The Future

The postman was really good to me this week. I have finally upgraded my Pioneer CDJ-800mk2 CD turntables and my DJM-400 Mixer with there bigger brothers. I am now rocking a pair of Pioneer CDJ-1000mk3s CD turntables and a Pioneer DJM-700 mixer. The quality of my upcoming productions and mixing is going to be vastly improved with these massive upgrades. As my friends from Team Gabe put It, It’s like going from a children’s toy to a aeroplane cockpit. The new effects on the DJM-700 are incredible. I’m growing very fond of the Frequency filter which is a really awesome feature which kills low pass or high pass frequency’s with a slight turn of the switch. The sound quality is also a lot better from this mixer. I have also mounted my speakers on the wall finally, so I’m no longer getting muffled sound because there not at ear level. The CDJ-1000mk3s are fantastic pieces of kit. I sat downstairs last night in this horrible heat and burnt almost 200 CDs with all of my music/remixes on separate CDs, I then proceeded to write the Musical Key on them and the BPM with thanks to a nifty little program called Mixed In Key. Good thing I did as well, because I can now make use of the wave length display on the 1000s. The wave length display allows me to mix a lot better. I can see exactly when theres a break incoming and where the high points of the songs are. The Hot cue feature is amazing as well, I can modify and  cut the song up on the fly. I can even save all of my cue points to an SD card! I’m incredibly lucky, and very very happy with the upgrades.

The future brings a lot of things. I will be of course releasing my “2009 collection” mixes and my Jimocore mixes for Digitally Imported Radio on a regular basis. I will also be doing other new things as well. As soon as I get myself a new external soundcard (My old one doesnt like this new mixer for some reason) I will be setting up a weekly or fortnightly radio show. I know I keep saying  that I’m going to but this  time I mean it. I have even located a working microphone  in preparation. Expect to hear more information on that in the upcoming weeks, most of the details have been ironed out, I’m just waiting on confirmation. I’m also working on my own productions. I have been using Fruity Loops and Ableton Live with the reFX Nexus plugins to produce my own tracks. It is still very much work in progress but give it a few months and I’ll be ready to spin my own tunes. I’ve actually been working on it for quite some time, I’m just not ready to tarnish my name with a bad  track. I want my first production to stand out and actually be good. I’ve been working on a lot of mash ups and intro cuts which I will be playing out in my upcoming mixes though, so be on the look out for those. If you have any suggestions for that sort of thing, leave a comment.

I would just like to say thank you to everyone for all of the support over the years. Music production and DJing has been a hobby and a passion for me for a very very long time and It really feels good to get some form of exposure. If you have ever heard one of my mixes. Even if you hate it. Thanks! Anyway, that is enough talk about this. Below you can find some pictures of my new gear and a list of whats in the pipeline.

• “2009 Collection” Volume 5 - View the new artwork here.
• Jimocore v4 and Jimocore v5.
• New mix voiceovers from one of my favourite singers.
• Live radio show on the Internet. It’s still undecided if it will be weekly or fortnightly.
• Live shows, not the Internet variety.

 

Week In Review 27/06/09 (RIP Michael Jackson)

I’m sure all of you have read the news by now. Michael Jackson the “King of Pop” passed away at 50 years of age last night. He died of a supposed overdose of painkillers, but that is still speculation. It’s definitely a huge loss to the music industry. Michael Jackson was a huge inspiration to myself and a lot of people. He was one of those people which literally twisted and changed the genre for the better. For that reason alone he is an absolute legend to me and pretty much everyone else in the world. I have to say I was deeply saddened by the news. He had so much unfinished business, his children, his upcoming tour and links with family. My heart goes out to his family. I’m a bit unhappy that the media is playing his death up. It’s turning into people just trying to make money off of it. I realise It’s a big deal but give it a rest, at least for a day. Websites like TMZ are responsible for digging up dirt on him without any real evidence, give it a rest. Seriously.  RIP Michael, you are a legend. Below is a video of possibly one of my favourite songs of all time, “Janet & Michael Jackson - Scream”.

I applied for a job with the NHS Blood Donor team this week. I really like what the Blood Donors do, which is why I’m one myself! My mum is also a blood donor, in fact  she is one of the highest ranked Blood Donors in the United Kingdom with almost 200 donated pints. She has even gone to award ceremony’s for it. I really hope I get a response back, it would be a fantastic opportunity to work for them. And who knows, It might kick off a Career for me? Last week on Thursday I was supposed to meet someone for a meeting regarding careers and stuff like that but they never showed up when they were supposed to. I was a bit disappointed because I sat there for almost two hours and they completely forgot. It happens but yeah. I’ve re-scheduled my appointment since so I should hopefully get all of my questions answered on Monday. The only positive thing from it all was that I discovered the amazing thing which is the “Vanilla Crème” drink at Starbucks. According to Megan I had it when I was in America, and by had it she probably means I stole it from her while she was driving. I usually don’t like Starbucks because there hot drinks are bad and they make them with warm water and not boiling water, but this cold Vanilla Ice cream thing was really damn awesome. So awesome that I took a photograph with my phone, check it out.

