Anthrocon 2012 DJ Auditions are NOW OPEN!
It's that time of year again, the time when my inbox starts getting flooded with files and I have lots of new music to listen to. And for DJs in the fandom, it's time to get in your auditions for the Anthrocon 2012 dances! I am going to be doing things differently this year, so I request that you read this CAREFULLY as I need you to follow instructions to make my life easier. Also please understand that I am not trying to be harsh by being so specific - I am trying to be as transparent as I can with how I look at these demos and give you as much information as I can so that you can blow me away.
Auditioning
The first new thing about auditioning this year is ALL AUDITIONS MUST BE UPLOADED TO SOUNDCLOUD. I would also like to ask that you do not delete the mix from the soundcloud account until I've made my selections. If you're a working DJ who is experienced enough to be playing Anthrocon, there's no reason you shouldn't have one. Auditions should be at least 45 minutes long, no longer than an hour and fifteen minutes, and show your skill level and what kind of music you play. When your mix is uploaded, please send a link along with any other information you think is important that I know to dance-2012@anthrocon.org. Please do not send me boilerplate bios about how much you like music and it is your life; I do not read them. Concrete information about events you've played, skills you have, or things that may be of concern (strange equipment requirements, etcetera) are more what I am looking for.
I am expecting DJs who are operating on a professional level - this does not mean that you must have professional experience playing in clubs (although it helps) - it means that I am expecting your audition to have good sound quality, be mixed well, show an ability to play an entertaining and non-generic set (if everyone plays ghosts 'n' stuff the dances will be VERY boring) and all tracks must be LEGALLY PURCHASED. I am going to throw out mixes that are using anything less than 320kbps MP3s as the source material (edit: to clarify, this is a little bit of hyperbole. I'm not going to pick on you for a track or two dipping below the threshhold but I will be demoing these on big speakers and if the bass is muddy or I hear compression artifacts, that's going to affect my perception of the mix negatively.), or contain tracks clearly ripped from youtube videos or otherwise pirated. This is because getting up on stage and playing a set of low-quality audio will sound like pure noise in a big room and will make the dance attendees (and by extension yourself and I) very unhappy. I would also like to stress that professionalism in communication is important as well; I like to book people that I know I can count on. If you give me the impression that you're reliable, self-motivated and capable of getting on stage and playing with confidence, I will feel much better about giving you a time slot.
Some Other Notes
I have had problems in the past with scheduling, so I would like to make something clear: part of what I do when I am selecting DJs is choose DJs specifically based on what kind of sound I need for a time slot on a given night. That means that when I book you, I am not just booking you to play, I am booking you because you are the right fit for a certain time slot. For this reason, do not bother auditioning if you do not think you want to play or will be available on Thursday night. Last year I had to shuffle Thursday extensively because folks I booked it could not make it/did not want to play on Thursday. Thursday night is the longest dance by far (it's 5 hours - Friday's is 4, Saturday's is 3) and so statstically, you have the greatest chance of being booked for Thursday. PLEASE, please take this to heart. It will do neither of us any good if I post the DJ selections and you need moved off of Thursday and I don't have a place to put you.
Now that the business is out of the way, I am SUPER excited to get to listening to this year's demos! Anthrocon's dances are among the best (if I do say so myself) because every year we pull together a great team of volunteer talent who are focused on nothing other than giving the con's attendees a good time. Every year I'm blown away by the talent, creativity and skill that is displayed on our stage and I'm looking forward to this year being even better than last. Please don't be discouraged by anything you've read here. If your music collection is mostly illegal; you have plenty of time to go legit. If you think you need to broaden your musical horizons, you have plenty of time to crate dig. If you just don't think you're QUITE there yet, you have LOTS of time to practice. Even if you think your skill level is not quite up to par, there's no reason not to demo! The worst that will happen is you won't be chosen and can demo again next year - and maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised!
I will be leaving auditions open as long as I possibly can, so there is plenty of time to work on and refine your skills between now and whatever the deadline is - I promise I'll try and give at least one month of notice before closing auditions.
