Talks with PTT feat. Landis
Would you like to start by giving a brief introduction of yourself?
Hey my name is Landis. I am a music producer/DJ born and raised in South Florida (an hour from miami). People describe my music as feel good house with a twist. I also run the record label Fresh Squeeze with Hexagon as well as a music and DJ Acadamey “Wired Sound Academy”!
Leading up to this place in your life and career, what would you say were some of the most important events that got you here?
Theres never been a defined moment but some of my favorites have been playing EDC Vegas/Orlando, charting on Billboard, landing my song in a major T-Mobile commercial and traveling to play shows in Europe! My career has been a series of people (record labels/managers etc.) hearing my music from other people than hitting me up about the music Im making to see if we can work together.
What is your approach to creating original music? What DAW do you use?
I am on Ableton. Music for me is more about piecing together a puzzle than raw creation. I usually discover a sound or hear a vocal that gets my ear. Than I go down a rabbit hole of how to bring that sound/vocal to the forefront of the record & make the listener pay attention to what I want them to pay attention to while keeping a certain vibe/tone in the record.
Can you tell us little more about your new record label Fresh Squeeze? What type of music can people expect?
So FS (fresh squeeze) is my new imprint with Don Diablo’s label Hexagon. It has always been my goal to create a community around my music and discover new artists along the way. With Fresh Squeeze I try and release only music I would play out & keep it feel good/high energy like my DJ sets. Alot of the music has a traditional house feel to it because it is a sound I just cant get enough of.
You are also a co-founder of DJ/production school Wired Sound Academy, what type of courses do you offer?
Yes Wired is based in South Florida and we have been up and running for about a year. It really is more than an academy the goal is to bring the SOFLO music industry together and build up a community of artists. We are always doing meetups/events for industry people to network. We offer courses on DJ’ing, Remixing/Editing Audio, Music Production, Mixing & Mastering and each course has marketing/music business advice tied in. We also are working with local venues to get our DJ’s booked once they graduate!
If you could pick one venue in the world to play, where would it be?
Probably Tomorrowland in Belgium, just feel like there are fans out there that I have never met that I would love to vibe with and also Belgium just looks unreal.
Do you have a promo email where artists can send you music?
Yes freshsqueezehq@gmail.com ;)
Check out the latest track from Landis "Wasting Time" out now on Fresh Squeeze.
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SERATO ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR BIG SUR AND APPLE M1 CHIPS
The DJ software also adds support for wireless DVS system Phase
Serato has announced support for Apple’s latest macOS Big Sur and their new Silicon M1 chips. The new update – version 2.5 – includes support for the operating system released last year as well as Apple’s new in-house, tailored microchips, the first they’ve built themselves. The result is a much faster, smoother Mac experience, without a huge price increase. Many pro audio and DJ companies initially advised against updating to the new system while they updated their software and hardware for the new chips.
If you don’t have an M1 Mac, the new version will still work with any computer that’s running Big Sur.
Version 2.5 also adds support for the wireless DVS system Phase, which is now an official Serato accessory. Beatport and Beatsource LINK offline lockers are now also part of Serato, meaning users can cache playlists and up to 100 files straight to the software.
Finally, support has been added for Reloop’s latest controller Ready, announced today. Find out more and download the new update here.
NEW YORK LAUNCHES VACCINE PASSPORT APP TO ‘FAST-TRACK’ REOPENING OF VENUES
The free and voluntary “Excelsior Pass” is available now
A digital vaccine passport app has been made available to New Yorkers in a bid to speed-up the reopening process for business and venues in the state.
The “Excelsior Pass” is a free, voluntary app that uses secure technology to confirm if a person has been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, or has recently tested negative for the virus. The app will then generate a QR code for the user, which participating venues and businesses will be able to scan upon arrival.
The app’s launch is intended to help “fast-track the reopening of businesses and event venues in accordance with New York State Department of Health guidelines,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in an official statement.
