Today was yet again time to rehearse my mixing skills. I have been Djing years in various occasions but haven´t ever really tried to enhance my ability to play smooth shifts from track to another mainly because it takes some time and patient to really advance in this field.
Anyway now that I have found the time I´m struggling to get better results. There are some things that make the progress slow. First I have always thought that I have some knowledge about which songs would fit together but at the same time I think that playing should be improvising and not to program your setup in advance. I have noticed now that when my skills to find correct beats is not that good (and especially fast enough) I really should not improvise. Today I tried to make a soft oldskool progressive house mix with lush and interesting beats but in the middle the set turned into a "kiksu" mayhem with no logic and actually wrong versions of somewhat good tracks.
It´s just that when I get the feeling to play tracks I don´t seem to have the patience to do my homework and plan the set ready to play. Todays set was also way too fast because I somehow didn´t notice that the first track was quite upbeat.
I´ve got quite a lot of breakbeat tracks too that I should try to include in these mixes. It´s just yet another thing that would need more training.
The good thing is that my setup seems to work now pretty well. I also have some ideas about dubstep, electro and techno and acid mixes that I should try soon. And it seems that I´m missing some tracks that I have always wanted to own and include in some mixes so I should probably check some of these from discogs...
tiistai 18. tammikuuta 2011
sunnuntai 16. tammikuuta 2011
My Setup
Because music is one of the main reasons to write this blog I hereby present my setup and collection to give some idea in what level I´m on at the "game". My collection is somewhat problematic in terms of form. First of all I collect music in all the possible formats. I have a huge collection of CD:s and particularly CD singles (which is probably the most dead format of all) but I also do have a huge set of vinyls! Here is some pictures to give you the idea.
I have lot´s of MP3´s and even C-Cassettes but those are not the preferred formats at the moment. I have recently updated my setup the way that I hope 12" vinyl would gain advantage in the future.
About the setup: I have two Technics SL-1200 MK2 direct drive turntables. These are the so called industry standard (even though Panasonic announced last autumn that they will end the production of these classics). The ones that I own are real warhorses that have been in a professional use for years. I bought them used from a good friend of mine about six years ago (the joke here is that I have been collecting vinyl way over ten years and didn´t have any kind of turntables before).
Recently I bought new Headshells and Cartridges because the old ones had worn out and actually rusted trough. Both headshells are Technics´s own but the Cartridges are from Stanton and Ortofon. Stanton one is a classic 500-II model. It´s trustworthy and strong and will not brake easily. Problem is propably on the sound side that is not as dynamic and good as some hifi people would like these to be.
Stanton 500-II
The other one is Ortofon Night Club MKII. This one I bought last week and haven´t tried that much yet but it really feels good. I had some other ideas about this cartridge but got this one pretty cheap as it was slightly used.
Ortofon Night Club MKII
Weakest link in the setup is my mixer. It´s quite old Gemini PS-626 Pro-2 model. Here is a short list of problems I´m having with this at the moment: It has a ground noise that comes and goes without any logic reason. It sometimes loses left channel sound from all the main channels. The cross fader leaks from both sides. Most of the knobs feel like they are not properly attached. And the whole feeling is cheepish... I´m probably going to invest in a new mixer soon.
Here is my soundsystem: The old and reliable Technics Rack that I bought over fifteen years ago! I really don´t have anything to complain about this, it just rocks! The speakers could be better but they are good enough.
I also have Sennheiser HD25-1 II headphones. At the moment I don´t have proper cd players but I´m thinking of getting one or two. Anyway, since I bought the new cartridges and such, I have had new kind of inspiration to play with my records. Hopefully this enthusiasm is here to stay!
I have lot´s of MP3´s and even C-Cassettes but those are not the preferred formats at the moment. I have recently updated my setup the way that I hope 12" vinyl would gain advantage in the future.
About the setup: I have two Technics SL-1200 MK2 direct drive turntables. These are the so called industry standard (even though Panasonic announced last autumn that they will end the production of these classics). The ones that I own are real warhorses that have been in a professional use for years. I bought them used from a good friend of mine about six years ago (the joke here is that I have been collecting vinyl way over ten years and didn´t have any kind of turntables before).
