Saturday I visited club ESP after a very long absence from anything that resembles a proper dance music club. I was really impressed on my re-visit to ESP. Although there weren’t many people, the music was truly phenomenal. None of that cheesy, exaggerated Hard Trance/House tunes. We were mesmerized with beautiful, elegant, and energetic melodic/uplifting Trance music. Really breathtaking stuff like Forbidden Colours from True Form, Your Loving Arms (Andrew Bennett Mix) from Karen Overton, Offbeat from Arctic Quest, Direct Dizko (Sander Van Doorn Remix) from Club Scene Investigators, Neno Itome (Stoneface & Terminal Remix) from Marksun & Brian, and a huge favorite of me, Amsterdam Super8 & Tab Remix from Luminary.
I was expecting rushed remixes of pop songs and cheap synth riffs played to a mindless crowd of people so high you might just as well loop samples from a roadworks scene. Instead I found a more mature crowd with an appreciation of beautiful Trance, and DJs that were there for the love of playing it, and not to get an ego boost.
ESP will host the Irish duo Agnelli and Nelson on the 15th of June. They truly are legends in the Trance music landscape, responsible for numerous top-notch hits and remixes like Big Sky (probably one of the greatest tracks in Trance music history), Shivver, Holding Onto Nothing, Everyday, and loads more. It’s sure to be one of the best parties of the year. Now that I’m convinced the rest of the ESP DJs won’t mess it up by playing common Trancifyed pop remixes, I’ll definitely make an effort to go.
Oh-yes, one last thing before I go: I’ve got a crate of +-80 vinyls of mostly uplifting-melodic Trance, electronica-Techno, and some House/Progressive House tunes to give away – FOR FREE. Let me know if you’re interested. Okay, that’s it for now. Looking to see you all at the Agenlli and Nelson jol.
Paul van Dyk On Recording In Between
November 15, 2007
Ken Micallef covered the making of Paul van Dyk’s latest album, In Between, over at Remix Magazine. In the article Paul van Dyk reveals what his live setup is, and how he performs with it. It also gives details of the hardware equipment and software used to produce the album. Very good info to know.
Like many of today’s top DJs, Ableton Live features at the front of his live configuration. He also explains how he started using Ableton Live with one MacBook, and progressed to his current 2 MacBook: “When I started with Ableton, I wasn’t using any more than a laptop and four channels and bringing things in and out. The next challenge was playing something on top, then adding loops, then triggering them from the outside. Then I thought it would be cool to sequence ideas, and that is when the second laptop came in.”
To my delight the tools used to create the last track, Fall With Me, is explained in some detail, and it’s interesting to see what was used to create some of the track’s cool sounds:
• Bass line – Spectrasonics Trilogy Software Synth.
• Bass drums – Roland TR-808 and Spectrasonics Stylus RMX drum module.
• Chattering sound over the top – Spectrasonics Atmosphere Dream Synth.
• “Rrrgghh wrrrggghh” sound – Native Instruments Massive.
• Filter – TBK2 from Sonalksis.
In Between was made with:
Computers, DAW/recording software, consoles
Apple MacBook Pro (2), Mac G5 2.5 GHz running Apple Logic Pro 7 and Ableton Live 6, 23-inch Ci nema Display
Euphonix System 5-MC Integrated
Workstation
Audio Mixing System
Mackie C4 Control Pro, Control Universal with seven Control Universal XT extensions
M-Audio UC33e Advanced USB MIDI control surface
RME Intelligent Audio Solutions HDSP
MADI
Card with 64 I/O, ADI-648 MADI to ADAT interface, (8) ADI8DS Converter
Hardware synths
Access Virus TI Pølar
Alesis Andromeda
Clavia Nord Lead Rack
Korg Trinity
M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 MIDI keyboard
Novation Supernova Module
Roland JP-8000, Juno-106, JV-1080, TR-808, TR-909, TB-303
DJ mixer, sampler/drum machine
Allen & Heath Xone:3D DJ mixer
Akai MPC2500 sampling workstation
EQs, compressors, effects
Aphex Dominator II Master Kompressor
iZotope Ozone 3 mastering effects
Native Instruments Spektral Delay
Sonalksis TBK2 Digital Grimebox sonic
degradation plug-in
Waves Platinum Bundle
Software synths, plug-ins
Arturia Prophet V Prophet 5/VS synth
Music Lab Real Guitar
Native Instruments Massive, Komplete 4
Rob Papen Albino 3, BLUE
Spectrasonics Atmosphere Dream Synth
Module, Stylus RMX Realtime Groove
Module, Trilogy Total Bass Module
Monitors
KRK 7000Bs, V12S subwoofer
Head over to MixMag.com and read the while shebang.
Apple Logic 8 Nice Price
October 13, 2007
Apple released version 8 of their awsome DAW Logic a few weeks ago. Although Logic Express misses a lot of Logic Studio’s deep range of instruments and effects, Apple now introduced some of stars:
- EXS24 sampler
- ES2 synth
- EFM1 FM synth
- Ultrabeat drum machine (a must have!)
- Guitar Amp Pro amp modeler
The best part of all of this, is you can now pick up Logic Express 8 for the unbelievable price of R1,662.00! Apple Logic Studio 8 is going for R3,814.00!
This gives the amateur-hobbyist producer, like myself, an extremely impressive range of music tools out of one box. with this release Apple has really jumped ahead of the competition with the unbeatable price-feature-quality of Logic Express and Studio. The competition – SONAR, Cubase, Live, and others – are much more limited. Well done Apple! Now that Apple’s DAWs falls within my budget, I think it’s a good time for me to leave Renoise behind. Not that I have any complaints about Renoise, it’s a truly amazing tracker-DAW, but let’s be honest, Apple’s Logic blows the house’s roof off with all the extra instruments like the Ultrabeat drum machine, which I will have to acquire separately Renoise.
