Ableton Mixing Dance Music Course Launching Next Week

Point Blank can’t stop the music! Due to massive demand and over-subscribed courses, the team at the world’s premier online school has put the finishing touches to a fastrack guide to mixing your tracks like a true pro. We have enjoyed sustained success with Mixing Dance Music on Logic and have been inundated with requests for an Ableton Live version virtually since the course was inaugurated last year. So, here it is....

Spaced evenly over 4 weeks, the course includes a minimum of 240 minutes video tutorials, 4 x DVR™ , the school’s bespoke 1-2-1 video feedback system and 4 hours of live online masterclasses by your expert pro producer tutor and with your classmates from around the world. While the course is running you gain 24/7 access to forum and the course materials which include over 80 pages of notes and exclusive audio resources to download. After the 4 weeks is up you still have a whole year’s access to this content, and get your track signed to Point Blank Music, who can get your music out on Beatport, Junodownload, iTunes and Amazon. Here is a sample video from the course:



To get your head around how this works and what you get out of it, here is an excerpt from a letter sent to Music Tech Magazine:

"I took Point Blank's Mixing Dance Music course and it was absolutely fantastic. Their methods of combining theory with real life video examples are outstanding. Every week they put up a lesson dealing with topics from the course. There are approximately 30 pages of (easy read) written explanations combined with on average 1 hour of tutorial videos per week backing up the theory (I received as much as 90 mins some weeks). You then have a chat session with your tutor & fellow classmates where you can ask questions. Using the methods & techniques covered in the lesson, you prepare a project (this can be your own or you can use the one provided) which you then upload for the tutor to review. The feedback comes back in the form of a DVR™ (Direct Video Response). This is a short video in which the tutor looks at your project, talks through the things you did well, makes adjustments and provides feedback on how to move forward and improve your project. This video usually lasts about 5 -10 mins (even though the last course I did the tutor gave about 15 - 20 mins feedback each week). You can also check your classmates DVRs and learn even more interesting things. If I had to give a vote out of 10 I would give Point Blank 10/10. I hope that this can help fellow readers to decide on which school would better suit their needs. Cheers, Alfie"

The course has been developed by producer and remixer Danny J Lewis who has releases on labels including Defected, Masters At Work, Ministry of Sound and XL Recordings. It also features contributions from other Point Blank tutors including electro breaks producer Rogue Element (aka Ben Medcalf) and Grammy nominee Mike Koglin (Noys Music). Thanks to this expert input, the course is suitable for producers of any style of dance music.

There are still a few places remaining for the first course starting on 4th April so check out the full brochure at www.pointblankonline.net and get in touch to enrol!

Rumer's Drummer at Sound Engineering Course

Recently, we managed to catch up with top session drummer Richard Mark Angelo, and heard what he had to say about Point Blank’s Sound Engineering course, and working with Brit Award nominated artist Rumer, on her debut album.

Richard, sang the praises of Rumer, and her producer; Steve Brown, who he was particularly impressed with. For Richard, Steve’s ability to combine cutting edge recording technology with an old school recording technique, came as a refreshing break from the clean cut, ultra polished feel of modern recording nowadays. What’s more surprising, as Richard highlights, is that Rumer’s was the first album Steve had ever made. This achievement was extra important, as it also went on to sell 500,000 copies and earned Rumer her Brit nomination. Not bad for a first attempt!

Richard also supports the fact that here at Point Blank, we try to give our students an education based in practical, authentic, industry focused experience and knowledge. This is something that is heavily endorsed in our Sound Engineering course, where students are invited to a real recording session at Miloco Studios and get the chance to take part in setting up microphones and being genuinely involved in the recording process overall. This kind of hands on learning is something we cannot emphasise enough as being key to an aspiring sound engineer’s career.

To find out more about our drum sessions at Miloco Studios, watch the video below:

You can also see Richard playing live in the Studio on Rumer's track 'Alfie' below:

To find out more about Point Blank’s Sound Engineering course click here

Soundcloud Workshop - Optimizing Your Social Network Marketing Strategy

We recently held an in-depth workshop with Soundcloud’s David Adams, who shared his expertise and debated the best ways to optimize the marketing of your music and broaden your net appeal via the groundbreaking social media platform that has now engulfed previous sites such as Myspace.