Recently I bought new Headshells and Cartridges because the old ones had worn out and actually rusted trough. Both headshells are Technics´s own but the Cartridges are from Stanton and Ortofon. Stanton one is a classic 500-II model. It´s trustworthy and strong and will not brake easily. Problem is propably on the sound side that is not as dynamic and good as some hifi people would like these to be.
Stanton 500-IIThe other one is Ortofon Night Club MKII. This one I bought last week and haven´t tried that much yet but it really feels good. I had some other ideas about this cartridge but got this one pretty cheap as it was slightly used.
Ortofon Night Club MKIIWeakest link in the setup is my mixer. It´s quite old Gemini PS-626 Pro-2 model. Here is a short list of problems I´m having with this at the moment: It has a ground noise that comes and goes without any logic reason. It sometimes loses left channel sound from all the main channels. The cross fader leaks from both sides. Most of the knobs feel like they are not properly attached. And the whole feeling is cheepish... I´m probably going to invest in a new mixer soon.
Here is my soundsystem: The old and reliable Technics Rack that I bought over fifteen years ago! I really don´t have anything to complain about this, it just rocks! The speakers could be better but they are good enough.
I also have Sennheiser HD25-1 II headphones. At the moment I don´t have proper cd players but I´m thinking of getting one or two. Anyway, since I bought the new cartridges and such, I have had new kind of inspiration to play with my records. Hopefully this enthusiasm is here to stay!
Rare Exports
I´m not a big fan of Finnish film industry and the last time I went to see a finnish movie in a theater was almost ten years ago. Yesterday we decided to go and check out Rare Exports and damn did my hopes for the better Finnish films increase a lot!
Yes, yes, it´s the different kind of Christmas movie and it has all the elements that a good fantastic film needs! The basic idea is excellent: Coca Cola did not invent Santa or "Joulupukki" that refers more to a goat than a red hooded fellow with sales on mind. Film is trying to avoid cliches and in places where it drifts to these territories it has a different angle.
Rare Exports is combination of horror images, ruffness of Lappland life, extremely beautifull landscapes, a real dramatic course with simple reasoning and therefore genuine feeling of alive people and fantastic sequences of imagination. But the greatest thing is the cast! These actors are definately the greatest that are available in Finland at the moment and Tommi Korpela leads the pack!
I remember years ago when I saw the Maximillian Tarzan and Ukkonen short movies and thought that it would be extremely good thing to let these guys to direct feature films. I was however convinced that it would never happen due to local film industry being driven by such a scheme that was concentrated on copying basic dramatic lines from international blocbusters and avoiding own ideas. It was kind of like the local music industry suffering years of "iskelmä" based music and supporting classical training in, for example singing.
Now that we are seeing movies made in internet (Star Wreck, Iron Sky) and the technique coming closer to the everyday users hands I´m hopefull that the big screen films would get competition from enthusiastic hobbyists that would throw all the assumptions to trash bins and do lots of low budget movies that would be out of the box and have some really fantastic elements tied to them. And form the local and fresh viewpoint too!
Yes, yes, it´s the different kind of Christmas movie and it has all the elements that a good fantastic film needs! The basic idea is excellent: Coca Cola did not invent Santa or "Joulupukki" that refers more to a goat than a red hooded fellow with sales on mind. Film is trying to avoid cliches and in places where it drifts to these territories it has a different angle.
Rare Exports is combination of horror images, ruffness of Lappland life, extremely beautifull landscapes, a real dramatic course with simple reasoning and therefore genuine feeling of alive people and fantastic sequences of imagination. But the greatest thing is the cast! These actors are definately the greatest that are available in Finland at the moment and Tommi Korpela leads the pack!
I remember years ago when I saw the Maximillian Tarzan and Ukkonen short movies and thought that it would be extremely good thing to let these guys to direct feature films. I was however convinced that it would never happen due to local film industry being driven by such a scheme that was concentrated on copying basic dramatic lines from international blocbusters and avoiding own ideas. It was kind of like the local music industry suffering years of "iskelmä" based music and supporting classical training in, for example singing.
