Check out our brand new waveform clip player - you can now listen to part of the track any 60 second part of the track when previewing tracks on Dancetracks. Just click on the part of the track you want to listen to and the player will start the 60 second preview at that part.
You must have Flash 9 installed in order to use the new player - if you dont, it will prompt you to install and give you the link to the Adobe Flash 9 free download. It only takes a few minutes to install. You can still use the older player, by clicking on the settings icon in the top right hand corner.
We hope you enjoy listening to the music with our new Waveform player.
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$50 and we will give you a $3.50 bonus $100 and we will give you a $10 bonus $200 and we will give you a $30 bonus
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We have a winner ! After two months and over 400 excellent remixes of Dirtybird Record’s Rocket Surgery EP ‘Dum’ we are very pleased to announce the winners of the contest. We would really like to thank everyone who took part and created their own remix. We hope that you all had fun working on your remixes.
Justin Martin - “Wow, I was surprised at how many people got involved with this competition! We had a great time going through all of the entries and discovering everyone’s wildly different interpretations of the track.”
Claude VonStroke - “I really appreciate that over 400 people took time out of their busy schedules to remix our music. It makes me feel good that we have such a dedicated fan base!”
The remixes covered all genres from house, techno, minimal, breaks, drum and bass and more … even some rock! Some remixes were short and punchy, whilst others went for marathon 10 min big room bass builders!
Christian Martin - “I was impressed at the wide range of genres that people explored. We heard everything from epic trance to dubstep!
1st Place - ICS remix
By ICS
1st Place Remix
2nd Place - Oscar Schulze remix Go Dum !
By Oscar Schulze
2nd Place Remix
3rd Place - Hookerz & Blow Stupid Retarded Acid Mix
By Hookerz & Blow
3rd Place Remix
The final decision on picking the winners came down to Claude, Justin and Christian, who listened to every single track using the following criteria for judging: Tightness, how tight and sharp the track sounded when played back, on any system.
Sound quality, the final mix down and mastering quality, volume levels and sound characteristics. Releasability, would this be a track the Dirtybird crew would play out, and more importantly release. Original use of samples, how well are the original parts used in the remix, does it retain the characteristics of the original.
So, with out further ado, we are pleased to announce the winners of the Dirtybird Remix Contest:
1st Place - Murar Cristian from Cluj, Romania. Age 24 years old. 2nd Place - Oscar Schulze from Amsterdam, Netherlands. Age 43 years old. 3rd Place - Sander Dennis and Robert McCloskey from San Francisco, USA. Aged 25 and 30 years old respectively.
Many congratulations to Murar for taking the top spot. His remix has been added to the Rocket Surgery EP. Here is what Christian, Justin, and Claude, had to say about Murar’s winning remix:
“We chose Murar’s ‘ICS remix’ for a number of reasons. Its sound quality was head and shoulders above most other entries. Although it was not the most complex or outrageous entry, it was by far the tightest. Also, it contained a number of surprising and creative breaks, all the way through to the end of the track.”
Runners up, Oscar, Sander and Robert also deserve applause for taking the 2nd and 3rd spots, in a tightly fought contest.
“We chose Oscar’s remix as 2nd place because it took the original samples and ran with them the furthest. There is genuine musical talent evident in every riff, and we really loved how even after some of the wilder solo sections, they always came back to the theme.”
“The 3rd place remix demonstrated a ton of creativity with the theme as well. We were all impressed by how far the remix evolved as it progressed - it never even came close to repeating itself musically.”
Claude VonStroke - “I can’t wait to drop the winning remix at my upcoming gigs this weekend! Circus (Liverpool), Back to Basics (Leeds), then back to Montreal on Sunday for the Picnique Electronique..”
What do you think of the winners ? Did you enter this competition? Please tell us about your experiences, or just leave a message for the winners in the comments below - we would live to hear from you.
1st Place in the Dirtybird Remix contest went to 24 year old Murar Cristian from Cluj, Romania. Murar had the following to say about creating his remix:
Working on this remix was really difficult because I’ve started it several times and I was not satisfied with the result. The deadline was on the 15 september and I was very disappointed. I wanted to give up but on the 14 september while I was playing with some sounds on my midi keyboard, one tone really got my attention so I’ve decided to take another shot on the remix and after only 3 hours … there it was!!! The good ideas always strike you in the head without notice !!
Murar’s (pictured above) studio set up is his computer running Ableton Live and Reason 4, packed out with M-Audio Delta 44 soundcard, a Behringer Xenyx 502 mixer, a set of Behringer B2031a studio monitors, Behringer Ultragain mic100 tube preamp ; Audio Tehnika AT2020 studio microphone ; M-audio MK449 midi keyboard and a western guitar !
“I am not a Behringer fan, I am really an M-audio fan, but the price for Behringer stuff is really good.”
Murar, records under the name ICS and has been producing music for over 10 years. “I’ve tested all kind of genres but house music was always my stuff.” he says. You can listen to more of Murar’s productions on his Myspace page Myspace.com/ICSX
2nd Place went to 43 year old Oscar Schulze from Amsterdam, Netherlands, pictured drumming on the right. To create his nu-jazz remix, Oscar used a PC with a M-Audio Audiophile soundcard, running Cubase, Soundforge for sample editing and Ableton live for effects.
