Yes, I just recently wrapped up work on the Sunchase remix contest, and I already have the bug again to work on another one. Not drum & bass this time… this one will be some funky tech house. Details of the contest, sponsored by Beatport and Baroque Records, can be found here. I have most of my remix finished, just adding details at this point. And of course, still need to mix down and master it. I will post a link as soon as it is closer to completion.
On another note, some may have noticed the Soundcloud icon above my sidebar, and the fact it is not working quite the way it should. I wanted to add a Follow Me on Soundcloud link, but the CSS in my WordPress theme is pretty complicated, so I don’t have it working quite the way I intended. Will hopefully have that fixed when I get a chance to work on it.
Welcome to the future. This is a concept I have been playing around with in my head and on paper for some time and now Pablo Martin has brought this vision to fruition. Basically, Pablo has created a software interface called Emulator that allows Traktor to receive multi touch data, freeing it up from the confines of just the mouse and allowing it to be used on a multi touch surface. That right there is cool enough.
Rodrigo from Chile is developing the multi touch surface you see in the video, which is called Töken. Between the two of them they have put together one hell of an incredible DJ rig.
Shout out to simfonik for turning me on to this.
I reworked the remix a bit, wanted to make it a bit less “abstract.”
Sunchase – Moulded (Mojo’s Final Truth Remix) Version 2 by DJMojo
I haven’t done a Drum & Bass mix in quite a long time, but overall I am pleased with how this turned out. Mostly new stuff with a few old classic favs thrown in for good measure. Mostly liquid but a little bit of everything and I throw some harder stuff in at the peaks.
Mojo – A Little Bit of Drums and a Little Bit of Bass by DJMojo
Here is the remix I am submitting for the Sunchase “Moulded” remix competition. I spent a lot of time on this and feel good about how it turned out. The two main things I wanted to do was expand on the excellent moody vibe of the original, and also focus on the “futuristic” elements. It’s funny, but to me anything that sounds futuristic reminds of the “old” analog synth sounds – stuff you hear in 80s sci-fi classics like Blade Runner. Or stuff you would hear from artists like Jean MIchael-Jarre or Vangelis. The irony is that these synths have been around for like 40 years, and yet to me they still and probably always will sound futuristic.
I did this in Sonar, and I am still learning my way around the features and quirks of Sonar. All in all, I think it’s a great piece of software, which is why I bought it. However, there are still intricacies I am trying to wrap my head around. The good news is that I learned a lot during this. So regardless of the outcome, I am better for having done it.
I had my doubts about the little guitar and classical segment that I close with. I wasn’t sure that it “fit.” However, as I was working on building up elements for the song, this theme would not leave my head… and I’m a big believer in following inspiration whenever it rears it’s head. So, I spent a lot of time transcribing it from my head, the way I heard it and I decided to go with it, for better or for worse.
Anyways, enough chatter. Here’s the song:
Sunchase – Moulded (Mojo’s Final Truth Remix) by DJMojo
And here’s a clip of the original, for context:
Sunchase – Moulded [ Drone Audio 003 ] by Sunchase
Thanks for listening!
I am busily working on another remix competition. This is for another Drum ‘n Bass tune called “Moulded” by Sunchase. The original track, a nice minimal moody number, is released on the Camino Blue Recordings label. Details of the of contest can be found here.
With the release of DJ Hero and other DJ oriented apps and games, I know there are plenty of DJs and hobbyists out there that view these types of apps with skepticism. I have to tell you, though, DJ Player, by iMecht Ltd. is a fully functional mixing app for the Ipod* that offers a number of impressive features. Having played around with it for the past couple of weeks, I can tell you, this thing is a serious mixing app. One of the things I like most about DJ Player is that the developers made a very intuitive interface that shows they are familiar with what a DJ expects, from a DJ’s point of view. In fact, if I were to develop a mixing app, this comes pretty close to what I would try to offer.
One of the key features that DJ Player offers is the ability to monitor a channel in your headphones. I did have to buy some additional cables and adapters to make this work, which I will detail below, but once the cable setup has been sorted, the ability to do pre-fader listening works like a charm. Also of note, is the ability to tap and store BPMs. Now, many of the tracks that I have purchased from places like Juno and Beatport already have the BPMs calculated, but for tracks that don’t have this, the tap ability is helpful… especially for DJs just starting out trying to learn the craft. Sure, there was a time when I would have considered this cheating, and I still believe nothing is better for learning the art of DJing than beatmatching by ear. But let’s face it, most DJ apps and many mixers already have BPM detection or matching already; the cat’s been out of the bag for some time now. The DJ Player developers would be foolish not to incorporate such a feature in today’s market.
