The Truth About Djing v1.9 PDF

 
The truth about DJing

What every DJ and music producer should know
about the job when starting out
 
dexxterclark.com v 1.9 1
Ta ble o f c o nt e n t s
Table of contents 2
Version changes 4
Introduction 5
English 6
The difference between music producer and DJ 6
The profession 8
Becoming a DJ is hard 8
Mental health 9
Your ears 11
What is Noise induced hearing loss? 11
What is too loud? The guidelines 12
Hearing protection 14
Earplugs for everyday life 14
In ear monitors for DJs 14
For the music producer 14
Getting to know the business 15

DJ-ing is a business 15
The first person you hire 16
Getting to know people 16
Ghost producer 17
The truth about TV talent shows 18
Learning the basic skill of a DJ 19
Where to get your music from 19
DJ pools 19
Streaming 19
Download portals 19
Youtube 20
DJ equipment 20
Where to start 21
Learning the basic skill of a music producer 22
 
Producer equipment 22
Where to start 23
Plugins 24
Standards 24
Plugin misconception 24
Most used plugins 25
Instruments 25
Arranging song structure 26

Arrangement in electronic music 26
Arrangement order 27
Computers for music production and DJing 29
Computers for djing 29
Computer for putting files on usb drive 29
Computer for djing with your laptop 29
Computer for live performance 30
Computer for music production 30
Resources 30
Recommendations 31
Specifications 35
Getting a foot in the door 36
Value exchange - Don’t be thát guy 36
DJ-ing and music production 37
The social media DJ 38
Rights, contracts and lawyers 39
Music rights 40
Bootleg or remix 41
Hire a lawyer 41
How much??? 42
Kinds of contracts 43
General tips for contracts 43
Colophon 46
 
Versio n c ha n ge s
New in version 1.5

• removed subchapters: “The ghost producer” & “djing is a business” (twice in the document)
• added subchapter: the first person you hire
• added: song structure
• added: plugin misconception
• added: plugin standards
 
New in version 1.6
• fixed: typos and spelling mistakes
New in version 1.7

• added: computers for music production
• added: plugins: sampled instruments, samplers and synthesizers
• added: Denzel Washington quote
New in version 1.8 & 1.9

• fixed: a lot typos en spelling mistakes
 
Introd uc t io n
In this e-book I want to give you a rough blueprint of the profession of a DJ and music producer. 
In a way that I would have liked someone to tell me when I started out.
The book was written with three goals in mind:

■ you gaining a little bit of insight about what the job as a DJ and music producer entails.
■ gaining a little of knowledge of the skills of a producer/DJ.
■ prevent you from stepping into common pitfalls. In other words: this book saves you a lot of
money and sleepless nights. Being ambitious and naive is a recipe for disaster.
I won’t go into all the technical details of the actual skills of DJing or producing, that is a topic for
another book. 
This e-book talks about general topics surrounding the profession, but I especially want to into
detail about topics that nobody talks about, because it diminishes the shine of the glossy image
of the DJ. 
For example topics like:
■ hearing loss
■ mental health
■ contracts and the sneaky tricks they pull on you
The goal on my Youtube channel is positivity. 

But regretfully, the music business is not all about sunshine and rainbows. 
In fact most of the time it’s not. 
You are here for the truth! 
Well, here it is…
 
English
I am Dutch, I am fluent in writing and speaking in my native language. 

English however, is my second language I learned at school, movies and written texts. 
Although I try to use proper English in this e-book, you have to give me a little slack here, if
something isn’t said in the way I’m supposed to say it. 
My main goal is to communicate information, content that you can get value out of. 
If the packaging isn’t right, try to look deeper at the underlying information I trying to tell you.
What is your native language?  
Have you ever tried to write a book in a foreign language, or tried to talk to a camera in that
language?
The difference between music producer and DJ
There is a common misconception that I have to clear up before we can continue.

A DJ makes music, right?
And when he is in a club he makes music on the spot, right?
no and no.
A DJ plays music that others (or himself) produced before the DJ gig.
The Music producer is the person who makes the music so a DJ can play it.
For Example:
When I’m operating the cd player on a party of my friend and play “Madonna - Like a prayer”, I
am the DJ. 
When I am Madonna (or collaborated with her), I am the producer. 
(I am aware that I’m oversimplifying things here, but it’s just to make a point).
Where the confusion comes in is when a DJ also

produces his own music.
And since 95% of the famous DJs distribute
music under their DJ name, everybody assumes
that that always is the same person.  
That can be, but doesn’t have to be the case.
To clarify what a DJ does. 

A DJ tries to make a smooth transition between
one song and the other.  
If the DJ does his job right, most people won’t even notice that the DJ ‘pasted’ 10,20,30 songs
together. 
A DJ can only manipulate a song and make a (fluent) transition. 
In other words, a DJ needs to have existing songs to work with.
A performing DJ can (depending on the equipment):
 
■ influence the volume
■ influence the low/mid or high frequencies
■ influence the key of a song
■ influence the speed of a song
■ influence the order of parts of a song (digital only)
■ mix in pre recorded sound effects like a bass drop, horn, riser etc
■ scratch
■ making a basic beat from scratch with a drum computer
■ do a basic mashup, like playing a vocal over an existing song
■ use effects like echo, delay, reverb etc.
But a performing DJ can not:

■ make a song from scratch
To make matters even more confusing, there

is a grey area. 
There are DJs that indeed make a song ‘live’.
They have a program like Ableton Live in
which they have prepared little pieces of a
song in advance and can combine them on-
the-fly (and even play an instrument on top of
that). 
He can mould a song tailored to the needs of
the audience.
But in this book I’ll assume a clear distinction between the music that a music producer makes
and a DJ uses during his DJ gig.
In the 70’s and 80’s DJs where only DJs and music producers, only music producers.
But that started to shift in the 90’s when it was easier to make music with computers and DJs also
started to produce music. 
Nowadays, most DJs produce music, and a lot of producers are standing behind DJ decks.
And it has even gotten to the point where you have to produce music in order to get DJ gigs.
 
I’ll expand a bit more about DJs and producers in the chapter “a foot in the door”
 
The p ro fe s s io n
Becoming a DJ is hard
A lot of people mistake it for a simple job, you only have to play music, right? 
And all the money, chicks and fame will automatically flow towards you. 
 
Sorry, that I have to burst your bubble here. 
Becoming a paid DJ that travels around the world and makes loads of money is hard, especially
nowadays. 
Everyone is a DJ, and every kid seems to be inspired to become the next Martin Garrix.
And although Martin Garrix seemed to pop up out of nowhere, make no mistake, Martijn worked
very hard for his success. 
Many countless unpaid hours he spend willingly to perfect his craft. 
The success of Martin Garrix only sky rocketed after the release of his track Animals. 
Overnight success is the dream of many music producer/DJ, but it’s only 0,5% that actually
succeeds to do that. 
The other 99,5% don’t have that one hit that makes his/her career, it grows gradually.
Denzel Washington (yes, the actor) said something about working hard: 
“I’m a 20 year overnight sensation”
 
Another famous quote from the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is:
“it takes 10.000 hours to perfect a craft”  
To put that in perspective: with a 40 hour work week, it takes you 250 weeks to get there, that is
almost 5 years of unpaid labour. 
 
And in the meantime, you have to work to pay your rent, electric bills and want to have some
food on the table.
You have to love DJ-ing to the bone, so you can set everything aside.
You have to be in it for the love of music. 
You have to be in it for the long run, not a quick success (a quick success is a huge bonus).
Mental health
A topic that people in the industry don’t like to talk about is mental health. 
Mental and physical health is a big problem for artists like DJs.
Do you remember Avicii?
Stress is a natural survival mechanism.