In the video below, you can catch up on some of the points highlighted in the session and pick up just a few of the helpful techniques that David and the group discussed. Remember to keep checking the News section and Point Blank Blog to remain up-to-date with what sessions we have marked in the calendar and what special guests will be joining us at the college.

Join our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter to keep up-to-date with the latest masterclasses here at Point Blank.

New Student Releases

As ever here at Point Blank, we love boasting about the achievements that our students have gone on to do. This time, the good news comes from Eddie Averell, a young minimal tech producer from Glasgow who since Point Blank has gone on to have much success producing and releasing his unique brand of hypnotic, minimal house.

Recently his 3 track EP; ‘Telescope No.16’, was released by Muchiq Records and made available as a download from Beatport. The three tracks; ‘Monday’, ‘Boak’, and title track ‘Telescope No.16’, are an amazing endorsement of how to really produce Minimal Tech House properly, with their fullness of sound and throbbing beats Eddie has absolutely nailed it with his first release.

Listen to a track from Eddie’s Soundcloud and then be sure to head over to Beatport to buy the EP. At £3.90, quite frankly it would be rude not to.

Eddie is boshing out the tunes at such a lightening pace, that he has yet another EP coming out very soon as well! The release date for ‘Overlay’ is yet to be confirmed, but you can check out one of the tracks below.

Another of our protégées, Paul ‘Mojito’ Satchell, is bringing out his massive floor filler ‘Why Don’t You’ featuring vocals from Janine Johnson under the Daddy Funk label. The release features a host of remixes which give you plenty of choice; with Bassi serving a classic take featuring a grand piano, Doobie J going slightly more pumpin' on his summery version, Ray Paxon delivering the goods on his deep'n'sexy version, DJ Jogador relaxing the vibe on his deep soulful workout, Sole Essential going as deep as it gets on his hypnotic dub and finally Rob Hayes is blessing us with his sun drenched disco-funk dub. Check out the original below and buy it from Traxsource now.

Find out about all of Point Blank students' releases by joining our Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud.

Pioneer Equipment Discount for Point Blank

Info PR: 3 I: 4,410,000 L: 0 LD: 206,421,974 I: 450,000 Rank: 7 Age: Oct 12, 1999 I: 0 whois source Robo: yes Sitemap: no Rank: 1586 Price: 989030 Links: 12|4 Density

Have you just started a new course at Point Blank and need to invest in some new equipment or looking to upgrade your old gear?

As part of our ongoing partnership with Pioneer, the cutting edge music production and DJ equipment developer, we can announce that students, who purchase any Pioneer products from West End DJ, will qualify for a 5% discount!

Get in touch with Luke for more information about the offer: luke@pointblanklondon.com

Join our Facebook page or follow us on twitter to keep up to date with all of our special offers and discounts with big name brands.

Everything You Need To Know About DJ'ing & Success: Danny Rampling shares his 20 years experience at the top

Legendary DJ Danny Rampling rolled up on Point Blank yesterday to deliver not one but TWO FREE masterclasses, both of which went down a storm and were thoroughly inspiring!

Danny focused on talking about how to succeed in the music industry to celebrate the launch of his great new book titled ‘Everything you Need to Know About DJing and Success’. To make sure everybody had a chance to learn from Danny’s session we streamed the lectures through our Livestream channel so there was no excuse of missing out, even if you cannot make it to the studios.

If by some chance, you did happen to miss the session being aired live, or you wish to view the masterclass again; you can replay the recorded version again, by visiting our Livestream channel.

The masterclass was a great way to pick up some tips from an artist who has seen it all whilst being able to check out the Point Blank studios if you haven’t yet been. We try to make these masterclasses as regular as possible (at least once a term), so look out for more from big names in the near future!

This was the first masterclass we have ever streamed through our Livestream channel. And it was a huge success, sharing knowledge to the furthest flung corners of the globe! Head to: livestream.com/pointblankonline to catch the action.

Lastly a very big thank you to Danny for taking the time to come in and answer the multitude of questions fired at him and hopefully inspiring a new generation of top DJs!

