Category: italic+mixing

Another mix, this time on the more chilled side of the trance spectrum. It was recorded at about midnight while sitting on my balcony watching the trains go by. It was a warm night and I was sipping a Diet Ginger beer while mixing. Its a good mix, lots of lesser known tunes with some new ones. I did make one mistake in the middle where I pressed the pause button on the wrong track but otherwise its all good. Let me know what you guys think… The artwork for mix cover is from – Burn Blue under CC licence of course.

2. She wants him (Blake Jarrells Panty Dropper Remix) – Moussa Clark & Terrafunka
3. Fallen (Gabriel & Dresden Anti-Gravity Remix) – Sarah McLachlan
4. Made of Love – Ferry Corsten feat Betsie Larkin
5. Body of Conflict ub mix) – Cosmic Gate
6. Isn't Life Wonderful (Flat 6 mix) – Alex D'ella vs E-Bop Allstars
7. Into Something – Richard Durand
8. Language (Santiago Nino Dub Tech Mix) – Hammer and Bennett
9. Minimalistix (Club mix) – Close Cover
10. Unprepared – Marco V
11. Silver Bath – Plastic Boy
12. The Situation (Liquid life remix) – A Situation
13. Radio Crush (extended mix) – Ferry Corsten
14. Can't Sleep – Marcel Wood Feat Elles De Graaf
15. It's time (Ferry Corsten's flashover mix) – Ferry Corsten

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I have no idea what happened in the first 2 mixes. Honestly the mixes were dead on, I was playing it loud out of my amp and if it was that off trust me I would have heard it. Anyway, rather that try and fix it, I've left it in because the whole set is a excellent one. There seems to be a bug with the pacemaker or something because after those two mixes everything pans out perfect. Anyway let the mix do the talking, just remember to skip the first two mixes.

1. Big Sky (agnelli & nelson remix) – John O'Callaghan feat Audrey Gallagher
2. So High (Martin Roth remix) – Starchaser feat LO FI Sugar
3. Language (Santiago Nino Dub Tech Mix) – Hammer and Bennett
4. Into Something – Richard Durand
5. Beautiful Thing (photon project remix) – Andain
6. Grooveline (matt darey) – Blockster
7. Shadow World – Thomas Bronzwaer
8. Smack – Simon Patterson
9. Certitude – Thomas Bronzwaer
10. 1999 (gouryella mix) – Binary Finary
11. Beauty hides in the deep (John o'collaghan remix) – The Doppler effect
12. Ultra Curve – Cosmic Gate
13. Rewire (Avenger remix) – Robert Nickson & Daniel Kandi
14. Resound – Thomas Bronzwaer
15. Intution (Martin Roth remix) – Marninx Pres Ecco
16. As the Amazon Rush Comes (Carl B remix) – Motorcycle vs Midway
17. Eventuality – 8 Wonders
18. Walk the edge (Alex M.O.R.P.H b2b Woody van Eyden mix) – Alex M.O.R.P.H
19. Born Slippy (Richard Durand Remix) – Underworld
20. The Pride in your eyes (Martin Roth mix) – Tillmann Uhrmacher

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While my blog was down, I was also on the train a lot. That means I had plenty of long journeys to create mixes using my pacemaker. I have uploaded 4 which I was pleased about.
In the Park during daylight mix – was recorded while I was lying in a central Manchester Park during the hot spell of weather we recently had. Its quite up beat and rocks along with some good memorable tunes. All the way into space mix was recorded during the same hot weather but on a recent journey back from somewhere in London to my hotel in West London late at night. I remember walking most of the journey because I wanted to keep the mix going for quite a while. And at 2hours long you can get a feel for how long that walk was. Sunbeams at dusk mix was recorded on the circle line tube. Its quite short, but so was the journey. It was meant to be very uplifting and I had planned to create a mix for a dj competition that I had seen online, but I know I can do so much better so I created Sheffield sizzles in the late night mix which now on reflection is maybe too dark for a dj mixing contest. I tell a slight lie because actually I created a mix called London Sizzles in the late night but wasn't happy with a couple of the tunes and so went about recreating the mix again but with those tune changes. The sheffield mix has the right tunes but isn't mixed as well as the London one. So I really need to work on that.

I've been checking out some the video blogs from djs and came across Dj SOS whos a female drum & bass dj. And it got me thinking I should do more live mixes on internet radio like I use to, I'm not sure video would work as well however, although you could get to see the weird and wonder locations I dj from. Certainly beats Dj Sos's party garage.

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I don't get Guitar Hero or Rockband, it makes no sense to me, I was watching Coop and there was a segment about some guy called Tim Schafer and a game called Brutal Legend.

