Aza

No doubt, Brother Noff! At £1,500 each you'd expect them to just about p!ss on anything

This has just been released (link) - what ya think, at £429 it's more for my budget range as well me parting with the cash and knowing how busy I am with work whether I'll use it that much...

You're right, Quadrant - and thank you for the kind words! I must admit been feeling a lot like the Fabio Stein words and thread here - the music scene is just not doing it for me that much anymore, which kind of gives you less to mix and fall out of touch with things... On the subject of looking for a new solution, however, I was round a mates last week and had a go on Tracktor S4 - Native Instruments! What a bit of kit! Absolutely amazing how DJ'ing is all shifting to these kind of things. I had a go, cued up a track and beat matched etc. then when shown how "there's a button for that, and a button for that as well". Insane! I think these things make it far too easy for a DJ, although the only good thing I can think of is it just gives you complete control of the mix and your set and frees you up to a lot of effects and / or creativity to when you mix! The built in mixer is not bad, but is nothing on a dedicated DJM600. Any thoughts on this with anybody here? Wonder what the Pioneer DDJ-T1 Traktor DJ Controller is like? Is this now the kit that Eddie Halliwell uses? Also, any thoughts on preferences out the aforementioned Pioneer against the Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S4 DJ Controller?

Thanks for your help and advise...

You need to post a bit more to be able to download...

'99 is a bit vague in my memory so voted for 2003!

I've been thinking about this lately and was hoping you could all offer some advise? I reiterate my requirement for an elegant solution especially since all my stuff now is digital and don't want to be burning discs etc. Sadly, my time on the decks is becoming less and less, however, I still love my music and love mixing. I love the concept of these new solutions almost being mobile and you can take these with you, if need be. What I really want genuine advise and opinions on is this; because of the above, would it be worth me paying for a premium (for example - this link). To come back to requirements, I don't want nothing fancy, just something where I mix like I always do; decks and a decent mixer. At best it would be used a few hours a week, maybe a few weekend outings... I love what's been proposed - thanks to your help with the links for the integrated solutions - however, are there any other 'cheaper' and similar solutions? I can vouch for quality, though. Making my jump many years ago to Pioneer and especially the DJM60 - you tend to not look back!

Downloaded this from his site - will have to check this out! If what you say is all true about his mixing, why does he upload - I'd certainly never upload anything that I wasn't proud to put my name against. Obviously has not listened back to his set...

Also, got on a bit of side track with related vids... Most impressed surprised at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrIHQVnC9VY&feature=related See if you can then follow some more of the related vids from similar folk. Found one comment that sums all of this up nicely; either the producers have it easy or this guy is awesome!

Must say very shocked and feel very sorry for the crowd. There seems to be a lot of attention around this on youtube and they've even removed some of the vids. This video is close to being as good as the one Briggsy once posted of Tiesto's train wreck mixing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZCg_j7sq_k

Gonna download this to check it out - haven't checked out these sets for a while so interested to give it a go...

True on the loop scratching front, but I guess we all know that he can do it and it was awesome with vinyl back in the day!

Also, I got the vibe that he treats his profession as a kind of 'business market' thingy. Like he needs to change what his business services offer to meet market requirements, which I think is totally what DJ'ing is NOT all about! You have your style, and you should also honor that to which your, true, original fanbase got you going with. You only become big because of what people make of you and ANY professional should not forget that! I'm sure he's also loaded so you'd think he's got a financial plan in place to pretty much see he and his family through many of a happy day. Very interesting to see that he'll be going back into law once he hangs up the headphones!

This months free CD courtesy of DJ Mag: 01 Deadmau5 - Sofi Needs A Ladder (Eddie's Ed-It) 02 Chris Lake vs Nightriders - Love That Sound (Eddie's Ed-It) 03 Dehasse - Canadian Angel (Eddie's Ed-It) 04 Matt Cooper - The Brazen Bull (Eddie's Ed-It) 05 Marascia - Watcha (Eddie's Ed-It) 06 Christian Smith - Flyer Talk (Eddie's Ed-It) 07 Eddie Halliwell - Aether 08 Funkagenda - Splinter 09 Moguai Feat. Sofi - Beat Of The Drum (Eddie's Ed-It) 10 TWR72 - The Tunnel (Eddie's Ed-It) 11 Fedde Le Grand - Control Room (Eddie's Ed-It) 12 Kaiserdisco - Pitaya (Eddie's Ed-It) 13 Dualtec - Bad Touch (Eddie's Ed-It) 14 Eddie Halliwell - Neon 15 Lauer & Canard - I Need You (Eddie's Ed-It) 16 Paul Thomas - Skaramoosh 17 Eddie Halliwell - Presents Ed-It - 1 18 Michael Woods - No Access 19 Hardwell - Encoded Thoughts!? This doesn't look even look close to previous Mixmag mixes - looks very housey... Still interested to check it out...

