DJ Leon Lamont

I have to start this with a confession: I’m only halfway through this book.A friend in NYC recommended this book to me and I’m glad she did.I think this is a fairly good book for Thomas Dolby fans.If you’re an adult that wants to reminisce about their 80s youth listening to New Wave at its peak, then this should be something that you would like as well.


The only thing I don’t like so far is the way the book starts.In my opinion, it should’ve started with whatever musical training the artist did or did not have and how he came up with his stage name (his real name is Thomas Morgan Robertson).In some ways, the book reads like a publicist wrote it; jumping from overnight success opportunity to the next overnight success opportunity without the real meat and potatoes of what it was like to be a recording artist and a musician in the 80s.


What makes this book a real gem is the fact that you can go to YouTube and look up practically every song and live performances mentioned in the book.I…

The most common DJ related question that I’m asked lately is: “What DJ rig are you using theses days?”The short answer is, “I’m using the Roland DJ-505 controller/drum machine with Serato DJ Pro.”Do I like it?Yes, I love it, although I could love it more if they had done one thing I’ll mention later.Having a stand alone drum machine attached to a DJ controller is right up my alley.Making said drum machine modeled after classic Roland drum machines and sounds that the whole world has danced to and is still dancing to drives it even further down my alley.Being able to sit and program beats without having to fire up my laptop is a pretty cool feature for a DJ controller.When it comes to drum machines, Roland the company is like an electronica god.How is Roland with DJ equipment?Well, they still have to battle with the behemoth company whose name shall not be spoken (Starts with a P and ends with R) as far as popularity, but I give Roland two thumbs all the way up on their DJ c…

Yet again, a last minute call for a guest DJ spot found me in the situation of doing a set on unfamiliar DJ equipment.This time it was the Serato equipped Pioneer DJM-S9 mixer.The Pioneer DJM-S9 is very similar to the Rane 72 mixer (minus the fancy waveform screen found on the Rane).As much as I hate to admit it (because I’m not a fan of Pioneer’s customer service or product warranty-if their product is defective, they don’t replace it), the DJM-S9 was a lot more intuitive and easy to navigate compared to the Rane 72, especially for a person like myself whom had never touched one until it was time to actually use it on a gig.



Most notably on the DJM-S9 are the flip switch special FX that enable you to backspin and vinyl brake when you want to drastically change tempos or genres of music without sounding like a train wreck.Though it must be noted that you have to remember to flip the switch back down after getting your desired effect or you may risk 2 seconds of pause on your dance fl…

Recently, a DJ friend invited me to do a last minute tag team DJ set with him at a bar in St. Louis, MO.The invite was just hours before the gig and I was told to just bring my laptop and external hard drive full of tunes as the DJ making the invitation boasted of having the ultimate mixer for tag team DJ sets.He wasn’t lying.The mixer we used that night was the Rane Seventy-Two which was equipped with built in Serato as well as a video screen for viewing sound waves (just as you would see them on your computer while using Serato DJ), two USB inputs (so that you could effortlessly switch back and forth between two laptop setups with the turn of a knob), and built in hot cue buttons.In addition to the aforementioned features, the mixer had various built in sound FX.



What did I think of the mixer?While spending close to two grand on a mixer is a little out of my price range for mixers at the moment (the Rane Seventy-Two lists for $1,899.00 at the moment), I found this mixer to be amazi…