After releasing a public beta back in November 2011, Serato has officially launched a stable update for its popular ITCH DJ software.  Although the ITCH 2.1 software update doesn’t add support for video play like many of us had hoped for, it does however add a few new features as well has a few bug fixes to improve stability and performance.

ITCH 2.1 is now available for free online at www.serato.com

Whats New With Itch 2.1:

· SP-6 Hardware Control

· Simple Sync for 2 deck controllers

ITCH 2.1 includes a large rewrite of all MPEG-4 file reading and writing of meta data (tagging data). This includes .mp4, .m4a, .aac and many .mov files. One of these changes involves writing Serato meta data to files in a different way than previous versions of ITCH.

When playing one of the affected audio files in ITCH for the first time, all existing Serato meta data will need to saved in the new format. Consequently there will be a lot of writing to file, as signified in the status bar.

ITCH 2.1 will not delete meta data created in previous versions of ITCH, however, new meta data created in ITCH 2.1 will not be able to be read in older versions. Such meta data includes cues, loops etc.

Hardware and OS Support

Support for current ITCH hardware

ITCH Controllers with internal audio mixing
Allen & Heath Xone:DX
Novation TWITCH
Numark NS7
Numark NS6
Pioneer DDJ-S1
Vestax VCI-300

ITCH Components for outboard audio mixing
Denon DJ DN-HC5000
Numark V7

ITCH DJ FX Controllers
Numark NSFX
Vestax VFX-1

Support for all current OS

Mac OS X 10.6 / 10.5 / 10.4.11
Windows 7 / Vista / XP 32-bit
Windows 7 / Vista 64-bit

Are you the Next MASTER OF THE MIX? Over $250K in Prizes for the winner of Season 2.  The next audition will take place on TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2011 in Los Angeles, CA.

Season 1 was designed to challenge 8 of America’s best DJs in fair and somewhat friendly competitions. The competition touched on the fundamentals of the DJ craft and eventually ended in London where the finalists showed that they could rock any venue anywhere in the world.

Season 2 will be a national search for 8 of the nation’s self proclaimed “best” DJs. These DJs will journey across the United States with their last stop abroad, facing unique challenges that will test their DJ skills and commitment to becoming the Master of the Mix. This season will focus on their understanding of original nightlife. This season will be different because it’s going to be a straight out battle. We are putting complete strangers together and raising the stakes. Ultimately ending with one Master of the Mix.

Competitors must be able to control a crowd, understand the fundamentals of DJ culture, know a wide variety of music, know various nightlife scenes, and rock anywhere in the world.

The winner will receive $250,000.00 in cash and prizes, 1 year reign as Master of the Mix, a guaranteed appearance in the next season of Master of the Mix, point of sale imagery all over the United States and a marketing and publicity push executed by the brand.

MASTER OF THE MIX
APPLICATION PROCESS

APPLICANTS MUST BE 25+ TO AUDITION. Anyone under the age of 25 will not be permitted to audition and will be asked to leave the premises immediately.

To apply, you must complete 3 steps.
1. Fill out the questionnaire.
2. Submit a picture.
3. Submit a video.

The questionnaire will take no more than 10 minutes to complete. The video should give a glimpse of who you are and how well you spin. The video must not exceed 3 minutes. Please use 1 of the 3 minutes to display a quick DJ set and the other 2 minutes to answer the questions below. Please refrain from any inappropriate, illegal and/or profane content in your application. Failure to follow directions will result in immediate disqualification.

Here are some questions for you to answer in your video:
• How do you feel about DJ battles?
• Do you embrace the evolving technology in the DJ world?
• How do you feel about laptop DJs? (i.e. DJs that don’t use turntables or CDJs)
• What, in your opinion, makes a great DJ?
• Why do you feel you’re the next Master of the Mix?

For More Information: www.masterofthemix.com

Earlier this week, Panasonic said that it was winding down production of the Technics SL-1200MK6 analog turntable, the SH-EX1200 analog audio mixer and the RP-DH1200 and RP-DJ1200 stereo headphones due to challenges in the marketplace But nothing has been decided other than the discontinuation of the mentioned products.

Although DJs can breathe a sigh of relief for now, this isn’t the first time that rumors swirled, saying that the beloved wheels of steel were knocking on death’s door. Just last year there was talk of their demise..

The SL-1200 series turntable, has been in continuous production since 1972. Since then 3.5 million units have been produced, making the brand’s purple and gray logo (“Technics” written twice) an icon in clubs.

The turntables are acclaimed for their quick start-up and reliability, achieved through its durable Direct Drive turning mechanism (via magnets, as opposed to being belt-driven) and its heavy 12.5-kilogram base (composed of what is known as the Technics Non Resonance Compound), which isolated the platter so as to reduce feedback and the chance that the cartridge would jump.

