Testing Traktor for iPad

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Finally, Native Instruments released an app for the ipad called “Traktor DJ“. Since Traktor is the widest used DJ software and the ipad has so much to offer to manipulate music with its interface the expectations were extremely high. And they didn’t fail. The price of 18 EUR is ok for what you get and after reading the first reviews and I instantly had to download and try it.

I spent a nice long ride on the train with figuring out the thing and produce a little mix. The app runs smoothly and is very intuitive, it comes with effects like looping, delays, flangers and filters or freezes. The freeze function is certainly the most innovative. While in a loop, you can touch certain parts of the loop and play it, like single drums or sounds. While playing, mixing or skipping, it never gets out of synch, and combined with a soundcard you can send different sound signals to master and prelistening. So this is actually a serious alternative for a gig in a bar, maybe not in a club.

So here it is, enjoy 30 minutes of bass music with Benga, Kryptic Minds, Redrum and Fused Forces.

The mixes can be recorded directly within the app. I was a bit annoyed at first because I could not find a way to export it. But with a little help from the NI support I found the way. This is how you export and save a recording from the Traktor app for iPad:

“In order to export your recorded mix you need to sync (connect) your iPad to a desktop computer, then open iTunes and click on the iPad tab. Select the “APPS” tab and then scroll down to the section “File Sharing”. You will see TraktorDJ in the file sharing apps list. click on it, it will show you the recorded files which you can save now with the “SAVE TO” button to a location on your harddrive.”

Here is the official promotion video with Richie Hawtin preparing a set in the taxi:

Alma

Bildschirmfoto 2013-02-04 um 16.40.20Es ist eine schockierende, verstörende und bedrückende Lebensbeichte, die Alma in dieser Dokumentation ablegt. Sie sitzt vor der Kamera und erzählt von ihrer Vergangenheit als Gangmitglied der Maras in Guatemala. Sie spricht, zittert, weint, fasst sich wieder, versinkt in sich. Die Geschichte beginnt mit ihrem ersten Mord, danach erzählt sie von ihrer Kindheit, wie sie in die Gang kam, von ihrem Alltag mit Schutzgelderpressungen und Drogendeals, von Liebe, Flucht, Rückkehr und dem Versuch auszusteigen.

Alma zuzuhören schnürt einem die Kehle zu. Geschichten über Gewalt, Willkür, Perspektivlosigkeit, Kriminalität gibt es so viele, meist aber sind die abstrakt. Das einzelne Schicksal mit all seinen Details und all seiner Härte ist aber eindrucksvoller als Statistiken oder Nachrichten. Es zeigt die Spiralen, die Lebensläufe, die sich so millionenfach auf der ganzen Welt abspielen. Mich hat vor allem das Banale daran schockiert und die Wendepunkte an denen alles auch ganz anders hätte laufen können.

Wenn Alma erzählt und sich erinnert wird ihr, ohne dass sie es explizit sagt, klar für was sie ihr Leben geopfert hat. Für nichts. Weder ist sie besonders reich oder besonders frei geworden, hat nicht im Glamour gelebt, sondern ein paar Augenblicke der Macht über Schwächere und ein kurzes Aufzucken der Selbstbestimmtheit ihren Eltern und ihrer perspektivlosen Situation gegenüber erlebt. Mit 15 hat sie ihr Leben geopfert für ein Leben in Abhängigkeit von den Gangbossen, in Schuld und schließlich im Rollstuhl.

Arte TV erzählt diese Geschichte in einem sehr gut gemachten Webspecial und einer noch besser gemachten App für Android und iPad. Während Alma erzählt, können wir hier auf einer Parallelspur Impressionen aus Guatemala, Clips und Zeichnungen sehen. Die Geschichte bekommt eine sehr dichte Struktur, die gezeigten Bilder vermischen sich mit Almas Worten im Kopf zu einer eigenen visuellen Vorstellung der Ereignisse.

MR-808: When digital goes analog and back

How cool is that?! Here is a “real” drum machine inspired by the legendary TR-808. A “drum robot” which consists of a complete drum set built in a big box, with each instrument being triggered by Midi. So, what started to be the first digital drum becomes analog and goes back in the digital loop. Hard to understand? Watch this video.

MR-808 – mechanic drum robot from Sonic Robots on Vimeo.

Moritz Simon Geist who built this says “… we are the first ones to transfer the electronic sounds of the most influential electronic drum computer TR-808 into the real world and make it highly playable for a musician! The idea behind the installation is to highlight the origin of the sounds in a way no conventional media of electronic music production is usually able to… We mainly used motors and solenoids as actuators, which are triggered by a power electronic device and an Arduino. The musical control is realized with MIDI, the latency and the lighting control system are implemented in MAX / MSP.”

Find out more about the background and its nerdy technical features

But that’s not all! There is also a band, “Science Fiction Children” who sound a bit like The Rapture or Bodi Bill, check out their hit “Rise of the toys”

Rise of the Toys – Science Fiction Children from david campesino on Vimeo.

