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-- Digweed hong kong v LA gu

Digweed hong kong v LA gu

Which first track do you like? I love that LA opening.

Which one is better?

I think that both are very good, but the LA opening is performance art at it's finest

gu019 still my favorite mix. I strongly disagree that it aged badly (just a few vocal trucks looks outdated). The thing is: the mixing is just too good. some of the best transitions that i've ever heard are present there.

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Originally posted by Big Worm I think that both are very good, but the LA opening is performance art at it's finest

I'm not quite sure you know what "performance art" means.

I dug out GU:019 recently and tried listening to it again in the vain hope it might finally click for me. Nope. It still sounds as utterly fucking boring as it ever did. Maybe this kind of dark tribally 2001 prog sounded great in a dark loud nightclub, but at home in the headphones it's just so... dry.

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Originally posted by Kilixpree The thing is: the mixing is just too good. some of the best transitions that i've ever heard are present there.

I've never understood this sentiment either. Is it really so impressive to ProTools together a bunch of near-identical 10 minute dark prog records? The structure and builds on these records are so slow and minimalist that blending them for minute after minute is neither difficult nor dazzling. And that touches upon probably my biggest problem with GU:019: just how homogeneous it is. In time honoured fashion, CD2 is somewhat more banging than CD1 but the variation in mood and style across each disc is virtually non-existent. GU:014 has its dark tribal moments but it also has a very groovy deep house start and some concessions to '99 prog trance action later on. GU:019 is everything that people started hating prog for: it's peakless, plodding, lacking any sense of fun and almost hermetically sealed in its genre purity.

Actually I am not a DJ or have any idea how the hell the whole thing works (KNOBSSS), so no point in arguing with you if the mixing is technical or not, since I know that you are a good dj - I can just tell you that I love the long blends present there and also the tracklist is bonkers (imo). Also, it is good to point out that this kind of long blends present in GU019 are pretty much dead these days (or maybe I'm just listening the wrong dudes lol)

Apollo Vibes is indeed a great opening track!

Been re-listening to this one lately https://www.discogs.com/Various-Glo...ns/release/9520 and what a great mix this is, the opener is just as good or even better than on the LA.
and the track Delta Of Venus by Main Element is the fucking bomb!

You're right, performance art was a reach. I guess what I was thinking was it's a beautiful intro, and like Kpree said, flawless in transition

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Originally posted by Subtle Apollo Vibes is indeed a great opening track! Been re-listening to this one lately https://www.discogs.com/Various-Glo...ns/release/9520 and what a great mix this is, the opener is just as good or even better than on the LA. and the track Delta Of Venus by Main Element is the fucking bomb!

Checking it out! Thank You!

Sydney > Hong Honk > LA

heard again yesterday, just in case.

the combo 'inner laugh' -> 'the fall' -> 'one last time' is brutal.

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Originally posted by Kilixpree Actually I am not a DJ or have any idea how the hell the whole thing works (KNOBSSS), so no point in arguing with you if the mixing is technical or not

It's not really a case of technique, because it was all done on a computer. Obviously everything is flawlessly mixed and some of the transitions are very layered which makes for nice ear candy. My point is simply that it's very easy to line up these kind of tunes in a sequencer and overlay them for minutes on end, because they're very stripped down and spacious. There's no real imagination to the mixing.

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Originally posted by Lews Sydney > Hong Honk > LA

Quite the auto-correct, that.

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Originally posted by Sykonee Quite the auto-correct, that.

Yes, yes, the silly auto-correct did that

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J It's not really a case of technique, because it was all done on a computer.

How do you know this?

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Originally posted by MR STROKE How do you know this?

The vast majority of the GU comps were done in ProTools, and they tended to say in the liner notes if not. I don't know if you mix yourself, but if I listen to a mix closely in the headphones I think it's quite easy to tell if something was mixed digitally or on vinyl. Tiny imperfections and corrections in the transitions. Minor pitch bends as the platter is touched. The EQing, the way tunes are brought in. The mixing on GU:019 is perfect. Listen to the way he brings in the 16B Mix of Music. Just dropped in at full volume right from the first beat, perfectly in time. John Digweed was a superb mixer, but if you listen to his Essential Mixes recorded in a studio on vinyl you can hear his mixing. He's not superhuman.

