Hi everyone, Here's a link to my podcast: http://djaladdin.podOmatic.com See you there! - - madhu

Next-generation Music: Deepening The Musical Experience
Large-scale digital music distribution is bringing about a profound revolution in the way we ‘consume’ music. The market is still in flux, but it is very clear that the hi-fi systems of the future will be significantly different to what we see today, say European researchers.
With the advent of compressed music files (MP3) and easily accessible internet file exchange and download services, consumers are increasingly turning to personal mini-databases of music files (iPod, MP3 players) for their musical enjoyment. The CD market has already taken a hard knock and many predict its imminent demise. The hi-fi market is also suffering with sales decreasing steadily every year.
In the future, the boundaries between the stereo system, computer and the television will become more and more blurred, but how the various functions will combine, and what new ones will emerge, is still ‘a work in progress’.
The Semantic Hi-Fi project explored the possibilities opened up by the digital revolution and paved the way for the next wave of hi-fi, including a number of new features likely to change fundamentally the way we listen to and interact with music.
“Music is no longer limited by a fixed format. Network-based distribution has freed music from the limits imposed by these formats and opened a whole new range of possibilities which will encourage greater interaction with musical pieces,” says Hugues Vinet of the French music and acoustics research centre, IRCAM, which coordinated the project.

Introducing the active listener
The working prototype of this next-generation hi-fi, produced by the EU-funded Semantic Hi-Fi, incorporates a number of new functionalities to help promote a more interactive listening experience.
Using either a hand-held, touch screen remote, or the touch screen display on the central unit, the user will, for example, be able to visualise the structure of a piece through a graphic display which will enable them to navigate smoothly within a piece and even to modify elements of the musical composition: slow the tempo down, speed it up, modify the relative weight of different instruments in the piece, or remove them altogether…
Some of the results of the project have already been incorporated into new products. Project partner, Native Instruments, used many of Semantic Hi-Fi’s features for its ‘Traktor DJ Studio 3’ DJ software solution, hailed as one of the market leaders in its field. The prototype developed by the project also incorporated many of these ‘professional’ tools into a home system accessible to all music lovers.
“The hi-fi of the future will make sophisticated software tools for professional musicians available to a wider public,” notes Vinet. “Owners of next-generation hi-fi will be able to do more than just passively listen, they will have a tool which also allows them to manipulate music and to create new pieces themselves.”
Hi-fis of the future will be linked up to the internet, and it will be possible to share personal works with others through peer-to-peer (P2P) systems. The project has not overlooked the issue of copyright, either.
“The P2P systems envisaged will respect the songs’ copyrights by only transmitting the information necessary for editing and modifying them,” stresses Vinet.
The ability to extract and display a whole range of information – tempo, key, lyrics, musical score – on a musical piece should also deepen the listeners musical knowledge and appreciation.

Managing your music
One of the challenges of the digital hi-fi will be managing extensive databases of music. It will no longer be a matter of simply grabbing a favourite CD from the shelf but of trawling through a database of perhaps tens of thousands of pieces. Semantic Hi-Fi, which concluded in November 2006, continued the work of Cuidado, an earlier EU-funded project, developing search engines capable of extracting information on musical content and providing tools for the effective management of musical ‘libraries’.
As a result of this work, users of future hi-fi can expect to be able to navigate easily through their collections using search criteria, such as tempo, genre, instrumentation, in addition to the traditional search criteria of artist and title. If you have a particular tune running through your head, but no information on it, you can simply hum the tune into the system’s microphone and it will find it for you!
You can also start from a reference piece and search for those similar to it according to selected musical criteria. You can classify and retrieve your songs by defining your own musical categories from a set of track examples that will be automatically generalised to your whole database. Last but not least, the system computes ‘musical summaries’ that give a global idea, within a few tens of seconds, of the main changes occurring in the pieces (intro, chorus, verses, solos, etc.), thus enabling rapid ‘auditory browsing’.
Many of the results of the project are now available for licensing and several are being developed further within the context on new research projects. Targeted applications include multimedia search engines, music portals, and automatic play-list generation.

OTUS – The Next Generation Digital DJ Controller
EKS Otus’ stylish physical appearance, clever design and the solid touch and feel will make any professional DJ feel at home from the very first encounter. The sturdy aluminum frame is built to withstand the physical abuse of DJ’ing and the hazards of travel.

