Return to the Mixes Part 1 – Yamaha DJX

The Yamaha DJX is not what a professional would consider an industry standard keyboard if composing within the genres of electronic dance, house or techno. However when I tickled the plastic ivory (better known as keys) I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the collection of sound this machine had to offer. So much so I opened my wallet and handed over the asking price of 199 English pounds; a steal for a sound module with such interesting sounds. After demolishing the sounds within the keyboard as much as possible with a hardware sequencer, the time had arrived to introduce my production techniques to a computer. Not knowing of any other software within my budget I took the safe bet and invested in Cubase VST 3.5; This would prove to be a wise investment as Steinberg would be (with Propellerhead) one of the first companies to develop seriously the concept of Virtual Instruments. So with a PC running Windows 95 and 90 Hz of pure PC power and a 512mb (yes megabyte) hard drive I was on my way.

One of the biggest draw backs that I had encountered with hardware based sequencers was the limit to the amount of note data that could be stored within the unit’s memory. This is best displayed in the Quasimidi Quasar Sessions; the longest piece in this collection is approximately ten minutes. All very well for pop music but If I was to achieve my goals of one day creating an hour long piece, then this was certainly a hurdle to overcome. Cubase thankfully began making this a reality as note data was no longer an issue; although hard drive space would eventually dominate this area.

With all the above in mind I decided to create a non-stop hour long piece that attempted to use all the available resources of the Yamaha DJX and additional hidden parameters only available through MIDI and a computer sequencer.

Starting the piece was more naturally influenced by the sounds on the DJX rather than any preconceived idea of how the overall composition would develop. One of the first most notable additions to this composition was having a visual way to control the volume of individual instruments. This allowed me for the first time to create velocity curves that were 100% accurate rather than manually added; this was an important first addition when approaching percussion.

For the first 8 minutes the composition sonically displays the best of the DJX’s pallet of sounds with a few minor alterations to each of the timbres through manipulation of MIDI parameters. By this point I was over the initial excitement of the sounds available to me; now for some real story telling.

From 8 minutes the first individual piece emerges, this section would eventually be composed again as a separate piece titled Second Seduction (name derived from the fact it was the second time I had attempted to compose the same piece from scratch). This piece sets the stage for the next twenty minutes, covering the genre of dark dance and hard house. To achieve the darker elements of the piece a large amount of Cut-off frequency is used to trim the top end of the sound of leaving very bass heavy versions of the original timbre, tie this in with the ability to create curves from within Cubase and you have some very convincing and interesting sounds.

For the non technical minded out there the above graph shows two separate EQ Charts the left shows an image of all sound being allowed through (clear no filters) while the second shows what a graphic EQ would look like with some of the sound allowed to pass through.

Basically put sound is either allowed or not allowed to pass through. The very concept of using filters to eliminate sonic aspects by this process has in truth molded and manipulated and guided an incredible amount of modern electronic music. More sophisticated plug-ins such as Steinberg’s 1997 release of GRM Tools as a VST Plug-in features a module called Band Pass Stereo a true master at filtering aspects of the electronic sonic scale.

Tags: Cubase VST, MIDI, Yamaha DJX

terry says:

November 1, 2009 at 3:35 pm

Loved this machine

Darren Tetel says:

November 3, 2009 at 9:36 pm

I love the Yamaha DJX very underrated machine. Thanks for this.

ntmuk says:

November 6, 2009 at 5:01 pm

Thanks Darren, its easy to forget that the Yamaha DJX originally cost £199.

Server Colocation says:

February 23, 2010 at 7:54 am

I can’t figure out how to subscribe to the comments via feed . I want to keep abrest of this, how do I do that?

funk band says:

April 14, 2010 at 6:57 pm

It is most likely because they filter the end result via something that they call auto tune which overwhelms their alleged voices flattening them out making them sound really mechanical and lifeless. This also explains why even though they go on tour most of them mime to a backing track because if their fans really heard them attempt to sing live they wouldn’t be fans for actually long. There also the fact that in most cases the song these are covering was done significantly far better when it was originally recorded. it’s the old question of which would you prefer the original master with the Mona Lisa or the paint by numbers version which is all these types of band are music by numbers!!!! And to be honest each generation says that music was much better in their day I’m 50 and I believe that and so did the generation ahead of me it doesn’t make it so. I have to admit that there are some great rock bands about today and that the manufactured dross of today is no better or worse than it has ever been it’s always been crap!!! You just have to ignore it – really difficult I know as it is pumped out everywhere you go – and listen to the music that you adore there will often be much more boring boy/girl bands as they sell CDs to the preteen market which is what the record company execs are after. The only crumb of comfort is that simply because they don’t create something of their very own they do not make anywhere near the amount of money from their short lived careers as do the truly creative musicians who stay around for years or even decades.

Ashely Vonholt says:

April 15, 2010 at 7:26 pm

Yes. Just look at Norwegian black metal bands. Their lyrical content are usually about the cold forests, snow and also nature.

Inad Akitrak says:

May 15, 2010 at 10:36 pm

I really enjoyed this post, especially the “examples in this post” portion which made it really easy for me to SEE what you were talking about without even having to leave the article. Thanks

Kami Hoggard says:

June 4, 2010 at 1:20 am

Nice art, where did you play live at? Do you use MIDI controllers or DJ to perform? I am kinda iffy about that vocal sample, feels a bit safe if you know what I mean. Especially as a new movie. As for the music it sounds great. I like the drum edits a lot. that drop at 205 is fresh. The constant edits make this a very interesting piece, smooth mix too. BAcked by tons of energy and emotion for the entire duration, great work