We’ve seen lots of gadget lust around the tiny Pacemaker mobile DJ device, but could you, say, show up in Miami with one and DJ? Alfred Nerstu, who’s actually an Assistant Art Director for Pacemaker’s maker Tonium (not a PR person), sends along this video they made.

Answer: yes, you can be taken seriously with a Pacemaker, but you’ll have to lose your shirt. (Literally — not just because the Pacemaker costs some dough. And, hey, I’m sure you could afford one Pacemaker for about the cost of a two-night hotel stay in Miami during WMC…) I’m still not convinced I could take a Pacemaker seriously as a primary DJ tool, but it does look like something you could have a lot of fun with or add to your toybox of gear on the road.

That’s Tonium employee Willem, shirtless.

The best part of the video? The YouTube comments like these, which, whatever they mean, just look insanely cool:

haha fantastiskt

haha pappa willem? skjukt bra film du får fan fixxa rabbat till mig :D //gräsätarn

Fantastiskt, indeed.

Damn, I wish English weren’t such a square language. Keep your native tongues alive, folks.

Pacemaker.net

After the jump, Arthur shares a bit of "beachjaying" — clever idea for a video; maybe I should do this with a Game Boy tracker or something for the geekier among us. I’d better work on my washboard abs first, though, if my tummy is going to be in the shot.

DJ Eldorado and Liz Dreisacker are sending dispatches from the massive dance music festival WMC in Miami. With expanding use of live visuals and laptop music, this mainstream music party is surprisingly in tune with the CDM wavelength. I’m sorry I missed Richie Hawtin tearing into Ableton Live. Here’s Liz. -Ed.

Pictured: the Hot Hot Heat at Ultra; not, in fact, the Killers. -PK

Click 'read more' for our full coverage from Miami's 2005 Winter Music
Conference — a convergence of music and technology, covered live by
CDM's DJ Eldorado and Liz Dreisacker. Links to stories plus three new
image galleries follow.

Still not jealous that you weren't at Miami for the WMC? This should
do the trick — and here's the right way to record a concert: in HD 5.1! (Photo: DJ Eldorado — gallery coming soon.)

Miami — Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an all-day outdoor festival that
acts as the official closing ceremonies to Winter Music Conference
(WMC) here. The event took place at Bayfront Park & Amphitheater in
downtown Miami and featured over 100 artists, including: Timo Maas, BT,
Josh Wink, Junkie XL, Armin Van Buuren, Rabbit in the Moon, The Crystal
Method, Carl Cox, Danny Tenaglia, Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto,
Paul Van Dyk and Moby.

The event ran from 11am to 11pm on Saturday and
was incredibly fun with headliners playing throughout the day on seven
different stages within the venue. Advance tickets started at US$65 and
increased up until show time, one friend paid US$83 for her ticket at
around 5pm. Having paid for UMF last year, I recommend that you
purchase a WMC conference badge instead as it includes admission to
UMF.

Highlights of the show include Timo Maas on the Be Yourself stage
on the bay, Pete Tong, RTIM and The Crystal Method on the Ultra Sound
Stage and Layo & Bushwacka on the Subliminal Sessions stage.
The entire event was captured live in High Definition (HD) and mixed in
5.1 Surround Sound and will premiere on May 28th on DirectTV. Last
year's event (UMF 2004) is currently playing on INHD2 in High
Definition.  

In support of his new CD, "Hotel", Moby gave an exclusive Q&A
session for Winter Music Conference attendees. From his new album and
musical tour, to his appearance on NBC's The Apprentice, Moby has been
all over the place and in the musical limelight.

It was a great opportunity to see Moby up close and personal (there
were about 100 people there). Moby "loves questions," and fielded quite
a few from the audience. He related his philosophies about music that
"the act of making music is precious" going on to say that "if you make
music you are proud of, do everything to get people to listen to it."
From reflecting back on his first appearance at "Cameo" in Miami to his
more recent success in licensing music, Moby was successful in
inspiring his audience to create greatness.

Moby touched on just about everything including politics,
consumerism, alternative ways to get dance music heard,the last movie
he saw (South Park: The Movie, like "50 times"), and his current favorite bands in
NYC. He talked about the differences between working with an
independent and a major label and how that has allowed more flexibility
in his album creation.

To a bass player from the audience who had been the recipient
of negative attitude and comments that his music was "not commercial
enough," Moby said that "if you really believe in yourself you've got
to keep doing it."

Moby also informed us that he didn't use any samples on this
album. Hotel is his original artist album he created with Steinber's Cubase and Digidesign's
Pro Tools on his Power Mac G4 ("the one with the silver door"). When the
Apple rep in the audience invited Moby over to the Apple booth to
enlighten him on Logic Moby informed him that he prefers to stick with
Cubase because it's more familiar. What blew me away was the fact that
he's running it on OS 9 because "they don't run at the same time on OS
X." (Steinberg and Digidesign: Get him hooked up with OS X, would ya!)

Get a session pass to next year's WMC and go to the conferences, it's worth it.

Ed: Thanks, Lizi! Moby (up through his last album, at least)
reportedly used an old Mac IIci so he could run an early release of
Cubase because he liked a specific groove quantize he claims Steinberg
changed. So this is one oldskool Cubase lover. (And Apple, I'm a big
Logic lover and not tempted at all by Cubase, but you could learn
something from its wild arpeggiator and other MIDI fx — stuff that's
right up Moby's alley. Predecessors of the modern Logic and Cubase were
rivals back in Atari ST days, and their competition has made them the
deep products they are today.) -PK