First Contact
DJ K8 by Charlie Griffin
What we surround ourselves with matters . Interior designers know that the fl ow of a space , its colors , textures , and materials can affect our feelings as we navigate an airport , bus or train terminal , our digestion in a restaurant or dining room , or our energy level and behavior in the workplace , a dance fl oor , or our bedrooms . Sometimes traits in design coalesce long enough and consistently enough for a defi nitive style to emerge . Industrial , Mid-Century Modern , Shaker , Moroccan , French Country , Shabby Chic , and many others all have their own hallmark approaches to materials , palettes , lines and symmetries .
Musical styles emerge in much the same manner , through the emergence of common practices . Approaches to musical timbre , texture , form , tempo , melody , harmony , meter and phrasing have always been the principal elements of musical style throughout history . Additionally , technology infl uences music making . The development of publishing in the mid-15th century , experiments in tuning systems that eventually led us to the equal-tempered system we use today , and the development of new instruments all have infl uenced composers for centuries . Some events become game changers . The rise of the piano approximately 300 years ago is a good example . Its dynamic capabilities alone were immediately recognized as superior . Composers abandoned the harpsichord and never really looked back . The 20th century has seen several game changers : recording technology at the beginning , amplifi cation and then analog synthesis in the middle , and digitization near the end .
Digitization has gone hand-in-hand with democratization and dissemination . Massive libraries of professionally recorded music samples of any instrument imaginable , affordable software with a wealth of processing possibilities that would have fi lled an entire recording studio a few decades ago , and a plethora of both professional and home-made on-line how-to videos ( many of admittedly questionable quality ) have led to musical experimentation ( and imitation ) on a scale never seen before . It resulted in an explosion of musical genres and sub-genres , particularly in styles that rely on digital means for production .
New technologies often create new niches to occupy and new opportunities . One artistic career path that never would have existed without these revolutions is that of the DJ , a role which itself experienced an evolution over time , having crossed the divide from analog to digital , from vinyl through CDs and on to binary-coded data within a software program . One of the software go-to ’ s for DJs is Traktor , an offering from the German hardware / software company Native Instruments . Traktor can take musical audio fi les and perform tempo and tonality detection . It can layer on effects such as fi ltering , delays , and reverbs , or it can slice a sound fi le up based on its transients ( basically its clearest , least-diffi cult-to-manipulate fragments ) so that a DJ can re-order them , loop them , or otherwise get playful , using paired external interfaces or iOS devices designed so that DJs can still maintain a tactile relationship to what they ’ re creating .
And what are they creating exactly ? Interior design is a good analogy for what many contemporary DJs do because they arrange found musical objects in personal ways , aiming to create an enticing fl ow of energies , textures , and moods . Kathryn Correy , or DJK8 , the force behind WPRK ’ s Halcyon Radio show ( 91.5 FM in Orlando or WPRK . org for streaming ) Saturdays from 7-9pm , is a specialist in Liquid Drum & Bass . This is an emotional , more reflective sub-genre of Drum & Bass which was originally a hard-hitting , fast tempo electronic style that emerged in England in the early 1990s and relied on syncopated drum grooves and focused attention on bass and sub-bass lines . Characteristic of both genre and sub-genre is the existence of tempo layers . The hi-hat and snare drum typically express a tempo of 150-180 beats per minute , while the rate of change in other parts happens at half or even onequarter that speed . Think of a Rubin Vase , the image that is both a chalice and two faces in profile facing each other . You can hold one image in the foreground at a time , not both . Similarly , you can focus your perception at the faster or slower tempo .
Correy compares her Halcyon Radio sets to journaling . She designs two hours of cathartic , emotional experience , often using the show to help process her own feelings that built up over the week , though she also embraces diversions to fulfi ll a listener request on the fl y or to showcase
photo by Brian Miller Photography
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