Category: italic+mixing

The past and the future of portable DJing in one shot

A Pacemaker device and the Drift Zero one sat next to each other on a table top. Both are turned on
The past and the future of portable DJing in one shot.

A post was recently share on the Drift DJ discord.
The pacemaker when djing went pocket sized and the world wasnt ready

Its a really good piece about the massive leap the Pacemaker device provided way back in 2008. In short the device was up against smartphones like the iphone. Smartphones turned everything down to software.

…the idea of carrying a dedicated device for DJing felt quaint when your phone could theoretically do the same thing via an app

Theres mentions of Tonium’s attempts with the Blackberry playbook, something I used and absolutely hated after my bad experience. Then the change to software, on the iOS platform with the first to have Spotify integration. But I do like the nod to the community and people like myself who modified their Pacemaker devices with a SSD, new battery and replacing the firmware with unofficial builds. I actually use one of the unofficial ones on one device and the last official one on another for live mixing and stability.

But best of all is the ambition of the Pacemaker device. Its what got me to buy my very first one back in 2007.

Looking back at the Pacemaker now, it feels like a glimpse of a future that never quite materialised. The device represented a genuine attempt to rethink DJing for a mobile-first world, to distil the essence of club culture into something genuinely portable without compromising on functionality. It had vision, ambition, and genuine innovation behind it. The execution was largely solid, the feature set comprehensive, and the user experience thoughtfully designed. In many ways, it was exactly what it promised to be: the world’s first truly portable professional DJ system.

For those who owned one, used one, or simply appreciated what it tried to do, the Pacemaker remains a fascinating piece of music technology history. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most interesting innovations aren’t the ones that achieve mainstream success but rather the ones that push boundaries, challenge assumptions, and show what’s possible when you’re willing to think differently about established conventions.

In the picture, I put the Pacemaker device next to the Drift DJ zero and suggest this could be everything the Pacemaker promised and very almost delivered on. Its clear portable DJ systems are incredible and provide all types of possibilities not realised. Maybe its time for a #DJhackday?

Drift Zero DJ, alpha testing

The Drift DJ Zero on top of a box with Ian written on it

I have been using the Pacemaker device for I believe 17 years now but I have been looking around for the next generation of DJ tools. It was Si who first sent me the Drift DJ zero and I was sold pretty much straight away.

Under a year later, I have have signed up as a alpha tester and today it came in the post from Chicago.

Its quite an incredible device, with the level of quality I expect will last even the most crazy DJ performances. Its small (its just a bit bigger a profile than my Pixel 9 pro, likely same size as the XL one) and its lighter than I expected, not pacemaker device light but easy to carry or host on a tray table on a train or plane. (Can’t wait to see the faces of KLM staff in the near future). All the buttons and nobs are solid and tactile in a way only another DJ would understand. The weighting and feedback is just right, while the screen is just delightful to see. Navigation is pretty intuitive as I haven’t looked at any documentation at all to date.

Drift DJ in the dark on a desk

As this is the alpha, its not got a lot of the features like DJing or library control but the testers have access to a git repo to upload updates via USB. Not played enough yet but I have been told I can SSH into the device for extreme levels of control. When the official build becomes available, I will also receive one for the testing my feedback; which I feel is a fantastic deal.

One thing is for clear, I really need to sort out my music library, because the Pacemaker editor was prehistoric and I never managed it.

Expect updates and who knows a mix or two in the near future…

Recursive rhythms: the bring back techno ciento climb mix

Close up photo of the Pacemaker DJ device while sitting on a flight
Pacemaking on British Airlines

Conference season is pretty much over and my last event was the excellent Mozilla Festival, this time in Barcelona. I took a KLM flight via Amsterdam on the way and created the base of a interesting mix. On the way back I flew via Heathrow on BA (a reminder how much I don’t like Heathrow, and use to fly from Gatwick when I could).

On my BA flight, I re-did the mix with a few tweaks and the resulting mix was created. Created using the very ageing Pacemaker device on KLM and remix/raised on BA? as such?

Its a strange one because there is a bit of reusing of the same tunes, which isn’t a thing you do when DJing, but it kind of worked. Also maybe the early mornings, 4 hours of sleep and climbing what felt like 100 steps to the festival, had gotten to me?

What ever it is, I have been enjoying this longer mix, as it includes new tunes, especially Bring back the techno which I also heard DJ B Jones playing on the Saturday night party.

