Bringing a highly technical performance to the table, Trevor Nygaard utilizes three or more decks alongside ‘live PA’ elements to deliver a fresh, unique take on the art of a DJ. While most traditional DJ’s are simply playing one track into another for the crowd, Trevor is delivering a constant [...]
If music throughout the 2000's and 2010's – and that’s pop, rock, and EDM specifically – had any specific characteristic, it’s this strange affinity for the old. It’s almost as if those late ‘90s disco compilations, somewhat tongue-in-cheek and somewhat attempting to disco-ize the Eurodance craze of the time, become [...]
We reviewed LIVKONTROL favourably back in April when it was initially released for iPad. It has just received a fairly hefty update, and is additionally now available for iPhone and Android (it is in fact the first Live controller available on the Android platform). With this in mind, we decided [...]
With DJing equipment, smaller seems to be the trend, but should having a highly-portable piece of gear come at the expense of quality? Although this may be the case with certain products, the Traktor Kontrol Z1 manages to do both. In becoming something practically any DJ will need in the [...]
String parts are used incredibly frequently in electronic music, yet they can prove infuriatingly difficult to get right. Often, even when using high quality samples, they can sound sterile and unrealistic. There are, thankfully, a number of techniques you can use that will increase the realism of your string parts [...]
Ableton Live 9 has been out for a few months now, and whilst many people have already upgraded, undoubtedly there are a few of you out there who are still mulling over whether it is worth stumping up the cash for an upgrade. We felt that maybe now was a [...]
At least among older keyboardists, monophonic, analog synths have gotten greater visibility in recent years. The Cure’s Rodger O’Donnell’s first solo album The Truth in Me (2006) involved the Moog Voyager, while Depeche Mode’s Sounds of the Universe, even as mediocre as the result was, featured some vintage Moogs. The [...]
Who says beginners or casual DJs can’t have decent gear? With its value and “starter” Mixtrack line, Numark continues to grow, with the Mixtrack Quad expanding the capabilities of the Mixtrack Pro II, which we reviewed back in April 2013. This DJ controller with audio I/O comes with four channels [...]
If details go into a piece of gear’s design, will the sound be as equally high-quality and fine-tuned with such meticulousness? In the case of the KRK VXT6, a two-way active studio monitor with a six-inch Kevlar woofer, this notion proves to be true. Even when it comes down to [...]
More and more iPad controllers for Ableton are appearing all the time. Conductr is a new offering that claims to stand out from the crowd in that it is specifically designed for live performance. It certainly does have an elegant and intuitive interface that appears well suited to being used [...]