, ask if you can do an exclusive mix for them, offer them something in return. This may serve you well in securing future mentions from a friendly blogger.

We can see, then, that getting hits from a free release is not an end in itself, but it's something you can incorporate as part of a wider effort. So plan it carefully - what will you do next? How will you build on it? Which sites and blogs will you target? And when will we be seeing your free track out there on the net?

Big Up Your Mix - With Fills & FX

You've got your hook, your catchy eight bar loop, and your drums are sounding big. You've laid out the arrangement of your track, and all you need now is a few fills to keep things interesting. Let's take a look at some options...

Before we get stuck into that, though, let's just consider what a fill is for. It's usually something you'd have at the end of an 8 or 16 bar phrase, maybe to lead into the next section, or perhaps just to add variety as your track rolls through. In either case, though, it's something that adds a nice little detail or element of anticipation to an existing idea. What it shouldn't need to do, is add life to a boring track. If your track isn't much good without fills, then adding a crash every 8 bars won't make the difference. You'd be better off re-visiting the arrangement, and possibly getting a couple more musical ideas in there. For this reason, it's usually best to add your fills at the end of the writing process; so you can be sure that you're not just compensating for a less-than-fully-featured tune.

So, what can we add in? Well, the word 'fill' is most commonly applied to drums, so let us start there. At the end of an eight bar phrase, you can add in some drum variation in a number of ways. House and techno fans may wish to go for something as simple as a kick roll or a snare roll. Even claps! A gradual fade-in, on 8th or 16th notes will do the trick. It's a straightfoward manoeuvre, but classic, and with good reason; it certainly builds up anticipation for the next section.

Anyone writing more natural sounding beats could re-arrange their drum hits to suit; if you're layering several hits to make a snare, then taking some of these sounds and using them in a fill will enable you to write something that keeps the character of your snare, but has less weight, so you can be a little more dextrous with your programming. Bear in mind at these points to think like a drummer; a real drummer can't hit three drums at once, for instance, so if you want a natural sound then try to imagine how it might be played. Of course, if you don't want a natural sound, then let rip...

Alternatively, you can bring in a completely new drum loop for one bar; a big, bashy funk loop, or a sharp, clipped electro loop, something that will contrast with your drum track. Drop it in for one bar and cut out your old track; it will seize the listener's attention at the same time as creating tension while they wait for the beat to resolve back to the original sound.

Don't forget about resampling your drums. We'll touch on this again, but by bouncing down your entire drum track, you can load up a bar as audio and then chop it around in the arrange window of your DAW. It's a quick and easy way of reprogramming your beat, keeping the feel of your main drum track but allowing you to chop things around like you might with
a classic break. This is something that's best done pretty late in the
production process though – if you resample and then completely change the sound of your drums in mixdown, it won't sound too consistent.

There are plenty of other ways of generating interest, though. One of the most popular is to get a 'riser' into your track. This could be something as simple as a rising tone (just pitchbend a sustained synth up for a few octaves over the space of a bar or two) or the classic white noise – get some white noise, low pass filter it, and open the filter as you come to the end of your phrase. Similarly, you could take an interesting droney FX sound and just fade it in.

While we're on the subject of effects, lets not forget the classic dub styles of temporarily sending things to an effects channel. You'll need some automation for this, but you could consider sending your snare sound to a big delay for a couple of beats, or possibly grouping a few things together, and automating a send to a tight reverb, to make everything sound a bit loose and spacious. Then, at the start of your next phrase, everything slams back into focus.

At the start of a phrase, many people like to use a crash cymbal to signify that we're moving to another section. This works, and it's a classic option, but it can be dull to hear every 8 or 16 bars. So why not try to vary it up a bit? A big noisy FX sound with some reverb and delay can have more impact, or some sharp filtered bleeps and bloops from an analogue-sounding synth can be much more interesting. It's also good to remember that you don't always need to emphasise beat one; try putting your crash on beat two or three of the bar, to catch listeners off-guard. Often, you can leave the drums out for the first half-bar or so of your new phrase, to give it more energy when it kicks back in.