Enough typing… You can listen to the mix in full quality on my mixgarden or at reasonable quality here too.

  1. 00:00:00 – Vibration (extended mix) – Redub
  2. 00:03:16 – Intruder – Armin vs M.I.K.E
  3. 00:06:31 – My beat (jan Driver mix) – Blaze
  4. 00:11:18 – Rerflection (extended mix)  – Ferry Corsten
  5. 00:14:46 – Emotions Of Colour (Extended Mix) – Cosmic Gate & Gid Sedgwick
  6. 00:19:48 – Ecstasy – Eddie Makabi feat Einat
  7. 00:24:12 – Bring back the techno (extended mix) – Orjan neilson, Mark sixma, nilsix
  8. 00:27:41 – Eclipse – Neo
  9. 00:31:15 – Inferno – Carl Cox
  10. 00:35:43 – Mass Noise 2015 – fred baker & Seb B
  11. 00:39:35 – Whites of her eyes – Simon Patterson
  12. 00:43:59 – You (extended mix) – Cosmic gate
  13. 00:46:48 – Emotions Of Colour (Extended Mix) – Cosmic Gate & Gid Sedgwick
  14. 00:52:13 – Silver bath (Adam El-Sayed 2015 rework – Plastic boy
  15. 00:56:48 – Outlaw (extended mix) – Fatum
  16. 01:00:57 – Bring back the techno ((Extended Mix) – Orjan Nilsen, Mark Sixma (Nilsix)
  17. 01:02:40 – Anasthasia (Extended Mix) – Mark Sixma vs T99

Helsinki familiar stranger mix

Two strangers watch a cocktail being made in a dim lit bar with a bartender facing them.

About a month ago I was in Helsinki for the Mydata conference, one of the things I like to do is find new places. A guy I knew from Manchester suggested a really amazing speakeasy place to me, while I complained about the sugar-horrific gin & lemon in a can  one night.

So I checked it out and thought it was a fantastic bar, although having your phone locked away when you needed to know the last train is quite something. However I met a stranger at the bar and we talked for a while and even walked back to the train station. Then on a second night after going to the theme park in Helsinki, he was there again. Although not a familiar stranger, it was some inspiration for this mix.

Recorded on the flights back to Manchester and a bit of tweaking, I present the Helsinki familiar stranger mix at 192k on peertube and now finally on my own peetube mixgarden in full quality.

  1. 00:00:00 – Industry – Green Martian
  2. 00:05:49 – Bloodmoon (Extended mix) – Jarome Isma & Tone Depth
  3. 00:10:59 – Intruder – Armnin vs M.I.K.E
  4. 00:16:39 – Erase – Brooks Aleksander
  5. 00:20:14 – Inferno – Carl Cox
  6. 00:24:39 – Eclipse – Neo
  7. 00:28:08 – Shnokel (Thank you city remix) – Ido Ophir, Miki Litvak
  8. 00:30:56 – Open up (full vocal mix) – Leftfield
  9. 00:33:56 – Circles – Robert Nickson
  10. 00:39:02 – Seven Cities (V-one’s living cities mix) – Solar Stone
  11. 00:45:03 – Home (Cosmic gate remix – Paul Van Dyk Feat Johnny Mcdaid
  12. 00:50:50– Indigo – 4×4

Terminal velocity unhindered by dark clouds mix

Flying high into dark stormy clouds with KLM

I flew to Amsterdam and travelled around the Netherlands via trains recently. As usual I started a new mix slowly building on it with new tunes as I went around the Netherlands. There are quite a few new tunes added but the final mix was done on a KLM flight back to Manchester.

During that flight, a flight assistant asked me about the Pacemaker device. Its not the first and won’t be the last, as I have had not only flight assistants but even fellow passengers ask about it. I still remember when a KLM flight assistant mistaken the Pacemaker device for a walkie talkie? Honestly our conversation was really good, and who knows maybe she will read this and have a smile on her face.

Also reminds me I need to have cards just for Digital Italic and my mixes (Moo cards I got a order for you!)

Anyway about the mix… This long worded mix is longer than usual but keeps the pace of about 140bpm. This mix is a real back and forth with some vocal trance alongside tech trance. I have been listening to this mix quite a lot since coming back and still find it great.

Finally I’m finding a bit more time to fix parts of my setup, but for now my mixes exists on Peertube only.