Tightening his vice-like grip on popular culture another notch, dance superstar David Guetta has pocketed some mad bank in a new deal with his record label EMI.

EMI has teamed up with Guetta Events, the clubbing company owned and run by David Guetta and his wife Cathy, to further exploit their Ibiza club night ‘Fuck Me I’m Famous’. The aim is to stage FMIF nights around the world, expand the club’s compilation series, and launch a range of FMIF merchandise.

Confirming the partnership, which expands Guetta’s existing artist relationship with the major, the aforementioned Kassler told CMU: “You only have to attend one of the club nights in Ibiza to understand the importance of FMIF to dance music fans. Cathy and David have done a great job establishing it as such a strong brand in Ibiza, and everybody at EMI is excited about working in collaboration with them to take it on to the next stage of its development”.

Cathy herself added: “This association with EMI will help us to ensure that the success of the Ibiza FMIF nights will now be felt around the world. We’re looking forward to working in partnership with the team there to create a truly international brand”.

1. Armin van Buuren (non-mover)
2. David Guetta (up 1)
3. Tiesto (down 1)
4. Deadmau5 (up 2)
5. Above & Beyond (down 1)
6. Paul van Dyk (down 1)
7. Gareth Emery (up 2)
8. Markus Schulz (non-mover)
9. Ferry Corsten (down 2)
10. Axwell (up 4)

11. ATB (non-mover)
12. Sander van Doorn (down 2)
13. Infected Mushroom (down 1)
14. Steve Angello (up 6)
15. Dash Berlin (new entry)
16. Sebastian Ingrosso (up 9)
17. Laidback Luke (up 10)
18. Judge Jules (up 26)
19. Afrojack (new entry)
20. Aly & Fila (up 2)

21. Fedde Le Grand (up 8 )
22. Carl Cox (down 4)
23. Swedish House Mafia (new entry)
24. Cosmic Gate (down 5)
25. Bobina (down 10)
26. Benny Benassi (non-mover)
27. Sasha (down 14)
28. Simon Patterson (up 14)
29. John Digweed (down 12)
30. Eric Prydz (up 4)

31. Richie Hawtin (down 3)
32. Andy Moor (down 17)
33. John O’Callaghan (down 9)
34. Roger Shah (down 13)
35. Kaskade (up 16)
36. Headhunterz (new entry)
37. Chuckie (up 25)
38. Bob Sinclar (down 3)
39. Avicii (new entry)
40. Kyau & Albert (down 3)

41. Feel (down 11)
42. Moonbeam (up 34)
43. Joachim Garraud (down 7)
44. Daft Punk (down 11)
45. Lange (down 14)
46. Sean Tyas (down 1)
47. Eddie Halliwell (down 6)
48. Erick Morillo (up 5)
49. James Zabiela (down 11)
50. Umek (down 11)

51. Paul Oakenfold (down 28)
52. Matt Darey (up 2)
53. Mark Knight (up 8 )
54. Richard Durand (down 5)
55. Martin Solveig (down 8 )
56. tyDi (down 4)
57. Hernan Cattaneo (down 25)
58. Sven Väth (down 10)
59. Astrix (down 4)
60. Super8 & Tab (up 22)

61. Andy C (up 39)
62. Myon & Shane 54 (up 29)
63. Marcel Woods (up 11)
64. Roger Sanchez (down 4)
65. Wally Lopez (down 3)
66. Mat Zo (new entry)
67. Marco V (down 17)
68. Leon Boiler (down 5)
69. Ronski Speed (non-mover)
70. Wolfgang Gartner (new entry)

71. W&W (new entry)
72. Boys Noize (down 4)
73. D-Block & S-TE-FAN (new entry)
74. Dubfire (down 28)
75. Dirty South (down 16)
76. John B (up 16)
77. Daniel Kandi (up 10)
78. Arty (new entry)
79. BT (new entry)
80. Boy George (new entry)

81. Pete The Zouk (new entry)
82. Fatboy Slim (up 12)
83. Skazi (down 2)
84. Paul Kalkbrenner (new entry)
85. Pete Tong (down 2)
86. Bloody Beetroots (new entry)
87. Arnej (new entry)
88. Joris Voorn (new entry)
89. Dada Life (new entry)
90. Noisecontrollers (new entry)

91. Showtek (new entry)
92. Laurent Wolf (down 26)
93. Claudia Cazacu (new entry)
94. Calvin Harris (new entry)
95. Luciano (down 6)
96. Marcus Schossow (down 17)
97. Sied Van Riel (down 12)
98. The Thrillseekers (down 41)
99. Justice (down 34)
100. DJ Vibe (new entry)

The drama commenced a couple of days ago when the UK producer cast the first stone, tweeting about how he lost his shit (our words, not his) upon hearing the similarities between Brown’s ludicrously named new single, Yeah 3x, and his own big hit from 2009, I’m Not Alone, saying “ I choked on my cornflakes when i heard new Chris Brown single this morning”.

