Ronny Pries

A piece of modern art

Ronny — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:46:31 +0000

Like everybody else i stumble upon funny, crazy, awesome, cool, freaky, whatever videos on the internet day by day. And like everybody else i share them with my friends, colleagues via twitter, facebook and the likes. But it’s very unlikely that something is as amazingly good as i have to write a blog entry about it. Alex Roman’s video “The Third & The Seventh” is such a thing…

Fullscreen recommended.

10 quality DJ sets from 2009

Ronny — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:48:53 +0000

2009 was the year in which i discovered the DJ set. Quite seriously – until then i was usually listening to either music albums or my own mixes cause most sets didn’t really do it for me. Since this changed a lot last year, here are my ten favourite sets from ‘09 (in no particular order).

Joe Babylon – Hiatus mix

A very proper Deephouse set by the co-founder of Plug Research featuring a superb selection of tracks. Link

Surgeon – FACT mix 106

Imho, Mr. Child is THE DJ of 2009 and his set for FACT Magazine puts a stress on it. Link

LWE Podcast 36: Kirk Degiorgio

Talking about technical brilliance, Kirks Little White Earbuds podcast is my fave straight techno set from 09. Link

Move D’s Bunker Podcast

I didn’t really have Move D on the plate for quality Deephouse until i discovered this one – a keeper! Link

2562 – FACT mix 81

Another FACT mix, this one by dutchman 2562 who’s exploring the space between dubstep and Detroit techno. Link

RA.177 by Sandwell District

Functions set for Resident Advisor is probably the darkest techno mix from last year. Link

Nation Podcast #2: James T. Cotton

Mr. Cottons contribution to Traxx Jak Nation podcast simply puts Jack back to the beat. Link

Surgeon live at Fabric

I’ve got a fever. And the only prescription is more Surgeon! Link

Waxtreatment Podcast 001 by DJ Pete

Substance aka DJ Pete shows what dubstep is all about. Deep! Link

Akira Kiteshi Live at The Fat Club

I have no idea who this fella is nor how i got this set, but whoo – that’s some sick and kicking shit! Link

Some of the sets might be offline already but i’m sure you’ll be able to find any of above sets online somewhere! Those are really worth it.

Cheers,
Ronny

New gear corner: my studio essentials

Ronny — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:40:40 +0000

I always find it very interesting to learn which gear people use and why. So here’s a look behind the curtain of my virtual setup from the category of mixing & mastering effects. More to come. For now, have a nice slip into 2010 – happy new year folks!

fr-062: the cube (chaos’ codeporn)

Ronny — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:03:23 +0000

The fourth iteration of our Werkzeug demotool casts first shadows into the public. Code and idea by Chaos, music by paniq, additional wz4 action by fiver2, assisting code by ryg and kb.

Download from farbrausch.de

Universal Audio Cambridge EQ

Ronny — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:32:20 +0000

The Cambridge EQ is – hands down – the best software equalizer i ever used. It is perfeclty predictable, precise and easy to use, sounds very natural and serves all my equalizing needs. Especially its elliptical lowcut filter mode does very suprising things in the bass frequencies below 50hz and is unique to this EQ. Culprit: only available for UAD dsp cards. Then again i recommend purchasing a UAD anyway – you can run dozens of Cambridge EQs without ever putting your cpu in trouble.

A native alternative is Sonnox Oxford EQ. It’s got similar features and same ease of use. Then again it is missing the awesome elliptical filtermode.

I didn’t yet find a free equalizer that satisfied my needs as much as above ones, eventhough it is often said that most EQs are basicly the same in terms of algorhythm. Of course i didn’t look for anything else in a while, thus suggestions are welcome.

Voxengo Elephant Limiter

Ronny — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:16:17 +0000

I was looking for a transparent mastering limiter and bought Elephant back when the first version appeared. It always did a very good job to keep the levels in place. Last not least thanks to its reliable metering and ease of use it’s one of the workhorses in my setup. Can be purchased online at the Voxengo website, mac and pc versions available.

Audio Damage Rough Rider

Ronny — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:06:10 +0000

AD’s Rough Rider is the single channel and free brother of their multiband Pro version which reminds me a bit of Empirical Labs Distressor and its insane nuke compression mode. If you want to kill people with rimshots, burn those drumbusses in hell or just slightly attenuate effects on percussion, Rough Rider is a good one. Available for both: mac & pc.

Universal Audio Fairchild 670

Ronny — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:53:46 +0000

Being part of the UAD-Series, the Fairchild 670 emulates the classic hardware compressor from the 50s. It’s known for its magic mix-glueing abilties and usually the sum compressor in my setup. Also awesome on groups and loops it is, alongside with the other UAD plugs in the bundle, the best thing i bought over the years.

Variety of Sound Density mkII

Ronny — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:53:08 +0000

Although it sounds quite different i think of Density mkII as being the nearest neighbour to UAD’s Fairchild. Capable of glueing a mix in a good way while preserving a good amount of dynamics, you shouldn’t miss it by any means. Last not least it’s free, like all those v.o.s./ex-Bootsie plugins. At the moment available for pc only.

RME Audio Digicheck

Ronny — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:07:39 +0000

RME’s Digicheck is some kind of swiss army knife when it comes to audio analyses and measuring. Bundled with their soundcards it offers many very reliable tools, the most powerful being its Totalyser (as seen in the screenshot). Offering a configurable 30 bands analyser, a goniometer and a levelmeter while running on the cards dsp-chip i couldn’t be bothered to use anything else. Standalone, works with RME cards only.