Me @ Spundae, opening for Adam Beyer & Magda.

New Online DJ shop - www.hrfq.com

This shop is based in Japan apparently, but it is a nice cross between an HTML based site like Juno and the current king of the D/L stores, Beatport. Prices are the same price for 196Kbps and 320Kbps (SMART) and they have variable pricing that is decent (most seem around $1.99 USD). They are adding new labels and the quality seems rather high in the area that I checked out (techno), and their sub-genre listings make sense too.

The only drawback is no WAV/FLAC downloads at this time. Apparently it is a bandwidth issue at the moment. As soon as they get that fixed and add the option, this looks like it might be a winner.

Open Source Hardware - Monome

the 40h has several "extra" easily-soldered pads. these are programmed to be used as analog inputs, if you're inclined to add knobs or sliders or the like.

as we've stated before, the 40h firmware is open source. this means users can change the hardware functionality of the unit.

we've written a new subversion of the firmware which enables the interfacing of two rotary optical encoders. the following tutorial illustrates how to get it working.

Love it. These guys are working on new hardware now too. Companies like this are an inspiration, IMO.

http://wiki.monome.org/view/40hOpticalEncoderTutorial

Torq - M-Audio's New DJ Software. Reviews coming in...

The reviews are coming in now that it is shipping. I think for a version 1.0, Torq is ambitious and is hitting the right feature set for DJs who want that tactile feel of vinyl with the benefits of digital storage and playback. The inclusion of Torq as a Rewire app really raises this app above those other apps like Traktor Final Scratch or even the more widely regarded Serato Scratch. I would single Ms. Pinky out as the sole DJ app that has an extensible feature set that reigns supreme, but Torq uses the Ms. Pinky engine (or parts of it - not sure of the total technical details yet), so that makes the comparison rather mute.

As a sidenote, I had a quick email conversation last year with the maker of Ms. Pinky who was, at the time, under pretty severe duress over being hassled for his solution by the makers of other DJ software/vinyl solutions. I'm happy to see that he has anchored himself with M-Audio and appears to have made a great alliance here. That should make his efforts seem less risky and frankly, prove the value of his technology solution that he's been pushing for quite awhile. I've owned the Ms. Pinky solution for a long time, but unfortunately for me (or ms. Pinky), I pretty much moved to Ableton Live full time for DJing right around the same time.

But I have a strong interest in this area still (for what should be obvious reasons... :) ).

Apparently there are some bugs being reported:

1. The application seems to lose settings at random. I started the app tonight, and it reset to "internal" mixer mode. This happened a few different times, and I couldn't pinpoint what I did that made it happen.

2. The application lost control of my Trigger Finger pad. I had it all setup and configured, and all of a sudden I went to use it and it didn't work. When I reconnected the trigger finger, it started working again.

3. I switched modes from CD to vinyl (playing around with the control CD's), and the app crashed. When I restarted it, it lost all my midi assignments. Grr.

4. Random switching from absolute to relative mode. I mix, not scratch, and NEVER want relative mode to switch on, unless it's at the very very end of the track and I screwed up. Even in that case, just let me screw up as I'd be a bad DJ to let that happen anyway

But, as the author states, these should be fixed with a rather minor update. This review thread can be found at:
http://www.prodjforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1538

On the flip side, the author found these rather cool points:

1. After you play a track, it grays it out in the playlist. You won't play the same track twice (not that you would anyway). Kinda cool.

2. Loops definately are cool. Wth a midi controller, even cooler. Tap the loop button, tap it again and half the loop. It just works and is quite accurate, nice.

3. Using CDJ-1000's, the timecode seems to be very very accurate. I made little pitch adjustments, and everything responded just as it should

The bolded point above is something that I really wish Ableton Live had in Session view with clips that were played back. Sometimes I jump around to tracks and honestly can't remember if I played a part of a track or not - especially when dropping 30+ tracks in an hour and half.

Someone at ScratchLIVE.net posted a more critical review of the app/interface here: http://scratchlive.net/forum/discussion/?discussion_id=21826

Video here: http://www.agiprodj.com/2006/08/30/m-audio-connectiv-wcontrol-vinyl-cd/ The presenter puts the software/vinyl through a minor stress test on a Powerbook G4. It holds up rather well.

There is an unused forum (unofficial) here: http://www.torqdj.com/. Nothing there yet, but maybe you can be the first?

Hat tip to Corporation @ this thread found at the Ableton Live forums for the links.

Mathew Jonson LIVE @ Compression, FRI OCT 13

Woo hoo. Can't wait. He is going to be using a 32 channel mixer for his live PA!

Strictly Rhythm!! Back in Business!

According to Dennis Romero of Danceblogga says of Strictly Rhythm's relaunch:

Legendary house label Strictly Rhythm (Real 2 Real's "I Like To Move It," Ultra Nate's "Free") is back after shutting down in 2002 when a venture with Warner Bros. went sour. Former owner Mark Finkelstein has reacquired the brand and back catalogue and has partnered up with Defected's Simon Dunmore for the relaunch, according to a release. Dunmore will be the label's creative head, and will help bring Strictly to the U.K.

Can this surely mean that the back catalog will be availabel on Beatport as WAV file download soon? I HOPE SO.

THIS IS AWESOME NEWS.

Check out the full discography here @ Discogs. I have a lot of this stuff on vinyl already, but really haven't wanted to spend all that time digitizing them...but now there is hope for digital versions being released from master tapes/files! Much better!