One fateful night I was playing Eve Online and listening to the Eve Radio DJ. Listening to the DJ, his music, and how he interacted with the players in the game through internet radio and the in-game text chat channel got me to thinking. I love music...all types. Throughout my time in school and college, I had always been in some kind of choir or band. At The University of Alabama, I was even a Music Education major. My iTunes library is full of everything from classic rock, classical, country, movie soundtracks, jazz, reggae...you get the picture.
Through the years, though, I've always had a fondness for electronica. Even though I was never a big fan of the dance club scene, there was something about the music that appealed to me. I still remember back in 2000, I downloaded a couple of Trance songs from Napster (back when it was still "legal"). Years later, when I had XM radio, my dial stayed on the dance channels more than just about any other music channel.
One of the coolest things I found about trance music was how the DJ could blend from one song to the other, to the point where you could be listening for a time and discover that multiple songs had been played; all the while you were sitting there not even realizing that the DJ was even switching songs.
So on that fateful night, listening to Eve Radio more than I was actually playing Eve, I thought to myself, "I want to do that!". Fortunately (or unfortunately), it's almost that easy. There are websites and software out there which allow you to do the DJ mixing...some of it sucks, but some of it's pretty good. The first program I downloaded (Mixxx, I think) claimed it could use your iTunes music, but that wound up not being the case (at least not easily). Back to Google. I downloaded my second free choice: Virtual DJ. Within minutes, I had one song playing on one "deck" with another queued up on the second "deck".
One thing really sucked, though...just because I liked trance music didn't necessarily mean that I actually OWNED much trance music...I had been listening to internet radio stations all this time. It's possible, but not pleasant to mix Mozart's Requiem with Pink Floyd's The Wall...
To get me started, I found two compilation albums on iTunes...a 50-song album for $9.99 and a 101-song album for $7.99. For the DJ's reading this (and shuddering at the thought), yes, I do know that quality is much better than quantity. However, I had to get started somewhere.
And so there I was...Virtual DJ (Free) and 151 trance songs to start practicing with...
...more to come...
