Category: italic+mixing

The berlin airspace mix

berlin tv tower

Another mix, this time recorded mid-flight on the way back from Berlin yesterday. It actually lasts about the time of the whole flight. Its a mix of some tech-house with tech-trance. Straight out of the Pacemaker, not even normalised or anything. Its a odd bunch of tunes but mixed up and enjoyable to listen to.

  1. Afro-ride – Leftfield
  2. Flutes (Sasha remix) – Hot Chip
  3. Watch out (deep south remix) – Ferry Corsten
  4. Switch (Oliver Klein & Peter Jurgens remix) – Beckers
  5. Higher state of consciousness – Josh Wink
  6. Answering machine (album version) – Green Velvet
  7. Special K (timo maas mix) – Placebo
  8. Paper Jet – John Tajada
  9. Shoreside – Streetcleaner
  10. Jelly Tracks (Rippin & Drippin mix) – Oliver Klein
  11. Revolving Doors (club mix) – Ronski Speed
  12. Blood Angels (Chris Leibing mix) – John Starlight
  13. Rewind (Mikkas Remix) – Emma Hewitt
  14. Nine ways – JDS
  15. My Beat (Jan Driver mix) – Blaze
  16. Brush Strokes – Simon Patterson
  17. Whites of her eyes – Simon Patterson
  18. Out of the blue (progressive trance mix) – Future Breeze
  19. Suru (Marin Roth Electrance remix) – Super8 & Tab
  20. Moments – Dimension

Pacemaker mix: Journey to Langworthy

A new mix which I did while heading to a friends house over the weekend (obviously in Salford). It was done while taking the tram and walking in a bit of rain. Another journey with pacemaker.

Hope you enjoy and thanks to raver_mikey for the photo on flickr.

  1. Moving Mojave – Orjan Nilsen
  2. Humming the Lights – Armin Van Buuren pres Gaia
  3. For the moment – Solid Stone
  4. Eternity (Darren Tate mix) – Orion vs Ayla
  5. Hello (Jerome Isma-Ae remix) – Above & Beyond
  6. Jump the last train (Vadim Zhukov dub mix) -Young Parisians Feat Ben Lost
  7. The Labyrinth (part one) – Moogwai
  8. Tomorrow 2006 (Jamx and DeLeo mix) – Dumonde
  9. Running up the hill (Jerome Isma-Ae remix) – Placebo
  10. Bulgarian (Signum remix) – Travel
  11. City of Light – LTN
  12. Intuition – Marninx Pres Ecco

Updated: I also included a remix of this mix using slightly different tunes but with a similar feel, called the Mediacity sunshine & snow remix. I used it as background music for my ride in the mountains recently.

  1. Breathe (Blake Jarrell Remix) – Anna Nalick
  2. Cobalt – Protoculture
  3. Eternity (Darren Tate mix) – Orion vs Ayla
  4. Hello (Jerome Isma-Ae Remix) – Above & Beyond
  5. Jump the next train (Vadim Zhukov Dub Mix) – Young Parisians Feat Ben Lost
  6. The labyrinth (part one) – Moogwai
  7. Running up the hill (Jerome Isma-Ae bootleg mix) – Placebo
  8. Rush Hour (no intro edit) – Armin Van Buuren

New mix: Into the outer space

Into the outer space mix by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

Just uploaded my latest pacemaker device mix, the into the outer space mix.

The whole mix is space themed and has a narrative running through it. Most of the tunes have a space flight theme.

Enjoy!

Liftoff Space Shuttle Discovery

  1. Dark side of the Moon – Ernesto vs Bastian
  2. Orbion (Max Graham vs Protoculture Remix) – Armin Van Buuren
  3. From the Earth (Breakfast remix) – Andrew Bayer
  4. Rewind (Mikkas Remix) – Emma Hewitt
  5. Airforce One (igor S mix) – igor s
  6. F16 – Simon Patterson
  7. Intruder – Armin vs MIKE
  8. Tomorrow 2006 (Jamx and De Leo) – Dumonde
  9. Stellar – Driftwood
  10. Everythings been written – 8 Wonders
  11. Dark side of the sun – Rory Gallagher
  12. The Legacy (club mix) – Push
  13. Hole in the sky (Arctic moon remix) – Tonny Nesse
  14. Higher State – Above and Beyond
  15. Constellation (John O’Callaghan Remix) – Thomas Bronzwaer
  16. 3rd Earth (heart beat remix) – Solarstone vs Scott Bond
  17. Airwave (21st Century mix) – Rank 1

Showers & Thunderstorms, my latest Pacemaker Mix

Showers and thunderstorms mix by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

Its been ages since I have published a Pacemaker Device Mix.

