BENNY BLANCO® : BLANCODISCO

Getting a lil You Tube happy this week with some home vids I had sitting around… enjoy the “ya . ya. ya. ya. yasss”

Read the rest of this entry »

so, shot this one morning and thought it was funny and that I should finally throw it up here, on the ol’ you tube.

Read the rest of this entry »

SEPTEMBER MIX SESSIONS… are ready for download. Should be up on the DJ Sets Preset over at AOL Radio very soon.

Thanks Again Mr. Spinella.

You can of course fairly easy find my blancocast podcast on the iTunes music store, but, you can also simply subscribe to this url here: http://blancodisco.com/podcasts/blancocast.xml

This month’s Part 1 of the September Sessions Feature the Allmighty Breakbeat for the most part. A mix of old funky breaks and some newer Nu School Breaks. Near the end of the hour, I begin to transition over to the housey retro electo disco funk sounds again. Some carry over of Vinyl I didn’t get too from Last Month. I think my favorite mix in this set goes from Fatboy Slim’s Everybody Needs a 303 into Mad Acid by Sanots. F’n On!
Okay, now let’s get to that Tracklist!

Benny Blanco®
AOL Radio #19 : September 07 : Freqs And Beats Pt.1
Title | Artist | Release | Label | Country

1 (B2) Jack It Up (DJ Delite) Fatboy Slim Gangster Trippin [Skint Records SKINT39] UK
2 (B1) Dirty Dawn (Groove Diggerz Remix) Dogtown Clash Ya Bitch [Westwawy 07] UK
3 Stick It (Butterface Glitch It Mix) 320k DJ Butterface www.djbutterface.com
4 (B) Killa Ruffest Loop Blatta & Inesha Mad In Sicily Sampler 1 [Mantra Breaks MTR 2314] Italy
5 (A1) Ya Bitch Dogtown Clash Ya Bitch [Westwawy 07] UK
6 (B1) Cyborganik Uberzone Botz EP [City Of Angels 12COA001] US
7 (A) Spacefuck Headrillaz Spacefuck [Pussyfoot Records PUSSY017] UK
8 (A) A-1 Love Bassbin Twins A-1 Love [Bassbin Twins L41783] US
9 (A) Everybody Needs A 303 Fatboy Slim Everybody Needs A 303 [Skint Records SKINT6] UK
10 (A) Mad Acid Santos Mad in Scilily Sampler 1 [Mantra Breaks MTR 2314] Italy
11 (B1) It’s the Beat (Riton Re-Rub) Simian Mobile Disco It’s the Beat [Wichita WEBB141TR] UK
12 (A) Blackboard Universe Matt Flores Compost Black Label #20 [Compost Black Label COMPOST253] Germany
13 (B2) Crimson As Murder (Mogg & Naudascher Remix) David Gilmour Girls Crimson As Murder [Relish Records RR21] Germany
14 (A) Life’s A Beach! (Todd Terje Beach House Mix) Studio Life’s A Beach! [Information INF 003] Sweden

Part 2 will come in about 10 days or so.. so… get your download on now!

Can Somebody write a review of the Podcast already on iTunes.. c’mon Peoples. You know YOU love it.

DOWNLOAD EPISODE

PART 2 PART 2 PART 2 of the August Guitar And Keys titled Sessions is now Here!

This set is more on the KEYS side of things. I’m quite excited with all the downloads of the podcast this month thus far. The sound is just spreading like a…. Thanks.

Will somebody just write a review for the iTunes Music Store where the podcast sits already?
C’mon, don’t be shy.

Find my blancocast podcast on the iTunes music store, but, you can also simply subscribe to this url here: http://blancodisco.com/podcasts/blancocast.xml

Continuing where Part 1 leaves off of the August Sessions, we begin to steer clear of the Retro Disco sounds to the more techy and electronic type vibe. Loads of Newer Releases here spanning the globe!

Just checkout that Tracklist.

