mixing with richie

NI video tutorial :: Intro
http://m-nus.com/media/Intro.mov

NI video tutorial :: syncing & beatmashing
http://m-nus.com/media/syncing_beatmashing.mov

NI video tutorial :: needledrop
http://m-nus.com/media/needledrop.mov

NI video tutorial :: looping
http://m-nus.com/media/looping.mov

NI video tutorial :: doublemacro
http://m-nus.com/media/doublemacro.mov

NI video tutorial :: controller setup
http://m-nus.com/media/controller_setup.mov

NI video tutorial :: 4decks & mastersync
http://m-nus.com/media/4Decks_MasterSync.mov

hope the links work. thought it was a nice little demo

all this and he was still rubbish at DEMF and Berghain..

what was he doing (or not doing)?

I thought he just overcooked it all by layering too many tracks at once. I can see the potential of all this, it's massive in fact; and in the right hands, or once he has played around with it for a few years will do some damage, but i think it's sometimes best to let well produced tracks have some air to breath.

i thought it was funny when he said about your 4 favourite tracks making a non favourite track...this seems like it would be pretty easy to do if your doing all this 'live'. Or are the tracks he overlaying each other pre planned too?

I just thought he went a little overboard with the samples which just ended up drowning out good parts and even though he brought them back but i just kept on wishing he'd let tracks play out a bit. Got a bit sick of his dropping out the bass and kicking it back in a few bars late too..

Magda rocked it. Maybe losing her laptop has thinned her collection to bare essentials and tracks are now easy to locate on her hard drive?
Konrad Black was wicked too, but i don't think he was in the list he talks about getting tracks sent from Ritchies 'heart'

I dunno mike, the 1500 other people seemed to be in techno heaven...
You weren't really getting into any of that tho.
Magda was way less interesting in MY opinion, but I know that it didn't make her bad, just that she let the tracks breath TOO much and sounded a bit stale for me.

I seem to get a little bit miffed with people saying things like "Dj X was shit, DJ Y was crap" rather than saying in their opinion....

Everyone has their likes and dislikes. But Richie is ALL about layering, he always has, and always will be. He has been layering shit for longer than you've even knowing what a DJ was, let alone took to clubbing, so saying he needs "a few years" is pretty odd.

He is the highest paid techno DJ cos most of the big techno crowds want a bit of a mindfuck journey, which Hawting delivers more than most... doesn't mean he's not human, or has 30 new tracks in his crate that he just isn't feeling that night, and 30 the next...etc but in general, he does what Hawtin is expected, and that is to get things twisted and rocking.

Letting tracks 'breath' is definitely NOT what Hawtin is about, which the majority of techno clubbers should know

I still think he hasn't fully got the hang of this set up. I think seeing Hawtin doing layering with a few decks even a few years ago would have been far less overwhelming than seeing him overlaying 4 tracks at once on this new setup... but like i say the potential is massive, i just don't think he's smashing it as much as he could be or possibly will be. I was really dissapointed with his sets.

Surely, even you weren't blown away by his sets at Sunday Adventure Club or Berghain?

Richie Hawtin @ DEMF/Movement, Detroit (05.25.08 ) Part 2 5 and a half - 6 minutes in. I personally don't dig.

Fair nuff if you're not feeling it. But sounds like you don't dig that sound at all.

Well, the thing is there's a bit difference between him having a hang on his system and not enjoying it. Or even him actually succeeding in making it work.

He has more of a grasp on his gear than any other DJ, that's the point. His technical skills are fairly mental. He's always had an extreme affinity with pushing way past others. But there's always been when he hits it hard and when he just bangs the rockers and the freakers. Problem is when you saw him those years ago, he WAS playin with 3 decks, effects, and probably a drum machine! It just is that now you are more knolagable and have more expectation with what you want (it's called being a picky bastard, and anyone in the scene for a good while suffers from this dire malady)!

