The 2010 digitalflood Metal Challenge – Intro

Venom Live at Hellfest - Does it all start here? Yeah. Don't argue.

Venom Live at Hellfest - Does it all start here? Yeah. Don't argue. We're right-- so there.

It all started this morning when Dan and DJ SlipK started with the simple question “What is the greatest true Metal album of all time?” It all escalated from there. An entire day spent in on and off conversation over many facets of the question. What is Metal? How do we break this down? Can we truly compare 1990 to 2010? Do we include the classic roots? J Diddy then chimed in and spoke about how classically Metal is defined as a musical genre and broken down into categories. How it’s broken down genre by genre. Leader by leader. I chimed in with some truly off beat includes and some ideas as to how we present the thing. DJ SlipK came up with a play list and it is all a blur from there.

So it begins– the 2010 digitalflood Metal Challenge. We will set out to define, analyze, and systematically define the best Metal album ever. This is obviously no easy task. No light decision. And no short gap to making it happen. This will require hours of dissertation and yes– you the viewer to help us decide. Because we’re going to put the whole damn thing on line. Poll by poll. Match by match. And it all burns down from there. It is time my friends– we shall pick the best Metal album ever.

The players thus far are as follows:

  • DJ digitalflood – All sorts of industrial, goth, and electro-metal leanings. Too much hard core loyalties burnt in from years of scene exposure.
  • DJ SlipK – Classic 80s metal leanings, new school Euro metal allegiance, and melodic metal yearnings. He’s into the true core Metal underground scene and maybe a metal snob; but he certainly isn’t going to include a Skid Row album on his list.
  • Dan – Classic hard core, punk, and old school metal leanings abound. He was metal before they had a name for it. If it wasn’t recorded on a cassette tape and baptized in the soul of all that is true metal– it just ain’t metal.
  • J Diddy – New school leanings, indie metal roots, and a passion for some true old school metal. He’s got electro metal leanings, but also holds true to his classic black metal roots. He is the living paradigm of metal that bridges the gap between new school and truly old school.

We may include more judges to “seed” the pool and choose who’s in or out, but those are who we got right now. Stayed tuned. This is about to get interesting.

Want in? Let me know!

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Deck The Halls

DJ Tech Tools VCI-100SE Arcade... this and my two front teeth are all I want for Christmas.

DJ Tech Tools VCI-100SE Arcade... this and my two front teeth are all I want for Christmas.

If you’ve checked out df.com lately, you’ve already seen over the last 48 hours we decorated the site for the Holiday Season. Groucho the Cat has kindly offered to reprise his role as Groucho Clause once again. If you load df.com in Mozilla Firefox you’ll even get little snow flakes falling on your screen. It doesn’t work in Microsoft Internet Explorer for several really nerdy reasons that you’re not going to be interested in either way. So… if you like snow go with Firefox. If you don’t, load up IE. Problem solved.

Work on “digitalflood Pirate Radio Vol. 5 Ep. 4” has started and we’re on target 100% for a release this Saturday (12/19/09). I grazed through the set very quickly and it honestly sounds great. The final production version you’ll hear will be even better.

This afternoon J Diddy showed me a new DJ controller he saw on the G4 Channel’s “Attack of The Show”  the other day called the VCI-100SE Arcade. It’s made by a company called DJ Tech Tools and I have to say that I was completely blown away. The Arcade is a custom built remodeled variant of the original VCI-100SE USB DJ controller that includes arcade gaming style buttons in lieu of the traditional “brick style” trigger buttons found on most controllers. The design was engineered by electrical engineer, musician visionary, and WordPress web guru Ean Golden who is part of the “Controllerism” DJ mixing style. Controllerism is basically using mapped sample cue points in mp3 DJ mixing software (such as the Traktor Pro software used by Ean) to remix/rebuild an existing song or in some cases create an entirely brand new mashed up song. The style is notable for its quickly triggered samples that in turn require a highly sensitive USB controller. Hence the arcade style buttons that offer low latency, high durability, better tactile feedback, and less wear/tear on your hands than the aforementioned traditional controller. You can watch the video of Ean mixing live for a real quick introduction to his DJ style. He’s pretty darn nifty at DJing in my not so humble opinion.

MIDI Fighter DIY Kit - This week on "This Old Controller" Norm builds a sampler.

MIDI Fighter DIY Kit - This week on "This Old Controller" Norm builds a sampler.

This got me thinking about my “Cut Like Crack” style of mixing and how I can actually incorporate this into my mixing technique. I used some different software for my production (VirtualDJ, Acid Pro, and Sound Forge) and a different USB controller (M-Audio X-Session Pro), but the underlying concept is the same. In fact, many DJs are using M-Audio’s controllers with retrofitted custom arcade button configurations similar to how Ean rebuilt the VCI. I am thinking though that I can harness the same tricks through remapping my existing controller input knobs, wheels, and buttons to both a custom effects mapping setup and a custom cue mapping arrangement. The result should be very similar. I can then work backward to incorporate it into my existing methodology to hash out my own bastardized variant (Cut Like Crack In Control anyone?). I’m going to experiment during downtime between production, but if something develops you can be sure as heck to expect to see it turn up in a future Pirate Radio mix session. I’ll let you know how it goes either way.

I’m also eying the DIY MIDI Fighter kit. You need to add 24 arcade buttons and the whole thing prices out to about $200 in material with shipping. If I find something compelling in my aforementioned Controllerism experimentation this could be any easy option that allows me to not have to purchase the VCI. Ideally I’d like to keep using my M-Audio X-Session Pro (which I arguably absolutely love because of its underlying smoothness and ease of use) in conjunction with the MIDI Fighter to pull the whole Controllerism DJ setup off without having to foot the whole cost associated with $1k for a VCI. I’d actually end up better off because then I would have 24 sample/cue triggers plus my existing mixing controller’s setup and $800 in savings. Since the style is cue based I’m not losing anything in the end. Again, I’ll have to see how things play out; but I see the whole thing as a viable option.

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