This one I have been listening to on and off for the last few weeks on my phone as I wonder around Manchester. Lots of new tunes and a less hectic pace of about 135bpm, but plenty of hands in the air moments and smooth mixing.

I also added chapter marks to give you can idea of what was influencing my tune selections.

Enjoy!

  1. Perpetual Motion – Protoculture
  2. Hold that sucker down (Jerome Isma-Ae’s 10 year anniversary mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae
  3. Running up the hill – (Jerome Isma-Ae bootleg) – Placebo
  4. Humming the lights – Armin van Buuren pres. Gaia
  5. Shelter (Photographer remix) – Dash Berlin feat. Roxanne Emery
  6. Hello (Jerome Isma-Ae Remix) – Above & Beyond
  7. Whites Of Her Eyes – Simon Patterson
  8. Stellar  – Driftmoon
  9. Brush Strokes  – Simon Patterson
  10. Imagineer (Alex M.O.R.P.H remix) – Lange
  11. Seven Cities (V-One’s Living Cities remix) – Solar Stone
  12. Higher State – Above & Beyond
  13. Intruder – Armin vs MIKE
  14. Hystereo (KhoMha Remix) – Armin van Buuren
  15. The Evil ID – Max Graham
  16. Shenanigans – Orjan Nilsen
  17. Dissolve – Simon Patterson feat. Sarah Howells
  18. Timebomb – David Gravell
  19. Anahera (extended mix) – Ferry Corsten presents Gouryella

Stem mixing, what you waiting for?

John-Digweed-Panama-6720

Joel alerted me to a interview with John Digweed, Mr Bedrock.

There’s been much talk recently about STEMS. Does Bedrock have any plans to release some of their catalogue this way?

Not at the moment just waiting to see how it works out.

To which I instantly thought…  Why the heck would you wait? Get in early…  I mean you can’t start the interview with…

Bedrock is always about pushing the music first and foremost?

…and say we’ll wait and see how it shakes out…!

Talked about stems so many times, its time now and Bedrock is one of those people who could pioneer this whole thing.

Stem based mixing again

Si Lumb sent me a link to a BBC News piece about Stem based music mixing. Always something interesting, especially since 8trk

Of course I sent LJ Rich and Si a few links to 8Trk which we developed at Mozfest 3 years ago as part of Dj Hackday. Of course Native instruments has been mentioned by me before but it seems to be getting some traction?

 

The 2015 impossible wall of trance mix

Blue Sky with a dark blue on top

A long time ago (6 years ago) I did a mix called the impossible wall of trance mix. It was a good mix but was plagued by mix problems, which I couldn’t understand.

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.

Now I understand a little more what could be going on thanks to me playing with the pacemaker beta firmwares. I rolled back my pacemaker firmware to the last known official version and lost some features including the beat aware looping (shame!) but now can record exactly what I hear.

Because of this, I redid the impossible wall of trance which one of the first mixes where I identified the problem/bug. As its a new mix, I threw some old tunes out and replaced them with new stuff. The bulk of the mix is still there however. I did have a better ending but I had to cut it short, as we were landing and things needed to be put away.

So anyway I present the 2015 impossible wall of trance, recorded on my flight back from Tokyo while on the Airbus A380.

  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. Brush strokes – Simon Patterson
  5. Beautiful Thing (photon project remix) – Andain
  6. Grooveline (matt darey) – Blockster
  7. Shadow World – Thomas Bronzwaer
  8. Smack – Simon Patterson
  9. Humming The Lights (Full Version) – Armin van Buuren presents Gaia
  10. 1999 (gouryella mix) – Binary Finary
  11. Beautiful Thing (photon project remix) – Andain
  12. Running up the hill (jerome isma-ae bootleg) – Placebo
  13. Intution (Martin Roth remix) – Marninx Pres Ecco
  14. As the Amazon Rush Comes (Carl B remix) – Motorcycle vs Midway
  15. Rush Hour (no intro edit) – Armin Van Buuren
  16. The Evil ID – Max Graham
  17. The Expedition (Indecent Noise Remix) – Armin van Buuren and Markus Schulz
  18. Lizard (Solis & Sean Truby’s Ibiza Mix) – Mauro Picotto
  19. Headliner – Jornvan Deynhoven
  20. Ehren Stowers – Ascent
  21. Ecstasy – Eddie Makabi feat. Einat

The 2015 impossible wall of trance mix by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

The eve of night mix

The eve of night mix by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

This is a mix I did over the holidays but just had the chance to upload it. Lots of new tunes mixed up in the usual fashion. Enjoy!

