The 2008 Beats On The Beach Miami Music Seminar took place last weekend and featured panels, networking opportunities, along with a number of industry insiders. That’s all nice and good, but what we really care about is the producer beat battle/showcase. Respect to producer S1 (Symbolic One) for making the trek and taking home the … Read more
The digital vinyl combat has heated up with Native Instruments’ announcement of Traktor Pro and Traktor Scratch Pro.
On the software end, Traktor Pro features revised functions such as cueing and looping, extended MIDI syncing, incremental track search, portable collection and setting files, dedicated key correction and filter sections for each deck. Traktor Scratch Pro includes both Tracktor Pro Software and the Audio 8 DJ interface with a set of time-coded vinyl and CD’s.
Serato Scratch Live has long been the standard in the world of digital vinyl, but things have just gotten even more interesting now that the announcement has been made about their creative partnership Ableton. “Ableton and Serato take different approaches to modern musical performance,” says Ableton CEO Gerhard Behles, “But both companies live by the … Read more
Grand Master Roc Raida in association with Stanton presents: THE 2008 GONG DJ BATTLE FINALS Hosts: Lord Sear & DJ Fat Fingaz Music by DJ Boogie Blind Featuring Performances by: DJ Slyce: 08 DMC World Vice Champion DJ Shiftee: 07 DMC World Supremacy Champion DJ Roli Rho: 95-96: Rhythm Method Battle Champion Wednesday, Oct. 22, … Read more
Line 6 has announced their new series of USB recording interfaces, POD Studio GX, UX1, and UX2. Also announced were the two recording plugins the POD Farm and POD Farm Platiinum. A nice thing to note is that while the interfaces range in price from the the entry level GX at $140 to the upscale UX2 at $280, each comes with the POD Farm plugin and option of upgrading to the Platinum version. Not at bad way to get started recording on a budget.
Respect to Concrete Loop for dropping a collection of Kanye West studio pics. Nice to see that Kanye is still using the Ensoniq ASR-10, Akai MPC 2000XL along with a MacBook Air, multiple MacBook Pros, and enough synths and racks to make you go insane. Notice the NES clone covertly lying in the background. Head … Read more
In part 2 of his interview with K-Salaam, Just Blaze talks about getting started in production and his respect for skilled DJ’s. Important lessons are learned about networking and pushing past career related boundaries. Part 1: Just Blaze Interview K-Salaam & Beatnick
Some in-studio footage with producer Pharrell Williams and Kanye West’s artist Big Sean. Pharrell demos a little synth work and lays the foundation for a track… always a pleasure watching him work!
Rsonist of The Heatmakerz talks about the true nature of leaked albums, 360 deals, and money lost from perceived label manipulations. While I can’t say that I agree with his analysis of the label’s "master plan", it’s interesting to get a producer’s opinion on the value of leaks.
In part two Rsonist goes on to address the sophomore jinx, music as a reflection of your internal state, and laying off of the Heatmakerz signature sound.
Bad Boy production master Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie sits with Sean C and LV to tell stories of Notorious B.I.G., unreleased tracks, and the trust that Biggie had in his producers.