The heart of Otus is its illuminated, high resolution 7.5” jog wheel with sensitivity adjustments. Otus has been designed to fit firmly in the place, or on top of standard DJ turntables, with vibrations substantially reduced due to its unique sharp cloves (feet).
All of the controls onboard the Otus are of the highest professional standards and are illuminated by LED indicators for maximum usability in a club environment.
Independent by spirit, Otus gives DJs the freedom to work with software combinations of choice. It feels at home next to a mixer, external soundcard or another controller, but can also replace them all if needed. The advanced MIDI mapper & Asio software makes creating different setups a breeze.
Otus is also customizable to suit individual preferences or mood. The smoked glass surface along with the feet of the controller can be switched making Otus a truly personal instrument.
Otus offers a wide range of controls enabling the user full control – no mouse or keyboard needed. The placement of each control has been optimized for usability and for show factor. All of the key functions are placed closest to the DJ, while effect orientated controls are placed further away. This allows the club audience a better view of the DJ tweaking knobs.
The Future Proof Ideology of the control layout allows the use of future software features. Assignable buttons, knobs, push-and-rotate selectors and capacitive touchpad enable advanced creative freedom, while the relative touch sensitive slider allows very accurate pitch adjustments. To top it off, all of the controls can be virtually doubled via a color indicated layer selection switch or shift button. The second layer, indicated by LED color changes, offers the option to control two virtual decks with one Otus or even other software like MIDI controllable VJ programs. A professional level audio/headphone output allows direct connectivity to a DJ system or the possibility for headphone preview.

i-Bangles

The iPod is already pretty forward looking in terms of design, but designer Gopinath Prasana decided to take things a little bit further with the iBangle concept. This iBangle design concept is a little bit daring as the design fits right on your wrist instead of clipping to your belt. Don’t let its loose look fool you, the iBangle won’t easily slip off like other “clip-on” MP3 players. Apparently, that tiny blue button that you see in the illustration somehow fills the blue area with air, so it fits snug, but hopefully not too snug.
This MP3 player comes in the form of a - you’ve guessed it, a bangle, and features a multi-touch track pad for you to control your playlist. Guess this is a fancy version of the iPod Shuffle since it lacks the physical real estate for a screen or projector to keep you entertained with movies, so only songs will have to do. Since everyone comes with different wrist sizes, the iBangle boasts a cushion within that inflates so that it is able to fit into just about any wrist snugly.

Music In My Soul
There's music in my soul today,
A joy of heart not there before:
This state of conscience I relay
To rich and proud and meek and poor.

There's music in my happy Soul:
From Heaven's realm doth truly flow
This music in my happy Soul,
My conscience tells me rightly so.

My song of joy I sing to you:
Let peace and love forever be
Among ye men of every hue,
Of every land and charted sea.

I crave no other fortune great,
But joy to live in peace with God;
My hopes are fixed on His Estate,
In faith so true as prophets had.

This music in my soul today
I spread in truth with love unfurled;
On waves of cheer it goes, I pray,
To reach around the belted world.

Space music

Space music, also spelled spacemusic, is an umbrella term used to describe music that evokes a feeling of contemplative spaciousness. Space music can be found within a wide range of genres. It is particularly associated with ambient, new age, and electronic music. Some claim that music from the western classical, world, Celtic, traditional, experimental and other idioms also falls within the definition of space music. Space music ranges from simple to complex sonic textures, often (though not exclusively) lacking conventional melodic, rhythmic, or vocal components, typically evoking a "continuum of spatial imagery and emotion", beneficial introspection, attentiveness for deep listening, subtle trance effects called "spacey", (defined by the Compact Oxford Dictionary as "drifting and ethereal") and psychoacoustic spatial perceptions, particularly, sensations of flying, floating, cruising, gliding, or hovering. Space music is used by some individuals for both background enhancement and foreground listening, often with headphones, to enable states of relaxation, contemplation, inspiration, and generally peaceful expansive moods; it may promote health through relaxation, atmospherics for bodywork therapies, and effectiveness of meditation. Space music appears in many film soundtracks and is commonly played in planetariums. An eclectic form of music, produced almost exclusively by independent labels, space music occupies a small niche in the marketplace, supported and enjoyed by a relatively small audience of loyal enthusiastic listeners.

