Dj Case study task Carl Cox

Carl Cox

Background

Carl Cox was born in 1962 Barbados and is mainly a British house and techno DJ and producer. In the 1980’s Carl Cox became a rave DJ. He has performed at many clubs and has been a DJ monthly for BBC Radio Ones essential mix. Carl Cox has formed two record labels and has reached the level where he performs annually at music festivals on his own stage. DJ Magazine voted Carl the top Rave DJ in 1992 and the top DJ in the World in 1996 and 1997, which is definitely a huge achievement. On Carls website where you can make bookings and purchase tickets, his biography states, “It was at the age of 15 that Carl bought a set of turntables and began working as a mobile DJ. Disco was the first music that captivated him but by the early 80s Cox had moved on to playing the same music as other young London DJs – rare groove, New York hip-hop and electro.” This is inspiring as it shows from a young age he has had a passion for music and being a DJ especially.

Genres

As stated above Carl Cox tends to play British house and techno however in his biography, we learn that when Carl was starting to create his own music and release tracks “the hard-core created jungle“ implying he was one of the few artists around in this time that started to make the fusion of music known as Jungle. Carl Cox was really passionate about techno though from searching online I’m almost certain techno is what drives him to DJ, we also gather this from his biography again when he is talking about his beloved techno “"It takes you to an element of surprise, not knowing where you're going. It's scary but wonderful at the same time." This emphasises his love for techno and being a DJ in general.

Equipment

At one point in time Carl Cox was known for using three decks his name was “Three Decks Coxs”. In addition Carl has toured using the Traktor Kontrol S8 at the centre of his rig. He uses the new controller as a central mixer and deck controller along side two pioneer CDJ-2000’s. Carl states he has “2 players at least and 2 players internally”.  In the picture below the control s8 is being used as a mixer, he has a microphone running into the Kontrol and two RCA’S are running into two channels.