R-Solution: Civil Rights Show

Presented by myself and Sean P. Originally broadcast August 1999, on Kiss 100, UK. Studio guests include Francisco Mora, Craig Taborn, Carl Craig, Patrick Forge & Gilles Peterson.

Sound Obsession: The Birth Of Techno

The Birth of Techno

Part One: 1985-1988

• Model 500 - No UFO's - Metroplex
  
• Model 500 - The Future - Metroplex
  
• Model 500 - Night Drive Thru Babylon - Metroplex
  
• X Ray - Untitled - Transmat
  
• X Ray - Let's Go (Remix) - Fantasy
  
• Eddie 'Flashin' Fowlkes - Goodbye Kiss - Metroplex
  
• Model 500 - Sound Of Stereo - Metroplex
  
• Model 500 - Off To Battle - Metroplex
  
• Rythim Is Rythim - Nude Photo - Transmat
  
• Rythim Is Rythim - The Dance - Transmat
  
• Rythim Is Rythim - Move It - Transmat
  
• Suburban Knight - The Groove - Transmat
  
• Keynotes - Let's Let's Let's Dance - Incognito
  
• Intercity - Groovin' Without Doubt - KMS
  
• Blake Baxter - When We Used To Play - KMS
  
• Blake Baxter - Does Not Compute - KMS
  
• Intercity - Out Of Control - KMS
  
• Reese & Santonio - The Sound - KMS
  
• Rythim Is Rythim - Strings Of Life - Transmat
  
• Neal Howard - To Be Or Not... (Mayday Mix) - Future Sound 
  
• Kevin Saunderson - Perpetual Motion - Future Sound
  
• Separate Minds - You Ask For It - Express
  
• Separate Minds - 1st Bass - Express
  
• Model 500 - OK Corral - Metroplex
  
• Mayday - Wiggin - Pheerce Citi
  

The Birth of Techno

Part Two: 1988-1990

• Rythim Is Rythim - Nude Photo '88 - Kool Kat
  
• Model 500 - Electronic - Metroplex
  
• Model 500 - Interference - Metroplex
  
• Tranzistor - The Force - KMS
  
• Reese - The Groove That Won't Stop - KMS
  
• Rythim Is Rythim - It Is What It Is - Transmat
  
• Rythim Is Rythim - Feel Surreal - Transmat
  
• Mayday - Sinister - Pheerce Citi
  
• Mayday - Freestyle - Pheerce Citi
  
• Model 500 - Techno Music - Virgin
  
• Reese & Santonio - Force Field - KMS
  
• Reese & Santonio - The Truth Of Self-Evidence - KMS
  
• Reese - Rock To The Beat - KMS
  
• Model 500 - The Chase - Metroplex
  
• Symbols & Instruments - Mood - KMS
  
• Rythim Is Rythim - Beyond The Dance - Transmat
  
• R-Tyme - R-Theme - Transmat
  
• Rythim Is Rythim - Emanon - Transmat
  
• Model 500 - The Wanderer - Transmat
  
• Model 500 - Info World - Transmat
  
• Rhythim Is Rhythim - Drama - Transmat
  
• Rhythim Is Rhythim - The Beginning - Transmat
  
• BFC - Static Friendly - Fragile
  
• Underground Resistance - The Theory - Retroactive

Book Choice #8:

Ross Raisin: God's Own Country

An uncomfortable read - and not just because of the deeply disturbing turn towards the end of the book. I found the book problematic because of the way the author pitches his main character Sam Marsdyke. 

It's obvious from the beginning that Marsdyke is a disturbed individual, but he comes across as being unaware or unconcerned about the consequences of his actions rather than having any insight or understanding. In this sense he seems to have a medical condition rather than being maliciously evil. But this is at odds with the thoroughly repulsive character he becomes by the books end.

Without a doubt the books strength lies in its language. At times Marsdyke's narration comes across as "Clockwork Orange-transported-to-North Yorkshire" and despite his twisted, delusional state of mind some of Marsdyke's observations are laugh-out-loud funny.

An interesting debut.

Wave Rider

Controlling dynamics in audio is a combination of musicianship or vocal mic technique and most commonly, compression and/or fader riding. Compression and riding faders however are very different techniques: fader riding usually considered as more natural. Your ear acts as a look-ahead compressor and if you are familiar with the material you can accurately ride the faders to lower and raise gain at key points. Compression can of course do this automatically but it is fundamentally less natural even with auto-release and auto-gain settings.

The side-effects of compression are often desirable, but riding faders is still commonly performed - particularly on vocal takes. But in this age of mixer-less project-studios if you don't have a hardware controller you are left struggling with a mouse to ride virtual faders in your DAW. This is quite tricky. Hence my excitement at the announcement of a new RTAS plug-in for Pro Tools called Wave Rider. It analyses audio and instead of controlling dynamics using compression, it will write volume data automation to your session. Great idea! This can of course then be fine-tuned. It also provides "ducking" - great for radio show voice-overs, and fader "parking" - which handily lowers faders when no audio is present to minimize mic bleed for example.

More info available at: Wave Rider

LOL: I've just noticed the date... no this isn't a lame April Fools joke!

Book Choice #7:

Junot Diaz: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

A superb, highly original read. Set against the backdrop of a country with a brutal recent history, this tale of an overweight, Dominican sci-fi/fantasy "nerd" and his cursed family often reads like Wax Poetics magazine doing Tolkien.

NI Maschine

Native Instruments Maschine

A new addition to the studio: Maschine - the hardware MIDI controller, sampler, "groovebox", step sequencer, FX unit, etc, etc from Native Instruments. User-customizable Controller templates allow you to set-up the knobs, pads and buttons to remotely control software instruments such as Massive and Battery - and even DAW's such as Ableton Live.

Beat-making, MPC-style is straight-forward, and after some file-management of various template files I've successfully done sessions in Ableton Live 7 switching effortlessly between Maschine control, controlling Massive and firing clips in Ableton itself.

The hardware build-quality is extremely impressive - especially considering the unit is retailing for around £600 UKP. The Sound Library - as you'd expect from a company such as NI is very extensive - with many (80%?) of the sounds exclusive to Maschine.

There is some confusion as to it's functionality - it's such a multi-purpose unit, I guess that's inevitable. The main complaint seems to be the lack of MIDI exporting of Maschine's own sequencing data. However - this will hopefully be addressed in a future update. For now - the audio is captured via routing of virtual outputs into any DAW.

I've only had the unit for 2 days, so will report back with various findings over the next few weeks. Of particular interest will be any latency issues when using Maschine as a plug-in within DAW's, the extent of custom built templates for controlling software (the Ableton control is fairly limited at present - and there is no visual feedback when navigating around the Arrange view).

By popular request:

I get a lot of emails asking about my various radio shows from over the years. I have a few knocking around on DAT and will upload as I come across them. For now - enjoy my Disco Mix show for Nuphonic's London Xpress show in 2002.

Split into four easily digestible 3omin sections... tracklisting to come.