I've never wanted to play a guitar and honestly don't really find them at all interesting. So I've never really to play Guitar hero, actually I've wondered whats happened to Dj Hero? Well it seems its actually being actively developed by EA and its actually called Dj Hero. I look forward to seeing it and seeing how well it does. Dj Culture/Turntablism needs a good game.

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While in London last week I had the opportunity of spending the time on tube doing mixes to myself in the headphones. I did quite a few mixes but these are certainly the best of the bunch. I tried to upload them to pacemaker.net but I kept getting errors when uploading. I can't quite work out if its because I'm running the software under a virtual machine or not. Eitherway, Soundcloud seems like a great place to put mixes. Just noticed my mixes have been downloaded a total of 909 times to date. Which can't be bad for just the occasional tweet and live mix. I should do more mixing, but I guess my walk to work is too short.

The warm breeze sweeps through London mix, was the recent heatwave the UK has been getting. I remember I was in the hotel and deciding if I should bother with a coat or not. Decided against it in the morning and enjoyed the sunshine right through till beyond dusk. I was coming back from dinner somewhere (think it was China Town) and although it was close to 10pm it was still warm enough to not need a coat. When I got back to the hotel, I stood outside and mixed till it was too cold to be outside. So imagine, me on the tube mixing away, then slowly walking from the station still mixing, then outside the hotel mixing away, alongside all the smokers and waiting taxi drivers.

1. Dido (Armin Universal Mix) – Aria
2. Shadow World – Thomas Bronzwaer
3. Grooveline (Matt Darey's mix) – Blockster
4. Peace – Yves Deruyter
5. Embrace (Ferry Fix) – Embrace
6. Intuition – Marninx Presents Ecco
7. Gouryella (extended version) – Gouryella
8. Into the Danger (M.I.K.E remix) – M.I.K.E vs Andrew Bennett
9. Resound – Thomas Bronzwaer
10. Turn out the lights (Transa mix) – M.I.K.E
11. Heal – Electrique Boutique
12. Walk the Edge (Alex M.O.R.P.H b2b Wiidy van Eyedn mix) – Alex M.O.R.P.H
13. 1999 (Gouryella mix) – Binary Finary
14. In the Dark (Tiesto trance mix) – Dj Tiesto
15. Barber's Adagio for strings (Ferry Corsten mix) – William Orbit

The Force of night is done while going home again from a dinner, this time I opted for the bus but a major accident on Oxford Street just down from Oxford Circus stops all traffic and after a while of sitting on the bus I decide to walk it. Because I'm mixing away, I decide to only rejoin public transport at Lancaster Gate. Nice walk and headphones on mixing away through the whole journey back to the hotel.

1. Running Two – Run Lola Run
2. A New Dawn (extended version) – Steve Forte Rio
3. Troy (Push Remix) – Sinead O'Connor
4. Attention – John OO Fleming vs Christopher Lawrence
5. First Strike (signum signal 2004 remake) – Signum
6. Such is Life (Marco V Remix) – Rank1 feat Shanokee
7. Into the Danger (M.I.K.E Remix) – M.I.K.E vs Andrew Bennett
8. Summer Melodies (Frequence remix) – Frequence
9. Please Save me (Push Remix) – Sunscreem vs Push
10. Beauty hides in the deep (John O'Callaghan remix) – The Dopplr Effect
11. Gouryella (Extended mix) – Gouryella
12. Eventuality – 8 Wonders

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I was listening on the train to Marcel Woods at Trance Energy 2009. Popped the title into Google and came up with this excellent site called the Liveset Database with the mix I was listening to and I quickly identified the tune I was banging my head to (Art of Trance – Madagascar (Richard Durand remix)) and went to Audiojelly typed in the song title and found it to download and buy right there. Not only did I find that one but I also found many other remixes.

I made reference to the maybe unique ecosystem of Trance music in a previous blog post. I actually thought I heard Armin Van Buuren give a shout out to a large Torrent site called Trancetraffic the other day but I think after hearing it again, it didn't quite sound like that. But I can't work out if trance has come so far that its done away with the idea of selling mixes or just let the tapers just take over. And why not? I mean, like all music, dance music included, it sounds better and more heart felt in a club, rave or outdoors over a heavy driving sound system. Some of the cynical in you will say it sounds better with the drugs, but I wouldn't know anything about that. So generally Live and loud. There's always been this idea of mixtapes being quite disposable but back in the mid 90's gready promoters started to sell tapes and cds of the mixes. However generally most made copies and no one got sued that I know. There's also something about owning the original tune, be it on vinyl or something else, maybe because somewhere deep down everyone liked dance music had a dj inside of them? Funny enough, i've also never heard anyone call someone else a pirate even when another artist does a bootleg remix.

