Dj Marc Reck Djing Events Tutorials and life in Birmingham

This week its been all about Cubase and this Dvd track. Its going well, and i’ve learnt how to link up parts of my studio i never even new existed, but its been long long days!

I’ve found a load of useful information on the interweb, and i generally bookmark what i’ve found using the fantatbulous delicious. I’m going to be using a lot of those resources in a more structured way on the reckorder project, but for now i thought i would be useful to share these links for anyone else who uses Cubase SX, as they’ve saved me a load of time, (especially that Play Order function!)

http://www.thewhippinpost.co.uk/cubase/cubase-video-tutorials.htm

http://emusictips.com/

Hope you find them as useful as i did, and keep in touch as i’ll be posting useful bits and bobs along the way for anyone that musically inclined

Last week was all about promoting and preparing for our Mr Elephant Family Alldayer, and it went really well, securing the best bar take to date for the Prince, and bringing happiness to kids of all ages! This from our Mr Elephant website

Despite the forecast, the sun, and humans of all ages were out in full effect, which made for a thouroughly lovely afternoon.

It was our second attempt at a family event, since our first collaboration with Dramask last year. This time we got a lot more of our friends involved, and the result was more than inspiring.

Here’s some of the highlights this time in nice easy to digest picture form

Subvert Sounds made for a smooth setup and quality finish

Justin Bond rom Loafers Lounge kicked off the music with his blend sublime sun kissed music.

Pyn from Dramask demonstrated various gum strip and tissue techniques to a queue of potential mask makers.

whilst Jen (not pictured here) hosted another few tables for those that wanted to decorate our card masks.

Robin from Jam Jah was up next supplying his unique blend of roots and reggae.

Olly gave a drum skinning demonstration

Anna gave some juggling workshops

Rohit played some of his beautiful sitar compositions

Daz Dolczech and Anka played an amazing set of acoustic renditions of their own Mama Matrix tracks!

And as the sun went down Dj Marc Reck and Vj Liam Blendstate provided a sublime audio visual soundtrack.

Thanks to everyone that came down, and to our wonderful hosts, Keith and Diane at the Prince.

There are more pictures here, and we have recordings of the Daz and Anka’s set, and various of footage of the workshops, so please check back, or subscribe to the rss or the newsletter on the right.

One Love
Mr Elephant x

Are one sweet sound company, and they can host your party!

I had a meet with Subvert Greg and Pyn last night about doing a free party on this site we’ve heard about, and he told me all the kit he’s got, so i thought it would be good to post it on my blog, because he hasnt, and to be honest he’s one of the soundest sound and light engineers i’ve ever met. Gets the job done, really well, and works to your budget whatever the situation.

So they’ve got 3 x marquee’s (up to 20 x 50 ft each), full stage lighting (Led too, so not power sapping stuff) 4 Dmx controlled Parcams, and on the sound front, they got up to 10 k rig, suitable for any bands, or dance events of around 300 people, and they now have a full back line. Oh and of course staging, engineer, mixing desks, etc. He also added that he can source pretty much anything you need extra for a larger scale events, from the companies he works with on the bigger events.

So if you want to put on a gig, party, small scale event, or you want hire his marqee’s and/or expertise, he’s damn cheap (and very good)

He’s also quite busy, so is good to book in advance - Greg - 07938 361 114 (or dodgygreg@hotmail.com)

Ok, so this reckorder thing is something i seemed to have babbled on about a bit, and i still havent launched the website. No matter, though as i’ve started sketching out the idea as performance, and it seems like i’m further than i thought.

S0 the basic idea was a website where i blog the process of what happens in the studio. I offer tutorials on things that have caused me incredible amounts of time to work out, and i share the reckordings and samples that i have collected and used. I also involve some local musicians in each track, and get them to share some tips, whilst also trying to incorporate as much of my studio as poss, (so i get better :), and some recordings with my trusty binauruls.

The tracks would make up an album, and a story/journey, and the album would be performed in whatever way i can. So far i’ve wrote about 6 - 10 tracks which all have promise and are at varying stages of development. After listening to all of them, they seem to have some good stuff i can use in all, and hopefully as i get better as a producer the ideas will formulate songs that i’m happy with.