Good luck!
To your sound quality point, 192kbps is not high enough quality for being amplified on a system as powerful as ours, MP3 compression is lossy, it rolls off inaudible frequencies including things in the 60hz and below range that are not audible but can be felt. There is a noticeable difference in sound quality and punch on a larger system.
As for posting on SoundCloud, if you are concerned, you can post privately there and send me the link. I have never heard of anyone having a problem posting a mix there and have had several up for well over two years. 75% of the mixes I received last year were via soundcloud and it will make my job a lot easier if they are all there and ensure that I do not lose any auditions that are sent to me. That's all. The last thing I want is to make this process harder for anyone, but I also know that I had a hard time downloading MP3s hosted on services like rapidshare with their 60-second wait walls (imagine downloading 20 mixes with a 500mb daily cap!) A large variety of sources, services and formats makes it hard for me to organize and listen to all the demos - sending via soundcloud standardizes it.
Anthrocon pays ASCAP licensing fees, as an aside.
Fair enough on all points, though we already know how well the AC dances can be "felt" just ask the 17th floor of the Westin.... To be fair though my mp3's aren't that high and I've played o some pretty powerful systems, you were at FCN Proto :)
I figured anthrocon was picking up the fee's they are on the leval 
Yes it has indeed gotten very competative, picking from the vast number of submissions, and then scedualign them so they work together and still represent a range of styles (hopefully) is extremly challenging. And considering the competition and the company, I consider myself lucky to have gotten to DJ anthrocon several years when I did. It was an honor and an acomplishment. Good luck to this years applicants.
You know with so many qualified and competent Dj's on the rise, have you considered a DJ competition? It could be a popular event, and the winner of such woudl get an automatic spot at the next AC's dances if they choose? Scedualign an event would be tricky however due to the length of time it would take in a room equiped for it. Main ballroom si too busy i think, it would need to be like 3 or 4 hours possibly 30 minute sets? maybe even 15 or 20, not sure how other contests are fun. It woudl need to go in the DLCC probably in the large room across from the ballroom where sandstone club was. It could be an interesting event given the programing space room.
Yes, I remember you played carmeldansen. Great.
As for the competition, not really viable, but thank you for the suggestion.
but I think you're taking some aspects of this a little too seriously.
I seem to recall Protocollie telling me that due to the amount of submissions last year, over 75% of people applying to be a DJ last year at Anthrocon had to be turned down, including many people of high quality. It's very competitive, and taking the selection process seriously is important indeed, for us and potential DJs, to select the few (I think Protocollie mentioned to me that only 17% or something of applicants got to DJ Anthrocon) who will be the best of the best. We take our fun very seriously at Anthrocon.
As for potential copyright issues on Soundcloud, I'll defer to Protocollie on that.
I'll see if I can come up with something before auditions close. I can't promise I'll have a demo ready by then, however. I'm going to try, but I can't guarantee that I'll have one for you to listen to before the deadline.
Can't wait for next year if not for the con it's self then surely for the dances!
It's been a long time since I DJed professionally, but since my friends urged me to play around at this past AC, I've been getting back into practice. I'm planning to have a mix recorded soon and I'll be sure to post it on SoundCloud and since that is where you are wanting it to be uploaded, that makes things much easier for both of us!
I've gotta ask, is the 320kbps really necessary? A big chunk of my music comes from rips of CD's I've bought, and from pay music sites like MP3Sparks and Iomoio, and I'm pretty sure that stuff isn't 320kbps. Ever since Rory got me to play @ the deaddog in 06 he's been nudging me to audidtion, and I was considering going for it this year, but now I'm not so sure.
Am I going to sit down and try and figure out whether you started with a 256kbps rip? No.
If it sounds like a compressed mess, I'm gonna toss it. Consider the specific restrictions as far as bitrate a bit of hyperbole to emphasize how important sound quality is. I got so many muddy messes as demos last year that were borderline inaudible in places and were full of glitchy compression artifacts, and no matter how good of a DJ you are, that's not going to fly. Use your best judgement. 320kbps is best practices (and pretty much standard) for a big sound system and for live performance but as long as it sounds good on my monitors I'm not going to pick on a few tracks here or there falling below that threshold.