Pacemaker for Dj's

The Pacemaker is the ultimate gadget for DJ's! Pacemaker is a revolutionizing portable music player equipped with an extensive range of professional audio manipulation features enabling limitless mixing between two independent channels. This portable, battery powered, hand held device contains a 120GB hard drive, so has plenty of room for your favorite tunes, and a brilliant innovative hand controlled interface allows you to select tracks, mix, pitch-bend, crossfader and more - all in the palm of your hand.
The Pacemaker DJ has 2 outputs - one for your headphones, and a main output to connect to your hi-fi or sound system - the Tonium Pacemaker really is a brilliant bit of kit - this isn't a gimmick or toy - it's fully capable of delivering a perfectly mixed DJ set from the palm of your hand. What's more is that the Pacemaker will save those mixes onto the players hard drive. Clever, Pacemaker!

Musical implants

Computer chips that store music could soon be built into a woman's breast implants. One boob could hold an MP3 player and the other the person's whole music collection. BT futurology, who have developed the idea, say it could be available within 15 years. BT Laboratories' analyst Ian Pearson said flexible plastic electronics would sit inside the breast. A signal would be relayed to headphones, while the device would be controlled by Bluetooth using a panel on the wrist.
According to The Sun he said: "It is now very hard for me to thing of breast implants as just decorative. If a woman has something implanted permanently, it might as well do something useful." The sensors around the body linked through the electrical impulses in the chips may also be able to warn wearers about heart murmurs, blood pressure increases, diabetes and breast cancer.

Sound

Sound is vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas; particularly, sound means those vibrations composed of frequencies capable of being detected by ears. The mechanical vibrations that can be interpreted as sound are able to travel through all forms of matter: gases, liquids, solids, and plasmas. The matter that supports the sound is called the medium. Sound cannot travel through vacuum.For humans, hearing is limited to frequencies between about 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz (20 kHz), with the upper limit generally decreasing with age. Other species have a different range of hearing. For example, dogs can perceive vibrations higher than 20 kHz. As a signal perceived by one of the major senses, sound is used by many species for detecting danger, navigation, predation, and communication. Earth's atmosphere, water, and virtually any physical phenomenon, such as fire, rain, wind, surf, or earthquake, produces (and is characterized by) its unique sounds. Many species, such as frogs, birds, marine and terrestrial mammals, have also developed special organs to produce sound. In some species, these have evolved to produce song and speech. Furthermore, humans have developed culture and technology (such as music, telephone and radio) that allows them to generate, record, transmit, and broadcast sound.

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 film starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities are dominated by visits to a local discothèque. While in the disco, Tony is the king, and the visits help him to temporarily forget the reality of his life: a dead-end job, clashes with his unsupportive and squabbling parents, tensions in the local community, and his associations with a gang of dead-beat friends.
A huge commercial success, the movie significantly helped to popularize disco music around the world and made Travolta a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, became the best selling soundtrack at that time and held the record until 1999 when the soundtrack to The Bodyguard overtook it. The film is also notable for being one of the first instances of cross-media marketing, with the tie-in soundtrack's single being used to help promote the film before its release and the film popularizing the entire soundtrack after its release.
The story is based upon a 1976 New York magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn, "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night." It was based on an English youth movement that also placed great importance on music, clothes and dancing. The film also showcased aspects of the music, the dancing, and the subculture surrounding the disco era: symphony-orchestrated melodies, haute-couture styles of clothing, sexual promiscuity, and graceful choreography.

Hybrid Turntables
The dilemma of a DJ has always to choose different schools of thoughts...... CDs and MP3s are super-convenient, but there's nothing like kickin' it old school with some vinyl.
Well no conflits now........cause....the hybrids are here.......
Hybrid turntable lets mixmasters have it both ways, since it features a built-in CD player to cover your digital music. Not only will the player read your MP3 discs, but it features "automatic beat calculation" through something called a Beatkeeper, which is probably kind of useless but fun to say. The coolest feature of these hybrids is that your scratching isn't limited to vinyl. If you want to add some scratch to a CD tune, just rock the turntable back and forth like you would for a vinyl record, and the player adds scratching noises to the audio, thanks to buffered memory.