Whats interesting is that i can now see how the songs could be played live, incorporating various dj experiences and collaborations over the years. It’s also exciting to note that i’ve met a vj that is interested in developing new dj/vj stuff, and along with the new technologies i’m getting to know, the current and evolving network, and my own musical ability coming along leaps and bounds, it seems that it may be a lot sooner than i imagined before the idea has real legs.

Watch this space (if you’re interested :o)

Ah with all the promoting “stuff” yesterday i forgot to report my first two music commissions! I’ve been writing music for quite a few years now, and this is the first time i’ve been commissioned to produce something from scratch at least!

So the first was a meeting with Anne Marie to discuss producing an original track for a festival dvd, which would be aimed at Wolverhampton Council, and a Black Country Partnership, and was to give the dvd a bit of a lift, with a carnival esqu feel.

And the second was from Lucy Nicholls who is a dancer and choreographer, and Liam Blendstate who is a visual artist, and is for a piece for the New Arts Festival entitled Finished with the War. Again its a full track, but this one is going to be to provide the soundtrack to a dance on film piece to be performed at the New Vibes showcase.

The feel will be based on a poem by Sigfried Sassoon, and i will start by gathering some sounds either recorded or otherwise, based on the atomosphere we are trying to create.

Right i’m off to find my binaurul micrphones!

Oh and on the Project X venue front, Peckers was great, but unfortunatly too small. We may have another option in the Que club, so more news as it breaks. The actual show by the way looks immense, and is ready to go…if we can find anywhere to actually do it!

Yesterday i did my usual local run of putting posters for our next Mr Elephant gig around Kings Heath and Moseley, and had a nice chat with Emma from Jibbering who’s asked me to get involved with her longest day festival, and today has spawned more event type excitement.

So the Mr Elephant Alldayer for friends is a nice thing to promote. No flyers, No need to worry about making your overdraft back on the door. Open to all ages, and hopefully the sun will shine on our lovely line up of things. Its free so there’s no hassle, and Keith has kindly offered some cash to pay for the costs, so everyone is happy.

This longest day festival sounds equally nice to be involved with, and think it’s a good thing to align the Mr Elephant with too. An allday affair at the hare and hounds with all manner of interesting stuff going on. I can sort some djs out to host the back bar, and we can have creative stuff happening all day.

I spoke to Lee from the Rainbow today and booked up the Rainbow Warehouse and the Rainbow Beach on an invitation to come and do something there. It seems quite difficult to get a gig there as they are only doing a certain amount of parties on their beach (and it really is a beach!), so i think we are quite lucky to get that one. I’n not sure exactly what direction i’d like to take it yet, but there’s a few people i’ve been wanting to work with in that respect, so this might be the way to get that rolling.

The rest of today was spent hunting feverishly for a venue for our next Project X Presents! We’ve literally looked at about 35 venues, over the last 4 months, and not one is possible! The main reason being we need at least 3/4 days setup time, as the show takes that long to setup, with ideally a dress rehearsal the night before, (if there’s time). Peckers new place is an option, and we are going to see that later, and after speaking to all the venue owners and promotors i could think of, it looks like that or a road closure, which isnt feasible for leaving stuff overnight anyway.

Ah well off to the meeting in a bit, so hope to have some news

After one of the hottest weekends this year, i’ve had a few hours early this morning (awoken by a neumatic drill!) to do some digging about about digital controllers, and how i can use them. Suffice to say there are a few people doing some groundbreaking stuff, and they have left their links for everyone to share!

I was a bit of a vinyl purist when i was younger, but once i saw the possibilities of cdj’s, i quickly integrated them into my vestax vinyl setup. When the Denon Dns 5000’s came out similar to the(Pioneer 1000’s but with more functions), i’d kinda lost interest spending all my money on expensive, bulky vinyl, and after about 6 months into 2006, I had converted pretty much everything to cd. The trigger/cue/sample buttons, playing two tracks at from one player, the portability and accessibility of cds, made all the arguments to just stay with vinyl fade into memory.

I kept one of technics decks of course, but played out on my cdjs pretty much everywhere.

Around that time the advent of Ableton, and digital djing was starting to gain popularity, (with Sasha being at the forefront with a very expensive custom made controller i seem to remember). Most of the dj’s i saw were hunched over a laptop, which i dont think works from an audience point of view, as djing is to me a lot about the performance. Having one piece of kit in front of you just allow enough moving about on stage, no matter how big your arm gestures are.