While Harris didn’t labor his point much further, he’s since had to deal with endless taunts and abuse from Chris Brown diehards incensed by his allegations of artistic theft, with one commenter leaving the rather amusing remark on Harris’ page, “were are you in the charts? oh wait your not cause your a bag of wank.” A bag of wank? blimey!

You can judge for yourself if the song’s a rip or not but for now check out what Calvin recently had to say via good ole twitter!!

Calvin Harris said:
“STILL getting shit from Chris Brown fans! Now they think i set up an anti-Chris Brown Facebook page. SMH

Calvin Harris to Chris Brown fans:
I don’t care that you call me a ‘nobody’ : stealing is still stealing, doesn’t matter who you are!

Calvin Harris to Chris Brown fans:
Because Chris Brown is an international celebrity doesnt make it OK to rip off a guy from UK not many people have heard of.

Calvin Harris to Chris Brown fans:
How are you going to call me irrelevant when his brand new song sounds just like my 2 year old song?! Ok i’m done with the Chris Brown fans – ‘forever’ as the man himself might say. Night x

Calvin Harris
Of course i’m not going to take it to court? What good would that do?! Happy for people to make their own mind up, and those saying i’m doing this for publicity, that’s fucking laughable – what i have i got coming out? Fuck all! Don’t want or need it. This is my twitter, i’ll talk about whatever is going on in my life! Thats what its for! Believe it or not i’m not trying to be known by you.

Calvin Harris
Nah why not put it on twitter? Way more entertaining than doing it behind closed doors. Unprofessional? I’m not a professional! I make music because i love making music! I’m not trying to present myself in any way or hide my opinions about things in order to gain fans”

Rob ‘Activa’ Stevenson said:
Take a listen to the similarity between Calvin Harris ‘Im Not Alone’ and ‘I Need You’ written by myself and Jon O’Bir released on Vandit Records in 2008, a year before ‘I’m Not Alone’.

It annoys me that just because its pop music its all over the news but when it involves a smaller genre, we get walked on!

Calvin Harris – Im Not Alone

Chris Brown – Yeah 3x

Continuing Insomniac’s tradition of constantly improving the festival environment, Insomniac offered free filtered water to all its guests. In addition, Insomniac super-sized the main stage area by introducing the most enormous tent structure ever seen on the West Coast. With black interior walls, 56 foot high ceilings and 78,000 square feet of space, the tent creates the ideal space for special effects, multimedia concert performances and, of course, dancing music fans.

“We are committed to making each festival even better than the last one. For Nocturnal, we presented fifty of the world’s best DJs and brought this amazing new tent all the way from New York. We also offered all our guests free filtered water and we look forward to continuing this program at our other festival venues.”

Nocturnal featured five stages of DJs including Ferry Corsten, Steve Angello, Plump DJs and Pretty Lights. In accord with the festival’s tradition, Insomniac enhanced the venue with carnival rides, circus-style performers and large-scale art installations including Marco Cochrane’s “Bliss Dance,” Michael Christian’s “Home” and the return of Benlloyd Goldstein and F.Myles’s Sciotto’s light installation “Rabbit Hole.”

“San Bernardino and Insomniac have a longstanding history of cooperating to produce great festivals,” said Insomniac’s founder, Pasquale Rotella. ”We are grateful for the continued support of the National Orange Show, the city officials, as well as the hard work of local law enforcement and the fire department.”

Photos of 16^th annual Nocturnal Festival

1. http://www.rukes.com/SA/nf10sa.zip – Photo credit: Drew Ressler / Rukes.com

Photo of Steve Angello

1. http://www.rukes.com/SA/nf10pr2a.zip Drew Ressler / Rukes.com

• 1^st photo – General crowd shot
• 2^nd photo – Felguk in a side stage
• 3^rd photo shows Menno De Jong

About Nocturnal Festival

Nocturnal is one of Insomniac’s cornerstone music festivals, uniting top electronic music with compelling contemporary art. Insomniac presented the first Nocturnal Festival 16 years ago in Los Angeles for 3,000 fans and the annual festival has grown to over 42,000 fans at this year’s event in Los Angeles. 2010 is the first year Insomniac produced two Nocturnal Festivals – one in California and one in Texas.

