Oct 18 ADE 2012 Day 1 (Amsterdam Dance Event)

Amsterdam Dance Event 2012: DAY 1

And so, the Electronic Dance Music gig of the year begins. There are three things going on concurrently in town:

• The Conference – which is the program for EDM professionals (DJ’s and producers and engineers and promoters);
• The Festival – which is the “let’s go party til dawn” part of the gig;
• The Hard Dance Event – which is NOT self-explanatory and is the hard-core mutant version of the two above for those who like faster and harder styles of Electronic Dance Music (e.g., Headhunterz); FYI, I strongly gravitate toward music above 140 BPM, and before too long I will release my first hard dance track (I give myself until the end of this year)…..

Personally, I am trying to cover as much as I can. Full coverage of the venues and conference schedules is virtually impossible. I am going as far as using three recording devices – a Panasonic 16x camcorder, a Zoom field stereo HD recorder for recording quality sound and music, and a Cannon PowerShot Elph 100 HS camera for still photos and quick video clips. The result – at the end of the day – is a vast collection of video and audio material that requires three more days of sifting through to make some sense. And since I don’t have nine people working for me, I am simply picking out some of the best or most obvious pieces of information at this time, with the hopes of sharing more with you at some later time. So, today’s highlights are as follows below:

Syd Lawrence

The man knows hacking. He is the mastermind behind Toma.hk (pronounced “Tomahawk”) – a music listening experience revamped that I HIGHLY recommend, whether you are a techie or not. The guy is a genius, but not a musician. So, my interest in his undertakings was limited, but even for me meeting him was an eye-opener. If you want to check out his site, this is the link. Otherwise, jump right in to see the 40-minute video!

WhoSampled.com

A very cool service that basically links all music – from all genre and all the way back to 600 AD – to music that someone else at some other point in time produced before. It allows music fans and producers to exchange songs and to participate in building the reference database, which is cool. Other than that, it’s discouraging to learn that everything I am creating as a producer has probably already happened in another song 100 years ago, but paradoxally, it is not strange. There are only 12 semitones (or distinguishable notes) that represent all songs and tunes of all time, and the number of combinations in which these notes can be arranged is finite, whether we like it or not. On the good side, the number of these combinations is extraordinarily high, especially when paired with an equally high number of harmonic overtones built around them. In other words, WhoSampled is cool, and I recommend you check it out. Also, I will post a video with their founder at some point next week – don’t miss it.

The World According to Armin van Buuren

A very cool talk panel with the King of Trance. He shares his likes, dislikes, and general views on the state of Electronic Dance Music industry today. For me, the highlight was to hear Armin say this: “…to make a nice vocal track, sometimes it’s nicer to work with an American artist.” Thanks for saying this, dude, because it means a lot to the American EDM industry. The article that can be found here contains this cool video fragment, as well as this full 45-minute video of Armin van Buuren’s interview and discussion.

OK, this is my wrap-up for the day. Check out the photos below, and TTYS. I am now off to cover ADE 2012 DAY 2.

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