Girl Talk's Feed The Animals

When Girl Talk released his newest album titled Feed The Animals you could download it from his website in exchange for any donation and a donation of over $10 would net you a flesh-and-blood copy in the mail. My copy came recently, and by recently I mean it came probably a few months ago but being in college I didn't actually get to hear it until I found it in my stack of mail at home the other day.

The mixes are good, everything is clean, sounds good together. Overall, Greg's done it again. But what would a blog entry be without a little bit of criticism, eh? Compared to his previous album, Night Ripper, I'd have to say I like this one a little less.

Actually, I like the first part of Feed The Animals, but once it starts trailing off into obscure songs and everything starts sounding the same I lose interest. That's one thing Night Ripper didn't do: for almost all of its duration the album kept me focused on the music.

Even though both albums feature songs blended into each other very well, to me the songs blended in Night Ripper just flow very well, while the FTA songs seem to be themed so differently at times that even though mathematically they work. . . they just don't. Metallica and that lip gloss song come to mind, as well as a few others: yes they were perfectly mixed but seriously. . .

Here's a link to the Illegal Art site where you can find Girl Talk's work:

http://illegalart.net/mainindex.html

Numark DXM09 Digital DJ Mixer

I've gone through a period of time where I've been saving up for new stuff. Here is one of those recent purchases:

Numark DXM09 Digital DJ Mixer

Some specs:
3 channels
3 band EQ with kills
RCA and 1/4" balanced outputs
RCA inputs
lots of headphone functions
smooth crossfader
several effects like echo, flange, phaser, etc.

I purchased this Numark as a sort of entry-level mixer. In the short time I've had to play with it I believe it's a quality product for its price. The fader is smooth and the knobs and functions are all easy to find and get used to. Sound output also seems good. Since I don't have a more expensive mixer to compare to I can't make that comparison, but I doubt the difference in quality would be anything to write home about.

I'm also trying to get better at scratching and this mixer is keeping up with that goal. As smoothly as everything runs the only limiter at this point is my own ability.

Overall: Great mixer for the price. Not as many effects as the higher versions but quality built in to everything it does have, which is enough for me at the moment.

Guess What Sucks Now: The iPod Classic

I recently got an 80GB iPod Classic to have a second backup of all my music, and be able to listen to stuff on the go. Bad choice.

Seems like all the new classics that came out after the touch was released are a little quirky... and not in a cool way either. The wheel is very insensitive and there's no way to really fix that. Especially when you have 80/80GB filled like on mine, sometimes I spend ridiculously long trying to get from one end of a list to the other because the wheel keeps screwing up and the iPod never goes into that fast scrolling mode. Also, some of the screens take a while to load sometimes and a few times it even just froze on the main screen and I had to reset it. All in all, definitely not terrible, but if you have other options then they're probably much better.

Serato Scratch Live

I recently had the chance to try out a setup that was using Scratch Live and all I can say is 'awesome.'

I'm not going to go into details; you can find that stuff anywhere on the web. Instead, here's why I'm about to buy Serato.

So far I've been using cd's to mix, but this is getting really tiresome. Sure, it beats carrying around crates of vinyl, but binders of cd's isn't that cool either. Also, I've always had a craving to spin vinyl. Also, the price of Scratch has gone down and I recently made some extra cash subjecting myself to health studies, so what the hell. No more needing a good cd burner to put all my music in discs separated by genre's and all that; hell, no more needing to constantly waste my time on cd's at all.

I know you can get Scratch to work with Vista and all, but honestly, Vista has been causing me enough problems as it is. Random crashes and bugs... can't have that if my laptop is going to be vital to the show. Going to downgrade to XP soon. Luckily I have two external drives I can use to back up my music twice, but maybe I'm going to have to dump the most used folders onto the laptops drive just in case latency becomes an issue. Honestly I have no idea if running music off an external will be noticeably different from running it straight off the laptop, but we'll find out.

Yes it has been a while

Here's something I put together last night while delaying studying for finals. It's Usher's love in this club with a (i think) better intro from Three 6 Mafia's I'd Rather. I'd love criticism or comments; it's not done per say but I probably won't finish it anytime soon.

Also, don't play this anywhere or sell it or whatever else you may do. I made this for enjoyment and don't especially want to get in trouble over it.

http://rapidshare.com/files/112042198/i_d_rather_have_some_love.mp3.html

Timbaland vs Ciara vs Kanye vs Missy Elliott

I decided to add onto the mix I made yesterday. So far it sounds pretty good; the only thing I have a serious issue with is the fact that the version of Lose Control I have has lower volume vocals than the rest of the songs so I'll have to fix that, but school is temporarily more important so it'll be in a bit maybe...

Here's what I have so far. It changes to what I did today at around 3:30
http://rapidshare.com/files/88105835/timbaland_v_ciara_v_kanye_v_missy_elliott.mp3.html

If the link goes dead (after a month of inactivity) just leave a comment and I'll fix it right away.

