Music And Gadgets

Monday 22 February 2010

New player On the Windows Phone DJ Scene. mixHDJ


Just caught this app courtesy of 1800PocketPC.Com
I was thinking about the Dj apps for the Windows phone and  was going to write a blog about them. 1 being quite useful but dated and the other being a bit.....useless. Then Comes mixHDJ. The HD I guess is because its was made with the HTC HD2 in mind. Im guessing that its because the screen is compactive (smooth touch screen use live iphone) Where as other windows phones are Resistive (made for stylus use) I've tried this on the my Touch Diamond 2 and it works. My only problem was that I couldnt figure how to cue up the next track but granted I tried the demo 2 minutes after finding out about it and didnt use headphones. The interface looks quite slick and easy enough to get started.

This is the sort of app windows phone needs to highlight how good it is and what it is capable of. If you have a HD2 and want a DJ app £4.99 is a good price if you ask me (touch Dj on iphone is £11) plus it looks like a Pioneer CDJ 1000.

If you dont have a HD2 try the Demo

To Buy or find out more check the website and the video below.

Sunday 21 February 2010

1st Recorded Video Mix


I mentioned Video mixing on a previous blog. I just got into the craze thanks to Virtual DJ and my brilliant Control Mp3 E2. So the stumbling block was how do I record the end product as Virtual DJ only records Audio. EDIT: I just purchased Virtual Dj 6.0.5 and has video recording (1.03.10)

Well there were 2 options i discovered

  1. Buy a DVD Recorder or
  2. Buy Fraps.
I've used fraps before but only to take screenshots so after a mess about I recorded some video's for your viewing pleasure just so peeps have an idea what video mixing is and what it can do.

The 1st one is up as Mercy remix (its the video mixed with make a loop of "make me move" by Janet Jackson.)




I've done another which is a mix of Jay Z's Dead Presidents (Instrumental) with the Video of Heard it all Before by Sunshine Anderson which I'll be uploading. These are by no means finished article video's like i said they just highlight what video mixing can do.



I was actually surprised by the amount of people people who had never seen a video mix so I hope someone out there learns something valuable.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Futrure Decks...Gotta Love it!!!

Was messing with this DJ Program Future Decks from Xylio last week with my Hercules Control Mp3 E2. The Mapping (especially the scratch pad) is tighter than the Version of Virtual DJ I own. Seeing as I already own 4 Dj software already and have home improvements to pay for im quite reluctant to shell out ca$h. But boy its kinda hard not to.








Here Is what you get for your money




- classic DJ setup with 2 decks, pro mixer and playlists
- fully manual or automatic mixing (one-click beat-matching)
- video mixing (including pitch, break, reverse, scratch on video)
- timecoded vinyls/CD support
- seamless intelligent looping and "skipbeat"
- automatic BPM detection (grid like) with batch-mode function
- vinyl simulation including scratch, pitch, reverse play, brake
- separate headphones output and song pre-listening
- support for VST effects and AudioUnits, eqs, filters
- analog input for microphone/turntables/CD-players, Talk-Over
- controllers supported natively (zero-configure):
  Behringer BCD2000/3000, M-Audio Xponent, Reloop DJ-IE2, Vestax, all Hercules
- additional MIDI IN with LEARN - assign knobs/switches to fx parameters
- advanced support for external mixers
- pitch scaling for harmonic/key mixing
- advanced auto-mixing including Mix-In/Mix-Out (Cue In/Out) points
- perceptual automatic gain
- sample player (sampler)
- record your mixes to WAV or AIFF
- KeyLock (MasterTempo) with on/off selector, gradual pitch bend
- ASIO/CoreAudio low-latency support
- browsing system with unlimited lists, disk explorer, database, iTunes support
- load the whole song in RAM memory for instant access
- audio-cd support on Win/Mac (intelligent cd detection/loading)
- can read mp3, m4a, wav, aiff, ogg, cda, mpeg, avi, mov, mkv, wmv and more


Itunes playlists are supported as is Video mixing. Its not as well known as Tracktor or Virtual DJ but for £59 its tempting as the full features of Virtual Dj pro are only available when you shell out £200+

Like I said i've been going crazy with a demo version and it even got the thumbs up from the wife so once I get my hands on this then i'll give it a proper review. Make sure you try it out though here
http://www.xylio.com/index/page/en-fdp-download-menu-none-0.html

Thursday 4 February 2010

Renoise - I love This D.A.W and keep coming back!!



I've been making beats for as long as I can remember and as well as being a DJ im more known round my ends as a producer. The thing that has held me back but in a lot of aspects given me an edge is the fact I use tracker software.
The appeal for trackers back in the day was that there was no need for hardware such as samplers and midi keyboards etc to make beats. I chose an Amiga over an Atari ST (which most were using) more than 10yrs ago, chopping samples to make my own instruments and loops, using the computer keyboard to trigger sounds instead of a drum machine or keyboard. Also sounds can be played in step time for those like myself who arent the best piano players. The result was some very tight beats on a shoe string budget. The problem was taking it to a studio to mixdown and using vocals not easy when most people dont have access to free studiotime.

I've been using Reniose for more than 5 yrs now. I've tried fruityloops Ableton  Live, Reason , Acid pro to make beats but always come back to Renoise. I have to say I Ableton is brilliant  but Renoise keep adding new features

Check these out what it can do
http://www.renoise.com/about/what-s-new-2-5/

Also check out one of my productions.

 Its not remix for saiqa  by  DJ Agent.M