Good Beats: December 2012

George Acosta feat. Emma Lock – Never Fear (ATB Remix)
Buy this track on Beatport!

Lange – This Is New York (vs. Gareth Emery) (Heatbeat Remix)
Buy this track on Beatport!

Please enjoy!

Converting FLAC to MP3 in Linux

Converting FLAC files to MP3 is very easy to accomplish in Linux. Unfortunately, FLAC files can not be played on most mobile devices and they normally take up too much space anyway. Use the script I wrote below to easily convert a folder (recursively) to mp3 files. It defaults to 320 kbps bit rate if you do not specify. This script was tested in Ubuntu 10.04 with: flac 1.2.1 and lame 3.98.2. Nothing else is required.

Usage

flac2mp3 /path/to/flac/files/ /path/to/output/mp3/files/ [bit_rate]

The Script

#!/bin/bash
convert_dir=$1
output_dir=$2
bitrate=$3

# Ensure require params are passed in
if [ -z $convert_dir ] || [ -z $output_dir ];
then
  echo "Usage: flac2mp3 rip_dir output_dir [bitrate]"
  exit
fi

# Default to 320 kbps if bitrate not specified
if [ -z $bitrate ];
then
  bitrate=320
fi

# Get the list of files to convert
files=( `find $convert_dir -iname '*.flac' | tr "\n" " "` )

# Convert each file, one at a time
for file in ${files[*]}
do
  flac -dc $file | lame -b $bitrate - $output_dir/`basename $file`.mp3
done

echo "Conversions complete!"

Installation

cd /usr/bin
sudo curl --silent --output flac2mp3 https://gist.github.com/raw/708704/10b41ddb2ab43ade403038cfb78364eb5e168286/flac2mp3
sudo chmod 755 flac2mp3

My First Mix Coming Soon: Furious Elements I

I have been practicing my beat matching and collecting tracks for several weeks now. This evening I spent some time and picked some of my favorite tracks out of everything I have gathered thus far. The result: Furious Elements I. This will mark my first mixdown since I have gained an interest in breakbeats and will be my FIRST EVER demo mix. Back in college when I was spinning NRG at raves I never successfully recorded a mix for a demo. I always nit picked and critiqued myself and would never settle for anything but perfection. I am going to be aiming for the same level of perfection in this mix so let’s hope it actually happens. Hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks I will be posting it on Soundcloud!

Jesse Adams – Furious Elements I
01: Sketi – Hyperstate (Original Mix)
02: Far Too Loud – We Want to Dance (Original Mix)
03: X-Dream – The 1st (Far Too Loud Refix)
04: Electrixx – Tetris (reFaze Edit)
05: Suko – More & More (Quadrat Beat Remix)
06: Destroyers & Aggresivnes ft. Ann Lee – Ring My Bell (Original Mix)
07: Sub Focus – Rockit (Stanton Warriors Edit)
08: Le Castle Vania – Nobody Gets Out Alive (Noisia Remix)
09: DJ Fixx, Keith Mackenzie, Whis – Get With The Program (Calvertron Remix)
10: BreakZhead – Disposis (Aggresivnes & FactorFunk Remix)
11: Access Denied ft. Mc Incyte – My Life (Dub Mix)
12: Vandal – Idiots (Original Mix)
13: Physical Bross – Untitled (Cote Remix)
14: Aggresivnes – Essence (VIP Mix)

Coming Soon! Stay tuned…

Music Spotlight: NSB Radio

NSB Radio
http://www.nsbradio.co.uk

I must say, I discovered NSB Radio about a week ago and it has already changed my life. It is a 24/7/365 radio station that has 2 hour radio shows of live DJ’s spinning Nu Skool Breaks among other things. So far it has inspired me to get my decks out of storage and hook up my studio (well, what is left of it). It also has inspired me to invest in some new equipment that will allow me to mix mp3s as well. I am going to be completely honest: The shows are hit or miss. Some of them are amazing while others are terrible. But overall, its a great place to check out when you need some good tunes. You can also catch me hanging out in their IRC chat under the alias Envium. Curious to know more about NSB radio? Check out the excerpt taken from their website below.

“Broadcasting since 2003, multi award winning NSB Radio is a pioneer in the online broadcasting world. We are the world’s largest breaks and breakbeat oriented radio station brought to you by Nuskoolbreaks.co.uk. NSB Radio was voted “Best Radio Station” at the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Breakspoll International Breakbeat Awards by our amazing community of listeners. Our highly talented, award winning DJs and radio shows are live 24/7 throwing down the phattest selection of breaks, breakbeat, big beat, glitch, nu skool breakz, funk, dubstep, soul and so much more.”

Lucky Star – Winter 2006

When I was in college I used to write electronic music remixes and some original tracks. None of them were ever really that great but I had a lot of fun nonetheless. In Winter of 2006 my good friend Robert approached me with another movie idea. Robert, myself, and a group of friends had been making movies for fun over the past couple years and we always had a blast making them. He wanted to do a music video but we didn’t know any bands or musicians that we could make a music video for. We then picked a random track that had previously written – a remix of some vocals that I found online somewhere (nothing popular). Joe, one of the two bodyguards in the video, added some of the videos from the DVD that we produced. I also found the original trailer that I put on YouTube many years ago. I hope you enjoy them. It was quite nostalgic for me

We used a James Bond theme because a lot of us were huge James Bond fans. Robert made magic happen with a budget (as usual) and I put a lot of time and money into a home made switch board to set off the ricochets during the shooting seen. I think both Adam, Doug, and I all suffered from our fair share of electric shocks that occurred during the whole process. Some of the sound seems a bit delayed in the YouTube videos (not sure why).

The Trailer

The Music Video

The Fake Commercial (extras)