It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly 2 years over 2 years this month since DJ TechTools was originally created. We made a few minor changes over that time, but the design has basically remained the same, as DJ TechTools grew from 10 visitors a month to 200k. Well, the hour has finally come to make a few changes to our favorite DJ space. With the help of an amazing designer/coder, Tommy the wiz kid, we have started updating the site and improving the way it works. The webstore got a complete makeover, and our blog is now wider, cleaner and hopefully easier to navigate. This is not the end of the changes; we plan on fine-tuning the site into a well-oiled machine of digital DJ brilliance. YOUR HELP IS NEEDED! Please provide feedback in the comments on things you like/don’t like or suggestions on how we can make the design better. It’s your site too, so let’s all pitch in to make it as good as possible.
Archive for October, 2009
Mini MIDI Battle: KORG VS. AKAI
In the battle for portable MIDI controllers that will fit in front of your laptop and not bust your budget, there are 2 clear contenders: the Korg NanoSeries and the new Akai Laptop Series of controllers. To help you decide which controller might be the strongest, we pit them against each other in a battle of performance. Read on to learn who won our mini MIDI prize fight.
Organize Your Music By Track Type
How many times have you searched through the hundreds or thousands of tracks in your library and found yourself trying to remember what a particular track sounds like? I’m sure some people will say they know every single song in their collection at all times, but that was a lot more believable when you only showed up to the club with a crate of vinyl or a book of CDs.
When you are squinting into your 13-inch computer screen at 1am in a sweaty club, with three girls tapping you on the shoulder telling you what track they want to hear for their friend’s birthday, I doubt you can still remember what that demo your friend sent you last week sounded like. You’re pretty sure it should mix well. It’s in the same BPM range and relative key as the one blasting on the dance floor, but will it really work? Was it a laid-back warm up song, or a great groove track? Did it have a solid bouncing bassline or a large woman belting out a passionate chorus? I have been in this position so many times, I devised a system that should help you to never question your next track again.
DJing with In-Ear Monitors
This week’s “What’s in Your DJ Bag?” video with MSTRKRFT sparked some discussion on the importance of preserving your hearing as a working DJ. You can go the route of wearing professionally-made ear plugs underneath your headphones, but a growing number of digital DJs are adopting in-ear monitors (aka earphones, earbuds), which they use to monitor the master mix reliably and consistently from venue to venue. DJing with in-ears can provide excellent sound isolation from the many unwanted noises around you, as well as allow you to mix at a lower volume to protect your hearing.
Read on for a description of some trusted in-ear monitor models, as well as an interview with Bay Area veteran club-hopper DJ Solomon on his experience mixing with in-ear monitors over the last 2+ years.
MSTRKRFT – What’s in your DJ bag?
Here is the first in a new series of videos we are doing called “What’s in your DJ bag?” where we stop guys on the road and find out the different pieces of gear they rely on night after night. Watch the first episode featuring MSTRKRFT and read on for more details about the gear.
Save Your Music Online; Recover It Anywhere
If you haven’t experienced the nightmare scenario of catastrophic hard drive failure before a gig or even worse, equipment theft, then count yourself lucky. And while you’re counting, you can also count on disaster striking eventually. The problem of data loss through theft or hard drive failure is likely to happen eventually and is compounded if you’re on the road and away from whatever back-up drive you may (and should) have at home.
One way to be prepared is to store all of your critical digital assests for DJing — software applications and their license/authorization numbers, digital music files, Stripes folders, settings and MIDI mappings files, etc. — using an online file storage service that will let you download your precious data from anywhere you can access the Internet. Read on for a breakdown of some free online storage services where you can backup your files and gain some peace of mind.
Continue reading Save Your Music Online; Recover It Anywhere
Interview with the Twitter DJ Traktor App’s Co-Creator
Earlier this year, Richie Hawtin began experimenting with broadcasting the track information of his DJ sets live through Traktor to his Twitter feed. Now Hawtin’s record label Minus has released Twitter DJ to be used by fellow Traktor Pro 1.2 users. With Hawtin’s input, Minus’ Byan McDade developed the Twitter DJ app as a way to inform fans about the music they’re hearing and to promote the creators of that music. After the jump, we look at what Twitter DJ does, how to use it and interview McDade on the inspiration behind the app and what it could lead to for independent producers.
Continue reading Interview with the Twitter DJ Traktor App’s Co-Creator
Inside the Livid Instruments Block Controller
If the invasion of the pad grid controllers weren’t already underway with the introduction of the Novation Lauchpad for Ableton Live earlier this month, it’s definitely in full swing now with the introduction of the Livid Instruments Block this week. The mostly open-source Block gives you an 8-by-8 button pad grid, a row of 8 knobs, 2 faders and 7 function buttons — all of which are fully MIDI-assignable. We spoke to the head of Livid, Jay Smith, to get some questions answered and find out where he thinks Block fits in with the mild deluge of pad grid controllers now on the market.
Continue reading Inside the Livid Instruments Block Controller
Oxygen 8 Mapping for Traktor Pro 1.2
The iterative process is an amazing thing. Over time, smart people, organisms and populations gradually figure out the best way of doing things. Minor improvements collect to form something that is perfectly suited for its purpose. This Oxygen 8 mapping is exactly such a creation. It has been carefully tuned over the past 5 years, resulting in what I think is probably one of my most refined mappings to date. So without further ado — and with great pride — I give it over to you.
From Digital Store to the Dance Floor: How To Prepare Your Tracks for Traktor
One of the most important things digital DJs can do is to create a good system of organization for their music. Coming up with a regular set of steps that you follow for each new song will help make your sets seamless, reduce stress in the booth and eliminate missing tracks. Here is a video that covers all of the basic steps I personally follow to get new tracks ready for the dance floor.
New TechTools Gear
We just added a few new cool items to the webstore that you might be into. In the blue corner, weighing in at a half pound, we have some amazing MidiFighter T-shirts designed by IV Garb from LA. In the red corner, weighing in at only 2 ounces, we have some funky new knobs and faders to spice up your controllers.
Continue reading New TechTools Gear
Tempo Anchors in M-Audio Torq 1.5
M-Audio Torq 1.5 introduced Tempo Anchors, its method for reining in songs that fluctuate in tempo. Inconsistencies in tempo can occur for a number of reasons, but Tempo Anchors may come in particularly handy for live recordings, older songs that weren’t recorded to a click track or complex tracks for which the Torq software can’t precisely detect the beat.