Point Blank Student Wins 'Best DJ' Award

We are very proud to report that one of our students, Bassem Ayoub has recently won an award for his excellent Hip-Hop Radio show on Free Radio 95.7fm. Bassem, better known as Mr. B presents the three hour long Hip-Hop show on the number one radio station broadcasting in Sierra Leone, and for that, he has been rewarded by Lake Heroes as ‘The Best Hip-Hop DJ of 2011’ at a ceremony hosted at the National Stadium in Freetown. On accepting his award, Bessem had this to say;

“I am honoured to achieve this award in recognition of the major part I played to bring hip-hop to Sierra Leone. I want to dedicate this award to my fans, my family, for been there for me and also my friends”.

Mr. B is currently undertaking a year long course with us here at Point Blank London, and we expect him to go on to achieve a lot more success with his show and retain his coveted title at next years awards.

Congratulations Mr. B from everyone here at Point Blank!

If you want to learn how to be a top radio DJ, then check out our Radio Production course, or alternatively you can also find out more about our hip-hop course here.

Funk D'Void Remix Competition

Point Blank have teamed up once again with our good friends at Find Remix, as well as a host of other companies, including Soundcloud and Crysonic to bring you a new and exciting remix contest. This time, Find Remix are challenging you to rework Funk D'Void's, 'Italoca'! All the stems are available via the Find Remix competition page and by entering you have the chance to win a vast array of fantastic and exclusive prizes including:
1st place:

1. Your remix included on a future Outpost release
2. Entire Outpost catalogue on vinyl and an exclusive t-shirt
3. Crysonic everything bundle plugins (worth 706$)
4. Point Blank Online Remixing course or another Pro Producer course of his choice (worth $530)
5. Premium SoundCloud Pro yearly account (worth €250). Pro users access benefits such as advanced stats, unlimited downloads and 36 hours of audio in the cloud
6. FXPansion Geist next generator sampler instrument (worth $249)
7. PSP Audioware MixPack2
8. Interview on Findremix.com

2nd place:

1. PSP Audioware Oldtimer
2. Premium SoundCloud Lite yearly accounts (worth €29). Lite users access benefits such as increased download limit, more stats and 240 minutes of audio in the cloud
3. Crysonic single license of his choice

3rd place:

1. PSP Audioware StereoPack
2. Crysonic single license of his choice
3. Premium SoundCloud Lite yearly accounts (worth €29). Lite users access benefits such as increased download limit, more stats and 240 minutes of audio in the cloud

4th place:

1. Crysonic single license of his choice
2. Premium SoundCloud Lite yearly accounts (worth €29). Lite users access benefits such as increased download limit, more stats and 240 minutes of audio in the cloud

To be eligible to win, you must become of fan of Funk D'Void's Facebook page and submit your peice before midnight (GMT+1) 31/05/2011. Go to Find Remix to get more details about the rules and requirements

Point Blank Student DJ's Space with Carl Cox

As always, here at Point Blank we are always more than happy to boast about our former students and their current musical exploits to no end. This time we have really got something to rave on at you about. Former student Nicole Moudaber has been hitting the Ibiza circuit playing with the none other than Carl Cox in the multi-award winning club that is Space. She has also gained residency on the island at Church On Sundays.

Moudaber, with her rich cultural mix, broke onto the Ibiza scene with her roots cast back via Nigeria, Lebanon, New York and London, and has been mesmerizing the huge crowds at the biggest and best clubs out there with her electronic beats for a number of years.

Carl Cox called her ‘the Most Underrated DJ of 2009’ and said: “I've been following her career for the last three years – her productions and DJing [are] amazing.”

While distinctly dark and driving, her sets blend deep techno with groovier rhythms perfect for main room dance floor action. You can check out her sets, DJing alongside Mr. Cox in the video below:

Take a look at our selection of DJ courses for the chance to learn how to spin like Nicole or just brush up on the latest ticks and technology.

http://www.pointblankonline.net/courses

Ashley Beedle Masterclass - Hosted By Danny Lewis

We are hugely excited to announce that world famous DJ and producer; Ashley Beedle will be presenting an exclusive masterclass for Point Blank students on Friday 8^th April. The session will be hosted by our very own Danny Lewis at 1pm (GMT), and will focus on exploring Beedle’s extraordinary career in the music business, and will no doubt shine light upon the plethora of influential projects he has been involved in over the last three decades.