That said i was interested with really interested in what you could do, and got to grips with Ableton in the studio. Then at the end of 2007 i met the brother of my surrent landlady, who told me about Traktor Scratch. A piece of software with 2 vinyl and 2 cds, that would allow the dj to manipulate any wav or mp3 on their computer the same as if it were actually burnt onto a cd or vinyl. The amazing thing was that the tracking of the mp3 was soo tight, you really couldnt tell the difference.

This not only inspired me to learn to scratch (finally!), but also allowed me to develop aspirations i’ve had for a long while now. The basic premise was djing with 4 decks, 3 effects units, 2 microphones, and and an array of live instruments, musicians and recordings, alongside my entire music collection, and various tracks and loops i had created in the studio. Not only that but also working intelligently with vjs and performers, and other djs on laptops.

So from the start of 2008 i began the huge task of first sorting my 10, 000 records into genres, and then determining their key, in the hope that it would (a) be fun to jam with, and (b) be a common language of i could speak to musicians with. Thankfully because of my move to cds, i didn’t actually have to import and edit each one, and was just left with one collection that needed to be sorted. This process also inspired me to write tutorials and tips on the process, as it really was painstakingly long, and there are hundreds of different ways you can choose. These tutorials / blog posts are still on the backburner, but should have time for them soon.

Anyway a few months went by, and i sorted my music collection, backed it up (twice!) , and got to know Traktor Scratch that little bit better. I also developed my scratching ability, which i pleased to say now resembles something very similar to halfway decent scratching, (although i’ve yet to perform it out live). The 3rd Project X Presents was my first live outing with Traktor, and it went really well, although the reason i bought it was to take my djing to the next level, and although the set was more diverse, and rocked it well, i didnt really do anything that you can’t do on a normal set of decks.

So then i turn 30, and for my birthday i get a midi controller, and simultaneously buy a friends foot pedal. The day before i get my new (clever) midi controller, i finally learn how to programme my old (bad) midi controllers into cubase. This paves the way for my first reckorder blog, and has shown me how the idea for live performance and djing can work.

So now i’ve got the task of setting everything up and now seeing how it all can work. I have some really interesting gigs coming up this year, which will really allow me to spread my wings so to speak, and which will be great platforms for some of these ideas.

Mr Elephant’s bank holiday alldayer on May 25th, Project X Presents on June 14th, Giles Peterson on June 27th, and of course Custom Made on July 25th, will all allow me to explore my record collection with the Project X gig also an opportunity to play live.

Anyway thats a little intro to my new world of djing, and one i hope will fulfill the ideas. I was inspired by the links from this website, and its has some great ideas for anyone wishing to explore further, (and/or wants an alternative to Native Instruments forum.)

I hope you find it useful, and i look forward to sharing something interesting very soon.

Last night was the 40th birthday party of Newman College, and to celebrate they held a lavish party in the beautiful grounds of the botanical gardens, with flower power as the theme, and enlisting the fine John Mostyn to co-ordinate (and perform) the musical entertainment.

The main stage setup was nice and smooth and looking suitably sixties, thanks to some fine work from Paul the sound engineer. I was able to setup in no time in a great little spot, which was most welcome from my side, as it was to be the 2nd outing of the new Traktor Scratch setup, which feels like a whole lot of technology (and therefore a whole lot of risk!) It was also my 3rd outing playing to such a diverse crowd of age ranges and the first time ever i’ve played sixties music, hence the lot of digging this week.

It was also the first time i’d seen Brent Ford and the Nylon’s who were John Mostyn’s band of talented musicians, joined on the night by Laura, and preceded by a local band called the Danglers.

The guests all looked suitably hippiefied with their pre drink cocktails in outside, and as they entered the main room, Vo from the nylons played some sublime guitar “noodlings”. Pet Sounds, Beatles, Byrds, and some Smile tracks provided the ambience for dinner, before a great set from local band the danglers, which got people bobbing in their seats, and who were fronted by a great frontman.

After a brief interlude from more sixties classics. Brent Ford and the Nylon’s took to the stage, and immediately people felt moved to get up and shake it. Having never heard them before, i have to say every tune was a killer, and the musicianship, and warm rapport they generated was inspiring. In less than 2 numbers the whole floor was full, and awash with hippy dressed dancers, and sixties esque moves.

