nxtonic's setup

[nxtonic]

nxtonic's slightly magical and very marginally modest setup

Hi everyone! My name is nxtonic (Angus McMillan) from Melbourne, Australia and this is my setup, I'm not a professional by any stretch of the imagination but I like my music and I like to play it to other people too. I mainly play house stuff, particularly french house and deep house, the more percussive and mellow sounds as opposed to the harder electro and progressive scene. However, having said that I will listen to just about anything as long as it's not too commercial. Sometimes I will do a livestream, but at the moment hardware restraints are preventing me from doing that! I am in the process of saving up for a new macbook so once that is organised I will be able to stream again. As for anytimes I play out, I'll do the occasional house party and I have a small monthly segment on a school radio project that is being run so I can do a live mix or just play a pre-recorded one.

I try to do a little bit of production, but so far I haven't put any money into it, I'm just working with a lite version of ableton live and native instrument's free reaktor player as well as the weekly soundpacks from Mad Zach. The only thing holding me back in that department is a lack of money and musical theory, but I'm aiming to learn more about that at some stage in the future. I've found that the beatport play remix competitions are a great way of practicing the technical aspects of production and also a nice way of getting inspiration for how to craft the different aspects of music.

Well that's a little about me, but here is the bit you've all been waiting for (or not :P)

the gear:

-black macbook 1st generation 2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo with 2GB RAM and 80GB HDD
-Traktor Kontrol S2
-DJTechtools Midifighter 3D
-Korg Nanokontrol 2
-V-moda LP2 Limited Edition Headphones with custom shields.


Photos (sorry if some of them are out of focus):

The overall setup with my custom wooden riser that I made for about $20AUD


Cables and stuff, can get pretty hectic here in terms of heat sometimes.


My attempt at a little bit of NI porn


My cute little USB hub that my girlfriend got me, it's non powered, but it works fine to run my mf3d and my korg nanokontrol, sometimes also a flash drive, but I try not to push it too much.


Korg Nanokontrol 2, mainly used for all the new features that traktor comes out with, at the moment using it for filters, because I didn't like the encoder style on the S2, also handy for remix decks although that maxes out my cpu and crashes it too often for me to be able to justify it, so I use it for all the things I would normally use my laptop's keyboard for, browsing crates and enabling fx groups and the new flux mode.


Swirly RGB lighting


Starting up a little LED fire here


Bit more fire going on


Feeling the rush


Staggered zoom with a long exposure gave me this one, while the midifighter was in sleep mode, pretty cool!

I don't have a great deal of money, considering I'm 16 years old and still at school, I try to fit in as much time as possible for earning funds and mixing, but at the end of the day, my education is what is going to put me ahead in the long run, so I'm going to focus on that for the moment, I've only been mixing for about a year now, but became interested in digital djing when i was about 14 after seeing Ean's 'phenomena' video on youtube. At the time that was the greatest thing I had ever seen, and to be honest, it still is, that is one video that continues to inspire me to come up with new ideas and for that, I am incredibly grateful. So on behalf of everyone else on the forums and even the users of the blog, I would just like to thank you Ean for setting up djtechtools and providing a place for us to all gather and create a positive and productive community of amazing people.

Anyhow, right now it is nearing 4:30 in the morning here in Melbourne so I am going to finish up on this thread, thanks for reading my rants and seeing my pictures. Please feel free to leave comments or feedback or advice because I would absolutely love to hear from other people about what they think, thanks in advance!

-nxtonic (Angus McMillan)

[zimfella]

some cool photos there! dig the setup

[DJKyleHughes]

Awesome MF3D pictures!

If you're looking to get into music theory I highly recommend the book "Jazzology" by robert rawlins

[MyUsername]

Why the hell are there never any promo shots of gear with longer shutter speeds ?

The ones with "the flames" are sick! And the rest is pretty nice as well.

[keynote101]

oh man what part in melbourne are you in? We should collab! I'm in clayton at monash bro, midi fighter 3d warriors unite!!!!

[nxtonic]

Thanks a heap for the support guys! Glad to hear someone thinks it's alright haha

Awesome MF3D pictures!

If you're looking to get into music theory I highly recommend the book "Jazzology" by robert rawlins

Thank you Kyle, I'll look into that one :)

some cool photos there! dig the setup :)

Thanks bro :)I saw your setup, I love the otus! that thing is so funky :D

Why the hell are there never any promo shots of gear with longer shutter speeds ?

The ones with "the flames" are sick! And the rest is pretty nice as well.

I like to think I'm artistic hahaha :P
I'd love to try shooting it in a studio sometime maybe, just for the experience, but I'm a bit of an amateur. Thanks a lot, I'm glad you like them :)

oh man what part in melbourne are you in? We should collab! I'm in clayton at monash bro, midi fighter 3d warriors unite!!!!

As it turns out, I'm just down the road, more or less :P pm me buds :D

Cheers guys