Here comes the 2

Second mix is up. This time I went for something a lot more low key, bpms from 77-102 or something. It probably got a bit too eclectic, but there’s bound to be something likable. If there’s a downtempo afficianado around, see how many she can name. For all other purposes, I’m calling this one my downtempo pleaser.

Mix 2 – Downtempo Pleaser

1:41:26 running time — 139MB 192kbps MP3

Tracklisting

1. Zero 7 – When It Falls
2. The Bird and the Bee – Ray Gun
3. The Avalanches – Yamaha Superstar
4. Aim – Good Disease
5. Mos Def – May December
6. Sofa Surfers – Sofa Rockers (Richard Dorfmeister mix)
7. Thievery Corporation – Elise Affair
8. Supreme Beings of Leisure – Never the Same
9. Funki Porcini – Purrfect
10. The Pastels – The Viaduct (Ian Carmichael mix)
11. Air – Cherry Blossom Girl
12. Kings of Convenience – The Weight of My Words (Four Tet remix)
13. DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo – Sun is Shining
14. FC Kahuna – Hayling
15. Boards of Canada – The Beach At Redpoint
16. Bent – Cylons in Love
17. The Books – The Lemon of Pink
18. Dawn Landes – Young Folks
19. Goldfrapp – Pilots
20. Kid Loco – Love Me Sweet
21. Bonobo – Noctuary
22. Mox – Dr. Bombay
23. Quantic – Infinite Regression
24. Sound Tribe Sector 9 – Possibilities
25. St. Germain – Sure Thing
26. Tricky – The Love Cats
27. Moby – Porcelain
28. Enoch Light – Bond Street
29. Hooverphonic – No More Sweet Music
30. Block 16 – Slow Hot Wind
31. Tycho – Send and Receive (Chachi Jones Remix)
32. Sound Tribe Sector 9 – Music, Us

Not many notes on this one, I guess. Like I said, a bit too eclectic, but it was sitting there, begging to be done. The major point I need to make is that Hooverphonic’s No More Sweet Music and Block 16’s Slow Hot Wind have exactly the same melody. I mean, it could have easily been ripped. Block 16 did it first, from a quick look. Seriously, skip over the rest if you have to, but listen to that. Oh, and despite the fact that every track in the mix has a special place in my heart, my personal favorite that I’m feeling right now is the Young Folks cover. Also, I don’t know how I got two STS9 tracks in there, but don’t let that fool you. Lastly, I normalized the audio special for Lincoln.

A quick trick for the DN-S1200

Edit: Or you could just click the effect style knob (the one used to scroll through songs, as well). I thought I might have done it without the brake button. Ah well.

While researching the Denon S1200 turntables, I recall reading a review or two that complained about the interaction between the built-in effects and the scratch functionality. Because the jog wheel is used to both scratch and adjust the wet/dry of the effect, people simply couldn’t scratch with an effect active. I think I’ve found a workaround.

First, activate the effect and adjust it to the desired level. Then, double-tap the BRAKE button at the bottom. This enters then exits the brake activation menu. (You can actually use the DUMP and REVERSE buttons, too, but those interfere with playback.) Now, you’ve dropped back into simple playback mode and you can scratch to your heart’s content with an effect active. To disable the effect, just double-tap the effect button.

I like to add some flanger to beef up and texturize my samples. Filters also work well for some variety. Echo/Loop doesn’t really do much because applying pressure to the disc stops all sound and the echos seem to only be generated when the track is playing. Anyway, that’s two more effects than I had before, so I’m happy.

Slap

Chop. They‘re great. Bought one from Walgreens (save on shipping price and time, but you don’t get the cheese grater thing). It’s great, pretty much just as great as the IronGym (keeping with the “As seen on TV” scheme). Kinda steep at 20 bucks, but it feels sturdy enough. Quick tip: it’s more efficient to cut stuff into biggish chunks and then slapchop for dicing. Super great in that respect. My hands don’t smell nearly as much of onions. Also, another quick tip, just skin the onion yourself.

As for me, school’s basically through and I’m done phase 1 of moving, so I thought I’d pop in and let you know to expect some more posts. I’ve been keeping pretty busy with projects and musings, so hopefully they’ll be interesting. In the meantime, watch this again.