Dance Hall Planet

There was a time before the advent of modern DJ equipment made things easy on those who wanted to mix dance hall tunes. Much of the genre itself has roots in the 1970s. At that time, everything had to be done by hand and DJ crews didn’t have much gear that could assist them. While this might have lead to some interesting improvisation, few people today would want to actually mix a track without the aid of digital devices.

By the middle of the next decade, things were changing. Increased access to digital mixing equipment changed the face of the genre and the music started to pick up a different sound. Faster rhythms became much more common with the digital equipment, and the DJ equipment itself started to do more of the work.

Even though it is now quite obsolete, some of the DJ gear from this era is considered to be classic and still rates among the best pieces of equipment for mixing dance hall tracks. People in the industry have even remarked that certain bits of DJ gear have a bit of a cult status. The Roland TR-808 is probably the most visible of these.

Even though it was considered to be cheap at the release date, today DJ crews like to mix in the unique tinny sound of the TR-808. Another reason that such an old piece of machinery may be rated so highly has to do with the bass drum emulation system. It can be used to create sounds played at an extremely low frequency, and that makes it sound great in certain grooves.

Those who really enjoy the old fashioned electrical sound in their dance hall tracks might want to experiment with a classic moog synthesiser as well, but there are softsynth packages on the market that have a similar sound. Granted, MIDI DJ equipment has a flavour by itself that many DJs want to add into a track. Those who are willing to look beyond the most common pieces of software will probably be able to find something unique without having to give up access to ready formats like WAV and SoundFont.

Any performance that relies heavily on the SoundFont format will certainly want to take a look at the tools that are offered by Creative Labs. The Vienna SoundFont Studio is certainly an interesting package by itself. If a musician doesn’t mind working with their dance hall tracks stuck in a Yamaha proprietary format, the SoftSynthesizer isn’t a bad package either.

Neither is another Yamaha proprietary format system called WinGroove that can be really advantageous for use by those with portable computer systems. Considering that most DJ equipment racks now include a personal computer, these sorts of solutions rank among the best tools to work with.