With 600k views in just a few days and a fresh article on the Huffington post, Madeon’s Ableton based, pop culture jam is making some serious internet waves. That’s pretty impressive for a 17 year old with a bunch of ableton clips and a launchpad. Does this mean that the mainstream might be ready for controllerism and clip mashing?
The title of this article is obviously provocating. Announcing that something dead (was it ever in the first place?) comes back solely based on the fact that a youtube video has many views is very unsignificant.
This article is further misleading the reader by putting all the credits on this piece of hardware, totally disregarding the artist playing it. Did you at least investigate the other works of this young guy before making this article?
If so, you would have seen that this artist has done several other very nice pieces of electro-funk music prior to this track, amongst them a remix of Pendulum that won a challenge and a famous remix of one of Deadmau5 tracks (which had himself praised the performance). And all these were done without any hardware but a PC and a mouse.
In the end, the only thing one can aknowledge from this video is that this artist is undoubtedly talented, and by further reading about his works you come to the conclusion that one does not need to wait time or to own an expensive setup to make great music, it’s just a matter of work and talent. And this guy does have quite a lot.
PS: About the controller, take a look at the other videos on youtube to convince yourself that this is just a piece of hardware as any other for making music : it can be great in good hands, miserable in bad.
The title of this article is obviously provocating. Announcing that something dead (was it ever in the first place?) comes back solely based on the fact that a youtube video has many views is very unsignificant.
This article is further misleading the reader by putting all the credits on this piece of hardware, totally disregarding the artist playing it. Did you at least investigate the other works of this young guy before making this article?
If so, you would have seen that this artist has done several other very nice pieces of electro-funk music prior to this track, amongst them a remix of Pendulum that won a challenge and a famous remix of one of Deadmau5 tracks (which had himself praised the performance). And all these were done without any hardware but a PC and a mouse.
In the end, the only thing one can aknowledge from this video is that this artist is undoubtedly talented, and by further reading about his works you come to the conclusion that one does not need to wait time or to own an expensive setup to make great music, it’s just a matter of work and talent. And this guy does have quite a lot.
PS: About the controller, take a look at the other videos on youtube to convince yourself that this is just a piece of hardware as any other for making music : it can be great in good hands, miserable in bad.
The title of this article is obviously provocating. Announcing that something dead (was it ever in the first place?) comes back solely based on the fact that a youtube video has many views is very unsignificant.
This article is further misleading the reader by putting all the credits on this piece of hardware, totally disregarding the artist playing it. Did you at least investigate the other works of this young guy before making this article?
If so, you would have seen that this artist has done several other very nice pieces of electro-funk music prior to this track, amongst them a remix of Pendulum that won a challenge and a famous remix of one of Deadmau5 tracks (which had himself praised the performance). And all these were done without any hardware but a PC and a mouse.
In the end, the only thing one can aknowledge from this video is that this artist is undoubtedly talented, and by further reading about his works you come to the conclusion that one does not need to wait time or to own an expensive setup to make great music, it’s just a matter of work and talent. And this guy does have quite a lot.
PS: About the controller, take a look at the other videos on youtube to convince yourself that this is just a piece of hardware as any other for making music : it can be great in good hands, miserable in bad.
The title of this article is obviously provocating. Announcing that something dead (was it ever in the first place?) comes back solely based on the fact that a youtube video has many views is very unsignificant.
This article is further misleading the reader by putting all the credits on this piece of hardware, totally disregarding the artist playing it. Did you at least investigate the other works of this young guy before making this article?
If so, you would have seen that this artist has done several other very nice pieces of electro-funk music prior to this track, amongst them a remix of Pendulum that won a challenge and a famous remix of one of Deadmau5 tracks (which had himself praised the performance). And all these were done without any hardware but a PC and a mouse.
In the end, the only thing one can aknowledge from this video is that this artist is undoubtedly talented, and by further reading about his works you come to the conclusion that one does not need to wait time or to own an expensive setup to make great music, it’s just a matter of work and talent. And this guy does have quite a lot.
