Digital DJing – modern day jungle

It’s a jungle out there. A jungle of different digital DJing platforms, controllers, sound cards and all.

Being a “traditional DJ” is much easier. If you play vinyl (like we all did back in the good old days) you had couple of choices, and in 99% of the cases it was a Technics turntable.

Couple of years forward, in the new millennium playing CDs got easier and Pioneer CDJ-1000 became an industry standard.

Now you can play music from your laptop with a digital DJing system, control the music with CDs, turntables or a controller. And that is just why it’s so damn complicated.

There are too many options.

Personally I think digital DJing with CD/vinyl control is just a short phase before everyone is starting to mix within the software with their dedicated controllers. The problem at the moment preventing that is that there isn’t a industry standard like in playing cd or vinyl.

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Voice Band: Introducing mouth-producing

Just how easy should music making be? This iPhone app called Voice Band looks awesome, I’ve been dreaming about a feature like this ever since I was a kid.

The principle of using voice to control synthesis in itself isn’t new, but if this is available with all sorts of instruments, imagine how you could use this for putting down fresh ideas when you’re on the move. It may not be a social winner on a plane or when bored at your in-laws. But come on, it’s producing with your mouth!

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Ableton and Serato present The Bridge

When Ableton announced in October 2008 their partnership with Serato I was super excited. I’ve been producing solely in Ableton and I have also tried to DJ with Ableton, controlled by Pioneer DJM-800, but at that point it didn’t feel right, I didn’t feel comfortable with it.

Serato has been in the game of digital DJing for more than 10 years, their Serato Scratch has been a choice of several DJ’s during the years, and especially among hip hop scene, using control vinyls to control music on your laptop, has been “the” way to DJ.

While Serato has been strong name in hip hop, Native Instrument‘s Traktor has quickly risen to be the equivalent to Serato in EDM.

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Hobnox Audiotool – Internet’s coolest flash DAW?

I’ve seen many cool things in my life, but the Hobnox Audiotool is one of the coolest online music making experiences I’ve had so far.

Its basicly a online flash based DAW where you can wire together different kinds of audio units, effects, synths, samplers etc and create your own little online studio! Priceless when you are bored on an airport!

The thing doesn’t take much cpu (if anything??) and it’s fun and easy, just like you want it to be

It comes with various classic tools like a TB 303, ToneMatrix, a beloved 808 copy. How can you not love this little Internet gadget?

With this in mind, I only have three questions: When will Ableton be able to do the same, would it be able to be more than 1 user working it at the same time and would it be able to midi route the tools?  Time will tell!

Try it HERE.

5 great iPhone apps for music production and inspiration

A small device like the Apple iPhone may not replace your computer and DAW, but it’s perfect for excercising your musical creativity!

We’ll have a look at three more or less complete music creation tools, one app for melody making and one for inspiration.

Here are five apps you should try if you’re a producer or like to play around with music.

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Akai APC 40 – The one and only, or just one of many?

The midi controller market is just overflowing ATM, everyone seems to be into this trend of doing so called “live sets” or making the DJ life way simpler or more advanced depending on how you look on things. Up till now I’ve been trying to find my way in this jungle of midi controller’s, where they all promise the ultimate experience.

So what creates the “perfect midi controller”?

It has to be a solid machine, you must be able to manhandle the knobs, the faders as you would do when you rock out at the club in front of your crowd.

Easy to set up – Plug and play. Lets face it, there’s nothing more annoying as a DJ, when the DJ after you comes in drunk, and needs to hook up 300 different cables and then struggle to get the shit running.

Easy to use, or at least easy to program so you can make it as complex or as easy as you would prefer.

I still haven’t tried a controller who has all these parts! Where most controllers fail is in the quality feel of the knobs and faders. Last thing I would want playing out is to be worried I’d break off 3 knobs and a fader in the process.

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Dawn of a new species – new gear from Pioneer

Some of you might have noticed that Pioneer is up to something new. They are releasing a new product on 17th September 2009 – and they claim it’s something we haven’t seen before.

There’s been some clever guerilla marketing online so far. Using promotional teaser videos and Twitter, they have created somewhat a hype – at least on my opinion. Check out PioneerDjKarl‘s updates on Twitter to get a better overview.

The upcoming product have been introducing some big names relying heavily on Pioneer products when performing live. Armin Van Buuren, James Zabiela, Eddie Halliwell, Roger Sanchez, Laidback Luke, Angello & Ingrosso have said their (sponsored) opinions about the product.

Those videos are easily seen from Pioneer’s own DJ portal djsounds.com, but the announcement of the new CDJ NEXT (if that is the name) is  just in few hours.

Why the hype has been so good then? If someone is trying to get a good view on the product from a reflection from Roger Sanchez’s sunglasses, it has to be something big, right?

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Touchscreen dj’ing

 

Some people think it’s awkward to use touch screen devices, but when it comes to dj’ing this might be the perfect match actually. Imagine, you could see the waveforms, touch it, tweak it, load in plugins/effects, re-arrange stuff and so on… Lots of possibilities!

Scott Hobbs, a brilliant product designer, has taken this seriously and developed a prototype of something really promising: The Attigo TT.

The Attigo TT is still in the development phase, but it looks really good! Here’s a user scenario Scott Hobbs has for the Attigo TT:

“An electronic music production artist/DJ is doing a live performance act at a dance festival. The artist is performing using a variety of different new and innovative sound tools, such as effects machines and drum machines. One of the acts will be using the ‘Sensing Sounds’ product where there is physical performance. There will also be a display of visuals for the audience that will respond to the movements of the artist and sounds being created.” (www.scotthobbs.co.uk)

And here’s a live demonstration:

What do you reckon, is this the future of dj’ing?

Will the Vestax VCM 600 kill the Akai APC40?

So, it havent been long time since the Akai APC40 was introduced to the market with full support from the Ableton developers. But now it seems like we have a new gadget which takes the step further (atleast for me) with the new Vestax VCM 600 comming into the market. Sure, many may argue that how could it possible beat the Akai APC40…

I think that the VCM 600 got a better overview, less messy trigger/button organization and it gives you a better overview of what actually is goin on. The VCM 600 is abit more expensive (around 700 euro) though and it doesnt have the smart play triggers like the APC 40 has… I wish someone could combine these two into one solid piece of midi performance gear!

Ohm 64 – Yet Another MIDI Spaceship?

It’s not to long ago Livid Instruments launched their new MIDI controller Ohm 64, lets have a look at it!

The first thing that catches my eye is the trigger pattern in the middle of it, will it be 100% synced to Ableton Live or do you have to programe it yourself and can it handle more then more then just 8 Samples of in 8 tracks ? A question I really can’t find any answer on on the official website, although I dont see any screen roll trigger on it or a scene changer in the pattern itself which is more or less why the Akai APC 40 is what it is today.

Although the Ohm 64 comes with its own midi-editor and I’m pretty sure you can set that up if you are really skilled and have the knowledge about programming MIDI OUT from Ableton. But okay, Livid doesnt claim its a 100% Ableton Live suited. But we are not a VJ blog, so lets focus on the music performance side of this little cool gadget!

The little trigger buttons all have program able LEDs which makes this thing abit more cool, but is it useful?

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