DJ SIX

Bio

Pioneer CDJ-1000 MK3s Stanton M.304 Kaoss Pad III
Many genres... but now I'm focussing mostly on HOUSE music...
DJ SIX is Jeannot Langlois, a good folk born in Amos (northwestern Quebec) and currently located in Ottawa (Ontario) -- Canada -- for his Software Developer job...
-- PRE-BIRTH (1978-1979) -- Even before he was born, Jeannot was already showing attraction for music: While she was expecting, Jeannot's mother -- a secretary -- was frequently using her typewriter or listening to rhythmic Rock music. On each of these occasions, Jeannot was responding to the sounds that were produced by tapping light blows to the rhythm, which his mother could feel. Definitely, that's how I would define 'having the beat in the blood'! :-).
-- YOUTH (1980-1995) -- Jeannot was allowed access to his parent's 33/45 rpm vinyl collection (as well as turntables, tape decks and microphones) at a very young age, which really helped him to learn and appreciate music in many different genres. For a few years, Jeannot also introduced himself to the piano. As it is the case for many children, Jeannot has often accompanied his parents to party evenings that were organized for various events: weddings, shows, fairs, discos. On every occasion, Jeannot was always fascinated by all the technical setup (sound systems, mixing consoles, lighting, staging, etc), the party atmosphere that reigned (discussions between parents and friends, laughter, good moments, etc) and the music/rhythm (musical genres, singer voices, percussions, etc). Jeannot has always enjoyed using his time and energy to work at recreating such ambiances -- allowing everybody to relax and have a good time. Thanks to dispositions taken by his mother, Jeannot was able to visit local radio station and auditorium rooms to get to meet and discuss with people who were working in that field, and this somewhat inspired him: Jeannot began making frequent audio edits on cassette tapes. After he had recorded his friends's voices (as well as his own) while simulating imaginary news reports, Jeannot edited the original recording by taking the best parts and assembling them together in a different order, creating a new recording which his friends really enjoyed since it portrayed a different coherence. Just before his teen years, Jeannot had even reorganized a corner of his own bedroom to fit the likes of a "DJ booth". It was intended to accomodate an imaginary mobile disco named "DISCO S.T.A.R.T." (which was essentially made of most of his parents's vinyl record collection). Sometimes, for the big family gathering that occurred every year during the holidays, "DISCO S.T.A.R.T." became real for an evening: Jeannot's parents were bringing his sound system and the vinyl record collection to the party room, and Jeannot was in charge of the music for the evening.
-- COLLEGE (1996-1998) -- After his teen years, while he was studying in College, Jeannot began to attend various unforgivable "college parties" with his student friends. Jeannot has always had a passion for music, so as soon as he touched base with bars and clubs for the first time, and noticed the DJs who were reworking their music with beatmatching techniques while doing nice transitions between each song -- without interruptions -- for the dancers who were having a blast on the dance floors, he was left with a PROFOUND mark. The intensity and passion the DJs were showing while they were reworking their music LIVE as they were following the energy, state of mind and emotions that were fluctuating among the dancers left a permanent impression on Jeannot. This is still the case today, by the way... With the arrival of the MP3 format which greatly simplified the storage of music on computers, Jeannot slowly began to acquire music for his personal enjoyment. Most of the songs Jeannot collected at that time were hit songs that he had heard during "college parties" and which were reminding him of good times in bars and clubs he had with his friends.
-- UNIVERSITY (1999-2002) -- While he was studying Computer Science in university afterwards, Jeannot introduced himself to computer-assisted audio editing. It was a pleasant hobby which allowed him to get his mind away from all the stress that was being induced by the long hours he was spending studying computer science books, and most importantly, to relax. This time though, rather than using cassette decks and cassette tapes, everything was made directly on his computer, and was worked visually. Jeannot was designing long "megamix" edits which brought together numerous dance hits that were all concatenated together at a similar tempo -- and without interruptions. Jeannot was enjoying his own "megamix" edits as he was listening to them in his headphones while he was reading and doing computer science homeworks. Music was relaxing his mind and helping him grasp the new subjects he was studying. Jeannot's friends eventually discovered his famous "megamix" edits and liked them too -- even if they were all made with a rather simple technique.
