Jabablog » MixSkillz

My New Toy (APC40)

Jabs — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:34:55 +0000

Well it has been a while since I treated myself so the other day I stopped by West End DJ on my way into the office and I picked up an Akai APC 40. In fairness it was my birthday and I used that as a feable form of excuse for the expenditure, but I have a semi clear conciense as a reslut and another oh so sexy toy to play with!

This toy really is the ultimate in Ableton Live control, extending the interface litterally to your fingertips and bringing a whole new world of possibility. You can read all about it on Akai’s site, but if you really want to see the potential, check out these YouTube links that just sum up the potential in full from my perspective:

Ok, so its going to take me a while before I get this good, but thats what its all about.

……watch this space

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Tags: akai, apc40, Dirty House, electro, gadgets, music, OldSkool, producer, production, Progressive House, techno

Investment Complete!

Jabs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:05:29 +0000

Well, despite wanting to spend thousands of pounds on the perfect setup, I decided I had to transition away from Vinyl completely first and get used to the fully digital interfaces. So, in my usual, straight out of left field way, I bought myself an M-Audio Xponent and some new speakers

The Xponent is an awesome tool, it is the perfect transition medium for anyone thinking of moving into digital and is very well featured. Its a little on the plastic side, and the faders feel like they are fisher price, but it works like a dream and is portable enough to follow me around the country!

I now have two primary setups, home & away.

Home is the Xponent, married to my main desktop feeding a pair of KRK RP6G2 Active Studio Monitors, and it sounds awesome!

Away is the Xponent. married to my X200s Laptop & feeding a pair of M-Audio AV20 portable studio monitors, although it lacks base, it has punch, power and clarity and lets face it, we don’t want to piss off the neighbours in the hotel now do we

I still suffer from the age old problem of not actually having time to use this lot, but the away kit helps with that problem a fair bit, so once I get fully transitioned, expect a flurry of new mixes on the way!

Tags: gadgets, KRK, m-audio, mixing, production, RP6G2, xponent

A new solution

Jabs — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:53:40 +0000

I have decided to plan my new musical platform in advance this time, rather than the usual method of buy something, expand on it, realise its not up to the job and then replace it. This essentially means that I am going to spend a great deal of time on google deciding something, then finding a better version of something and so one, until I eventually bite the bullet and invest.

What I have at this stage is a premise and an outline set of requirements. The premise is simple, go fully digital, but retain analogue controls. The outline components are as follows:

A powerful PC/MAC + Essential Apps such as Ableton Live
A High Quality Multi-channel sound card
A midi trigger device
A Good quality Mixer
A Sampler/Effects Unit

Now, its actually possible to have all of the above in a single box, and in fact, many solutions exist for sub £250, but to be honest, its just not going to give me the flexibility and expandability that I desire. What I want is complete fluidity in the solution so that I can expand upon for many years, giving me not only multi-channel mixing, but the real-time remix capability that I desire

So where next?

Well, I already have a decent mixer (DJM600), a powerful PC (Multi-Xeon Monster) and Ableton, so the most important piece and crux of the system is what I need to acquire first. This would be the multi-channel sound card! I have had a look around and found many options, but this one seems to be the best by a mile:

Motu Ultralite MK3

This unit has all the features I could need, from 192Khz sample rates, through to 6 channels of input and 10 channels of output to give me as many feeds as I could possibly deal with! The spec list goes on forever on this thing, which is why it can command a £500+ price tag. But if I am going to invest, this is the way forward.

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Tags: gadgets, music, production, thoughts

A simple truth

Jabs — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:33:54 +0000

Its a strange thing when you suddenly realise the simple truth about something.

