Claude Vonstroke Takes Online Course

Recently we were honoured to have a certain Barclay Crenshaw take an course at Point Blank Online. For those of you thinking who??...well, when the sun goes down and the bass goes up Barclay prefers to go by the name…Claude Vonstroke! That’s right, the head honcho of two of electronic music’s most celebrated labels, Dirtybird and Mothership, as well as the brains behind a raft of critically acclaimed releases including ‘Who’s Afraid of Detroit’ – one of the biggest underground club hits of the last decade.

The fact that a man with such credentials was seeking out further training just goes to show that one of the keys to success in the music industry is to acknowledge that there is always more to learn and to have a thirst to attain that knowledge. We are proud that he considered Point Blank the best place to do so… Maybe he could teach us a trick or two in return!!

This is what he had to say about his experience:

“I took one of the Ableton classes to learn some new chops without having to read boring manuals. As compared to some other generic online training I was doing for Reason 5 the Point Blank DVR and webpage method was WAY better because we were talking about dance music the whole time and learning things we would actually use instead of just a list of software features. The class was fantastic, especially because it was geared towards modern music and teaching things we all want to know better like how to make bass sound good.”

We can’t wait for his upcoming releases to hear how he puts his Point Blank training to use!

For a taster of his quality output we recommend you check out his latest album Bird Brain and the 5 Years of Dirtybird compilation.

Danny Rampling Online Masterclass in 2011

Danny Rampling has been a stalwart of the UK dance music scene pretty much from day dot. Along with the likes of Paul Oakenfold and Nicky Holloway, he is credited as one of the group of DJs who brought the Balearic rave scene back to these shores from Ibiza in 1987. Since then his production and DJ career has gone from strength to strength having promoted his own seminal night ‘Shoom’ before going on to hold down long-running prime time slots on Kiss FM and BBC Radio 1, as well as remix many UK and international artists.

So we were absolutely delighted to hear that Danny has endorsed Point Blank in his book, ‘Everything you Need to Know About DJing and Success’. He said “Point Blank is one of the best-known and authoritative DJ and music production audio schools in the UK”.

The book is not only a comprehensive guide to the technical aspects of DJing but also how to achieve success from a business and psychological perspective, whatever your chosen life path may be. It is an inspiring read and will undoubtedly give you the confidence and know-how to make that progression from bedroom DJ to professional. We highly recommend you pick up a copy available at almost half price here. Watch Danny talking about his book in the video below:

We are also very excited to announce that Danny will be giving an live online music industry masterclass through our Livestream channel in early 2011 so keep your eyes peeled for more news on that.

THE STARS OF 2010

Point Blank London celebrate yet another stellar year of music

2010 has been yet another stellar year for the UK Music Industry. For Point Blank London, 2010 has been a year of forging closer relationships with the music industry, both in the UK and globally and of continued growth of their Online School which saw a staggering 50% increase in size: over 2000 students studying with Point Blank online throughout the year. Whilst 2011 is set to be even bigger and better, the team are taking a moment to reflect on certain noteworthy highlights of 2010.

Globally, Point Blank Online now has students from over 50 different countries, with their Online School offering more than 100 courses available throughout the year. This service is giving students from far-reaching corners of the world the opportunity to work with a roll-call of renowned UK industry figures and tap into the magic of that UK sound.

At Point Blank’s London college site, the industry collaborations continued. The year got off to a bounding start when producer Paul Epworth - still glowing from his Brits’ win for Florence and the Machine’s Lungs Album - gave a guest lecture on how to be a successful music producer. Other guest lecturers during the year included Radio One’s Annie Mac, and Beyonce and Leona Lewis remixer - and former Point Blank student - Gareth Wynn to name a few.

Throughout this year, Point Blank’s Masterclass series has continued to shine. In May, Point Blank tutor Jonny Miller hosted an impressive Production Masterclass at the Rio Music Conference in Brazil. Then in July students were privileged to visit Robbie Williams’ producer Guy Chambers at his London studio where he held an exclusive Songwriting Masterclass and gave insider tips on how to make that elusive yet significant all-time classic hit. Other Masterclasses have included Kylie and JZ producer Tommy D and producer vocalist and DJ Ben Westbeech (aka Breach).

This year, the vocational strength of Point Blank’s courses was proven yet again with former students Des McGouran(aka Detboi) releasing his latest EP on Herve’s Cheap Thrills label and DJing all over the world, and Lucy Monkman (aka Monki) starting her daytime show on RINSE FM. And with endorsements from award winning producers Mark Ronson, Louie Vega and DJ Pete Tong amongst others, new students can be confident that their study will be a worthwhile long-term investment.

For further information on courses available for 2011 in London visit:

www.pointblanklondon.com

For online courses visit:

www.pointblankonline.net

Tim Sheridan Label Remix Comp Exclusive to Point Blank

Tim Sheridan and his label Very Very Wrong Indeed Recordings (VVWI) are offering Point Blank students an special opportunity to remix an upcoming release from Josh Tweek on VVWI. This competition will be completely exclusive to students at Point Blank - a fantastic opportunity to gain a release on this highly respected label as well as some other great prizes!

