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Richie Hawtin wants you to explore his DJ sets through a mobile app
Have you ever wanted to know exactly what DJs are doing during sets besides cuing the next track? You now have a good opportunity to find out. Minimal techno pioneer Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman, F.U.S.E. and other pseudonyms) has released a Closer app in beta for Android and iOS that goes well beyond the usual concert footage. You can switch between multiple camera angles and track audio layers to see exactly how Hawtin puts together a set using all his on-stage equipment. If you want to know how he put together a killer synth sequence, you can mute everything else and switch to a view to see Hawtin's fingers fly over the controls.
Oddball machine makes 'analog' techno music with vinyl records
Many techno DJs are used to playing music on vinyl, but creating it? That's another matter. However, Graham Dunning has found a wonderfully strange way to make that idea work. His Mechanical Techno device produces full-on dance tracks by driving several heavily modified records at once with a turntable, with each record relying on unique triggers to produce a sound. Electrical contacts will produce a synth sound as one record spins around, for instance, while piezoelectric triggers create that all-important beat on another disc. The result is techno that's at once analog and not. It sounds digital, but it has the imprecision and unpredictability that you'd never get from software.
The owner of music's most influential sample is finally getting paid
The "Amen break" is arguably the most important 6 seconds of music ever recorded. With the popularization of sampling, the 4-bar drum solo (originally from The Winstons' 1969 track "Amen, Brother") become a mainstay of early hip hop, before being sped up and chopped to become the breakbeat that defined jungle, drum 'n' bass and techno music. Despite it featuring in many, many successful tracks, The Winstons never received any royalties for use of the sample, something that a new crowdfunding campaign is hoping to fix. A GoFundMe page tilted "The Winstons Amen Breakbeat Gesture" is looking to raise as much money as possible for Richard L. Spencer, The Winstons' lead vocalist and "Amen, Brother" copyright holder.
Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol F1 review
What is a DJ? Everyone who considers him or herself one can probably give you a unique answer. Is everyone with a music collection and a sense for good timing a DJ, or does their music collection have to exceed a certain number of gigabytes or slabs of vinyl to be in the club (no pun intended)? Audio playback devices are certainly getting more plentiful and powerful on a large scale; anyone who's played with an iOS DJ app can tell you that. In the deeper end of the DJ pool, things aren't expanding at such a frantic pace. But every once in a while a new toy crops up that adds depth and breadth to the way music nerds play back music. Native Instruments' just-released Traktor Kontrol F1 is a blinking slab of rainbow-tinged hardware with an intense devotion to manipulating samples. While boxes from Roland and Akai have been defining genres for decades, this 16-pad add-on takes the sampling game to a new arena. Will DJ's want it? We feel it's safe to say they will. At $279, should they buy it? That question's a little more complicated.%Gallery-156497%
A day with deadmau5: LEDs, Super Mario, and techno
Deadmau5 (also known as Joel Zimmerman) is one of the largest names in the electronic and house music scene -- and he also happens to be a major tech head. Recently, the Canadian producer added some impressive new gear to his productions, in the form of a massive LED-covered cube and signature mau5head (that's pronounced "mouse-head" in case you couldn't guess). Read along after the break for an exclusive look at exactly what's going on inside the mind of deadmau5 -- both literally and figuratively.
TUAW at E3: Guitar Rock Tour 2 and DJ Mix Tour
While we really liked Gameloft's Castle of Magic at E3, these two music games in their lineup didn't impress nearly as much. Guitar Rock Tour 2 is a sequel to Guitar Rock Tour, and as you can tell from the picture at right, it's more or less a Guitar Hero knock-off: hit the notes as they pass the line at the bottom, and you'll hear whatever song you choose to play. At this point, gameplay on all of these games is more or less the same, so song selection makes the difference, and that's where Guitar Rock Tour 2 falls short: the game contains only four original tracks, and fifteen covers. While they do lay claim to tracks by Judas Priest, Panic at the Disco, Wolfmother, Placebo and Twisted Sister, Tapulous pretty much has the market covered in terms of getting great music playable on the iPhone, and we didn't see anything during our hands on that would attract us away from Tap Tap Revenge and its various forms.DJ Mix Tour is the other music game they showed us -- this one had a club feel and had you pressing notes on a turntable rather than guitar frets. There were some interesting choices in that game -- we saw some covers of Britney Spears club mixes, as well as Lady Gaga and Darude's famous Sandstorm tune, so if you're a die-hard techno fan, there might be some new tunes in there for you among the sixteen total songs. But again, Tap Tap Revenge is so polished after all their updates, and already has such a great selection of tunes that it's hard to recommend Gameloft's versions.Both will be available for $5.99 in the App Store sometime this month.
