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[elcapitan]

I stayed home on Friday night, to get my engineering assignment started. Naturally, I ended up drinking gin 'n tonic and recording a mix. 70-odd minutes of low-tempo party breaks, with the emphasis firmly on party. (Ain't no Si Begg-style stuff in here). So, here it is,

Kid Kenosha - You Never Did Mix (Hi-Fi) (69:18, 192Kbps MP3, 96.1MB zipped) (for people who like sound quality)
Kid Kenosha - You Never Did Mix (Lo-Fi) (69:18, 128Kbps MP3, 64.4MB zipped) (for people on slow connections or with bandwidth quotas)

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
2. Azzido Da Bass feat. Digitalism - Strobelightz (Disko Blitzer Remix)
3. Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. (Stanton Warriors Remix)
4. Plump DJs - Electric Disco (D. Ramirez Remix)
5. Meat Katie & Elite Force - The Fabulous Mint 400 (Paul Woolford Mix)
6. Fatboy Slim - Star 69 (Audio Bullys Remix)
7. Mr Reds vs. DJ Skribble - Everybody Come On (Stanton Warriors Remix)
8. Ferry Corsten feat. Guru - Junk (D. Ramirex Remix)
9. M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun (Nudisco On Acid Remix)
10. Mason - Exceeder (DJ Fex Remix)
11. Amiel - Be Your Girl (Bass Kleph Club Mix)
12. Krafty Kuts - Bass Phenomenon (feat. Tim Deluxe)
13. Layo & Bushwacka! - Love Story (Bushwacka! Remix)

Comments? Hatred? Orgasms? Please tell me.

[KharBevNor]

I'm going to download this, simply because I have never heard a DJ set before and want to know what it actually entails.

[salada]

honestly? you can't be serious. surely you'd have heard some EBM / darkwave sets in your time at least? industrial stuff gets used in dj sets a bit too, no? i know you live on a deserted island, but still...

anyway, seems like a solid mix elcap. i'm not one for breaks much -- but the opener is a sentimental favourite and i quite liked the acid edge on the meat katie (?) track.

and hey, what are you mixing on/with?

[elcapitan]

My computer. Specifically, Traktor v3.1.1.

I'm thinking very hard about buying a pair of decks. Computer DJing is more precise, certainly, but things are still released on vinyl for the most part, and there's the whole back catalogue issue. Also, using turntables is so much more tactile - although I'm very good with computers, I still like having physical knobs and buttons to push.

Plus turntables are just so much sexier.

[KharBevNor]

honestly? you can't be serious. surely you'd have heard some EBM / darkwave sets in your time at least? industrial stuff gets used in dj sets a bit too, no? i know you live on a deserted island, but still...

I went to an 'EBM night' once, but that was mainly just a guy queueing Apoptygma Berzerk and old KMFDM tracks off a CD. I've no idea even of any names of people who are famed for playing industrial/ebm music, except maybe that Jet guy who runs Vampirefreaks. I've been to regular clubs once or twice, obviously, but I don't really attention to the music except as a beat to dance to, because it's shit. I find the whole notion of named DJs in this sense vaguely stupid anyway, though I suppose I see why it's a good idea in the club setting, just not sure I'd ever really choose to download a set and listen to it at home (why would I when I can just drop my favourite tracks on a playlist?) I just want to see how the sets mixed together. I'm listening now, problem is, I don't know any of the songs. Is it just crossfades/drop ins between the tracks, or are two tracks being played at once, or are you shifting in and out between two tracks? I really can't tell.   

[ComfortEagle]

Thank you kind sir.

[dancarter]

ElCapitan, the mix was excellent.  Really nice stuff with good mixing and nice variety.

Khar, for industrial djs, you should check out Distorted Circuitry.? They have a radio program every Monday evening for stream and download.? They can be found here: http://www.distortedcircuitry.com/.

The two djs that run the program are both excellent as well.? DJ Morgana and Razorgrrl.? They do live sets and can be found at http://www.djmorgana.com and http://www.razorgrrl.com.

I can almost assure you that there is very little(though some) Apop(thank god), Razorgrrl does more noise based stuff, like Terrorfakt, Kiew, Schwefelgelb, Asche and Manufactura.? Morgana is a little more old school, though still pretty diverse in style.

[KharBevNor]

It's not that I hate Apop that much, it's just he must have played three or four songs by them. Also, I requested four songs off this guy, and he didn't have three of them. The three he didn't have were Funker Vogt - History, Covenant - Call the Ships to Port and Neuroticfish - The Bomb. And that wasn't anti-futurepop snobbery either.

[nuisance]

I'm listening now, problem is, I don't know any of the songs. Is it just crossfades/drop ins between the tracks, or are two tracks being played at once, or are you shifting in and out between two tracks? I really can't tell.   

I'd only heard the first track before but it's easy enough to hear the changes.  There's a bunch of cross fades, which I guess involves two tracks being played together, but not for very long, e.g. at about 4:43 the second track is introduced quietly and is faded in.  Flat Beat gets muted at 5:12. 

