skioakenfull's blog

2012 has been a great year, and I've especially enjoyed the fact that my tutoring at Point Blank has spawned two collaborations with students of mine, both leading to releases in 2013.

Firstly, a track I worked on with Kris Holiday from Saint Paul in the US. It's due out early 2013 on Big Mama's House Records.

Secondly there's the track I worked on with Faraj Alkuwari otherwise known as Youngs2ar from Doha in Qatar. It's also due out early 2013 on Endemic Digital.
UPDATE: AUG 2020 - preview no longer available

The Azealia Banks '212' 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: http://www.djmag.com/djweekly/ Its DJ Weekly 127.

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

You can also download the Native Instruments Massive Patch I created in the tutorial here.

Here's the accompanying text:

Although Lazy Jay is credited as a featured artist on this track, Azealia actually laid a vocal on his original instrumental, 'Float My Boat' which was released on Big & Dirty Records back in 2009. With her sleazy rap style perfectly complementing the beat, she transformed the track to become a massive hit in 2011.

For the analysis of this track I wanted to focus on the two main sections. The bulk of the song is centered around a swung beat with a distinctive Tom Tom pattern. Jay uses some great rising FX underneath to provide tension, as well as alternating various percussive elements. The other addition to this beat is the hooky synth line. Although I was working in Ableton, I decided to recreate it using Native Instrument's Massive, due to it's comprehensive range of Filters, Oscillators and overall fat sound. I assigned a Macro within the Synth to control the pitch of the Oscillators, which I was then able to record as Automation after recording a single note midi pattern into Ableton.

For the second section, the beat is filtered down, and some new synth parts are introduced. Azealia switches from a rap to a sung melody which copies the lead synth line. The melody uses quite an unconventional scale, which I was keen to investigate. Although I managed to identify the Key Signature as F# Minor, there were two notes not found in the F# Natural Minor Scale which were C Natural and D#. It is actually possible to play the Scale of C# Harmonic Minor over the F# Minor bass line to achieve all the correct notes!

AttachmentSize
Package icon DJ127.zip11.87 MB

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..

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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..

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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.

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