Blame djf being down for the decent discussion IMO. Not the usual “my s4 is so awesome” bollocks. I also think its great to see people actually discussing the elephant in the room in regards to this site, that the whole ean golden mashing routines really are a bit meh… After seeing the two collabs with q-Bert I felt almost uncomfortable for the guy. Ean’s Technical knowledge of traktor and vision with the controller design etc I can’t deny, but the routines are largely unpleasant to my ears.
I’ve often heard art’s purpose (aside from possibly not requiring a purpose) is to take you out of your comfort zone and give you a different take on someone else’s perspective of something. Maybe it gets you to think a little more about the current state of “something” and shift that “something” in another direction, going forward.
more like “herp derp dubstep, sherp da merp skrillex”
Although Sasha is not on my list of favorite dj’s, I’m curious about hearing a set of him working with the Maven and a more recent set with CDJ’s as said to be more engaging (the smiling set). If any1 can drop a name thanks will be given. 
As far as Ean goes maybe he can afford to play whatever he likes without worrying if people might like it or not? I have to admit that many tracks I play are just ‘for the audience’ that are either overplayed or downright suck. Maybe it is a local thing, different from anywhere in the world, but a working dj here must please it’s partner (the audience) in order to get paid (Just like a manwhore).
There have been 1000s to be fair dude.
Yeah I aint buying that for a second. There is always decent discussion on DJTT , I dont think youve been around long enough to make that call dude. And, you aint telling me that DJF isnt full of bullshit as much as DJTT or any other forum. Ive been lurking that forum longer that ive been a member of DJTT.
Ive read some horse-shit on DJF, and few people having a pop at me hahaha funny stuff!!!
Again, id disagree. If theres one thing that Ive seen on DJTT as much as the “oh we love you Ean” is hellish criticism of what he does, his ties with NI, his hair you name it people slag him for it.
Id never do one of his routines, they hold no interest for me and ive said it before but this place isnt just about Eans routines. I have mad respect for the guy, i just dont DJ like him.
Jus sayin’ for balance.
well said…
i was the Los Angeles live party…i thought it was quite pedestrian when i was listening to it live…we bought the CDs directly afterwards and they never got much play from me…
i did notice sasha’s recent sets took on a almost bored feel…
Just winding you up Amigo.
another reason to take a break from ableton is time.
as long as you know your music well you can pretty much bust out good stuff on the fly w vinyl or cds…whereas the the amount of setup time required to put a good ableton set on is much higher. i could see that getting old after awhile.
Maven had nothing to do with MIDIbox. At all. None of the guts came from MIDIbox, none of the work was from MIDIbox. There were things about MIDIbox that made it not an ideal choice.
The insides of Maven are beautiful, flawless, wired like a piece of art. The pots and faders used are the best available. The chassis can take bullets. You will never touch a controller that even comes close to meeting the spec.
Touché
Ya got me
Hey buddy!
Having seen him a good amount of times, mostly utilizing the Maven, and listening to his interviews and his opinion on the scene, I think he moved from Ableton for three reasons.
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He was tired of luggin the shit around, and Pioneer came up with a ‘reliable’, light system for him to mix with, without having to bring anything but his rider, a thumb drive, and/or his laptop.
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He likes to innovate (or at least attempt to), and the Ableton dj crowd is rather saturated. He was no longer on the cutting edge, and could no longer justify towing the rig around.
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Mixers with interfaces allow him to still feed in Ableton on the days he still feels like performing with it.
Some of his first mixes with Ableton were truly fantastic, but as the years wore on, they all started to sound the same. A cut up track here, layered tracks there, ping pong/delay effect everywhere. Then I heard he was making the switch back to CDJ’s, and I thought “Great!”. This meant he was going to ‘tone’ it down a bit if you will, and get back to basics. Which he did. Some of the first sets were fantastic (Positive Education is one that comes to mind). Then I heard a few that were lazy, uninspired turds. And I realized something. The man gets bored quickly, and there are days when I wonder why he even bothers. He’s always looking for something to get him ignited again after his latest proximity infatuation fades from interest. Having said that, I still love the man, and I still dive headfirst into all of his work. As has been stated above, the Involver series is top notch, and are still go to mixes for me. Unfortunately for fans of Sasha, there are going to be periods of utter shit, and epochs of pure glory, and you just have to live with it.
you’re gonna have to do better than that dude.
you are literally the first person I’ve seen on the net who’s flat out denied the maven is based on midibox specs.
it sounds like you’ve seen inside the maven or have some insider knowledge (or you’re a massive Sasha fanboi) - got any evidence to back your claim up?
http://jessebrede.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/sasha_maven.jpg
[quote]Ok, tame the anti-talent sasha flames for a minute, I need links to any and all info/press releases/etc. regarding “his” maven controller.
