taken from DENON DJ AUSTRALIA webpage........

Denon DJ Asian All Star Championship 2007 On Thursday the 17th of May the Denon DJ Asian All Star Championship was held for 2007. The competition consisted of finalists from all corners of Asia Pacific competing for the title of Asian All Star Champion and the fantastic new Denon DN-HD2500 Hard Drive Audio Player as the first prize.

Held at Santika, a popular nightspot in Bangkok, the night began with a showcase on the DN-HD2500 by one of Thailand's best DJ's, DJ SSD. He ran the DN-HD2500 thru its paces with a mix of breakbeats and house, blending in scratching with advanced use of the built-in effects like echo loop and filter. It was impressive to see that his whole music collection was being played back from a USB Stick and Portable MP3 player connected directly to the DN-HD2500 thru a USB hub. Gone are the days off lugging around crates of vinyl and CD wallets!

After introductions by the lovely host from MTV the competition was ready to kick off. Two consoles had been setup, each consisting of two DN-S3500 CD Players and a DN-X1500S 4 Channel Mixer as the standard platform for competing. Each DJ set was 15-20 minutes long and could consist of any style of music.

First up, representing Singapore was DJ Razaq. played a great set of breaks and popular bootlegs. He impressed earlier with some tight scratching and good use of effects ranging from the filters to the echo loop. Definitely an experienced DJ using Denon DJ equipment, DJ Razaq had set the standard high as the first entrant for the competition.

DJ Yusuf from India was up next. DJ Yusuf played a very nice blend of musical styles ranging from house to hip hop and pop all infused with tribal style rhythms. He made good use of the hotstarts and sampling features on the DN-S3500 although his scratching was not as advanced as DJ Razaq beforehand. DJ Yusuf had an interesting finish, pulling out a small keyboard and playing the main riff from his last song fading out to only his piano sound from his keyboard. Top marks for originality!

Next on stage was G-Smooth from Australia. With a long introduction listing credentials such as ITF Scratching Champion there were a lot of expectations from the audience. And he didn't disappoint! G-Smooth began with an impressive display of scratching and transforming pushing the limits of the DN-S3500 Active Platter and DN-X1500S Flex Fader. G-Smooth was clearly a battle DJ challenging all his opponents with some very good use of gangster movie samples and a confident stage performance. Great use of the hot starts for instant drumming and impressive beat juggling placed G-Smooth as top contender for the competition.

The final contestant was local favourite DJ Soundheaven. DJ Soundheaven is a popular Thai DJ playing in all the best clubs in Thailand. His style was completely different from what was just heard and he thumped out some banging house and trance anthems making good use of the effects and looping in breakdowns and build-ups. DJ Soundheaven finished off his set making good use of the Echo1 effect on the DN-X1500S by decreasing the echo time to an ear-piercing tone. Definitely a favourite with the crowd!

After a brief break with a performance from DJ SSD the results were ready to be announced. First to be announced was the runner up, DJ Razaq. DJ Razaq was quite surprised but it was a well deserved placing. And now the winner - as many in the audience expected the winner of the Denon DJ Asian All Star Championship for 2007 is G-Smooth. Well done!

And congratulations must also go to Denon DJ Singapore and Mahajak Development Thailand for organising a very successful event.

Photos kindly supplied by Clarence at Entertainment Technology Asia
www.e-techasia.com