Mike and Tom, you're absolutely right! I've just compared these two and I must say I'm very dissapointed, was expecting so much from Eddie's first productions... Should just stick to DJ'ing... Some more folk discussing it here.

Cheers for that. Jason, was a pretty good read. Jules still does always give a good interview and is very down to earth. I guess we've all kind of established that his style has changed and that's just to fit the crowds, which he has stated. Funny how he just mentioned about Eddie's first track, which we discuss here...

I haven't heard the other traks Tom, where can I take a look!? Yeah, I tend to agree with you all here, and as Milkybarkid put, you'd certainly be expecting a harder style track at least. I really think his live ED-ITs serve as awesome offerings and this is quite a let down for me personally as this offering doesn't do it for me. I follow his Fire It Up radio show and he certainly has changed his style over the past year or so. I would describe it as almost 'electro funk trace' now. The tempo has dropped and his end of show mixes aren't like the stuff we are so used to hearing. I think this goes back to some of the posts we've all been discussing about how the music scene is changing and I think this may also be down to the actual DJ's. I mean, for me, I can't say for sure since you never know how you feel in the future, but if I am know for a certain style, I would stick to it. Maybe adapt it based on venue or time of set, but these big DJ's can almost play what they like without worrying about what the crowd want.

So, I must say that I have long awaited for such an offering, but given all we've discussed on here, my time for enthusiastic following has dropped. I remember speaking to Jules about Eddie and whilst Jules was hammering his own productions and also 'bigging up' Eddie, Jules said Eddie was still "finding his feet". That said, Eddie still ceases to amaze me when watching his sets live and he almost need not produce his own track since his sets and new Pioneer technology (Eddie Digital Integrated Technology (ED-IT) demonstrate his ability to almost produce/remix live. His first track has been exclusively released on BeatPort and the following comes from his website: I do really like the philosophy and background to his tracks something similar to which I kind of used for titling my own mix sets. Anyhow, here is short preview on youtube. Or, you check out a sample on BeatPort. I don't think it quite packs the energy as reflected in his sets. It's on FIUR, which I guess is Eddie's own label and is probably 'Fire It Up Records'. Thoughts!?

So having been completely inspired by Pete Tong's show back in April on BBC Radio 1, it got me thinking a lot about doing one for myself and of course asking all you guys on here to share and do the same. Tong was very crafty in the way he went about this - albeit rather intellectually, but I don't think it was fair how, on some tracks, he alocated a track to a letter based on the remotest of detail. For you and me on here, I hope to make it a lot simpler: the track's artist, title or remixer must be associated with the letter which you are corresponding to. Nationality, genre, label or anything outside of what is bolded are not allowed! I've added in a "#" to allow for tracks containing numbers, but apart from that, based on the above criteria it's as simple as "A" right through to "Z". Just before diving in and sharing, I'd like to offer a little advice since this helped me a great deal and I realised how easier it is when I really struggled to look for titles to fil in the missing entries; don't look at your record collection! Instead, just think off the top of your head and do a brain dump of tracks and then re-jig them... You tend to reminisce and contemplate way too much and begin to question what you've already put down when looking back through the collection... My selection is based on the premise of not necessarily how good the tracks have been or are, but trying to be true to the point of what's an A-Z of my musical career which included things like what actually got me in to the music scene, through to, what tracks really resonated with me right to what went down frequently in my sets. So, without further a do, here goes: # - Mat Zo - 24 Hours A - Plummet - Damaged (Antillas Remix) B - BBE - Seven Days & One Week (Original Extended Mix) C - Citizen Kane - The Journey D - Darude - Sandstorm E - Kristine Blonde - Love Shy (Electric Boutique Remix) F - Frank Biazzi - Turbulence G - Gladiator - Now We Are Free H - Ratty - Sunrise (Here I Am) I - Warrior - If You Want Me (Original Mix) J - John O'Callaghan feat. Josie - Out Of Nowhere (Stoneface & Terminal Remix) K - DK - Murder Was The Bass L - Signalrunners - Leaving London M - Da Hool - Meet Her At The Love Parade (Fergie Remix) N - Nalin & Kane - Beachball O - Insigma - Open Our Eyes (Sean Tyas No Piano Remix) P - Push - The Legacy Q - DJ Quicksilver - Bellisima R - Rank 1 -Awakening (Cosmic Gate Remix) S - Marco V - Solarize T - Brooklyn Bounce - Club Bizare (Tomcraft Remix) U - Tiesto - Urban Train V - VPL - T-Break (Steve Murano) W - Signum - What Ya Got 4 Me? (Vocal Extended Mix) X - X-Cabs - Neuro Y - Y-Trax - Mysterland Z - Spoiled & Zigo - More & More

