m00ziK
Phil Morse of DigitalDJtips.com has posted an excellent article concerning the money schemes Clubs tend to play on starting DJs.
We’re always telling you to get out there and get gigs, but whether you just get a booking at a local bar, lounge or club, or you decide to go all the way and actually put on an event of your own, there are always people out there who won’t play fair when it comes to paying you what was agreed.
While I’m still getting to grips with my Native Instruments Kontrol S4, I’m already receiving signal that a new Novation DJ controller is on its’ way.
One can only think of what Novation will call this one. First they came with the ‘Dicer’, so this could be a ‘Slicer’?
What can we expect?
A few experts over at DJTechTools already came up with this mockup:
nem0nic(Craig Reeves) was able to conjure this up together with a few others, photojojo(Chris Jennings), by just watching this youtube vid.
When can we expect it?
Novation stated around the fifth of April this year? (Thanks for reminding, Twumpy!)
Richie Hawtin, one of the minimal techno/M_NUS frontmen, shows you how to deal with annoying women in your DJ booth.
Especially how to get rid off them in a friendly way when playing your set.
It has been a solid two weeks and exciting stuff has happened in my life.
First off, I have started writing for the Electronic Dance Blog called Electrojams.com. So far I have only published two articles and one is awaiting publication. (Yes Glen, this will be about Apprehension!)
The other item I have been working on, is getting the Restricted Sessions podcast up and running.
I have created/registered the Restricted Sessions podcast channel at iTunes, and the channel is slowly getting filled.
The crew is psyched and we are filling it with as much interesting recordings of sets as possible.
We will also try to include the restricted Sessions webcasts as we broadcast on an almost weekly basis just for that extra bit of fun.
Subscribe to the podcast here.
This weeks DJmag features a nice interview on Carl Craig last ADE.
The interview talks about progression and never being too old to learn. To top it all, it also has the most memorable quote at the end.
Interested to hear what it is? Just check the interview here:
Not too long ago, me and my best friend Daniel started thinking about a project that had to do with vocals and harmony.
We decided back than, that we needed to go in deeper into Reaktor.
Since than, months have passed, and now Tim Exile comes along with this nice kit called ‘the Mouth’.
According to Native Instruments:
Electronic artist and innovator Tim Exile showcases “The Mouth” – a new software instrument that can turn any audio signal into music.
Sing, beatbox, or send a drum loop into it, and “The Mouth” comes to life as a highly expressive and somewhat unpredictable synthesizer, vocoder or talkbox-like instrument.
The Mouth can be used as a stand-alone application and as a plug-in in a DAW or host sequencer, covering all kinds of live performance and music production scenarios.
More info here: http://www.native-instruments.com/themouth
Can’t wait to get my paws on this beast!
One and a half years ago, I had the opportunity to look at some blueprints supplied by Native Instruments. The concept blueprint was than called Traktor Pro CTRL.
It was delivered in print, as that I was able to check the blueprint in 1:1 format. (real- sized print) This basically came down to an A3 format paper sized controller.
After reading through the specs, it became apparent that the controller would also feature an on board soundcard, cue section, effect section, EQ section, crossfader and above all, 2 decks.
Native Instruments than asked all fellow thinkers to answer an online questionnaire, in which we would share our views on the blueprint.
One of the more frequent answers would end up to be;”make it 4 decks”.
[singlepic id=69 w=320 h=240 mode=watermark float=center]
Almost 14 months later, rumours started to turn up, pictures and youtube vids were getting leaked. It seemed that Native Instruments was getting ready to unleash a new breed of MIDIcontroller with accompanying Traktor Software.
[singlepic id=71 w=320 h=240 mode=watermark float=center]
More and more information was being spread, and I was still bound by my NDA with Native Instruments. So I was not able to spread my knowledge on this matter.
With the 1st of November set as release date, all information is already open to the public, and I guess I am allowed to share this little story.
Demos are starting to turn up through the Netherlands and through twitter we had the opportunity to check out the Native Instruments Kontrol S4, as it was called now, at ToneControl.
This cool company that arranged a demo night last Monday and My buddy Marc and myself wanted to check it out badly. The demo night turned out to be a minimeet of the AboutDJ.nl forums, as that Wesley(dj_wb) and René(Rendoe) were there too.
Leon of Native Instruments, brought in by company owner Toon, was a great guy that showed and demoed the little beast.
[singlepic id=74 w=320 h=240 mode=watermark float=center]
First thing I did was actually whip out the old design blueprint and compare size and layout. The size was the same, buttons were not changed that much, but, as mentioned earlier on, two decks were added, not to mention the all new looper, that basically adds a virtual fifth loop deck, that can be used as a layered looper.
(Think photoshop with image layers, or your average DAW software with tracks.)
[singlepic id=73 w=320 h=240 mode=watermark float=center]
Leon guided us around many features of the software and controller, and even left us some time to play around with the controller.
[singlepic id=75 w=320 h=240 mode=watermark float=center]
It’s hard to believe, but at first I was only in it for the software. After playing around with the controller for a while, I am actually thinking of selling my current setup and buy this bad boy!
Here’s the rest of the pictures worth sharing. Props and thanks goes out to Toon van Veelen too, as he supplied a few of the pictures featured below, and ofcourse being awesome enough to arrange this demo evening!
[nggallery id=13]
