BlueMars.org: Best Of Ambient Music
There is something to be said of Ambient music. The kind of music that you really can't dance to. As in its name, it should be use to fill the silence.
I can't help but to feel good when I do listen to ambient music, as a lot of times it tends to be my choice of music late at night. It isn't upbeat, fast, nor have crazy melodies that stimulate the ears. Seems to fit perfectly for the late night work before bed.
I have been listening to BlueMars for over 10 years as it was one of my stations that I instantly got hooked on after learning about shoutcast (along with di.fm). You can't find many ambient stations out there.
Actually, I was deeply saddened when Bluemars was taken offline for sometime in 2002 because of the new fees that would have been imposed on internet radios. I do though remember finding a site dedicated to bluemars' memory and stream the same music. Tide me over until it came back online.
Because You Asked Why...
Mixing
Yeah, i'm getting there, slowly... Decided to record myself before I rearrange everything. Some tracks were just a pain to mix :)
Hardcore To Acid Trance
You know it is interesting to see how some music can be meshed together and flow pretty damn well. You hear a lot of hardcore DJs mix in dubstep or some drum & bass, which is common since all three of those comes from the same (distant) parents. When Andrew was over and we were playing with my tables we were doing a lot of house and trance since he swears against hardcore (happy) but I decided to add in a hardcore song only because he would like the lyrics (rave music by AC Slater), going back, though I figured it was going to be a bad mix, but then I saw I loaded one of my favorite tracks ever, Dating Rob by Nostrum. It mixed pretty damn well...
[MP3 Player]
It is a shame that you don't here much of that music now and days, especially at raves, as there is a certain charm the tb-303 can bring to music, and Nostrum was always able to make it as a melodic adventure while keeping the hard edge. I have been waiting for this music to come back, bring back the old "cybertrance" movement that was in the 90s, but who knows if it will resurface. I guess we can only hope...
Raven's Mix
So I began to play with my tables extensively, meaning that there were a couple people that wanted mixes, so I started the first one for Raven.
I was really rusty... I mean before I was ok, but fuck did I get bad. After the first real mix I realized that almost all songs were not even beatmatched, so I had to start over, including redoing the playlist a bit. It is hard to get all the tracks at the same level because some are old vinyl rips, not to mention that since it was a happy hardcore mix, it required me to determine the beat quick, as the BPM calculator was setting it at 80 or 90 bpm. I also think the song that I used for the first track was also an incremental bpm causing more problems. In the end, I have gained a lot of experience, even though the mix is not perfect and there were a few beat misses. So now I start on the second mix for Minter, which should be a little bit easier since its more housey.
[MP3 Player]
DN-X600... My Case Is Ready!
Well I finally got my DN-X600. Played around with it and it is setriously different from the Behringer as it has a heavier feel and the knobs are tighter while the fader is light. I have been playing with it trying to get the damn thing to record via USB but for some reason it isnt working. Hopefully the Denon forums can help.
Anyway, I got it in my case, all snug and comfy. Looke pretty good, curious how it will hold up when I take it to my sisters. I, though, think I need to get some new hard drives, two small little 300gb or something because this little flash drives won't be able to handle all the music I have.
So much work to do, so little time...
Oh How The Term "DJ" Has Changed
This is the second publication that I have seen that makes a DJ look like a total douche (though I never had much respect for Skribble). I am not sure what the fuck is going on, but now it seems like the media is making these DJs look like fucking tools.
Not to mention them carrying records. Sure they can mix vinyl, but a lot of DJs (especially the more mainstream ones) stopped using vinyl and switched to CDJs. I guess it's not as cool to hold a CD. Which means they will always be carrying vinyl in their photo shoots, even after the flash drive becomes more dominate.
btw, why hasn't these Digital turntables embraced flac yet? or at least some form of lossless compression.