Today I am happy to announce that May 2012 will be the Month of Maschine on The DJ Podcast. Starting on May 1st we will be concentrating on Native Instruments Maschine in our video tutorials. Throughout the month we will be covering topics like creating drum kits, adding effects, and arranging scenes to create songs.

Maschine comes in three flavors – Maschine, Maschine Mikro, and iMaschine – and is a combination of hardware and software. When used together, the hardware gives you unparallelled control over the software. You can use Maschine whether you’re a DJ or producer, in the studio or the club, with the software or as a MIDI controller.

You can follow the Month of Maschine 2012 on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube.

You’ve probably heard of them before even if they don’t immediately come to mind. Mark Davis over at Camelot Sound is the one who came up with the simple system that combines numbers and letters to categorize keys that you’re probably used to seeing. If you’ve ever done a harmonic mix using the Camelot Key system and thought about how easy it is to do, then you’ve got Camelot Sound to thank for that.

The Camelot Sound Difference
The difference between Camelot Sound and its competitors is two-fold. First it takes a different approach to presenting key information to you. Instead of buying a piece of software that you download to your computer, you purchase access to their online database. You can buy access in batches of 1, 3, or 6 months at the rate of $10 per month or $100 for a year’s worth of access. You can access the database anytime with a simple username and password login after you complete your purchase.

The second difference is that instead of using a piece of software to detect keys, all of the key information in the database is identified by ear. That means that a real person took the time to listen to each track and manually identify its key. As far as I know, it is the only service that does this with a database of its size.

The Pros
Camelot Sound’s main advantage over competing products is the emphasis on accuracy. Manually identifying every track should produce much more accurate results than software algorithms. While I don’t know the inner-workings of the company, the emphasis on accuracy over speed of detection or other factors is promising.

One important factor when judging any type of web service or software application is ease of use. Navigating through a database can be rather difficult and tedious if not set up correctly. Thankfully, Camelot Sound makes it easy to search and filter the database entries to find exactly what you are looking for. You can search for the obvious, like artist or track title, and you can also filter by BPM, Key, and Genre. These filters can be combined. For example, you could search for tracks at 128bpm in the key of 2A and include tracks within a set range of BPM differences. I don’t know of other software applications have the same level of filters.

The Cons
There are really only two downsides to using the Camelot Sound database and both are minor when compared to the positives. The first is the issue of internet connectivity. You have to have access to the internet to access the database. Mixed in Key has a similar issue in that you have to be online to key new tracks. However, Mixed in Key does keep an internal database of previously keyed tracks.

The second issue is the lack of automated metadata insertion. With a program like Mixed in Key, once a key is detected, the key information can automatically be added to a track’s ID3 metadata. With the Camelot Sound database, you would have to manually insert the key information into your digital files or physical media labels. Both of these cons are inconveniences more than anything else, and as I said before the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

My Experience
The fine folks over at Camelot Sound gave me access to the database to test out their service. As a web service, I never had any problems connecting to the site itself or accessing the database at the random hours I chose to login and as I mentioned before, it’s surprisingly easy to use considering the size and scope of the database.

It’s tough to judge a service, like the Camelot Sound database, when I myself cannot manually key tracks. I compared track keys identified in a variety of programs to the ones in the database and found some similarities and differences. However, I can’t tell which keys are accurate and which ones are not as I don’t have the ability to key tracks by ear. This is the case with any key detection system when you can’t identify them yourself. You have to somewhat blindly accept the keys identified for you. For this very reason, I have recommended in the past that once you pick a key detection method, you stay with it. If you decide to switch methods, you should think of it as a fresh start.

The Final Verdict
I was happy with my experience testing out what Camelot Sound has to offer. If accuracy is the most important factor in your decision process in deciding between one key detection system or another, this may very well be the solution for you. Even though I liked the filters a lot – and wish other programs had the same capabilities – there is one drawback that will keep me from continuing to use the service. If I buy a track the day it is released, I want to get its key right away. Realistically I can’t expect Camelot Sound to keep up with every new release, and for that reason I don’t fault them for it. Remember that just because Camelot Sound isn’t right for me, doesn’t mean that it won’t work for you.

If you’re looking for a first step into harmonic mixing or are unhappy with the results of other software solutions, you should give Camelot Sound a try. $10 for a month of access will give you plenty of time to test out the service and judge it for yourself without breaking the bank. This is just another reminder to me about one of the great advantages of the digital DJ era: There are so many different tools and methods out there that eventually you will find the one that is right for you.

If you have used Camelot Sound’s database and would like to share your experiences, feel free to leave a comment below.

