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)
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.
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 :).
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.
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)
Further evidence as to how addicted I am to Ableton Live – I put together a short (~35 min) mix of some electronic tracks I have been listening to the past few days. This mix was put together pretty quickly, so the style may be noticeably different than my APU mixes.
Here goes the second mix in my “A.P.U.” series. I’m curious if anybody recognizes the first track. Somehow I had never previously heard of the artist, but love the track..
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