Recovery - Moving On

Something else has been happening as well. Like a defining undercurrent to all of this.

The intense networking of the past couple of months has flipped a few switches in my own mind as well. I have met so many people and had so many experiences lately that something just snapped within, like a critical threshold was crossed. I began to think more seriously about moving on from the past experiences - it was time to start thinking about the next volume of the personal mixes.

I took a break because I wanted to learn how to mix properly. It took time to find the right tools and I played with a few. I knew that vinyl was not the answer - I wanted to keep working with digital music. The first serious affair was with the PCDJ FX but it quickly became obvious that it was not enough. That's how I met Traktor. My God. What an amazing piece of software that is.

Learning to digitally mix was extremely frustrating - I just could not match up the beats properly. But Traktor changed all that. Despite the rather daunting learning curve, I kept persisting and mixing and annoying myself at the lack of synchronisation. But one late night, while totally off, I opened the decks and just started mixing. I just got it. Just like that. With the first mix I thought it was a fluke. But then the next one happened, then the next one - and it became obvious I was getting it. Maybe I was too far gone to notice the mistakes but it sounded pretty good to me and I was getting that goose-bumpy sensation on the skin when things just synch for ya. Then the ecstasy came.

I have been practicing ever since, nearly non-stop annoying friends that would show up in this apartment. They don't seem to run away but some days are better than others. I have noticed that in order to get better results you really have to turn down the internal dialogue. I just get nervous otherwise and start making mistakes. Also, you cannot really plan the playlist out. I have done that so far and took notes as to what mixes with what at what intervals and where to insert the loops. But that is just giving me shits to be honest. You cannot intellectualise the creative process either.

A couple of hours ago I realised that the cue sheet is ok for the track you wanna play but to dissect the loops and the time intervals is just plain silly. It makes me nervous. It is much better to just tune in to the music and just let go, stop thinking (that infernal internal dialogue is the biggest curse). And in fact, each time you play the set, the mixes will be slightly different, you just don't standardise the creative process.

Having said all that, the observational exercises have been happening on other levels as well - but that's a story for another late night...

The Recovery volume in the Seeker Series will thus be completely mixed in. Like I dreamed before. I am working on the first instalment now - it will be called Moving On. For a reason to be described later. It will be a whole series of mixes as the road to recovery is a bit more intense than one CD can cover...