Loading...
DJ Shiftee explains how he uses Traktor
DMC champ DJ Shiftee put together a nice lil tutorial for how he uses Traktor, Maschine and the X1 with 4 decks for some dubsteppy goodness.
Be sure to watch his performance video.
How to control your processor’s exact speed
I have read several articles on how to optimize your laptop for audio production and/or DJing, but few people touch on one important factor which is the processor speed. These days most laptops are Intel based and have speedstep technology that allow the clock speed of the processor to be dynamically changed by software. Typically these changes aren’t viewable or editable by users unless you use third party software (see below).
Who cares?
If you have a laptop older than ~ 2 years, then you might care, b/c software like Serato, Traktor and Ableton might not tell your processor to run fast enough to work glitch free. You might also want to set a threshold or just know exactly what frequency your processor is running at any given point in time.
Software
There are two applications that I have come across that allow you to view/edit/configure speedstepping on your Intel based computer. I have used SpeedSwitch on my older Sony Vaio laptop in the past with great success. It’s a lightweight application that gives you just the kind of control you’d want. I have not tested/used CoolBook on my MacBook yet, b/c I haven’t found a need to throttle my processor.
Let me know if you’ve tried either of these or any other speedstepping apps.
Read and write to NTFS from your Mac
As I mentioned in a previous article, there are several ways to share 1 external drive between a Mac and PC, however this article deals with just 1, NTFS. Why? Well, NTFS is a superior file system to FAT32 allowing the creation of larger files as well as some security improvements which I won’t get into.
There are currently 2 ways that I know of to read/write to NTFS from your Mac.
1. MacFUSE + NTFS-3g
Download and install the latest MacFUSE .dmg. Once it’s installed, reading/writing to NTFS is pretty much automatic and you shouldn’t have to mess with anything.
That is unless you don’t properly remove your NTFS drive from Windows. In
2. Snow Leopard supports it natively (if you turn it on)
I have not tried this as I am accustomed to the older MacFUSE / NTFS-3g method above. Apparently to do this, you must uninstall NTFS-3g.
Again, I haven’t tried this method, but here’s some detailed instructions on how to do it…
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090913140023382
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=785376
Having problems mounting a NTFS drive?
I have experienced a situation where OSX shows you the following error message (if you have MacFUSE installed):
The problem I encountered wouldn’t let me do the mount -t ntfs-3g -o force. Terminal kept shooting back proper usage options. I was lost until I found an article on the very simple “ntfsfix” command. You see, the reason why your NTFS drive doesn’t mount automatically is b/c you didn’t unmount it properly from Windows (like me, you probably just yanked the USB cable). At any rate the fix is quite simple. Fire up Terminal and type the following:
sudo /usr/local/bin/ntfsfix /dev/disk1s1
The result will look something like this:
Mounting volume… FAILED
Attempting to correct errors…
Processing $MFT and $MFTMirr…
Reading $MFT… OK
Reading $MFTMirr… OK
Comparing $MFTMirr to $MFT… OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Setting required flags on partition… OK
Going to empty the journal ($LogFile)… OK
NTFS volume version is 3.1.
NTFS partition /dev/disk1s1 was processed successfully.
All you have to do now is reboot your machine and voila! Your NTFS drive should appear in Finder.
You may want to hold off on upgrading to Snow Leopard
Last Friday August 28th 2009 Apple announced it was shipping it’s new OS X 10.6 aka Snow Leopard. The cool thing about this version of OS X is that Apple seems to have done tons of bug fixes and refinements to their existing code base. Finder is finally written in Cocoa so we should see some improvements there as well as several other places.
And, if you own Leopard, the cost to upgrade is a measly $29!
It’s not all gravy just yet
Not all apps work smoothly in the new OS. Looks like Serato is “on the verge of offcially announcing support for Snow Leopard” according to their forum. If you are a Serato user you shouldn’t upgrade just yet, b/c bad things may happen to your library according to that thread above.
Native Instruments officially says they have “conducted initial compatibility tests with Mac OS X 10.6, which have shown all current NI products to work without any specific issues under standard installations of this operating system. However, users involved in professional audio production or live performance should be cautious about upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6 until compatibility with third-party audio software and hardware has been widely confirmed by the relevant manufacturers.” You can read more from NI here.
It looks like all installs of Snow Leopard start in 32bit kernel mode by default. This kernel mode allows the operation of both 32bit and 64bit Mac OS X applications.
Apparently you can switch to 64bit kernel mode through a special key combination during the boot process. However, drivers for most audio interfaces and controllers are currently not compatible with 64bit kernel mode.
Here’s a list of applications and their compatibility status with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard:
http://snowleopard.wikidot.com.
Building a 10TB home file server using ZFS and RAID-Z
Recently I realized that I am quickly running out of storage space. Sure I can always buy more external USB/Firewire/eSATA drives, but that’s really not a professional nor safe way to expand. Combining sets of disks for fault tolerance, ie RAID, is really the best way to go.
Currently I have 1TB of post RAID1+0 space, but the storage box I built doesn’t really expand easily. It’s an enclosure with 4 bays. Not only that, but it’s a direct attached storage solution connecting to a PCI-e card in my host computer. The card on my host computer does all the RAID and is managed via java based software in Win XP. Needless to say, I want to upgrade and address some of these shortcomings.
My requirements
-Scalability (need the ability to grow the storage for future needs)
-Fault tolerance (design it so losing 1-2 drives doesn’t bring down the entire system)
-Price (this thing can’t cost more than an aftermarket solution such as the Drobo Pro)
-Interoperability (must be able to work with Windows, Mac and possibly Linux)
-Easy to use (it can’t be too complicated to administer and setup)
-No hiccups (should be able to handle playing large media files, such as .avi, with no hiccups)
-Massive storage space (I have TB of photos, videos, music and sensitive files)
Continue reading…
Just how screwed is your hearing?
