Gerry Cueto Spotlight

I caught up with Gerry recently and asked him some questions about the Business of selling Dance music and how he broke through from Amateur to Professional.

One question I asked was how he goes about writing a track from scratch. Quartz responded; "In general, most of my music (post-buzzmusic.de + Arguru Forever) is produced in the same file I've been using for 2 years now.. so it just keeps getting updated with the new music. I think it's the best way to perfect one's sound, than to keep starting from scratch.. It's like updating the same track for years and years and evolving it, instead of taking a risk with a new song from scratch every time you make a song. I can usually get more DJs to play more future songs that way because they know me by my sound, whereas b4 it was more of a hit or miss."

I always thought I was being lazy by re-using templates over and over. I stand gleefully corrected. Without any more delay I present Gerry Cuetos' BMR Interview.

How did you get into buzz?

Through Hamst3r. I was making tracks before with an old Roland hardware synth and Yamaha XG and I heard this dude Hamster Alliance could make all these crazy sounds from just a computer software called Buzz. and it was free?! No way. I thought this was a huge joke Hamster had on the net for 2 years. Finally in 2002 I caved and read the buzzmanual and started making my own music in buzz. It was mostly the original sounds from the synths with no tweaking whatsoever. but hey even that sounded better than what I was using before.

How did you make the transition from amateur to Professional?

when people started telling me that Paul van Dyk was downloading some of my buzzmusic.de tracks and playing them in his sets. I thought this was a joke too but I finally got my hands on a recording and heard it for myself a few years ago. I started getting calls from labels.

Was it a gradual thing or was it a case of instant fame?

I'd say more of an instant thing with the internet release of my Deestylistic - By My Side remix. I still keep getting messages from people wanting it on my myspace, and the Solange - Messages one too. However, I prefer to concentrate my myspace on more current projects. I may come back and rework those old remixes

Who are your most inspiring influences from the past and present?

Lange, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Planet Perfecto, John O'Callaghan, Sean Tyas

What advice would you give a talented producer in this highly competitive market of music making?

Keep posting your music on sites like buzzmusic.de You'd really be surprised who lurks that website and other sites like that too. I have a lot of friends who are great musicians and don't wanna share their music, then complain why nobody cares about it... lol well.. uhm.. duh... no one has heard it yet!

Do you have to be a DJ first and a composer second to be noticed in the Dance Music world?

I don't think so.. You just gotta have stuff that's catchy.

In my many years spent going to Parties and Clubs I've never seen a more desperate person than the guys outside trying to sell there DJ mixes from the trunks of there cars. What made YOUR PR effective? Did you let your music speak for itself or was it something else that got you noticed besides just writing loads of Incredibly mind blowing music?

Think viral marketing. Nobody likes to be sold a product, but if people can sell themselves on something, you have a high advantage. What's something that people are gonna copy paste the link and give to their friends? Since I had no host at the time, buzzmusic.de was a great place to put my music and it had a blog-style comments section. So if people liked it, they could comment, and newcomers would know what they're getting into before they download. With a few of my tracks on buzzmusic.de, I noticed that the links would get posted in all sorts of places (blogs, forums, sites, ect). I would just google and see where it would end up.

And this was years ago.. and now YouTube has come out which is relatively new still.. so the next viral goal is to get a song out there so catchy that I get put in all those cheesey anime videos or something lol.

I don't consider myself to be a viral guru (i'm pretty crappy with it actually), but I have some friends who are.. Collaborating with them put me at a good advantage (like Deestylistic for example).. so expect more tracks with some more popular current or former internet viral guys.

By going viral, doesn't mean I'm going to sell out either... Yeah a song that sounds like mary had a little lamb is probably going to get more clicks than a full 8 minute trance track, but hey I've found the balance before, so it can be done again!

What are your plans for the Future and will you continue to release tracks on buzzmusic.de?

I have a new track playing around by a lot of trance DJs called "Take My Hand" by my pseudonym Joey Shine. Just saw it on some new playlists by Jon O'Bir and Aly & Fila... Be sure to download some of their sets and hear it. (www.jonobir.com) (www.crystalclouds.com) It's still unsigned and it's not out yet, but I'm really happy that people are enjoying it. Make sure to add Joey on myspace www.myspace.com/joeyshinemusic

I can't say that I have any plans for near future buzzmusic.de releases, since it's hard to get Djs to play tracks that are widely available to download for anyone, unless they're really catchy or something, but I'll upload tracks on buzzmusic.de for any special occasion that may come up.

BMR Compo: "Time to Vote"

Here is the list of the Entries so far.

Diasdiabolos - Sonnet

Quebb - Edit Final

Tinga - woodlouse dance

Tinga - First Track

Kibibu - Pie Hunter

Kibibu - Muffin

duskdemon - Dove's Song

Zaphoid - Deep Calculations

BMR MIX "From the Dark into the Light"

I worked long into the night to bring you this colorful collage of House & Trance. I fixed the Time Stretching and Increased the Quality for your listening pleasure. Let me know if you like the mixes.

Set list:
Intro: Temporal - Black Hole II

Insipid - First of September

Meiosis - Solar Flare

rjjhristov - Kickback

Monoton - Dark Star

Kink - Freakuency

Joachip - This house is ours

Phanton - Oaka

Insipid - sailing in Outerspace

Quartz76 - Salty Rain

Quartz76 - Arguru Forever

dfevolution - Suspect

Freezedream - Mushroom Plated Paradox

All Tracks are either partially or entirely made with Buzz Modular Studio. All tracks are Copyrighted under the Creative Commons Licensing.

