Native Instruments today continues the #futureofdjing discussion with the fourth in a series of videos aimed at exploring how technological innovation plays a role in shaping the future of DJ culture, features pioneering UK house and techno legend Carl Cox on how he keeps his musical passion alive, and how TRAKTOR KONTROL S8 is taking a new generation of creativity forward.
The Dj controller hardware industry looks saturated and out of ideas lately. The first commercial Dj MIDI controller (KDJ-500) was released 11 years ago and things hasn’t changed very much since then. There is no doubt that nowadays we have an excellent variety of professional Dj controllers out there. Digital Dj movement has growth exponentially and it’s a mature collective inside the Dj artists.
A few weeks ago, they gathered an all-star lineup of musicians from The Loop Loft to set up and play at Guitar Center in NYC. No rehearsal. No agenda. Just the world’s best musicians, getting on stage and making music in the moment. The result? Watch below…
Digital audio workstations, controllers, interfaces: professional post-production capabilities can only be realized when all components work together in perfect harmony. Nuage Integrated Audio Production System brings it all together in a collaboration that defines new standards of quality and workflow efficiency for virtually every aspect of the production process. Yamaha control and interface hardware seamlessly integrates with Steinberg Nuendo DAW software in a purpose-built system that offers unprecedented productivity and flexibility as well as premium audio quality.
When Grammy-nominated composer BT was just a kid, his music teacher told him that nothing new would ever happen in the industry again – that becoming a master involved artfully rehashing the past.
Future Music Magazine went to The Hague (The Netherlands) and made a studio tour in the studios of Legowelt, famous for his use and love of vintage synthesizers and gear. Legowelt (real name Danny Wolfers) is a Dutch electronic musician who describes his musical style as “a hybrid form of slam jack combined with deep Chicago house, romantic ghetto technofunk and EuroHorror Soundtrack.”
Native Instruments reputation for high-quality production software, be it through their comprehensive groove box Maschine, amp and pedal simulator Guitar Rig, modular sound design environment Reaktor or various soft synths and samplers, has made them a regular on the hard drives of some of the biggest names in production, engineering and songwriting. While they are now a truly global company, they haven’t strayed too far from their sound design roots, with more experimental sample libraries and Reaktor ensembles regularly rolling out of their Berlin base.
As a member of The Legendary Roots Crew (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon), Mark Kelley‘s infectious bass grooves are heard by millions on TV every night. With his first Loop Loft release, “Mark Kelley – Bass Loops Vol 1”, The Looploft bring his signature style of deep pocket, fat tone and funky grooves directly to your DAW.
You’re probably already familiar with Ableton Push, the instrument for playing melodies, triggering clips, sequencing beats, and more. If you’ve been paying attention, you might also know that Push can be used to play and control hardware synthesizers. Today, we’re revisiting the topic hardware setups to show you how using the powerful drum pads and sequencer modes in Push, you can also get incredible expression from your drum machines.
Recently Rob Papen released the new version of his Blue synth, Blue II. BLUE-II remains true to the ethos of the original Blue synth but now with even more sound dimensions and features to its extended name, starting with six oscillators beating at its musically creative heart. These can be connected in various ways, together with two analogue-style modelled stereo filters with 27 different filter types, an enormous range of processing and modulation options, sequencer, and an incredibly powerful arpeggiator. A new range of specially selected waveforms based on samples have been meticulously fashioned for creating new and fresh-sounding synth sounds, so don’t go expecting acoustic pianos galore here.
San Francisco’s Dave Smith is a synthesizer pioneer par excellence, responsible for some of the biggest advancements in musical technology ever, including founding the legendary gear-maker Sequential Circuits and inventing the MIDI protocol. Hot Since 82 (aka Daley Padley) is a house producer and DJ from Yorkshire, England, who, up until now, has produced his tracks entirely in-the-box. So when Padley recently stopped through San Francisco to promote his Little Black Book album, Beatport got the two gear fanatics together at Smith’s lab to compare notes on the analog-vs.-digital world.
In this video we take a closer look at the Nanonext Chrystal Ball controller. Designed to create and control sound, light and video, Crystall Ball gives all your computer-aided creative work a new dimension. More than a controller, it is an intuitive, interactive and infinitely customisable tool. In a studio or live, let your senses speak and give free rein to your stage performance!
When at the Messe you of course visit the Roland stand. Popular amongst the visitors were the demonstrations of the new AIRA Series. Roland had a little surprise as they introduced a new addition to the AIRA series with a little Sync Box. We noticed that the sync box wasn’t named yet as there was a sticker on top of the box blocking that model name. So we can only assume it was still in prototype stage. However it worked flawlessly as you can see and hear in our video below.
One of the more interesting new announcements at the Messe was the new hardware and software integration from Elektron with ‘Overbridge’. We went to our Swedish friends and asked them to tell and show us more about the Overbridge concept.