Talking about the Pacemaker

Its weird how I missed out on all the hype for the launch of the Pacemaker. People were even doing unboxings for the launch. I think this guy is right, the pacemaker is a fantastic device but its not quite a revolution, djs are not going to just drop what they have been doing for it. It may however attract a whole new group of people like the sweetie whos doing the review above, to maybe give it ago. If they really want to get a more general crowd the price will have to come down.

I've been checking out some of demos and tutorials and I'm still impressed but there are a couple of things which I didn't know before hand which is a little off putting. The first one is the music management, 120gig of music navigatable in only about 6 ways – this is a worry but obviously theres no keyboard so searching for tracks is going painful. Luckly it does support Mpeg3, Ogg Vorbis, Flac, Wav, etc but exactly how open device is the device? It seems to me that you can edit the filters and stuff but only using their own propitery software which is Windows and Mac only. So that really screws over someone like myself, although I guess I could run it virtualised – maybe? I heard there is a auto BPM feature but does it syncronise beats too? The loop system seems a little less automatic. One of VirtualDj features is the Automatic beat-aware LOOP function, which makes loops quick and easy.

Pacemaker Editor

I can not for the life of me work out if while recording the mix live, it also saves a metadata file of what actions you made during the mix. It does seem to keep a track of what tunes you used and in which order but does it keep times too? Currently in Vitualdj I keep a playlist open and everytime I use a tune, I also try to remember to add it to the playlist too. Then I can export it as a M3U list. Some of you might say the alternative is just a pen and paper, but it should all be automatic and live alongside the raw wave file. Maybe SMIL or XSPLIF could make sense here? Ok last thing I noticed which is a little off putting is the lack of multitouch. A trigger is a key which pushes the crossfader to the far left or far right. These are very useful for doing very fast cuts into the music. If the was multitouch, you could doing some combination like hold down the left side of the crossfafer (maybe with a thumb) and press on the right with a finger. It would then be clever enough to notice the action as a cut or trigger. Otherwise just a couple extra buttons for triggers could have been useful. Currently you have to slide from one side to another but this can get quite tiring if doing lots of cuts. Generally a multi-touch pad and some keys could allow some interesting uses when editing a loop or fx.

I think I'll get a pacemaker in the end, virtualdj is the only reason why I still keep windows on my laptop. The gnu/linux dj software are so far off its not even funny. So this would be good. I looked on ebay and there selling for more that the online store price. I do wish it had Bluetooth Stereo but I can attach my dongle to the headphone socket for use with my bluetooth headphones/headset. Its good to see it will charge over USB too, so I won't have to carry a heavy power adapter around with me if I went on Holiday. But I can't help but feel version 2 is just around the corner.

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The Kaossilator

Wow I really want one, but I still really want a Pacemaker. The major difference is the price. The Kaos is 100 pounds compared to the Pacemaker which is almost 400 pounds. Yes they do different things but there both tackling the same problem (as such). To make things even more difficult, theres the Korg Mini-KP which seems to fit between the two nicely. Hey and how cool is it to hit the streets with a miniKP pas.

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Old Skool tunes

I recently spent some time at a old friends house. We were going through his old vinyl and tunes as he reminded me that I had actually taught him to mix on decks years ago. He also played some amazing tunes which I had forgotten about till today. He's some of the better tunes… (any with a star mean I don't have a decent quality version of this tune).

  • 2 Bad Mice by 2 Bad Mice
  • Sugar is Sweeter by CJ Bolland
  • Trip II the Moon by Acen
  • Energy Flash by Joey Beltram
  • Such a Feeling by Bizarre Inc
  • Ecstatic (dry mix) by Zentropa
  • Papua New Guinea by The Future sound of London
  • The Bouncer by Kicks like a Mule
  • LFO by LFO
  • Waterfall by Atlantic Ocean
  • I need your loving (original mix) by Baby D
  • You got the love by Candy Statton
  • Gonna make you sweat by C&C Music Factory
  • Injected With A Poison by Praga Khan
  • Passion (do you want it right now edit) by Gat Decor
  • Not over yet by Grace
  • Rock my heart by Haddaway
  • Hurt you so by Jonny L
  • Feel real Good by Manix
  • Acid Trax by Phuture
  • Go (rainforst mix) by Moby
  • Insanity by Oceanic
  • We got to live together by R.A.F
  • Searchin for my Rizzla by The Ratpack
  • Break 4 Love by Raze
  • Instruments Of Darkness (The Prodigy Mix) by The Art of Noise
  • Move your body by Xpansions
  • Far out by Sons of a Loop Da Loop Era
  • Le Voie Le Soleil by Subliminal Cuts
  • Renegade by The Terrorist *
  • Playing with Knives by Bizarre Inc
  • Rush in the House by Xenophobia
  • Trip To Trumpton by Urban Hype
  • Some Justice by Urban Shakedown *
  • Salva Mea (Epic Mix) by Faithless *
  • Let me show you (vocal mix) by Camisra
  • Rip Groove (RIP mix featuring TopCat) by Double 99 *
  • Spin Spin Sugar () by Sneaker Pimps
  • Sugar is sweeter (Armand's drum n bass mix) by CJ Bolland
  • Professional Widow (Armand's Star Trunk Funkin' Mix) by Tori Amos
  • The Chopper by The Terrorist