Laura joined midset and delivered her amazing vocals, before the final numbers from the core members, and an encore again joined by Laura.

Then it was my turn, and i got to play all the records i’d been sourcing for the week. Committed to keep the dancefloor full, and happy, i opted for the more soul filled sixties, with a lot of classics from the bands fronting the flower power movement. The well known numbers worked the best, and i was reminded to not listen to requests, as no matter how much you want to cater for everyone, 95% of the time that one style thats reqeusted is going to spoil the flow, and not please the populous!

I always try and cater to requests, but the more i do, the more i learn that that one track no matter how good it is, is only going to please the person who requested it, and normally always stifles what you are doing as a dj. There were pop requests for the things like The Macarenna, Kylie, and Robbie Williams, which never really get a look in, (for obvious reasons), there were requests for changing the music into soul or out of soul, (which where honoured, but ultimatly thinned the floor), and i think the only requests that worked was one for the beatles, and a request for a funk track, which were a safe bet, and backed up the notion that wide age ranges, who are on the dancefloor, bascially want (good) tunes they know, that they can dance too. And that is normally the classic bands, the big records, and a healthy slice of mowtown, funk and upbeat soul.

As a dj, i feel it’s really important to me to please everyone as much as is possible, but ultimatly most important to see that dancefloor full, smiling, and jumpin all night long, (ideally with lots of arm movements, and vocal outbursts!) In a club environment, or an age range who regularly go out and like listening to a range of music, i feel a real confidence to do this, (as i’ve had years of experience). Now, (thanks largely to two opportunities from John Mostyn), i also feel just as confident to rock the more wedding type crowds as well!

Next challenge is taking the roots of that custom made gig, mixing it up with the last 2 project x gigs, adding a sprinkling of the peace not war and Que Club Drop Beats sets, and incorporating my whole music collection into it, hopefully culminating in a 4 deck traktor scratch mashup of live music, scratching, loops, efx, performers, vjs and eventually live jamming…

……or at least somewhere in that direction anyway

The sun is glorious, so it was most definitly time for a bbq and beers in evening. I’d however gone to town to pick up my birthday present, so from 11pm it was time to get to know it.

On monday i went through the pain staking process of setting my other keyboard up. Working with midi and cubase sx, is not the most straightforward of processes, and one that i have found very troublesome. On of the main secrets i learnt if you are trying to use the learn funtion is that you need to keep clicking learn while you turn the controller! It does work, (though for years i thought i was missing something!)…..Anway more on this on my reckorder site coming soon.

This new little baby however is supposed to be designed for intuitively mapping itself to the plugs and controllers, mixers and instruments, that it is almost impossible to do in cubase sx 3. (though very easy with most other sequencers, thanks to the more intuitive midi learn functions).

The main reason for buying this was to have hands on control for my Traktor setup though, so as soon as i plugged it in, i was hoping to see the controls in Traktor moving. This however was not to be, and a little reading of the manual was needed. Being me, like most others i know, the manual was the last thing i wanted to read, so i played with it for about 5 hours, reading forums, and watching video tutorials.

Along the way i worked out a fair few things thoug, but basically to control Traktor you need to assign each controller in the remote sl editor, save the syx file as Traktor, and then create a .tks file in Traktor. There are some about on that djtech tools site, but unless you like using what they do, you better of creating your own.

In cubase however its a lot better, and most of the plugins are already recognised. All you need to do is load up the latest automap from the website, and then open up cubase, and the plugin, and it should automatically map your controls. There are also some templates you can dload from the site, if automap doesnt work well (like stylus rmx for example)

Either way making electronic music is a whole new world when you can actually move play the instrument, as opposed to program the instrument. Dynamics and flow of sound is crucial to making your ideas sound good, so get on those knobs, and record you movements.

I should add btw, that its only Cubase that i’ve had the controller problems with. Reason and Ableton have an easy midi learn. Still with whatever program i can def recommend this automap feature on the Novation control series of midi controllers, as its nice for it to map automatically.

In Traktor i’ve now built a template so that i can drop loops and cue points on the fly, and then play them with the pads and keys live. This is my first step to the live jamming idea i mentioned, and think it could really work and open up some new avenues for my djing (with a whole lot of practice of course!)