I updated the post above to reflect this. I'm not trying to trap you or catch you for not following specific little details, I'm just making known all the criteria by which I judge these mixes known ahead of time. Sound quality is a big one.
As a quick aside (I didn't catch this the first time through) - MP3Sparks and Iomoio are not legal and artists do not see proceeds from those sites.
Just something to think about. You're paying, but you're not paying the artists who produced the music. They are legal under current (lax) Russian copyright law, but if you could legitimately sell a song for $0.16, iTunes or Amazon would be well on top of that.
Is there actually a deadline or a time that you will start picking DJs that you might want to work with?
Or is this by ear for the most part considering how much time there still is before next year's con?
As I stated above, there will be a deadline but I haven't decided what it is yet. I'll try and give at least a month of notice as far as when the deadline is coming and it's not going to be until at least a couple months into next year, so there's no immediate rush.
Hey there DJ Recca here FL based DJ(soon to be Seattle) in affiliation with Fur The Record
I play mostly House, Electrohouse and i tent to throw in 2 or 3 dubstep tracks in at the end of my sets
my past cons/events that i have DJed are as followed
2011: FurtherConfusion, Furry weekend atlanta, Anthrocon, Get Rammed (fur the record event), Rainfurrest, Off the chain (fur the record event), Rockey Mountain fur con, Megaplex, Elliots live events
2010: Furry fiesta, Furry weekend atlanta, Rockey mountain fur con, Furfright, Megaplex, Elliots live events, FA:united
I use a Sony Vaio laptop running Serato Itch 2.0 and a Numark NS6 controller
inputs can be XLR or RCA
all music is in 320kbps+ mp3s
having already worked with you once proto i am looking forward to producing the same crowd as last year and more
i am arriving thursday and leaving monday
my demo can be found here http://soundcloud.com/djrecca/ac-demo
and i will be emailing this post to the dance e-mail just in case this post is looked over
thanks for your time and i hope to DJ for AC once again
-DJ Recca-
Arf! Totally Copying the post above as it seems the way to go! XD
I am Ani_Boxer a furry DJ who lives across the pond in London, England
I would describe myself as a cross genre DJ however mainly play: Electro, Dubstep, Drum and Bass and Hard Dance tend to sneak in other bits like metal etc as well it's all over the shop I always try to do something a bit different each time :3
I have been lucky enough to mix at a few cons and furry events:
2011: Eurofurence, LondonFurs Summer Party, Kiyocon
2010: RBW, Confuzzled, LondonFurs Summer Party
I have experience at club level nights as well will pass these on if required due to the nature of my work I get promotional tracks sent to me otherwise the rest of music is purchased through Beatport and Juno (both great sites)
I use an old school Apple Mac Book Pro, Traktor Kontrol S4 and Traktor Pro 2 so basically just need a bit of table space and a RCA phono input can happily discuss techy stuff at a later date
Happy to Dj whenever put me where you like Mon - Sun
Demo is http://soundcloud.com/ani_boxer/ac-demo
Will also e-mail all this info: Thanks for giving me a shot!
it's not the way to go
i don't read anything posted here
please follow the instructions in the post.
not trying to be tough, just i want all the audition emails and auditions in one place so they're easy for me to keep track of and nobody gets forgotten. a couple demos almost got lost last year. i'd like to avoid that this year.
Already emailed but what they hay, here's my post
60 Min Happy Hardcore Mix
Youtubez:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGBBkHAiBtw
320 Mp3 Direct Download:
http://skunkiebutt.com/Mixes/3600SecHHCMix.mp3
Experience:
3+ years experience
Played at many house parties
Played at Rainfurrest 2011
I use Serato and control CD's with CDJ's (Pioneer or Denon usually)
Can also play electro, hands up, and hardstyle
It's not all CD and MP3 iss it? I play strictly vinyl and I wanna bring my funky house style to AC.