Benny Blanco®
AOL Radio August 07 : Guitar And Keys Pt.2
Title | Artist | Release | Label | Country

13 (B) Lies Paul Woolford The Truth / Lies [20:20 Vision VIS146] UK
14 (A) Dark Files Baldelli & Dionigi Present Cosmicdiba 2007 [Gomma Gomma 094] Germany
15 (A) Yes No Egg The Emperor Machine Vertical Tones & Horizontal Noise Part 1 [D.C. Recording DC59] UK
16 (A) Me Resuelve (Original) Nick & Danny Chatelain Me Resuelve [Bambossa Records BAM09] US
17 (A) The Truth Paul Woolford The Truth / Lies [20:20 Vision VIS146] UK
18 (B) Son Of The Beat Glitches A Night With Tobeunderground [Defrag Sound Processing DFRG_22] Italy
29 (A) The Last Bounce (Original Mix) Lee Van Dowski The Last Bounce EP [Num Records NUM10] Switzerland
20 (A2) Telze (PLAEX rmx) Max Brannslokker Aerobica EP [Salto Recordings salto 02] Germany
21 (B) Career Changer (Shooshine’s Extended) Caie! Career Changer [Anny-Jack Recordings ANJA 012] Germany
22 (A) And More GTMK And More / Brainaqua [GTMK 000-6] Germany
23 (A) Thick As Thieves WINK Thick As Thieves [Poker Flat Recordings PFR84] Germany
24 (B) Brainaqua GTMK And More / Brainaqua [GTMK 000-6] Germany
25 (B1) Anything Groovy (Remix) Guido Schneider Anything Groovy / Nara [Casbah Rec! CASBAH001] Italy
26 (B) Goatee The Rice Twins Can I Say / Goatee [K2 K2/26] Germany
27 (B2) Bye Bye C64 Maximilian Skiba Beginning EP [Eva Records EVA 006] France

Well, I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of this month’s selections and mixin.
Hit me up!

DOWNLOAD EPISODE

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m finally on TIME for this month’s mix for AOL. Should be up on the DJ Sets Preset over at AOL Radio very soon.

Thanks Guys.

You can of course fairly easy find my blancocast podcast on the iTunes music store, but, you can also simply subscribe to this url here: http://blancodisco.com/podcasts/blancocast.xml

This month’s Part 1 of the August Sessions ventures into the very much disco edit retro rock territory. But I do manage to work in a few traditional house tracks and then starts to get on the techy electro vibe come mix end.

Okay, now let’s see that Tracklist!

Benny Blanco®
AOL Radio August 07 : Guitar And Keys Pt.1
Title | Artist | Release | Label | Country

1 (A2) Digit 2 Mock & Toof Digit 1, 2 & 3 [Rvng Intl. NRDS 3] US
2 (B2) The Ritz (Taco) Peter Visti Dolly [Mindless Boogie 006] Belgium
3 (A) Wings (Fatal Version) AN-2 Wings [Theomatic THEOM 006] Russia
4 (B) Life’s A Beach! (Prins Thomas Mix) Studio Life’s A Beach! [Information INF 003] Sweden
5 (A) Jolene (Dolly Parton) Peter Visti Dolly [Mindless Boogie 006] Belgium
6 (A2) …And Much More betty botox g4 faggot LP
7 (A1) All Through The Night Escort All Through The Night [Escort Records ESCRT-004] US
8 (A2) Voodoo 2 Betty Botox Rvng of the Nrds Vol. 2 [Rvng Intl. NRDS 002] US
9 (A1) Original Sinner (Not Boyfriend Material Vocal) Blacksoul Original Sinner EP [Deepfunk Recores DFR011] US
10 (A) Track 1 Thom Yorke Eraser (Quentin Harris ) [HR10] US
11 (A) 2006 to 2007 Jebski & Yogurt 2006 To 2007 / Libra [Jet Set JS122015] Japan
12 (B) Nebular (Tigerskin Remix) Lars Wickinger Nebular [DIMMER 003] Germany
13 (B) Lies Paul Woolford The Truth / Lies [20:20 Vision VIS146] UK

Stay tuned here for Part 2 coming in the middle of the month where we’ll explore techier side of things.

DOWNLOAD EPISODE

Read the rest of this entry »

A subscriber to the 313 Detroit Techno Mailing list sent out an open call to any and all Traktor Scratch users out there, cause, he had some questions about Native Instruments latest DJ DVS application before he possibly took the plunge with his cash. Below is my feedback to him which I thought could possibly be useful to the Blogosphere.