About Insomniac Events

Insomniac produces innovative concerts and music festivals amplified by state-of-the-art lighting design, interactive circus and theatrical performances, and audience participation. Insomniac’s premier annual event, Electric Daisy Carnival, is one of the biggest music festivals in the United States.  Insomniac has produced more than 250 music events for more than 2,000,000 concertgoers in California, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Washington and Puerto Rico. Founded and led by Pasquale Rotella, Insomniac has been based in Los Angeles since it started in 1993.

Ableton and Serato are proud to announce the release of The Bridge, a software partnership which brings together elements of DJ performance and production. With emphasis on ease and creativity, the new tools generated by this partnership push the boundaries of live performance.

The Bridge 1.0 features:

• ‘Ableton Transport Control’ allows tight synchronization between Ableton Live and Serato Scratch Live’s interface with ‘Ableton Transport Control’.
• The ‘Ableton Player’ opens a window into Ableton Live’s Clip View to launch samples or tracks in real time with Scratch Live.
• Tight Beatgrid implementation ensures that the ‘Ableton Player’ stays locked to the swing of any set.
• Serato DJ performances can be recorded as Ableton Live Sets, complete with song placement and fader movements* with ‘Mixtape’.

The Bridge is free for anyone who owns

• Serato Scratch Live compatible hardware, and
• A registered version of Ableton Live 8.

To activate The Bridge, download Scratch Live 2.1.1 and Ableton Live 8.2.

Here it is; the first major back-lash from the tragic events at Electric Daisy Carnival. The city of Los Angeles supposedly “breached its contract when it canceled what would have been an Oct. 30 concert by the well-known trance artist in the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center.” But due to the negative attention Insomniac and EDM massives have received recently, is it really unreasonable for the city to cancel the event?

Insomniac Inc, same promoter/organizers for the now infamous Electric Daisy Carnival, are suing the city of Los Angeles for canceling a future with Trance Pop star, Tiësto. The company stands to receive at least $1,015,180, due to them citing a loss of profit to the tune of $436,250, in addition to an estimated production cost of $668,750. Court documents state that Tiësto was guaranteed $250,000 for the LA event (Git’R'Done Tijs).

Insomniac says that the city did not have proper cause to cancel the concert. In their complaint, they relay that the city “cited the rampant use of the drug Ecstasy at Electric Daisy, as well as the death of a teenage girl who attended the concert and died of a suspected overdose,” as its reasons for calling off the Tiësto show. Also, Insomniac rightfully cited more than a dozen recent deaths at or after major music or sporting events (a 27-year-old man died after being punched at an Angels of Anaheim game), arguing that their event was singled out because of public perceptions of dance and electronic rave-like concerts.

The claim: “Events like [Electric Daisy] and the Tiësto concert are held at legal venues and are planned in conjunction with law enforcement and medical personnel. [The Convention Center’s] unilateral termination of the contract will send the wrong message by suppressing the popularization of electronic music, encouraging it to revert back to its underground, unsafe beginnings.”

Here’s the Catch-22: A copy of Insomniac’s rental agreement with the convention center notes that the city may terminate the contract for the reason of “good cause.” Should it do so, reads the contract, the “tenant agrees to waive and forgo any and all claims for damages against City by reason of such termination… Tenant shall have no recourse of any kind against city.” So, it would seem that Insomniac was given a warning, but may have look that bit over before signing.

Although it is understandable that the city would attempt to take action to avoid anymore negative press, they blatantly singled out Insomniac event, even if they were “allowed” to, they to follow through with their sermon and make examples of other shows as well. Much like large sporting events, the concert would have brought revenue to the city. Even if you look at past events, Insomniac has brought Tiësto to LA, or a near-by city, five times between 2008-2009 (sold-out every time). “I can’t help but draw comparisons to the ’80s movie classic ‘Footloose,’ where dancing and rock music were banned,” says Insomniac founder Pasquale Rotella, and think that is a very accurate comparison. “If this breach is allowed to stand, Insomniac will be known as a promoter that cannot follow through on its commitments. As a result, artists of Tiësto’s caliber may henceforth be unwilling to contract with Insomniac.”

So what happens next? The tickets were supposed to go on sale August 17^th, but that hasn’t happened obviously. And remember that moratorium on raves at the coliseum after EDC? The Coliseum Commission (the joint state, county and city panel that oversees the venue) has imposed new restrictions on the promoters of dance events. Now, promoters must enforce a strict age limit of 18 by checking identification, hire a team of emergency-room doctors to work on-site and warn rave-goers about the dangers of the illegal drug Ecstasy. A small step, but a step I believe will help in the long run.