Our sets section is back up! And for a chill start to 2013 we have a very mellow mix by Paula M from Half Seas Over Records.   2013 SETS SECTION

This year Insomniac also organized the first ever EDMBiz Conference, their answer to Miami’s dwindling Winter Music Conference, with panel sessions and keynote addresses on wednesday and thursday at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. It was during one of those sessions at EDMBiz that the controversy started, most of it coming from Pascuale Rotella’s presentation on day 2. Basically he told a group of promoters and agents that he was done hiring big name artists for his shows, because for future Insomniac events more emphasis would be given to the production and less to the DJ, you can bet it didn’t sit too well with some of the conference attendees. He went on to elaborate on this magical experience he wants to provide and how building his own venue would be the logical step forward, an adult Disneyland of sorts.

More big news came from the entertainment company Live Nation, who announced their plans of spending 1 billion dollars on acquiring up to 50 EDM promoters across the United States. In one of the panels was promoter Donnie Estopinal, who had just sold his promotion company Disco Donnie Presents to Live Nation, and the news of this acquisition fueled the “Don’t

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Late January we headed to Miami for a different kind of 3 day EDM festival, one that promised a party experience like no other. A promise like that is no easy feat to accomplish these days, there are dozens of EDM festivals running around the globe each year with enormous production values. But when they told me about Groove Cruise it truly sounded different right from it’s venue selection: a floating dance floor that never closes it’s doors and takes only 2.200 lucky travelers through a 72 hour dancing adventure in the caribbean… we thought we knew what we were in for, but had no idea.

The Groove Cruise started 8 years ago as a group cruise set up by Jason Beukema of Whet Travel and has evolved into a full ship charter that sets sail the last days of January out of Miami. This year the floating mayhem was set up inside the Norwegian Sky and made it’s 2 stops in Great Stirrup Cay Saturday 28th and in Nassau Bahamas Sunday 29th before returning Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. to Miami.

But the fun doesn’t start nor does it end on board because the Groove Cruise experience includes a set of pre and after parties in South Beach and downtown Miami that will take care of your house music fix. For 2012 the beats started Thursday afternoon at a Shelborne pool party and continued all night at the Bon Voyage party in Cameo; upon disembarkation 2 Monday after parties were waiting, first at Mekka and later Tantra for the truly hard core.

We boarded the Norwegian Sky at 2:00 p.m. friday, after recuperating from the two pre-parties at South Beach. As we boarded the ship we were greeted by the bass from the pool stage that was echoing down the hallways. After a reconnaissance tour of the boat we got to the pool at 2:30 and it was packed with people already into deep party mode, some were dancing stage front and others dipped in the hot tubs with cold drinks in their hands. By sunset empty bottles were already being switched for fresh ones and the boat had just sailed away from mainland, this didn’t look like any other cruise we had been on.

Right from the start you notice a very peculiar vibe about the whole ship, it’s a

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Pioneer had been entering the “computer assisted” DJ market in steps, small steps every new product line comes along. USB connection to CDJs and DJMs, RekordBox software and PRO DJ Link have been some of their incursions in this area but with the products launched this year it is clear they now come with full force. Last month they announced their All-In-One Serato and Traktor controllers and now they will try to take back their place as industry standard mixer with the DJM-900 nexus.

We all know the basic history, even the noobs: first came the Technics 1200, then came Pioneer’s CDJ-1000, then came the computer… but what we don’t have yet is the first industry standard for this new DJ age to go along the computer. Pioneer’s throne as industry standard was secured early 2006 with the DJM-800 and CDJ-1000MK3 and now 5 years later it’s fending off attacks from all flanks. Everyone has been throwing their proposals straight to market, it is a hardware war out there, make no mistake about it.

