So I’ve finally got busy and created myself a Bandcamp profile. I’ve decided just to publish my newest music on there. My older stuff you can still find on my Soundcloud site. So if you fee inclined you could slip me a few bucks and enjoy some good music as well!
So, I’ve begun the laborious task of transferring all my records to digital format. This is no easy job. In the process I have also collected another 1000+ records, it’s going to take ages! I have been working on this for about 2 months and must have down around 200, both sides all the tracks. I’m also being very meticulous about recording them and making sure that I add all the meta data to each of the files that is created. I had also gone to the effort of creating a Discogs account and adding each of the records to My Collection , discogs is great for listing and cataloging your vinyl or CD collection…. I’m a fan…..
As you may or may not be aware, I have gone back to school, doing an audio engineering course. To say the least, it’s a trip, being in class with people that are about half your age and already having the understanding of most of the stuff so far. I say ‘so far’ because I am expecting it to get a lot tougher when I get into the Diploma level stuff next year. Recording and live sound are things which I have little experience and will be expected to master, no worries, that’s why I’m there! Anyway, amongst other things they expect me to do assignments which generally involve either listening to music or sitting in the studio for hours on end writing music, both of which I am very comfortable with. One of these ‘assignments’ involved listening to a piece of music and analyzing it, you know, number of bars, key, that sort of thing. I decided to take it a little bit further and actually try to reprogram the entire track! I’ve done this before, but this track was probably the most difficult one that I have done to date, crazy 303’s and FX sounds. The original track is Devil by Infected Mushroom. Now if you know this track at all then you will notice that this is not the entire thing, that’s because we where only give the first 5 minutes to analyze and the track gets really nasty after that point and I didn’t want to make things to difficult for myself. Anyway this is my cover version, which I did over two sessions in about 8 hours… enjoy….
I have some fantasitc goodies for you all today. Finally I have found a decent place (and way) of storing all my DJ sets, Mixcloud. What great thing this is, free to use, unlimited storage, zero restrictions it seems. One problem, it’s not possible to download any of the sets… B-( However I think that is almost irrelevent now given the connected nature of all our devices, and besides there are ways of working around things like that, I’m sure you are clever enough….. anyway my profile is HERE, and below is what you will see if you click the MIXES link at the top of the page.
After scowering the youtubes for hours, looking at old skool rave videos I finally found a clip of me playing a rave ! Watch the video below and flick forward to 3:00 minutes. I can’t quite remember the setup because things would change every gig, but on the left is an Amiga and I think I am playing with the sampler and mixer in the middle…. good old times. I should also add that the backing music isnot mine, and if you skip forward to the credits at the end you will see a cheesy photo of me…. that’s me on the left…. lol !
Well here it is, as promised, the last track off my first EP Release, Dance Around. I re-recorded this using an Amiga emulator and Octamed… wow that was a flashback! I was able to loop the audio through my Focusrite Audio card and record it directly into Wavelab, this meant that there was no noisy analogue loop in the recording like the other tracks. I mastered this in my new studio as well and I think the results speak for themselves, much, much clearer and punchier. Take a listen…..
Well, sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been rather busy…. building my new studio…! woot! yes, it’s finally done, floor, painting, sound proofing all finished, and the results are fantastic. After 20 years of having odd rooms and small spaces to put all my gear I finally have a purpose buildt room, that didn’t take very long did it !…. Anyway in the photos below you see the DJ setup which is using my old Alesis Monitor-1 speakers and the new DDM4000 mixer I told you about a few weeks ago, the time code system is still Dj Decks, I have created a DJ table loosely based on the plans from HERE, however instead of making a ‘box’ thing as the top shelf I simply used some stainless legs that are intended for a kitchen, this created a nice open space to put all the cables into…. Ikea hacking at it’s best….!
In this photo you see my music production space. I am using the Carillon Producer Workstation which worked out to be the perfect width to fit between the bass traps in either corner and just deep enough to give enough space for the DJ table to the left (off shot). The speakers are new, Genelec 8040A’s… nice, nice, nice. Very clear, I’m hearing things like I have never heard before.
I’m yet to sit down and write anything yet…. but I did go through a few old project and compare what I had before to this set up, also worked out a few work flow things and ironed out a few bugs in the process. Expect some music very soon……!
Yet more goodness from the world of tapes. This one is imaginatively called May 1995 because that is what it said on the label on the tape, in fact it said ‘DJ Reaver 21/5/95’ , which was a Sunday. The mixing is much better in this one, boarding on almost ok. I am happy with the sound quality too and did not need to do much to fix it…. You might be interested to hear that I’m typing this up while listing to Jimmy j & Cru-l-t – take me away (slipmatt remix) which I hear Slipmatt will be remaking…. or then again you may not.
The tracks on this mix where downloaded about 1 hour ago, just long enough to record and upload it. I didn’t really listen to any of these tracks before mixing them, other than briefly before downloading them, so you are listening to my first attempt at mixing them. Enjoy…. I’ve also fixed up the DJ set download area of the site, so take a look and make sure you get some of my older stuff….. plenty more stuff to come….
Track List
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01. Natalie Parker, James Edwards & Trudi Mosiamo – Love Is A Battlefield (Doctor Riboh Remix)
02. Mike Polo – Pasilda (Original Mix)
03. Chris Lake & Lys Feat. Steve Smith – Humanica (Original Mix)
04. C+c Music Factory Djs And Beat Addicts – Keep It Comin (Luccio Loose Control Remix)
05. Federico Scavo – Let’s All Chant (Manuel De La Mare & Marshall Remix)
06. Sergio Flores – Give It Back Feat. Joy Malcolm (Original Mix)
07. Candy Williams & Whiteside – Love will keep us together (Chris Kaeser Remix)
08. Candy Williams – Whiteside-2 Make The Things Alright (I Get Lifted) (Kid Massive remix)
09. Whitenoize – Freak It (Original)
10. Wolfgang Gartner – Illmerica (Extended Mix