Enjoy the incredible lasers and even fire balls! Heck the firestarter is back?
The null sector organisers are incredible and the audio isn’t straight from the desk, so you can sense how crystal clear the sound system was. Even some of the videos friends recorded, with a phone are pretty clear.
The whole set was done on the Pacemaker device, but I’ll certainly be using the Drift Zero if I’m back in 2 or 4 years time.
For a long time, I have been known as DJ Digital Italic. However people have gotten very confused and so today I’m changing my DJ name to The Cubicgarden.
For a long time, I have been known as DJ Digital Italic. However people have gotten very confused and so today I’m changing my DJ name to The Cubicgarden.
Digital italic, came about when I was starting my move from vinyl to MP3’s (yes I switched CDJs because I didn’t like the format for its skeuomorphism. Even then I was thinking this makes no sense to copy the vinyl model.
Anyway I am waiting for my set recording from EMFCamp but honestly its a banger, as you can see in the video above.
I also decided to back off from self hosting my own mix site because sadly there is a bug in Yunohost’s peertube application which means every-time there is a security or feature update it breaks everything. Till then I’m going to use rankett.net, and will start making those changes including a new look soon-ish.
I took the drift zero apart to check if there was anything obvious
Another part of the decision is my move from the Pacemaker device to the Drift zero. Something I have been alpha/beta testing for a while. A little update is that it was going great with help from the Drift team but on my last trip to Amsterdam, it just stopped booting. I did the usual charging over night, etc but it wouldn’t boot at all. Sadly it was right before I could show Dirty Si, my friend who first pointed me towards the Drift Zero. It was a shame but ultimately, there was no way to send another prototype out, when the production ones were so close to ready.
Then last Thursday the production version was delivered to my flat but I was on holiday and wouldn’t get my hands on it till Saturday. Then came Saturday and I got my first play with it and the latest firmware already installed. However its not till tonight I really got a play with it and loaded up a bunch of tunes.
Seems Europe is a good excuse to do some DJ mixing too
Recently on a conference trip to Amsterdam for the excellent PublicSpaces conference, I took the Eurostar and it was a interesting experience with the whole outbound ride taking 11hours (its a long story but glad I over spent on food at London as it things get real when the food runs out in the eurostar’s onboard shops. Don’t get me wrong a journey which should have taken 6 hours maximum gets tiresome once you get to 11hours! But power and wireless did help, even if fresh water started getting a bit low.
However this gave me plenty of time to play with the Drift DJ Zero (upcoming post). It also gave me time to do a mix and redefine it a bit on the way back.
These 2 mixes are a bit of cheat, as one was done on the way to Amsterdam (outbound) and home to Manchester (inbound). However I redid the outbound one, with some new tunes Dirty SI recommended. It doesn’t exactly tally but its stuck now. You will notice the first 3 tunes are the same but mixed slightly differently.
I spent a good amount of time in Berlin, Germany recently for the fantastic Republica conference.
This was recorded on a Ryanair flight (I luckily booked my flights over 3 months ago) using a number of even newer tunes. I had to do quite a bit of editing from the different times when my arm was knocked but it turned out pretty well.
I tried to recreate it on the way back but honestly, the first one was better although I did prefer some of the second mix tunes but it didn’t flow as much. I especially love the mix from Remember the future – Ripsaw!
All recorded on my ageing Pacemaker device, but the drift DJ alpha testing is getting better everyday. So look out, a whole mix might be coming soon.
The cover art comes from a shot I took of Liquidrome, near the hotel I was at. There was a football game happening and so I used Gemini to remove the football match then touched up the colours, etc myself. It was hot in Berlin all week and it was great to have the long bright nights.
The playlist is…
00:00:00 Voices In My Head x Insomnia (Stephani B Mashup) – Faithless 00:01:34 Mandy (extended mix) – 2nd Phase 00:04:38 Dare me – Hayley Parsons 00:08:54 Extortion (Extended mix) – Everlight 00:15:07 Remember The Future (Extended Mix) – Ferry Tayle & TonKs pres. Mirage 00:19:17 Never (H3rtz Bootleg Rework) – The Roc Project Feat. Tina Arena 00:24:02 Seven cities (V-one’s living cities mix) – Solar Stone 00:30:11 Ripsaw – Everlight 00:34:09 La Verità (Extended Mix) – Alex Merk & U-Mount 00:38:14 Catch Me (Aumak Extended Remix) – Ormus 00:42:57 Rise Again (Extended Mix) – Adam Lumina 00:46:02 Stresstest (John Askew Remix) – John O’callaghan 00:52:34 Adagio In G Minor (Extended Mix) – DIM3NSION
Its been a while since I created a mix on the Pacemaker device, but a recent trip to Budapest gave me some time to try out a few new tunes in a mix.
This mix is a real banger, with a lot of really great tunes alongside some classic ones to anchor the mix. Weirdly enough, the mp3 recorder ran out of battery just near the end and I had to recreate the last 3 tunes. Sadly the Pacemaker’s digital recorder isn’t reliable enough on the newer firmware’s so I use the recorder just in-case.
Hopefully soon I’ll be using the Drift DJ zero… Especially since I can now access the internal linux terminal.
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?
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