But the way we think about stress in most societies is unhealthy. 
Stress is the number one cause of cancer, and stress is the number one cause of death (when
you count also stress-related illnesses like heart attacks).
And still, most job ads mention stress as part of the job.
Stress was meant to be a coping mechanism in case you where chased by a tiger.
That tiger will eat you if you are not responding fast enough. 
Stress was not meant to increase the workload so someone else can drive a bigger car. 
Why can’t that order wait until tomorrow and has to be shipped today?
When you think about it, stress is forced upon you, by someone else, mostly because of a
financial motivation where you rarely profit from yourself. 
The person that drives the bigger car doesn’t know that you stressed to get the work done.
Being a DJ means that you have to be in

shape for you next gig.  
You can’t do much else the day of the
gig, because you have to give
everything in the couple of hours you
are working.
 
Also the late hours are excruciating.
You start at midnight an work until early
morning, then get some sleep (can you
sleep during the day??), and travel to
your next gig.
But at least that’s a rhythm, right? Wrong! 
If you travel between timezones, there is no rhythm: night = day, day = sometimes night, night =
night … sometimes.
A lot of DJs drink and use drugs.
How long do you think you can continue that unhealthy lifestyle? 
You body is not build to do that.
 
In a regular 9-5 job, you work and have the evening off, sleep and go back to work the next day.
In a regular job your boss has a problem if you burn out (at least here in Europe).
He has to pay you when you are doing ‘nothing’ at home.  
He has to pay for your illness, so it is in his best interest to keep you healthy.
But with DJing you have obligations

and expectations. 
You signed a contract with your
manager (booking agent, tour
manager, etc etc) in which you
promise to take every gig.
Are you ill? That’s your problem, you
have to perform, you signed for it.
And if you cancel, you can get away
with a fine (if you are lucky), but you
also disappoint your fans.
Have you ever thought about how big
the pressure is when peoples salary
depends on you doing a gig, and you
are the ‘only’ one who doesn’t want/can’t do it? 
There are only a few that do not cave under that kind of pressure. 
Most suck it up for a couple of hours by taking a pill and a tray of Red Bull … and everybody is
happy.
As a DJ you are responsible for you own mental health, and not everyone (like Avicii) is capable
to do that.
Everyone wants to be a big star overnight and there are just a couple of ‘lucky’ ones that
manage to do that.
But for the rest of us… 
You learn a lot along the way up, also not to step in pitfalls like bad record deals.
In my opinion it is better reaching the top slowly and healthy than fast and burned out. 
 
Your ea r s
Being able to hear is the most important asset as a DJ and even more so as a music producer.
Your entire career depends on how well you can hear.
The number one physical health issue for DJs is noise induced hearing loss. 
If you are experiencing the first symptoms, you are already too late, because it is irreversible.
What is Noise induced hearing loss?
A common misconception is that high pitched sounds are the cause of hearing loss. 
That is not the case, it are the bass sounds.
In your cochlea, tiny sensitive hairs translate the sound they perceive into an electric signal by
vibrating. 
That signal is translated by your brain to a sound, so you can ‘hear’.
But, when you expose those tiny hairs to sound that is too loud, those hairs get ‘scared’ and lie
down.
The hairs that are lying down are touching each other and make an electric short.  
That short causes a high pitched tone in your ‘ear’. 
When you are younger, you have bigger chance of recovering from that and the noise will
disappear after a couple of hours (if the sound wasn’t too loud). 
This is still dangerous, even if your ears recover, because there is a day when it is permanent.
If it’s permanent you have tinnitus, that means: always a high pitched sound in your ear!
If you have tinnitus the hairs in your cochlea can’t vibrate enough to perceive a clear loud sound,
a.k.a. you have hearing loss.
Tinnitus can drive people crazy! 

Imagine you have to listen to a high pitched sound whole day long: when you are in your car,
 
talking to your girlfriend, when you are having sex and especially when you go for a quiet walk
and when you go to sleep.
I said that the bass sounds are the culprit. 

This is because the hairs in your cochlea that receive bass tones are the first hairs that receive
the sound waves in your cochlea, so the first that are getting damaged. 
Further down the organ the higher pitched sounds are perceived.
If you have tinnitus you are not stone death.  

The way you perceive sound is different, especially challenging for a the music producer. 
Higher pitched sounds are more hurtful, like “s”-sounds or the sound of the crappy speakers in
your 2000,- euro Macbook Pro, or the sound of glasses you put in you dishwasher.
The funny thing is, although you hear less, you have an extra big dip around the 4000 Hz in the
frequency spectrum. 
This means you have to compensate for that in your music productions.
 
But hey, you can make it easier on yourself and just wear hearing protection in a club.
What is too loud? The guidelines
What is loud, what is too loud, and where is the threshold?
Clever scientist have figured out when you have a increased chance of getting tinnitus.
In the table below you can see how long your ears can safely take that sound.
If you don’t know what decibel values mean: with every 6db the sound is twice as loud.
■ 80 db 8 hrs
■ 83 db 4 hrs
■ 86 db 2 hrs
■ 89 db 1 hr
■ 92 db 30 min
■ 95 db 15 min
■ 98 db 7 min - 30 secs
■ 101 db 3 min - 45 sec
■ 104 db 1 min
■ 107 db 56 secs
■ 113 db 14 secs
■ 116 db 7 secs
■ 119 db 4 secs
■ 120 db pain limit
You can download and install a decibel measuring app on your phone, walk into a club and see
for yourself how loud it is. 
 
In one of the biggest nightclubs in Ibiza I measured up to 107db with my phone. 
Look up in the table above how long it takes for you to get tinnitus.
 
Hearing protection
You can protect yourself against hearing loss by wearing hearing protection.
Good hearing protection can ‘shave’ off a couple of decibels so you can safely cope with loud
sounds longer.
Earplugs for everyday life

For everyday life you can use earplugs.
The cheap hearing protection under €50,- is a false feeling of safety.
Good hearing protection is custom fit to the shape of your ear, so it doesn’t ‘leak’.
Most custom fit earplugs come with so called ‘filters’. 
The filter determines how much decibel reduction you get out of your earplugs.
Good filters reduce all frequencies over the whole frequency spectrum evenly.
If you look at a frequency graph of good filters, you should see pretty much a straight line from
left to right of what they filter.
With bad ones that same line is a very interesting mountain landscape, in other words: you can’t
trust it.
In ear monitors for DJs

There are in-ear monitors for artists like DJs. 
I know it’s “not cool”, and “you miss the
connection with your audience”. 
But I we are both adults here and I hope by
now you see the bigger picture. 
You have to put them in BEFORE you enter

the loud noise of the venue, otherwise the
hairs in your cochlea get ‘scared’, lie down
and have to turn the volume of your in-ear
monitors way up. 
This defeats the whole purpose of hearing
protection.
Good in ear monitor cost about €500 - €1000.
For the music producer

Take a break once every 2 hours. 
To protect your ears, but also to prevent ear fatigue.
And do not produce for more than 8 hours a day.
Also, don’t sit too close to your monitor speakers and reduce the volume of the speakers. 
You can use the measuring app on your phone and the schema above to put things in
perspective.
 
G e tting t o k n o w t h e
b u s in e s s
 
I hope this chapter is good first step of getting an idea what is going on in the world of DJs and
music producers. 
Listening to others that have more experience than you can be helpful, as long as you shape
your own opinion about the topic at hand. 
And always consider the source (what ‘color’ does the information have and from which
perspective)
DJ-ing is a business
DJ-ing is a business like any other, but with an unique set of features. 
A lot of beginner DJs see only the (fun) creative side of things, but it is a business with big bucks
involved. 
Only if you play your cards right, you can make a few cents.
It is a business that needs office space, needs a website, needs an accountant. 

DJing (and music production) is a brand, that you need to build from the ground up.
 