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Digital Djing finds its niche? Welcome the Pacemaker

Pacemaker

Ok I saw this for the first time on the Gadget Show of all places the other day. They only showed it briefly but in that short 2mins I was blown away.

The Pacemaker is simply a digital mpeg3 mixer in portable form. In actually fact its dual mpeg3 players with a koas pad and mini mixer in one portable little unit. Simply amazing… what kills me is this device seems so perfect. Maybe this is the future of digital mixing? Finally something to separate the analogue djs from the true digital djs. The only thing which could make this device better is a drop in price, a real time waveform display, bluetooth 2.0 audio/input support and some tactile feedback.

Anyway enough chatter, go to the site and check it out. I'm number 2157 2738 in the queue for this amazing device.

Your queue number is No. 2738

This pre-booking is a non-binding reservation that guarantees you a specified place in line. To convert your pre-booking to a mutually binding order, we shall require delivery address information and full payment.

Your pre-booking includes the Pacemaker 120 GB pocket-size DJ system, line-out/RCA cable, power adapter, USB cable and quick user guide.

The price is 520 Euro, plus taxes and shipping costs. First shipments are scheduled for February 2008.

Before delivery, we will contact you with a request of delivery address details and final payment. Should you wish not to proceed with this purchase, your pre-booking will be cancelled and your queue number will be lost.

To view your queue number and booking status, log in at the Pre-booking section on www.Pacemaker.net

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Finally got the Wiimote working with my laptop

Wiimote and Dell laptop

After weeks of messing around with many different configurations, tonight (1am) I got it working, thanks to this great forum.

I'm using a Wavelinker bluetooth USB dongle with the IVT Corporation BlueSoleil drivers on my Dell XPS M1210. I have to turn off my internal Bluetooth because it seem to not work with BlueSoleil drivers. The thing which seemed to make all the difference was this ordering.

  1. Open GlovePie
  2. Open BlueSoleil
  3. Press 1+2. Wait for “* Connected” to pop up in the lower righthand corner of your screen.
  4. Run your script.

I found that GlovePie with no Bluetooth Fix or Auto Bluetooth Connect worked for me. GlovePie when opened would launch BlueSoleil for me and within a few seconds I was up and running. I used the script Wiimote identifier to work out if the Wiimote was connected or not. Once it was connected I can then run a more exotic script like the Mouse Control Script.

I've uploading a video I shot, so others can learn how to do the same.

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WiiJing a possible future for digital djing?

I was catching up on some videocasts the today and came across a segment in the 1 upshow (gaming culture show) about a guy who dj's using wiimotes. I honestly took a double look and was thinking damm why didn't I think about that.

Its odd because it all made so much sense. I had,

  1. Seen BBC Creative R&D using Glovepie to control a PVR/DVR and even Google Earth.
  2. Wanted a Nintendo Wii for its clever use of fun and exercise.
  3. Moaned on about how digital djing was different to Vinyl or CD djing
  4. Gone on about how the interfaces for digital djing should be very different to the vinyl equivalent

I have had a good look around the setup there using and it looks like it could be adapted to VirtualDJ and one laptop if needed. So I'm going to try getting a Wiimote cheap on ebay this or next month and see what I can build. I actually think this kind of setup would suit music like trance a lot better (confirmed if you watch this video) that the stuff they were playing on the video. Virtual Dj has very assignable buttons and works with most of the things Tractor does, so hopefully that won't be a problem. Interestingly there is such a thing called wiij scratching, but is once again a clone of vinyl. I'm sure theres something else which can be done in this area but I was seriously impressed with Deckadance demo once again with dance music.

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Good night at Turnmills and those Lasers

Recorded at Turnmills in the Gallery during Ferry Corsten's 4 hour set, Laser
action like I've not seen in a long time.