PS: About the controller, take a look at the other videos on youtube to convince yourself that this is just a piece of hardware as any other for making music : it can be great in good hands, miserable in bad.
Other than DJTT, this level of ease, is the best thing that has happened to DJ/Performance since 2 TT & a Microphone (which you can still use with this)…the tools, costs, and physical requirements are almost commoditized! Let there be art!
Other than DJTT, this level of ease, is the best thing that has happened to DJ/Performance since 2 TT & a Microphone (which you can still use with this)…the tools, costs, and physical requirements are almost commoditized! Let there be art!
Other than DJTT, this level of ease, is the best thing that has happened to DJ/Performance since 2 TT & a Microphone (which you can still use with this)…the tools, costs, and physical requirements are almost commoditized! Let there be art!
Other than DJTT, this level of ease, is the best thing that has happened to DJ/Performance since 2 TT & a Microphone (which you can still use with this)…the tools, costs, and physical requirements are almost commoditized! Let there be art!
for those bashing madeon, the kid has a talent for making great remixes, and that’s been recognized most recently by Joel Z. (deadmau5) the fact that a lot of you (not saying everyone is) is crying foul and saying “I COULD DO THAT TOO” doesn’t prove anything. He started from somewhere and now he’s a somebody in the music world, that’s what matters.
Kudos to Madeon and keep growing! :]
Mashups Left? News to me. I have heard this track at the hype machine and I had no idea I could watch it being done, Thanks DJTT!
i freaking love that
wow 17 and french amazing
Epic Fucking Win 😀
quantized, sync, controllerism, etc, etc who the hell cares, this piece is awsome, its all about the music.
Amazing work!!!!
Congratulations!
Mash-Ups aren’t back. It’s just that most of these tools who call themselves DJs nowadays, never were aware that Mash-Ups eh I mean blends, were always around (even Bad Boy Bill made one in the DMCs in 1987). Just because you saw a 5 year old clip of Z-Trip, doesn’t mean it has been invented by him, nor does DJTechtools dictate whether the “trend” has faded or that it’s coming back. Geez this “I-dont-know-how-its-done-so-Ima-check-a-youtube-clip-and-bite-the-ish-out-of-it” generation is turning into a charade. When does Apple release their Mash-Up-App…
Just because people watch a performance on youtube doesn’t mean they want to see it / move to it in a club. This is button porn / viral marketing / proof of concept stuff, if you look at his other work, it’s far more traditional (AKA works in a club).
prettys lights has been triggering and manipulating samples and sample loops from a monome (pre launchpad, same concept) and abelton to make music since he started, and people worship derek, and he’s a controllerist
It’s a great piece, but let’s seem his maintain this momentum for a 45 minute set… Carpal tunnel anyone?
I agree, great piece, but know way he is doing that all night.
I think people are under estimating the power of the brain to remember sequences. It’s just pushing buttons, which is no different to pushing keys on a piano. Remembering an overture has been done for centuries.
@DSC, Mate I have seen Daft Punk maintain the best set I’ve ever heard… and all they do is bang buttons for well over an hour… THESE KIDS A GENIUS
Very nice work indeed and great to see he keeps his composure throughout the mash at all points, not distractingly throwing his arms and elbows around all the time. It seems all too common for a DJ not be busy and try to disguise this. When a pad is to be hit, its done cleanly and when there’s a break for 1 second, he takes a break for 1 second 🙂
Mashups never went away but what I like about this, is that is comes across so seamless. Although sync’d the artist does have natural rhythm but the beauty behind this mashup it that’s done on the fly and yes there is a video of Madeon doing this mashup Live at Social Club Paris 15.07.11
It may not be the best footage but the crowd can see him performing the mix. that it wasn’t something he spent hours producing but then just runs it on playback. Here is the fundamental difference between what Madeon is doing to what other artists don’t do. Some artists do trigger loops to but they are of their own composition which were all created at a certain bpm. This had to have been time stretched to work which for nearly 40 songs, sounds like a lot of hard work and effort.