It is also a business where you hire
employees. 
Those can be a another producer (ghost
producer), a manager, booking agent, or
another DJ … 
 
There a DJ brands that don’t even have a face
(literally), just a mask.
With a mask (or a white bucket with 2 X-eyes),
you can 2 gigs at once on 2 different
locations 
Clever or stupid?
The first person you hire
 
Over the years I learned a thing or two about running a business. 
As I stated before: DJing is a business and in every business someone is responsible for the
financial administration.
The best business advice I can give you is: 
Hire a accountant/financial advisor
A good accountant will pay for himself.
A good accountant knows all the nooks and crannies about tax law and knows exactly what he
(or she) can subtract from your income on paper in order to pay less taxes. 
He also knows where you can save costs. 
Hiring a accountant is especially smart if you are small business owner (read: small DJ/
producer). 
 
For example: 
Your accountant will bill you €1000,- per year for his services, but if you have to pay €1500,- less
in income taxes, that is a hefty €500,- profit. 
You don’t know could subtract X and Y, someone like an accountant does.
Getting to know people
When I started out DJing I knew no-one.

Nobody in my surroundings could tell me what to do, teach me something or even see if I like
the job. I had to figure it out all by myself.
 
It is important to realize that your career depends on other people.  
Other people make your career and other people that have to give you a chance.
But how do you get to know people?

Of course social media is a way, but it is always better to have a personal connection with
someone.
Go to fairs, expos, DJ meetings, take a course …
Networking is the key.
By accident I met a recruiter of one of the

biggest clubs in Ibiza during my holiday. 
He is in charge of hiring DJs. 
I never asked him for a favor, because I consider
him a friend, I asked him only one question: 
How do you get a foot in the door with a
discotheque like yours. 
His answer was:
1) learn Spanish
2) you have to know the right people.
Ghost producer
The ghost producer is like a ghost writer. 

For a fixed amount of money a ghost producer makes a track. 
Common practice is that the ghost producer signs a contract with a DJ in which he states that he
waves all his copyrights on the song.  
Then the (big) DJ can put his own name on the record. 
The idea of a ghost producer may be far fetched in your eyes, but it happens more than you
think.
My estimate is that roughly 90% of the DJ mag top 100 uses ghost producers, at least for part of
the music they release. 
When a famous DJ switches to another genre of music all of a sudden, is that a creative change
or direction or just a switch of ghost producer?
 
The truth about TV talent shows
The glitter and glamor of a TV talent show where they search the next XYZ, is not as glamorous
as you might think. 
Most talent shows are rigged. 
 
In some talent shows the viewer can decide who becomes the next lead in a musical. 
A company makes a million dollar investment, do you really think that they let others decide in
what (or who) they invest?  
Do you really really think that investors/shareholders of that company let them make such an
irresponsible gamble? 
Professionals behind the scenes make that decision, audience engagement only makes the
show more popular (and more money). It is just like Youtube :). 
Who says that the votes are actually the real numbers? You have to take their word for the
numbers they provide themselves. 
In the TV business EVERYTHING is fake, staged and scripted. 
 
In some talent shows you can win a record deal. 
Those are the worst record deals you can get, because they are NEVER in the best interest of the
artist. 
In this book I talk about value exchange; that’s also the case here: the equation has to be
balanced. 
The record label has much more to offer to the artist (promotion) than the other way around. 
You have no leverage to negotiate a good deal, as an independent, self sufficient music
producer you do! 
A lot of talent show winners end up behind the counter of a super market for 5 days week to pay
the rent, in the weekend they have to do 6 shows for free. 
A lot of them burn out. 
Nobody talks about it, because those contracts probably all contain a non-disclosure
agreement. 
 
How many talent show winners actually have a career after the contract ended? 
Just a few. 
 
 
 
Lea rning t he b a s i c s k i ll
of a DJ
In this chapter I’ll give you a quick overview of the skills you need to learn as a DJ.
Where to get your music from
You can buy your music in a record store, but more popular is buying digital versions online.
DJ pools
There a different kinds of digital subscription services out there, called DJ pools.
In those DJ pools you can download an ‘unlimited’ amount of songs in a month for just a fixed
price. 
No, you can’t find the big hits on there.
Streaming
Streaming is not yet ‘mainstream’ as of the writing of this book, but it will probably the future. 
Although there is software (not hardware yet) that supports DJing with Spotify, Spotify excluded
the commercial usage (which is DJing) of their software in their terms of service. 
So, technically it’s illegal and music rights organizations can force you to quit your performance
if you are stubborn and do it anyway.
But Serato DJ supports the Tidal streaming service. 
Although it has smaller library than Spotify, but it’s still streaming.
Download portals
Download portals are the most popular for getting your music. 
The most famous are probably iTunes and Beatport. 
Beatport is a site especially for DJs, with a lot of underground music
 
Youtube
Don’t do it. Just don’t. 
Besides that it is illegal, the quality is poor. 
You may not hear it on your mediocre quality speakers at home. 
But on the quality speakers in a club, you will. 
DJ equipment
It is handy to know a little bit about the equipment of a DJ. 

I’ll divide them in 4 categories:
• DJ software 
DJ software is a computer program that acts as two music players so you can mix between
the two. 
There is software (or trial versions) for free, but most of them are starting from €100,- 
Famous software is : Traktor, Serato and Rekordbox DJ. 
• The DJ controller with a computer 

The DJ controller is basically an extension
for your DJ software. 
A DJ controller has start/pause buttons,
volume faders, equalizers and a platter so
you can scratch. 
DJ controllers vary from €75,- up to
€800,-. 
• The standalone DJ controller 

There are DJ controllers out there that don’t need
a computer to operate (only for preparing songs:
analyzing, categorize in playlists etc). 
A lot of standalone DJ controllers work with an
USB drive that you can put your music on. 
A standalone DJ controller costs about €800,- up
to €1500,- 
Most famous are Pioneer controllers. 
• DJ players 
The difference between a standalone DJ
controller and DJ players is the fact that 
Standalone DJ controller is the cheaper all-in-one
solution. 
A standalone DJ controller represents 2 players
 
and a mixer. 
DJ players need a separate mixer to use the players. 
The current industry standard club standard DJ players and mixer are:  
2x CDJ 2000 NXS 2 player and 1x DJM 900 NXS 2 mixer from Pioneer. 
A player can cost €2000,- per player and the mixer also €2000,-
Where to start
I’ll give you an overview of a couple skills that you can dive deeper into. 
■ learn song structure, (drop, break, intro, outro), see also: https://youtu.be/TUz3CDjzhE8
■ learn when and where you can mix in and out
■ learn beat matching
■ learn frequency mixing with equalizers
■ learn mixer effects (and how to use them), see also: https://youtu.be/h9WLrz_hmLE
■ learn harmonic mixing with song keys (advanced skill), see also: https://youtu.be/
gPIkoFRBUss
■ learn scratching (more advanced skill) 
 
Lea rning t he b a s i c s k i ll
o f a mus ic p ro du c e r
 
 
In this chapter I’ll give you an introduction of the skills of a music producer. 
This chapter is an abbreviated version of my music producer skills e-book.
Producer equipment
A couple of things to start with: 
• Computer 
You need a computer that is powerful enough to make music with. 
You probably can use your current desktop computer or laptop. 
• Software (DAW) 
Software for music production is called a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). 
Famous software for music production:  
- Logic Pro X (Mac only) 
- Ableton Live 
- Studio One 
- FL Studio 
But there are many more DAWs out there. 
The software ranges from €200,- up to €800,-. 
There is free software out there, Studio One Prime for example 
Most payed software has trial versions so you can take it for a spin for a couple of days. 
• MIDI keyboard (optional) 

Although some software uses your regular keyboard to input notes by hand, a MIDI
keyboard is far more easier (also if you can’t play the piano). 
Even if it was just to type out a rhythm. 
On top of that, a lot of MIDI keyboards take pressure sensitivity into consideration, which
 
regular keyboards never do. 
If you buy a new MIDI keyboard, make sure it has an USB connection in stead of an ancient
MIDI connector (which only fits on a sound card). 
• Sound card (optional) 

An external sound card is only useful if you want to record from a microphone or if you have
a MIDI keyboard with a MIDI connector. 
Make sure that your sound card has a low latency. 
Latency is the time that the computer needs to compute your sound. 
If you are recording vocals, low latency is important when the singer wants to hear the music
(so he/she nows when to start singing). 
A review of the 2i2 sound card you can find here: https://youtu.be/wSL5ikN9CZg 
A review of the Audient ID14, you can find here: https://youtu.be/HlIPJuOQZhU
Where to start
The subject of learning to produce is much broader than DJing. 