313er wrote:

Oh cool. I’ll be running it on PC, but I’ve been looking through the posts on the NI forum and it looks pretty discouraging, although 3.3 looks like it could be alright. Feature-wise it looks great it just still seems to be quite buggy. The reverse problem for instance sounds like a total mess. I just wondered if you’ve hammered it hard and how it holds up, and how it compares to Serato if you’ve used both.

I responded:

Waking up here this morning in nyc…

let’s see *sips coffee*

Traktor 3.3 is the upgrade for Traktor DJ Studio, that’s the version of Traktor that has all the bells and whistles, and, for v3.3., will finally incorporate the Traktor Scratch DVS implementation. Traktor DJ Studio had this setup for the Traktor Final Scratch partnership. Anyways, You would need to purchase BOTH systems, in order to have the Traktor DJ Studio 3.3 which encompasses everything. Sort of whacky, but, that’s the way it is. I’m fortunately, a looooOoooong time user of Traktor DJ Studio since the 2.1 days and have grown with that Product.

I decided to pick up Traktor Scratch for the following reasons. All my friends already invested in Serato Scratch, which is a GREAT product. For me, it took a little getting use to seeing Vertical Scrolling waveforms, as every other audio application in the past has had Audio Waveforms scroll horizontally, so, this was a new way to get adjusted too. As far as Scratch itself, It’s fast, Stable, CPU light, bare bones, and the software upgrades have been FREE so far. I’ve downloaded the app and have it on my laptop in case i show up to go a gig with the Hardware already installed, all i have to do is plug in the USB cable for the breakout box and I’m good to go.

Getting Traktor Scratch was a bit of a no-brainer for me. Crossgrade cost (owning traktor dj studio already) allowed me to pick up the system for about $400 USD. I basically felt like i was just picking up this great new Audio Interface, and got the software/vinyl for free. The Audio 8 interface is Awesome. I’ve even ditched my Echo Indigo DJ card i was using in my Traktor DJ Studio only sets for this audio interface instead. It just sounds awesome and is built like a tank. Comes with a nice travel bag too, so, you wont’ ding it up in your travels. The Multi-Core cables that come with the package are a great idea too. I just order a second set for the mixer portion to gig with, so, at home, i can have a nice permanent installation. The Audio 8 specs are just fantastic is well, the Cirrus chips used do some magic and making things sound real clear. Side by side by the Serato hardware, Audio 8 has got it beat in just about everyway. I don’t see anything that the Serato hardware would even match or beat the Audio 8 in. Granted, the scratch hardware is a few years old now, so, it shouldn’t be as good as something released here in 2007.

Software application wise, sharing my Traktor DJ Studio Library is the same one I use for Traktor Scratch. Therefore, I don’t have organize for two different platforms/systems. It’s all shared. which helps me out a lot, cause I already spend soo much time digitizing vinyl, encoding and tagging music, and backing things up as is. On my current Mac laptop, the specs are at the BOTTOM of the recommend system. A software update a few weeks later after release did help improve performance, but I have only about 80-90% confidence of Audio not glitching with my current laptop. I’ve since ordered an Intel MacPro… and i’m literally just waiting for Apple to send out to me. I have no Worries of performance woes on this machine (just re-read those forums) and I’ll have my 120% confidence performing with Traktor Scratch like I do NOW for… Traktor DJ Studio 3.2. (sans vinyl)

I feel that most of the gripe comes from people with older/lower spec’d machines. I understand the misery. If a company states their product will work on said devices, it should probably work no problem, but the fact is, NI could probably do a little better job at making their app a little more CPU conscious for both Platforms. Overall, I don’t feel that the performance woes most people are experiencing are coming from the PC side, it’s mostly the G4 Powerbook users that are taking the shortend of that stick.

I’ve experienced the “reverse” problem once. and, i just restarted my machine and rebooted the app, and I haven’t seen it come back to haunt me. Best way on my machine to have the best performance I’ve found is… Create a “DJ Only” user account, have the bare minimum of system bits n bops going.. and just have Traktor Scratch up and running. The other cool “feature” is, if say one of the cables slips out of the Audio8, or you have the crappy Ortofon cartridge issue where one of the channels goes out… Traktor Scratch will still playback.. and in Stereo. It’s pretty sick… in terms of some possible “real world” scenarios this one you can feel rest assured on while in the mix at the Club/Bar/Gig.