Every one of us has been to club night or a live show where the sound wasn’t up to scratch. Piercing snares and muffled kicks can rob a great set of much of its dynamics and drama. People don’t dance to music that sounds bad. Instead of the writhing sweaty [...]
French duo Air’s Moon Safari is a downtempo retro space age masterpiece that was greeted as something of an instant classic even when it first came out in January 1998. Although the album was released on Astralwerks records and was technically an electronica album, Moon Safari had in fact almost [...]
Delay is one of the most commonly included effect types in a DAW package or multiFX processor. However, delay effects will often come in several different “flavours,” all with strange, cryptic names; Analog, Digital, Multi-Tap, Tape Loop, or Bucket Brigade. They’re all variants of the same device, they just produce [...]
Control automation is another input method for your digital audio workstation. Where MIDI information is designed to transmit note information, such as pressure and velocity, control automation is used to transmit peripheral control instructions. It might be used to move the volume faders on your mixer, or do some more [...]
Dancehall is undoubtedly the most danceable subgenre reggae ever produced. It initially emerged in the late ‘70s as a leaner, bouncier version of the roots reggae sound that was popular at the time. But dancehall really came into its own in the early ‘80s when it went digital. It’s dancehall’s [...]
With its heavily reverbed snares and fingered bass, Balearic Beats – The Album Vol. 1 may seem a little dated nearly 25 years since its release, but it’s a great insight into where the Balearic scene has come from. Opening with Electra’s Jibaro, the album settles into a [...]
When programming a beat, your kick drums will always act as the underpinning element, keeping the pace and meter of the pattern. Practically every sub-genre of electronic and dance music has at least one signature kick sound that evokes memories of dozens of other tracks. Techno music has the thumping [...]
History: Like Goa and the Melbourne Shuffle, Balearic wears its geographic origins firmly on its sleeve: the Balearic Islands are the archipelago that contains Majorca and Ibiza. It’s here, in mid-eighties clubs like Pasha and Amnesia, Paul Oakenfold and friends first discovered something amazing happening. They brought it back to [...]
I’m sadder than I should be, with Steve gone. I don’t know why – he was nobody to me personally and in fact he represented the damnable, irresistible fruit; the zenith both of gorgeous gadgets and emotionally manipulative marketing. I love Apple despite myself. I know its shortcomings and I’m [...]
The dedicated DJ controller has grown rapidly in popularity over the past few years. As home PCs have become more powerful, and DJ software has become more refined and stable, spinning tracks from your laptop has become all the more viable. Dedicated DJ controllers are designed to mimic the familiar [...]