mixes – Cubicgarden.com…

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

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

Is DriftDJ the new Pacemakerdevice?

Its my good friend Si who sent me a message saying simply this…

Pacemaker for the next generation?

Of course I checked it out and thought wow its almost exactly what I’ve been thinking about since the Pacemaker system has come to an end. Although the Pacemaker device (to which I have 3 or them) keeps going with some repairs and 3rd party upgrades.

Djing live with the Pacemaker device at EMF Camp 2022

I still love the Pacemaker device and its survived a long time but its reaching its end of life. There is only so much you can do without being able to hack around with the kernel or change the hardware. Its been a incredible piece of hardware and my bet on it in 2007 was absolutely the right decision.

Mixing live in Skopje

17 years later and over 500+ mixes later, including live performances and a ton of house parties. Its time make the jump? My only issue with the DriftDJ is the device doesn’t exactly exist right now. I did sign up for the beta programme, but not being in Chicago might be a big disadvantage?

Who knows it would be great to get my hands on it and see how far it could go? Be great to do a #DjHack around a new device!

Midsummers nights beach dream mix

I have been listening to my latest set of mixes and there is a selection of tunes which has gotten me rewinding and playing out loud. With this, I decided to create a mix using just those tunes with a few tweaks and some reordering. All done on the Pacemaker device as usual.

Planned and recorded while on holiday on the beach in the UK. Listen on peertube or in full quality on my mixgarden.

Turn it up loud!

The playlist…

Sacrosanct (Extended Mix) – Mark Sherry
Stresstest (John Askew Remix) – John O’callaghan
Killer Instinct – Sneijder & Bryan Kearney
Inferno – Carl Cox
Dolores – Indecent Noise
Energy Crash (Extended Mix) – Maarten de Jong
Stealth bomber (Chris schweizer remix) – Bryan Kearney
Erase – Brooks Alexsander
Whites Of Her Eyes – Simon Patterson
Silver Bath – Plastic Boy
Predator – Predator
Telescope – Will Atkinson

RD Xmas 2023 party remix

For Xmas, like many workplaces we have a staff party. I gatecrashed into my previous teams Manchester xmas party and put my name down for 30mins djing. However I didn’t record the mix but I did keep the playlist and so recreated it twice (2nd time for another work event).

I won’t lie, this is less trancy but is a killer mix or as others have said to me… its a banger!

I am moving my mixes to peertube rather than my mixgarden (1) & (2) for now.

Enjoy and remember to turn it up loud.

Thriller (Steve Aoki Midnight Hour Remix) – Michael Jackson
Punk – Ferry Corsten
Rock Your Body Rock (Mat Zo Extended Remix) – Ferry Corsten
Echoes – Henrik B, Niklas Gustavsson & Peter Johansson
Cafe Del Mar At Night (Beat Service’s Out Of Office Mashup) – Energy 52 Vs Shakedown
Who Freaked Who (Electric Soulside Remix) – Dopefish
Beat (Da Boxx) – Laurent Garnier
Turn It Up (Extended Mix) – Armin van Buuren
Freedom (Extended mix) – ARTY v Muvy
Proper Education (club mix) – Eric Prydz vs. Floyd

My mix garden on the move again, hello peertube!

I have been mixing away on the pacemaker device as usual. But noticed my mixgarden is having some troubles. I was using hyperaudio and webmonization to present my mixes. It was good however things changed over the last year.

Webmonization made a number of changes and hyperaudio seems to be slightly broken the configuration I currently have it in.

So with all this in mind and after looking at Peertube and Castopod, I decided to give peertube a try before running my own instance. Similar to what I had planned with Funkwhale a long time ago.

This has worked out well on rankett. Then I heard on podnews last week about music freediverse.

Music Freediverse is a new place for musicians to post their songs as an RSS feed, using PeerTube.

After a email with the sysadmin, about mixes and legality of them. They suggested I check out Split Kit if I have the metadata (which I do), this is something I looked into and now have a lightening address, which you can send sats to on my new mixgarden. I am also interested in the peer 2 peer tech

One of the good things about Peertube is the ability to sync videos over, which I took advantage of, it was a shame the metadata wasn’t copied over too but its fine, as I had it all.

In the short term I’ll keep using peertube but I have a plan to install a peertube instance myself and host it all locally. Then I could syndicate them out elsewhere. (Anyone can recommend a good docker container, do shout)

Another thing for the task list, but likely the best idea for now with lots of room to grow and expand.

Talking of which the next mix is a banger….

Dying daylight in Utrecht mix

I had the joy of going to Utrecht in the Netherlands for a Storyjam. On that plane ride I started a mix, which I thought was good. Then did it again during of the nights in the Airbnb recording it live to my external recorder. It was good but then on the plane ride back I let rip and the results is what you hear in the mix.