With DJing there is only so much you can learn, with producing it’s almost endless. 
Let me give you some pointers to start:
• Choose a DAW and learn it 

DAWs are complex pieces of software that you need to spend a lot of time in order to know
your way around. 
The easiest way to get to know a DAW is to make a mixtape.  
I made a video about mixtapes, you can find it here:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=KkpLKOdLe50&list=PLO0we5bJUGNKVM9tcVxwBK8Cyz9rgALYY&index=1 
I also made a video about a couple of DAWs: 
https://youtu.be/7LpmruHsbi4 
• Learn about plugins 

A plugin is a type of software to extend the functionality of your DAW.
• Difference between MIDI and audio tracks 

A DAW works with layers. Every layer (called a track) is representing a piece of information
(=sound) in the music. 
Audio tracks are for existing audio like sound effects. 
MIDI is the music you make with instrument plugins. 
• Automation 
In order to change a certain parameters over time, you can use automation.  
 
This is effectively automating a button, for example the volume of a track (or the amount of
reverb). 
• Bus 
You can group the sound of certain tracks in busses.  
This is useful to manipulate multiple tracks at once, for example: change the volume of all
tracks in the break. 
But you can use a bus also for effects. 
Placing a reverb effect on every single track will ‘kill’ your CPU very quickly and this is totally
unnecessary.  
Make a bus with the reverb effect and send the output of tracks that need a reverb, to the
reverb bus.
• Side chaining 
Side chaining is using the output of a certain track (or bus) for another track. 
The most used application is the pumping effect you hear in a lot of electronic music. You
can use this to cut away the bass frequencies when the kick hits for example. 
Cutting the bass frequencies is done to prevent phase cancellation (frequencies can cancel
each other out).
Plugins
Plugins are little programs that extend the functionality of your DAW. 
Most DAWs come equipped with stock plugins. 
But they allow 3rd party developers to take advantage of the functionality of the DAW to
implement additional features. 
When we look at the functionality we can distinguish these plugins in different genres:
• instrument plugins: to create sound

• effect plugins: to make a reverb for example
• midi effect plugins: like a chorder tool (press only 1 key, the plugin will make a chord)
Standards
The language that a plugin ‘talks’ to your DAW is determined by the standard. 
There are 3 main standards on the market.
• VST - Mac and PC

• AAX - Pro Tools only - Mac and PC
• AU (Audio Unit) - Mac only
Plugin misconception
 
A lot of producers are talking about VST’s when they actually mean: ‘plugin’. 
Not every plugin is a VST, but a VST is always a plugin.
Just like not every animal is a cow, but every cow is an animal. 
A plugin is the umbrella under which VST falls (along with AAX and AU).
Most used plugins

 
There are a couple of categories of plugins that every music producer uses
• Equalizer 
Cutting away (or boosting) frequencies so it isn’t annoying or clashing with other
frequencies. 
Fabfilter PRO-Q is a really famous and often used. 
• Limiter 
Reducing volume peaks so the sound doesn’t clip (distort). 
Fabfilter PRO-L is famous en often used. 
• Compressor 
Reducing the dynamic of the sound in order to glue the mix together, make it “louder”,
increase the impact of a sound, or to sidechain. 
The Glue compressor and Fabfilter Pro-C are famous. 
• Gate 
Take away the sound when it dips below a certain threshold. 
• Instruments 
Most well known are Serum, Sylenth1, Nexus, Spire and Massive.  
But there are many more out there.
Instruments
Instrument plugins produce sound in different pitches, so you can make a melody.
There a multiple types of instrument plugins.
Sampled instruments
The sampled instruments are pieces of software that play notes of recorded instruments. 
So they recorded a C note on a piano, then a D note, then a E note. 
Of course that can also be a piano, organ, a wind pipe, a trumpet etc. 
Kontakt by Native Instuments is really famous and good plugin. 
Because these instruments load in the whole spectrum of notes into the memory, they tend to
need a lot of memory, but not a lot of processor power. 
 
Samplers
Samplers are pieces of software that pitch up or down a sample (recorded piece of sound). 
In stead of having recorded a separate C, D and E note (as with sampled instruments), you only
have 1 sample. 
The quality of the sound degrades considerably more if you pitch it more than a few semitones. 
Samplers tend to ask more of processor, but do not need a lot of memory. 
Most DAWs have stock samplers in them, but they are also out ‘in the wild’
Synthesizers 
Synthesizers solely rely on the processor to make the sound. 
They do very complicated mathematical calculations many times a second to produce your
sound.
Multiple voices (which is another term for more synthesizers in one synthesizer) is even more
demanding. 
There is virtually no limit in how much computation power they can drain from your processor,
so they can be very heavy on the processor. 
But they do not tend to use a lot of memory. 
Serum is a very well known synthesizer, besides that it can produce a slew of great sounds it is
very demanding in terms of processing power.
Arranging song structure
When you start producing, you need to now about track arrangement.
Every song consists of building blocks that vary to make the song more interesting.
The most common terminology to divide songs into blocks is: verse and chorus.
The chorus repeats and is the most recognizable part of the song. 
It’s the recurring theme of the song.
A song has a couple of different verses. Mostly 2, 3 or 4. 
Every verse has the same melody but a different lyrics. 
This is just a over-generalization that doesn’t apply to every song.
Sometimes there is also a bridge in a song.

The bridge appears only once in a song, mostly between 2 chorusses at the end.
A bridge has a different melody to change things up, and make the song less boring.
Sometimes a song has an intro(duction) and an outro.
Arrangement in electronic music

In Electronic music we apply the same structure albeit with different names:
■ The verse = break
■ The chorus = drop or hook
But the break can have a totally different the melody, instruments and tempo every time.
 
And there can be a bridge, but it does not have to be there.
Drop vs break
The drop is the loudest part of the song.  
It needs the be the most fun and appealing part of the song.
The break is quieter and has fewer elements (most of the time).
The drop is the most bass heavy, as where the break is mostly less bass heavy.
When you produce, you leave 6db headroom for your mastering engineer in the drop, and
leave about 10/12db in the intro,outro and break.
In a drop there can be a bar with an absent kick or an sound element less, this is done to make
the drop more interesting, but it doesn’t necessarily make it a break.
To make the drop more interesting after 8 bars, the producer introduces a extra high hat (totally
optional, but widely used).
A drop can even have another melody halfway through the last drop, only to jump back to the
original tune later in the drop (maybe you can call that the bridge). 
The break is mostly announced by a riser in the drop.