I also just ordered my first (30th birthday) djembe, from a friend that makes them for pretty much cost. With the arsenal of instruments, and people to play them, i’m more excited about djing, than i ever have been.

And this new controller is small enough for me to go and sit outside in the sunshine and dj with!

and i haven’t been blogging enough on this site at all! There’s been a lot going on, so i’ll attempt a quick summary, and be on my way!

So the biggest focus was the Mr Elephant Birthday Bash, and after everyone has been working super hard on it, it thankfully went really well, and generated a bevvy of positive response (and some more interesting offers!)

I’ve also turned 30, and had lots of fun celebrating with friends and family over the last two weeks.

Dj wise i’ve been offered some gigs of a different nature, with one next friday at the Botanical Gardens supporting John Mostyn’s band, a gig with Giles Peterson in June at the Hare and Hounds, and of course the forthcoming Project X Presents gig, all of which is going to allow me to break in some new dj ground, and spread my wings musically, which im obviously looking forward to

Project X is something i should have been blogging about a lot more, as there’s been a lot of interesting developments for the next show, which is to be the first commissioned show since we started back in 2004. This means New Generation Arts have actually offered us some money to help cover the cost of the event, which will hopefully cover the massive production costs that Project X incurs.

My other event, Rockfall, which i promote with local legend Boogie Dave, (and more recently with superstar dj R Caine), is still going nice and strong, though i had to make the very difficult decision to step out of it this year, as i couldn’t afford to put the money or time into it.

I originally started working with Boogie on a night i was running at Forme bar, and from 2007 we decided to move to the custard Factory and turn Rockfall (the current main stage of Drop Beats Not Bombs) into its own arena, so we could bring the breaks to brum, and showcase our own local talent.

We worked really hard, rammed the venues, and its been a really fantastic couple of years, though unfortunatly the costs, and time demands have taken too much of a tole, hence the decision of needing to take a back seat for a while and concentrate on the forthcoming Mr Elephant Presents, and Project X Presens, and my own music and djing projects and workshops.

On the educator front i have a lot of work to do for my course (a whole music tech course to write and two lessons to deliver by the end of the month) but it’s going real well, (getting distinctions each month??!!), and i’m really enjoying it. I stupidly double booked a couple of months, so have a bit of extra work to make up, but it’s all in hand.One of the double bookings was a playscheme i hosted, where i worked with Dramask, and we did a drama and music tech workshop for some kids between 4 and 11. I took my decks, mic, and kaoss pad in, and we produced the soundtracks for a piece of drama that the kids made about space. The kids and playworkers loved it, and so did we, and its given me the confidence to approach funders, and go for our own project ideas this year.

On the music making front i’ve been doing some learning which includes bass guitar, djembe, and guitar, and i’ve made some time to work on my tracks. I actually have about 10 tracks in progress now, all of different genres, (some acoustic, some breaks, some downtempo, all with an electronic edge), and i’ve enjoyed using different parts of my home studio.

One of the main aims is to produce an album, that i can dj it out, and ultimately perform live with other musicians. I’ve been trying hard to get a flow going, so that i can work with other musicians without the constraints of time, whilst sharing the process by providing tutorials as part of my reckorder idea, (in the hope that it will help others), but it’s becoming another thing creating a backlog, so i may have to find an easier way of integrating it (at the moment at least.) Either way its great to be writing music again, and i’m definitly evolving with each session.

Mr Elephant is the main focus at the moment though. Aside from working relentlessly on the website, and developing the various strands, i’ve had a very productive meeting last month with Shu about my business plan, and he offered some great advice. This year i have to find ways of generating some sustainable income, and i hope to do that with the strands of Mr Elephant, some paid djing gigs, and some workshops, (however how that all will fit together at the moment is not clear, as i’m still working for hours every day, and 95 % of the time for free.

That said a couple of the forthcoming djing gigs are paid so far this year, and the Mr Elephant has generated enough to pay everyone AND a bit for myself (which is great!), with the second event’s costs being funded externally, so thats not so much pressure.The workshops and ideas for mr elephant have all been generating interest, and i’ve already had a few offers for some interesting offshoot projects.

So all in all this could be the year i earn an income from my toils. It may not equal the amount of time and effort that goes into it all, but as long as its enough to pay the bills, and everyone fairly for their time, i’ll be most happy.

Wishing you all a very prosperous summer season