The DJM-900 nexus is based on the DJM-800 that most clubs have in their booths and comes with a big bag of improvements for the computer DJ but the question with Pioneer gear is always the same: is it really worth the price tag? For a suggested price of $2300 you get:

Traktor Certification: for using time code control with Traktor Scratch without extra sound cards. Built In USB Sound Card: 24bit/96kHz audio can be output to all 4 channels of the mixer PRO DJ Link: for hooking up to 4 CDJ-900 and CDJ-2000 units to a single mixer and sharing one common audio library (you’ll need an extra Hub for that though) Rekordbox support: either with a computer plugged in or with songs stored on USB media 6 Sound Color effects: Filter, Crush, Noise, Space Reverb, Dub Echo and Gate/Comp Quantized effects: they pick up the Beatgrid data from the CDJs and adjust accordingly to tempo variations X Pad: a touch sensitive strip for adjusting effect parameters New Effects: of course, like we didn’t have enough already… Reverb, Spiral, Slip Roll, Melodic and Midi LFO Improved Guts: uses the same audio I/O circuits as the DJM-2000 New Faders: supposedly improved and placed on the sides instead of the bottom to avoid picking up dirt and liquids

The mixer is also MIDI mappable if you wish to control your software with it but I can’t see a reason to

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On NAMM week Native Instruments released a teaser video of the new Traktor software and hardware, the world immediately dissected the video in slow motion and frame grabs to extract as much info as possible. Last friday Native Instruments finally unveiled the Traktor 2 family, but don’t get too excited yet, you’ll have to wait till April 1st to enjoy it.

Program wise we are getting an entirely new product line, from Traktor Duo 2 to Traktor Scratch Pro 2. The new features include functions easily deducted from the teaser video like the sample decks and the colored waveforms but they also surprised with some unexpected features like 4 new filters and a Soft Sync option that only syncs tempo speed but not phase.

New GUI: with a dark grey color and 2 new smaller deck options for minimizing clutter (Essential Deck and Micro Deck) TruWave: waveforms with a high level of detail and several color options

Extra Zoom: now you can zoom in more for extra accurate cue points Grid line options: choose between light, strong, invisible or a tick SoftSync: adjusts tempo of incoming tracks but leaves the final matching for you to do manually 4 New Effects: Tape Delay, Ramp Delay, Bouncer and Auto Bouncer Loop Recorder: same as S4, for grabbing audio from the inputs and looping and massaging it with effects Sample Decks: same as S4, launching samples on cue Hot Plug and Play audio: with NI’s cards you get auto connection and self configuration of routing options on the fly so set-up takes even less time and effort Multiple control from a single source: multiple decks can be controlled with just 1 CD or Vinyl

The audio cards have also seen some major improvements with Audio 4 and Audio 8 being retired and their places taken by the new Audio 6 and Audio 10 units that offer 2 more channels each. These extra channels for input and output go hand in hand with Traktor 2’s new Loop Recorder and Sample Decks.

The extra inputs and outputs can also be quite useful for adding effects to other audio sources or to an external mixer with Send/Return capabilities (it can send the audio to Traktor for adding effects and back again to the mixer).

There is also a new Thru function selectable in the software of the audio cards that allows them (with a power adapter plugged in) to send signal from the inputs straight to the

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With just a few days left before winter NAMM pictures leaked out yesterday about Pioneer’s new Serato and Traktor controllers and that means all the big names are accounted for. The new Pioneer controllers (DDJ-T1 and DDJ-S1) will compete with recently released units like the Denon DN-MC6000, with machines that already have a few months out like Native Instruments’ Traktor S4 and also against brand new ones like the Numark S6.

Pioneer’s pictures after the break,

Without much information except the press release and what I can gather from the picture there are 2 things I really like about the Pioneer units: the Needle Drop Touch Strip and extra long Tempo faders. Unfortunately there are 4 things right out of the bat I don’t like: no real analog mixer functions, no booth output with separate volume knob, plastic construction all over and no VU meters of any kind in the Traktor version.

When rumors leaked of Native Instruments’ all in one Traktor controller most people expected it to be the end all be all of Traktor controllers and with good reasons: if someone knew Traktor and it’s users well enough it should be Native Instruments plus they had the expertise acquired from the building of the X1 and Maschine. When the S4 controller finally came out it met the expectations of some but fell short on the hopes of others. In my opinion they came very close to taking the top controller spot had they not failed in some minor details. Our pictures and review after the break. With the S4 hardware a new piece of software also arrived, Trakor Pro S4 comes with several goodies that go hand in hand with the controller and it talks to the hadrware via NI’s proprietary high definition Native Hardware Library. NHL is more precise than traditional MIDI but like the X1 controller the S4 can also work in MIDI mode (in order to talk to software other than Traktor). Design wise just by looking at it one could deduct that scratching is not the focus of this machine and software combo, the S4 is more oriented towards mild controllerists, live remixers and DJs who duo next to live vocals or live instruments.

