The Smooth DJ

Announcements: Our next and last class is Nov. 15th. We're gonna have an optional extra session from about 1:30pm on for people who have missed lectures or who need help. This is your LAST chance to get feedback from us on your final performance/set. So please come prepared.

Dec 6th is showtime, and we need help finding a venue. Please put your feelers out there and give us some ideas. We probably don't need a super large space. The hope is we can put on a good show for our friends and fellow artists. Just email me or Al and let us know if you can help secure a location, or have any leads. This is important! Get on it.

Last class was pretty much a workshop. We had Channa lead the way with an acoustic performance that showcased another powerful aspect of Ableton: live instrumentation, recording and sampling on the fly. So you can see the possibilities here for adding novel aspects to your DJ set. That was straight ill, Channa.

Blake pointed us towards one of the coolest MIDI controllers I've ever seen - an motion capture exo-skeleton called Gypsy from the UK. At $1000 bucks an arm, it's pricey but not ridiculously so. Your imagination is the only limitation with this thing. Good lookin out, Blake.

Here's a quick tutorial on how to grab flash videos off the web. First of all, this is Safari specific. If you use Firefox, there are probably other methods (use Google and look it up if you really want to know).

1. From the page where the flash video you want is embedded, from "Window" menu in Safari, pick "Activity".

Last class, everyone performed. And Channa brought in some Planet Earth video that he put a mirror effect on which made for a sublime experience. I think this is great footage to DJ with, especially for electronica.

Erkon used his guitar in his set, along with some great Turkish grooves and some original recorded music. Very creative, Erkon. Good job.

Anna brought in one of those new Korg nanoKontrol MIDI controllers - I think these things are great bang for the buck. And compact to boot.

In other news, we are still in search of a venue. I think it's more likely we are going to have this on Dec 7th, a Sunday, rather than a Saturday. This is actually better for us because it increases our chances of getting a nicer venue. Al and I are still working on securing a location, but please let us know if you come across anything. I will post more info here as it develops.

About your final sets, don't kill yourself. Aim for a great 10 minutes. If you want to go longer, do so as long as your comfortable. Don't forget to look at the audience. And Channa, we're throwing you up there, so work on something before you leave the country!

So we do have our classroom available on the 6th. Al and I will be there practicing or working on something, so please feel free to drop on by if you need help with anything. I think we also have to do course evaluations, which are really important, so we might have to have you come in and do that anyway. I can't remember if you can do this online. Also, we may have a guest speaker, in which case, I will announce that here and you should all come in in that case.

Other odds & ends: VDMX is a realtime video mixing and effects software that can be an alternative to Quartz Composer. It is more user friendly than Quartz in that it is a higher level of control, whereas QC is very low level and you have to do things by hand. VDMX is not free, but you can get a trial and check it out. There are some tutorials here.

subOctave is a VJ from SF with some creative mashups. Check him out.

Below the fold, some photos from class. How do you rotate an image in HTML??? Oh well.