“New Yorkers have proven they can follow public health guidance to beat back COVID, and the innovative Excelsior Pass is another tool in our new toolbox to fight the virus while allowing more sectors of the economy to reopen safely and keeping personal information secure,” he added.
The launch of the “Excelsior Pass” marks New York as the first North American state to implement a vaccine passport-style system, and follows an announcement from earlier this month which stated that entertainment and music venues will be able to open at 33% capacity from April.
As part of the app’s initial launch, the “Excelsior Pass” is being used by numerous New York theatres, stadiums, arenas and wedding venues. Madison Square Garden and Times Union Center are among the first venues to
Cuomo continued: “The question of ‘public health or the economy’ has always been a false choice — the answer must be both. As more New Yorkers get vaccinated each day and as key public health metrics continue to regularly reach their lowest rates in months, the first-in-the-nation Excelsior Pass heralds the next step in our thoughtful, science-based reopening.”
The “Excelsior Pass” is available on iPhone and Android phones, and a “special emphasis” has been placed on data privacy for users. The app uses technologies like blockchain and encryption to protect data, and no health data is stored or tracked within the app.
Learn more about the Excelsior Pass here.
In the UK, the prospect of introducing vaccine passports has proved divisive. Earlier this week, after it was revealed the the government has been considering vaccine passports for reopening the hospitality and nightlife sectors, which currently remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NTIA issued a statement warning that the scheme was “unworkable”, and could cause "further anxiety" for venue operators. NTIA CEO Michael Kill described the prospect as a "clear subject of cross sector discrimination”.
Earlier this month, it was announced that a vaccine passport for tourists to enter Spain — including Ibiza and the rest of the Balearic Islands — will be ready to be implemented by June.
DAFT PUNK HAVE SPLIT UP
The robots have called time after 28 years.
Daft Punk have split up.
The French duo made the announcement by posting an eight-minute video clip titled Epilogue to their Facebook page.
Read this next: The best Daft Punk tracks ranked
The clip is taken from their 2008 film Electroma and features an iconic moment out in the desert before displaying a brand new graphic that proclaims '1993-2021'.
It's a typically ambiguous way for the robots to sign out after nearly three decades. However, the band's publicist Kathryn Frazier has confirmed that this is indeed the end.
Rumours have always surrounded Daft Punk, who formed in 1993, but this is very much for real as Pitchfork confirms.
As yet there is no more information on the robots' reasons for breaking up, however we will report more news as soon as we receive it.
The band hasn't released an album since 2013's 'Random Access Memories', their biggest-selling LP and an opus that saw them move away from the dancefloor and toward more conceptual, grandiose music.
Read this next: Unseen Daft Punk footage has appeared online
In hindsight, 'RAM' was a fitting final LP for Daft Punk, who made dance music history by releasing three highly influential albums – 'Homework', 'Discover' and 'Human After All' – as well as two incredible live albums between 1996 and 2007.
This period of fervent activity and world tours – during which they helped invent French touch and later the French electro sound, and set the blueprint for the dance music live show with their Pyramid production – wrote them into dance music history as one of the most popular and mythologised acts of all time.
Read this next: Here are the 500 albums you need to listen to if you're a Daft Punk fan
NYC TO ALLOW LARGE STADIUMS & VENUES TO OPEN STARTING FEBRUARY 23RD
NYC Govenor Cuomo has announced that the State of New York will allow large stadiums and venues to begin holding events with 10% occupancy at events with over a 10,000 capacity. Attendees will have to have had a negative Covid-19 test within3 days.
ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL 2021 REPORTEDLY CANCELLED, PLANS 2022 RETURN
In news that we all knew was coming, Ultra Music Festival in Miami has been cancelled for 2021. Tentative dates for the 2022 version will be March 25 – 27.’ According to Billboard, Ultra organizers are awaiting approval for the 2022 dates before officially announcing the 2021 cancellation.
There is no word yet on tickets/refunds for those who still hold 2020 tickets rolled-over to 2021 however one can expect they will be rolled-over again to 2022. Ultra did not offer refunds last year but we hope they will provide those if requested.