So here’s the question…
A DJ is on for 2 hours. Do you want to hear between 30 – 40 tracks or hear snippets from 500 to over 1500 tracks all sampled together in a huge mashup where the midi-controller inputs are also controlling lights and video?
I know which DJ i’d rather go and see and which one is working a lot harder for their money.
I’m not sure it’s an “either/or” sort of thing. They are totally different types of shows. One is a DJ, whose job it is to piece together a range of self contained tunes to take the audience on a journey that is (in part) determined by the crowd response. The other is an artist who creates new music on the fly by mashing up a range of samples and loops from pre-existing tunes. There’s a place for both types of performance.
That’s like saying “what concert should we see tonight… Jay-Z or 311?” 2 different bands, 2 different styles. Talent is talent, though I’m totally on board with your opinion. I wonder how long any DJ could carry this style. I’m sure he’d roll with a bunch of songs played in total then have insane mashes every 30 minutes. He’d have to build up to a crazy mix a couple hours in tho.
That’s like saying “what concert should we see tonight… Jay-Z or 311?” 2 different bands, 2 different styles. Talent is talent, though I’m totally on board with your opinion. I wonder how long any DJ could carry this style. I’m sure he’d roll with a bunch of songs played in total then have insane mashes every 30 minutes. He’d have to build up to a crazy mix a couple hours in tho.
As a launchpad user and ableton fan, I enjoyed listening to this, but i’m also realistic. As a club DJ, this is completely not viable for anything other than fun and showing off. It takes far too long to prepare and there’s so much room for error that you’d be I’ll advised to attempt this in a club, and I doubt people are going to pay top dollar to see a show where some guy condenses 40 songs from other artists into one for three hours straight. And imagine the licensing issues he’d have! Haha
But it is shit hot, no doubt.
I saw Jeremy Ellis do something way more complex than this for 1.5 hrs, so it’s not impossible.
wow! whoever is behind this… i have to take my hat off to you. Amazing work! you are really bless
i guess sampling a bunch of recognizable one second one shots and dropping them over one song can be called mash-up…..
i thought that was “Pop music”?
I think Girl Talk brought it back a while ago my friend.
Considering the mainstream popularity of DJ Earworm’s mashups, I think the general public are very interested in this. The difference here, of course, is the live aspect of the mashup. It’s very clever.
I bet he’s the son of Thomas Bangalter or Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo a.k.a DAFT PUNK 😉
Ahh… Thomas Bangalter who just so happens to be the son of Daniel Bangalter, who wrote and produced records for Ottowan and the Gibson Brothers
the mashup never left. see: Team Canada DJs
Great Performance, garantee you that kid grew up playing piano.
See whats possible when you don’t spend your time SYNCing infront of a S4!!??
umm.. all the clip launches are quantized to a quarter note. Quantize= sync.
LOL I wrote this comment knowing its quantized, and able to define it…. and my comment had alot more to do with being an artist, musicly interesting and innovative not sitting infront of traktor going GUYS GUYYYYYYSSSS LOOOK I CAN DJ!!!!! ITS IN PHASE TOO!!!! I NEED A GIG!!!!
You can’t sell passion, or something that does it all 100% start to finish for you, or you would. Your the Fox news of EDM performance.
He’s using ableton, Dur. This was all sync’d, if you want to get upset about Traktors sync function. Ableton is worse by far than traktor at not having to beat match, so I would take your sync comments elsewhere, especially from this site, where it has been beaten to death.
No No No, your wrong, this kid would never claim he’s “DJ’ing” and “DJ’ing” is where the quantize argument has always exsisted, separate performance from DJ’ing and you’ll be on target.
Like those two said, Ableton is so sync heavy it’s unreal. It will play any track at the master tempo you’re running at, making it highly impractical for club gigging since you end up blasting Pitbull at 170 BPM.
