jeff milligan AKA algorithm (revolver canada, force inc., poker flat, level records, onitor, soundvariation/backround, mitek, foundsound, biphop, +8, forcelab). you should all know him be now. we have here a press release involving jeff and his style of "hands off mixing" with the Nintendo Wii Remote. below is a video clip of jeff using the Wii remote live as well as a brief discription on this new and inovative way of controlling the computer while dj'ing, complete with mapping for the Serato ScratchLIVE Nintendo Wii Remote, the requirements for the usage of the device AND a link to the SeratoSL NintendoWii scripts downloads. i've also included the most popular short video of jeff live on 4 decks in tokyo, japan. and last but not least, we have a short interview with jeff about his and others views on his mixing/DJing style and his thoughts on the current state of vinyl and it's future in the scene... enjoy!
Hands off Mixing : Jeff Milligan DJing with the Nintendo Wii Remote
(check it out:
http://www.jeffmilligan.ca/downloads/Mi ... s_HIGH.mov)
Jeff Milligan has released his Remote Buddy scripts, which allow the digital
DJ to take their hands off the computer and get back to mixing. The scripts
are downloadable from the quick downloads section in the top right corner of
jeff's (www.jeffmilligan.ca) website. Unzip and then install them in Remote
Buddy with a double click. With a pre-existing set-up of Serato SL and an
Apple computer, all that is required is Remote Buddy software and a Nintendo
Wii Remote, running up a bill of around 50euro.
Serato ScratchLIVE Nintendo Wii Remote Mapping :
Up : up (tracklist & crates)
Up (held) : up scroll (tracklist & crates)
Down : down (tracklist & crates)
Down (held) : down scroll (tracklist & crates)
Left : load left deck
Left (held) : load left deck
Right : load right deck
Right (held) : load right deck
A / Play / Pause : toggle between tracklist & crates
A / Play / Pause (held) : n/a
B / Menu : n/a
B / Menu (held) : n/a
Home : prepare track (sends track to prepare crate)
Home (held) : n/a
+ : zoom main waveform +
+ (held) : zoom main waveform +
- : zoom main waveform -
- (held) : zoom main waveform -
1 : find (moves cursor to search dialog box)
1 (held) : n/a
2 : n/a
2 (held) : n/a
Requirements :
- Serato ScratchLIVE : www.scratchlive.net
- Apple Macintosh computer : www.apple.com
- Nintendo Wii remote : www.wii.com
- Remote Buddy software : www.iospirit.com
SeratoSL NintendoWii scripts for DOWNLOAD:
http://www.jeffmilligan.ca/downloads/Sc ... aviour.zip
also, here is a short video of jeff live on 4 deck in tokyo, japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I8VXgiGqF4
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Dispelling the myths, exposing the secrets and explaining the methods behind
Techno/House-Turntablism. The controversial DJ views of Jeff Milligan.
Jeff Milligan interview :
Q: Known for your rapid mixing style using 4 turntables, your fans love to
record your performances and
post the clips on youtube. These videos seem to generate some disbelief with
some people on forums
claiming the footage is sped up or that you are cheating by using
beat-matching software or in some
way faked. Would you explain to us what it is that you are doing, how you’re
doing it, and what secret
tricks you use?
A: The videos that people post online are certainly not sped up. I'm 36 now,
and I started Dj'ing when I
was 14 years old. I practiced for hours a day learning scratch techniques,
beat-juggling and beatmatching.
