Happy New Year

That's all. Bring on the party and keep it fresh for 2008!

Telling it like it is!

(this has nothing to do with me, it just uses my tune in order to hammer home its message! If only all health awareness campaigns used banging industrial technoise.)

Quick Demo

Progress Report

From backstage at Fri-Son in Fribourg:

By and large, the Kombine BeatHarvester has worked well. I've been pretty pleased with its performance, given that it's only 2 weeks old, but then again I did experience some nasty bugs while on dancefloor duty! I've just squashed the one which would render the whole program inactive if I tried to rewind to a minus beat number - for which I had to restart about 10 times while DJing in Zurich. Also before that gig, I changed some of the key commands, which wasn't such a good idea since one of the deck select keys was also assigned to "reverse." On the upside, I've been having fun with 4 deck playback and the reverse function, and with piling many loops on top of each other now and again.

State Of Play

Ok, so after 2 solid weeks of working on my Traktor replacement, my program is just about up and running enough to be able to use. However, there are certain caveats regarding its use. It can only read AIF files at the moment, and they have to be tagged manually, a process which is pretty time consuming. The more bar markers there are in a track, the better it will be kept in time without intervention. It works very well on a digitally recorded audio file, but on a vinyl rip of an old Detroit Techno tune, mastered on a wavering open-reel tape recorder and pressed off-centre, things get out of time very quickly! This is the biggest problem I face now, tagging enough tracks before Thursday comes around. I've done about 50 so far and it took me all evening. So I think what I will do is take both laptops and mix between Traktor and Kombine BeatHarvester, so that at least my DJ set will last for longer than 15 minutes.

Now that I have reached the stage where the program is usable, I have been learning how to use it! One nice trick is to mix 2 copies of the same track, with one going backwards. It can sound very trippy on Acid tunes. Despite the problems referred to above, short loops are a safe bet to keep in time, and having 4 different ones going at once, with odd loop lengths, can create some interesting polyrhythmic textures.

In answer to some questions in the comments a few posts ago: MP3 support is definitely possible. I would read the MP3 into an AIF buffer and go from there. Waveform scrolling is simply a matter of updating SuperCollider's waveform view a certain number of times per beat - at 10 times it looks very smooth, but is extremely CPU intensive, in fact ridiculously so. Now it only gets updated once per beat! At first I thought that was pretty poor, but in actual fact it can be seen much more clearly where the beat is matching up in the track and now I prefer it.

I won't have time to write much more before going away, but when I come back I plan to go into a bit more detail and maybe even post a video of the program in action.

Evil Rave in Zurich 22 Dec 2007

Nude man / beast hybrids will be raving along with us "norms."
Part of the Swiss end of year "don't mention the c-word" tour:

21 December 2007 - Schlachthofstrasse 10, Basel.
22 December 2007 - Kalkbreite, Zurich.
23 December 2007 - Fri-Son, Fribourg.
24 December 2007 - Himmel, Seewen.

9 Days of Effort

Almost there! it needs to be properly usable by next friday, or I'll be flying out to Switzerland with Traktor and my tail between my legs. I did a few mixes and it worked pretty well, except... the stop button doesn't have any effect. Ah, going to have to fix that.

This is what I'm up against

I mean, [insert name of your favourite deity here] wept!
Still, if it really does float your boat, don't let me stop you.

CYLOB.COM на Русском

CYLOB.COM на Русском (благодарю вас mr. rozet!)

First Glimpse Of Kombine Harvezter

It plays and scrolls the waveform already, and playback speed can be adjusted according to the target BPM - none of this plus or minus % nonsense!
I really have a bee in my bonnet about Traktor. For instance, it seems to take a staggering amount of CPU to simply play back an MP3, whereas this simple deck tops out at about 2%. I think the general philosophy of that program is wrong, it is both over complex and lacking in imagination.
When I've completed the first phase of this new patch, it will feature 4 decks, 3 crossfaders (2 top to bottom and one left to right) and a global pulse to keep them all in time, if desired. All controls will be assignable to MIDI or keyboard learn. The track selector will be in REALLY BIG LETTERS to minimise squinting in darkened clubs.
Phase two will feature granular and spectral synthesis, automatic remixing tools and various effects. I don't know how long those things will take, but the principles involved are not complicated.
I keep thinking that there must be something I'm missing about making a DJ program, some really big problem that I'll come across when I try to put it together, since as much as Traktor irritates me, it seems about the best of a bad bunch. So far, hacking this together has been relatively easy. Where's the catch?

Live Tonight (Thursday 6 December)

Just thought I'd flog this one again, it will be my last live date for a long time by the looks of it. Maybe last one ever, who knows.

CEASE TO EXIST

PRESENTS

CYLOB

DATE : THURSDAY 6TH DECEMBER 2007
TIMES : 7PM - 11PM


The Half Moon
10 Half Moon Lane
Herne Hill
London
SE24 9HU
020 7274 2733

www.halfmoonpub.co.uk

Pac-Man "Festive" Tree

I refuse to let the C-Word sully my page.



from Kartones Blog

Style-Free

I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see "ourselves". . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that.
There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune-Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune-Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Kung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is.
Finally, a Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive.
Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.

Link to source of quote

Swiss Tour

The details have been flooding in on the Cylobian Newswire, and we can now bring you the following HARD FACTS:


- 21.12.07
venue: schlachthofstrasse 10, basel
line-up: djs: cylob, tampon, pretuval, das konzentrat

- 22.12.07
venue: kalkbreite, zurich
line-up: djs: cylob, deadbybeats, bronkobitch, the dean soniks
hepp (live)

- 23.12.07
venue: fri-son, fribourg
line-up: dj cylob, dj aikon, tastatur (live)
link: www.fri-son.ch

- 24.12.07
venue: himmel, seewen (sz)
line-up: djs: cylob, tampon, pretuval
link: www.teknow.tk

Started Another Thing

The latest project is to remove my reliance on Traktor for DJing. I think it's possible to make something which automatically keeps 2 or 4 tracks in time, without having to constantly adjust them. All it takes is a little preparation beforehand - such as inserting a few simple tags into the soundfile. The DJ would then be free to tweak various crazy effects - another thing missing from Traktor (the version I use, at least.)

I hope to have it on the go by the time I get to Switzerland! Maybe not with all the effects but a basic working version at least. I need a name for it though. So far I'm torn between "Kombine Harvezter" and "Trowel."

Set List For Thursday

Just so you know which track will be coming next.
I wouldn't want there to be any surprises.

Vox / Morning
Turs
Grasshopper Lies Heavy
Get A Taste
Clasty
Face Something
Zhiko
Swarmy
Be My Waveguide
Beyond The Pale
Paper Piano
Elkwed
Twag
Semenoid
Clarboid
Unfaz
Rock The Trojan fader
Skoldin
Cog
Skrich
IFOAH