Most of us DJs have been abusing our ears since weee lads. I recently came across a cool little test whereby you listen to different frequency tones to see where your hearing cuts off. Best case scenario humans can hear from roughly 20Hz to 20,000Hz. Some can hear lower and some higher, but that’s typically the gold standard of measure.
After downloading and playing the test tones I realized I am in pretty good shape. I can hear all the way up to 18kHz with low volume, but 19kHz when I turn it up a bit.
They say the it’s fairly common for people who are over 25 years of age to not be able to hear above 15Hz, so this will help you find out where your high frequency hearing cuts off.
If you haven’t already read our article on how to protect your hearing, now would be the time…
[the test]
How to replace the RCAs and eliminate the ground wire on your Technics 1200MKII turntables
As we prepare for SXSW 2009, I realize that one of my Technics 1200MKII turntables has a messed up RCA cable. The left signal just isn’t working. This has undoubtedly happened to most of us over the years. Technics 1200s are excellent turntables and they are built like tanks, but the design and quality of the RCA and ground is piss poor to say the least.
Ruining your RCA cables can be avoided if you take special care in packing up your turntable. For one, do NOT bend/fold your cables and cramp them in a road case on the side of the turntable. Simply let them hang loosely wrapped on the platter and you will extend the life of your RCA cables significantly.
I decided I wanted to replace the RCA cables as well as eliminate the pesky ground wire. I scoured the interwebz and found a good video tutorial by Russtafari. Prior to reading any further, you should watch this clip to understand the basics. Below I attempt to explain more in depth, with text and photos, how to replace your RCA cables and internally ground your Technics turntable…
Continue reading…
iRam, the alternative to $$$ Apple memory upgrades
Ever notice that if you go to the Apple Store and inquire about upgrading the RAM on your machine, the price is ridiculously high? In some cases it’s plain insane. Take the Mac Pro for instance. If you configure a system with 32GB of RAM, it will cost you roughly $9,000 just for the RAM!!!
A few of my friends have upgraded their Mac’s memory with third party RAM from companies like Kingston or Corsair. This is definitely a step in the right direction. The main potential problem is that if you don’t match the specs precisely, the RAM could not work or even mess up your computer.
Recently I came across a local Austin company called iRam Technology who specializes in making memory specifically for Apple products. They fully test all their RAM which makes me rest more at ease. They have full ISO certified manufacturing and a lifetime warranty!
Here’s a real life scenario…you have an older MacBook with DDR2 667mHz 200pin RAM and you want to max it out. At the Apple Store that will cost you $300. You can buy two 2GB sticks of iRam for a grand total of $40!! Tell me what you would do?
Just thought I would share the knowledge.
SuperDuper, the simple bootable backup for Leopard
Big ups to Xman who hipped me to a slick program called SuperDuper that allows you to make bootable backups in Leopard.
Why use SuperDuper instead of Leopard’s Time Machine? Well, for starters, Time Machine doesn’t allow for bootable backups. Second, Time Machine is better for when you want version control on files (accessing some previous version of a file you have been working on).
Why would you need a bootable backup of your entire drive? Well, let’s say you have a critical hard drive failure. In this event, if you don’t have a bootable backup, you simply have a copy of all your files. In other words, you will have to reinstall Leopard and restore all your programs and files.
Seems like a major pain in the ass to me, so I opted for the bootable backup that SuperDuper provides.
How to use SuperDuper
- Open Disk Utilities in Leopard.
- If you want you can create multiple partitions do so first.
- Format the partition you wish to backup Leopard to as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
- Click Options and make sure you have it set to GUID Partition Table (this is so you can boot to the backup drive in the event shit hits the fan).
- Click Apply and it will take a minute or two.
- Open SuperDuper.
- Select copy from drive and copy to drive.
- Select “Backup - all files”.
- Click advanced options and make sure you have Smart Update selected.
- Click OK and your backup will start.
If you would like to read more about why you should use SuperDuper, Shawn Blanc wrote a great article on just this subject.
How to Use 1 External Drive between Mac and PC (part 2)
My previous installment of this how to centered around formatting to FAT32 in order to share a single drive between a PC and a Mac. Since I am a recent Mac convert who still needs to access and interact with PCs, I have since figured out a few other solutions to this issue.
Below are some common use cases and solutions that you can use…
Read/Write HFS+ from Windows
This use case seems the least likely. The entire time I was on Windows I had never wanted to access an HFS formatted drive. There are certain scenarios where one might find this useful though and you can achieve it using MacDrive.
I dunno how excited I would be about letting my potentially virus infected PC play around on my external HFS drive. Seems sketchy from a virus protection/malware standpoint, but maybe I am just overly paranoid.
Continue reading…
This Week's Top Rated Songs
Latest Albums
Latest Music Blog Songs
Recent Comments
Random Songs
Recent Searches
Coming Soon...
DJ Friendly Digital Music!
GigaCrate is DRM-free, full ID3 tags, access to promos and multiple versions of songs. What are you waiting for!?
Register Now | Forgot Password | Take the Tour | Upload Your Music | Add Your Blog | Advertise | FAQ | Support | RSS Feeds | Twitter | Facebook | Site Map
Music
© 2010 GigaCrate LLC. All rights reserved. GigaCrate logos, graphics, designs, icons and buttons are the property of GigaCrate.