The techno and house genre don't lend themselves to juggling and scratching
per-say, so I
adapted these styles to a style of my own which marries hip-hop, house,
techno and drum n' bass
mixing techniques. It's really a laugh for me to read these criticisms. I
don't reconvert my files to
match tempos otherwise I wouldn't need to touch the pitch, and there is no
auto beat-matching
feature in Serato SL. There is also common misconception that I'm an
exclusively digital DJ but I'm
not and this odd idea that digital DJ'ing is cheating somehow is another
funny one. Using four decks
requires me to still use traditional vinyl on two turntables until I
integrate a second computer into my
rig. I have never heard of vinyl that auto-beat-matches itself! Once a DJ is
used to matching beats by
compensation pitching, aligning the course mix is debatably faster than
Ableton because the amount
of physical time it takes to go to the computer, click a scene and testing
and re-cueing takes longer
than needle dropping and rippin' through the track to where u wanna drop the
mix in. When playing
four decks, I firstl course tune each deck without bringing the mix in, then
go back to the
decks after they have had some time to do what they will naturally do, to
“un-mix” themselves. I
toggle between my headphone cues for a while until i know I'm bang on. Only
time will “un-match” a
good course tuning so there is no need to actually listen to that record. In
the meantime I tune the
other decks so I know they are locked precisely. Sometimes the records are
mixed for minutes without
me bringing them in. Sometimes the whole track plays until the end and I
have to re-cue it to where i
wanna drop the mix in. Either way, before bringing the mix together, I still
have to scrutinize over key
and harmony and the subsequent timing and pace of the set before raising the
fader. Beat-matching
is just a fundamental. I think its important to remember that skill or no
skill, timing is still everything.
Some of my favourite DJ's are not highly skilled mixers at all but have a
sense of programming and
timing that is impeccable.
Q: Obviously though, it takes a lot of skill to do what you are doing but is
it perhaps taken a little too far?
Doesn’t playing 4 records simultaneously create a big mess of sound limiting
your record choices to
only the most minimal of minimal?
A: Wow, that's another funny one. Because I'm a minimal producer (minimal
now becoming a dirty word
somehow) and typecast into the genre as a DJ, my style gets trivialized into
being “minimal”. I have a
few opinions on this one. Firstly, mixing true minimal records is harder
than people think because
when a record is really stripped, an in-precise mix is all the more obvious.
Bringing me to my second
point, that this genre is much different than it used to be. It is not
fundamentally “minimal”. In many
ways, minimal became maximal in regards to the amount of space there is in
the track and it's
debatable that other genres are far more minimal. Snoop Dog and Missy
Elliott records are generally
far more “minimal” than a Pier Bucci or a Deadbeat record. Finally, I have
to say that I have never
played exclusively minimal. I have always played a combination of house,
techno, electro, funk and
classics. I don't limit myself to genre restriction and never have. I think
that the best DJ's are eclectic
and can move fluidly between a variety of styles. A good record is a good
record, regardless of the
haircut. It's also ironic that the minimal scene has been “dead” for a while
now but it ironically never
died cuz the genre in itself became so many other genres. Elements of deep
house, trance and
techno have fully integrated with minimal and now it's kind of the general
club music. It's important to
note that having access to mixing four records does not mean that you have
to. It's about choice.
Choosing when and how to introduce a record or records into the mix is the
important thing, not
always trying to mix as much as possible. Obviously EQ's are the tool to
decide which record takes the
lead and sets the theme for the mix. It's all about being able to do what
you want to do when you
want to do it, and if the mix or timing compliments four records at once go
for it, keeping in mind that
over-mixing will kill any dj set, just as much as under-mixing or not mixing
at all.
Q: Ok, I see… It’s like rearranging the tracks together to make a new track.
Kind of like what
Grandmaster Flash was doing, but with 4 turntables instead of 2 and without
the scratching. So I
guess in the modern sense your contemporaries are more in the vein of Kid
Koala and DJ Shadow but
you’re mixing techno and house.
A: Yes I would agree. Sometimes I'm playing four records at once, and then a
bar later I'm playing two,
half a bar later playing one, two beats later playing three records etc.
etc. For a simplified example...
sometimes I'm cutting in the first beat from deck one, the second beat from
deck two, third from deck
three, fourth from deck four and making combinations therein. I think it's
important to erase the
linear thinking when playing a record. Most dj's think of a record having a
beginning, middle and end
while it is simply a sum of parts that the producer arranged to be the best
as a standalone track and
piece of work in it's own right. Sometimes I am playing the end of a record
before I play it's beginning
or I'm just playing the middle, or just sampling in elements of one record
and never playing it out fully
at all. Some people have criticized me, saying that what I do is an insult
to the producers vision of
how the track was to be presented to the audience. I think that it's more of
a compliment to the
producer when you take their work and contextualize it. Sometimes the set,
the timing and the track
tells you to leave it alone and let it play and not fck with it. Again,
it's all about having the means
and flexibility to do what you want, when you want, how you want and not
about just trying to mix
mix mix like the world is about to end.