Now that we are seeing movies made in internet (Star Wreck, Iron Sky) and the technique coming closer to the everyday users hands I´m hopefull that the big screen films would get competition from enthusiastic hobbyists that would throw all the assumptions to trash bins and do lots of low budget movies that would be out of the box and have some really fantastic elements tied to them. And form the local and fresh viewpoint too!
sunnuntai 9. tammikuuta 2011
All Hooj Choons mix vol. 1
Now this one is the real first instalment of my Old Skool mix series. It´s all about my favourite label: HOOJ CHOONS! The mix is 100% vinyl mix and I´m finally quite proud of this. There were some mistakes and bit too hasty changes but overall it went quite well. Hooj Choons will be my target for several other mixes in the future too...
01 HOOJ 72R Jark Prongo - Moving Trough Your System (Slacker Software System remix)
02 HOOJ 59 Viper - The Twister (DEA Remix)
03 HOOJ 47 Antic - The Ultimate (Original)
04 HOOJ 92 Medway - Airacobra
05 HOOJ 127 Gardner & Thomas - Turn To Try (Full Vox)
06 HOOJ 119R Flash Brothers - Captured (Joshua Collins Remix)
07 HOOJ 120 Echomen - Truth (Original Mix)
08 HOOJ 132R Echomen - Thru 2 You (Original Vocal Mix)
09 HOOJ 111P 16B - Escape (Driving To Heaven) (Omid´s Full Vocal Mix)
10 HOOJ 93 Pete Lazonby - Sacred Cycles (Quiver Mix)
LINK
Power Grid -boardgame
I have not had too much time and opportunities to play board games recently. Fortunately last friday we tried Power Grid for the second time. It´s just incredibly good and addicting game. I had similar thoughts about it from the first time around but now that we tried it again I´m very convinced! This is at the moment the greatest board game available!
The game itself is somewhat complicated at the beginning, but the complex rules are quite intuitive in the end. The idea is to compete against other players about building power plants and to provide energy materials to them.
You are constantly trying to manage your limited monetary resources to buy better plants, to provide fuel for the said plants and also to create a sufficient chain of plants around the map with cities that are connected with power grid. You will also need to count the costs for moving electricity between cities.
The greatest thing in this business is the logic behind buying fuel for the plants. This has been designed following the logic guidelines from the real life system where the costs rise if some material is more wanted that the others. For example in the beginning of the game the coal is very cheap material to use for your plants, but if everyone concentrates to build coal burning plants the prices will go sky high and the availability of the material may diminish or even end totally. At the same time some better materials, like burning carbage, is cheaper in every following turn. And if you manage to get hold of wind turbines, they do not need fuel at all (though they are quite hard to get and the bidding for these plants are furious). Only complain is that the game developer gives bit too much advantage for using nuclear plants.
My player opponent also thought that it would be good idea to create a sales logic to sell the rights to pollution levels.
We have now tried this game with 4 and 5 people and both seemed to work very well. The game play was also quite different both times and there was no straight forward winning method available. Actually the games were very intensive to the final rounds and it was never obvious that someone would be in better position than the others in the end game. The game takes pretty long time, both times over 3 hours, but it was never dull in any point of the game.
More information about the game from here:
Power Grid @ Boardgame Geek
The game itself is somewhat complicated at the beginning, but the complex rules are quite intuitive in the end. The idea is to compete against other players about building power plants and to provide energy materials to them.
You are constantly trying to manage your limited monetary resources to buy better plants, to provide fuel for the said plants and also to create a sufficient chain of plants around the map with cities that are connected with power grid. You will also need to count the costs for moving electricity between cities.
The greatest thing in this business is the logic behind buying fuel for the plants. This has been designed following the logic guidelines from the real life system where the costs rise if some material is more wanted that the others. For example in the beginning of the game the coal is very cheap material to use for your plants, but if everyone concentrates to build coal burning plants the prices will go sky high and the availability of the material may diminish or even end totally. At the same time some better materials, like burning carbage, is cheaper in every following turn. And if you manage to get hold of wind turbines, they do not need fuel at all (though they are quite hard to get and the bidding for these plants are furious). Only complain is that the game developer gives bit too much advantage for using nuclear plants.
My player opponent also thought that it would be good idea to create a sales logic to sell the rights to pollution levels.
