You're asleep...

...and I'm at work. I make IVs at night and while I'm making IVs I've got one earbud in listening to the songs I'm hoping to mix. I picked up some new tracks and I'm excited to see if they mesh with some of the tracks I'm currently using. Again, progress is slow, I still haven't truly mastered beat matching and I certainly don't know my songs well enough to mix them decently. One of the hardest things I'm finding is trying to listen to a five to 10 minute song actively. By "active" I'm referring to listening to audio cues that let me know when the track is changing from a verse to a chorus to a breakdown to an outro. Knowing when each phase happens is key in creating a smooth seamless mix. At the moment I'm really most interested in beat matching intros and outros as this is the building block of mixing, but when I'm not at my decks I try to learn my songs, all their little nuances. Bars, phrases, cymbal crashes and most importantly timing when bringing in the new track. So hard, but I love the music so that makes it worthwhile.

I done learnt me some such er 'nother

So it's nearly 6AM and I know what you're thinking, "Isn't the Night Shift over??" Well, technically no, I'm gearing up for the first night of my next 7 day stretch which begins tomorrow. I have been so stressed out as of late. I'm going to make an attempt to pay off some student loans and not go to school until nursing school starts up.
Anyway, it's nearly 6AM right? What am I doing? The photos you see are the recording software I'm currently using. It's Ableton Live Lite 6 and there is definitely a learning curve going on. I didn't mix jack s*** tonight and I am so frustrated. I opened up a mix I made last night which I thought sounded somewhat decent. It was a typical 3 track set but the bitch of it was that the recording software only recorded a portion of one of the tracks. Thus, none of my beat matches were there for my listening pleasure. I can see the disappointment in your eyes. Don't be sad, there will be plenty more where that came from including previous recordings assuming I can upload them and post them without getting the hairs on my ass sued off.

Anyhow, I've spent the better portion of 3 hours tweaking and adjusting my computer, Ableton, and my sound card (Fast Track Pro) so hopefully even if the mixes suck the sound quality will be decent and the entire recording will save. One other thing I was able to do tonight was render a live session. I only recorded about a 30 second snippet of a track but I really wanted to see what it meant to render. Rendering is converting the mixes into a .wav file so I can listen to them through a music player or burn them to a CD or (hopefully) make them into mp3s and post them right here on this blog.

I think I'm going to head to bed and get some sleep, nothing like burying yourself in a compost heap of frustration to cure massive amounts of financial anxiety.

Good morning, I'll see you at dusk.

Specs and Texts

This is the gear I'm working with to learn to DJ. I wish the back of the second photo wasn't covered in wires. It looks messy but I swear it's relatively well kept. The following are what you can and can't see:

Mixer: Denon-x120 (This is a two channel mixer but seems quite adequate for my purposes.

CD decks: Denon DN-S1000 (2) (These, and the mixer take up a nice compact bit of space which is great for apartment living! The decks have quite a few effects as well as the ability to scratch. Really, from what I have been reading for the price these are tops.)

Monitors: Mackie MR5 (2) (These are 5.25" Active monitors meaning they are compact and require no external power such as an equalizer which is handy again for the small space I'm working in.)

Computer Interface: M-Audio Fast Track Pro (I haven't fiddled much with this aside from running the output of my mixer into it and sending a USB into my computer. It works relatively well but I do notice clipping at times and am trying to adjust for the problem.)

What you can't see:

Headphones: Stanton DJ Pro 2000 (These have a switch that lets me go between stereo and mono and while I think this is a neat feature I haven't figured out what the point is yet. Either way the headphones seem adequate. They were my second choice so that may be why I'm only lukewarm on them.)

Software: Ableton Live Lite 6 (I had the option to go with this or another piece of software. I chose this program mainly because I'm a fanboy. My two inspirations, Mike Harrington and Sasha both use this software to create beautiful music.)

So now that you've seen my arsenal of equipment I'll tell you what I've done. Slowly but surely I'm learning to beat match. It is a difficult talent to master but I feel like once I've done it progression will come quickly. I liken it to learning to snowboard, remember how difficult it was just to stand up and get going without falling? Once you obtain a sense of balance on your edges everything becomes much simpler. Riding powder or ice and even trying harder terrain becomes easier. Essentially you tend to fall less and less. Once I am able to beat match I should be able to don other tasks in my mixes without having to focus the majority of my song time to matching the beats. I'm looking forward to it becoming second nature. I have compiled a few mixes with two or three tracks but none of these are perfect. I am using them mainly as a training tool. I'm also hoping to figure out how to post them here for your audible discomfort with clipping and all. I guess my hope in creating and maintaining this blog is to keep my drive alive and let people know what really goes into all that work you see on stage. Or for those of you haters, the work you aren't seeing.

So happy reading and listening! Like I said I'm no expert I'm barely a beginner and some of my mixes might turn out like Frankenstein and others I'm hoping will be like the replicants in Blade Runner.

The first and most useless post

I'm really tired but I know I need to get something in here just to get the ball rolling. A little about me: I'm a guy taking on music as a hobby and maybe more. I recently purchased two CD players a mixer and some software to record my mixes. I have always enjoyed electronic music and seamless mixes. Some of my influences are Sasha, Tiesto, Oakenfold, Van Dyk and Harrington (shout out to the AK). While I know I'm nowhere near their level and probably never will be, it's certainly something I aspire to. My next blog will consist of some of the technical aspects of my equipment as well as the songs I'm working with. At the moment I'm laying in bed trying to recover from a long weekend and a bit of a sore throat.