The dance of the frameworks

Take a couple of hot buzzwords, such as groovy, builder, swing, and graphics. Creating some random combinations of those surprisingly results in some very interesting frameworks.

You might have heard of the Groovy language. Whether it's because you can write a webservice client with Swing user interface in just 20 lines, because you can create pleasing DSL's, or just because it's plain cool, more and more people are leaning towards dynamic languages.

On the topic of Groovy, I've recently come across several very interesting concepts. Groovy's builder pattern (which probably applies to other dynamic languages as well, of which I'm completely oblivious) just applies to so many different domains. Creating XML, creating user interfaces, and creating graphics really becomes a breeze. I'm currently in the middle of applying all of this in the context of a earlier post of me: creating a graphical DSL framework. More on that in due time.

An inspiring weekend

As any artist can tell you, you're never sure when suddenly inspiration decides to hit. This weekend, I was jamming a bit on mixing some new music, which resulted in me hitting "Record" at some point. The result is a cool new mix of about 45 minutes of upbeat house music :-). I'll post a full track listing later. For now, just listen and enjoy:

The hymns of house – 2008-05-19 (mp3)
The above mix is recorded live and performed using Traktor DJ Studio 3.3, without any post-processing.

C.324 survives first challenge

Last weekend I performed all day during a gig at the hockey club. I brought my full DJ equipment stack, using my Macbook Pro and Behringer controllers as main source, and my Stanton C.324 CD player as backup. Although troubled with some start-up issues, it performed great! All in all, providing the demanding crowd of hockey players with uplifting music throughout a day with of 27ºC, was a blast. It is truly invigorating to get so much positive feedback. Thanks, guys!
Anyway, my feelings about the C.324 are now, just like my music usually is, "mixed":

• The vinyl platter's feeling is just superb. It's sturdy and heavy, and accurate enough for my (starting) scratching needs. Back- and forward spins are rather tricky, though: gradual speed spin-down only occurs if the platter is spun over 200%. If I spin it slower, speed returns to normal immediately after the patter is released. I can't imagine what disturbed technician at Stanton came up with that.
• The four samplers, combined with memo function (remembering cue punts/loops), are fantastic for creativity. Having the "Everybody dance now", "Yeah!", or other well-known sounds directly under control, just, ROCKS.
• 100% pitch adjust, with master tempo, is very useful and works reliably and quick. The downside is that 100% pitch control without master tempo has a very electronic sound to it, when changing speeds rapidly. It just doesn't sound like an analog turntable when "starting" playback by sliding from 0% to 100%.

Let's keep on rocking!