.sıɥʇ ǝʞı1 ʇxǝʇ sǝʇɐɹǝuǝb ɥɔıɥʍ ǝʇıs ǝɥʇ punoɟ ʎpɐǝɹ1ɐ ǝʌɐɥ noʎ ɹo ‘ʇɐq ɐ ǝɹɐ noʎ ‘ɹǝʌǝ1ɔ ʎʇʇǝɹd ɹǝɥʇıǝ ǝɹɐ noʎ uǝɥʇ ‘sıɥʇ pɐǝɹ uɐɔ noʎ ɟı
Mini-Mix 003
I have recorded a new mix, using the Xone:3D mixer and Ableton Live software. This particular mix has lots of bass, so be sure to enjoy it on a speaker system with nice quality subs if you have one available. A good car stereo system, home theater , or set of high quality headphones will do the trick 🙂
Mini-Mix 003 : Download MP3
For anybody interested in technical details … I utilized something called Harmonic Mixing a lot in this mix. Basically that means taking the musical key of each track into consideration when creating transitions and selecting loops. Just like combining different keys on a piano will make different chords, combining loops in a similar fashion makes for a much more coherent mix.
I’m really just scratching the surface of harmonic mixing, but the results in my mind are pretty clearly an improvement. When mixing without regard for musical key, instruments tend to clash in subtle ways. Being conscious of the keys of your tracks, and choosing them carefully, is a very valuable heuristic for making a smoother mix.
Xone+Ableton DJ Techniques #1
Filing this one under “DJ Techniques” 🙂 …
As I am becoming more and more comfortable with my new Xone:3D hardware, I am learning a variety of fun tricks.
The hallmark of a great DJ is the ability to take a track and make it his (or hers). A technique that really piqued my interest, at a recent rave (EDC), is the layering of the same track twice, offset by a few beats or bars.
John “00” Flemming completely blew me away with a set at EDC 2007 using this technique. He was playing some great psyc-trance rhythms with delicious dirty bass, and using the multi-track technique to tease on each drop. I have been recently experimenting with similar techniques.
Here is a recording of this type of technique that I made using Ableton Live and my Xone:3D. The first dramatic drop is done by duplicating the track, offset, applying a High Pass Filter (HPF) to the currently playing track, along with a “ping-pong” Ableton filter, and then sliding in the 2nd track when the bass drops. The result is a climax which leaves behind some mids and highs which are then manipulated as the track progresses. Later in this example, the two tracks are faded in and out, which is another funky effect.
The sloshing highs through the middle of this example, before the track fading, is not part of the source track and is done using only the HPF on the remainder of the HPF+ping-pong effect.
Xone:3D – Micro-Mix 001
This is my first live recording of a mix on my Xone:3D. This mix is intentionally very short for two reasons:
1. It is bite-sized! Sometimes you want to check out a mix, but you don’t have an hour or two to dedicate to listening.
2. I’m still pretty new with my Xone:3D, so the shorter the mix is, the less likely I will screw up the mix 🙂
So this is a pretty good showcase of basic mixing on a Xone:3D. The transitions are done primarily using the EQ and High Pass Filters (HPF). The Xone filters have an amazing clean sound, and since sliding the HPF on slowly filters out the bassline, it is a great transition tool when switching up a bassline.
Micro-Mix 001.mp3 (~15 minutes)
New Mix – SLZZP 001
Lots of great new music!
This mix is the first in a series I am calling “SLZZP”. For the most part, this is a more “Mellow” mix. Though there are some surprises in the later parts that could wake you up if you fall asleep to this mix :).
SLZZP 001 (mp3) – SLZZP 001 (cue)
Enjoy!
Cxbx Progress
There was some amount of activity in a private branch in the Cxbx project recently..
I have been talking to a developer, Martin, who has spent some of his extra time fiddling with Cxbx. He was able to get some teaser screenshots from Battlestar Galactica. The game displays the menu, and even some in-game. I won’t get into too many details, but here are a couple screenshots.
I have not started to work on Cxbx on a regular basis — but I think this progress is very motivating, and it is tempting me to boot back up my development setup and take another look after a very long absence.
Many thanks to Martin for the contributions and for allowing me to post about his progress. Cheers.
Caustik’s New Xone:3D
My new Xone:3D equipment arrived on Friday. Since then I have been spending a fair amount of my free time obsessing over it, learning all the features, and getting all the components properly pieced together.
The Xone:3D comes with custom face-plates specifically for Ableton Live (which is my DJ tool of choice). There is also a template available for download on the Allen & Heath web site. This template sets up all the configurations for a really great integration with Ableton Live.
The biggest difficulty I have had so far is the lack of Vista 64-bit drivers. Actually, I was unable to get the drivers loaded even on my Vista 32-bit laptop. So, for now, I am actually DJ’ing over remote desktop…as bizarre as that seems.
Current, I have 3 Ableton tracks mapped to 3 mixer inputs on the Xone 3D. From here I can use all the powerful A&H mixing and MIDI controls to manipulate the sounds in whatever ways I’d like. Later I will post some videos of mixer tricks I have figured out.
I then use ASIO4ALL and Ableton Live to wire the Xone 3D’s sound card output (Mix Output) to the sound output of a small USB sound card on my PC which is running over remote desktop. This allows me to hear and record the output of the mixer without having to use special hardware. In a gig scenario, this would instead pipe directly to the house stereo.
So I gotta say I really love this new setup and I can’t wait to see all the things that can be done with it. I will be posting more about this new equipment as I get more familiar with it.
Chumby Antics
I have been working at Chumby for a few months now. If you have never heard about Chumby – basically, it is a small squishy wifi-internet connected device with a touchscreen and some other nifty hardware features. So, I am around Chumby devices pretty often, obviously, since it is my full time job.
Sometime’s I goof off a little..
This is a video of a small application I made on the Chumby. You touch the screen, and a small blob of “lava” follows your finger around. You basically get the sense of smearing the blobs around the touch screen.
And this is a funny video of a Chumby with two USB dogs humping it.
FruityLoops track – “Frogstorm”
Still experimenting with FruityLoops. I’ve learned a good deal about Sidechaining and ducking. I’m fairly satisfied with the over-all sound of the instruments blending in this track. Usually when listening to a track, one may not realize the amount of engineering effort that goes into a professional quality track. It is difficult to keep the instruments blended without interfering with one another.
That said, I am not exactly at professional level yet. But it’s good fun to learn, and in time it’ll get there.
APU 003
Released the next edition of APU.
Lot of energy this time, and plenty of delicious dirty bass.
01: Johan Gielen – Revelations (Filterheadz Remix)
02: M.I.K.E. – Salvation (Valentino Kanzyani Remix)
03: Force Majeure – Out Of My Mind (Blake Jarrel And Jeff Devas Vocal Mix)
04: Roland Klinkenberg, Gery Menu – Shockadelic (Original Mix)
05: Mikael Jonasson – Chlorophyll (Original Mix)
06: Terry Grant – I’ll Kill You feat Jennifer Horne (Beaumont & Nathanial’s Substrata Remix)
07: Hipp-E – Major Waves (John Acquaviva & Oliver Giacomotto Remix)
08: Safi Connection – Absorve (Original Mix)
09: Way Out West – Killa (Orkidea Vs Dallas Superstars Mix)
10: Way Out West – The Fall (Richard Durand Remix)
11: Nick Sentience – Transcender (Original Mix)
12: Subsource – This Town (Hook N Sling Remix)
13: Cicada – The Things You Say (Dirty South Remix)
Caustik – A.P.U. – 003.mp3
Enjoy!
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