Now, I’m not saying that this is going to replace a complete DJ rig, yet it is definitely robust enough in terms of the features to perform a complete set. For casual gigs such as house parties or just going to the beach with some friends, not having to lug around a bunch of gear and crates, this is where an app loke this can really shine. I also think this is a great set-programming tool for established DJs. Certainly mobile DJs can make use of this type of app and I think it’s a great learning tool for people who want to learn about mixing, but can’t afford a full rig.
Other notable features:
1. Ability to upload songs to your Ipod over Wifi with the included winsync program. I haven’t seen any other app that is capable of this. Just create a playlist in ITunes called “DJ PLAYER” and if your Ipod and computer are on the same wifi network, run the winsync program and input the IP address of your Ipod and hit sync. This will then upload the playlist and all associated songs to the Ipod. Pretty cool!
2. Multi-touch crossfader, pitch sliders, and pitch bend to make realtime adjustments. All of these are customizable in terms of scale and resolution and the curve of the crossfader can be adjusted as well.
3. Several effects including delay, reverb, high-pass and low-pass filters and EQ. These can be triggered via multitouch, or even controller via the Ipod’s accelerometer!
4. Low, mid and treble EQ sliders.
5. Tap function to calculate and store a song’s BPM.
6. Ability to set and save cue points on tracks. This is beneficial if you have a track that has silence, spoken word or ambience prior to the first beat.
7. Sortable playlist. You can sort by title, artist or tempo.
* When I refer to Ipod I am including Iphone and Ipad. I imagine this app would be even stronger on the Ipad with the additional real estate available.
Required cables for PFL monitoring (Headphone cueing):
1. Mini-plug to RCA Y adapter. This will plug into your Ipod’s headphone jack.
2. 2 RCA Y adapters. One for the red and one for the white ends of the mini to RCA adapter listed above.
3. Plug a normal RCA cable into the RCA Y-Adapter attached to the white side of the mini adapter. You may need RCA barrel couplers. This cable will go to your input on your amp, stereo, mixer, etc.
4. Your headphones will plug into one of the RCA connectors on the red side of the mini plug to RCA adapter. You may need one more mini to RCA adapter (not a Y adapter) or 1/4 inch to RCA adapter, depending on what type of connector is on your headphones.
The following video demonstrates real time mixing with this app. Yes, I used BPM syncing to speed things up for the sake of the video, but I still needed to monitor the speed and you will see me make bend adjustments to keep the beat-mixing proper.
Summer is here and along with it an opportunity to recharge, refresh and get working on some stuff that the extra time available from not having school will afford me. That includes more frequent posts to my blog here; I know I’ve lagged somewhat but this last quarter was pretty brutal for me.
Things I’d like to get working on this summer:
1. Make a couple of new mixes. Discogs is now a media partner with Juno, so they are an excellent source of digital media along with Beatport which I have also used in the past. I love vinyl, but there is no denying the ease of use and efficiency of time and cost that mixing with digital media offers. Reading some of the comments in various forums there seems to be some animosity by some DJs and vinyl heads towards the digital media and it’s a debate I’d like to engage in, but that is for another post… Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments if you have an opinion.
2. Work on a couple of remixes. There are a number of remix competitions out there, some of which offer some pretty cool prizes. I’ve done one so far, but I definitely want to get cracking on some more and continue polishing and refining my production efforts. The findremix blog is a great way to keep track of all of these competitions.
3. Do some more work with TouchOSC and PureData.
4. I downloaded the VST Software Development Kit from Steinberg a while back, which allows you to create your own virtual synth instruments. I just haven’t had the time to work with any of it. So I definitely want to take a more serious look at that.
5. Start reviewing some more music/DJ based apps for the Ipod/Iphone/Ipad here (Yes, I want an Ipad, dammit!). Like the vinyl versus digital format debates, there seems to be some apathy by DJs and producers towards these emerging tools. Again, I see no problem with looking for new tools to work with and technology is merely about providing new tools to work with. Again, another debate to post about in depth another time. But since I have an interest in developing apps myself I guess you could call me biased on these issues. Main thing preventing me from serious app development is Apple’s requirement that apps be developed on a Mac… which I neither have nor can afford any time soon. So I might have to look at starting with droid app development.
