edit: forgot to mention i was inspired by your beat-battle entry having such a motivating influence!
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Redford’s voice is so listenable.
Vinyl is fabulous although i don’t have a turntable these days.
I was listening to a couple of dj mixes recently and although the dj name was different, they titled each mix “In The Mood” with a 001 numbering system or something similar.
and that really is the key … being in the mood to mix.
or, using the work of creating a mix to generate an enjoyable or interested mood.
after five days of intense work preparing the mix, I generated an entire ecosystem of a new, two-letter articulated naming system for the wide variety of sample types within the genres of bassdrum, snare, clap, hihat, and so forth.
but the mix was still not ready for 30 minutes.
so instead of doing that i suppose, went to a local talent night, they have a quality sound system … and played a live gig - tonight - and as regards the idea of “mood”, it became quite clear how one song was in fact a winner, and the second song had a range of issues.
the previous plan of the “no-prep” mix idea was rather extreme, i don’t think i’m ready for that.
recently started thinking that maybe the Octatrack is just too much audio-production-power for one individual to have access to, but there again is the nonsensical extreme thinking.
anyway, played Machinedrum and se02 at the gig, it was cool.
would certainly like to use that combo in future, depending on the mood.
it’s more sparse than the Octatrack’s allows potential for.
as the Machinedrum is playing directly to the p.a. system, the creativity and immediate energy is more obvious.
neither scenario is “better”, just different.
i guess the only rule is that i won’t use a computer for performance or a live recording.
enjoy using computer for preps and such like.
the no-prep rule is a pipedream, although it certainly was valuable as a thought experiment.
used some vocals in the Machinedrum 2-song gig tonight.
prepped them in Audacity yesterday.
syllables from vocal exports from Ableton a week ago, they had enjoyable harmony applied by a vocoder (but not the robotic vocoder sound, it was the lush chorus/reverb string type of vocoder).
those syllable samples certainly were invaluable. just a few.
combined with the drum here and there, very tight, very pro vibe and creative.
also programmed a corny 90’s snare fill it sent the crowd wild.
perhaps that is an overstatement although it really did somehow make for a contrasting dynamic, just the snare for a bar, nothing else.
two things i learned from the gig - if the second song is in the same key as the first song, don’t play it slower than the first song, if anything play it a few bpm quicker.
and don’t talk for more than ten seconds between tracks.
even if the quality microphone makes for a resonant charismatic tonality over the sound system.
i believe there is a technique of introducing a song, to subtly vibe the crowd up for it, and although i don’t know how to do it, seems that it requires detecting the “tempo” of the room, and interacting with that every so briefly.
being in the mood to mix or work in the studio is one thing, but it seems that i need to play gigs, even if they are 2-song gigs for now.
the deeply valuable experience of comprehending the mood in the room and the mood response to the currently playing track is quite another scenario.
experience and practise as always do help for a valuable contribution of a gig experience.
also, with a genre of broken beats and a bpm range of 82-98bpm, it kind of is pretty okay to not have a continual smooth transitioning from song-to-song.