I played at a few clubs and many house partys. Alot of my records were destroyed by the sun but I'm rebuilding stronger, harder, funkier beats.
From what I remember, they provide club standard equipment if you don't have a small MIDI computer setup, 1200's, CDJ1000's, and DJM800 mixer... if I remember correctly, that is.
we have djs who play on vinyl, yes. no problem there.
last year we wound up not actually supplying the equipment due to a change in AV outfitter but I'm going to try and ensure that we do this year.
I was planning on making my demo from Virtual DJ off of an Acer, and was wondering if that would be acceptable to do live if I get picked?
Yup. I don't really care what tools you use as long as it sounds good.
Gotcha. I just finished a mix this morning, but I still think it needs work. The sound is at 320kbps, but there are a few songs I want to leave out of the mix since I don't feel they're a good fit in it. They synched with other songs, but they weren't what I was hoping for. It did come out fine overall, however. I'll give myself a C+ on this mix, and I'm going to keep on working on these mixes. I'm also planning on doing more than one KIND of mix, and I'm going to share it with a few friends of mine to see which mix they like best before sending it to you. I'll be sure to have a ready demo to turn in before the deadline (whenever it is). 
This Might Be Dumb. But I Have A Question. I Know You Have To Use Legal Bought Tracks. But If A Track Was Given Away For Free To Begin With Can I Use It In My Mix?
To my understanding, in order to play songs in a performance (outside of your own personal listening), if you don't have legal (usually written) permission from the label that states you can play that song, you have to pay a rights fee (usually covered by clubs n whatnot). However, free tracks are free tracks, they were not made to earn revenue so therefore no dues are required to be payed and you must state the musical work was not produced by you (or at least not try to take credit).
Not true. Just because a track is given away for personal use does not mean that you are granted performance rights to that track as well; if a band posted a song for free for personal listening on their site, unless they explicitly state no rights reserved or a CC license you still need to abide by their rules as far as public performance. You actually have to pay a rights fee no matter what (if we're being perfectly stringent about the legality issue) and no amount of paying for rights will free you from the fact that they didn't give you permission. You are also not cleared from this by simply stating that it's not your work.
In DJ culture there's a blind eye turned towards pirating via DJ mix - it's an important part of the culture so nobody's going to get on your ass about including a track you do/do not have rights to in a free mix. The reason I worded the post so strongly is because there were people who sent in demos last year that clearly included songs ripped from youtube videos which were DEFINITELY available via legal means. It sounded like crap and was pretty sketchy.
That said, we pay into ASCAP so we're pretty much covered at the con, and as long as you don't do something terribly stupid you'll be fine with your mix as well.
TL;DR: Above logic is not the rule. In this case, it's fine.
Hey, any idea when auditions are closing? I want to order some new records for this mix and I wanna make sure I have time.
february? dunno when it feels right. you'll get a month warning.
BTW Protocollie I haven't seen you on pa-furry in forever. I would like to tag-team with you, I think your glitchy electro style would compliment my funky bangin style very well.
pretty cool idea actually! i don't much play electro anymore but that's not to say I wouldn't if it was a fun opportunity.
let me think on that! if i can make it work then that sounds like it might be cool. I still have a huge pile of demos to listen to - have you sent one in? I'd like to make a note on it so that way I know you're interested in that for scheduling purposes.
hi
is it ok if i send 3 shorter mixes instead of one?
all 3 have their own style (d&b dubstep and electro).
live these mixes will be comebined on a professional level.
if you say it is not ok ,i must replace my dj set to the computer (again)
and thats a lot of work.
thx for reading
andreas
nope; looking for one mix, 45 minutes to an hour, that sounds like what you're going to play.
Hey, guys!
Would you guys mind if I posted a mix I've made myself so you guys can hear it and tell me what I need to fix and/or add? I'm practicing to become more professional. I use a Numark iDJ3 and am still learning how to use it better (since I just got it for Christmas! ).
Go for it.