“It took me about 2 days to make the remix. When I first heard the original, I liked the comic character of it, and the percussive vocal samps. I went from the basline and decided to give that to a Rhodes sound mainly and made chords of it. Being a jazz musician, I tried to get a jazzy kind of drive in the song. Then I coloured the song with the vocal and effects samples and put a Rhodes solo in it.”
3rd Place was taken by San Francisco residents Sander Dennis and Robert McCloskey, aged 25 and 30 respectively (pictured DJing).
“We got the parts for the remix the day the contest began and began tooling around with them. We decided that rather than use the acid provided, we would make our own acid! We started by sequencing a beat out in Logic Studio, and got the acid melody down in the sequencer.”
We then programmed my x0xb0x (which is a custom homebrew TB-303 clone) to play the acid melody, and tweaked it until we had a whole bunch of acid vittles from which to pick and choose. Then we set about programming the flow of the song, adding synth fx and that funky hyphy vocoder, gettings the buildups right, and polishing the drum parts. The final touch was a quick master in Izotope Ozone, to make it bump on a big system! All in all, it took us about 2 weeks from start to finish.”
Many congratulations to the winners, from all of us at Dancetracks, Dirtybird and Ableton. Please join us in congratulating the winners and leave your comments in the comments section below.
The Dirtybird crew have decided to give away the winning remix, exclusively on Dancetracks. Christian Martin said -
“After much deliberation, we have decided to give the winning remix away as a free download! We were so impressed by the caliber of all the entries, it seemed like the best way we could thank everyone who helped make the contest such an enormous success.”
You can hear the winning remix if you catch any of the dirtybird guys playing out soon:
Claude VonStroke - “I can’t wait to drop the winning remix at my upcoming gigs this weekend! Circus (Liverpool), Back to Basics (Leeds), then back to Montreal on Sunday for the Picnique Electronique..”
You can download the winning remix MP3 free of charge by simply adding it to your cart and checking out. (Please note that this does not include the WAV download, 320Kbps MP3 only - the WAV download will incur the $1.00 WAV handling fee)
Raw Fusion returns to Apt. in New Yorks meat packing district next Tuesday for another helping of jazz funk fused beats. This months bash features Spy Music’s Probe DMS, spinning and performing new joints from the upcoming LP ‘Life Is A Movie’, along side residents Op! and Scribe. Live percussion by Amon. Without a doubt the best example of a nu-sound party this side of the Atlantic, so those who can, head down and check it.
New York music production school Dubspot are introducing a series of free music workshops for past, present and new students, starting this week at their meatpacking district location.
Free to all, the classes will give anyone with an interest in learning the fundamentals of drumming, playing chords, and building song ideas. Dubspot’s master instructors will explore composing in various popular musical styles and demonstrate methods used to write and arrange complete songs, with a focus on hands-on learning approach, and classes that break down music theory into practical lessons.
The first four workshops will focus on the basics of music, rhythm, and songwriting and will benefit any aspiring DJ and producer. These guys really know their stuff and are all passionate music producers, so if you are in the New York area and keen to learn a little more, we highly recommend you stop by.
Here is a first look at Stanton’s latest offering for the DJ market, called ‘DaScratch’. Dascratch (horrible cheesey name), also going by the name SCS.3d, is a basically video cassette sized touch control surface for DJ apps like Traktor or Ableton Live. The device has a number of preset operational modes that correspond to popular DJ control actions, like fader up and down, and platter back and forward spin. Take a look at the promo video to see it in operation.
Whilst touch sensitive control surface apps are definitely hot right now, we arent sure if this is going to be a winner. Looks useful, but key to its success will be the ease at which it can adapt to controlling different aspects of any set. It also looks pretty small, from the way the guy in the video is crouched over it. $299 price tag isnt horrible though, but you have to ask what is on the horizon with touch screen laptops rumored to be heading this way.
Presented by basic nyc | bar 13 | dancetracks digital | global frequencies
James Priestley, head honcho behind London’s legendary secretsundaze party, hits New York! We’re welcoming James to NYC with our own Sunday fiesta at Bar 13, and celebrating the B-Day of Global Frequenices’ infamous David Choi. Come check out the DJ behind one of the UK’s most important clubbing institutions as he launches the secretsundaze Volume 2 mix CD.
With DJs:
James Priestley (secretsundaze, Simple)
Sleepy & Boo (Basic NYC)
Holosound (Citric/Global Frequencies)
Jacky Sommer (Dancetracks/Analog Soul)
Mono Henao (Global Frequencies)
Celebrating David Choi’s B-Day!! Free daytime BBQ!!
Where: Bar 13 (35 E. 13th Street)
When: 3pm - late
For guestlist email: djboo@basicnyc.com
Last call for your Dirtybird ‘Rocket Surgery’ remixes. The contest closes at 11:59pm this coming Monday, 15th September. But thats plenty of time to enjoy a whole weekend on your remix and show us your production skills. The Dirtybird crew have been really impressed with all the entries so far, but its not finished yet:
“I’m loving all the different variations on the main Dum theme that I’ve heard so far! However, THE CONTEST IS NOT OVER!!!! You have the whole weekend to finish your entry!! Get back in that studio!!” says Christian Martin.