Enjoy this mix and play it loud!

00:00:00 – Witness – Baced! vs Aces delight

00:04:16 – Lost in you (Extended mix) – Scorz feat Adriana Stone
00:08:50 – Sequence (Extended mix) – Estiva
00:13:53 – Marama (Moon & Stars) – Ferry Corsten presents Gouryella feat Saskia Lie Atjam
00:18:41 – Tell nobody – Basil O’Glue
00:26:41 – Decade (extended) – Chris Element
00:31:02 – Arist of your life (Extended mix) – London & Niko
00:36:37 – Brute (Extended mix) – Ferry Corsten and Armin Van Buuren
00:42:38 – Massive motion – M.I.K.E
00:47:27 – Mission – Basil O’Glue & Nomas
00:50:42 – Dark side of the moon (RYDEX extended remix) – Susana
00:54:21 – Energy crash (Extended mix) – Maarten De Jong

A Storm in a french grapevine pacemaker device mix

A french field of grapevines

Recently I found myself in rural southern France and of course, my Pacemaker device and headphones came with me. It was weird being surrounded by nothing but grapevines. Certainly wine country.

I took a nice shot with a very rare dark sky. With a bit of tweaking, you got the cover for a storm in a french grapevine.

The tunes are certainly not safe for work, and I just doubled down on the nsfw tunes with a uplift in bpm too. I do like mix, its got a good selection of old and new mixed together. Considered going longer but it didn’t need more.

My Yunohost is a bit broken still, so its only on my Peertube channel right now.  Remember to enable Sensitive content in the filter to see it in the list of mixes.

Enjoy the mix

 

00:00:00 – Fcuking Society (Olav Basoski Mix) – Ellrich & Plaice
00:02:27 – Awesome – Mario Piu
00:05:46 – Answering machine (album version) – Green Velvet
00:11:38 – Erase – Brooks Aleksander
00:15:08 – Tell nobody – Basil O’Glue
00:18:27 – Shnorkel (Thankyou City Remix) – Ido Ophir, Miki Litvak
00:22:07 – Inferno (Space 92 Remix) – Carl Cox & Reinier Zonneveld & Christopher Coe
00:25:10 – Massive motion – M.I.K.E
00:30:22 – We Ain’t Ever Coming Down (Jody 6 Extended Remix) – Antonio Moreno
00:34:46 – Why does my heart feel so bad? (System F mix) – Moby

The Aerodynamic connection mix

On my last trip to Europe, I flew to Amsterdam to get a train to Brussels and flew back from the awful Brussels South airport. I won’t be doing that again if I can help it. During that time I got time to another Pacemaker device mix. The self hosted mixing site is still broken, its a thing I am trying to fix as its a bigger problem with Yunohost and the bookworm update. So its peertube again. (I noticed the mix points links include the domain, which means I can add them here too)

Recorded in two parts on a plane and on the coach to the airport, then stitched together because of the short flight and being bounced around on the Flibco bus. This mix has a lot of the tunes I’m loving at the moment but also a bit of throw back too. It truly is a mix across 2 different countries.

Enjoy the mix and see if you can work out which half is Dutch and Belgian?

  1. 00:00:00 – You got the love (Sonny Noto remix) – Florence + The machine
  2. 00:04:10 – 9910 (extended mix) – Orjan Nelsen
  3. 00:08:06 – Wonder of life (F&W remix) – Tukan
  4. 00:12:56 – Killer Instinct – Sneijder & Bryan Kearney
  5. 00:19:22 – Exactly -John O’Callaghan & Kearney
  6. 00:23:03 – Surga (extended mix) – Ferry Corsten presents Gouryella
  7. 00:26:45 -Tell nobody – Basil O’Glue
  8. 00:30:26 – Cut and Run feat Emma lock – Beat Service and Emma Lock
  9. 00:36:50 – Interstellar (YORK’s back in time extended mix) – Torsten Stenzel
  10. 00:41:40 – Never be the same again (wavetraxx extended mix) – Jaron Inc. & Wavetraxx
  11. 00:45:00 – We Ain’t Ever Coming Down (Jody 6 Extended Remix) – Antonio Moreno
  12. 00:49:40 – Artist of your life (extended mix) – London & Niko
  13. 00:56:31 – Higher state – Kevin Crowley

Delirium and encounter at the Berlin watergate mix

I mentioned in the last post which was another mix. I have been out and about quite a lot, with time for creating more mixes. My self hosted mixing site is a little broken at the moment, so I’m relying on peertube again.