  1. Grotesque (Alex MORPH and RAM mix) – RAM
  2. 3rd Earth (Heatbeat Remix) – Solarstone vs Scott Bond
  3. Solarcoaster (Protoculture Remix) – Solarstone
  4. Running up the hill (jerome isma-ae bootleg) – Placebo
  5. Tears (Protoculture Remix) – Markus Schulz pres. Dakota
  6. Take me away, into the night (purple haze remix) – 4 Strings
  7. Humming The Lights (Full Version) – Armin van Buuren presents Gaia
  8. Connected (Craig Connelly Remix) – John B feat Kirsty Hawkshaw
  9. Love Never Came (W&W vs Armin van Buuren More Intense remix) – Armin van Buuren
  10. Diss! – Ferry Corsten
  11. UFO – Shogun
  12. Refused – Mark Sixma & Jerome Isma-Ae
  13. For the moment – Solid state
  14. Alliance (Original Mix) – Andy Tau Pulstate
  15. Heal – Electrique Boutique
  16. Sundown (Sneijder Remix) – Thomas Bronzwaer
  17. The Ultimate desination – ARDI
  18. Ecstasy – Eddie Makabi feat. Einat

Software ahead of the curve: Virtual Turntables

VTT virtualturntables

I was reflecting on my move to digital music after the on the beat conference. I’m sure I mentioned it elsewhere before.

The speed and progress of digital djing has been reasonable but frankly it could be better. Yes its the perfect setup for a DJ Hackday, but regardless. I was talking to somebody about the Pacemaker device and started to reminisce about Digital Djing. Now I know I’m going to sound like grandad but I think its interesting to remember where we came from.

I was saying I remember VTT (Virtual TurnTables) which from my memory was the first commercially available Dj software I was aware of. I had a copy and installed it on my 200 MMX desktop computer. It ran ok but frankly it was super basic, no auto BPM, very laggy pitch control and the cross-fader slow to react.

However I have to say it did support multiple sound cards and configurations which would make it actually usable in a real DJ environment. It would play Mp3’s, Wav’s and Aiff’s. Unlimited playback (which on a 200MMX is about 2 songs max). Special effects, very basic sampling and looping.

The thing to remember is this is about 1997, this is 2 years before the height of Napster. The advancement in Digital Djing was CDj’s at the time. For Carrot Innovations to rock up with a DJ application so early and for it to look like something the Djs was use to was mind blowing. Heck Mp3’s wasn’t even legally available outside the darknets! So we had to rip CDs using one of the darknet dodge tools. It was only recently you could do it legally in the UK.

Crazy times…! But thank you Carrot Innovation for creating VTT.

The dark brush strokes mix

Dark brush stokes by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

Its another mix from my new pacemaker. This one is a combination of the mixes I was doing to test the firmware downgrades and upgrades of my new and old pacemaker. Its a nice selection of tunes and I have been throwing this around on my phone for about a month. Slight issues with file encoding caused me delays in uploading it. Have a listen and don’t forget to share… because sharing is caring…

  1. 3rd earth – solar stone vs scott bond
  2. Ninety – Sander Van Doorm
  3. Voices from the inside (album mix) – M.I.K.E
  4. Intruder – Armin vs M.I.K.E
  5. One for you (oliver klein remix) – Oliver Klien
  6. Seven days and one week (tomcraft mix) – B.B.E
  7. Brush Stokes – Simon Patterson
  8. Blood Angels (chris liebing remix) – John Startlight
  9. Stellar (TV Noise remix) – Daddy Groove
  10. Rewind (Mikkas Remix) – Emma Hewitt
  11. The Expedition (Indecent noise remix) – Armin van buuren and markus schulz
  12. UFO – Shogun
  13. Tomorrow 2006 (jamx and de leo) – Dumonde
  14. Torrent – Dave 202
  15. Humming the lights – Armin pres Gaia

The future of digital music? Space for the DJ?