I think the same thing is happening around 9:30 when the beat comes back in and there's a looping laugh and a bit of David Albarn falsetto.  Can't hear whether the second track is faded out by the time the guitar breakdown happens or whether it's just muted at that point.

Same again around 15:15, sounds like third track is faded out by about 15:40.  This track is so rushy... love this kind of mad synth work-out.

Next cross-fade starts about 21 minutes in, you can hear the synth stabs on the first beat quietly, then the bassline comes in and the preceding track is killed at 21:35.

etc.

Thanks for the mix elcapitan.  Not all to my tastes, but then I'm a fucken snob. 

[elcapitan]

Thanks for the comments guys, I really appreciate it.

Khar,

Essentially all that's going on is just crossfades and drops. Tracks overlay each other for sections, but I haven't jumped back and forth between tracks in this mix. I'm not trying any crazy Mixmaster Mike stuff with multiple tracks going at once. The idea is that this is the kind of thing you could play in a club and people could dance too - interesting and relatively quick-changing, but not so rapid that you can't find a groove and stay in it for a few minutes.

Some of the mixes are relatively quick, some are quite a lot slower. Nuisance is pretty much spot on with the first couple of fades - mostly, what I've done is start the incoming track playing on my monitors, synced the beats and tempo up, and faded in in between phrases. Most dance tracks (breaks and DnB can be fiddlier) have some kind of a breakdown after four or eight or twelve phrases, so once you get the hang of it, it's easy to time it so that tracks overlay for maybe sixty-four bars giving a nice polyphonic overload, you can slap totally out of the old track into the breakdown for a few bars, hopefully followed by a drop that puts the dancefloor on rinse cycle.

The switch between Feel Good Inc. and Electric Disco is a good example of this. Around about 14:45, FGI starts calming down a little, and I'm syncing ED going on my monitors. At 15:20, ED is faded up to about 40%. It takes a little tweaking to get the beats lined up, I slowly bring it up to about 75%, only ever fading up in between phrases. At 16:04, I pretty much just ramp the crossfader across, the breakdown happens, people on the dancefloor take a breath. At 16:34, the drop comes along and people theoretically go nuts. Not very complicated, but it's surprisingly hard to do on the fly.

The hardest mixes on there were getting into and out of Bucky Done Gun.

EDIT: Guys I am intrigued by these industrial sets. I sorta started getting into industrial when I was 18 or so, but then I got sidetracked by hip-hop and more general electronica. I might have to look into it again.

[KharBevNor]

I actually downloaded that traktor thing off a torrent to have a go. How do you get the monitor up?

The industrial mixes I've downloaded so far (From Razorgrrrl) aren't really doing it for me. I'll try the other guy. I kinda want someone who might play, say, Push! by The Invincible Spirit, then Black Death by :Wumpscut:, then tangentially wander in to the extended mix of 'Mitternacht' by E Nomine before sending everyone scurrying to cover with an Alien Sex Fiend dub remix or an old Anne Clark track or something before finishing off with the full version of The Bomb. I literally dream of dancing in a club to that track.

[elcapitan]

Since you've done some production stuff, I'm assuming you know that monitor refers to a sound output as opposed to a visual display.

Depends on your soundcard. If you have a 5.1 card (or you're using your onboard 5.1, if you have a relatively recent mainboard), you can go into Preferences and assign monitor left and right to rear left and right, then just plug your headphones into the rear out port. That's how I do it. There's heaps of other ways to do it.

Traktor is really powerful, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Version 3 and higher has some incredibly funky features, including the fact that the software emulates a Allen & Heath Xone:92 mixer, and some really nicely done effects. You'll need a MIDI controller with lots of knobs and sliders to get the most out of it though.

I personally try and avoid using all the features, just to keep it a bit more real, as it were. There's nothing worse than getting on a club system and realising that you can't mix well because you haven't practised without some complicated tempo-shuffling button.

[negative creep]

i'm not really into electronica and stuff, but i really like this mix. i can't say why, though.

[dancarter]

More stuff Khar, perhaps more to your liking.  Try Digital Gunfire. http://digitalgunfire.com/, they have a more of the sound you've mentioned, as do Detroit Industrial Underground http://www.detroitindustrial.org/.

There's also The Miss Jinny Show.  http://www.missjinny.com/playlists.htm.  Autoclav 1.1, FLA, Unter Null and Funker Vogt have all been played.

DJ Morgana has a pretty extensive list of sets for stream or download too, something like ten years worth so there should be something there for pretty much anyone into this sort of thing.  And no, it's not a snobbery thing with Apop, they make really nice club tracks, or they did anyway.  It's exactly what you said though, they get played too much.  A lot like going to a club night here and always having to listen to Everyday is Hallowe'en.  Great song, just heard it too many times.

[KharBevNor]

I suppose this is one advantage of living in a cultural vacuum. I don't consider tracks like Every Day is Halloween, This Corrosion and She's In Parties to be overplayed, more 'never played'. Go to an 'alternative' night round these parts and you're fucking lucky if they even play Marilyn Manson. And when I was talking about snobbery, I was more implying that the DJ there wasn't a snob, he'd just literally never heard of fucking Covenant.

I'll give those other DJs a wizz when I get back to my Halls of Residence.