And is mostly introduced by a bass drop.
Some genres of electronic music don’t have a clear distinction between break and drop, like in a
lot of techno and tech house songs.
It does have recurring themes, so you could consider those a drop.
Most of the time they change up quieter and louder parts (i.e. parts where the bass sounds are
missing, to keep it interesting), you could consider those a break.
Buildup
In electronic music we add one more component ‘in the mix’: the buildup.
You can consider the buildup part of the break (depends on how you look at it).
The buildup announces the drop.
There can also be a gap of a full bar between the buildup and the drop, just to make the impact
of the drop even bigger (the power of silence).
A typical buildup has the following elements

■ repeating a melody or repeating a part of the melody
■ the snare sounds that become more frequent over the course of the buildup
■ the riser
■ low cut filter
■ extra reverb
Arrangement order
Let’s take a look at the order of these structural elements that a typical electronic house song is
made of. 
Nothing is set in stone and there are a lot of variation out there.
 
intro 16 bars
break 16 (or 24/32) bars
buildup 8 bars
outro 16 bars 
Notice that these number of bars are always a multiplication of 8.

Notice also that 16 bars is exactly 30 seconds in a 128 BPM song
The difference between a original mix or extended mix and the radio edit is the absence of the
intro and the outro.
The intro is for a dj to mix in and the outro for a dj to mix out.
 
Comp ute rs fo r m u s i c
p rod uction a nd DJ i n g
What kind of computers do you actually need for DJing and producing music? 
In this chapter I give you some guidelines on what to look for in a computer and some
recommended specifications to have the optimal configuration for the task at hand.
Computers for djing
You don’t need a computer for spinning music when you are a dj. 
You can suffice with a suitcase full of vinyl records and you are good to go. 
A digital DJ can use a laptop on his gig, but he can also choose to use USB sticks with some mp3
files.
But even then, you have to have a something to put the mp3 files on the usb stick.
So, as a digital DJ you need a computer.
Computer for putting files on usb drive

If you only want to put some files on your usb drive to spin at the club, an old computer will
suffice.
A computer of 10 or 15 years of age with a usb connection will be probably fine.  
 
Bare in mind that some players you have extra functionality when you prepare the songs with
special dj software, like Pioneer Rekordbox. 
Then the player shows you waveforms, beats & bars and you can set cue points and use hot-
cues to jump in a song, and you can even pre define (automatically triggered) loops.
The computer you want to use needs to be able to run that preparation software. 
A famous preparation program is Pioneer Rekordbox.
Computer for djing with your laptop

For DJing with a laptop you need a slightly more powerful machine. 
After all, you don’t want your music to crackle during a gig.
You need special software to DJ, like: Rekordbox DJ, Serato or Algoriddim Djay Pro.
 
This kind of software is not resource intensive. 
A 5 year old computer with an i3 processor and 4GB of RAM is probably just fine.
Computer for live performance

Ah, now we are getting somewhere! 
There is special software out there like Apple Mainstage and Ableton Live that let’s you ‘create’
songs live. 
I say ‘create’ with quotes, because you essentially copy/paste bits of a song that you prepared
earlier and choose the parts when you are performing. 
You can even play the keyboard over those prepared pieces. 
This way you can perform a 1 minute song, or extend it to a 5 minute song (if the crowd is up for
it) with the same basic elements. 
The computers for that kind of performance need to be very powerful, of course depending on
what you are trying to do. 
Because you are basically doing music production on the fly, the computer needs to be at least
as powerful (or even more powerful) than those for music production. 
Therefore, see the special section on ‘computers for music production’. 
Computer for music production

Let me start of by saying that you can use your old computer to make music. 
You don’t have to buy a new one, just use your current computer and see if the performance
annoys you.
If you keep the operating system in mind (Windows or Mac), every DAW works on pretty much
every computer. 
I started out producing on a 8 year old iMac.  
It wasn’t fast and I had to render out everything because it wasn’t powerful enough, but at least it
did the job.
Resources
The things that eat up the most system resources are plugins, not the DAW itself. 
The difference between sampled instruments, synthesizers and samplers you can find in the
chapter about ‘software for music production’. 
How much memory and processing power do they need?
processor memory
sampled instruments not much much
samplers average not much
synthesizers huge amount not much
reverb / delay / echo / eq huge amount not much
 
compressor / limiter not much not much
Recommendations
Desktop or laptop?
If mobility is necessity choose a laptop, in any other case, choose a desktop.
 
Components are first developed for a desktop. 
That means you can first buy them for the pc, later for the laptop. 
The components for a desktop pc are cheaper than a laptop, so if you are on a budget, choose a
desktop.
Also do manufacturers concessions in speed in order to fit all the components in the small space
of a laptop. 
 
You can properly cool components in a desktop, but not in a laptop.
Components in a computer tend to get very hot when they operate at maximum performance
(which you are doing with music production).
So, in laptops you are bound by lower speeds to keep the components operational.
PC or Mac?
I could write a whole chapter on that topic alone. 
There are up- and downsides to operating systems on both platforms. 
I only emphasize the headlines here.
When you want to have the most bang (speed) for your buck, you should go for the windows
computer.
Apple computers are 1-4 processor generations behind on the latest one, that means you pay
top dollar for an old computer
The Apple name is factored into the price of the machine.
In most Apple products you can’t upgrade component later.  
A couple of years ago you could swap hard disk or memory, but that is not the current trend. 
Time after time Apples service is questioned. I had my fair share of troubles myself.
My advice: buy a pc.
If you want to buy an Apple per sé, you can take a look at the Mac mini, it is somewhat complete
and priced reasonably.
Processor
The processor (or CPU - Central Processing Unit) is the most important component in your
computer for music production. 
If your computer cannot handle the workload of all your fancy music, the music starts to crackle,
because it cannot deliver the music data fast enough.
 
To prevent the crackles you can render out instruments and effects (you convert things like
reverbs and synthesizer sounds into rendered audio files, which don’t take up a lot of processor
power, so you can play the sounds in real time). 
Rendering takes time, and takes the whole creative flow out of your music production. 
For example, when you have made a kick-ass melody that takes up a lot of CPU power, a
powerful processor can handle it realtime, so if you want to change just one note (or change a
reverb setting). You can immediately hear the result.
With a slower processor, you have to render out the melody (otherwise it starts to crackle). 
This render can take for example 3 minutes. 
When you are not happy with the change, you change the note back, you have to render out
again for 3 minutes. 
So, the more powerful processor you have, the quicker you can work.
Cores vs Gigahertz
The amount of Gigahertz is important for the speed of your processor, but we reached a limit of
the maximum number of Gigahertz a processor can produce.
So, in order to increase processing power, we add more cores. 
A core is effectively another processor in the same shell. 
You might think that if you double the amount of cores, you double the speed. 
But that is not the case. 
The cores have to communicate with each other and tasks have to be directed (or synchronized)
to specific cores. 
In practice it’s much more complicated, but I want to keep things simple here.
Overclocking
Overclocking is basically increasing the number of Gigahertz to make the processor quicker. 
But that comes at a price: a processor becomes unstable and will act in an unexpected manor. 
You computer might act weird or even crash. 
Not the way you want to go for your music production. 
This is the reason why you can’t overclock a Xeon processor, because it is used for servers which
meant to be stable.
Turbo boost
Intel found the perfect marketing term for their products: turbo boost!
It’s a fancy word for: “you never reach this speed”. 
In theory the processors should work quicker than their basic clock speed (Ghz). 
A 1.5 Ghz processor would raise the clock speed to 4.2 Ghz, more than twice the speed!! 
That is nice in theory, but in practice you never achieve these speeds, especially in a laptop. 
Things like thermal throttling become an issue. 
The processor becomes so hot, that it would destroy itself if it actually reaches that speed. 
In order to prevent that, they limit the speed of the processor. 
You can cool a processor properly in a desktop computer, but not in a laptop because of the
size of the machine and the noise fans would produce. 
 
