Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks

Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
http://djworx.com/rock-on-moldover-roll-on-remix-decks/
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April 20, 2012
Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
April 16, 2012 By Mark Settle 9 Comments
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Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
http://djworx.com/rock-on-moldover-roll-on-remix-decks/
Strap in DJs, because you’re about to be dragged kicking and screaming into the brave new world
envisioned by Native Instruments. And holding your hand through the potential head wrecker that are
Traktor v2.5′s Remix Decks and the Traktor Kontrol F1 is Moldover, the Godfather of the
controllerist movement.
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Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
http://djworx.com/rock-on-moldover-roll-on-remix-decks/
This is all about live controllerism in its purest form – manipulating loops and individual sounds and
instrument samples, which Moldover does effortlessly and seems immediately at home with this new
NI gear. I like this video – partly because it’s perhaps a more suitable method for showing the remix
decks, but also because it offers practical examples, and also shows the little utilised live sampler on
the S4. I still struggled with just how punch mode works (I get it now), but there’s still a lot of
explaining to do of this new workflow.
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Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
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Unless I’m very much mistaken, “DJ” isn’t mentioned once. I don’t know if it’s deliberate, but for me
it underlines the differences in mindsets when approaching the Remix Decks. Controllerist is a term
bandied around and is more often than not generically tagged onto DJs who use controllers for DJing,
rather than musicians and producers who use controllers for live performance.
But this inspiring demo shows us that DJs can be performers too. While Moldover uses the F1s and
S4 as instruments rather than players to make a clever live performance, DJs can take cues from this
type of thing and incorporate more performance elements into their sets too.
My concern right from seeing it back in January was that it’s a very complex proposition to get across
to DJs. The Serato/Ableton Bridge mashup has suffered because of the simple fact that DJs don’t get
Ableton Live. It’s not so much a learning curve as a learning wall that has to be scaled for DJs, who
are used to working largely in a simple 2 deck setup.
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Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
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The success of this way of working will be down entirely to explaining it properly. Technology is
moving at a breathtaking speed right now, and it’s easy to forget that there’a a lot of DJs out there who
are still getting used to using loops in their sets, let alone cramming a semi-DAW into their headspace.
Generally, we know deck A and deck B playing long tracks, and to be confronted with a 4×4 pad
doing so much more than we’re used to is daunting to say the least.
So software vendors – please do not expect us to run towards an entirely new way of working without
showing us the way first. And use music we recognise too – that’ll bring understanding on leaps and
bounds. Dig deep for that sample clearance for your promo videos and you’ll reap the benefit later.
Thus I urge NI to break the Remix Decks down idiot style so that people can see the real potential. It
would be a shame to see a possible game changer fall by the wayside because the potential audience
simply didn’t get it.
Incidentally, Moldover has a full free album to download – grab it here.
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Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Kontrol F1, Moldover, Native instruments, Remix Decks, Traktor
About Mark Settle
Dragging DJing and web stuff into one place, Mark Settle created skratchworx 9 years ago and laid
down the online blueprint for DJ gear reporting. Now he's about to do it all over again with
DJWORX. Enjoy the ride.
People left comments
1.
Ryan Supak said this::
April 16, 2012 at 2:03 pm
To me this is great but it isn’t what I’d call DJing. To me DJing is primarily about presenting
songs to people.
This has some technical similarities to DJing, but this is more about “playing” loops. That the
loops happened to come from existing songs is incidental. (If anything it’s more like a DMC
routine, but personally I can handle about 5-7 minutes of DMC routine. I wouldn’t go dancing
to a spot where they were performing DMC routines all night.)
But “I’m OK, you’re OK”, and all that, of course.
rs
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Ryan Supak said this::
April 16, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Oh, and just to stave off any hair-splitting, I know it’s possible for a DJ to do a “miniroutine” during an otherwise conventional set, and I know turntable mashups have existed
since at least the 70′s. But I’m talking about the general traits of a thing, not the
exceptional parts of it.
rs
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Jared Helfer said this::
6 of 12
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Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
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April 16, 2012 at 6:14 pm
I think it’s a valid concern, though. There are DJs and producers who go out and
spin/perform these sets where just too much is going on. I don’t want to hear the 2
minute intros and outros to songs, but I also want to hear the songs, especially
those awesome parts, instead of just hearing them cut in and out and mashed up
against other things, for three or four hours.
Moderation is key.
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2.
Loudist said this::
April 17, 2012 at 10:24 am
Personally, I couldn’t be more excited. Computers and software have finally got to the point
where they are both reliable enough for live remixing to become a credible artform. Plus, the
possibilities for whole new forms of performance via this sort of set-up are literally staggering.
This may not be DJ’ing, but (whatever it ends-up being called) we wouldn’t have got to that
point without DJ’ing. Bring it on!
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Mark Settle said this::
April 17, 2012 at 10:30 am
Just to add to this Loudist – DJing as a movement came about by people doing things that
you weren’t supposed to do with music. Records were designed to be listened to end to
end, not blended and mixed. Scratching was a complete accident as well. The very
foundation of modern DJing has been based on using sections of music, either in isolation
of repeating them to extend a break.
We’re at a time when this foundation is being added to and extended thanks to
technology. I for one embrace it wholeheartedly.
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Carlos Hernandez said this::
April 17, 2012 at 11:22 am
Amen! Brother!
Experimentalism, accidents, creativity, exploring new frontiers! Remix,
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Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
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reconstruct, new tools, new paradigms, from the old to the new and the new to the
old, embrace the new and mix it up with the old and come out with something that
is absolutely just you!
Try new tools, new ways to express yourself, use the new tools for what they are
meant to be use, or even better, find ways to use those tools on ways they were not
meant to be use! There is no rules written on stone when it comes to Djing. The
world of the Musician, the Producer and The Dj is merging more and more
everyday thanks to new technology! Embrace it and make it yours, give it your
own flavor and be the next person that bring something new and fresh to the world
of Djing and music in general!
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3.
GroovinDJ said this::
April 17, 2012 at 11:45 pm
I don’t see how this can really work well, especially for those who aren’t used to using loops
and samples, unless this new Traktor software has onboard Ableton Live style warping.
All these bits and bobs of tracks that need to be kept in sync. Unless you’ve spent ages
preparing it all and making sure it’s all at one tempo, the potential for it to get messy very
quickly is enormous.
I’d love to see DJ software with warping. It’d save having to run stuff through Live first.
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4.
KLH said this::
April 18, 2012 at 3:34 pm
What we’re seeing (IMHO) is the embodiment of a minimal setup to do Live Remixing, a la DJ
Enferno (http://djenferno.com/lrp/). NI does this with Traktor v2.5 and Serato+Ableton do it
with Scratch Live, the Bridge, and Live 8.
Is this the future of DJing? Time will tell. So far, crowds don’t seem to be dazzled by the
increased skills required to do this type of performance…
-KLH
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DJ Koopa said this::
April 18, 2012 at 6:09 pm
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Rock On Moldover – Roll On Remix Decks
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Agree with the “crowds don’t seem to be dazzled by the increased skills required to do
this type of performance” point – especially not in the clubs I play at anyway. A lot of the
younger crowds (18-21) these days seem to stop dancing if you play a slightly different
version of a song they like, let alone a mad self made mash-up. I’m sure the crowds for
these types of performances are out there, and I long for the day they start taking over the
dancefloors, but as far as mainstream clubbing goes I don’t think they are ready for this
sort of thing yet.
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