We have now tried this game with 4 and 5 people and both seemed to work very well. The game play was also quite different both times and there was no straight forward winning method available. Actually the games were very intensive to the final rounds and it was never obvious that someone would be in better position than the others in the end game. The game takes pretty long time, both times over 3 hours, but it was never dull in any point of the game.
More information about the game from here:
Power Grid @ Boardgame Geek
keskiviikko 29. joulukuuta 2010
Let´s Get Back To The Program vol. 1
Ok, Here is my new mixtape! It´s supposed to be a series of oldskool mixes of various styles. I Start this with a set of some lesser known Hard House Trax that are mostly over 10 years old now. Here is the tracklist:
01 Chopper - Jo & Lisa (Untidy Dub) - Code Blue
02 Commander Tom vs. Marco Düx Baby - The Cow (Baby Doc Remix) - Noom Records
03 Lee Jeffery & Justin Bourne - Drop The Dime (O.D.404 Remix) - Käktäi Rcords
04 Barabas & OD1 - Jack of Klubz - Tidy Trax
05 Fergie - Ooh Sir! - Trade
06 Joe Inferno - Tribal Church (Ian M Remix) - Tripoli Trax
07 Lectrolux - Spellbound (Slave to the Rave Mix) - TEC
08 Dave Randall - Bombay (Chris Hampshire remix) - Chug n Bump
09 Miska & the Mad Gay Mafia - The Fraudsters (Acid Memories Mix) - Ef.adrine
10 Knukleheadz - Raise Your Hands (Marc N-Joi Mix) - Tripoli Trax
11 Captain Tinrib, Mars & Mystrë - Save The Rave - Frequency 8 Records
I must apologize for the bad sound quality (my setup does not qualify for my standards at the moment) and also some bad mixing here and there. Fortunately the trax themselves are of highest quality in the scale of dumb and hands in the air dance music!
LINK COMING SOON!
And The Cover:
01 Chopper - Jo & Lisa (Untidy Dub) - Code Blue
02 Commander Tom vs. Marco Düx Baby - The Cow (Baby Doc Remix) - Noom Records
03 Lee Jeffery & Justin Bourne - Drop The Dime (O.D.404 Remix) - Käktäi Rcords
04 Barabas & OD1 - Jack of Klubz - Tidy Trax
05 Fergie - Ooh Sir! - Trade
06 Joe Inferno - Tribal Church (Ian M Remix) - Tripoli Trax
07 Lectrolux - Spellbound (Slave to the Rave Mix) - TEC
08 Dave Randall - Bombay (Chris Hampshire remix) - Chug n Bump
09 Miska & the Mad Gay Mafia - The Fraudsters (Acid Memories Mix) - Ef.adrine
10 Knukleheadz - Raise Your Hands (Marc N-Joi Mix) - Tripoli Trax
11 Captain Tinrib, Mars & Mystrë - Save The Rave - Frequency 8 Records
I must apologize for the bad sound quality (my setup does not qualify for my standards at the moment) and also some bad mixing here and there. Fortunately the trax themselves are of highest quality in the scale of dumb and hands in the air dance music!
LINK COMING SOON!
And The Cover:
lauantai 25. joulukuuta 2010
Error vs. Toshiba
Joskus vuosia sitten eräät hahmot muodostivat bändin nimeltä Error vs. Toshiba. Heidän tuotannostaan ja muusta lisää tuonnempana, sillä kyseisen orkan nettisaitti on kadonnut jopa internet wayback machinesta ja täytyyhän tällainen kulttuurikokonaisuus vielä jotenkin kaivaa esiin mystisistä internetin syövereistä. Joka tapauksessa tässä alkuun hieman klassisia sarjakuvia herrojen elämän varrelta. Lyhyesti itse teoksista: ideana oli muinoin, että kun vitsi muodostui päähän oli aikaa kirjoittaa, luonnostella, piirtää ja tussata teos loppuun kokonaista 5 minuuttia! Laatu on siis vähintäänkin kyseenalaista, mutta kyllä näille edelleen hekottelee silloin tällöin... Jutuista itsestään: osa perustuu löyhästi tositapahtumiin ja osa taas on enemmän tai vähemmän hatusta vedettyjä juttuja.
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