1. The sad passing away of Adam Yauch:

Adam Yauch, a member of the seminal hip-hop trio the Beastie Boys, has died. He was 47 years old.

The Brooklyn-born musician known to fans as MCA was first treated for cancerous growths in his parotid gland and a lymph node in 2009 and subsequently underwent surgery and radiation therapy, which forced the delay of the Beastie Boys’ most recent album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. His illness has also kept the group off the road, and Yauch missed the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two weeks ago.

More here »

2. The fallen of World War 2:

Every year we take our two minutes of silence in which we commemorate the fallen heroes of the resistance and allied troops. This takes place when the clock strikes 20:00 hours.
It proceeds the celebration that takes place next day, Liberation Day. And yes, it’s on the cinqo de mayo!

3. The demise of AboutDJ.nl

RJ Shop, the proud new owner of one of the most propagating dutch DJ communities, decided to can it.
After months of neglecting, they all of a sudden tried to update the CMS and forum without notifying the online community.
While leaving all of it’s members baffled for the better part of 36 hours, they decided to call it quits and kill the community.

Please join me when I take my moment of silence in the utmost respect.

The latest addition to Pioneer’s professional headphones range, the HDJ-1500s owe their crystal-clear sound quality to increased output levels, a lower impedance and an exclusive soundproofing chamber specially developed by Pioneer.

The HJD-1500s’ copper-clad aluminum wire voice coils guarantee accurate reproduction of deep base notes and superbly balanced sound across all frequencies. And the exclusive soundproofing chamber eliminates outside noise so DJs can easily monitor the beat –even in the loudest of venues.

Ruggedly built, with lightweight but durable magnesium alloy parts, the HDJ-1500s are perfectly designed to endure the rigors of frequent professional use. And the urethane memory foam ear pads hug the ear for maximum comfort even during the longest sets.

Available in two stunning colors – classy chrome black and sleek deep silver– the HDJ-1500s look good in every venue, while the included carrying pouch means they’re perfectly portable.

Key features of the HDJ-1500

1. 1.     Superb sound quality

With high-quality components, the HDJ-1500s deliver perfectly balanced sound across all frequencies. The headphones feature copper-clad aluminum wire voice coils, large 50 mm driver units, rare earth magnets and 38μm-thick diaphragms, guaranteeing accurate reproduction of deep base notes and clear delivery of other low to medium frequencies, such as kicks and snares. Output levels are 1 dB greater than Pioneer’s HDJ-1000 headphones, and a lower impedance offers even greater sensitivity, so DJs get pristine sound reproduction every time, regardless of what device the HDJ-1500s are hooked up to.

1. 2.     WORLD EXCLUSIVE: groundbreaking soundproofing component

Monitoring tracks on a heaving dance floor is a breeze with the HDJ-1500s, no matter how rowdy the party gets. Sound insulation around low and medium frequencies (300 Hz to 1,300 Hz) has improved by an impressive 4 dB compared to the HDJ-1000s thanks to the innovative sound-isolation chamber on the bass reflex port, which eliminates background noise.

1. 3.     Durable design for professional use

The HDJ-1500s’ moving headband and hinges are composed of rugged yet lightweight magnesium alloy to withstand the rigors of professional use. Plus, the single-sided cable can be easily replaced if it gets damaged, further prolonging the life of the headphones.

1. 4.     Supreme comfort with interchangeable urethane foam ear pads

The narrow ear cup design creates a tight seal on your ear to block out external sound, while the low-resilience urethane memory foam ear pads make sure the HDJ-1500s are easy on the ears even during prolonged use. The included ear pads can be replaced with the HDJ-EP01s –open-cup protein leather ear pads which sit around the ears and are sold separately –so DJs can choose the best option to suit their comfort and listening style.

1. 5.     Available in two colors: chrome black and deep silver

DJs can coordinate their headphones with the club, the studio, their kit, their set, their clothes or even their mood as the HDJ-1500s come in two striking colors­–classy chrome black and sleek deep silver.

1. 6.     Included accessories

The compact carrying pouch means the headphones can be safely transported to the club or the studio in style. The HDJ-1500s also fit perfectly in the slim and lightweight HDJ-HC01 carrying case. Accessories such as USB memory sticks and SD cards can be stored in specially designated pockets within the carrying cases for added convenience.

Main specifications – HDJ-1500

About Pioneer Europe
Pioneer Europe NV is the regional European headquarters of the Pioneer Corporation, a global leader in electronics and audio/video products for the home, car, commerce and industry, particularly in the following core multimedia technologies: digital versatile disc (DVD), in-car navigation and AV systems. Its shares are traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

For all media enquiries, please contact Pioneer within your country:
www.pioneer.eu/eur/content/company/company/locations.html

Key behavior seems to be that the S4, or S2, powers up by lighting up the usual LEDlight. However connecting the USB cable between MIDI controller and  laptop/macbook leads to all LEDlight to cease.

At that point it might be wise to inspect the USB B port. A proper Kontrols S4/S2 USB B port should look like this:

If your S4 or S2 is experiencing the same behavior as described earlier on, chances are, you’re missing the orange plastic separator bit in the USB B port.

