Marc Reck

After one of the hottest weekends this year, i’ve had a few hours early this morning (awoken by a neumatic drill!) to do some digging about about digital controllers, and how i can use them. Suffice to say there are a few people doing some groundbreaking stuff, and they have left their links for everyone to share!

I was a bit of a vinyl purist when i was younger, but once i saw the possibilities of cdj’s, i quickly integrated them into my vestax vinyl setup. When the Denon Dns 5000’s came out similar to the(Pioneer 1000’s but with more functions), i’d kinda lost interest spending all my money on expensive, bulky vinyl, and after about 6 months into 2006, I had converted pretty much everything to cd. The trigger/cue/sample buttons, playing two tracks at from one player, the portability and accessibility of cds, made all the arguments to just stay with vinyl fade into memory.

I kept one of technics decks of course, but played out on my cdjs pretty much everywhere.

Around that time the advent of Ableton, and digital djing was starting to gain popularity, (with Sasha being at the forefront with a very expensive custom made controller i seem to remember). Most of the dj’s i saw were hunched over a laptop, which i dont think works from an audience point of view, as djing is to me a lot about the performance. Having one piece of kit in front of you just allow enough moving about on stage, no matter how big your arm gestures are.

That said i was interested with really interested in what you could do, and got to grips with Ableton in the studio. Then at the end of 2007 i met the brother of my surrent landlady, who told me about Traktor Scratch. A piece of software with 2 vinyl and 2 cds, that would allow the dj to manipulate any wav or mp3 on their computer the same as if it were actually burnt onto a cd or vinyl. The amazing thing was that the tracking of the mp3 was soo tight, you really couldnt tell the difference.

This not only inspired me to learn to scratch (finally!), but also allowed me to develop aspirations i’ve had for a long while now. The basic premise was djing with 4 decks, 3 effects units, 2 microphones, and and an array of live instruments, musicians and recordings, alongside my entire music collection, and various tracks and loops i had created in the studio. Not only that but also working intelligently with vjs and performers, and other djs on laptops.

So from the start of 2008 i began the huge task of first sorting my 10, 000 records into genres, and then determining their key, in the hope that it would (a) be fun to jam with, and (b) be a common language of i could speak to musicians with. Thankfully because of my move to cds, i didn’t actually have to import and edit each one, and was just left with one collection that needed to be sorted. This process also inspired me to write tutorials and tips on the process, as it really was painstakingly long, and there are hundreds of different ways you can choose. These tutorials / blog posts are still on the backburner, but should have time for them soon.

Anyway a few months went by, and i sorted my music collection, backed it up (twice!) , and got to know Traktor Scratch that little bit better. I also developed my scratching ability, which i pleased to say now resembles something very similar to halfway decent scratching, (although i’ve yet to perform it out live). The 3rd Project X Presents was my first live outing with Traktor, and it went really well, although the reason i bought it was to take my djing to the next level, and although the set was more diverse, and rocked it well, i didnt really do anything that you can’t do on a normal set of decks.

So then i turn 30, and for my birthday i get a midi controller, and simultaneously buy a friends foot pedal. The day before i get my new (clever) midi controller, i finally learn how to programme my old (bad) midi controllers into cubase. This paves the way for my first reckorder blog, and has shown me how the idea for live performance and djing can work.

So now i’ve got the task of setting everything up and now seeing how it all can work. I have some really interesting gigs coming up this year, which will really allow me to spread my wings so to speak, and which will be great platforms for some of these ideas.

Mr Elephant’s bank holiday alldayer on May 25th, Project X Presents on June 14th, Giles Peterson on June 27th, and of course Custom Made on July 25th, will all allow me to explore my record collection with the Project X gig also an opportunity to play live.

Anyway thats a little intro to my new world of djing, and one i hope will fulfill the ideas. I was inspired by the links from this website, and its has some great ideas for anyone wishing to explore further, (and/or wants an alternative to Native Instruments forum.)

I hope you find it useful, and i look forward to sharing something interesting very soon.