It’s unbearably hot for me this week. Temperatures are through the bloody roof It’s killing me! It’s even to hot for Jib who likes to spend her entire day outside under a bush in the garden, and usually she never likes going outside! The really funny thing about the weather is that all of those people (including my brother) who went to Glastonbury are going to get the short end of the stick. It’s super hot everywhere else but It’s set to rain in Glastonbury, right over the festival. Which means mud. A lot of it. I even considered going this year but I think I will wait until South West Four and go to that festival instead. The line-up is more my cup of tea anyway. Armin, Above&Beyond? Marcus? Yes please! Talking of music, I’ve been working on making Volume 5 this week. I have new toys to play with  so I’m just learning the ropes of everything I can do with them before I release it. (Hint: Ends with 700 and 1000, more information on that next week) It’s going to be really good, I’ve been using a lot of Deadmau5 tracks and it has a nice Trance/Electro theme to it. Because Cyborgmatts internet went out last night he decided to re-do the album artwork for the 2009 Collection. I can’t seem to get it right for some reason, but it looks like Cyborgmatt finally cracked it. The new artwork will be relaesed this coming week, for now theres a camera photograph of his monitor of them! Please let me know how your weekend went and what you thought of mine, feel free to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail. It’s bed time for me now. Oh yeah, don’t forget to become a fan on Facebook!

Week In Review 22/06/09

Beware, I post spoilers of this weeks Top Gear in this post so make sure you have watched it before reading this. Season 13 of Top Gear finally aired this week! And I have to say, what a bloody brilliant episode! They had a race from London to Edinburgh with James May in an old Jaguar, Hammond on a Black Shadow bike and Clarkson in a steam engine. At first you think Clarkson will win, after all he was really far ahead. But James May pulled ahead and won it… just. Hammond didn’t even finish. During the middle part of the episode they were doing the news, and then the Stig walked in and removed his helmet. It turned out to be none over then the world famous F1 world champion Michael Schumacher. Somehow I don’t believe it. And there is several reasons why I think this is a joke. Despite the fact that they specificity said at the end of the episode “You know, I don’t think Michael Schumacher really is the stig” “I think we made it up, now that is a bombshell”. He also winked when he took his helmet off. I have no idea why all the papers are publishing that he is. But either way, It was a fantastic episode and I really can’t wait until next week. Also that FXX is a damn sexy car, looks like something straight out of Batman. Below is the clip of the “Stig” taking off his helmet for the first time. Remember to watch the end of the episode for counter proof!

Earlier this week I ordered myself some brand new speaker brackets so I can finally put my speakers on the wall. I had to buy the clamping variety because apparently my Alesis M1 Actives don’t have mounting sockets/screws. They were slightly more expensive then the screw variety. They arrive today but I can’t put them up until Andrew is back from Glastonbury because hes the one with the power drill. On the subject of music I came up with a nice little Intro cut this week of Nic Chagalls “This Moment”. I used a segment as Coldplays “Viva La Vida” as the intro part and tied the two together in Ableton. It turned out quite nicely, I was thinking of using the dub version of the Viva La Vida song though because I don’t think it sounds quite as good with the two lyrics next to each other. The song is titled “Nic Chagall ft Jonathan Mendelsohn vs Coldplay - This Moment (The Jimo Viva La Vida Intro Edition)” Huge name I know, It will be used as the intro track for Volume 5. Jimocore v3 is finally on the Digitally Imported stream for those who are wondering. It has not been played yet though for some reason, there were a lot of submissions this month so that is probably why. I’m still working on getting my radio show sorted out for those who are wondering. The reason It’s taking so long is because I need to get myself a new microphone. The microphone I used for my computer is completely different and wont fit into the mixer, and NERadio wont let you play live without a microphone so yeah. There will be some big announcements in the upcoming few weeks, so stay tuned. Don’t forget to become my fan on Facebook or Twitter so you can see live updates!

