For blog's sake.

It's a friday night, public transport has let me down, as expected, so I have the pleasure of a night in. Yawn.

So I thought, hey, I'll blog, just for the sake of it. Even if nobody reads it, I still feel I've got stuff off my chest and communicated to the world somehow.

SO what's on my mind? Sod all. Just a bit pissed that I'm not out loving life with a few bevvies in me. So I'll try and write something interesting. I mean, what's good? What have I got to look forward to? Focus on the positives.

I'm seeing Rusko tomorrow night at a cute little bar in Swansea, should be interesting. He's come up with some interesting stuff lately which will no doubt be played for all to hear tomorrow night.

He's kinda leaning towards cut and paste, bring that into dubstep. Always been a fan of the samples, Cockney Thug being the most obvious to spring to mind. I think Rusko's always been about the shock factor, you'll be dancing to a tune of his for the first time, then something will cut in, and make you stand still and just go "What?" and just do a double take. You'll desperately try and shout in your friend's ear and ask "Did you hear that too?".

I've noticed the trend with dubstep - there is no trend. Every artist puts their own spin on everything and have distinctive styles. Some go towards reggae, some take more influences from drum and bass, there are even hip-hop influences in there.

I first got into dubstep through Burial. To be fair, I don't really class Burial as dubstep myself, but when you start getting into Burial you tend to move onto what I'd class as real dubstep. Burial is to dubstep what cannibis is to class A drugs, if you were.

I really didn't like the whole dubstep thing to start with, but, like most music, it grew on me. When you start to recognise things that's when they become addictive, it's the same reason remixes are so popular.

So anyway, I was yapping on about seeing Rusko tomorrow night. Funny thing is, I found out today it's fancy dress, "Pimps and Hoes" night. I'm your average skinny white male, how am I going to look like a pimp? I hope I get let in, thinking of smart attire with a scruffy twist and trainers... maybe that will do it. Run-DMC were pimps, right?

And no, I'm not buying a bright orange/purple suit. Not for one night, all about economy me, only going in clothes I already own.

Next weekend should be better. No fancy dress, I can wear my classic polo shirt-jeans-trainers combo, and Caspa & Rusko at Valve, Sheffield. Humungous system, been told 120kw, not certain on that though. Still, I know it'll be the largest system I'll have experienced in my life.

The kind of bass that stops you from breathing and tickles your nostril hairs. Sounds absolutely mad, but that's what I've been told. Can't wait to see/hear/feel for myself.

Right, just about bored myself to death with that. Good piece of time filling anyway.

Vestax VMC 004 XL Review

Not exactly new on the market, but it's all I have to review.

A review perhaps for the DJ looking for an affordable mixer.

The first thing you may notice from my picture is that the fader knob is missing from the channel 3 fader, which brings me to my first point - the fader knobs don't stay on very well.

They are alright to start with, but as soon as you have to take them off to lift the lid for a good fader clean, they work loose each time. It should be noted that the missing fader actually belonged to the cross fader, and was lost while performing at a friend's party.

Other than that, which can be expected from a lot of mixers, the build of the vestax is very good. It's a good weight and doesn't move around during use, which can be a problem being a battle DJ.

You may think it's odd, a battle DJ using a 4 channel mixer, and it is. The face of the mixer is very cluttered with the four faders, and 16 EQ settings. My train of thought was that I could scratch with the two turntables while playing a CD instrumental through another channel. The four channels did open up windows in that respect.

The mixer is a lot better for recording for me, as it has two separate outputs, meaning I can hear exactly what I am recording, as loud as I like, without distorting the recording.

The sound quality from the mixer is superb, it offers both RCA and XLR outputs and both produce great stereo sound. The volume level lights on the mixer also ensure you do not harm your amplifier or speakers, which are expensive pieces of equipment to replace.

In terms of aesthetics, I think it's a good looking mixer, obviously not as good looking as it's sister machine, but it has a nice stainless finish to it, the Vestax logo looks good on any piece as it is.

My main gripe about this mixer is that the crossfader isn't very durable. Saying that though, it is not a scratch mixer and isn't designed to take the amount of crossfading as I do as a battle DJ. I have cleaned the crossfader on countless occasions and it has started to make no difference anymore, still bleeding, still crackly.

I now have my eye on the PMC 06, as it is a minimal design, a lot less cluttered on the face of the mixer, and aimed at scratchers rather than mixers. Yes, it has less EQ settings, but that's not what I'm looking for in a mixer, I want durability on the fader, and an easy to use face. I hope that certain scratches will be easier to perform with a less cluttered face, and that the crossfader will be easy to slide back and forth as I wish.