Is sharing mixes one of the cornerstones of trance music? And through the mix, the meme of the music is widely distributed? Interesting….

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Another one of those Pacemaker mixes which I love doing. I did this mix about a week ago before going to Las Vegas but couldn't really think of a name for it. Anyhow, this should be the last mix on the old pacemaker firmware. When I get back to the UK, I'll be upgrading it to the new one which everyone seems to be raving about on the forums.

1. Oblivion (head in the clouds) – Manix
2. Shnorkel (Original Mix) – Miki Litvak & Ido Ophir
3. Julian Jeweil – Air Conditionne
4. Dark sides (thomas penton mix) – Nugen
5. The 7th day (M.I.K.E remix) – The Gift
6. Grasshopper (dance mix) – Sandler Van Doorm
7. Lyra (leon bolier mix) – Leon Bolier
8. Jelly tracks (Rippin & Drippin Mix ) – Oliver Klein
9. Verdi – Mauro Piccotto
10. Panic attack – Simon Patterson
11. Smack – Simon Patterson
12. In the dark – Tiesto

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When I watched this review of the Pacemaker, I almost had to shut down my laptop because I was so pissed off at the stupid review of the pacemaker by Techcrunch's Crunchgear. The guy, John Biggs spend at least 10secs of looking at the box rather than playing with the device. Even when playing with it, he simply uses the crossfader to go back and forth. Now to be fair John does say in the short paragraph.

I apologize in advance for this video but I’m trying my hardest to make great mixes on my Pacemaker. Sadly, the fact that I’m old and live in my attic is causing a severe reaction to cool.

But this is certainly not the way to show off a pacemaker.

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Another week, and another mix. More travels with my pacemaker. This time just a mix of some of my favourite tunes back to back. As always enjoy…

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I'm getting a little fed up of seeing all these crazy wanna-be dj applications. Seriously I'm not against them but most of them are so very lame, there not even trying to take advantage of the fact there on mobile devices.

DJ Party Mixer for Windows Mobile doesn't even support pitch control. IPJ for the iphone and ipod looks much better but fails for not supporting 2 or more tracks. You have to use a external mixer which ruins the whole concept of mobile. The shaking effects is interesting but ultimately its all a bit of a joke again. Also a expensive one at 50 dollars. Pocket studio seems to have most of the features needed to get a decent-ish mix but this is the rub why all these devices suck for mixing. The Pacemaker not only has everything sorted for a real time performance but it also has dual sound outputs. One for monitoring and the other one for audience output. This is simply not possible on any of the mobile devices to date. The Samsung M7600 is selling its self as a dj phone but once again theres only one output. And even the most advanced Windows mobile phone can not seperate the audio out between the headphone jack and the bluetooth sound connection which could count as two. If it was possible it would be interesting to monitor on a bluetooth headset and have the main output plugged into a amp, system, etc. No I'm sorry to say but Tonium have totally got this area covered at the moment. I do hold out hope (I still remember the first digital dj app – virtual turntables and they said it wouldn't take off) for clever IP djing but right now, its not even close to interesting. What is interesting is Wiijing

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Heavy snow in the midnight city mix by cubicgarden

1. Tin There (edit) – Underworld
2. The 7th Day (M.I.K.E Remix) – The Gift
3. Sky Falls Down (Armin van Buuren Remix) – Oceanlab
4. Bulgarian (Signum Remix) – Travel
5. Beauty hides in the deep (john o'callaghan remix) – The Doppler effect
6. The Pride in your eyes (Martin Roth mix) – Tillmann Uhrmacher
7. Language (Santiago Nino Dub Tech Mix) – Hammer and Bennett
8. Gamemaster (Matt Darey 2003 Club Remix) – Lost Tribe
9. Attention (steve birch remix) – John 00 Fleming vs Christopher Lawrence
10. She wants him – Moussa Clarke & Terrafunka
11. Into the danger (M.I.K.E remix) – M.I.K.E vs Andrew Bennett
12. Gouryella (extended version) – Gouryella
13. Heal – Electrique Boutique
14. In the dark (tiesto trance mix) – Tiesto

This mix was recorded during the snow storm hit the South East of the UK on Feb 2nd. The slips are where my cold hands would wipe snow or ice off the pacemaker, Enjoy!