The commands closer to you are the Hot Cues, Samples and Loops with the jog wheels placed way back, I’m guessing Ean Golden (as in djtechtools.com) was a major influence on the prime placement of these buttons for controllerism purposes. Almost every other controller out there uses a completely different approach, with the jogs closer to you and everything else behind them (M-Audio’s Xponent uses the same placement of the wheels as the S4). Even though it’s a huge controller the weight is very manageable, at 7.5 pounds you can carry it easily and with that much stuff in there the bigger the controller surface the better.

Overall I would say placement of everything is well thought out, empty space for your fingers to maneuver is there and all controls mimic the software very good. My only complaint as far as placement of a button or knob is that I’ve never been fond of mixers with the Headphone jack, Cue Mix and/or Volume knobs placed in the front side of the unit, the S4 has all 3 there which I find

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Pioneer just announced glossy Pearl White versions of their CDJ-350 player and DJM-350 mixer that should be available at the end of January 2011. These units are mainly geared towards the home user and thus their price is lower than the more professional units but they still give you a lot of features for a package price of $2445 (for 2 CDJs and 1 DJM). Thats a MSRP so when they finally get to the stores I would expect a street price of $1950 to $2100 for the package.

With the CDJ-350 W you can play all popular formats of music files in a variety of mediums (CDs, USB and computer) and can be used as a computer MIDI controller with audio interface. It also comes with several beat assist features to help beginners nail their mixes and looping functions to experiment with when you get more advanced. Even Rekordbox compatibility is present in these units. The DJM-350 W mixer will come with 4 effects: the traditional Filter and Jet plus 2 new ones Noise and Short Echo. A unique feature of this mixer and it’s black counterpart is the USB recorder for saving your sets on the fly.

Here’s a video of Miss Nine explaining the new filters…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG0NOcWvlzc

In 1997 Propellerhead software brought simulations of 3 classic Roland machines to Mac computers in the form of Rebirth RB-338. 13 years later they are putting those synths literally in your hands by releasing Rebirth for your iPhone, iPod or iPad. Roland Corporation was founded by Mr. Ikutaru Kakehashi in Osaka Japan almost 40 years ago and their equipment has been key in the electronic music industry since it’s origins. Three classic pieces of equipment manufactured by Roland became staples of the electronic music creation process during the 80’s and 90’s, they were the TB-303 bass synthesizer and the TR-808 and TR-909 rhythm composers.

By the mid 90’s these machines were already discontinued and in the used equipment market demanded almost 10 times their original price. Swedish software company Propellerhead set out to simulate Roland’s equipment in both it’s sound and visual appearance, the result was Rebirth TB-338. Rebirth was so faithful to the originals that it eventually got Roland’s unofficial approval when they requested Propellerhead include a reference to their equipment in the software and it’s packaging. In 2005 ReBirth was declared discontinued and now exists solely as a free download from the ReBirth museum.

I opened ReBirth in my iPhone and immediately started playing with it very easily, everything you expect from the original is there: every knob, button and light is accounted for. After hearing how good it sounded in the small headphones I reached for my Dock to stereo RCA adaptor and pumped some basslines thru my JBL monitors. Sound is impressive for a $6.99 piece of software running on an iPhone but not quite as good as the original hardware (which go for $1500 to $2500 a head on eBay these days) and could use a little more volume.

Retaining usability in such a small screen is a challenge when you port to iPhone software with as much on-screen controls as ReBirth, so the zooming and scrolling functions are very important. The scrolling works just as needed and moving around the controls is easy and swift. But there is much to improve as far as interface resolution goes, you need to zoom in to take control but once you do everything goes blurry. Don’t even try to zoom in with an iPad, results are very disappointing, hopefully an iPad native version is in the works because ReBirth is the kind of software that would shine on the iPad’s bigger

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For a limited time Native Instruments is upgrading the software that comes with their DJ soundcards. Instead of the usual Traktor LE the Audio 2 and Audio 4 cards will now come with Traktor Duo and the flagship Audio 8 will include a copy of Traktor Pro. It’s a great opportunity to grab a new soundcard as the upgrades would normally cost the user $79 and $139 respectively. Offer ends June 30th, for more info here