I had a great time at Turnmills yesterday. The venue is a maze and I wish I'd been to it before. Its not the crazy and some what shabby venue of the Camden Place but its certainly not Fabric. I would compare it to Heaven in style and maze like structure. The Dj booth sits in the middle of the biggest room but only looks out one way. This works well because one end gets very crowded and other side becomes a over-spill. I did briefly look at the other 2 rooms but didn't get a chance to really check them out.

Ferry was on good form playing a good selection of trance from across the board. About 4:30 Ferry dropped into a his tech dance stuff which went down really well. But I got to say the most impressive thing all night was the Laser's.

2 high powered electric cooled multi-spectrum lasers in one room. I mean what more can you ask for? So impressed, I shot a few videos (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) in high def so I could display the power and intense nature of the lasers.

So generally yes I had a good time and I'll be back next month for another 5+ hours work out on the dance floor.

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A few hours before going clubbing for the first time this year

Dance in front of a laser

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. The plan was to go to sleep for a couple of hours after eating dinner then wake up and get ready to go. However I'm sitting here writing this blog post, playing loud dance music, talking to Sheila on IM and trying to get a hold of Ryan Alexander. Ryan expressed a
interest in coming along tonight but I didn't have him on my twitter list so I missed it all. Anyway, I'm buzzing and I haven't even touched the Redbull yet.

I got a feeling that I might end up doing a quick mix while I'm waiting. There are some banging tunes which I've been listening to a lot recently and their just crying out to be mixed together. I've also been playing with the idea of doing a music dj podcast but I know I'd get sued silly. Anyway, I might provide a voice overlay track to my next mix if I find the time.

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Going digital…

Not the usual thing I read but I was looking around for somewhere to host my latest mix and came across a news piece from 356 music magazine. Its kinda of old but Dj Sasha has gone Digital. He is quoted saying, A set of Technics turntables and a mixer is not enough for me now. It's time to move on! Then talked about his Maven controller whch works with some software on a laptop.

So thats the thing pictured above, there are also some more pictures here and here. Well I cant help but say I knew this was going to happen a long long time ago. And the idea of Dj's building custom controllers for themselves doesnt seem to mad a idea. Richie Hawtin has been using some custom MIDI controllers to Dj for quite some time now. Personally this is all good stuff, I just wish the software makers and dj culture websites would catch up. What do I exactly mean by the last comment? Well all the sites out there I came across seem to be stuck in that old forums type format which is ok but doesnt make for the best way to do everything, and thats only the start of things. The purpose of the internet is and next generation mixing/djing is that you can do all types of clever things with music. This is where software makers are partly to blame. How difficult would it be to offer there users somewhere to upload media created by there own software? And then how hard would it be to automaticly create playlists from the music played? At the moment its all hand written lists with no machine readable metadata.

This is simply crazy in a era when were moving to everything digital. more to come…

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The affect of iTunes and Mdns on digital mixing

Now I have my tabletPC up and going again, and survived the move to the darkside (Apple Mac). I reinstalled virtualdj and atomixmp3. First thoughts is how poor atomixmp3 is now compared to virtualdj. Its very cheap and does the job but loop control and beatmatching is really not as tight and flexible as virtualdj. So what's new in virtualdj? well a feature I have not yet tested but have been talking about for ages! Yes you guess right a bpm timecode over the network. Yep at long last its possible to DJ on two or even more separate machines which are networked. Whoooohooo! I'll give it a try today for sure, I'm really hoping its using mdns (zeroconf and rendezvous) instead of some proptery rubbish to connect together the machines. The disadvantage of using mdns of course is that its not portable online which indeed would be useful for remote mixing, but how many people will make use of this feature? I know I certainly could see a great community building on cooperative mixing but dj's are not really into this mix sharing idea. Anyhow the other reason I'm hoping for mdns is so virtualdj can access a iTunes client. Now this may sound like a step too far but I've also been checking out the other mixing software out there. Traxtor DJ studio 2 already reads your itunes playlists so theres no need to make 2 lots of playlists (one of general listening and another mixing). I mean I still dont like iTunes for playing music and podcasts but nothing is even close for arranging and sorting out audio media. I've been sorting out my tunes on the way to work everyday and I dont want to sort out all my playlists, etc. Then have to do the same in virtualdj next week. Its crazy virtualdj hasnt followed traxtor by enabling access to iTunes already. I swear to you this is why open source software is doing such a good job. My next entry will be a set of suggestions for bugfixes and new features in two pieces of open source software. I bet atomix productions will never pick up on this blog entry and still will be using a internal playlist format into late summer.

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