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So my first recorded mix of 2009 and its a festival of hard beats and bleepy sounds. I would normally call it progressive trance but I'm fed up with the confusion between that and progressive, Which seems to be some kind of rock genre. So now I'm calling it Tech Trance. Anyway, whats important is the mix is pretty fast pace due to the introduction of a Rave classic (Put the bassdrum on by the ascendant masters) at the start which I also had to slow down by 10%. There's a bunch of new tunes which I've never played before in this mix including the show stopper Panic attack by Simon Patterson.

The Panic attack at midnight mix is available for download as a Mpeg3 too and is licensed under a creative commons nc-nd licence, obviously the tunes themselves are all rights reserved copyright. Enjoy!

1. Put the bassdrum on – the ascendant masters
2. a new dawn (virtual vault mix) – Steve Forte Rio
3. smack – simon patterson
4. shnorkel – Miki Litvak & Ido Ophir
5. Rheninkraf – Oliver Klien
6. Panic attack – simon patterson
7. Pegasus (megaminds mix) – Mauro Picotto
8. Body of conflict (cosmic gate mix) – Cosmic Gate
9. Kink – Trentemøller
10. Grasshopper (dance version) – Sander Van Doorn
11. Coincidance (Trentemøller Remix) – Mathias Schaffhäuser
12. first strike (signum signal 2004 remake) – Signum
13. Interstate Emperors – Jeffed
14. Kalopsia (Monogato's Filth Remix) – The Blizzard
15. Lyra (leon boiler mix) – Leon Bolier Pres. Precursor
16. The last pluck – Marcos Schossow
17. strip search – simon patterson
18. massive motion – M.I.K.E

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I could have put money on my prediction. I knew the 120gig Hard drive of the Pacemaker version 1 was too big. Currently I have 17gig of tunes on it and another 14 gig of tunes backed up in a different location on the same device. Don't get me wrong, we're still talking about 1500+ songs with a average length of 6mins each. Anyway, it still looks like the same device but they have redone the UI of the device [theres a short video from CES 09] to make it more quickly usable for new users. Auto beat match is like a major no no in the world of the dj. Version 1 had a BPM counter but it wasn't automatic. It seems one of the major changes is the automatic application of this feature. I don't quite know how pro-amateurs and pros will take the pacemaker v2 because the 1st version did come scrutiny for making mixing skill-less but they quickly found out it didn't. Either way, I'm hoping the UI changes will be a firmware update for the V1 Pacemakers. I checked for a Firmware today but nothing, however the forums seem to be on fire with the news.

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In a very surprising move, Tonium has done a deal with HMV to sell the Pacemaker on there site and in selected stores. This is great news, because finally the device will be available outside of the pro dj shops and in the hands of the general public. I do however wonder if people will understand it without some direction or some time in such a busy shop? Oh well its yours for only 399 pounds now, which isn't bad if you consider how much I paid for mine back in May 2008. At least I can claim braggin rights with number 211.

Oh if you've ever wanted to see whats actually in the pacemaker, someones actually taken it apart [1] [2]. Here's how to do it.

The case is held together by two sets of pins on opposite sides.

If you attempt this yourself, gently pop one side off, then even more gently wiggle the other side off. If you've ever yanked a laptop hard drive, you know the side-most connector pins will get bent if you rush it.

The twin chips are each 512mb of RAM. The spotted one is possibly the Freescale i.MX31L. The spots run to indicate moisture damage. The uppermost chip is audio power management. I didn't look underneath the hdd's ZIF connector as it's really fragile.

The USB and phones boards are tightly secured to the back piece. All of the jacks are snug against the pc boards and i didn't notice any weak solder points.

Looking at the front piece, you can see that everything is screwed tightly to the chassis and backed up further by the hard drive and battery. This means no buttons to break off and push in and nothing to jiggle loose.

Beautiful work Tonium.

As expected its pretty straight forward because the guys behind it only had off the shelf “standard” components to work with. There's already talk about replacing the Samsung HS122JB hard drive with a ZIF comptable Flash Drive on the forum. But the biggest challenge is software it seems. People are trying to build replacement ways to get music on and off the device without the editor. The best attempt so far is the Pacejacker software, which is written in Adobe Air and allows you to alter the song names, genres, etc without touching the files. I'm convinced once this device gets more into the public, your going to see much more hacking on it.

Technorati Tags: pacemaker, pacemaker.net, tonium, hmv, hacking, hardware, dj, music, djtool, mix

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I gave almost the same talk at Berlin as I did 3-4 weeks ago at BarCampLondon5. Except this time the room was packed and the reaction was a lot more positive generally. So much so, twitter was full of comments. I captured some of these in a screenshot.

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