Go Forward, Move Ahead
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM
THIN IS IN: OLED TELEVISIONS
Most people would agree that plasma and LCD HDTVs already kick plenty of ass, but if something better came along, you'd dig it, right? Well, something better has come along. In late 2007, Sony introduced the XEL-1, the first OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) TV, an 11-inch beauty that is now selling in Japan for roughly $1,740. The 1080p (full HD) screen is only 3 mm thick and is actually flexible. OLEDs are capable of the highest contrast ratios currently available and are also more energy efficient than plasma and LCD screens, which Sony is hoping to pass by on the road to making OLED the display technology of choice. The company already has a prototype of a 27-inch OLED TV. Toshiba has attempted to one-up Sony by announcing plans for a 30-inch OLED display in 2009. Dang, you know Propellerhead Reason would look fine on that!
— Markkus Rovito
F-F-FRESH INNOVATION: DJ MUSICIANS
“I feel like Serato and Final Scratch should be a reward for DJs who've carried equipment — for a DJ who's never done that, it's like dues to be paid,” says DJ Dez, who has shared the stage with ?uestlove, Slum Village and Erykah Badu. Times have changed, but Final Scratch and Serato haven't killed the art of DJing.
Dez applies the spirit of a jazz musician to his sets. “I'm not the play-it-safe guy,” he says. “I have clave in my blood. That is my metronome, beyond 4/4 simple measures. I'm always thinking when I go into my indigenous mode on some rumba shit.” The master drummer incorporates turntable tricks into danceable scat sessions of rare funk records, hip-hop loops and house-music chords. “I can scratch on a house record, let the hip-hop overlap and go even more out there.”
In another realm, DJ Nu-Mark has taken innovation to the playground. He collects kids' musical toys and rewires them for mixing capabilities. His latest creation is a DJ setup using Music Blocks, a product geared for 2-year-olds. “Basically, each block has different shapes on it,” says the former Jurassic 5 DJ. “The circles are bass lines, the triangles are pianos, and they each play a bar of music. I'm beat juggling beats back and forth.” Nu-Mark began experimenting with kalimba onstage with J5, which led to endless tricks. “I take a thick rubber band, and I wrap it around the part of the needle used to pick up the record. I take a guitar pick and I turn the bass up, and it sounds like an upright bass. The toys were the next logical progression.”
And then there's DJ Enferno, who is bridging the gap between his weekly DJ gigs and live remix project. “The whole live project is an extension of the battling background,” he says. He uses a Toshiba laptop running Ableton Live, a MacBook Pro running Serato Scratch Live and a Korg KP3 Kaoss Pad to remix songs in his sets. “For any one song, I start out with four different drum loops that I can trigger with my finger. Everything else will be empty, and I'll use one of the drum loops to mix out of the sound. I didn't have anybody to teach me, I cracked open a manual and went on discussion forums.”
— Tamara Warren
REJUVENATING TURNTABLISM: ILL INSANITY
In a packed room at Brooklyn's Galapagos last November, decorated DJs Rob Swift, Precision and Total Eclipse fired off group routines and separate, provocative solos on five Technics SL-1200MK2s under their new Ill Insanity moniker. Former X-ecutioners Swift and Eclipse reunited earlier in 2007 when they and Precision performed at Swift's As the Tables Turn DVD release party. The newly formed team brings vibrancy to a genre that 2007 DMC U.S. National Finals Champion DJ Precision says needs help. “As DJs and straight-up fans of turntablism, we want to keep it alive,” Precision says. “Turnouts at battles just haven't been the same.”
At Galapagos, Eclipse and Swift warmed up the crowd with missile-guided cuts over jazz breaks and chunky hip-hop beats, including Gang Starr and Public Enemy instrumentals. Meanwhile, Precision whizzed through the night's first scratch solo, showcasing veteran control of a Rane TTM 57SL mixer, which Total Eclipse calls “the greatest on the market, allowing Serato users to trigger hot cues on the mixer board.”
In addition to the group's decks, three Mac laptops run Serato Scratch Live at shows. “The experience of scratching on CD turntables never matched up to the feel of using an actual turntable, so we couldn't replicate a lot of the scratch sounds we were used to executing on turntables,” Swift says. “With the invention of [Scratch Live], we power up our laptops and import any sound we choose straight into the software. With Rane's Control Records, we can still use the turntable to perform our scratches while maintaining the exact feel of scratching regular vinyl. This makes it possible for us to experiment more than we ever have.”
Ill Insanity's bold turntable workouts will be packaged as Ground Xero (The Ablist Productions), the trio's debut LP, dropping next month.
— Dominic Umile
GET IN THE GAME: MINIVIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS
It might come as a surprise to find out that, in addition to a slowly growing roster of legitimate software, there is a large contingent of underground home-brew rebels creating music programs for the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. It's a given that the musical video-game niche is growing: Guitar Hero is being played by just about everyone, and Nintendo's Wii Music will be out in 2008, putting you in control of an entire band or orchestra. But the New Year is likely to find you using your portable game systems to do more than just play. With much of this software, sanctioned or not, you'll be able to jot down, demo and record new songs — and more.
Got a sudden song idea on the subway or plane? No problem. Nintendo's brand new Jam Sessions for the DS, with its touch-screen strum function, lets you take a “guitar” just about anywhere, while Rhythm n' Notes teaches chords, patterns and beats. In the home-brew department, you can download DScratch, which allows you to digitally downsample, scratch and MIDI-transfer; Piano Rigolo, which places two octaves of piano on your DS touch-screen; or NitroTracker, a tiny composer/editor.
Meanwhile, over on the PSP tip, Rockstar games has teamed up with Timbaland for 2008's much-anticipated Beaterator, a powerful beatmaker/music mixer. Meanwhile, home-brews PSPRhythm and PSPKick are already out; Eidos' Traxxpad turns the PSP into a keyboard, drums and sequencer; and Ubisoft is prepping to release the tutorial tool Guitar Hits, complete with tuner and metronome.
Will other software designers hop on the — ahem — bandwagon for 2008 to give us more of these mini-virtual instruments for portable platforms? We can only hope.
— Kristi Kates
PREDICTION: OUT WITH MAINSTREAM MEDIA
Mainstream media will be proven to be out of touch. It's not important what the New York Times says; music lives on the Web, and people find out about and discuss music on the Web. It doesn't matter what the old kingpins say, rather what your friends say. And this friend network is ever expanding and built on trust. Will 2008 be the year of the Web filter, the one place where everybody goes to find out about new music online? Eventually, there will be a terrestrial radio/MTV/Rolling Stone of the Web. And it won't be any of the foregoing entities, rather a whole new site built and controlled by the Internet generation, with its ear to the ground and in bed with its viewers, as opposed to Madison Avenue.
— Bob Lefsetz
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
| Want to use this article? Click here for options! |  |