The fact of the matter is, I am bored with mixing! What I mean is, simply firing up the 1210’s and spinning a few tracks just doesnt do it for me anymore. I think this is a trend that is also reflected in the current dance music scene. Consider a true talent in the scene today, such as Deadmou5, vs an old skool DJ like Dougal or Vibes? The once, “studio only” production techniques are being utilised on the fly to bring dynamic, real time remixes to the clubs. This is something that really interests me, something I want to pursue further. MP3’s are part of the equation, but so are real-time sequencers like Ableton Live, sample pads, real-time effects processors and a lot of time spent creating, dissecting and amassing lots of custom loops. Put all this together, and you have what the scene now desires, and what I personally want to give.

Watch this space….

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Tags: mixing, music, producer, production

The next big thing

Jabs — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:09:38 +0000

Being a technologist and a DJ, I often find myself torn between the need for blinking LED’s and a product that adds value. Take for instance my need to utilise MP3’s rather than Vinyl. Its a simple requirement in so much as i just want to:

a) mitigate many, many boxes of 12″ vinyl
b) get easier access to the latest music
c) play tracks of my own creation without having to have them cut to 12″, and finally
d) retain the look and feel of my 1210’s with all their analogue loveliness!

These requirements put me in the digital DJ space, with the key players being Traktor and Serato. As you will have seen in previous posts, I had 100% decided to go with Traktor, simply because it had the ability to run 4 live sources through it, that as well as the fact that the Audio 8 interface is pretty solid, and very versatile. The thing is, an Audio 8 interface is great if your moving from gig to gig, but these days, I work for a living, so the chances of me playing out are slim, so why spend £500 on TraktorScratch V3 when I can get one of these instead

The Korg Zero4 is simply amazing. It has a multitude of effects, versatility and that all important ability to plug straight into the PC and run Traktor. Now, I already have a Pioneer DJM600, which is an impressive mixer and still considered one of the best on the market today, but, this mixer just exudes quality and functionality. For starters its a Korg product, so your in the realms of world class engineering, but then its got so many features it is unreal.

Take a look at this, this is the per channel effect section of the mixer:

Then, to complement that you have the same set of effects on the master channel! so theoretically you could apply LFO LPF to Channel A, LFO HPF to Channel B and a Phaser to the master out, all during the same mix. That would sound pretty impressive. Here are the main channel effects:

Now, I really want to find out exactly what the effect “Decimator” sounds like!

To top all that off, you get a fully featured BPM locked Sampler:

So all in all, you get an awful lot of toys for your money. Incidentally, the Korg is retailing at £750, only £250 more than the TraktorScratch V3 Package. You will of course need to get a set of control records at £15 each, and a copy of Traktor V3.2, but despite that, I think its an investment worth taking. So much so, that it is one I am seriously contemplating.

The only downside of course, if I ever end up in a situation where someone says, hey, come play a set fro us, its gonna be difficult to turn up with a whole mixer rather than a simple box to interface!

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Tags: gadgets, mixing

Live Mix Update

Jabs — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:48:22 +0000

…..after a day clearing out the garage (trust me, it needed doing), I came across the original install CD for my Stanton Final Scratch V1, which I thought was long gone. After further search through a lot of vinyl, I found the control records, which meant all that was left was to dig out the interface and hook it all up. After about 4 hours of kicking an old Compaq Laptop into shape, I had a working version of FinalScratch V1.1 up and running with a bunch of MP3’s ready to go……..

All of this equates to one simple thing, new mixes are on the way!

I had been waiting for a suitable opportunity to purchase the new Traktorscratch V3 setup, but to be honest, this works just as well. Sure, its a little clunky, very basic and quite slow, but once you get to grips with its idiosyncratic nature, it is actually quite usable.

Of course, now I have the basics back up and running, and can start to churn out some fresh mixes, which is what its all about.

Stay tuned

Pure Retro Sheek, Traktor FS V1.1 on an N800C!!!

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Tags: mixing

Electrix EQKiller’s

Jabs — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:04:03 +0000

I can’t give these little devices enough praise! They are so easy to use and bring a new dimension to your sound. Ok, so most modern mixes have cuts and kills by default, but they are not a patch on one of these, not even on a Pioneer DJM600! These little gems use near analogue circuitry to give you a warm rich softer sound, rather than the cheaper mixer embedded kills you find these days.