-- ARRIVAL ON THE LABOR MARKET (2003-2004) -- Once he was done with university and now on the labor market, Jeannot continued to grow his musical collection. One of Jeannot's friends told him that DJ software was now available for all. These tools were making it possible to simulate real DJ gear at a low cost: virtual turntables, virtual mixer, virtual discs (MP3s). After he obtained one such software, Jeannot decided to build himself a new computer which he dedicated to learning and practicing audio mixing during his spare time at home in the evenings and the week-ends. Jeannot randomly came across DJ REDJ (Rejean Lefebvre), an experienced previous DJ, who slowly taught him the basics of DJ techniques. Using his software and a basic beatmatching technique, Jeannot began to make new mixtapes that were inspired of hit songs he had heard in bars and clubs during the week-ends, and later on, submitted them to DJ REDJ for correction. Each good point was noted, as well as each error which was discussed, explained, then analyzed. The bad mixes were discarded and new ones were created again until Jeannot reached a final product which was satisfying to him, DJ REDJ and the (imaginary) audience. Jeannot did similar DJ exercices for a few years, and completed his perspective by doing a lot of reading and experimentations on the subject thanks to comments obtained from DJ friends or professional DJ forums on the internet.
-- EXPERIMENTS IN BARS AND CLUBS (2004-2005) -- On a rather quiet saturday evening during the month of May 2005, in a student Pub located in the By Market (downtown Ottawa), while he was relishing a good beer, Jeannot was discussing with a barmaid about his interests in the DJ field. The barmaid suggested that he brought one of his mixtapes CDs on his next visit, so he could spend some time in the DJ booth early in the evening to learn more. She did not have to suggest this twice -- Jeannot did exactly that. This was the beginning of a long journey which became more and more interesting with time: Jeannot created mixtapes with beatmatching at home during the week (the mixtapes he was creating kept getting better, and beatmatching is a skill that's always in demand), brought them to the Pub during the week-ends, and the Pub's DJ used them a few times during the evening. Thanks to Jeannot's CDs, the DJ could take a break and breathe for a few minutes, the manager was happy since the party ambiance was great and uninterrupted, Jeannot was able to learn more by discussing with the DJ and watching the dancer's reaction to the ambiance, and the dancers... were having a blast on the dancefloor ("YAHOO! YIPPEEEEE!!! WOOHOOOO!"). Everybody was winning. One time, two female students -- who were particularily excited by one of the songs in one of Jeannot's mixtapes -- even ran into the DJ booth and litterally jumped on the student Pub's DJ, as well as on Jeannot. Ahahah... that was the beginning of good memories! :-). Jeannot met many DJs in Ottawa's By Market, swapped tons of mixtape CDs against lots of experience he acquired in return by watching them work in their booth. At home, using the internet, Jeannot also made countless searches and lectures on DJ techniques he had witnessed in bars (which often could not be explained by the DJs as they weren't able to make themselves available for more than 30 seconds due to their live work that required their constant attention) and had therefore the chance to practice them at home, without pressure, at his own pace.
-- TRANSITION TO PROFESSIONAL DJ GEAR (2006-TODAY) -- In 2006 came a time where Jeannot decided to jump into the action and throw away his mixing software (since it did not always give the perfect results he wished for) in order to obtain real professional DJ gear which would be specially designed for the task. Only five months after buying his gear and practicing constantly, Jeannot began to produce himself in live shows for partys that were organized by his various friends. Jeannot had now become a real DJ giving shows outside his home. DJ SIX was now a reality!
-- DJ SIX -- That said, where does the "DJ SIX" name comes from? The name was derived from "Number SIX", the character name of Patrick McGoohan in the mysterious science-fiction and spy series "The Prisoner" (1967), which greatly influenced Jeannot during his childhood... For more details on "Number SIX", see this link or lookup for "The Prisoner" on Google. This completes my history... Now let there be music - and don't forget to call DJ SIX if you're having a party around the Ottawa area! :-).
DJ REDJ (alias "Jackyl") (Rejean Lefebvre) Montreal, QC My master!
DJ MAD BOY MATT (Matt Kelly) website Ottawa, ON 32-beat mixing tips!
DJ JAMIE C (Jamie Cronk) website Ottawa, ON Damn good songs and tips!
DJ MOBIUS (Andrew Edgerton) website Ottawa, ON Great tips!
DJ NODI (Ian Durkin) website Ottawa, ON Good advices on buying Pioneer gear!
DJ DASH (a.k.a. DB Production) (Damien Durocher) website Val-d'Or, QC My voices!
DJ CHRISS (Christian Rochefort) website Hull, QC The one who helped me start all of this!
(There are others but I only have so much space...)

Ottawa Canada

Member since: 31 May 2009