Inspire and be Inspired. A little reflective moment

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Inspire and be Inspired. A little reflective moment

As you may know I have pulled right back from DJing now to concentrate on my Website Business. I don’t even like to class it as a business but as a full-time “hobby” with over 60 clients I guess that’s what it is !
This all came about from a guy called Benjamin contacting me out of the blue to update my own tired website a few years ago. From that chance encounter I slowly started to learn about editing my own site. I’ve also been keen to mess about with graphics and artworks, on a very basic level, for as long as I can remember. I’ve had the vision in the past but never had the tools to be able to bring my ideas to life, well not until the last few years anyway.
I had the help of my good friend Renato in Switzerland who got the original VBW site off the ground and then I got my head around the hosting side of websites, understanding the difference between a domain and a website address and so on. Paul Griff was an invaluable help in bringing the branding of the VBW to life and along the way I’ve also taken assistance and picked the brains of DeanJay. More recently I have been given some important snippets of information by Justin Bond, so much so that between all these guys, I am now fairly self-sufficient in all aspects of design and artwork creation (I still know my limits though!)
The point of this blog ? Another general ramble about the importance of having good people around you as well as being an inspirational person yourself when the occasion arises.
The whole point of me starting WardsWebsites was to be able to help one or two of my friends in becoming self-sufficient with their own on-line marketing. I also regularly get contacted by up and coming DJs and producers looking for advice. Advice I am happy to give (most of the time).
The only way I have been able to do all the things that I do now is thanks to the advancement of technology. I couldn’t build a website from scratch but utilising a template I can customise it and totally reshape it after fiddling with some coding. Same as with artworks. There are so many templates and tools around that we can all use to get the desired results, I’m sure that graphic designers are furious at the amount of work they are losing now to these so-called “amateurs”. I do class myself as an amateur purely because I’ve had no ‘official’ schooling. Timmy Vegas never had a piano lesson in his life yet he’s one of the most accomplished musicians I’ve ever met. He’s also one of the most twisted people on the planet. That’s another blog.
Anyway… what’s the real reason for the blog? Not for self-promotion but to draw an analogy between myself being a fairly new “designer”, able to complete tasks competently, and a new DJ or producer who has no real experience in “the game” but is able to now build a track from scratch or perform a live set thanks to the software at his disposal.
Should we be hating on these new DJs for their vision and ability to utilise all the tools at hand, or should we be encouraging them ?
I see many singers now turning their hands to live DJ sets thanks to Traktor (let’s face it, purely down to the fact that there’s no money in releasing music anymore). The same goes for producers. It won’t be long before the glory hunting promoters take up the headphones and start looking for some of the action themselves too! That’s all good, each to their own. The ‘vinyl vs mp3’ debate rages on, CDJ vs Traktor, now USB vs controller, if it means a person is able to release a little part of their creativity that was previously bottled up inside of them, then so be it !
I draw all my inspiration from those around me. I am never too proud to be taught something new and never feel too important to help bestow the little knowledge I have upon others.
I felt like getting these words down. Thanks for reading.

USEFUL LINKS:

Streaming Gear I use and recommend:

Computer:

Mac Mini M1 2020 (upgrade to 16GB RAM) = https://amzn.to/3YSkcWZ
Elgato Stream Deck = https://amzn.to/3Jd08sU

Monitors:

1 x AOC U2879G6

1 x AOC 24B1W

Camera:

Sony ZV1 = https://amzn.to/41fSkgR
Logitech Brio 4k (x2) = https://amzn.to/3KYMbQx

Audio:

Wave XLR = https://amzn.to/3INhw7s
DJI Mic2 = https://amzn.to/3IKIDjf

DJ Kit:

Shure 55s Radio Mic = https://amzn.to/3Igp94w
DJ Controller = Pioneer XDJ-XZ
Technics 1210 Turntables = https://amzn.to/3Eqzyth
Stylus; Ortofon DJ = https://amzn.to/3xHmSL5

1 Comment

  1. Thanks Andy and feel free to take any inspiration from my internet-work. That’s why i love social networks: to sharing my experience and knowledge and to get some inspirations from brilliant people all over the world. Keep up the good work!

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