Sweet! Alright, here it is:
http://www.badongo.com/file/26136242
It is about 30 minutes and has a lot of my favorite techno songs in it (and I realized that I forgot barbra streisand 
), and has a remix of Coldplay's Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall, that I made myself. Enjoy and feel free to comment on it and give some advice. I'm tring to become a professional, so feedback would be awesome! Thanks for listening! :)
should probably convert it to mp3, the file's over 400mb for 30 minutes and your host requires i download it in parts and then reassemble them on my machine.
That's fine. Did it work, at least? If it worked then that's really good! I'll have to convert it.
i did not get that far, i really don't want to be downloading a 400mb 30 minute mix in 2 parts and reassembling it - try compressing it into an mp3 and uploading it to soundcloud or something
All auditions have to be on SoundCloud anyway, right? It says so in Protocollie's original post here.
Speaking of which, I have a demo that I'm about to upload to SoundCloud. Not sure if I'll email the demo to you just yet, Protocollie. I'm going to let a couple of my friends check it out first before turning it in. I just got a new DJ controller to use for my mixes, and I'm sharing my mix with these guys to see what they think.
Sorry about that. I didn't realize that it would take that long. Here's the soundcloud version:
http://soundcloud.com/skate13/megamix1-5
Please tell me how I did and what I need to fix! I really need the experience!
Whoops! My bad! I forgot to change the privacy settings! It should work now. Here's my profile:
http://soundcloud.com/you/tracks
Hopefully it works now. Sorry about the problems!
Yup, that's it! Thanks, Cyan! So... What do you guys think? I know that there are some parts that the pitch goes up and down. It was my first 1/2 hour mix I have ever made, so I will definitely get better at it!
well, it's a first try
i'd definitely work on getting the tempos right for your mixes and phrase/beat matching them a ittle more tightly. also, not to be SUPER nit-picky, but your coldplay/deadmau5 mash up is not in key - definitely want to get the tracks in a compatible key before playing them together
That's what I was thinking in terms of the beatmatching. Some of it was fine, but some of the tracks weren't in sync with each other. For a first attempt, that wasn't bad. But I'd continue practicing on these mixes. Practice is always how we learn.
Will do, guys! Thank you SOOOO much for your input! I was having a tiny bit of trouble, going from 110 bpm for the first song, to 128-130 bpm. I'm still getting used to my equipment. I will try to make these better, based on your opinions. Maybe if I get enough practice and experience, I could play at an AC, later on (sometime) in the future!
Okay. I'm going to use the demo I uploaded as my pitching demo. I already sent an email to you, Protocollie. But I'm also going to share my mix with others on here as well.
Here's my demo: http://soundcloud.com/cyantpc/anthrocon-2012-dj-demo-03
You might find the name of the first track in the tracklist a pleasing title. 
I'm having trouble trying to email you my demo, Protocollie. Are you sure the email address in this thread's top post is correct?
yup, i've received every other demo at it
I have issues with this on a number of levals, but I'm not sure it would matter much to voice them. To your credit from what I have seen and heard last years dances at anthrocon were the most sucessful to date, so I can't really argue with your results, but I think you're taking some aspects of this a little too seriously.
The moin point of this post though, unless I am mis-interpriting the soundcloud TOS and copywrite guidlines, dj mixes are not something the site is designed for or allowing (not to say it isn't used for such purposes anyway). Even asuming the music was legally purchased and of the 320 kbps minimum required (though I've proven if encoded properly trained ears with studio moniters can't distinquish much if any differnce beyond 192 (and thats while sober and not in a fursuit or an acousticly poor enviornment, but i digress) and even if we were operating as a liscened performance copywrite holding (ie paying ascap bmi etc royalties) DJ which in my opinion is an unfair requirment to play at a fur con, even one as large as AC, that still would not allow us to upload the mix legally to soundcloud as we did not create the music ourself, nor own copywrite to any lyrics that may be presets. It may be a more prudent option to for example request that the anthrocon web team set up an incoming ftp directory to submit items such as this or even require a physical cd to be burned and sent to you directly. Other options to consider.