But let’s get back to my whole setup (watching the amount of txt I already wrote just talking about my Mac I’m seriously thinking of splitting this thing in a few parts), audio inputs and outputs are managed by the excellent  apogee duet, a small yet powerful audio interface, features 2 outputs and 4 inputs + headphones monitoring.
Apogee is well known for the quality of its converters, they are indeed some of the highest standard in the market and I can confirm whether recording or playback, the sound is awesome.
As you can see from the various pictures of my studio, I have a few magic boxes, also known as hardware synthesizers, precisely i own : Roland JP 8000 (the blue keyboard on the left of the mac), Clavia Nordlead 2 (the red one) and an Access Virus Ti Snow (the white little one).
This last one has its own usb to plug in the mac and a plugin that works in logic (and any other sequencer) that makes it easy to play and control from the mac, while the other 2  synth need a MIDI device that will allow data swap between the instruments and the computer.
In my case it’s just a small m-audio midisport 2 ins and 2 outs connected with the mac thru usb.
Another very important thing is of course the midi keyboard, in my case midi keyboard and midi controller, what I have in the studio is a massive M-Audio Axiom-61, heaps of keys (you guessed it, their are 61) and plenty of midi assignable faders and knobs, great to control logic and plugin parameters straight from the keyboard and by touching them with hands instead of by mouse (that I can assure you, makes a little difference).

Now of course all this stuff has to be plugged in somehow, every synth (apart from the Virus TI in USB mode where the USB cable does both, communication and audio streaming job) has a minimum of 3 cables, 2 audio going out from the Output of the synthesizer to the Input of the Apogee duet, and a midi cable, going out from the Output port of the m-audio midisport into the input of the synth so the audio cables will let recording our synth into logic, and the midi cable will let us control the synth from logic.
There is even the possibility to connect the MIDI output of the synthesizer into the MIDI input of our interface, this is useful when we want to save patches from our hardware to the computer or when we want to know which MIDI control is assigned to a specific parameter (cutoff, release, adsr etc…).
So this is how the mac gets and sends various signals to all the external devices, I hope it’s clear for all those who were confused seeing the pictures I posted.
Now since this post has become a couple of kilometers long I decided to split the studio talk in a few parts that way I can get into details with each specified thing, next time I will talk about the various instruments I use and what’s the difference between them, and later on I will talk about my workflow, what kind of shortcuts I use and how their approached to productions.
I won’t deny that it might (it will) take a while as I’m busy as, but stay tuned or just subscribe to my FEEDS or Newsletter if you don’t wont to bother checking the website every 5 hours.
Till next time bye bye!
D.

Part 1

Part 2

Pretty eventful day today hey?
So, here’s a bunch of updates that I couldn’t wait to tell you :
First of all as announced a few weeks ago my most recent single “Sushi” is featured on the new Anjunabeats Volume 8 which is OUT NOW !
The compilation features 28 tracks by some of the best trance producers around such as Above & Beyond, Kyau and Albert, Oliver Smith, Boom Jinx, Andrew Bayer and many others.
The compilation is available in both CD and mp3 format so you can buy it from itunes HERE.
Now, that being said let’s talk about the next damn cool thing of the day.
Not a mystery anymore anyway but it’s with an immense pleasure that I announce  my remix for my all time favorite producers finally sees the light today, Super8 & Tab feat Jan Burton : Mercy (7 Skies Remix) is finally available from all the best digital download stores such as iTunes, Audiojelly and many others.
Now, thats pretty much everything I had to say….such a good day for me!
I hope you will enjoy all the 7 Skies stuff kicked off today, don’t forget to legally support music if you REALLY(!!!) love trance.
Cheers
D.

Anjunabeats Volume 8 mixed by Above & Beyond by Anjunabeats

It’s called “One 2 Trance” and will be available for free on iTunes.

The show is currently 90 minutes, but if the feedback will be positive enough it will become a 2 hours show, each new episode will be kicked off the 7th of every month, you can subscribe to the podcast directly from your iTunes and you can select to update the show automatically so that every time a new episode is available it will be downloaded on your computer and synchronized to your iPod, iPhone etc.

In case you don’t want to go thru iTunes you can just subscribe the podcast RSS ( in the “Radio” page) that will give you the direct download link to the mp3.

The 1st episode is done already and will be available from Sunday 7th of Feb.

For more info simply click the podcast banner you find in the home page or check the “Radio” section of this website.

and last but not least, enjoy!

Did you ever listen to some online radio shows and the tracks playing sound like there is an lfo modulating the volume or the phase? Or to be more clear, Did you ever listen to some online radio shows and the tracks played sound like crap?

That’s because of the ableton (or mix meister or what ever) algorithm, by default in Live, this algo is set to “beat” (but in the preferences the default can be setted to any other algorythim) which for full tracks isn’t really appropriate.

The “texture” algorithm doesn’t work either and nor does “tones”, there are 3 other algorithm available “complex” that I personally never liked for full tracks, “complex pro” which works quite well but misses a little something.

What I’m going to suggest to use is the other algorithm Ableton offers “Re-Pitch”, this one despite the other warp modes previously listed, alters the pitch of the track because it acts like the actual pitch from cdjs or turntables.

That’s exactly the point! by using this algorithm we don’t just get rid of that hateful crappy sound, but we also simulate the set being played on turntables/cdj, this gives (in my opinion) a better “in da club” feel.

This thing of course (as all the good things) has its cons, since “Re-Pitch” alters the pitch, most of the time when a track is heavily pitched up or down its key changes so you ll have to re-consider the key you are mixing the other track with, which is a pain in that place.

With a little bit of work though this method gives the closest result to an actual dj-set, worth giving it a try if you never have :)