 
Look at the actual clock speed of a processor, not the turbo boost frequency. 
cache
A computer has 3 types of memory, in order of speed: the cpu cache, ram memory and storage
(hard drive or SSD). 
The cache memory is the fastest memory there is. 
If a processor can find repeated tasks in the memory, it doesn’t have to look in the slower ram
memory. 
So, the more cache your processor it has, the quicker it is.
i3,i5,i7, i9, Xeon

Intel invented a difficult naming scheme.
The types order of speed:
■ i3
■ i5
■ i7 / i9 / Xeon
The generation of processor is important. 

Generally processors are 10-30% quicker each generation. 
An i5 can perform the same as an i7 of the previous generation. 
The i9 and Xeon can be quicker than the i7. 

But the architecture can be behind. 
Intels development is done on the i7 processor, then the i3 and i5 are derived from that.
Later they add some features (like extra cache memory) and make it quicker and call it Xeon and
i9 (this can change in the future). 
The Xeon and i9 tend to be updated later in the lifecycle of the current generation, which makes
the typically lack behind a bit. 
 
Xeon processors are meant for servers. 
So you can’t overclock them, they don’t have an integrated graphics chip in them, but they can
have more cache memory, and you can add them parallel on specialized motherboards.
Xeons are expensive.
the i9 is meant to be the more powerful version of the i7, meant for heavy duty multi media tasks
like video editing and music production.
If you want more information on a specific type of processor, go to: ark.intel.com. 

Search for your type and model number and you’ll see the specs.
If you want to compare speeds, there are speed comparison tests available on the internet, but
most of them are not targeted towards music production (bear that in mind).
AMD Ryzen
AMD has a similar naming pattern with 3’s, 5’s and 7’s to compare themselves to their big
competitor.
 
On average an AMD processor is cheaper and is somewhat quicker then Intel’s counterpart.
But, i’ve heard some producers talk about compatibility issues with midi keyboards and plugins. 
Personally, I haven’t experienced it. 
If you want to play it safe, choose Intel. 
AMD is definitely an option if you want to have a budget computer for music production. 
Memory
Especially sampled instruments take up a lot of memory. 
Also memory is available in different speeds.
The more Mega hertz, the quicker. 
But the practical speed difference is not that earth shattering as you and I would like it to be.
Bear in mind that your motherboard has to support the memory speed, otherwise you won’t
take advantage of it.
Storage
Samples and music projects can take up gigabytes of disk space. 
But most space take up sampled instruments. For example the Native Instruments Kontakt
library takes up 500 GB alone. 
After you installed Kontakt, you still need some space for your OS, music projects and your
samples.
A lot of producers work with external hard drives, because they run out of space. 
Working with external hard disks is a pain in the butt. 
They are fine for making backups, but they are slow and need to be connected all the time in
order to use them. 
On top of that, you need to have them with you all the time and not loose them in your hotel
room.
And where do you put them? In the bag? Ducktape them to the lid of your laptop? 
An external drive takes the mobile features out of a laptop. 
A hard disk is based on the technology of a spinning magnetic platter. 

Those things can crash and are slow compared to a SSD. 
But the price per gigabyte is lower than one of an SSD.
 
A SSD can not crash, but freezes over time. 
A SSD is basically a big usb memory drive, that can have a limited amount of writes. 
The memory cells can have have 1000 writes for example and then they break and can’t store
data. 
In order to extend the lifespan, the memory controller will move data around so all the memory
cells are written an equal amount of time. 
Putting a SSD to the brim full with data is therefor not recommended, it will slow down
drastically, because it needs to have space to move the data around. 
Screen
How much you can see, determines the size and the resolution of the screen.
The more you can see in one glance, the less you have to scroll, the quicker you can work.
 
This can be a problem for laptops, because they tend to have really small screens. 
17” is recommend for a laptop, 15” is the bare minimum. 
I would not recommend a 13” screen. 
A lot of DAWs and plugin makers don’t take the extremely small screen size into consideration.
Then buttons are outside of the screen or you are missing other important elements.
If you choose a laptop, make sure it has a connection for an external monitor.
Then you can produce on the road and if you are at home, you can connect a big screen.
For desktop computers and external monitors I would recommend 27” monitors or bigger. 
You can choose two or three monitors, then you can put your timeline on the first monitor and
you mixer on the second, and your piano roll on the third. 
There are even ultra wide monitors on the market, then you can see more of your timeline on 1
monitor, ideal for music production.
Specifications
Below you can find some recommendations on specifications for computers
budget mid-range high range pro
CPU latest generation  latest generation  latest generation  latest generation 

i3 or AMD Ryzen 5 i5 i7 i9 / Xeon
CPU: cores 2 2 4 as much as possible
memory 4 GB 8 GB 16/32 GB 64 GB
graphics card (GPU) [type doesn’t matter [type doesn’t matter [type doesn’t matter [type doesn’t matter
for audio] for audio] for audio] for audio]
Storage Hard disk 256 GB SSD 1 TB SSD 1 TB SSD
Monitor 15” 15” 17” 17”
 
G e tting a f o o t i n t h e
do o r
Value exchange - Don’t be thát guy
Bigger DJs are surrounded by millions of people that all want a peace of the pie.
Not only managers, record labels but also 1000’s and 1000’s of suck-ups. 
Don’t be the person that also wants to have a piece of the pie without any return of investment.
If you want something from someone (like a big dj), make yourself an invaluable asset to them,
then you can ask a favor in return.  
It is often said that time is the most valuable asset you have (because you have only a limited
amount of time on this earth).  
That is especially the case for someone who is famous and spent days, months, years building
his/her career. 
So there has to be a value exchange in order to make their time worthwhile. 
If they charge €500,- an hour and you ask them for an hour of their time, you are basically asking
for €500,-. 
Would you give €500,- to someone you just met? 
Via the Ibiza recruiter I mentioned earlier, I met a friend of his.  

When I asked him what his job was, he said: architect. 
Technically he didn’t lie, because he studied architecture.
But later I found out that he was manager of one of the biggest DJs in the world. 
He was just very careful, because if he knows what people want after he tells what his job is. 
It’s not about him anymore, but about who he works for. 
In my short youtube career I got so many

questions on a daily basis, that it is
impossible to answer them all. 
I have even been asked to send DJ
equipment and even computers for free (I am not kidding).
 
Besides running my existing business, making content for 2 youtube channels and building a DJ
career, I have next to no time left.  
I’m just small and unfamous, but also my most valuable asset is time. 
And yet, people still want answers … (and computers).
I work 60-80 hours a week: I need a video editor, I need an English spell checker, someone who
can do research for subjects, someone who writes the descriptions and search tags etc etc etc. 
I need a need a better camera, I need a studio, I need a wireless microphone, I need a green-
screen etc etc etc.
And yet, people ask, taking out of the equation: the person you ask a favor from.
(I have to be honest, there are a few Patreon members who understand this concept and help
me to pay my rent, so I can make my next video. Thank you for that).
Who do you think I will hire if I have the opportunity? People I know, people around me that I
can trust, can communicate with, know they are reliable and get the job done. 
 
Again, time is the most valuable asset for superstar DJs and producers. 
If you want something from them, give them something useful in return. 
It’s no shame in asking them what that is.
Who do you think they are gonna hire if they need help? 
DJ-ing and music production
In the early days, DJ-ing was about DJ-ing, but not anymore. 
Music production goes hand in hand with DJ-ing nowadays. 
You earn your money with DJ gigs. 
But you get booked because of your music. 
So in order to get gigs, you need to produce music.  

But what if you can’t/don’t want to produce? 
You can hire a ghost producer! 
 
A lot of DJs became famous with someone else's music, because daddy had a fat wallet. 
You can buy your success in this business.
The holy grail for DJs is playing on festivals (Tomorrowland).

The record labels are the ones that put DJs on festivals.
To gain some experience as a DJ, start DJing at birthday parties, weddings. 

