Over the last few years I’ve been hooked on certain mixtapes. Some DJs just made tapes that clicked, they were just right. Many of them put a TONNE of time into their projects (one of my favorite mixtapes took 2 years to make). They hit the perfect song selection and had excellent technical skill; they created something that was artistic and musical. For the last few years, I’ve really wanted to make something that’s in that same vein. Something that I worked my ass off on, that had a unique technical performance, but also sounds great.
Anyways, I dedicated myself over the last few months to making something as described above, and heres what I came up with. I wanted to play in a unique and creative way, while maintaining the musical integrity of the mix. What I ended up with was essentially lots of groovey house music with lots of remix deck work. I chopped beats and synths from 50 of my favorite tracks and made 38 minute session with it, no track left unremixed I also recruited two of my good friends, national drumming chap Chris Dimas and my bud DJ Drewski to do two quick 1 minute back to back sessions on this mixtape as well!
Thank you for the kind words guys, they mean a lot to me!
I’m using my own I have one page set just for regular finger drumming (set up exactly the way the f1s are); i just find it easier on my wrists to drum with the maschine. The other page however is mapped to each individual slot in a vertical row; What I mean by that is that the first four buttons are mapped to slots 1-4 in row 1 of the first page, the next row of buttons are mapped to slots 5-8 in the SAME row and so on. I mapped it like this so that the previous sample cuts the last one out when its played, its useful for the type of stuff I’m doing around 3 mins and 25 mins. It basically allows me to chop tracks into their individual beats (or take individual beats from different tracks) and play them in a rearranged manner as one song!
Really nice work, man. Great use of the F1’s (is the second one on the left dedicated to just Traktor’s FX?) While the controllerist thing is not always my cup of tea, I’ve got mad respect for the skills it takes and all the prep that goes into the sample banks and mapping. Awesome work.
Thanks dude! As for your question, your spot on, the second f1 was used for all the meat and potatoes functions (play, pause, cue points, loading tracks, effects, etc.).
Hey, man. This was awesome. When that live drummer kicks in? Badass.
Would you mind giving just a little more explanation about how you mapped the slots? I don’t quite understand what you mean by “mapping the slots in a vertical row”. You mentioned that the previous sample cuts out the last one played, but isn’t that how the F1 typically works anyway?
I would appreciate any insight. Once again, killer job.
I also recruited two of my good friends, national drumming chap Chris Dimas and my bud DJ Drewski to do two quick 1 minute back to back sessions on this mixtape as well!
