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Hybrid @ Avalon Hollywood

At about 9pm last night, we spontaneously decided to drive up to Avalon, Hollywood to catch Hybrid. It was absolutely worth it, and then some.

The entire set by Hybrid was virtually perfection. The bass had to be hitting a 5 on the richter scale, literally. There were moments when you would physically feel sick from the bass, but you’d stay on the dance floor anyway because it was just too awesome.

Probably the only set I’ve witnessed that could compete with the first 30 minutes of Hybrid’s set is a performance by John 00′ Flemming at a rave last year. It’s pretty much physically impossible to not dance. I think the floor actually vibrates you into dancing against your will if you attempt to resist

We got home around 5:30am, and I was still awake enough to put together an interesting tweaking experiment. Hard to describe *exactly* what I was experimenting with, but it was basically piping multiple tracks to a 3rd channel, and applying EQ sweeps and delay FX, along with tweaks on the Xone’s HPF/LPF.

I cut the recording off shortly after the first completed transition, as it was certainly sleepy time!

Caustik – Experiments – tweaking1

Posted on by caustik · 8 Comments

EDC 2008 – New Mix!

EDC 2008 was a blast! We live in San Diego, and the event was in LA, so we had a couple hours of traffic on the way there. I just started using some new VST plugins, so it was the perfect opportunity to check out how they sound in a thumpin M3 car stereo. [download MP3]

Probspot – Blueberry (Peter Haze Remix)
Moonbeam – Consumption feat. Chris Lunsford (Original Mix)
ID – ID
Medway – The Bassline Track (Luke Chable Remix)
Retroid – Daybreak (The Emissary Remix)
V.F.R. – Tranceillusion (Luke Dzierzek Remix)
Sebastien Tellier – Divine (Danger Remix)

Posted on by caustik · 4 Comments

3 x Fifths

Discovered a powerful heuristic for track selection which helps you to find track combinations that “work” very well together. “Mixing in key” is a fairly popular method for track selection. Basically you want to find tracks that are “compatible” in a musical way. I’ve found that following the circle of fifths either clockwise or counterclockwise, always skipping 3, leads to some really astonishing results.

Here’s an experiment, using counter-clockwise circle of fifths traversal on the song keys. Note that some tracks end in a different key than they start, so you always have to take that into account.

Posted on by caustik · 6 Comments

Recursive Beat-Mix

What happens if you take a loop, pitch bend it down to half tempo, while mixing in a new loop at full speed? How about if you combine that with some Ableton pitch-sustaining tempo manipulation? Listen for yourself!

Here’s another experiment, this one with pitch/tempo manipulation up and down. Halfway through creates a pretty cool effect.

I’m sure some other digital DJ has thought to use this technique. I’ll see if I can work it into the next APU mix.

Posted on by caustik · 4 Comments

APU 004

[ mp3 | cue ]

DW – Pillow feat Hannah (Discosynthetique & Miller Remix)
Tasadi, Mike Mikhjian – Zeus (Vadim Zukhov Remix)
DJ Polyakov PPK – Resurrection (VZ Remix)
Alex Young, Artech – Minimalesk (Original Mix)
Long Range – Just One More (Hybrid Mix)
V-Sag – Shakespearean Love feat Ukumori (Original Mix)

This mix starts out with a deep dark-ish DW track remixed by Discosynthetique & Miller, drops into the phenomenal and energetic “Zeus” track, followed by “Resurrection” which is one of my recent favorites.

After this, the mix crawls back down into the very dark and delicious “Just One More” Hybrid Mix, by way of “Minimalesk” — and tempo bends back out of the darkness into a nice V-Sag track “Shakespearean Love”.

The new technique of the week, which I used in every transition, is side chain compression between transitioning tracks. This, especially combined with EQ dodging, creates a back-and-forth rhythm between two tracks. Makes for some really interesting rhythm combination possibilities.

Interesting note — my intro into Pillow is taken from the scene in spaceballs where the huge space ship is slowly panning across the screen. Ran it through some reverb, resonance, and chorus FX and pitch altered.

The whole mix is mastered (the “easy” way) using iZotope Ozone 3, which is a phenomenal tool for mastering for those of us who haven’t spent 20 years learning how to do it the old fashioned ways.

Posted on by caustik · 3 Comments

NYE 2008 Mix

NYE 2008

I put together a fresh new mix for the New Year. This set builds smoothly to a nice climax at the end, using some experimental new transition techniques, which I am really starting to like.

The idea is to filter out frequency ranges with an EQ, applying only at particular moments in time defined by the rhythm of the incoming track. This eases transitions, and creates a nice ‘chopping’ effect.

Anyway, click the above Play button, or download from the link below.

Chopping Caustik – NYE 2008 : Download MP3

Here’s the tracklist for anybody interested:

Roland Klinkenberg – On My Mind (Mashtronic Remix)
Moonbeam – Cocoon (Sunset Mix)
Roland Klinkenberg – Stir It Up (Original Mix)
Pryda – Europa (Original Mix)
Eluna – Severance (Markus Schulz vs Elevation Remix)
Silent Breed – Sync In (Popof Remix)
Quest, Luke Chable – Skyline Road (DJ Remy Remix)
Steve T. – There Where Lights (Moonbeam Remix)
Spex – Hypnotique (Junk Science Remix)
JES – Ghost (Phynn Remix)
Hybrid – Last Man Standing (Original Mix)
C.O.U. Muzik – The 9:30 Express (Sean McClellan Remix)
Mischa Daniels – Off My Rocker (Original Mix)
Sweeney & Stowasser – Cognition Intermission (Original Mix)

That’s it for now, enjoy !

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December 2007 – MP3

December 2007 MP3 Download [Part 1, Part 2]

Moonbeam – Uaret (Ambient Mix)
Elektrochemie – Get Yourself (Original Mix)
Dousk – The Simplest Thing (Original Mix)
Far East Band – The Call Up feat Suzie (Klee) (Martin Buttrich Rework)
The Flying Doctors – We Make Contact (Oliver Lieb Remix)
Dubfire – I Feel Speed (Original Club Mix)
Sasha – Park It In The Shade (Original Mix)
Deadmau5 – Everything Before (Original Mix)
Federico Epis – Brasilia (AMB Remix)
Nick Muir – G Platz (Dan Remix)
Soulwax – Accidents And Compliments (Original Mix)
AMB – Seka Federico (Epis Remix)
AMB – Seka Federico (Original Remix)
Itamar Sagi, Gel Abril – Sparta (Original Mix)

Caustik – Intro x1
Markus Schulz – Fly To Colors (Genix Remix)
Find feat El (Andy Moor Remix)
Andrew W.K. – Closure (Inkfish & Tronso Remix)
Adam K – I Can Feel (Original Mix)
Bastards Of Funk, Sonic Union – You’re To Blame feat. Matt Wasley (Subsky Mix)
Chuck Luis – Collision (Original Mix)
Cicada – The Things You Say (Dirty South Remix)
Shawn Mitiska, Joey Medina – After Hours (David West Remix)
Bedrock – Heaven Scent (Greg Downey Remix)
Jelo, Deadmau5 – The Reward Is Cheese (Original Mix)
Meck feat. Dino – Feels Like Home (Dirty South Remix)
Mass Effect – Alphascan (Original Mix)
Perry Oneil and Ozgur Can – Wave Force (Ozgur Vs Yilmaz Remix)

Posted on by caustik · 8 Comments

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 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.

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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.

Enjoy: http://www.caustik.com/blog/dj/2track2.mp3

Posted on by caustik · 7 Comments

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)