It’s not ideal, you don’t get to spin the music you want. 
Bu hey, you have to start somewhere.
The social media DJ
Okay, there is actually a second way you can get booked nowadays: if you are famous.
For example if you are the granddaughter of the owner of a big international hotel chain.
Or you have a big following on social media.
If you can bring a loyal following to a nightclub by announcing it on social media, the venue is
more likely to hire you. 
The venue knows upfront that they sell tickets when they hire you.
When you want to get signed by a record label they look at your value to them. 
If you have a big social media circle, you upgraded your value. 
You have also more room to negotiate and up your earnings. 
In the end, it all comes down to money.
Therefore it is really important to start to think about social media early on in your career. 
Building an audience on social media is a challenge on it’s own, but outside the scope of this
book.
I wrote an e-book about starting a Youtube channel. 
Check it out if you want to go that route.
 
R i gh ts, c o nt ra c t s a n d
law y e r s
This chapter may seem the most boring of this e-book, but trust me, it is actually not!
It’s all about the big bucks, chicks and the fame … are you AWAKE?
I’ll spice it up with some of my real life experiences, so you don’t have to make the same
mistakes as I did.
 
When a company wants to hire a marketeer because of his connections, he gets a salary at the
end of the month and can quit or be fired at any time. 
But it would be weird if that company signs a contract in which the marketeer who becomes co-
owner of the business, and if he is not doing his job right, he can’t even be fired. 
On top of that, he has the same deal with a couple other companies.
Absurd? No! This is exactly how the music industry works! 
When a DJ hires a manager, they sign a contract for a limited timespan and share the profit. 
When interests collide (for example a DJ is overworked) things can get messy.
Although the music business is trying to be taken seriously, they still work in a radically different
way than a regular business does. 
Stepping into well constructed legal traps happened to the biggest in the industry: Martin
Garrix, Laidback Luke etc. etc. etc. 
 
It is not a coincidence that most of the bigger DJs have their own record labels. 
They have been screwed over too many times, so they started one on their own.
Music rights
Regretfully the domain of the music rights is a jungle of complicated implicit and explicit rules
and laws.
When you buy a CD in the store (or a MP3 on Beatport), you pay for the music. 
That doesn’t mean that you own the music. 
You only have a license to play the music at home. 
 
When you are a DJ, you spin music in public venues. 
As a DJ you don’t have to pay for the license to play in public, the venue/festival pays that fee for
you. 
That is the reason why music rights organizations want to have your setlist, so the money can
flow to the rightful owners.
A couple of royalties are involved. 
• Performing royalties (PRO) 

The right to play music in public, like a festival, venue, club etc. 
PRO = Performance Rights Organisation
• Mechanical royalties 
The right to reproduce the music, so CD’s, DVDs, MP3 etc.
• Sync Royalties 
The right to use music in a TV commercial, TV series, video games. 
Synchronization royalties are very lucrative for a music producer. 
When you are a producer, you have to take into account that other people that are working on
your song, also have partial rights to the song. 
Most of the time people agree on a split of the revenue made by the song based on the input. 
The agreement that they draft is called a split sheet. 
The following parties can be involved in making a song:
■ producer(s)
■ singer(s)
■ songwriter(s)
■ recording artist(s) (i.e. someone who plays the guitar)
Always consult a lawyer. 
 
Bootleg or remix
When you are producing a song and you use elements from other songs, you need permission
from the authors, even it’s a soundbite of just one second. 
Getting permission can be a challenging task, because you need permission from every person
involved in the original production. 
Your first stop is always the record label that released the song. 
When you are remixing an older song, record labels could be glad that you want to remix the
song (if it’s not a evergreen super hit). 
It’s not uncommon that you agree upon sharing the revenue. 
 
The difference between a remix and a bootleg is the legality. 
If you have permission then it is called a remix, if not, it’s a bootleg. 
 
Making bootlegs in your bedroom can be a good way to start practicing your skills as a music
producer. 
But releasing a bootleg publicly (on Soundcloud for example) is not very wise. 
Hire a lawyer
Regretfully not everyone has your best interests at heart.

You wouldn’t be the first artist that signed a piece of paper that you later would regret, because
you didn’t know what you were exactly agreeing to.
My absolute best advice in this whole e-book

is:
Hire a lawyer!
Scary right? an actual lawyer!
Yes, those guys (and girls) are terribly
expensive, but hear my out.
They are trained to be biased and fight for
you on your team. 
They can tell you exactly where your weak
spots are (legally), where the opponent can
hit you and how you can protect yourself
against it. 
Hire a music specialized lawyer.  

“General” lawyers don’t know enough about the sneaky caveats of music related contracts.
 
Example 1: business collaboration
When I started a collaboration with my business partner in 2015, we decided to sign a
partnership agreement without consulting a lawyer.
Later we decided to split and the arguments of what belongs to who started.
After consulting a prejudiced mediator, we eventually both lawyered up to negotiate about the
specifics of the contract. 
The bill of taking the path via the mediator and two lawyers costed 20 times more then when we
had payed a lawyer upfront to draft up a partnership agreement.
He got the better end of the deal, I lost half of my business and my savings. 
I could have spend 10 vacations in a 5 star hotel on Ibiza.
This is an abbreviated version of a story that took almost a year.  

Do you know what something like this does to your energy level and your mental health?  
Not to mention the stress it caused on friends and family?
Example 2: record label

In 2017 I took music production classes with a firm that also ran a record label. 
At the end of the course they had a ‘unique’ offer. 
For a couple of thousand Euros I could produce my own record under their supervision, they
would master and distribute it.
The money had to be payed upfront (huge red flag).
After the record was finished (one week before the deadline of an album) they handed me the
distribution contract. 
At first glance I could spot no issues with the contract.  
I was still shaking on my legs about the ‘stunt’ that my former business partner pulled on me, so I
decided to hire a specialized music lawyer. 
First of all, the lawyer didn’t know the record label (another red flag).
What he told me next was terrifying, the contract was full of carefully constructed traps and loop
holes that weren’t visible to the untrained eye. 
I even decided to ask for a second opinion with another firm (“it couldn’t be thát bad”).
Well, the second lawyer told me an even worse story than the first. 
The record label was clearly in the process of screwing me over, and they were not willing to
adjust the contract to reasonable terms. 
I never signed the contract and they didn’t want to return the money. 
Looking at the bigger picture: yes, it could have launched my career, but I would have been
stuck with them forever and I never could make a jump to an even bigger career.
I cant stress this enough: hire a specialized music lawyer!
How much???
A mid-range lawyer in Europe costs about €250-350,- per hour excluding VAT, excluding 3-5%
office fee. 
I heard horror stories of lawyers in America who charge even more.
 
Kinds of contracts
There are different of kinds of contracts. 

I name a few which can overlap:
■ Recording and distribution contract. 

This contract specifies where, how and for how
long your music is distributed across the globe. 
■ Music publishing agreement 

Who gets how much? 
■ Music production contract 

An agreement to make 1 or more songs. 
■ A 360 agreement (as in 360 degrees of an angle) . 

A 360 deal is a full service agreement in which one company fulfills multiple roles.  
For example a record label that is also your manager and booking agent. 
In a 360 deal is a huge conflict of interest, because a manager has to look out for your best
interest. But he won’t if he works for that same record label. 
General tips for contracts
Some general guidelines for contracts
■ The fact that the other party wants to sign a contract, means that they are interested.  
Knowing that, has value. Use that to your advantage and negotiate. 
Always negotiate, it’s a business transaction, creativity is meant for the studio. 
Always let a lawyer negotiate for you. He knows all the ins and outs. 
■ Never sign away (copy)rights, only provide licenses for a limited timespan.  
You need to make money in the long run. 
■ A license term with a record label usually is 3-5 years (sometimes 10). The longer the term,
the more you should profit. 
■ Don’t except silent/implicit extension of a contract, only explicitly with written consent at
the end of the term. 
■ An independent record label takes usually about 50% of your royalties. 
 