6. There are still a number of other music development platforms I have been exposed to recently including Max, CSound, Super Collider and something called the Synth Toolkit. Obviously, I can’t delve too deep into all of them, especially with all the other stuff I am trying to get familiar with, but definitely want to play around a bit with each of these. That’s always been one of my problems, overly ambitious with too broad a focus. Something that’s hindered me in the past, but something I am working to improve as I get older (and school has definitely helped with that!)
7. Last but not least, I would like to add a section to this blog that focuses on the history of electronic music. I’ve been fortunate to be exposed to a lot of interesting information over the years; stuff that I think would be interesting to share with other folks who are into synthesis, electronic music of all styles, music production, DJing, music technology and everything that goes along with all that. There are so many interesting precursors and influences to today’s electronic music that I believe are important to share. So maybe something like a wiki or just a “spotlight of the week” type thing.
I’ve been messing around with an Ipod app called TouchOSC which allows me to send data to my computer from my Ipod Touch. I can hook this up to PureData on my laptop so that I can control sound frequency and MIDI information thus allowing the Ipod to trigger and manipulate the sounds on my computer. Right now I am just playing around with this on a basic level, so I don’t have any video of it, but it is working great. Should be able to use Puredata to output MIDI which would then allow me to control my virtual synths or even outboard MIDI gear from my IPOD. All over Wifi.
This is a pretty good basic introduction to theremins and how they work from G4TV’s Attack of the Show segment called It’s Effing Science.
Blog posting has been and will be light throughout this month. I am battling Assembly Language for a Machine Organization class this quarter and it is taking up a lot of my spare time. The good news: I am taking the summer off and should be able to increase post frequency as well as kick off some other projects I have been considering.
Several weeks back I posted about the grand-daddy of analog synth emulators, Propellerhead’s Rebirth, which emulates a Roland TB-303 synth. The 303 is known for producing the “acid” sound in various forms of electronic music and the Rebirth software does a great job reproducing this sound. The Rebirth also provides TR-909 and TR-808 drum machine emulators to provide a nice little mini studio package for those who want to explore these classic sounds. Well now, Propellerheads has ported the Rebirth into an app for the Iphone, Ipod and Ipad!
This video highlights the development of Skinput, a project that uses the bodies’ surface as an input mechanism. A bio-acoustic sensor device is used to capture and decode taps made on the body, with a high degree of accuracy. Pretty wild and there are a number of applications in a wide variety of industries where such an interface would be useful. Obviously, I see music and performance capabilities…
More details at Chris Harrison’s site.
There are many online remix contests that allow aspiring DJs and producers an opportunity to remix songs by well-known labels and artists. Aside from the potential attention this can bring someone, there are often very cool prizes associated with these contests.
The only problem is that it is kind of hard to keep track of where all these competitions are. Diego Iglesias has the perfect solution at his blog Find Remix. This site lists all current competitions in a central location – what a great idea! In addition, Diego posts tutorial videos on production techniques in such audio platforms as Ableton, Reason and Logic Studio. Very cool blog, go check it out!
As a follow-up to my previous post about Physical Modeling Synthesis tools, I am presenting the following fixes that I discovered for the Tao library. The source code can be downloaded from here.
While working with Tao for a project at my university, I had some issues with compilation under Ubuntu Linux 9.04. I was able to resolve the issues and wanted to offer the following tips to anyone else who may be having similar problems. Apparently in GCC 4.3 some of the C++ headers were removed for cleanup purposes. Therefore I had to edit a few of the source files to add includes for <cstring> and <cstdlib>.
The requisite files for adding #include <cstring> are:
/taolib/TaoDevice.cc
/taolib/TaoGraphicsEngine.cc
/taolib/TaoInstrument.cc
/taolib/TaoOutput.cc
/taolib/TaoPitch.cc
/taolib/TaoSynthEngine.cc
/taoparse/taoparser.cc
Additionally, add #include<cstring> and #include<cstdlib> to:
/tao2aiff/tao2aiff.cc
tao2wav/tao2wav.cc
Other than that the only issues I had were making sure I had all of the right packages installed. Once all that was resolved, Tao ran fine. Hope this is helpful to prospective Tao users.
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