While in San Francisco, I dropped in on DJTT to meet the people I have been working with in the virtual world and to pick up some of the hot new items from the store. We all feel very familiar with our online community but I was wondering just what the physical TechTools is like? Read on to meet the crew and take a look behind the scenes as I chronicle my visit to the lab.
Continue reading My Visit To The TechTools Labs
Archive for July, 2010
My Visit To The TechTools Labs
MIDI Enabled DJ Mixers
The DJ console has come a long way since Francis Grasso plied his trade with the first stereo mixers. Today DJs have digital, analog, MIDI, and hybrid mixers. While analog, digital and MIDI are married among the available controls, great possibilities await for hybrids. Well that’s what the advertising promises. Do they live up to the hype? Let’s break down the available hybrids and see if any of them show promise.
The Time-Line of a Dance Floor
Djing is not just picking the next song, but planning how your songs will flow for the entire night. There are 2 critical time-lines we will look at in this article that you should keep in mind when planning the flow of a night: the drink line and the tempo line. Understanding and playing with these principles will mean happier dancers and happier owners!
Prepping Acappellas in Traktor
Today we get back to the basics with a good old fashioned Traktor tutorial. After months of requests, we finally address a common problem- how to get the BPM for and beatgrid an acapella. If you have any questions, post them in the comments and we will update the post.
A New Traktor Controller is Coming
NI just released a teaser video featuring Dubfire rocking Space, Ibiza with an un-identified Traktor controller and software. Learn what we know about this new release along with some high resolution screen grabs after the jump!
Wanted: DJ – Mixing Optional
The ad from the local paper says it all: looking for a multi-skilled DJ to bring in a crowd, and we’re not too worried about your mixing skills. What has gone wrong in the club scene that having mix skills is no longer a priority? In case you have been living under a rock, draw power is high on the list of promoters criteria now. Being able to bring in the crowd is considered by some to be greater than being able to keep the crowd. How do you keep up with the Jones’ and get gigs in this type of club climate? Read on…
Glitch Mob- Live Footage and Interview
Dj TechTools spent some time with Glitch Mob, the Ableton dj crew turned live band, and dug into the details on how they make their new bombastic show work technically. Read on after the break for the full interview on what they like and don’t like about Lemurs and more!
MacBook USB Port Inequality
An audio issue is every DJ’s worst nightmare, after all audio is our art! For digital DJs, there are two sets of audio to worry about: analogue and digital, with USB being the most popular means for our digital hook-up. For MacBook and MacBook Pro users, the choice of which of the two available USB ports to use for your sound card hook-up may have never occurred to you. New evidence is showing, that especially with the new i5 and i7 models, you might be missing out on performance by choosing the wrong port.
Make It loud! DJ’s guide to Mastering Pt 2
You’ve just put together a killer re-mix and spent weeks making everything perfect but its still not bumping like the big club bangers. Don’t worry- You need professional quality mastering and we are here to try and help.
Last month we brought you Part I of our DJ mastering guide, Pump up the Jam, which discussed the concept of mastering with industry experts. This month, we will take you through the process detailing what to look for in each step along the road to mastering perfection.
Finally, as if that was not enough, read on for a chance to win 2 of the top mastering plug-ins out there. A free copy of The Glue and T-RackS 3 mastering plug-ins!
Ean Golden’s 10 Minute Mini-Set
Over the past few years, we have shown everyone a fair number of controllerism tricks and techniques on this site. Through that time, everyone has consistently expressed a desire to see them used in the context of a real dj set. While it’s not realistic to beat juggle for 30 minutes and keep a dance floor rocking it IS realistic to sprinkle the mix with some amazingly fun routines. In the video above I condense a 30 minute set into 10 minutes of quick mixes that use controllerism as a tool for creative transitions.
Read on after the jump for the full 20 minute mix, and a contest in which you can win the midi-fighter controllers.
Midi Fighters are back..
Today’s article never got written, its been 4 days since I last checked email and my 3 man team is starting to drink double espressos inside a coffee. Why so nuts at the TechTools labs? Because we started selling batch # 2 of the Midi-Fighters on Saturday night @ 12AM, they are already 50% sold out and we have hundreds of orders to fill for anxious customers. Painting, building, photographing, and hand signing midi-fighters is taking way more time than expected so shipping is a little behind schedule and I don’t have a fresh article for our dedicated fans today. The good news? Everyone loves the new “design your own controller interface” and the controllers are looking awesome. There are still 200 available from this batch, so check them out in the web store if your interested. After the jump I have posted a few scans of the first midi-fighters built.
Last but not least- this Friday, I am finally going to publish the 20 minute video of a mix/routine I have been promising for months!
Traktor VS Itch
For years Traktor was the only game in town if you wanted professional dj software that accommodated controller DJs. Now with two years under it’s belt, Serato Itch has 4 decks, FX and sync, and is starting to look like a real player in the internal mix market. Many DJs are understandably confused as to which platform will better suit their needs with so much marketing hype for both products. To help save you some trouble, lets look at a straight up comparison of what each platform has going for them. Continue reading Traktor VS Itch