I recently completed a listen to the whole of GU, and 19 still hasn't clicked for me. I do like my dark prog a whole lot but need -some- variation or peaks/valleys or some sense of 'brightness' and soul... 19 just felt extremely flat - Love In Traffic is the only song I can remember off it. As far as dark prog GUs go, the Satoshi Tomiie Nubreed is much more interesting.

GU14 though is one of my series favorites. I always felt the best GUs have some elements of the city in them, and you can totally feel the dark, gritty nature of a Kowloon back alley within the tribal and tech-house beats. Also it has a clear progression, in terms of the mellow deep house of Cups (Salt City Orchestra mix), gradually increasing the griminess, then building up to an epic finish with Baguio Track and Useless. Disk 2 has a ton of great progressive trance anthems on it - Diablo, NY FM, the Heaven Scent remix.

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Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch As far as dark prog GUs go, the Satoshi Tomiie Nubreed is much more interesting.

off topic....but this is a top 5 in the history of mix album releases from the Global Underground label

I'm still looking for that post where there is a huge TA style graph where almost all compilations were either done, at home, studio, or pro tools.

Also, I'm not huge fan of Ableton or Protools those warped tracks lack speed of tempo like momentum because the whole track is fixed to a single BPM without changes unless the warper does it him self which I also would dislike because its not what the artist originally intended.

& you have audible artifacts that become present which are unpleasing to the ear.

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I've never understood this sentiment either. Is it really so impressive to ProTools together a bunch of near-identical 10 minute dark prog records?

You know it still amazes me to this day people still think these CDs were mixed live.

He gave a great interview with sound on sound I think about the process and why they don't mix it live. A big thing was actually licensing the tracks, he might mix a section then the track was not granted license so he would have to rethink that section of the mix etc

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/bedrock

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Like most big-name DJs, John Digweed has released a number of mix albums, and he's keen to emphasise that there's more to making such a compilation than meets the ear. "The hard work is the selection. Putting a mix CD together can take me three or four weeks, finding those 22 records or 11 records. You can get the thing done in the order that you want it, and then the record label says you can't use the middle track, so you're then in a position where you have to find something that is going to work inbetween two other records. It's not an easy process. "All the tracks I use on my mix albums are tracks I play out in the clubs, but obviously in a club I'll be playing for five or six hours. So it's about breaking it down to the best tracks, there's certain tracks which sound great in a club, and there's certain tracks that sound great in a club but also sound great at home or in the car, in those different listening environments. I want something that every time they hear it, they hear different things coming in because it's put together in a way which is very crafted. When you're in a club environment you'll use certain records as bridges, you'll have peaks and then you'll hold them off for a little while, you can't have them just going mad the whole time because they'll wear themselves out over five hours. But obviously with a CD, it's not about going mad, but you want the real quality ones, not the bridges. "It's all done off vinyl into Pro Tools. I work out exactly how I'm going to do it, so these are all the records, this is the order, these are where the mixes are. They'll be certain records which may need an extra 16 or eight bars, and obviously if the record ends and you're in the middle of the CD you've got a dead spot. So the reason it's done in Pro Tools is so you can add on those extra bars and give it that smoothness. There's always these people who are like 'Oh, it's not a live mix,' but I don't have to justify my mixing techniques to anyone. I'm quite capable of doing it, but I want this CD to be perfect. I'm sure when Oasis do their album they don't do one take and go 'Right, that's it, you only got one go at it.' They make it as well as they can, and when I'm doing an album I want it to be as good as I can make it. If that means using the technology, that's fine."

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Originally posted by Hides in Shadow I'm still looking for that post where there is a huge TA style graph where almost all compilations were either done, at home, studio, or pro tools.

The early GU series were live, i believe they actually say live on them (Tony De Vit, Oakey new york / Oslo, Nick Warren Prague). I struggle to name any other CD that was not edited in some way.

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Originally posted by the-sixth The early GU series were live, i believe they actually say live on them (Tony De Vit, Oakey new york / Oslo, Nick Warren Prague). I struggle to name any other CD that was not edited in some way.

Yeah that's kinda obvious, I mean are there mixed cd's where it says live at a specific club or stage where there is a fake audience and samples of people chanting put on top of a transition with perfect warp not really, imo

Usually all the time the DJ records booth out or rec out or maybe the secret sauce way (mic) that was said in the dj booth to get audience chanting and good dynamic mix. I haven't played out in awhile so I'm afraid I never looked up the sauce technique.

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Originally posted by the-sixth Nick Warren Prague).

Yeah you can def hear the, er, liveness of some of the transitions on that one...

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