This is my first remix project since 2000. The song is “On This Side” by The Shift, featuring the vocalist Bora Yoon, a fast-rising, classically trained yet intensely modern vocalist. The project was a challenge, and I purposefully did not listen to the original version of the song. I’m quite happy with the end result. Fans of chillout and really deep house music should enjoy.
I am an amateur DJ. I recently upgraded my DJ setup to accommodate digital mixing while retaining its feel that I have grown so used to in the last 10 years. Even so, I run into controversy now and then when I speak of it. Theres quite a lot of DJs that want nothing of digital, and that’s fine, as it’s an artform, and each artist deserves to use their favorite medium. However, I thought I’d explain why I converted (although i didn’t “convert”…my setup plays vinyl beautifully).
I spend about 3-4 hours a week on my turntables, usually for my own entertainment, and sometimes for online gigs or to make recordings, and if I’m really lucky, the occasional gig out. It’s something I got into a little over 10 years ago right after a stint as an electronic musician during the rave scene’s Golden Age. I developed an interest in it after noticing how much fun, fame and money my music partner was achieving doing it. Unfortunately I was way too late in the game to achieve any of those aforementioned benefits myself, but I loved it as an art too, and friends told me it will help my music creation.
I picked up a couple new Technics SL-1200M3D turntables, and a Vestax PMC-17A mixer back in 1999. The mixer was cheap–I focused on allocating most of my paycheck to the turntables themselves. I had learned on my roomate’s system at my previous home, so I was able to jump right in. My system was a lot of fun. It sounded just fine for a home studio environment. A little vanilla–the mixer did the basic mixing job, not much more. It worked for 6 or 7 years but I then grew tired of it.
My turntables collected dust for a couple years, partially because my income was now used for paying a mortgage, and partially because I grew bored of my collection. I wasn’t able to purchase records at the frequency I used to, and since I wasn’t a professional DJ, I was unable to justify the cost. Most music I made at this point was my own. I had recently purchased some music software by Native Instruments, which also makes Traktor, a digital DJing environment. I tooled around with traktor a bit while sitting in front of the tv and liked it for one reason: that I can pull and add anything, be it my own loops or tracks, anything I had on CD, mp3, whatever.
I didn’t actually use Traktor for normal DJing at first. I used it to ‘road test’ my own songs and tracks. A few years previous, one would have to spend a large amount of money on soft acetate pressings, good for about 15 or 20 plays. Traktor allowed me to mix right on the spot while building a track.
I then started adding other songs in. I loved the ability to manipulate the tracks as if they were being played in an electronic music studio rather than on a record player. I suppose this is because I started my love of music creation as an electronic musician rather than a DJ. However I had enough DJ blood in me to not like the idea of staring at a laptop as if I’m sitting in a coffee house. It felt like a piece of software instead of an instrument, and that led me to start getting bored again.
I finally dove in and found my perfect convergence point. I did the full Traktor upgrade, and purchased a Korg Zero4 Mixer. This mixer is a dream. It’s my favorite musical instrument at the moment, even though I have owned it for a year. It has also led me to embrace and even evangelize digital mixing, which, if adapted to correctly, adds a mind-blowing new world of playability without losing the time-honored feel of a traditional setup.
My setup now consists of the following:
Technics SL-1200MK3 Turntables
I couldn’t let go of these. they’re instruments, as much as a favorite guitar can be. I would not have converted to digital as easily if I had to give them up.
Korg Zero4 Mixer/Controller
I can’t write enough about this mixer. The designers did their homework. Firewire means it doubles as a controller, so I can run Traktor and control vinyl without any other hardware. I can switch to standard vinyl with a turn of the switch. It has 5 EQ modes, 3 isolator modes, and 3 filter modes. The low, mid and high pots are assigned to those modes (when they are set to “0″ you can switch between modes while mixing with no audible change). 48v Phantom power preamps with a multi/XLR jack. You also get crossfader and channel fader curve adjustment, 1/4″ AND 1/8″ headphone jacks (talk about doing their homework!), MIDI control (really cool, the channel strip lights change from orange to green when switched to MIDI), serious effects (this is Korg we’re talking about) as well as a serious multi-channel looping engine. Honestly, I could go on and on, but what amazes me is their ability to pack in so many features and keep the mixer 100% DJ-playable. Even more so, as with Traktor, I can control 4 sources with 2 turntables.
Laptop with Traktor
I chose Traktor because of its manipulation ability. In non-geek terms, I can cut it up and spit it out. Serato is another popular software which goes after a traditional DJ approach, with 2 turntables, and assumes you have talent. The choice of Serato vs. Traktor is about a 50/50 split, and since I haven’t used Serato much, I’ll leave that to a debate elsewhere.
My only gripe with Traktor is that they make a mess out of marketing it. If you want to use vinyl, you purchase a version called “Traktor Scratch”. If you want the more manipulative features, you purchase “Traktor DJ Studio”. If you own both, you can use control vinyl with Traktor DJ Studio, but if you only own one, you’re limited to only certain features. This was extremely frustrating and I chewed out a support rep in the process. But once I got past the confusion and marketing politics, I managed to love it.
In the end, there’s no extra cables and wires, other than one firewire cable, plus a laptop. I can “look” good while DJing since I’m still using turntables. I can continue to use my record collection (I can’t stand the boredom of trying to copy vinyl to digital).
The sound quality is great–I tested an mp3, a vinyl copy and a wav file of the same track and found the wav to be the best. So i try to purchase or rip songs in that format. The idea that vinyl sounds better than digital is highly interpretive to the listener–since DJ turntables are direct-drive, you get a rumble. Belt-driven turntables with detached motors are the turntables that sound “better”, and also cost thousands of dollars.
I would like to close with a reiteration that it is wholly up to the DJ to choose what their favorite instruments are. However, when in conversation, and someone mentions thay don’t like digital, often it’s because they haven’t tried it out on an optimal setup. Any friends who want to try it out, feel free to give me a ring.
Sometimes, creating website layout templates can get…boring (I did create this wordpress template from scratch, however, and it was kind of fun). I use Photoshop more for art than I do professional design. i shall be scouring my hard drive to create a gallery of my personal favorites. I hope you enjoy.
(PS: Let me know if you run into any bugs.)
Zen in the Art of Archery is a book written by Eugen Herrigel, an early European philosopher and student of Zen. Originally published in 1948, it is a an influential source in the development of Western interpretations of Zen Buddhism.
I was assigned this book to read while taking an evening drawing class. This book has since become very influential on how I now approach my work and my learning.
A passage that struck interest immediately was near the beginning of the book:
“No mystic and no student of Zen is, at first step, the man he can become through self-perfection. How much has still to be conquered and left behind before he finally lights upon the truth! How often is he tormented on the way by the desolate feeling that he is attempting the impossible! And yet this impossible will one day have become possible and even self-evident”
What first struck me was the idea of how much has to be left behind. Lately, I’ve felt like I’ve smacked right into a brick wall, and was rapidly losing interest in my work. Returning to the beginning of each field I am studying has been the best decision I have made with my career since it began. Early lost thoughts and memories come back into play, and become reconnected with new thoughts and memories. The joy that this brings hits more at the spiritual level than it does at the logical and procedural levels. I now enjoy the learning process, as I don’t have as strong an interest to reach the “end”, as there is no ending as I now perceive it.