BURNING MAN 2021 STILL IN LIMBO, ORGANIZERS PROMISE OFFICIAL UPDATE IN FEBRUARY
A Burning Man Project exec said "it’s impossible to say right now if Black Rock City can happen in 2021.
While nothing compares to summertime in Black Rock City, the definitive status of Burning Man 2021 has yet to materialize, despite a successful November fundraising campaign that crowdsourced over $5 million to keep the dream alive.
A January 21st update from Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley, Burning Man Project’s Associate Director of Communications, revealed that due to the uncertainty of the impact of COVID-19 in the future, "it’s impossible to say right now if Black Rock City can happen in 2021."
"Public health and safety is our top priority," Debucquoy-Dodley continued. "We will only inhabit Black Rock City with the appropriate safety protocols and permits in place."
He also promised that more conclusive information will be announced by mid-February, but with a warning—even if the organizers decide to proceed with the event, unpredictable public health conditions could warrant a cancellation. To stay up to date, Debucquoy-Dodley recommended subscribing to the festival's Jackrabbit Speaks and Burning Man Journal platforms.
Debucquoy-Dodley emphasized his team is doing everything they can to mitigate the possibility of a cancellation, from close communication with the Nevada government and permitting agencies to the formation of a special COVID-19 Task Force aimed at tracking new information and statistics.
Additional notes in the update include new goals for the festival's Sustainability Team, a statement on "Diversity & Radical Inclusion" efforts, and the announcement of a virtual "educational and community-building tool" set to launch in the near future.
"Regardless of whether BRC happens in 2021, we’re committed to elevating and expanding community engagement in all forms," Debucquoy-Dodley wrote. "We have a job to do and we want to do it with you."
Source: The Burning Man Journal
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Website: burningman.org
Facebook: facebook.com/burningman
Twitter: twitter.com/burningman
Instagram: instagram.com/burningman
CLUB SPACE AND BAR LAB LAUNCH SPACE PARK, A NEW OPEN-AIR VENUE IN MIAMI
The outdoor venue features four dance floors and follows social distancing and safety guidelines.
Though it may have been difficult to predict just how long COVID-19 would last after nearly a year of global shutdowns and quarantine measures, some concert and nightlife venues have already begun making necessary adjustments to continue operations during the pandemic.
Club Space in Miami is one such venue. With the help of Bar Lab—and with social distancing and safety measures in mind—the fabled club has announced the launch of its new open-air venue endeavor, Space Park.
In the Magic City Innovation District, Space Park’s events debuted on New Year’s Eve with Artbat and Rony Seikaly. As with all the events planned for the outdoor venue, Club Space sorted out the booking, with Bar Lab spearheading the beverage offerings.
"The opportunity of doing an open-air venue at a park with our brothers at Bar Lab came to us somewhere in the summertime," David Sinopoli, co-owner of Club Space, said in a statement to Miami New Times. "It's a lot about timing, and it's a lot about opportunity and collaboration."
"We're local companies. We're here because we love our community, we're friends and coworkers," added Gabe Orta, co-founder of Bar Lab. "We want to make sure we do it the right way, and our intentions are coming from a community point of view. For us, it's going to be as much of a big party. We're going to try our best to make our community happy."
Of course, for the time being, safety guidelines including face masks and temperature checks are in place, and attendance is limited to 25% of the park's 6,000 person occupancy limit. Miami's citywide curfew is also being followed, and events are allowed to be held from 3PM until midnight.
Club Space reopened in October with many of the same safety guidelines, but without the space to provide a truly satisfying live music experience. "Since the park is so much larger, the surface area we are going to be using feels ten times bigger than the club," said Space co-owner Coloma Kaboomsky. "At [Club Space], we have 30 tables. At the park, we're going to have 60 tables with much more room. We are going to have four small dance floors where you have to wear a mask. It's limited capacity, and each dance floor has its own bar."
"It is not just going to be an event space, per se," Sinopoli added. "We're going to grow it and activate other community businesses in there to come in as a micro-concept."