One trick for the IDM-influenced heads out there is to return to our question of resampling. Why not resample the entire track? Get it back in as audio, and you can chop it down as crazily as you like. Or, fire up a plugin like dBlue's legendary 'Glitch' and let it rip. Loop the track for 10 minutes, bounce it down again, and you've got yourself 10 minutes worth of clever 'stutter' edits that you can drop into your track at will. Resample these, vocode them, reverb them, do whatever, and you're now halfway to writing an Aphex Twin tune. But remember – it is possible to have too much of a good thing! If you go too complex, people can start to lose the groove. And that's not cool.

These are all production tips - it's a production blog after all - but there are, of course, plenty of more musically oriented options too. You could go for a quick chord change - try moving to the 4th or 5th of the scale for a bar, or maybe an inversion; make your lead melody go up for a bar instead of down.

So, we trust this has given you a useful overview of some of the options out there for you; now get working on that track and give it that last few percent of detail that will lift it above all the others out there!

10 Questions with: Joe Colkett - Admin/Customer Service

What's your role at Prime Loops?

I provide support to our customers. I offer advice on suitable file formats and help out with technical difficulties. I also interact a lot with our customers via social networks. There's a real community feel to what we do and it's great to hear suggestions and ideas from our followers.

How did you first get in to music?

When I was a kid my parents would play records in the house. When I was eleven I started playing guitar. A year later I picked up a four-track cassette recorder, which is when I became interested in engineering and production.

Do you find yourself using samples in your own recordings?

I've used sampled drums in the past. I made some recordings with a terrible drum kit. The snare drum had no snap so I dropped in a sample over every hit. I also found a bunch of grainy Mellotron samples recently that I've been using a lot.

Have you been to any notable music events recently?

On New Year's Eve I went to see Sonic Youth, Shellac and The Pop Group at the Hammersmith Apollo, which was fun. The acoustics in there are really great. Nice way to see off 2010.

Do you still buy C.D.'s?

The only C.D. player I have is in my Macbook and I can't remember the last time I used it. I have a load of C.D.'s gathering dust.

I try to buy vinyl when I can. It just sounds better and is a more collectible artefact than a C.D. I use Spotify a lot too.

What's the best music venue in London?

I really liked the Astoria, which is gone now. The Luminaire in Kilburn is one of my favourites but I hear that's closing down too. There's loads of new venues popping up all over the place, so that keeps me guessing what's next. They occasionally host music events in Shoreditch Church, which sounds interesting.

How do you hear about new music?

Mainly via the Internet. There's a million blogs out there, which will link you to interesting new music. I like to go to live shows and check out support acts i wouldn't have seen otherwise. Sometimes i just hit shuffle on my iTunes and hear stuff I've never heard before.

Now that it's so easy to make home recordings, does it still make sense to use commercial recording studios?

You can make a whole record in your bedroom and it will sound great. The advantage of using a commercial recording studio is that you can focus on the creative side, which is the music. You can leave the technical stuff to the engineer. Chances are, the studio has better gear than you too. It can be good to let someone else mix your stuff. When you do it yourself you tend to obsess over small things rather than looking at the bigger picture.

Analogue or digital?

Both. The beauty of the digital domain is the speed in which routing and editing is possible. I like to get some analogue in the chain before recording to disc. A nice valve mic preamp before hitting the DAW can warm things up a lot. Bussing out tracks to some nice outboard gear can also add a lot of character. Saying that, I've heard great recordings made with just Garageband. The most important thing is knowing your gear well, whether it's analogue or digital, and getting your music recorded.

10 Questions with: Rene Steuns - Product Manager

What do you do here at Prime Loops?

My name is Rene Steuns and I'm the product manager at Prime Loops. I'm on a never-ending mission to push sonic boundaries, so I'm constantly thinking about how we can continue to inspire millions of music producers out there with tasty new cutting-edge sounds.

Where do you think music will go?

Let me put this short: The next 10 years in music production are going to be INSANE. We will be witnessing numerous unexpected developments as well as new innovations within a relatively short period in this field.

Would you say that there is a strong link between music and technology?