This mix was recorded as you can guess in Berlin during Republica in late May. I had some time before heading back to the UK and decided Berlin needed something a little lighter from the previous ones I did on the Berlin ring.

Walking across Oberbaumbrücke, I was reminded of my time at Watergate club in the early 00’s, which is now closed down. This mix is a combination of tunes, starting dark and moving into something lighter. Delirium and encounter is certainly something I experienced at Watergate and many of the other clubs in Berlin.

Credit to the excellent picture of Oberbaumbrücke used under CC-BY-NC use.

Enjoy the mix and imagine dancing in Watergate looking out across the spree to Kreuzburg

  1. Arrival – ANU
  2. Shnorkel (Thankyou City Remix) – Ido Ophir, Miki Litvak
  3. Wrist Block (Joey Beltram remix) – Side Four
  4. Sequence (Extended mix) – Estiva
  5. The Decent – Protoculture
  6. Collider (Jorn van Deynhoven remix) – Thomas Bronzwaer
  7. Inferno – Carl Cox
  8. Shadow World – Thomas Bronzwaer
  9. Decade (extended mix) – Chris Element
  10. She moves (extended mix) – Andy Moor Ft. Carrie Skipper
  11. Megalodon – MaRLo

Deutschland industrial fly over mix

I have been out and about quite a lot, which means time for creating mixes on the pacemaker device. My self hosted mixing site is a little broken at the moment.

However I have shared the mix on peertube. This one was recorded on my flight from Bremen earlier in May. I quite liked Bremen, but like Hamburg but still not Berlin. However I enjoyed the sunshine on the industrial backdrop. The view outside the plane was stark too, just like the start of this mix.

This is a mix I have been listening to most of the month but finally got time to put together the art work and a bit of clean up in the editor.

Enjoy the mix and play it loud!

  1. Emotions of colour (Extended mix) – Cosmic Gate & Gid Sedgwick
  2. Tell nobody – Basil O’Glue
  3. SOS (message in a bottle Sander van Doorm remix) – The Police
  4. Tears (Protoculture remix) – Markus Schulz pres. Dakota
  5. Kollera – Dusty Kid
  6. Floyd (extended mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  7. Fallen (Gabriel & Dresden’s anti-gravity remix) – Sarah McLachlan
  8. Language (Sand Nino dub) – Bennett & Hammer
  9. Killer Instinct – Sneijder & Bryan Kearney
  10. The Girl With Her Head In The Clouds (Ellie’s Song) (Extended Mix) – Factor B

Freedom frequency in the Netherlands mix

Looking out the window of a flight at the Netherlands

I started this mix following the one in Malta, It’s been kicking around on my phone for a while but didn’t sound quite right. With my flight from Amsterdam I got time to redo it and decided on the fly to give it more tunes, which just worked.

I use freedom, as its my first mix now being free from the BBC and although nervous, gives me a lot of freedom which I’m starting to fully understand. I feel like I’m on a different frequency.

This was done during the flight and slightly edited at the end because the air pressure in my ears made it more difficult to hear the mix fully. I won’t lie this mix kicks and is full of highs and deep tunes, hope you enjoy it too.

Enjoy on Peertube or my own mixgarden

  1. Gouryella (Alan Fitzpatrick Tribute to ’99 extended remix) – Gouryella & Ferry Corsten
  2. Aluminium (Extended Mix) – Robert Nickson
  3. Fade To Grey (Moreno J Remix) – Visage
  4. Inferno – Carl Cox
  5. Seven Cities (V-One’s Living Cities Remix) – Solarstone
  6. Killer Instinct (Original Mix) – Sneijder & Bryan Kearney
  7. Erase – Brooks Aleksander
  8. Whites Of Her Eyes (Original Mix) – Simon Patterson
  9. Inferno (Space 92 remix) – Carl Cox
  10. Emotions Of Colour (Extended Mix) – Cosmic Gate
  11. Tell Nobody – Basil O’Glue
  12. Floyd (extended mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  13. The Girl With Her Head In The Clouds (Ellie’s Song) (Extended Mix) – Factor B
  14. Adagio In G Minor (Extended Mix) – DIM3NSION
  15. Outlaw (extended mix) – Fatum