For more information on Space Park, visit Club Space's Facebook page.
Via: Miami New Times
Kygo's 30-day music production class
If you've ever wanted to learn how to produce dance music from one of the industry's biggest stars, now is your chance. A new Silicon Valley startup called Monthly has partnered with dance music superstar Kygo to offer an end-to-end music production course.
With the promise of producing three release-ready songs in 30 days, Kygo's course is extremely immersive and hands-on. According to Kygo's course page on Monthly's website, patrons are able to learn a slew of music production techniques from the tropical house pioneer. They will learn how he arranges his music, layers his sounds, how he produces and manipulates vocal chops, and the way he programs drums, basses and synths, among other components. Users will be guided through a step-by-step curriculum complete with video lessons, project files, and feedback sessions.
Kygo is one of six new celebrities to launch classes on Monthly, which has a similar business model to popular online education platform MasterClass. Grammy Award-winning OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, Milk Bar founder and MasterChef judge Christina Tosi, award-winning YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober, prominent LA choreographer Kyle Hanagami, and fabled sneaker designer The Shoe Surgeon have also joined the platform.
Ableton announces Live 11
The latest version includes five new devices and major advancements in the areas of comping and MIDI Polyphonic Expression.
Ableton has announced Live 11.
The latest version of the influential DAW comes just after two years after the introduction of Ableton 10 and integrates several major aspects into the popular Ableton workflow. Live 11 makes comping, or piecing together the best moments of multiple performances, far easier. The new comping tool also allows for quicker and more precise splicing and sampling, allowing for radical, on-the-fly experimentation with arrangement, e.g. easily splicing and substituting samples into the timeline of an existing track.
Another major development is the integration of MPE, or MIDI Polyphonic Expression, which allows for touch sensitivity and other subtle, acoustic-instrument style expressions—such as"bends, slides and pressure for each individual note in a chord"—with a MIDI environment. Owners of MPE-compatible hardware can begin using Live 11's MPE features right away, but those without MPE hardware can edit MPE automation data using Ableton's new "Expression View." While Ableton is integrating MPE after competing DAWs like Bitwig and even GarageBand, popular Ableton devices like Wavetable, Sampler, and Arpeggiator will now have native MPE support.
New devices include Hybrid Reverb, which allows users to place their sounds in any space, use the algorithmic slide to control and modulate the reverb tail, or play the device like an instrument and Spectral Resonator, which builds off of Live's Resonator device, breaking the audio signal into partials and allowing users to stretch, shift and blur the result. The latter is also playable via MIDI sidechain.
Spectral Time, meanwhile, is a simple but powerful frequency-based delay effect, while the Robert Henke-designed PitchLoop89 is built to create glitches and shimmering delays. Finally, Inspired By Nature is a suite of six instruments that use natural and physical processes—such as the root structure of plants or the movement of particles—as their inspiration.
Several randomization features, like Note Chance and Velocity Chance, will allow musicians to add unpredictable variations to their productions. Along with MPE, a Tempo Following feature makes Ableton Live 11 more "live," the DAW listening and adjusting its tempo based on incoming audio in real-time, following the human leader rather than vice-versa. DJs can use this feature to turn Ableton Live into a tempo-synced FX box. In addition, Ableton Live 11 comes with rack improvements, allowing users to save macro states for recall at a later time and use 16 macros, as opposed to the previously available 8.
For a list of all of Ableton Live 11's new features, head over to the manufacturer's website.
Live 11 will be available in early 2021. The Beta Version is currently available for all owners of Ableton Live 10 Standard and Suite. From now until the release, the various versions of Live 10 are selling for 20% off. Those who purchase a copy of Live 10 will be entitled to a free upgrade to Live 11 when it's released.
Watch a video about Ableton Live 11.
Ableton will release Live 11 in early 2021. The Standard version will retail for €349, Suite for €599 and Intro for €79.
Carlos Hawthorn contributed to this piece.