Timbaland vs. Ciara

Here's my newest concoction of The Way I Are and 1, 2 Step. It sounds good... but at the same time I feel like something isn't right. Guess my skills just need some work.

http://rapidshare.com/files/87958968/timbaland_vs._ciara.mp3.html

If the file isn't downloaded for over a month Rapidshare deletes it; if this happens just email me or post a comment and I'll upload it probably within the day.

The Verve vs. The Yin Yang Twins

I was just in the mood to mix some music and wasn't sure what I felt like mashing up. Anyway, if you've ever listened to Girl Talk you probably know that on the first track of Night Ripper there are a few seconds of these two songs together and it sounds awesome so I decided to make it a fullout mix.

You can download the file here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/87689952/bittersweet_whisper_song_v2.mp3.html

As always, the link goes dead after a month of no downloads so just email me and I'll put it right back up as well as send you the file over email. I check my email very regularly so there's no worries there... or you could leave a comment here I check this blog often too...

Review: Behringer Europower EP2500

The Behringer EP2500 constitutes my most recent audio purchase. Here are some quick stats on it that are straight from the booklet that came with it:

20 Hz - 20 kHz @.1% THD, both channels driven:
8 ohms per channel: 450 W
4 ohms per channel: 650 W
Bridged Mono:
8 ohms per channel, 20 Hz - 20 kHz: 1300 W

You can find the rest of the specifications, as well as much more, in the .pdf version of the manual here: http://rapidshare.com/files/84609418/Behringer_Power_Amps.pdf.html
(If this file becomes removed, which it will after a month of no downloads, simply send me an email and I'll re-up it and send you a copy. Alternatively, you can probably find it easily if you search.)

I am using this power amp to power both of my custom speakers. I'll make sure to take some pictures of them eventually, but for now you can just take my word for it. This amp is by far the best power and quality for the money. You can probably tell by now that I like to invest my money in the best item for its price range. Anyway, When I bought my speakers, the guy that made them told me they can run at up to 800 W and peak out at about 3200 W. This shows that since my speakers can handle the EP2500, any problems with sound should be coming from the other equipment or my audio source. After hooking up the amp and turning it up to just below clipping, the sound quality coming out of my speakers was great. The amp also has different settings for cutting out low frequencies that might damage speakers, etc.

Another perk to this power amp is that it outputs both speakon and regular audio cable, which is great for me since my speakers use the latter. It also has both XLR and 1/4" inputs, an option most power amps lack. So you say that the unbalanced 1/4" connector can provide a loss of sound quality if there is interference? Yes, it can. The flip side is, most people keep their power amp very close to where they are working to begin with (I have mine right next to all my stuff), so the distance from your source to the amp is extremely small. Over a small distance like that it's very unlikely that the signal will be muddled, and, frankly, 1/4" cables are much cheaper and easier to replace should anything happen.

Most people argue that Behringer sound quality is lower than similar products. This is true to an extent, since obviously they can't offer more power at a lower price just like that, but the fact of the matter is that the difference is almost negligent. If you have an extra couple hundred dollars to spend for a different brand power amp of the same power rating, great. Otherwise, the Behringer products are a perfect choice.

Once I get up enough money to purchase a sub or two, you can bet that I'll be using a Behringer to power them. For the best bang for your buck I gladly give Behringer power amps a 10/10.

Review: Alesis Multimix 8 USB

For my first post I'd like to talk about the mixer I recently purchased: the Alesis Multimix 8 USB.



Specs:
8 channels (4 instrument/mic line-in with gain, 2 stereo line ins, 1 stereo aux send with 2 stereo aux returns, 1 stereo RCA in and out, headphone jack, stereo main mix out and stereo control room out)
USB connection to computer
100 options of sound effects like flange and delay
EQ for each channel
Phantom power for mic

So I bought this mixer with the hope that I would expand my talents to controlling my up and coming band's sound output and just generally making things sound and work better. Right off the bat I have to say that this mixer is the best thing I've ever spent $150 on.

The most important thing for me it turns out is the USB capabilities. When connected to my Dell laptop, the multimix acts as an external sound card: everything i play on my computer can be outputted straight into the mixer with no noticeable latency and any music from any device plugged into the mixer can be sent to my laptop. This opened up so opportunity for me to start making my own recordings.

The multimix is also the reason I got into dj'ing in the first place. After realizing I could output anything from my computer with such good quality and sound control I started messing around with mixing music. I now use the multimix as my external sound card during dj shows as well as band shows (during band shows, in addition to running most of the instruments through it i sometimes use it to add flavor to the mix with sounds and effects from my laptop).

One thing I have noticed does not work with the multimix for me is plugging a mic into any of the non XLR inputs. Technically sound does go through, but the volume is so insanely low when compared to the rest of the mix that its entirely inaudible. The only mic I currently own, however, only has a 1/4" plug so I will assume that the mixer lets mics sound good if they're plugged into their actual XLR slot.

Compared to other more expensive mixers, the multimix 8 definitely comes with less capabilities, but for its very affordable price, nothing even comes close in terms of value. This is why I rank the multimix at...

10/10 for quality on a budget