Parkdrive and I- A very special trip to Jakarta November 2, 2007
Posted by ashz in Asian Music Scene, Dj Gear, General, Music 2.0, Rants, music, web 2.0.3 comments
Remember Parkdrive that I blogged about awhile ago? No? Let me refresh your mind, I discovered this band a couple of months ago by accident. I was blown away with their production quality and sound that I decided to contact them via Myspace (Yeah I know, that was so cliche’ and pathetic…) and we remained in contact.
Lo and Behold! God works in very very mysterious ways. Juno, the main man behind the band and the Managing Director of Gowamusic, was somehow stranded in KL while he was on his way to Melbourne, so he called me and we hooked up. I was kinda nervous at first, knowing that we have never met before, but hey, it’s natural selection, we became buds in no time at all. He was in tears when I told him that I was going to bring him for a ‘Teh Tarik’ and ‘Nasi lemak’ session, ( Note for the clueless: Teh Tarik is frothy milk tea and Nasi lemak is rice cooked with coconut milk served with very hot anchovy chilli paste. Mindblowing!)
So we chat and he came to my office the next day before flying to Melbourne.
I was in Jakarta sooner that I knew it, I called him at the airport and we met up later that night at his office. He returned the local delicacy favour thing by bringing me to a ‘Nasi Padang’ restaurant ( Nasi padang is a local Indonesian delicacy. You cannot miss it if you are in Indonesia, it is rice served with various accompaniments, the thing that amuses me that you may have like 20 accompaniments on the table but you only pay for which dish you eat, cool stuff!)
Indulgence….
I hung out at his studio the next day and he was very passionate about his music and equipment. Something which I long for in musicians, no disrespect! so here you go, some snippets I took from our session:
And here is part 2:
Notice that he uses a software called ‘Ableton Live!’ religiously, I strongly think that Live! have changed the way musicians from around the world play, compose and perform, its stable as hell and very easy to use, I got some tips from him on how to play Live!, tweaking your kick drum and a whole lot of good advice.
So here are some of ‘Parkdrive’s’ video clips, just in case you want some action hah!:
Really really cool stuff!
I went back to KL thinking about how you just can meet people, no, good friends in the weirdest of places and situations…
I’m missing jakarta already….
www.ukgmp3.co.uk- The answer to cutting edge UKG tracks without breaking your bank! September 14, 2007
Posted by ashz in Dj Gear, Music 2.0, dj, downloads, mp3, music, music business.3 comments
I’m excited, very…Why? because I just stumbled across a dedicated UK Garage MP3 store. Ah Finally! An online store which caters to a very niche genre. The site doesnt look that great but further exploring shows that this basic designed site is functional easy to browse. Labels are neatly listed on the left side and ala itunes tab makes exploring new sounds a breeze. My favorite sub genre is 4×4 or four to the floor or four by four, whichever you prefer, sounds more or less a housey version of the unmistakable skippy snare sound of 2-step garage….Well, at least through my personal interpretation of what 4×4 UK Garage is all about.
Labels such as Prolific recordings (Mj Cole’s label), Stereohype recordings and Riddler graces the categories, Juicy Joints and other labels with quality releases are covered. Gone are my days of illegal downloading! To be honest, there is not much offering of the freshest UKG cuts even on bigger MP3 stores such as DjDownload.com and not even one release under Beatport. Now this breaks my heart…Until this site which I just discovered recently from Duncan Powell’s website.
And a brief history of the site, which was nicked from the ‘About us’ section:
The site is owned and operated by Ultimate Dance Music Ltd and was launched in September 2007. Many of you will know us as UDM Records or www.udm.co.uk, an online & onland DJ Store based in Enfield, North London.
For those of you who dont know UDM, here’s a brief history. UDM has been trading as a DJ Equipment & Vinyl store since 1995 and has been at the forefront of Music & Hardware retailing, specialising in Leading brand DJ Equipment & Uk Garage & House Music.
From the owner [a dj since 1986] through to the staff [including DJ Kanga - sales manager & nu skool ukg dj] we have an extensive knowledge of UK Garage Music and through this webstore we will be bringing you not only the finest music, but un-released & exclusive ukg from the hottest producers on the planet - the biggest music makers & tastemakers the UKG scene has to offer!