Ayla (Veracocha mix) – Ayla
Crazy for you – Greg Downey
Daylight (Frainbreeze remix) – Saad Ayub & Cristina Soto
Go Fast! – Orjan Nilsen
Doppelganger – Niels van Gogh
The Great Escape – Rank 1 Vs Jochen Miller
Carte Blanche (David Gravell Remix) – Veracocha
Apocalypse – Yuji Ono
RAMsterdam (Jorn van Deynhoven remix) – RAM

You can hear the whole mix at full quality on my mixgarden or on peertube.

Let the lyrics do the talking mix

Utopia's street art of a young woman with roses — Utopia’s street art of a young woman with roses (C) Utopia

A special anniversary mix for my partner, partly following the hearts in the clouds of Amsterdam mix. She loves vocals, while I tend to focus on the beats & rhythm. Looking through my collection of tunes, I was surprised how few had vocals.

With this, I started thinking about a mix using them and following a holiday in Lisbon. Tweaked an initial mix a few times to make it a better listen overall. The result is a mix which moves along at a higher speed of about 138bpm, matching the higher vocal trance and is a gift to my loving partner.

Of course enjoyable by all those who love vocal trance…

Enjoy it on my mixgarden or via Peertube!

The night life above and under Martim Moniz mix

Its a return to Lisbon’s Martim Moniz after the heights of Lisbon mix, always reminds me of how the square is being used by many different people. I learned the old city wall runs right through it and its interesting to sit and watch the different people come, go and gather.

Bit of a moody mix during a lovely holiday in Lisbon but its winter so wasn’t as warm. Leaning on the tech trance side, this mix has a large number of new tunes and some bold choices with the crossfader, which I kept in. Its a mix which gets you bopping that head up and down with some excellent tunes.

Enjoy on my mixgarden or on Peertube!

The interdimensional transmission mix

Communicating with space from the See Monster

Following the previous Pacemaker mix, I decided during a very long train journey to get the pacemaker out for some more trance. Using parts of the last few mixes, I decided to give the new mix some new direction.

The mix shifts along at a nice 136 bpm, complete with hands in the air moments and who couldn’t enjoy some stress test (hidden gem).

Enjoy!

You will notice there is no Mixcloud upload for this mix. Mainly because of the decisions of Mixcloud and being at my limit for a free account. Which means going to my mixgarden for future mixes.

Escape – Markus Schulz
Catch (Martin Roth remix) – Blank & Jones
Stresstest (John Askew remix) – John O’Callaghan
Tears (Protoculture remix) – Dakota
Arjan – Angelica S
Follow me (Jerome Isma-Ae Extended remix) – Jam & Spoon
Talk to me (Orjan Nilsen trance mix) – John O’Callaghan and Timmy & Tommy
Higher state – Kevin Crowley
Shnorkel (Thankyou city remix) – Ido Ophir & Miki Litvak
Running up the hill (Jerome Isma-ae bootleg mix) – Placebo
Eternal Horizon – Alex M.O.R.P.H
The Descent – Protoculture
Grotesque – RAM & Alex M.O.R.P.H

I saw it coming, changes to Mixcloud

Today there was a email from Mixcloud.com

Nico here, CEO and co-founder of Mixcloud. Today we’re announcing upcoming changes to Mixcloud:
From December 1st we’re introducing a maximum allowance of 10 published shows for creators on the basic tier.

Why is this happening?

We believe DJs and producers should be rewarded for the skill and creativity that goes into their work. That’s why for over 10 years we’ve subsidized hosting costs and built tools that enable creators to grow and earn money.

We also believe artists should be paid when their music is played. That’s why every show uploaded to Mixcloud is scanned by our content ID system. This enables us to identify the tunes being played and pay royalties to the artists who made them.

Unlike other platforms, we’ve spent years securing comprehensive licensing deals with the major and independent labels to ensure this money is paid to the right artists. We have shouldered these costs in order to create a fair music ecosystem.

Until now we’ve kept our basic tier uncapped. However, as we’ve grown our royalty and hosting costs have risen and we are not profitable. To continue running and improving Mixcloud we need to become more sustainable as a business, and Pro memberships help us cover our costs.

How will you be affected?

On 1st December all of your shows will remain published and available to listeners. But, if you want to make space for a new show, you will need to manually move shows into drafts until you are within the allowance or upgrade to Pro for unlimited published shows.

Fair point but I’m not totally convinced, as it wasn’t that long ago when rewind and track listing became not possible. It was clear to me that I needed to do something ahead of this all, hence why I setup my own webmix garden. I agree it would be great to pay the creators of the music, and using webmotization considered a way to do this.

Maybe this is where I part ways with Mixcloud? Its a shame but like all the people leaving Twitter due to Elon Musk. its just not suitable for me anymore.

I would still like to try that distributed payment pointer system and also explore the notion of distributed charts using DHTs, removing the need for huge amounts of centralised storage.