skioakenfull's blog

This article was written by Ski for the Point Blank Blog and published on 29th October 2012

Live users have been anticipating the announcement of version 9 for over 3 years now, causing some intense speculation about what new features might be added. So when it was finally announced last week, you can imagine the frenzy of excited tweeting and status updating that took place. Ableton's biggest surprise however, was the announcement of a brand new hardware controller entitled 'Push'. On reflection it seems like natural move for Ableton to introduce their own controller, especially when you consider other companies such as Native Instruments andAkai who have been doing this for a quite a while now. Both NI's Maschine and Akai's new MPC Renaissance come with their own standalone DAW software, providing some real competition for Ableton. Push however, raises the bar, and by benefiting from it's predecessors, the APC40 and Launchpad, has combined all the best features to create what seems to be a unique new controller. Let's have a look at what it has to offer..

For me, both the APC40 and Launchpad have their shortcomings. Firstly, the Lauchpad's Pads aren't velocity sensitive, which limits the amount of expression when programming drums for example. Also, to get 'Visual Feedback' working, you need to set up an extra channel in Live to send back the midi data. The APC40 is primarily a clip launcher and mixer controller, and even though various customizations exist, you would generally still need to use a keyboard controller when composing with Ableton. Also, due its limited 5 x 8 grid, you have to rely on the cursor keys to view a large number of clips.

© James Humby 2012
© James Humby 2012

Here are a couple of pics taken in Cafe Cox at the Amsterdam Dance Event last weekend by James Humby from Point Blank.

James & Ski are currently editing the videos of the 3 seminars, and will let you know as soon as they are up on YouTube..

DJ Mag Weekly 123

The Maschine 1.8 (pt2) Vocal Timestretching Tutorial video I made for Point Blank Online College was published recently in the DJ Mag Free online edition.

You can check it out here: https://www.djmag.com/djweekly/. It's DJ Weekly 123.

I'm also attaching the offline version for you to download. You'll find the attachment underneath the picture..

AttachmentSize
Package icon DJW123.zip11.69 MB
DJ Mag Weekly 122

The Maschine 1.8 (pt1) Conga Loop Timestretch Tutorial video I made for Point Blank Online College was published recently in the DJ Mag Free online edition.

You can check it out here: https://www.djmag.com/djweekly/. It's DJ Weekly 122.

I'm also attaching the offline version for you to download. You'll find the attachment underneath the picture..

AttachmentSize
Package icon DJ122.zip11.83 MB
Amsterdam Dance Event 2012

Ski will be hosting 4 EMC based seminars at this year's Amsterdam Dance Event. They will take place at Cafe COX as part of the Akai Professional and Numark Playground. The dates are 18/19/20th October (Thursday to Saturday).

Hope to see you there!

UPDATE: Here's my schedule and topics for the seminars..

Thursday 18th
2-3pm : SBTRKT - Wildfire

Friday 19th
2-3pm : Mr Fingers - Can U Feel It

Saturday 20th
1:15-1:45pm : Mr Fingers - Can U Feel It (Revisit)
6-7pm : Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends

DJ Mag Weekly 120

The Ableton Daft Punk's 'Around The World' Bass Line Tutorial video I made for Point Blank Online College was published recently in the DJ Mag Free online edition.

You can check it out here: https://www.djmag.com/djweekly/. It's DJ Weekly 120.

I'm also attaching the offline version for you to download. You'll find the attachment underneath the picture..

AttachmentSize
Package icon DJ120.zip12 MB
DJ Mag Weekly 114

The Ableton Japanese Found Sound Article Tutorial video I made for Point Blank Online College was published recently in the DJ Mag Free online edition.

You can check it out here: https://www.djmag.com/djweekly/. It's DJ Weekly 114.

I'm also attaching the offline version for you to download. You'll find the attachment underneath the picture..

AttachmentSize
Package icon DJW114.zip12.41 MB
BPM Flyer

Ski will be delivering an EMC based seminar for Point Blank at the BPM DJ and Electronic music event in Birmingham on Saturday 6th October. He'll also be at the Point Blank stall all day jamming with DJ Ben Bristow.. Hope to see you there!

BPM is the world's largest event dedicated to DJing and electronic music production. Visitors include DJs, producers, performers, promoters, venue owners/managers, equipment retailers/installers, record label representatives, students and many others who simply have an interest in DJing or electronic music.

http://www.facebook.com/bpmshow

https://twitter.com/visitbpm

This is a project I was asked to do at my son's school in Hackney.
I asked the children in his class (7-8 year olds) to bring in a sound made either with an object or their body.
I recorded each sound individually in groups of 5 or 6 children, and then composed a short piece of music using these sounds.
I used examples such as John Cage and The KLF to explain how music can be thought of in lots of different ways, and also to how we should appreciate the sounds around us.
While we were recording in a separate room, the rest of the class listened to Holst's 'The Planets' and drew amazing coloured pictures in response to the music. They also drew a picture to represent each of their individual sounds.

Please check out the Facebook page to find out more: http://www.facebook.com/GrasmereSounds

Also check out this great John Cage resource at Artsy.net

You can have a listen to the five short pieces of music here:

The remix for I did for Akio Dobashi was released this week in Japan.

Here is a link to iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/id522322228

For those that don't know, Akio used to be in a famous band called Rebecca. I met him whilst DJing in Tokyo with my friend Terry Washizu a few years ago, and Akio recently did a great remix of my Thousand Knives track.

The song I've remixed is from his new album entitled 'Best of All Time' and features the great vocals of Juline. The legendary Bluey from Incognito also plays guitar on it!

You can check Akio's website for more info about him and his projects. He has made a promo video to go with my remix which you can see below!

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