Ok guys, this has excited me a great deal and was just amazing to listen to. It's given me the desire and motivation to now do my very own "A-Z" of music. I'm going to split this topic since this is where the idea was borne and continue in a new thread... I hope you will join me

Actually would struggle to put together a top 5 based on this year, but I've mainly been following Eddie Halliwell (still) and his radio show as well as Ferry Corsten and Mat Zo.

Did anyone see and hear the show of Pete Tong's A-Z? BBC R1 say: "On Friday 8th April, BBC Radio 1 is celebrating dance music legend Pete Tong's two decades at the station with a night of programming dedicated to his outstanding broadcasting career." He went through the entire alphabet and his entire collection (apparently some unknown storage place in London) and pieced together a whole list of tracks spanning his entire memory and upbringing. The method of deciding on some of the letters was a little weird in places, for e.g. deciding on Track F because the artist was French! Guess that shows his amazing insight into the tracks that he was so desperate to play. I recently checked out the podcast which was with Pete and Rob Da Bank and it has got me thinking of doing my own A-Z... Hopefully I will when I get a chance Anyhow, here are the tracks played - thoughts!? Tribe Called Quest – Can I Kick It (Boilerhouse Mix) [Jive] Monty Python – Always Look On The Bright Side of Life [Virgin] Prince – Controversy [Warner Bros] Dillinger – Cokane In My Brain [bellaphone] EPMD – Strictly Business [Fresh] Serge Gainsbourg – Initials BB [Mercury] Roy Budd – Main Theme (Carter Gets A Train) [Cinephile] Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo [Hotflush] Goldie – Inner City Life [FFRR] Depeche Mode – I Just Can’t Get Enough (Live At The Pasadena Rose Bowl) [Mute] Kate Bush – Cloudbusting [EMI] Jamie Principle – Baby Wants To Ride [FFRR] Malcolm McLaren – Buffalo Girls [Charisma Records] Paul McCartney & Wings – Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five [Apple] Black Sabbath – Paranoid [Vertigo] Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset (Tong & Rogers Sonar Mix) [White Label] The Brothers Johnson – Strawberry Letter # 23 [A&M] Roxy Music – If There Is Something [island] Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Hand Covers Bruise [The Null Corporation] T. Rex – Children of the Revolution [EMI / Reprise] Eric B & Rakim – Paid In Full (Derek B Urban Respray Mix) [4th And Broadway] Benoit & Sergio – Walk And Talk [Visionquest] One Dove – Fallen [FFRR] The Rolling Stones – It’s All Over Now [Decca] Fine Young Cannibals – I’m Not The Man I Used To Be [i.R.S] Ninjaman & Florigan – Zig It Up [Profile]

A lot of very good points mentioned above all of which I tend to agree with. I certainly haven't been clubbing for a fair while now and don't actually miss it. I'd certainly say the last year or two has been the worst in trance. I would say this could be down to a few reasons; too easy to produce tracks nowadays, there is no creativity or innovative approaches to production unlike the older days. Also, generations are changing and with that artists - more so newer ones - are producing tripe that seems to get people buying and requesting more of the same! I think also times change and maybe our time is passing. We maybe are growing out of stuff as well as the people we've grown to love changing and not hitting the nail on the head like they used to. I find myself listening to more of my older stuff than following 'today's' music now and not even feeling in the mood to mix like I used to. But that may just be me growing out of it... Nonetheless, I still always have a place in my heart for the music that has played a significant part of my life and given me so many great times and experiences as well as a drive to mix and be creative!

I may consider splashing out on a solution since I just love my music... Time will tell (and if I can get a bonus )! Anyhow guys, which do you think of out these two(?): Pioneer DDJ-T1 with free HDJ500 Headphones Traktor DJ Controller Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S4 - FREE TRAKTOR SCRATCH UPGRADE DJ Controller Would be completely new to all this and software interaction etc. so would have plenty of reading to do... Cheers

Nice kit there, Mark. Moving this to Open Chat... Got CDJ800's and a DJM600 myself. Best instruments I've ever layed my hands on! Why are you looking to move to that? I've just posted this here - is it for similar reasons? Maybe you could even help post there to let me know more on what I'm looking for. What is this 'S4' like then and how does it work? Cheers