Q: Aside from you there really are only a handful of DJs using this style of
mixing in the techno and
house scene. Why do you think that is? Where do you see it going? What other
techno/houseturntablist
would you recommend to see?
A: I don't think that many dj's in house and techno employ turntablism
techniques for a few differing
reasons. Firstly, the music styles of some techno and house djs are not so
complimentary to a
rigorous mixing style, thus preferring to mix their music lazily because
they want the audience to
really hear the tracks as they were produced. There are many dj's out there
that think this way that I
think are great of course for different reasons. I think in the cases where
turntablism can really
elevate the music, that many dj's simply lack the talent to mix and instead
of learning how to mix
better, they resort to a “philosophy” and propaganda of stating the first
point i made, that the music
they play is not for mixing, which is often bullshit excuses for being a
crap dj. I think that the most
important point is that every weekend, an over-hyped star dj comes to town
and doesn't mix well or
at all so the aspiring dj's think “i can do that!” and proceed to take gigs,
lowering the standards for
everyone. I think that mixing standards have kind of de-evolved over the
years. Fifteen years ago
I thought that dj culture was going to evolve like the gear for making
electronic music was evolving
and that the new tools would create new physical performance styles. I was
wrong. I figured people
would all be mixing quite a few decks by now and that dj booths would be
able to fly to the moon.
Back in the day, dj's used doubles to make flanges, delays and phases, they
needle dropped to make
beats and used the pitch control and fader cuts to make notes with bpm-less
tones. Now all these
techniques are built into effects sections on mixers and most djs have no
idea what the origin and
subsequent reason for these effects sections being integrated into mixers.
If more djs knew these classic
techniques and used them alongside the modern effects section on the mixer,
they would get some
pretty amazing results. The problem with effects sections on mixers however
is that the effects are
dialed in, assigned and then triggered. I think that modern mixers should
have dedicated delays lines
and triggers per channel to make this technique easier. You asked what other
techno/house turntablists
i would recommend? Hmm, that's tough, there are very few. Old school
glow-stick party rave guys from
back in the day like Hipp-e, Claude Young (and a select few of the old
Detroit guys), Donald Glaude etc.
were decent when I heard them 15 years ago but it's been ages so I don't
remember clearly. There is a
guy called Inigo Kennedy in the hard techno scene that I saw rip up 3 decks
a few years ago that I thought
was good. I have a bunch of great ninja friends in Japan that spin the same
style as me in the same way
but they are all unknown because they aren't producing and are isolated so I
hope they manage to build up
their careers. As far as the minimal techno or house/deephouse scene is
concerned, there seems to be none
doing anything similar to what I do that I know of except Titonton Duvante,
dj Koze (who I have yet to see
but hear is great) and a few others I forget right now so sorry to them if I
forgot them.
Q: Recently you’ve generated a fair amount of controversy over your
statements regarding your rejection
of vinyl and it’s hidden environmental and economic costs. Given the current
save vinyl movement
isn’t this a bit revolutionary? Has it affected your career?