Also the people sat in front of the S4 could make someone equally as good with the launchpad, like I do. Traktor 2 + Launchpad = Mashup heaven
Just a clarification; Ableton CAN sync everything like that but you can tell it not to. Many people DJ just with Ableton and they turn that feature off in order to mix a song in at a reasonable tempo.
i use both ableton and traktor. every requires syncing the only difference is ableton will play all clips in sync from a few bars to 1/32 bars 😀 depending on settings
HOLY SHIT! He’s using the same two controllers I have! Novation Launchpad and Novation Zero SL MKII !!!!! I need to configure my ableton with them, but still unable to! 🙁
Somebody care to share some pointers?
Isn’t this what girltalk does?
Not so much. His sequencing is freakin’ phenomenal, but as far as performance goes, he just kinda spazzes out around his laptop while a pre-made set plays through. That is one thing that has always kinda bugged me, but he makes no qualms about it – He’s there to party, not perform. =/
except I can actually stand to listen to this for more than a minute
mashups never left…
No doubt!
This kid kills that track. Hes definitely broken a barrier with this
I think it’s a good thing. Seems most people have misconceptions about whats going on in the DJ booth. They either think the DJ is a glorified Itunes playlist or they think he’s creating every sound on the fly! Once people realize whats actually happening on a mass level the DJ as Performer will become more and more relevant.
Looks like the art of sampling has a good future , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Uyp-X8914 , reminds me of Daft Punk so much
Wow, that is really impressive. There certainly seems to be a place for controllerist performers.
His music is also amazing! Great producer with really new and awesome sounds in the French Nu-Disco Electro genre.
But this is awesome too! Kid can do it all.
It was so inspiring! A 17 yo inspiring an old fart like me. Now all I need to do is find the time to do a set. LOL
anyone can trigger loops.bang this out on an MPC/Maschine and I’ll be impressed
Despite Madeon’s awesome mashup, this is really nothing new, and Madeon isn’t the one to bring it into the mainstream. That sais, the reach of this video should definitely help out the controllerism movement.
Mashups being accepted into the mainstream isn’t really new; DJ Earwig’s been around for 3 years now.
Thats really cool, even for pop very enjoyable, this kid may go far
As a performer and DJ, watching this is a little bit like watching black porn… I feel very small and inferior. Amazing work!
love it
Controllerism comes of age…. Fantastic
The mainstream – hooray! Lady Gaga and Cher will wiggle APC40s in their next videos, the “industry” is going to massively produce cheap “remixes” of any rotten old Disco crap they can find in the trashcan and rotate them until our ears bleed. Hugo Boss e.al. will stick microcontrollers on t-shirts, politicians and clerics will be alarmed by the potentially dangerous and immoral aspects of controllerism.Three months later, the usual sh1tload of untalented copycats and ass-kissers from the major 4s parasitic oribit will flush the market (especially elevators and malls) with controllerism-ish muzak… Just like 1991, woohoo, shoot me, pleas!
It’s also nice to hear something that isn’t quite “the norm”. I am sort of getting tired of white noise build-ups and breakdowns and this doesn’t even have one!LOL!
scamo
+1, very tired of all that white noise gating that seems to be the standard around here.
Great example of composing a whole new track with samples only.
Although the idea has been around since the days of the Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel, the way he did it is undoubtely very skillfull. But what makes this stand out from the crowd: It actually sounds like a decent new pop song.
He might even get away with releasing it as a track as most of the samples used, are very short and unrecognizable. With that amount of hype, I guess it shouldnt be difficult to find a record company to clear it for him.
I hope so. Its really to the point where the tools allow kids even younger to do things like this or even people in their 80s or 90s can do it. The more mainstream it gets the better. ConTROLLerists will get owned by the younger kids growing up with all this stuff.. just like FPS 10 year olds will dominate multiplayer in online gaming.
The new era will be bedroom controllerists streaming their sets in clubs.. because the setups in the bedroom are unlikely to make it to the club.
The masses will accept controllerism when the majority of it focuses on composition like this example does.
sick sick !