Vinyl Cutter Etches Music Grooves onto Unwanted CDs

Aleks Kolkowski has discovered a new use for old CDs: repurposing them into vinyl-style records that can be played on any record player. Attendees of the Manchester Futuresonic 2008 Festival were invited to bring their unwanted CDs and DVDs to his display at the event to have music physically etched onto them by Kolkowski's vintage vinyl cutter. Even better, he apparently let people bring their own WAV files so that they could have whatever song they wanted cut onto the disc.
The resulting CDs are sort of like a DIY version of the vinyl CDs we spotted in November. Drop them onto any turntable that has a 45 RPM speed and these CDs will play a vinyl-ish version of the WAV file. They aren't going to sound as good as high-quality vinyl records, but it's a neat trick.
I've heard more than one person say that they think the future of music formats belongs to digital files and vinyl. If that's the case, his technique could become a lot more popular.

His Master's Voice

The first records were on cylinders, the earliest of which were made by the inventor of the first 'Phonograph', Thomas Alva Edison in 1877. Attempts had been made of 'recording' sound much earlier than this, but none were capable of reproducing the human voice.
By 1887, another American, Emile Berliner (a German immigrant to the U.S.) filed a patent for a recording system based on a flat disc instead of a cylinder. This was a very significant development because the new discs were much easier to mass produce than the cylinders that they replaced. This was important in making the technology available to a wide market.
By the turn of the century the industry had begun to settle on a diameter of 10 inches for the new format. The rotational speed varied somewhat from one manufacturer to another, but most turned at between 75 and 80 revolutions per minute and most 'Gramophone' machines were capable of some adjustment. Eventually 78 rpm became the common standard. The name 'Gramophone' began as a Trademark for Berliner's new invention, but Europeans adopted it as generic while Americans continued to use the term 'Phonograph'.
Various materials were used for manufacturing the earliest discs, but shellac (a resin made from the secretions of the lac insect) was found to be the best. Shellac is a natural thermoplastic, being soft and flowing when heated, but rigid and hard wearing at room temperature. Usually a fine clay or other filler was added to the 'mix'. However, by the 1930s the natural shellac began to be replaced by equivalent synthetic resins.
All of the earliest 78 rpm recordings were single sided, but double sided recordings were introduced firstly in Europe by the Columbia company. By 1923, double sided recordings had become the norm on both sides of the Atlantic.
The 78 rpm disc reigned supreme as the accepted recording medium for many years despite its tendency to break easily and the fact that longer works could not be listened to without breaks for disc changes (at 5 minute intervals for 12" discs).
In 1948 the Columbia company had perfected the 12" Long Playing Vinyl disc. Spinning at 33 rpm the new format could play up to 25 minutes per side. This new record medium also had a much lower level of surface noise than did its older shellac cousin. However, Columbia's big rival, RCA Victor then produced the seven inch 45 rpm vinyl disc. These could hold as much sound as the 12" 78 rpm discs they were to replace, but were much smaller and attractive.
It took many years for the 78 to disappear because the new vinyl records needed new equipment on which to play them, but the two new vinyl formats then were to dominate the recorded music industry until the advent of the digital compact disc (CD). Even then, vinyl would take much longer to fall into oblivion than 78s did when vinyl recordings first appeared.
The 45rpm record's years of greatest success began with the onset of rock and roll. The new 7 inch format was favoured by the young and in the UK sales of 45s overtook 78s early in 1958 as rock and roll established a boom in record sales.During the next few years the UK was to become a major source of popular recorded music with the advent of the British 'beat' groups which were exemplified in the 'Beatles'. This was the 'golden era' for the 45. Although sales of popular music were to grow dramatically during the following decades, buyers gradually transferred their purchases to the 12" 'LP' as their affluence grew. Indeed, by the end of the 1960s sales of the 45 had even begun to decline. During the early years of the Beatles, a record would need to sell in excess of 750,000 copies to reach the coveted number 1 chart position. Such was the decline in this part of the market that by a decade later only 150,000 copies could achieve the same result.
Courtesy: www.45rpm.org.uk

World's No.1 DJ for 2008
........is Armin Van Buuren: DJ Magazine
For the second year in a row, Armin van Buuren has been voted most popular global DJ in the 'DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJ Poll' at a party in London’s 'Ministry of Sound'.