A: Hell ya it has affected my career. I have lost gigs cuz of my stance on
this subject and have had
distributors refuse to print my insert sheets. I'm very much against the
pro-vinyl propaganda. Feel
free to cut/copy/paste the English text from my write-up on
RevolverCanada0020 when we
announced we were dropping vinyl and going digi-exclusive for a better
description of my stance. I
think the vinyl industry is in trouble and simply make excuses to keep their
shops and distribution
alive cuz they are afraid of being jobless. Me me me as usual! It's like oil
company tactics. People
have argued with me that I'm a hypocrite cuz I use a computer and computers
are filled with arsenic
and sh!t. While this is true, computers have many functions and it's not
like vinyl collectors don't have
computers! People have computers for a variety of reasons, just like the
digi dj's do. Computers are
getting more and more environmentally friendly and take up far less space to
contain a huge record
collection. Laptops weigh and take up as much space on average as around ten
records. Others have
claimed that the carbon emissions from server upload/download is an
environmental disaster too but
it's not as if a vinyl record is exclusively on vinyl anymore. Vinyl
recordings are also digitally
distributed and incur the same environmental cost digitally as a digital
release with the vinyl damage
on top of that. The other argument i had with another pro-vinyl dj was about
the legacy the artist
leaves behind. he was saying that a record is like an old book on the
bookshelf, something to leave
behind for your grandchildren. It's more likely a digital file that resides
on 100,000 hard-drives around
the world will survive longer than 1000 records so I find his argument
selfish and arrogant, as if we
humans matter in the larger scheme of things, wanting to leave our statue
behind. It's all just ego.
From the artistic perspective I also think that the desperation of the vinyl
distributors forces artists
and labels to only pump out a-side hits instead of diversifying their
styles. 10 years ago records had
alternate mixes, ambient mixes, accapellla's etc. Now records only have
“dance music” on them
generally. Finally, due to digital labels, artists from all over the world
have an equal voice and artists
from all over the privileged and underprivileged world have had a great
influence on the advancement
of music, instead of just the UK and Germany and other electronic music
advantaged countries having
all the say.
... excerpt from revolvercanada0020 insert sheet :
“We went 100% digital to make a statement. Vinyl is simply unnecessary,
wasteful, an environmental
travesty, undemocratic and straight up... simply bad karma. No more oil, no
more paper, no more
gasoline guzzling...rocket fuel burning transport, no more vinyl pushing
totalitarians lording over the
poorer, geographically impaired electronic musicians and labels of the world
that can't afford to buy or
make records. Someone out there is reading this right now and has decided to
hate on us, and sure,
we understand, we can't win em all, but we highly encourage angry luddites
to join the future. Techno
isn't for technophobes. They say “MP3's kill Vinyl”. We say “Vinyl kills the
Earth”. It's time for
electronic music to take it's final drink of fossil fuel.”
for further info on jeff, please check out his website at www.jeffmilligan.ca
for further info on his label: www.revolvercanada.com
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current top 10 : 15 August 2008 : jeff milligan
track/artist/label :
1. strich (treplec`s strawberry tickle remix) : shu okuyama : minimood
2. farina : dewalta : vakant
3. rossinante : raymond ernst & lise : bokal
4. knock on wood, babe : paul frick : kalk pets
5. boti world : andrea fiorito : cynosure
6. every click matters : lee jones : simple
7. brandnewlovin : breandan davey : corner
8. rain tree : liiebermann : rohs!
9. siiiipher (forgemasters remix) : the black dog : soma
10. venice : quenum : thema
edit: link fixed
Hands off Mixing : Jeff Milligan DJing with the Nintendo Wii
-
Castronova
- mnml mmbr
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:22 am
- Location: Hong Kong
Actually Jeff described everything in the interview. You just need to beatmatch everything together and then cut with the faders between the tracks. In theory not the complicated. But you need to practice, and practice a lot, because you need to get really fast with what you are doing. And very few DJs are willing to practice these days.Castronova wrote:Can anyone recommend a good site to learn those turntablism maneuvers?
And in some way they are right about it, because 99% of the audience don't give a fck about DJ skills. Like Jeff said: Too many bad DJs lowering the standards. If noone presents anything else but playing music, then people will stop caring for anything else. Most don't even care for the music it seems. Maybe if some more DJs would start pulling off some stunts when playing, like in Japan, awareness would change, but everything's going the opposite direction.
"In my life I widened a lot of holes!" (Jeff Milligan, talking about slipmats)