Tim has been a stalwart of the house and techno scene for over 20 years, regularly playing at major UK clubs such as Cream, Fabric, Back to Basics and The End as well as holding down various residencies in Ibiza. VVWI has had props from the likes of Radio Slave, Justin Martin, Spektre, Style of Eye, Luke Solomun, Sasha, Laurent Garnier, Emerson Todd and Ivan Smagghe amongst countless other big name DJs. The VVWI events are famed for their raw vibe and huge lineups whilst the label’s releases gain consistently excellent reviews.

The rules for the remix are pretty simple: Needs to make people dance!

The deadline for the competition is 12th of December and the winning remix will be chosen by Tim Sheridan himself.

The winner will get the following:

• Their remix featured on the full release.
• Hearing their track played at the next VVWI night on the 17th December at Light Box
• VIP entry on the night for them and 4 friends.
• Other VVWI Goodies.
• 
  

Before entering we recommend you get a feel for the murky weirdness of VVWI so take a listen to their back catalogue or check out Tim Sheridan’s Myspace.

As an extra bonus, there will also be a £5 concession on the night at Light Box for any student or staff of Point Blank.

If you are a student please get in touch to attain the remix parts or to get yourself on the concession list. The deadline is less than 3 weeks away so you’d better get tweaking!

Check out our Online Remixing course if you want to take your remixes to a professional level.

Guest Masterclass from Beatles' Former Sound Engineer

Big news just in! Our final guest masterclass of the year will feature Richard Digby Smith, chief sound engineer for Island Records during the record industry’s 1970’s heyday. Since then he has had a prolific career as a musician and recording engineer for an incredibly diverse range of artists before going on to design, construct and manage his own seven studio complex in West London. Although the list of artists he has worked with is far too long to go through in its entirety, some notable names include The Beatles, Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Cliff, Grace Jones, Phil Spector and Aswad!

The Beatles - Amongst the many famous artists Richard has worked with

Having recorded at Abbey Road, Olympic Studios Real World and Sunset Sound, he has a serious amount of knowledge and experience to share about the music industry. The lecture will take place at 1 pm on Friday 10^th December and is free for all Point Blank students. Places are limited and allocated on a first come first serve basis so email us now to reserve your place. Make sure you don’t miss this great opportunity to learn about working at the very highest level as a professional sound engineer!

Check out all of our Sound Engineering Courses.

Point Blank and Pioneer at BPM 2010

Point Blank had a fantastic time at the recent BPM 2010 show promoting our new DJ course in partnership with technology giants Pioneer. The show was a buzzing hive of activity with thuds, bleeps and tweaks emanating from every corner, and professional and amateur DJs coming together to coo over the latest batch of impressive technological advancements.

This included Pioneer's latest series of CDJs, the 2000s, 900s and 350s which are revolutionising the way DJs perform and prepare for their sets. Having set the industry standard for clubs for well over a decade, Pioneer look set to continue this dominance of the DJ market with these new digitally enabled CD decks. Any ambitious DJ would be wise to swot up on the capabilities of these players as more and more clubs around the world install them into their set up.
On our Weekend Pioneer Course you have the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of how to DJ using the CDJ 350 and Rekordbox software. Aimed at beginners, the classes consist of small groups with CDJs and a mixer for each student. Substantial discounts are available on the Pioneer gear too if you buy combined with this Point Blank course!

Check out Pioneer’s interview with the Point Blank DJ tutor Mr Bristow at the show in the player below (skip to 4mins 46)

And remember, once you know your way around the 1s and 2s, the best Point Blank DJ students get the opportunity to play at Camden's legendary Bar Vinyl where we host our weekly DJ night, Ambideckstrous in association with DJ Magazine Management. You could be the next star signed to their DJ agency!

Make Your Career in Music a Reality

If you regularly read this blog, we can safely assume that you love music, it is your passion and it would be a dream to make a living out of it somehow. But the reality is that it is not easy to make ends meet as an up and coming musician simply by selling music and playing gigs. Being a talented musician is rarely enough these days, you need entrepreneurial skills and a business minded outlook if you are going to maximise your earning power.

At Point Blank we recognise the importance of this for those who are aiming for a career in the music industry, which is why we have developed the Music Business Course as a core module of the 2 year Diploma. To supplement the concepts and theories taught on this module, we want to lend a further helping hand by inviting you to join our affiliate program, one of the many alternative revenue streams out there to be exploited.

Affiliate programs are common throughout the Internet and offer website owners an additional way to profit from their websites. Affiliates generate traffic and sales for commercial websites and in return receive a commission payment.

So if you run a website or blog you could be earning up to £70+ for every person that clicks through from your site and ends up booking a Point Blank course! The program is open to anyone, whether you have studied at Point Blank or not and the commission is applicable up to 90 days after the person’s first visit via your link.

How Does It Work?
When you join our affiliate program, you will be supplied with a range of banners and textual links that you place within your site. When a user clicks on one of your links, they will be brought to our website and their activity will be tracked by our affiliate software. You will earn a commission based on your commission type.

You will then be able to login 24 hours a day to check your sales, traffic, account balance and see how your banners are performing.

So if you do own a website or blog there is really nothing to lose!

Head over to www.pointblankonline.net/affiliate to sign up and start earning now!