This upcoming week I have a lot to do . I’ve been applying for jobs like crazy, most employers don’t even call me back for some reason. Even with my reviewed CV it isn’t good enough. It makes me wonder what other people who get called for interviews are like. What is there cover letter and CV like? I get the feeling that mine can’t be much better. I wrote it with Megan and shes damn good at that kind of thing. I have some meetings this week to see if I can get any further with my search. I’ve been searching for places to see, do and eat at in London this week. I’m trying to compile a big list. So If you have any suggestions please feel free to leave a comment and let me know. So far I have all of the obvious ones on the list, London Eye, Big Ben, China Town etc etc. I’m going to leave this post there, because really this week not much has gone on so I would just be rambling if I was to continue, kind of like what I’m doing now. How was your week? Let me know by leaving a comment! Until next time.

Jimocore v3 - Now On Di.fm Radio

After a long wait Jimocore v3 is now on the Digitally Imported mix rotation. I’m not sure why there was such a huge delay but it doesn’t matter because It’s up and in the rotation now.  The mix has yet to be played yet so keep an eye out for it and you could be one of the first to hear it. The mix was recorded at 185-190BPM and features a bunch of new tracks, so expect to hear a nice fresh mix. (Well, they were new when it was recorded, so it might not be so fresh by the time you all hear it). To listen to the mix keep listening to the Hardcore channel on http://www.di.fm or http://www.happyhardcore.com on a regular basis and wait for it to come on. Unfortunately Digitally Imported has exclusive rights to the mix so I cannot give a download link out.

Jimocore v4 and a b2b mix with DJ Cotts are both still in the works, expect to see both soon!

Week In Review 15/06/09

It’s really hot this weekend. Hot is fine but when it makes you stick to everything it really sucks. I’m sitting downstairs at 02:25am and my feet are sticking to the leather on the chair and It’s kind of gross. Why am I writing about that do you ask? Why not! I’ve been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 this week with Megan and Team Gabe. So far I have yet to unlock a single hat, It’s really quite silly. Some people got all of the hat unlocks in one go when the Steam Cloud bugged up, and I was online playing when it happened. However didn’t happen to me though, and I was rather disappointed seeing as I’ve now played more then 154 hours of Team Fortress 2. Thats what I really hated about World of Warcraft, someone could farm for a drop for 2 minutes and get it. And you could farm for 2 hours and still not get it. I know the hats are only cosmetic, but it would be nice, right? I think they should be rewards for getting all of the achievements from the class pack, although that wouldn’t work because there so slow at implementing them. Talking of Games, Arma II comes out next week and I’m probably going to buy it. Buying it from Steam would probably not be a good idea on my part though, seeing as it costs more and I’m trying to save. The game is pretty much a Battlefield 2 clone but done right it seems. Large scale battles with tons of vehicles and co-op game play. Looks like its going to good!

It’s been a good week for music. I managed to get my hands on “Weaver & Andy L ft Fran - Cannonball” and ” Gammer & Stormtrooper - Twatris” earlier this week. This has inspired me to make another Hardcore mix. I haven’t decided yet if it will be the next addition in the “Jimocore” series or my contest entry to the summer mix contest on http://www.di.fm yet. If I do decide on the contest entry I will make sure I post the full set in 320 up here when It’s over. I released Volume 4 earlier this week as a lot of you may know. The response from Volume 4 so far is really good, a lot people like the track selection. I was told earlier this week that my bass frequency’s seemed to high on the recording, but I checked the problem out and everything seemed to be just fine. For Volume 5 I want to try something a bit different, I want to incorporate my own live mashup into the mix for the first time. So that should be interesting. I did say I had an announcement to make at the end of the week as well, well that announcement is going to be postponed until sometime this week. I’m still trying to get all of the details final before I make any form of announcement. Also, I forgot to mention. I have removed all of my older mixes from the “Mixes” page earlier this week to make space and to keep the page up to date. There will be an archive page coming soon which will have a download link to all of my older sets for everyone to download. Which website would you rather them hosted on? Rapidshare? Leave a comment!

I just read the BBC News this morning to. I see that Ahmadinejad has been re-elected in Iran. What a load of shit. This guy is an obvious dictator, if those poll results havnt been tampered with I will be highly suprised. Either the people of Iran are just all plain stupid, or the results were fixed. But judging by the fact that Ahmadinejad is using Satellite jamming techniques to block outside broadcasters (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8099858.stm) I’m going to go ahead and they that they were. The reason there being jammed is so supporters of the opposing party to Ahmadinejad can’t get the information about protests. Iran could of had a lot of its problems fixed with this election. And people thoguht the Middle East couldn’t get any worse? I hate everything about war but really, it just seems that one is getting closer and closer and it sucks. I’ll leave you with a picture of the protests in Iran. Please let me know how your week went, leave a comment or drop me a message on Twitter/Facebook. Talking of Facebook, don’t forget to join the “Jimo” group (Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jimo/83142263914) 31 fans and rising now! Yarr!