I made a visit down to the QSU, Q-Bert’s Online Scratch University, last weekend, to play around a little bit and explore the possibility of playing a show together. We practiced for about an hour, improvising and cutting it up in a much more relaxed setting than our last rendezvous here at DJTT headquarters. The guys hit record on a camera and the clip above is one of the improv gems that emerged from our session. The drumming in the background is from our resident drum teacher Ryan, who covered timing techniques for us a few months back. Continue reading for photos, one more clip and more info on my controllers in the video.
Vinyl has gone from being the club standard to a niche in a few short years – many smaller venues aren’t even providing turntables for DJs unless persuaded to drag them out of the cellar. Still though, many DJs stay dedicated to their turntables and swear by the precision, controller and feel of the trusty 1200′s. With the advances in speed, accuracy and acceptance of controller based solutions, is time code control still relevant in today’s digital landscape? When will controller technology get good enough to possibly exceed the performance or DVS systems and if that does happen, will time-code disappear?
Traditional DJs using vinyl decks or CDJs can now achieve a number of amazing tricks but there are a few techniques which they can still only dream of. Long, feedback-style, dub delays is one of them. Taking advantage of Ableton’s feedback system, we can create lush, evolving sound effects. These are perfect for a chip jockey to transition from the previous DJ or to create instantaneous build-ups that will thrill the crowd. The high frequency content of these sounds alone, will make your ears tingle on the dance floor.
All too often, when new technologies, ideas, or equipment comes out, people are quick to criticize them with a blanket statement : “Oh, that would never work in a club!” I propose this is the wrong standard by which to judge DJ technology today. Sure, a lot of the material we write about, create, and teach on this site is based on the important craft of playing music for people to dance. But that’s exactly what it is, a craft. Or, in worst case scenarios, basically a service or a job. DJing as an art form is a whole different sphere, and as with most artforms, it’s not always appropriate for consumption by mainstream audiences.
Pioneer’s 2011 products have definitely had an ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ bent, and feature much improved integration with DJ software. The announcement of the DDJ series surprised many with two different products, one for Native Instruments’ Traktor and the other for Serato’s Itch – with the Itch focused DDJ-S1 on the bench, we dig in and find out whether Pioneer can transfer their hardware calibre to the controller realm.
Greetings, DJ TechTools. My name is DJ Shiftee. Don’t believe me? Check my birth certificate! Signed and sealed by the state of New York – DJ Morris Shiftee (my middle name is Morris). It seems we have a common passion, DJ Tech Tools. We both love Tech. Yes, this infatuation is mainly because Tech is an excellent abbreviation for Technology, but we also love Technology, so everyone goes home a winner. I will be contributing semi-regular (read: every month or so) tutorials on some of my favorite technologically infused performance tricks in a new series: Shiftee’s Technological Turntablism Tabernacle.
Beatport may be one of the leading music download sites on the internet. However, their flash based website is a source of contention amongst many of its users. The developers at Cancel Monday though have taken a step towards making your Beatport music shopping experience a pleasure. Beatler is a desktop application that interfaces directly with Beatport, letting you circumvent the website for everything but the final purchase. Keep reading for a quick rundown of some of its features.
Pioneer is the club standard with both their CDJs and DJM mixers. A ‘proper’ club is likely to have a DJM800, or at least a 600 if they’re not the updating type, sandwiched between a pair of CDJ900/1000/2000s. The 800 had so much going for it that many tried and failed to even get a foothold in the DJ booth. The DJM 900 Nexus looks, certainly at first glance, pretty similar to the 800, so what exactly have Pioneer added to make sure they stay ahead of the competition?
Several weeks ago I showed you how to create compelling build-ups using the beatmasher. This week, we follow up with a technique that does not require DJ software at all. Check out the video above, which delves into four different ways that you can utilize the echo on a standard mixer or software to drive the dance floor into a frenzy. Want more? Tell us some of your favorite effects in the comments and I will dive into those in a future article.
Musikmesse is Europe’s largest music industry trade show, and to say it’s big is an understatement. Of course, being relatively close to Winter NAMM means that many of this year’s biggest products have already been broken, but there are definitely some exciting new unveilings, and absolutely some surprises! Stopping short of an official awards list this time (the Messies, anyone?!), here are some of our favourite products…
We have the scoop on the new DJM-T1 mixer from Pioneer fresh off the floor at Musik Messe. This appears to be Pioneer’s equivalent to the popular Rane TTM-57SL, a 2 channel mixer with integrated support for Traktor Scratch and controls over loops, effects and cue points. Pioneer has listed the price at close to $2,000, which even though it includes scratch vinyl and Traktor scratch duo license seems very high. Along with a built in sound card, the DJM-T1 supports mixing of analogue and digital sources.
Novation announced their new “Twitch” controller today, for a full review check out this article. It’s a jog wheel free controller with controllerism focused performance zones that adopts a lot of elements from my personal designs. Along with 8 cue pads which can be used to slice, trigger and roll tracks it also has a dedicated fader FX feature on each deck. Continue reading for more photos and a video demo!
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