Absolutely! People have finally rediscovered that you don't have to be a virtuoso or a fully trained engineer to express yourself. Very similar to what happened in the mid 70s actually, when the whole punk thing started taking off. Right now the majority of styles or trends in pop culture are driven by technological progression though, rather than social movements. You can easily record your own music at home, make some visuals and create your own fan base… You don't even need a label to get heard! There is a real DIY spirit in the air right now, inspired by affordable (and user-friendly!) technology.

Is there also a downside to all the technical progress?

Well at the same time we have all become a lot more self-absorbed, mainly down to some of the benefits of these technologies. However, this will dramatically change over the next few years: Light speed internet access via fibre-optic service, augmented reality and real-time holograms will soon help us become a lot more sociable again!

So what else does the future hold?

There are so many amazing new ways to create, perform and experience music today, which we are all very excited about here at Prime Loops. Just check out some of most recent 3d Kinect midi/audio controller hacks on youtube and you'll get a feel for what I mean. All of these developments will also have a major impact on what live shows will look like in the future, exciting times ahead!

But hasn't everything been done in music already?

Definitely not! There are still a lot of areas, which haven't been explored yet! In the future it'll be all about developing your own trademark sound, more than ever. That's where we come in with Prime Loops!

So what will be the next big thing after Dubstep then?

I strongly believe that we'll have to stop thinking in genres! Free your mind! As opposed to full-on genres it will be more about particular sounds and specific samples in the future. Just think of some of the stylistic elements and sonic ingredients which make a recording sound "contemporary" these days: wobble basslines, side-chained synth hooks, trance riffs, auto-tuned vocals with tapestop/choppage effects for example. Producers from all around the world have stopped thinking in boxes and have finally started using these sounds across ALL genres, almost modular! This new approach is fascinating, and it will open a lot of doors in the future!

No more genres? This sounds scary!

Well, just have a look at the charts, it's already happening: Whether it's the Black Eyed Peas flirting with Dutch house, Britney going Dubstep, Sleigh Bells recording with Beyonce, Usher riding the Euro-Dance wave or David Guetta producing U2. Everything is possible!

And finally, do you have any tips for upcoming artists or producers?

Most importantly: be different, if you want to stick around for a bit longer you gotta be original! Be brave and make a difference! If you're working with lyrics start introducing your own lingo, if you're responsible for the music side of things then don't be afraid to swap conventional sounds and samples with new flavours and unexpected elements. Also, before you go out there, have a good think about what a strong look could be, think about what will trigger people's imagination. There's a lot of people out there that are tired of this whole reality and authenticity thing, it's never been easier to get people's attention!

Self Promotion: Make Yourself Heard!

In this day and age, there are more producers, remixers, mashup artists and bedroom sound-hackers out there than ever before. So it's important to make your stuff stand out from the crowd. But how should you set about doing this, and getting yourself heard? Let's run over some options...

There are plenty of ways of getting your message out there, but there are also a few things you need to make sure of first, before you start shouting from the rooftops.

To begin, you need to have a point where people can hear your stuff, and get information about your, for when the hits and listeners start rolling in. Five years ago (or even three), this would have been a Myspace page, but since it became a spam graveyard everyone deserted it. Facebook? It's fine for now, but what's to say it won't go the same way? Anyone with a couple of thousand friends on there can tell you how much spam they've been getting lately. Soundcloud is a great place to host your tracks, but it's limited as to how much information you can include, and how much you can customise your site.

Indeed, social media as a whole can change quickly, as new sites come and go. So instead of setting up profiles on every new system that comes along, a better idea these days is to set up a blog. The likes of Tumblr and Posterous offer simple sites that are easily customisable, and easy to post to. From these you can link to a simple 'place-holder' on Facebook that just redirects people to your main site.

On this site, you should have some basic information. Embed tunes from your Soundcloud account and youtube channel, have a press shot or logo in case anyone wants to write about you, include contact details, and a short biography explaining who you are and what you do, any releases you've had. That'll do for now.

So, you're all set up for when the hordes start piling over to your site. Time for step two; getting them interested!