BBC Music on the beat

Thanks to Simon for pointing this out to me. I am very interested as I mentioned to BBC on the beat team.

I’ve been pushing for the future of Djing for years and I thank Mozilla Fest for letting me run something a while ago. One of the outcomes was stem based djing, we called it 8 track. I always felt like we were just scratching the surface and there were many other scenarios which needed to be explored. I especially like the quantified club. I wonder about the line up, it seems very singles music driven rather than looking at mixing/djing. I do wish Mixcloud, Pacemaker and Mixxx were all coming along too!

See you in London?

8 Track mixing becomes a reality?

Over two years ago I proposed the idea Djing needed to move forward, leap forward with the times and get away from the skeuomorphic crap I see too much. I called for a Hackday for Djing.

The Mozilla festival session went well and one of the outcomes was the 8 track format. We went on and started to pull together resources under 8trk.org. The basic idea is to standardise the way stem’s are created and swapped.

Well thanks to Daniel over at 64 Studio who also talked about the idea here. He pointed me at Native Instruments remix sets, a proprietary stem format. And then yesterday they released a hardware controller which can take advantage of the format. Interestingly the format uses 8 tracks too, which fits with our idea of 8 track. Reviews sound interesting too.

163 tracks so far but I’m very tempted to download one to see how close it is to our multiple track Oggs. Then I found this link to a free set. Be interested to explore at some point soon.

Really need this stuff to be open and not proprietary… Otherwise I can see others doing their own type of 8trk

Live pacemaker mix from Mozfest2014

I had the pleasure to play the Mozilla Festival again in October. It was meant to be 2 djs but only myself showed up. Here’s a good hour of dance music for you’re lovely ears to take in. Recorded live using the Pacemaker device’s build in recorder (now I’m using the old firmware). I did a longer mix but the Karaoke took over and to be fair I was pretty much messing around by that point.

Enjoy! And blog post about Mozfest is coming soon.

The Mozfest 2014 party live mix by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

Beta certainly means beta on the Pacemaker

pacemaker_sonar_june_2007_10

I’ve had a problem in the past with the recording mixes on the actual  pacemaker using the new but unofficial firmwares.People on the pacemaker forum suggested it might be the fact I’m running Ubuntu and using mainly wine windows emulator or virtual machine technology. I was never really convinced by this argument to tell the truth but couldn’t be sure. So I would use the analogue output to record mixes with my laptop.

Pretty much all the new mixes in the last few years were done this way. I generally would record the mix on the pacemaker along with the output, making the track-listing easier to put in Mixcloud.

I recently bought a second-hand Pacemaker running the last official firmware 1.4. I tried doing a mix and as you can hear, its flawless in recording. This puts me in a bit of dilemma.

The feature I love the most about the new unofficial firmware is the snap loops, meaning you can just loop with no effort. In the very latest, you can even adjust how big the loops are. I will miss that feature but the ability to record on the go is fantastic and I’ve missed it for a long while.

I’m going to look at the differences in the filesystem and SQLlite DB to see if that reveals something obvious.

Little update….

I installed the old firmware on my old pacemaker and did a mix. As you can hear its pretty much working as it should recording the mix (its not perfect as I was walking and on the tram).

http://www.mixcloud.com/cubicgarden/old-pacemaker-firmware-revisited/

The Uhura Deathstrike mix

Uhura Deathstrike mix by Cubicgarden on Mixcloud

This is a special mix… It was requested by Oli Wood the approachable geek, as he wanted something for his new car which he would be picking up from North Wales somewhere and driving back to Newcastle. I created a mix straight away but wasn’t happy with the overall tune selection, so created another one the night after. This is that mix. Enjoy it Oli, and make sure you have it nice and loud!

  1. Sinister – Airbase
  2. Smack – Simon Patterson
  3. Sister sister – Sister Bliss
  4. Peace – Yves Deruyter
  5. Take me away (into the night) – 4 Strings
  6. Megalodon – Dash Berlin
  7. GamesMaster (matt darey 2003 mix) – Lost Tribe
  8. Time (sean tyas remix) – Paul Webster feat. Angelic Amanda
  9. Everythings been written – 8 Wonders
  10. We are one – Dave 202
  11. Brush strokes – Simon Patterson
  12. Intuition – Marninx pres Ecco
  13. Beautiful thing (photon project remix) – Andain
  14. Ecstasy – Eddie Makabi feat. Einat