Why Own It?

Here is a new startup I like: Whyown.it. The name is pretty descriptive since it is about collaborative consumption. It’s an app where people catalogue what they own and would be willing to lend. You connect your friend lists from Facebook and can find out what you can borrow from your friends. Simply idea, neatly done, I could take a look at the preview. I think sharing more physical stuff is a way of living more efficiently and resource friendly and a little step into solving the world’s problem of excessive consumption. Respect and all the best to Phillip and his crew.

Microsoft Innov8

Microsoft Innov8 BerlinVor ein paar Wochen war ich auf der “Innov8”, einer Art Jam Session für Design und Innovation, ausgerichtet von Microsoft. Inspiriert vom Metro-Design sollte in kleinen Gruppen über Innovationen diskutiert werden, ich war Experte und Schirmherr für das Thema Kommunikation.

Die Herausforderung einen so breiten Komplex in so kurzer Zeit zu behandeln, nahmen wir und ich hatte viel Spaß in meiner Gruppe, die aus Designern, Unternehmern und Studenten bestand. Einig waren wir uns darüber, dass Design und auch das Grundsetup von Geräten in Zukunft noch viel mehr Filterfunktionen übernehmen wird, um die Informations- und Kommunikationsflut für jeden Einzelnen handhabbar zu machen. Außerdem wurde uns klar, dass sich Kommunikation in der Zukunft auf noch mehr Plattformen und über noch mehr Schnittstellen ziehen wird und konsistente Standards, auch im Design, daher auch für das Zusammenspiel immens wichtig sein wird. Die Macher haben einen schönen kurzen Clip gedreht, der einen guten Eindruck von der Veranstaltung liefert.

The most impressive public display projects

I have always been interested and fascinated by projections and screens in public space. Not the usual tv in a metro which shows news but visual elements that change the environment and use them as integral part. Back in 2007 I wrote about my friend Frederic Eyl who invented the “parasite”, which can be placed at the outside of a metro wagon and projects on the outside wall so travelers see the visuals from the inside.

In 2001 I was witness to one of the most impressive projects, a whole house as a screen, using single windows with lamps behind as digits! Blinkenlights took place the first time in Berlin at Alexanderplatz, watch a video documentary:

Even more impressive was their work on the French national library in Paris one year later:

Nowadays projection artists and technology is advanced enough to project pictures on buildings which take the specific form into account. Here is project from Hamburg, from last week:

But my current favorite is the opera house in Sidney which folds in the end:

Always looking for more of this kind, do you have any links?

Auflegen im Schau Fenster

Last week I tested my new digital DJing set Traktor Scratch A6 at Schau Fenster gallery and it was really fantastic. The vinyl feel and controlling abilities combined with the ease of digital storage just kicks it. I won’t stop to buy vinyl though, but I feel some new possibilities have just been opened here. Here are some nice pics, shot by Sebastian Glowinski für GOOD GUYS ENTERTAINMENT.

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Testing the Quote.fm embed

Nice, now quote.fm which becomes ever more important to me for finding interesting texts gets an embed feature. This will replace the “quote”-Style in blogs and make discussions about texts across platforms easier to collect and follow.

Here is a fun one (in German):

This one is more serious in my opinion. The position of the German pirate party towards authors and copyright (at least the position of one of his most popular members Christoper Lauer:

Projecting digital DJing interfaces on Vinyl

Wow, here is the next step, using records and mixer as background for user interface projections and making the pictures and the software react to gestures. Check out a video below.

I think digital DJing is ok, but I am sure we haven’t reached the point yet where truly the advantages, compared to classic vinyl, rule out the disadvantages. Sure, you can carry much more music with way less weight and you have more live editing possibilities. Still, the interfaces for picking music and mixing works better with real records in my opinion. There’s no comparison to flipping through records in a case and decide what to put on next and the visible waveform on the vinyl tells you about the dramaturgy of the track. Not talking about the sound differences where vinyl still has the most depth.

With the experimental software shown in the video which connects to Serato Sratch, an important step could be possible: the visualization of records onto your record player and the visualisation of track information on your user interface.

Projection Mapping Onto Turntables from E.N.S. on Vimeo.

Two people seem to be behind that, I couldn’t really figure out who is who by research, but I found Ian Silverman aka E.N.S. and this YouTube playlist which documents CyrusBUK’s work on that project.

360 degree videos and panoramic ball cameras

Panoramic ball camera

Ever more often lately, I stumble across 360 degree or panoramic video and photo ideas, tools and gadgets. Now I even have the great pleasure to work on a project with that kind of technology together withe the awesome company called Yellowbird from the Netherlands. They do amazing 360° videos which are embedable and follow the linear story of a video along a timeline, and whilst the film is moving you can change the viewpoint of the camera, like looking at the sky or behind you. Their most successful video certainly is the one from a snowboarders perspective which went pretty viral which is understandable, have a look:
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