You can start close to home; hit up your friend list on Facebook, tweet about your new site, tell some buddies on AIM. You can even post on some forums where you're a regular, and people will check out your stuff. This is the easy part; all of these listeners are people who would be sympathetic to your cause, as friends who are interested to see what you've been up to, for instance. The challenge is getting people who have never heard of you to listen.

For this, you need an angle. Everyone is a bedroom producer with some tunes, so you need to distinguish yourself somewhat. Send your beats out to all the DJs you can get contacts for (hit them up on AIM or Facebook). Don't be precious about the tracks – people know the score these days and know not to share, so the more exposure you can get the better, and it all helps to make your case. Saying that these tracks have are getting plays from DJ's X, Y, and Z will make them stand out from the next forum post along. When sending out tracks, it's best to aim slightly low; the likes of Skream or Eric Prydz will be receiving hundreds of tracks per day and can't possibly listen to everything. If you start a touch further down the league table you're more likely to be heard, and those DJs can pass your tracks along to their crew, or even some bigger names. Don't forget the internet radio DJs too – these can reach a worldwide audience.

You should also think about getting a good DJ mix together. Putting single tracks up on your site is all very well for the heads, but the people who will make up the majority of your future fans are those who go out to the clubs on a Friday, listen to mixes on their iPod on the way to work, and don't want to be sifting through tonnes of demo tracks. So a good mix is important, and this is another reason for getting your tunes out to as many DJs as you can – because then you can start swapping tunes. This comes back to the same issue of making your mix stand out; anyone can mix the Beatport top 10 together; a mix full of unreleased tracks will be that much fresher. But don't just stop there – can you incorporate a live aspect somehow? Do some special edits exclusively for the mix? Get a local MC to come down and do some hosting? Again, the more distinctive you can make the mix, the more people will want to check it out, so really go to town on it.

Once you've hit up your friendlists, it's time to get onto the blogs. This is going to involve a lot of research – you need to sit down, get surfing, and make a list of blogs and their contact details. Don't just stop at five or ten – spend a whole weekend gathering hundreds of the things. Yes, hundreds. And don't forget the foreign language blogs too! There's a whole world of music fans out there. This is a boring process but it will really help make people aware of your stuff. If you can email blogs individually it will yield better results, but if you don't have time you can mass-mail. But remember to always BCC people in – no-one likes being reminded that they're just part of a big campaign.

In your mail, include details of what you do (and a description of what your music sounds like, don't wait for them to click), your website, and – this can't be stressed enough – a link where people can stream your beats. Bloggers get so many mails these days they can't afford to waste their precious spare time waiting for a MegaRapid.com before they can get an idea of your style. You should keep the blogs up to date with what you're doing – don't mail every week, but maybe every few months – and consider offering a free tune at (say) 192k to those that seem interested. Blogs always like to have something exclusive to offer their readers and it's a good way to persuade them to post about you.

If you're going to go down the 'free tune' route (and it's something we'll look at in a future column) then consider setting up an account with the likes of Bandcamp or Topspin. These services enable you to offer tracks in exchange for an email address, and there are even sites that can set up a free track for people who tweet about it to their friends. This will help get the track out further, or enable you to build up a mailing list so that next time, you can go directly to people who already like your sound.

Don't forget also to go on the hustle for gigs; get in contact with promoters in your city for some local warm-up slots, and look on local forums for details of parties in your area that you could hit up. Bring CDs of your stuff to hand to some of the other DJs, and make sure you shout about it too – if you can help with promotion, you'll be more likely to get a repeat booking.

Self promotion is, as you can see, an awful lot of work, but when done properly it can really boost your profile. We could write thousands of words on it, quite frankly, and many people have done - if you want to go into depth then try reading sites like musicthinktank.com where industry people go into some serious detail about how to do it.

But when you come down to it, the single most important thing you can do to get your name around is to write incredible music. If you're writing tunes that DJs are begging you for, word of mouth will do the rest! So before all this, make sure your tracks are not just up to scratch, but blowing up the dancefloors. That's the most helpful foundation you could have.

Then, once you've got the beats sorted, fire up a spreadsheet and a browser, and get hustling!