If you can find some of these, buy them, they really are worth it. I had to get mine off ebay in the US, but despite coming with 110v power supplies and the hastle it took to find a suitable UK one to replace them, it was worth every penny.

This is what you get for your money:

“The Electrix EQ Killer ($299) is a Kill Box that lets DJs and producers EQ an element without investing in expensive equipment. Built like a tank, the unit comes encased in a rugged aluminium housing that will absorb a lot of abuse. With the included joiner plate, you can connect two Electrix Mods devices in a 19-inch rack. The EQ Killer can also rest on a flat surface. The front panel is tilted upward, making the controls easier to read.

Kill the Band The front panel is divided into three sections: Low, Mid, and High. Each section has a Momentary switch, a Band Kill switch, and level control knobs. The level knobs dial up the amount of gain or attenuation for their respective frequency bands, offering up to 6 dB of gain per band. Unity gain is achieved when the level knob is set at 12 o’clock. Between the Low, Mid, and High level knobs are the Low X-Over and High X-Over sweep controls. The Low X-Over sets the point where the Low band ends and the Mid band starts. The High X-Over adjusts where the Mid band ends and the High band starts.

The back panel has three input/output sections. Inputs 1 and 2 have standard RCA stereo connectors. There’s also a switch to select between line level and turntable input levels, and grounding posts for turntables. The third section’s Send/Return loop lets you apply external effects to the killed band. At the front of the unit’s bottom right-hand corner is an input selection switch for toggling between turntables or line-level devices. The button will act as a bypass switch if there’s only one device connected to EQ Killer”.

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Tags: gadgets, mixing

Decision made

Jabs — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:43:51 +0000

Native Instuments – Traktor Scratch

This is the final choice and the result of much deliberation and research.

It would seem that for the most part its a two horse race, Serato vs Traktor. I’ll give you the highlights to make it simple. Serato is very very stable, easy to use and generally a rock solid solution to mixing MP3’s. Traktor has less reputation for stability but so many more features and possabilities when it comes to taking your music to the next level. This is best domonstrated bythe release of traktor 3.2 and its ability to mix 4 sources in the same interface! this means you could have 2 x decks + two other input sources all up at once mixing through a 4 channel mixer, when used with the Audio 8 interface. It was this feature that won it for me.

With this I can utilise Ableton Live like it was another deck, and have a 4th source as something like a standalone sequencer, drum machine or other random piece of electronic excellence. Now all I have to do is save my pennies and actually buy one!

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Tags: gadgets, mixing

Which MP3 Solution?

Jabs — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:10:38 +0000

Here is the Dilema. Do you want performance, versitility or cheap? I go with performace, and let skill do the versitility bit.

Here are some of the ones I have seen and a couple I have used:

Stanton Final Scratch
Not available these days unless its second hand, I had a Mk1 version, USB connectivity and the Software was only stable on a MAC, even then, a little tempremental!

Serato SCRATCH
Recentley borrowed one of these of a mate, and I have to say I was impressed, easy to use, stable, even on Vista! and quick response from the USB hardware.

Native Instruments AUDIO8 DJ
I am itchin to get hold of one of these, it looks pretty impressive and ticks all the boxes in terms of functionality, Firewire interface so it should be spot on for scratchin, and based on the latest version of Tractor FS, so again, proven technology.

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Tags: gadgets, mixing

CD or Vinyl

Jabs — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:58:08 +0000

So many people use the term “Digital DJ” and rely on CDJ’s to make them sound good. Personally, if you can’t make Vinyl work, you need to go back to basics and earn your stripes.

Don’t get me wrong, i understand the simplicity of the CDJ’s and the obvious sound benefits of CD, but they are just too clinical.

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Tags: mixing

Jabablog » MixSkillz

My New Toy (APC40)

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