Options for beatmakers to sell their music via the site is also apparent, this is really encouraging for bedroom producers to sell their tracks rather than just leaving your beats rotting in your hard drive.
Check out the site and lose yourselves!
Now I just have to save those extra pennies…..
Vote for Djdownload.com as your best dance music retailer! March 6, 2007
Posted by ashz in Dj Gear, Music 2.0, dj, downloads, mp3, music, music business, startups, technology, technopreneur, web 2.0.add a comment
why should you vote?
1- DjDownload.com is the best online store in terms of selection and quality
2- DjDownload.com offers the most convenient payment methods
3- For the love of God, Music and candy!
Music stuff to watch out for this year! February 23, 2007
Posted by ashz in DRM, Dj Gear, Gadgets, Mobile content, Music 2.0, dj, downloads, mp3, music, music business, technology, web 2.0.3 comments
I think this year will be a great year for digital music development, the fact that many music 2.0 companies has brought some change in how we experience, use and view music is a bold statement that digital music is here to stay, so ive listed some stuff to watch out for.
- Legal P2P networks (Snocap)
- Music widgets (Sonific)
- Playlists sharing
- Music softwares, new VSTis
- The fusion of DJ and VJ technologies
- Advanced content for mobile phones
- DRM free music
- Mergers
- Music social networking sites
- Podcasts, videocasts
- A new digital music business model (Still crossing my fingers!)
- Music communities
- Gadgets (Iphone)
Lets just wait and see how the year ends for the digital music business!
Stanton Final Scratch Open February 3, 2007
Posted by ashz in Dj Gear.2 comments
So try and get your head around this. At the end of 2006, Stanton and Native Instruments officially ended their Final Scratch based partnership and since then, we’ve all been wondering exactly what would be the fallout from this split. A short time ago, Stanton issued an enigmatic statement that - despite saying bugger all - caused waves of speculation on the skratchernet. Well Stanton have released not so much a new product, but a new concept that has the potential to cause a massive change in the scene.
So let’s look at what this means. Stanton are now selling a serious piece of soundcard with all the open source architecture that clever developers need to make as many competitors to the SSLs of this world as you can imagine. What this means for you is that you will have the choice (once the software is available) to pick software that suits your needs exactly rather than being tied to a relatively closed system. And being open source, it means that there’s the potential for ultra cheap or even free software.
Time will tell as to whether this takes off but essentially, the non hardware specific softwares of this world can soon jump onto the Scratchamp so expect to See MixVibes, DJDecks, Numark’s Cue etc taking advantage of this new open source architecture.
Yeah, whatever…
Well, to me the problem is this. Yes, the scratchamp is a quality soundcard. Basically all these features they’re now touting were always available. The only difference is that they’re allowing developers to be able to use their timecode. Well, as I understand it, the FS2 timecode is more complex and takes more computer resources than it’s two biggest competitors, SSL and Torq. So it’s reasonable to assume that it will be harder to program. The biggest issue is that Stanton is basically punting, and telling anyone who bought FS2 to fork over additional money in order to keep their product up to date. Yes, it’s possible that there will be some truly amazing programs that come out of this, but it’s going to take a good deal of effort. Bottom line, you’re paying extra for it now.
Also, even though it’s going to be cheaper to buy just the soundcard, who in the hell is going to? How is this enticing to anyone looking to get into vinyl/cd emulation? All the bedroom DJs are likely going to go with Torq, which is going to probably be in the same price range as the standalone scratchamp, has a sexy software interface with lots of features, and so far hasn’t gotten alot of heat about reliability. More serious DJs who actually spin out are probably going to go with SSL because of it’s proven reliability. I don’t see how software developers are going to be motivated enough by such a stale market to put out a truly amazing product. And the high end established competing software is going to stick to their proprietary hardware.
Now, the only problems I’ve personally had with FS2 were related to something else going on on my computer that hogged resources (ie, scheduled viruscans or something) and that’s it. But there is definitely a sentiment that FS is more prone to glitches and problems than competing products. How is having a slew of different programs all with their quirks and bugs going to affect the situation? I can’t imagine that stability will be anything but worse.
I’m definitely irritated by this news. Sure, now I have a tank of a nice external sound card, but how am I supposed to be excited about using it?