Brief analyses of the port shows us why the top row of the connectors should be separated.

Connecting the top row of  pins with the bottom row of pins short circuits every signal, so no MIDIs for the MIDI controller to control.

From here you as S4 or S2 owner can do two things:

1. Take the controller back to the store for warrantee.
2. Be a true member of DJ TechTools and see if he or she can make MacGyver proud.

Being a true tekki, I cannot be separated from my S4 for too long a period. Option 1 is not really an option for me. Next to this, I can imagine that you, as the reader, are in dire need just before a gig and you got no other option left.

To fix this is easier than thought. Just make sure that you somehow separate the top row from the bottom row by any means necessary.
I used a left over from a cardboard push through vodafone simcard and cut that up to size.
Any material will do, as long as it does not conduct.
Of course you still need to connect your USB cable while separating the 4 connector pins.
In the end your result could look like this:

One could say that this looks like a short term solution, though I have been using this solution while roughly gigging once a week for a little less than a year.

Just started announcing that the DJTechtools Forums, DJ Tech Tools , will be experiencing some downtime this weekend.
The notice should show up every time a registered user/member visits the forums.

Expect some cool new stuff to experience after this weekend’s maintenance.

Spread the word and hopefully speak to you soon after the Forum Maintenance.

Soulful House legend Dennis Ferrer got the surprise of his life, when he was asked to leave the DJ booth while he was spinning tunes for his gig in Miami hotspot The Mansion.
Ferrer has worked with the likes of Masters at Work (MAW), Little Louie Vega, the Martinez Brothers and many other notable New York producers and DJs. Dennis is also the founder of Objektivity record label.

Every beginning DJs nightmare became a harsh reality when Dennis Ferrer  played this Saturday, February the 26th. The manager walked up to him, 40 minutes into his set, and asked him to leave because he did nit play commercial enough house music.

Ferrer had the following to say on the Deep House Forum Pages:

“Gettin’ taken off decks is quite a sobering and humbling experience and one I shall not want to be repeated,” Ferrer wrote on Monday. “It seems as though it was what it was. Kinda funny in the end.”

“I threw my hands up and got asked to be off after around 40 minutes…no harm no foul..I laughed..tweeted.. got over my initial anger and kept it moving.

“Sad though to see tons of beautiful young people being force fed what I tend to believe is a misrepresentation of the EDM culture. But wtf.. who am I to say what sounds good and doesn’t…everyone has got opinions like they have what again?”

When asked what was considered not- commercial enough, Ferrer listed:

• Storm Queen – Look Right Through (Jamie Jones Remix)
• Phil Weeks – Jack to my Groove
• Subb-an’s – This Place (Nic Fanciulli Remix)

You’ll be the judge…

Next to the familiar build and sound quality, Pioneer has pushed the envelope a little bit more, by adding four 24-bit/96kHz soundcards on this mixer.  (This means one soundcard per channel!)
This to enable multitrack recordings of DJ mixes recorded through this mixer. These soundcards can also be used as a means to enable Digital Vinyl Systems or Time Code System like the immense popular Traktor Scratch Pro 2.

A nice addition to this is, that the entire mixer can be set to MIDI. In other words, you are able to use the mixer as a MIDI controller in regular DJ software, Traktor Por 2 and maybe Serato Itch, without Scratch functionality.

Next to this you can expect the known 4 Beat Color FX and 13 Beat Effects, just like the DJM-900 Nexus, but it has the new and exclusive Pitch Echo.

More info can be found on the website of my Pioneer info source, Jeroen Groenendijk.

While browsing through one of my favorite Digital DJ Blogs, digitaldjtips.com, I came across this fine posting.

François Kevorkian, better known under his alias François K, writes about his experiences when he suddenly found himself with CDJs again, in stead of his trusty Native Instruments Kontrol S4.

While we are the first to underline the importance of being able to DJ on CDJs and ideally, over time, on all types of gear, we also believe that digital is the most exciting format out there. Trading “up” to CDJs or record decks just doesn’t make any sense at all to us.

Turns out we’re not alone in that sentiment. We thought today we’d reprint in its entirety the following self-confessed Facebook Page “rant” by New York veteran DJ and Paradise Garage / Studio 54 legend, François Kevorkian aka François K. In it, he rallies against digital DJ haters, and speaks of how boring he found it when he decided to use CDJs a recent Deep Space event in NYC.

Continued here on digitaldjtips.com»

 
This application just seems to get more awesome by the minute! I was already fan of the previous release, can’t wait to get my mits on this one.

Today I’m releasing KeyFinder version 1.1.9.
Features include:
* GUI enhancements including live tag updating and simpler Preferences window
* option to write to multiple tags
* option to skip files where tags already populated
* parallel (faster) metadata reading for big batch jobs
* use of keycodes in detailed analysis window
* support for Japanese charsets (on the Mac, at least)
* CLI (sort of) and drop-to-dock-icon (Mac)
* all kinds of bug fixes

And this version brings Windows into line with the Mac release, feature wise. I’m sure there are still bugs to iron out but I think it should be more stable now.

Feedback welcome as always. Enjoy.

I’m downloading the new version as we speak!

> continued on DJ TechTools