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One way to get people to listen to a sales pitch: give stuff away.
Stanton understood this at the Remix Hotel NYC when it held a daily
drawing for free headphones and a free turntable needle cartridge in
exchange for people's contact info and their attention during the
Stanton Cartridge Challenge.
Actually more than just a sales pitch, the Cartridge Challenge an
attempt to create a live, side-by-side test of turntable cartridge
needles that was as objective as possible. Stanton, which has made
cartridges since 1946, split the demo into two challenges: one for
fidelity and one to test cue burn.
For the fidelity challenge, Stanton pitted its Trackmaster.V3 cartridge
against the Ortofon Pro-S cartridge. They played two copies of the same
record at the same point and crossfaded back and forth to demonstrate
the difference. Noticeably, the Trackmaster.V3 threw out a huger bass
sound.
To test cue burn -- which is basically record wear -- Stanton used its
680.V3 cartridge against the Shure M44-7. Again, they used two copies of
the same record and performed many long, continuous back cues on each
one. With the Stanton, the levels of the worn down record sounded the
same, whereas with the Shure, the levels were lower in the worn-down
section and then boosted back up.
One reason that Stanton gave for its cartridges performing well is that
they use jewely-grade diamonds for the needles, which are smoother to
create less wear and provide a very full frequency. www.stantondj.com
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At Remix Hotel 2007 Vestax showed a couple of freshly launched
pieces of DJ gear, first, the hotly awaited high-end USB DJ MIDI
controller, the VCI-100, and second, the PMC-280 4-channel effects
mixer.
Unlike many USB DJ MIDI controllers, the VCI-100 is built like a
professional piece for pro DJ demands, including a durable, weightly
metal chassis, pro-quality faders and dual touch-sensitive platters that
toggle between jog and scratch modes. It comes with, and is optimized
for, Native Instruments Traktor LE 3 software, but its 66 knobs, faders
and buttons all send MIDI, so the VCI-100 can be setup to include any
MIDI-configurable DJ software, as well as audio software or video and
lighting systems. Its crossfader curve control can also override a
software program's crossfader curve.
Vestax has built a mighty DJ mixer legacy, and the PMC-280 builds on it
by adding a 16-effect DSP processor to a 4-channel DJ mixer. Across the
4 channels, the mixer spreads 10 inputs: 6 line, 2 phono and 2 mic
inputs. It has XLR Master outputs, as well as two pairs of individual
RCA outpus. The 24-bit/96kHz DSP effects processor provides filters,
delay, reverb, flanger, phaser and more, including the first ring
modulator and vococer in a DJ mixer.
The VCI-100 is shipping now, and check www.vestaxpro.com for more details
on the PMC-280.
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Hey again. I can't believe RHNYC 2007 almost over. But in addition
to all of the audio clips we have from panels and demos, we also have a
ton of video coming, including short one-on-one video interviews with
Just Blaze, Kode9 and more, so whether you were here or not, you can
still get the full experience.
Right now, I'm at the last panel called "Mix & Mash: VJs Pushing the
Envelope." Hank Shocklee is showing some VJ clips from the panelists,
who include: Nika Offenbac and Devan Simunovich, Co-Directors, C-Trl
Labs (Thievery Corporation, Richie Hawtin, DJ Krush, Crystal Method,
Snoop Dogg, Kruder & Dorfmeister); Holly Daggers and Eric Dunlap,
Co-Directors, Forward Motion Theater (producer of EyeWash VJ Series);
and Missy Galore, Co-Founder, Feedbuck Galore (creative director of
Dance Parade, Lewis Black, Jon Bon Jovi, Kenneth Cole).
Each panelist offers a completely different style. For example, Missy
Galore's clip is more of a performance art with her and her friends in
furry ravelike costumes. Then there are some clips that are more
futuristic animation and old movies from the '30s interlaced with other
clips. Holly said, "I once saw a whole sequence that was nothing but
food, and it was really great."
The first question is: Who here is a visual artist, and who is a VJ?
Missy says, "If we worry too much about what to call ourselves, maybe we
should put more intention into what we're making." Holly said that, in a
way, she's a "visual historian," picking video from various time
periods....
Nika says that, nowadays, VJs are collaborating and coordinating with
DJs more than ever, rather than just supporting the DJ. And Missy says
that, even if you are going on tour and riffing on the same ideas over
and over, you can still make it new and revel in the moment. Then, Hank
shifts to discussing the VJs' favorite moments, followed by talking
about the future of VJing. Devan talks about writing a piece of software
in Max, MSP and Jitter and says that there's always unexplored territory
in VJing....
As for personal highlights for the VJs, Holly did a Busta Rhymes tour,
and she says he was a pain and had a lot of attitude, and sometimes they
thought he wouldn't even show up. But apparently, there were some times
when she'd steal the show because she had this camera, and audience
members would make fun of him on camera (which was projected behind him
as he was performing) when he was being a pain in the ass, stopping
songs in the middle and throwing things at the crowd, so that brought a
fun element to the shows.... As for bringing VJing into the future,
Holly sees integrating the visuals to enhance the music and party
atmosphere, which it's already doing. But she thinks those things can be
tied together even more.... It's interesting to know the backgrounds of
these VJs, as Eric is trained in modern dance, Holly was a go-go dancer,
and Nika has a sculpture degree. Those other art forms feed into
VJing.... At any rate, once again, I'll pull some of the VJ highlights
from the Pro Tools sessions and upload them tomorrow. The panelists
talked about some specific VJ gear and creation ideas, so I'll capture
some of those for sure.--Kylee Swenson
Read the full Remix Hotel NYC blog at blog.remixhotel.com/nyc.
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