Each genre pack contains 4 sets of samples. Each set contains elements that can be layered on top of your existing tracks, or with each other. Individual samples that make up each element are also often included. All samples are .wav files so should work in any DJ application or piece of hardware. Ableton Live users will be happy to know that each pack comes with corresponding .asd files for every file so you don’t have to spend any time warping. All of the sample packs are royalty-free, so you can also use the samples in your productions.

You can download a free selection of Loopmasters DJ Mixtools at http://thedjpodcast.com/giveaway/.

I recently sold my SL1 on Ebay for the same amount of money that I bought it for several years ago. The key to my successful auction was preparation. I had never sold an item on Ebay before, so I took the time to investigate before I put my auction up for bid. Here are some tips that I found helpful in creating a successful auction:

You should find out the value of your gear before you consider auctioning your item on Ebay. It may be a better choice to try and sell your gear locally rather than go through the effort of selling it on Ebay. The best way to find the value of your gear is to do simple search for the product. The key is to search completed listings. Completed listings can give you a lot of information. First, you can see whether or not the product sells or not. Second, you can see what people are paying for the item in varying conditions. You may find that your product goes for $300 if it is in good condition, but only $150 if it is in poor condition. Additionally, you can look at the presentation of the auctions with the highest final bid prices.

Now that you have an idea of how much your item is worth, it’s time to create the auction listing. There are three important aspects to the auction listing: description, pictures, and price.

Description: You want the title of the auction to be as straight-forward as possible. For example, the title of my auction was “Rane Serato Scratch Live SL1″. In the auction description you want to inform a potential bidder what you are selling and the condition of the item(s) you are selling. You can also include additional pictures of the item. Many sellers choose to include the technical specs of the item they are selling. Personally, I don’t find that very useful as a buyer, so I would advise against including it in your listing description. Chances are that if someone is buying gear off of Ebay, they know what they want.

Pictures: Pictures are a very important aspect of an auction listing as they are the only visual connection between the potential bidder and your item. Don’t use a stock picture of the item you are trying to sell. Take a picture of the item you own. Ebay allows you to upload one picture for free to be displayed in the listings search. Your best bet is to choose a picture that shows everything included in the auction. For my auction my picture showed the SL1, timecode CDs, power supply, and usb cable. This should not be the only picture in your auction. You can include extra pictures in your auction description free of charge. Upload the pictures to your website host, or a free picture hosting service, and use them to show the item and its condition. Good pictures can really help sell your item.

Price: All of the research I have done suggests not to use a reserve price or the Buy it Now option. The suggestion was to either start the auction at either the default bid amount of 99 cents or set the start bid price at the lowest amount you would be willing to sell the item for. My searches showed that an SL1 in good condition was selling for anywhere between $300-400. I therefore decided to set the lowest bid price at $300. That way I was at least guaranteed the minimum amount as long as one person placed a bid. If you decide to set your own starting price take into account the additional auction listing fees. When it comes to shipping price, you can either set a flat amount or input the weight of your item. Weigh your item in the packaging you will ship it in to get an accurate shipping cost.

At this point your auction listing should be ready. Various sites that I found suggest that you should start and end your auction on a weekend, preferably in the evening. I started and ended my auction on a Sunday night, but  don’t have enough experience to say whether or not this actually makes a difference. The waiting game starts once the auction begins.  Chances are that if you have a long auction length – a week or more -  that you won’t get any bids for a couple of days. Don’t be worried. This is normal. Most people will bid in the final couple of days.

Review:
1. Find the value of the item you are selling.
2. Write a clear auction title.
3. Use a good picture for listing searches.
4. Indicate what you are selling and provide additional pictures in the auction description.
5. Set a starting price and provide and accurate shipping cost.Wait for the auction to finish and hope bidders are interested in your item.

Do you have your own experiences selling gear on Ebay? Share your tips and tricks in the comment section below.

Start your search by making a list of your favorite producers who are also DJs. Chances are, they have a radio show, podcast, or both. Doing a simple search online will tell you when artists’ radio shows are broadcasted and if they are also available as podcasts. You can also do a search on iTunes for podcasts if you are an avid iTunes user. Find the titles of the tracks that you like and write them down on a piece of paper or in a text document.

You might be thinking “But those tracks won’t be released for a while. How can I find what tracks are coming out today?”. Pick your preferred Digital Download Store and view the new releases daily. Don’t have time to check the new releases everyday? Then check on Mondays and Fridays as most tracks are released at the beginning and end of the business week. While you’re there follow any link that mentions of “Similar Artists You Might Like”. You’ll probably find an artist or two that you like.

So now you’ve probably inundated with a ton of new tracks and mixes to listen to. That’s okay. Listening to music is fun, right? Remember that just because the big-name DJs only play tracks for a week or two on their radio shows, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy the tracks you like. The lifespan of a track is not simply determined by how often it gets played the the most popular DJs.

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