■ Make sure that there is no conflict of
interests between third parties like your
record label and manager (like in 360
deals would be the case). 
■ Be aware that people need to make

money. No one does something for free
(everybody needs to pay the bills). 
A manager believes in your talents,
because he thinks he can make money
with that, not because you are a nice guy. 
■ If someone forces you to sign (deadline for example), is a huge red flag. 
■ Discouragement from the other party to involve a lawyer is a huge red flag 
■ Realize that the other party did more negotiations and signed more contracts than you.
They know all the ins and outs.  
They are the ones with a financial motive to screw you out of your own money. 
■ Costs of the lawyer of the other party is not yours to pay.  

It’s an investment for them in this collaboration. 
■ Don’t agree to produce a certain amount of songs within a certain term. 

It is very hard to be creative on-the-spot (which results in unnecessary pressure and loss of
creativity thus quality). 
■ Enforce one or more evaluation moments. 

Make sure you can cancel contracts before the term ends if you are not happy with the
collaboration. 
■ Make sure that everything regarding money is specified in the contract.  

If costs increase, make sure they can only increase within a certain margin. 
Make sure in the contract that you have to sign explicitly for every increase in cost that is
not specified in the contract. 
Terms like ‘costs’, ‘other costs’ and ‘expenses’ are too vague and need to be specified,
because a lot of record labels have huge imaginary costs. 
 
A really popular line in a contract is something along the lines of: 
“Distributor agrees to pay Artist 50% of the profit minus costs”. 
The real-life translation for this line is: the distributor doesn’t have to pay the artist a cent. 
■ Make sure to include that you need to sign for every change of agreement. 
And no one can make decisions without your written consent. 
 
■ Don’t trust the explanation from the other party regarding to their own contract.  
They are the ones that built the traps in the contract. You can only trust your own lawyer. 
■ Make sure that the responsibilities of all the parties in question are specified. 
Make sure there is no gap or overlap between the parties you are collaborating with. 
This screams for a lawyer. 
■ Twice a year you need to receive “statements” from the record label in which they specify
how much you earned. 
Make sure that those statements are actual invoices, the term “statements” doesn’t mean
anything for the tax agency. 
■ Specify in the contract the timeframe in which they have to wire you the money 
■ Make sure in the contract that you can request the financial administration of a record
label. 
Ensure that they are obligated to hand it over within a certain timeframe. 
Ensure that when the books are not in order, that there is a penalty for that. 
Also they need to pay the costs of the audit by an third party accountant (those things can
cost over € 10.000,-) 
■ The sunset clause (what happens after the contract ended) can be very annoying.  
Managers like to include these terms. 
If you accept it, do it only for a very short term.  
Specify the term and percentage. 
■ Make sure that the law of your country is applied.  

Foreign laws need foreign lawyers and foreign courts if things do not work out. 
Traveling back and forth is costly, time consuming and very uncomfortable. 
 
 
 
Co lo p ho n
This information is compiled and written by Dexxter Clark. 

You can contact the author via the website: www.dexxterclark.com
The images in this book are published on the website: pexels.com

The license of every picture is listed on this website as:
■ Free for personal and commercial use
■ No attribution required 
More information on this license type, you can find on: https://www.pexels.com/photo-license/
Although information in this e-book is compiled with great care, the author does not guarantee
the information in this e-book to be complete, correct or updated.
No claims can be derived from the information in this e-book.
The contents of this e-book is protected by Dutch copyright law. 
It is prohibited to duplicate, change, delete, forwarded, distribute or publish (partial) content
without written consent of the author.
 

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The truth about DJing

In ear monitors for DJs 14

For the music producer 14

Getting to know the business 15

Most used plugins 25

Arranging song structure 26

Computer for djing with your laptop 29

Computer for live performance 30

Computer for music production 30

New in version 1.5

New in version 1.7

New in version 1.8 & 1.9

The book was written with three goals in mind:

The goal on my Youtube channel is positivity.

I am Dutch, I am fluent in writing and speaking in my native language.

The difference between music producer and DJ

There is a common misconception that I have to clear up before we can continue.

Where the confusion comes in is when a DJ also

To clarify what a DJ does.

A performing DJ can (depending on the equipment):

But a performing DJ can not:

To make matters even more confusing, there

Stress is a natural survival mechanism.

Being a DJ means that you have to be in

But with DJing you have obligations

What is Noise induced hearing loss?

Tinnitus can drive people crazy!

I said that the bass sounds are the culprit.

If you have tinnitus you are not stone death.

What is too loud? The guidelines

What is loud, what is too loud, and where is the threshold?

Earplugs for everyday life

In ear monitors for DJs

You have to put them in BEFORE you enter

Good in ear monitor cost about €500 - €1000.

For the music producer

It is a business that needs office space, needs a website, needs an accountant.

The first person you hire

Getting to know people

When I started out DJing I knew no-one.

But how do you get to know people?

By accident I met a recruiter of one of the

The ghost producer is like a ghost writer.

Where to get your music from

It is handy to know a little bit about the equipment of a DJ.

• The DJ controller with a computer

• The standalone DJ controller

A couple of things to start with:

• MIDI keyboard (optional)

• Sound card (optional)

The subject of learning to produce is much broader than DJing.

• Choose a DAW and learn it

• Learn about plugins

• Difference between MIDI and audio tracks

• instrument plugins: to create sound

• VST - Mac and PC

Most used plugins

Arranging song structure

Sometimes there is also a bridge in a song.

Arrangement in electronic music

The break is mostly announced by a riser in the drop.

A typical buildup has the following elements

Notice that these number of bars are always a multiplication of 8.

The goal on my Youtube channel is positivity. 

I am Dutch, I am fluent in writing and speaking in my native language. 

To clarify what a DJ does. 

Tinnitus can drive people crazy! 

I said that the bass sounds are the culprit. 

If you have tinnitus you are not stone death.  

It is a business that needs office space, needs a website, needs an accountant. 

The ghost producer is like a ghost writer. 

It is handy to know a little bit about the equipment of a DJ. 

• The DJ controller with a computer 

• The standalone DJ controller 

A couple of things to start with: 

• MIDI keyboard (optional) 

• Sound card (optional) 

The subject of learning to produce is much broader than DJing. 

• Choose a DAW and learn it 

• Learn about plugins 

• Difference between MIDI and audio tracks 

The generation of processor is important. 

The i9 and Xeon can be quicker than the i7. 

If you want more information on a specific type of processor, go to: ark.intel.com. 

A hard disk is based on the technology of a spinning magnetic platter. 

CPU latest generation  latest generation  latest generation  latest generation 

Via the Ibiza recruiter I mentioned earlier, I met a friend of his.  

So in order to get gigs, you need to produce music.  

To gain some experience as a DJ, start DJing at birthday parties, weddings. 

A couple of royalties are involved. 

• Performing royalties (PRO) 

Always consult a lawyer. 

Hire a music specialized lawyer.  

This is an abbreviated version of a story that took almost a year.  

There are different of kinds of contracts. 

■ Recording and distribution contract. 

■ Music publishing agreement 

■ Music production contract 

■ A 360 agreement (as in 360 degrees of an angle) . 

■ An independent record label takes usually about 50% of your royalties. 

■ Costs of the lawyer of the other party is not yours to pay.  

■ Don’t agree to produce a certain amount of songs within a certain term. 

■ Enforce one or more evaluation moments. 

■ Make sure that everything regarding money is specified in the contract.  

■ Make sure that the law of your country is applied.  

This information is compiled and written by Dexxter Clark. 