01. Armin van Buuren
02. Tiesto
03. Paul van Dyk
04. Above & Beyond
05. David Guetta
06. Ferry Corsten
07. Sasha
08. Markus Schulz
09. John Digweed
10. Infected Mushroom

Mirror Ball

A mirror ball is alleged to bring prosperity to those who own one and, alternately, to ward off evil spirits, particularly witches.

Legends formed about the mysterious powers of the ball. A globe was said to bring happiness, good luck and prosperity to those who owned it. The globe was known to ward off evil spirits, misfortune, illness and, of all things, witches!

The ball is purposed to keep witches away but the methods vary from story to story. Some say the ball should be placed near the entrance to the house so that if a witch came to your house she would not be able to get past her reflection as she cannot tear herself away from her own image. There are other accounts that say a witch cannot bear to see her own reflection so she will not come near a "witch’s ball". A witch cannot sneak up on a person gazing into a globe as he can see if a witch approaches from behind. The smaller ball made of colored glass as opposed to the reflective kind was believed to attract and trap evil spirits.
well !!! if its true...... then why do I play music to witches....

Music As Expression

Music is an art form in which the medium is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike), "(art) of the Muses".
The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts", music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art.

To people in many cultures, music is inextricably intertwined into their way of life. Greek philosophers and ancient Indians defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound. "According to musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez, "the border between music and noise is always culturally defined—which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus.… By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be, except that it is 'sound through time'."

Stardust

The short-lived group released the immensely popular club track titled “ Music Sounds Better with You” in June 1998. The song, which is based around a sample from “Fate” by Chaka Khan, was an instant smash, and many have dubbed it the greatest house song of the millennium. It was recorded in Paris by Daft House productions, of which Bangalter, one half of the popular French house duo Daft Punk, is head. The song was conceived in Rex Club, Paris, where the trio were playing a live set. Bangalter and Braxe created the instrumental, which Diamond instinctively sang the title words over. The next day they laid down the track in the studio, adding the Chaka Khan sample.
Though Bangalter was offered three million dollars to produce a Stardust album, the three members of the band parted ways after their highly auspicious debut. Diamond and Braxe pursued solo careers, and Bangalter, along with his usual partner Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, went on to release the second Daft Punk album, Discovery.
The song "Music Sounds Better with You" lacked its own music video for several months after its release. This was taken to advantage by British music series The Chart Show that had received requests to show old graphics before the show ended in August 1998. They used the fact this song had no video to create a compilation of old graphics, backed by the song. Eventually a proper video was made, directed by the acclaimed Michel Gondry.
"Music Sounds Better with You" is one of the most remixed songs ever, with most mixes on bootlegs or white label. It is also one of the first songs to introduce the mashup style of remixing.

What is music?
What is music? According to Webster's Dictionary, music is “the art of arranging tones in an orderly sequence so as to produce a unified and continuous composition”. In reality, music does not have any one concrete meaning. Music has different meanings for different people. Music is unique in each person's life. To a musician, music is their life. They eat, breathe, and live music. Music is their passion. For others, music is a hobby, a pastime. Music is something that arouses interest and is pleasurable. The casual fan may learn about music, how to read music, how to sing, or how to play a musical instrument, but they do not have the all encompassing passion a musician possesses. Music is a means of relaxation for some, while others simply enjoy listening to the sounds, melodies, and rhythms that music brings to their ears, minds, and hearts.
It allows a human being to create humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (song)
"Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" a song written by Michael Cleveland for R&B/dance group Indeep has been all time favorites and the smashing remix that almost all the professional DJs lay their hands on.
It features vocals from Reggie and Rose Marie Ramsey, and its protagonists recall how they were bored to death until a DJ played a hot song and saved their lives by giving new energy to the night.
The song was released as a single in 1982 and became the most popular and successful hit released by their record label, Sound of New York. In the U.S. "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" reached number ten on the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and number two on the Club Singles chart, and it peaked at number thirteen in the United Kingdom. The track appears as the third track of the namesake album released in 1983. And ever since then it has ruled the minds of all the DJs across the globe.
The song also provided the inspiration for the title of the book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (2000). Because of the limited success of Indeep's later releases, the group's first single was their only hit and placed them into the one-hit wonder category of artists. In 2004 UK house/trance music producer Seamus Haji made several popular remixes of the song through his own label, Big Love Records, and released them on a 12" single titled "Last Night a DJ Saved My Wife (ATFC mixes)".