Sword of the New World expands with Nocturnal Sonata
IGN has a scoop on the new 'Nocturnal Sonata' expansion to Sword of the New World, an MMO also known as Granado Espada in Asia. Sword of the New World is a free-to-play title brought to North America and Europe by the K2 Network. Massively has looked at this game in the past and found it to be a quirky title; IGN describes its setting as 'the European Baroque period if it was designed by a modern anime artist'. Sword of the New World becomes even more surreal given that its old world setting is juxtaposed with a techno soundtrack. Surreal qualities aside, the game has some interesting features, particularly the use of collectible UPCs, or Unique Player Characters. The concept is somewhat comparable to the Heroes in Guild Wars. You control up to three characters at once who are members of your 'family'; certain NPCs for whom you've successfully completed quests offer themselves up to be added to your family as UPCs and called upon to aid you in your adventures. They provide access to special hybrid classes with unique powers to match. There are over 40 such UPCs, and two more are initially being added in the Nocturnal Sonata expansion: Vincent Rio (who inflicts damage with music) and Baek Ho (martial artist extraordinaire). Yet more UPCs are to follow in the coming months, adding new gameplay possibilities to Sword of the New World. The Nocturnal Sonata expansion will be released on June 25, and closely follows the 'The Land of the Dead' expansion released only three months ago.
Forum Post of the Day: What type of music do Azerothians make?
Acerba of Cenarion Circle started a pretty fun discussion the other day on her server boards: What type of music would typify various races and cultures of Azeroth? Sure, we all have our soundtracks for when we get tired of the in-game music, and the in-game music itself often has various themes that show again and again music to represent various concepts, but thinking about what music your character would listen to or what sounds you might here around a bonfire at Razor Hill (Well, besides L70ETC) or in a fine mansion in Silvermoon City is a really fun exercise. I'm one who often creates soundtracks for my PnP and MMORPG characters alike in order to understand this, so I find it a useful exercise for us roleplayers, as well.
Today's most patriotic dancing video: Stephen Colbert meets DDR
Or: Colbert + DDR + video - the pulse pounding techno = hilarityYou have a problem. You've got some downtime, need a quick break from the routine, but aren't sure where to turn. Do you browse your RSS feeds for a distraction? Head to the water cooler and try to join in on the insane banter about what reality show contestant was the biz-omb last night? Well, we've got the answer. Just keep yourself parked here and check out Stephen Colbert in a DDR-style dance game, with slightly less than Tron quality graphics. It's amusing, brief, and worth a watch. Then you can return to your previously put-on-pause lifestyle.
Groove down with Steve: "No Stylus"
I know that mileage will vary among listeners, but I found this Macworld Keynote-inspired dance track hilarious. Simon Bachofen has put together a techno-inspired riff on Steve Jobs' new "Internet Communicator" aka the stylus-free iPhone. He combines keynote snippets with a driving rhythm. Workplace warning: you may find yourself tapping your foot and/or grooving down to the beat while listening. I've been dancing to this thing for the last quarter hour. It's...hypnotizing on a Hypnotoad scale of 10. You can download a copy here. It's mirrored so we don't kill the servers over at the original link. Thanks Geezer
Downloadable music from Gunpey
Of the three upcoming Mizuguchi music fusion games, it feels like Gunpey's getting the least attention. And that's not fair! The line-connecting puzzler features the same sensory candy as Lumines, with impressive skins and even better music. IGN has secured some footage of the game in motion, and it is a beautifying mix of colors and sound. But that's not all! You'll definitely want to download the three MP3s they have from the game's soundtrack, plop them into your PSP and then listen to some really groovin' techno while you're on the go.Gunpey hits stores one week after Lumines, one the 14th. It's also retailing for the budget price of $30. Rad.See also:Heavenly Star Fan Pack
