DJ, music, mixtape, turntablist news and updates - DJ Happee

So last night, I decided to attempt mixing inside the box (mixing a song strictly in Pro Tools without the use of outboard gear).  A few years ago, I convinced myself to go out of the box with a summing mixer to achieve more space between the different sounds in my songs.  Also, I wanted more width in my mixes which mixing ITB was more challenging to attain.

The other day I was listening to my iPod with my Grado Sr60 headphones and a song came on that made me raise my eyebrows.  It wasn’t the lyrics or the artist that made me surprised, but rather the sound quality and the mixdown. After doing some research on Google, I found that the song was mixed by Phil Tan…Jermaine Dupri’s engineer.  I read through some articles I was able to find and realized that most of his work was done ITB (in the box)!

I decided to reintroduce myself to mixing ITB again using the techniques I used while mixing OTB (out the box).  Of course, I had to adjust a few things for digital distortion and such…but all in all, plug ins where substituted where outboard gear would’ve been used. I won’t go into much detail as to which plug-ins where used since it is simply a matter of taste, but I will say that I am pleased with the results so far.  I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

I guess Q-tip’s gonna be releasing this album after all.  I heard a few tracks from it a few years ago…amazing.  I’m surprised he didn’t release it sooner.

Q-Tip: Kamaal The Abstract (Out Sept. 15th 2009) from By Any Means T.V. on Vimeo.

Since a lot of my buddies are involved in the music industry one way or another, I thought some of you would be interested in this new product by Propellerhead (the company that brought you “Reason”). Record gives you unlimited audio tracks, world class effects and mixing gear, and a whole new take on music recording. With an intuitive, straightforward interface and a hands-on approach to capturing performances, Record was designed for musicians – not audio engineers.

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This weekend, check it out in a city near you! DJ Happee, DJ Melo-D, DJ B-Mello, DJ Envius and MC Serch.

Update: In case you missed it, here’s the show.

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download MP3 (right-click and save as)

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