I wasn't blown away, but then again, I've seen him about 7 or more times.
Berghain I was impressed how well he played to the room, he captured the mental energy of the crowd perfectly. The only people who weren't into it so much were the NZ crew who were way more house orientated.

And I really think that's it. Richie (as wanky as this sounds) really separates the techno men from the boys (and girls, lovely to see the 50/50 split euro side).
He plays techno, plays it the way techno should be played now...
Techno isn't about playing songs, or letting them 'breath'. That's tech-house, or Get Physical or Tiger Stripes tech. Which is great, but it's not the cutting edge(hawtin or audion), or bleeding edge (Surgeon at Warp). It's the commercial edge.

Anyhow - I ask you to name any one person who is as technically proficient as Hawtin? He has played on his new setup more times and to more people than 99.9% of global djs, and that doesnt' take into account all the millions of people and thousands of hours of floor time prior to the slow evolving setup that Hawtin uses (remember, he adds things, swaps things, changes).

One last thing I guess you might not be aware. He is one of the people behind the scenes at Traktor, has share concerns with them, and he is probably their chief desire-architect for the features. So if there was actually any one DJ on the planet that it was made FOR, it is Hawtin, so.... yeah.

(btw. what's wrong with 5.5 / 6 mins in? You don't like the layering of the vocal etc?)

And of course, you might not be aware that the Allen & Heath interface he helped design and guide... which other DJ can say that? (Carl Cox or Q Bert? But they secretly wish they had designed better mixers! heh)

btw. I'm not saying that I'm in love with the direction musically he is going at the moment. But that's not really the point. He has always taken the approach that he is there to tweak and freak.

But that's more a musical thing, he is just pushing people's comfort zones technically.

Remember there were the same grumblings when he was playing with Ableton?
And the same grumblings when he added effects rack to the setup?
And the same grumblings when he added more decks and drum machines?

And it wasn't that he wasn't quite up to speed with the setups, more that the grumblers weren't up to speed with him.

Hawtin IS the most technically advanced DJ in the world. Probably my most anticipated DJ before i came away.

That big techno sound of Berghain can be good. I quite liked what i heard of Len Faki. Maybe Hawtin is too epic for me? When he got all bashy and had 3/4 tracks going at once, like in the video, there was just too much 'freak' for me.

Look forward to hearing reviews of the Contakt night in Berlin because he's probably already mastering this setup more than what it sounded like when he was at DEMF.

Yeah, he was on full freak patrol that night. Don't think he gets a chance to play Berghain that often...

Len Faki is more into playing song based techno anthems, so a lot less focus on the tweaking and dipping.

But over the years people write Hawtin off, and then he just totally fucks them up and blows them away when they aren't expecting.
We all have to be careful how much focus we put into artists before we see them, otherwise that can go from being 'build up' to 'overhype'.

Good example was at the Sunday Adventure club. Was a bit dissapointed in Wink at first, cos I had WANTED him to play tweaky and dark minimal like he's been doing, but then it came to it and he just lost the vibe (thanks Luciano, stop playing so well before others). But then his second set, he just played a great mix of house and techno, and banged it out... which is what he is good at... but be nice to see him do both together. Bloody skitzo djs eh. They always make it hard.

"Look forward to hearing reviews of the Contakt night in Berlin because he's probably already mastering this setup more than what it sounded like when he was at DEMF."

Are there any links to these mixes around?

I haven't checked to see if there are any sets from this year's DEMF anywhere..

If there are get Dan Bell's live set if you can find it

I checked out these vids on another site somewhere and was really impressed with his attitude and the lengths he's gone to to set it all up for ease of use (not just to save carrying records around as some seem to).

The guy is a legend - except when he does photos next to that glowing cube thing.

R

I went and saw him a few weeks ago at a festival. I have to say he was a lot better than the time before. Had layed of the looping so much and just did heaps of really cool four deck layering. It was only a two hour set too, and during the day, and I think that helped. No hangers on on the stage or anything. Just a really good flowing set. Surprisingly musical too.
Going to the contakt event in a few weeks in London with Stinger, so we'll see how that goes.