The masterclass will also be broadcast live, via our stream channel and will be available for anybody who wants to watch it. This means that those of you who currently do not study at Point Blank School, or those students who cannot make it to the London college, won’t miss what promises to be one of the best sessions Point Blank has to offer this year.

The masterclass is taking place on Friday 8^th April 2011 at 1pm.

Students should get in touch via email or telephone to confirm their attendance.

Dance Midi Samples Competition - WIN Pro Production Course

Together with our friends at DanceMidiSamples, Point Blank is proud to present this original composition contest, using a DMS midi sample pack and some Point Blank vocal samples.

One extremely lucky winner from DMS will get the chance to win one of our Pro Producer Courses courses worth £-355 GBP completely free! To find out what you could win click here.

To enter all you need to do is download the free sample and MIDI pack and make your own track using material from the package. Your track can be any musical genre you desire, and entries will be judged jointly by Point Blank & DMS staff.

The RULES are: Entries must be a complete track of any musical genre and must include at least one MIDI file and one vocal sample from the media pack and be no longer than 8 minutes long, that's it!

All entries must be received by 31st May 2011, tracks received after this date will not be considered for the competition.

To enter the competition visit Dance Midi Samples by clicking here.

Former Student Gareth Wyn Releases Radio 1 Essesntial Mix

Gareth Wyn is among the hottest remixers around right now, and coincidentally; he's also a former Point Blank Music Production and Sound Engineer student.

He’s remixed two Beyonce singles ‘Broken Hearted Girl’ and ‘Video Phone’ for Sony, as well as remixing Leona Lewis’ single for Simon Cowell’s Syco label. Add to that his huge remix of BT’s ‘Flaming June’ (signed to Tiesto’s Blackhole label for a 2010 release) and previous remixes for The Gossip, Junkie XL and Duffy and we are talking about a serious new talent.

To add to all of this, Gareth was recently invited to release an Essential Mix which was broadcast on BBC Radio 1. The mix included some true bangers including; Afrojack v Tocadisco - Tequila Sunrise, Chris Schweizer - Vitality (Sergio Maldonado Remix), and Boys Don't Dance - Monsetta and can be heard below:

Gareth Wyn Radio 1 Essential Mix 15/01/11 by Gareth Wyn

We're all proud of what Gareth has gone on to achieve so far, and know that there is a lot more to come from this exciting new remixer. The man himself also had some words to share about his experience here at Point Blank, completing both Production and Engineering diplomas. He said of the Music Production Diploma that;

"This was the course that brought everything together for me and gave me the kick start I needed".

You can find more about the courses that Gareth took by clicking here to see our full range of online courses, or to read about our London based college courses click here.

Danny Rampling Masterclass – To be Streamed Live Online!

The time is drawing closer to the legend that is Danny Rampling coming into Point Blank to deliver not one but TWO FREE masterclasses!

He will be talking about how to succeed in the music industry to celebrate the launch of his great new book titled ‘Everything you Need to Know About DJing and Success’. On top of this we will be streaming the lectures through our Livestream channel so everyone can also watch live online even if you cannot make it to the studios.

*Please note the masterclass times have changed since our initial announcement*

Both masterclasses will be on 16th March, the first will now be at 11.15am (GMT) and is open to Point Blank students only. The second is at 12.30pm (GMT) and is open to everyone, a great way to pick up some tips from an artist who has seen it all whilst checking out the Point Blank studios if you haven’t yet been. Both will last roughly an hour and there will be a chance to ask him questions at the end.

This will be the first masterclass we have ever streamed through our Livestream channel. We are very excited about this new method of sharing knowledge to the furthest flung corners of the globe! Head to livestream.com/pointblankonline on 16th March to catch the action.

There are only a few places remaining for the masterclasses, so please get in touch with davidm@pointblanklondon.com ASAP to book yours.