BMR mix v. 4 (current)
BMR mix v. 5 (with th0ke's Menschsein remix)
Coming Soon! BMR Chillout mixes

BMR Compo Ends June 21st

So far the participation has been sparse. Please vote for all submissions after the 21st of June. here is the list to date.
Kibibu - Muffin

Tinga - First Try

Duskdemon - Dove's Song

kibibu - Pie Hunter

Zaphoid - Deep Calculations

BMR DJ MIX 2

Well the nice mix from Zaphoid triggered me to do a mix as well. Though its a mini mix, the tracks have been remastered for sound quality. I will definately come back with a bigger mix set, with more mixxing on the beat, for you to enjoy here at BMR.

Set:

1. simongoetz - Lesson_no1
2. Walmon and KiNK - The Basement
3. Untamed - The Last Temptation
4. svanleeuwen - temporal nightmare
5. Quartz76 - Memories of Tomorrow (Salty Rain Gerry Cueto's D3finition Instrumental)
6. Ciro - Windy Waste (mix3)

Get the mix from
http://tcpx.gotdns.com/buzzmix/bmr06132007.mp3

BMR DJ Mix

I have a nice treat for you today. Here is my first Mix consisting exclusively of Buzzmusic.de releases.

Set list:

Urban23rus - The Moon

Zaphoid - The Dead Sleep

Monoton - No Why

Melnikov - Madonna Music (Electro House mix)

Shytan - loki (Shytan vs. Russian Linesman mix)

Svanleeuwen - Digital Fire Storm

Monoton - Who I truly am (monomix)

illu - Identify

Get the Mix

Arguru will be missed

I would like to start this post with an appropriate scripture from The Bible.

"I returned to see under the sun that the swift do not have the race, nor the mighty ones the battle, nor do the wise also have the food, nor do the understanding ones also have the riches, nor do even those having knowledge have the favor; because time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all. For man also does not know his time. Just like fishes that are being taken in an evil net, and like birds that are being taken in a trap, so the sons of men themselves are being ensnared at a calamitous time, when it falls upon them suddenly." - Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

I will not pretend to have known Arguru. I did however get to know him through his many machines written for Buzz. He went on to develop Noiztracker, Psycle, FL Studio & his last project, Aodix.

Spark writes at em411:

Arguru

The creator of Psycle, Aodix and Many cool buzz machines (and i believe one of the founders of KVRaudio the makers of Receptor) has been killed in a car accident near his hometown.

While probably not well known to you.. if you are using Buzz, FL Studio or DiscoDSP plugins.. you are likely using his work.

So drop a track and a soliloquy for the late, great Arguru.

RIP

In light of this I think it would be a good idea to Hold a special Buzz Memorial in honor of Arguru. Dig out all those old Arguru Machines and remember him the way he would want us to; Through the music that he loved! No rules just write some beautiful music with his programming.


The Buzz scene has screamed loudly in Lamentation over the loss of a great mind. Here are some Memorial Posts:

KVR

hispasonic

Em411

Buzzchurch

Music Theory is Good for you.

The problem with many of the Music Theory sites I run across is the emphasis placed on Sight reading notes. Bah! Who needs to site read sheet music when you have a Tracker Pattern Editor. I guess thats needed when teaching yourself Classical Piano but it's almost useless to people like me. The Tonal Centre is an excellent resource for the Music Tracker/buzz mind. I use a reproduction of Shoenberg's chart to guide me along when I do more adventurous changes in my compositions such as; Quantum Contemplation or Thunderstorm. It's amazing how beautifully you can break the rules when you know the rules.


Please let me know if you like the info or if it helps you in your music creations. I'd love to hear from you.

"Virtual jams from across the internet"

I found this site randomly while trying to find something else. I was impressed with the concept of Jamlab.us They encourage Live or Virtual Jamming. Your free to Download any of the Sessions and add to them. They seem to prefer intermediate to advanced musicians so I wouldn't expect much of a response unless you have some chops. I've listened to some of the Jams and I'm surprised at how varied and colorful they are. I've heard Influences all the way from Tangerine Dream to the "Grateful Dead". Here is a except from the site:

What is a cyberjam, virtualjam, or virtual track?

"Anyone can download our music and record new parts. You can plan or improvise your new parts. You can add as many new parts as you like. Some folks add new guitar and keyboard parts. We hope you will share your contribution with us. If we like the new version, we will post it on our site."

The Site design is Simplistic but that is ok because they seem to really be about Making music with no strings attached .

According to the site all material can be used on a nonprofit basis so all you Sample Junkies can slice and dice away with your favorite sampler.

If you think you have the skillz these guys might be fun to Jam with :)

Hamst3r to host BMR Compo results

Hamst3r has agreed to host the results of the BMR Compo winners on his site using the xspf web player format. I believe this will be much more exciting than just a compiled zip. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a symbiosis between BMR and THA. Stay tuned for the next fun BMR Competition which will be based on a single Genre of Music with no restrictions on Generators.

Please Donate!

Are you constantly switching between the 3 edit screens in buzz? Of course you are because that's the only way to get anything done in that old dino of a program! I recently made the plunge into the world of buze about a month ago. I haven't looked back since and can't believe I've ever been able to get by without it. Yeah its a little unstable and buggy thats why we all need to get off our butts and donate a little money to the cause. It's funny how hard and fast a programmer will work with a little green in his pocket. A good ethical rule to follow when you rely heavily on a particular piece of Open Source Freeware software is to donate a little money everytime the developer comes out with a new version. It doesn't have to be much and I'm sure you can afford to give 2 or 3 dollars. If everyone subscribed to that thinking we might give calvin enough incentive to make regular backups of the source and continue to improve it all the way to completion.

Please send your Paypal Donations to Calvin@countzero.no

A lack of Funds = Lack of Motivation

Your welcome calvin :)

Your first track ever!

Another interesting thread from the buzz congregation. If your new and imbarassed about your first songs this should make you feel better. We all started with humble beginnings.