Comments on: DJs Advocate Controllerism

By: Kipp

Kipp — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:00:54 +0000

The controllerists and the DJ’s are not that far apart from each other. It’s all about music guys, and the optimum situation is to try to find a meeting point for musicians, DJ’s, and circuit benders. Controllerism IS this meeting place. The missing dimension (not really missing, just need more of it) is video, but that is creeping in. The Korg Kaptivator is the first “affordable” device of its kind to establish inroads into this new territory. The performance can become something more or less an event in and of itself. Anyone familiar with the Reactables, can now picture a room full of people wearing Reactable-like “jewelry” - Stay with me here. So say a chick is wearing a low-pass filter “necklace” and dances into the vicinity of a guy wearing a low frequency oscillator “bracelet”. The effect is one of a massive filter sweep directly over head in the speaker system in the ceiling, much like at an Imax theater. The dancers could change the very music they are dancing to. This is one vision of future events as I see being more than possible right now. This is why all artists and mad scientist types need to bond and rap and brain storm on these subjects. Anyone who is familiar with Igor Amokian and his work knows that if he got together with some computer guys it would lead to some weird stuff - Igor is a performing circuit bender in the L.A. area. He is, however, old school and admits his lack of computer-related music tool knowledge, but I think he’s warming up to the idea. I’m trying, man ;)

By: Create Digital Music » On DJing, Twinkies

Create Digital Music » On DJing, Twinkies — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:57:49 +0000

[...] Sorry, controllerists. [...]

By: boxguy

boxguy — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:00:12 +0000

I sometimes still get a kick out of just mixing old 12″ and it can be a lot of fun and mixing CDs can be just as fun, which is what I do mostly. However, I like Moldover’s idea. I’ve been using Ableton for production, but the idea of warping all my tracks, I just don’t have time for and not sure what I will be doing behind the DJ decks if Ableton is matching the beats for me.
Playing with effects all the time can become boring to the ears fast, so I see the thing to do to start playing 3-5 tracks at a time if using Ableton.
Or possibly use Ableton as my effects send/return and mix with CDJs. Anyone have other suggestions of pushing boundaries?

By: Moldover

Moldover — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:34:19 +0000

There will be no war between artificial and organic intelligences.

It is human-kind’s destiny to merge with machines, furthering evolution of the species and facilitating our survival in the forthcoming global cataclysm.

THE STREETS WILL FLOW WITH THE BLOOD OF THE NONBELIEVERS.

By: Ean Golden

Ean Golden — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:39:00 +0000

Hey guys, I just wanted to point out that I really appreciate you starting this discussion and the intelligent feedback from your readers. We are all on the same page here so let me just add a few points.

I completely agree that its not about the name or the technology but how you use it. That is precisely what we pointed out here at this post on dj tech tools:
http://djtechtools.com/?p=40
So why controllerism? Because the world needs sound bites and a quick easy way to explain what guys like moldover and myself are doing. If anyone can come up with a better name, I would gladly use that but for now controllerism seems to be sticking. :-)

And just for the record, I am not so terribly anti-analogue. There are still many thousands of records and a pair of 10 year old Mk2-1200s at my house. The turntable is a BEAUTIFUL controller and instrument. Qbert has elevated his musical game to the level of jazz. That’s why is so important to improve the quality of controllers and digital instruments. The exciting thing about the digital realm is how much remarkable potential there is for creative personal expression.

By: Jonathan Leonard

Jonathan Leonard — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:31:16 +0000

Moldover rocks!! If thats what he calls himself, controllerist, then thats what I will call him. For those whose emphasis is the interface, maybe Interfacism is appropriate. Or for all the monome/tenori/WII fans, Interfeticism could apply.

@Mr.Book, you might be referring to an ensemble not in the userlib called Beatlookup by Chris List. You can find a link to it in the reaktor builders forum in a thread called Next Beatlookup Thread. You are required to read the whole thread before downloading.

Please play both sides at one meeting!

By: MrBook

MrBook — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:29:45 +0000

It is interesting to see that no matter how much the industry is going to adapt to the demands of these new “controllerists”, there will always be people pushing the envelope, taking their tools apart and reinventing them, making them truly unique (for an extreme case of this, everyone should check out that1guy). These people that don’t conform, push the art forward setting the bar for the rest, forcing us to keep up. I take my hat off to Moldover and I think its great that a “controllerist” is getting wide coverage.
BTW, was anyone able to find the reaktor plugin he uses on the user library ??

By: Adrian Anders

Adrian Anders — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:26:10 +0000

CDL FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!1111oneone

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:02:36 +0000

I should add, controllerism *does* make a terrific domain name and Moldover has that, as well.

Create Digital Music was never actually so intentional a name … it’s a long story, but it was a distorted version of the book title we never actually used, and a domain I happened to be able to get, and it stuck. It doesn’t have to be a command. You could imagine it means “I like to drink Dr. Pepper when I create digital music,” or “tis nobler to patch modular synths than create digital music” or “now is the time to do this week’s laundry, not to create digital music.”

In all seriousness, yes, my objection was that controllers are a means to an end, not the meaningful thing itself. But if mastering a piano makes someone a pianist, and a turntable a turnablist, then the upside would be that it suggests that controllers are something you practice, something you get chops on, something you get *better* on. And that idea is very appealing to me.

As is doing laundry, ideally via digital control, on our new site Create Digital Laundromats.

By: Adrian Anders

Adrian Anders — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:19:51 +0000

I don’t think I’m totally on board the name “controllerism”, but I’m very in favor of individuals trying to make their music controllers solid for live performance. This is a trend very similar to what was going on in the 80’s/90’s with DJ gear becoming more rugged/streamlined for live performance in response to the popularity of Turntablism and House DJs. Nowadays it’s silly for companies making DJ mixers to have stiff faders, clunky pots, and unresponsive buttons. Likewise I hope this trend catches on and results in MIDI controller manufacturers making more live performance-oriented products. I think I would be willing to pay a premium (up to a point… Allen & Heath controllers are too insanely priced) for a MIDI DJ controller as solid as a Vestax PMC-05. Same would go for a keyboard controller with similar faders and pots.