I got an email many moons ago from a guy “building a controller for sasha”, and continued contact via email to sell him some boards and kits, and to help them through some technical issues during the build.
My thinking was this would be a great thing to have some world famous people using the MIDIbox, so I helped and treated them with the same attitude I have with any customer…
Now that it’s done and has it’s own press release(s), I find no mention of MIDIbox or TK, and I have a problem with that while I watch sasha take full credit in the interviews for the controller.
I know who’s work it is, now you know who’s work it is, now help me let everyone drooling over or bashing sasha’s “maven” box know. Surely this is just an oversight, so let’s correct it! ;D
I have three goals here:
- The ableton community should know that “maven” is a MIDIbox…Anyone a local there?
- To let the whole industry know that “maven” is built on an open-source design, so that the manufacturers contemplating the new sasha controller lineup for guitar center will know that it’s a DIY freebie for anyone who wants it, and commercial production is prohibited.
- To help sasha and his builders better comply with the license by releasing a ready to go “maven” app. and docs (you know, the whole sharing your improvements with the community thing, good thing we can help them with that!)
Thoughts/questions/comments?
Best!
Smash[/quote]
[quote]The people he paid to do this need a warning from my lawyers about the license…just in case they have plans to mass produce or get cloned by behringer.
Even though it’s a rather weak CS layout, there is now an instant market for it, so either we release it for free and get the word out or a company does it and gets rich, and could later use money (trash patents/litigation) to own the design by force.
I really think it is important to let everyone know “maven” = MIDIbox, especially if these highly paid builders did not let even Sasha know.
There is no “might be a MIDIbox” about it, unless they were able to completely redesign this controller in the couple of months between when I talked to them last and it’s debut.
It -is- a MIDIbox until someone shows me pictures of the guts without boards from my shop or even a PIC18F452…
I had no idea helping these guys would turn out like this, I should have told them to get bent like I do all the other profiteers.
Comments?
Smash [/quote]
I wish I could do better than “I know”, but that is the best I can give. Lame. Yes. And you can call BS, understandably. Anyway, the short version is that MIDIbox was evaluated, tested, etc, but there were various issues which made it not an ideal choice.
Hey hey!! How is the space needle treating you? 
sorry dude - not convinced.
there are two possibilities - one is that you’re a sasha fanboy…
And the other, more likely possibility, is that you have some sort of insider knowledge on the maven. If this is the case, then why on earth would anyone connected to maven publically admit that it’s based on midibox designs? If the maven is midibox hardware then it’s not meeting the license terms and opensource ethos you agree to when using MIOS.
now, as you and nem0nic seem to be friendly, I’ll presume you work in the midi hardware industry. If you’ve signed an NDA, then fair enough… otherwise, let’s have some more details! If it’s not midibox hardware I’m pretty sure we’re all dying to know more about it.
the forum here kinda went a bit downhill when the massive influx of new users joined recently… but that’s normal growing pains for a forum and to be expected… don’t think it’s anything to do with djf (which I’d never even heard of until a week ago).
the thing I miss is the controller subforum being more diy/hack hardware related and less about commercial controllers. It’s something that made this place different from most other websites and really matched the original ethos of DJTT (Ean hacking midi controllers with arcade buttons). It’s something that’s sorely missed from here now I think, but I guess it’s inevitable as soon as DJTT became a proper business and not just Ean’s blog.
i live about an hour north of the milo factory by the way.
Link? I can’t seem to find it.
I did remember listening to an audio-only mix a long time ago, and I gave up on it in fifteen minutes because despite not having any controllerist routines, it sounded disjointed and–i’m sorry to say–thoughtless. Maybe it was an off night. We all have those.
Involver 2 (however he spells it…I just know what the cover looks like) was a good ableton set, though it was a produced mix and may not have been done live. Fundacion NYC was also a lot of, well, fun.
As for a recent set:
audio download: http://uploaded.to/file/3c4jd3vj
video: http://www.be-at.tv/#/brands/wmc-miami-music-week/set-miami/sasha-presents-never-say-never/sasha/
The video is a legal, supported stream. I’m not sure about the audio, please delete the link if it violates forum ruls. I found it on another forum.
I was there. It was a freaking good set in the weirdest club I’ve ever been in. The set is really kind of dark and dubbed out compared to what a lot of people like. But, I had a freaking blast. It was the last night we were in miami after a week of over-the-top electro, and it was exactly what we needed.
When we drove back, the people in our group who didn’t go to that night were off somewhere else doing coke, and we drove straight from the club in miami beach back to Atlanta. And the natural high from that music literally kept those of us that went to see Sasha up for longer than the people who’d been doing Coke.
Music Win.
I touched that one once. Like…on the side. Before his set. I didn’t want to break anything, but I had to see it.
That was also the night I met Steve Porter for the first time.