Monday, July 31, 2006

We Love Space Sunday 23rd July

Space Sunday
Space Sunday,
originally uploaded by Miguel Ramirez.


Ah - Space. A night club that opens during the day. A place full of happy, ridiculously friendly, mind blowingly gorgeous clubbers: all on the same vibe, all up for a great time, all TOTALLY into the MUSIC. Does it get any better? Well no actually it doesn't.


We'd arrived back home after a brief visit to the UK sorting sh*t out. After arriving 6 hours late thanks to Jet2 (or is that Shat2?) we'd missed lunch, our evening meal and our favourite part of Space Sundays (the day!). My head was thumping since all I'd had to eat all day was a packet of crisps & a danish. Not to be deterred we quickly showered, changed and headed for sustenance. One of our favourite places to eat in Talamanca is the Andalucia - it's a bar / cafe just down the road from the Lux Isla that's very popular with the locals (the photo's from last year and it's out of season - it's busier than this normally!) The owners are truly Ibicencan - warm & friendly and the food is just amazing. After a stunning meal that really hit the spot (food always tastes even better when you're really hungry don't you think?) we walked into town, grabbed a taxi and headed to Space.

Coincidently - mmmm how does this work? Wooly (Paul Woolford aka Bobby Peru) was on the same Shat2 flight we were on. I'd met Paul briefly in my previous life when I worked in Leeds, he'd just finished a 6 hour back to back set with Ralph (Lawson) at Basics and had gone straight from there to the airport. He wasn't playing 'till 11pm and we thought we'd catch his set easily. Unfortunately due to the delays by the time we got there we'd missed him. Having said that we spent most of the night in / on the Terrace (Wooly was playing in the Main Room with Jeff Mills).

"Shit here isn't it?" said a lovely friendly fella to me with a huge grin on his face. Beautiful Baleric people were rhythmically bouncing and shaking to dirty, chunky house music. Everywhere you looked your eye caught another's. Smiles beamed back and forth, stunningly dressed clubbers were getting hot & sweaty wherever you looked. Space is COSMOPOLITAN - no question. You dance, mingle & socialise with people from every conceivable corner of the world. The phrase Global Underground was coined to describe this feeling. There are millions of like minded people getting together every weekend and having a great time. Language is no barrier, sexuality is no barrier, colour & creed is no barrier. I believe Music truly is the Global Language.

Space always works it's magic, every time we go we feel reborn. Our favourite club - definately.

Peace & Love to everyone there that night. Wooly - we'll catch you next week :)

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Mac Freak: Links

Great week. Before I get into this weeks stuff here's a couple of links for all you Mac freaks out there....

An amazing Apple 30th Aniversary Video I picked up from here Tauquil

Props out to Aaron for putting the video together - great work fella :)

And I couldn't resist this Mac Light Saber Now my 17" Powerbook doubles as a Jedi weapon when it's not making music or blogging ;)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Logic Pro: ES2 Soft Synth



ES2 - The best synth I've ever used.

Logic Pro has totally blown me away. I've only had it 3 days and I can honestly say I'm gob smacked. I've been using computer sequencing packages since Steinberg made Pro 16 for the Commodore 64 way way back in pre history. I think it was during the late Pleistocene Era that early copies of this software were released - or it may have been 1985 but whenever it was it came on a floppy disc considerably larger than a dinner plate.



Impressive eh?

Anyway in it's day Pro 16 was a masterpiece of software, in 2006 the same can be said of Logic Pro. I've just spent the last 5 hours or so in the company of the ES2 SoftSynth and it has pushed all MY creative buttons. Ridiculously expressive sounds, and fat as f**k. I know synths are subjective (what isn't?) but since this is my blog I'm allowed my opinion ;)

Just for the sake of balance though here's a few of the synths I've been lucky enough to own (or have borrowed on extended loan) so you get an idea of the competition....
These are "Real" synths not Soft:

  • Korg - MS10
  • Korg - MS20
  • Roland - Jupiter 6
  • Roland - Jupiter 8
  • Roland - Juno 6
  • Roland - TB303
  • Sequential Circuits - Pro One
  • Sequential Circuits - Pro Five
  • Yamaha - DX7
  • Yamaha - DX9
  • Korg - Poly 800
  • Korg - PolySix
  • Casio - CZ101
  • Korg - M1
  • Korg - Wavestation
  • Korg - Trinity V3
  • Novation - BassStation
  • Roland - MC202
  • Roland - SH101 x2
  • Access - Virus C

And more soft synths than you can shake a stick at including recently Albino 2, Absynth 3, Reaktor, Halion, Moog Modular - you get the picture. It was fun thinking about all the bits of kit I've had tho' :)

And I can honestly say, that easily the ES2 blows 'em all away. There are quite a few SoftSynths bundled with Logic Pro all of them pretty damn cool but the ES2...... well...... so good I needed to rant!

For me the whole point of any bit of Pro Audio gear - be it Hardware or Software is "Does it help me create?" Because let's remember boys and girls - that's the whole point. Creating. The creative process. Writing a kick ass tune. I don't want to spend days (or years) with a bit of kit that doesn't make me want to play it.

It's like when I moved from Windoze to OSX last year, suddenly I wanted to create again. I didn't spend hours (days, weeks, months - let's face it - Years, "fixing" things on my PC. I used my computer for what I bought it for - creating. Logic was the next logical (pun intended) step. Cubase is great, Ableton & Reason cool as..... but seriously folks as they now say in Talamanca:

"Once you go Mac - you never go back" :)

Peace & Love

Miguel (Mac Freak) Ramirez

The Weekend


Ah - The Weekend!

Scorchio as Channel 9 would say.

Well, they don't come much better. My beautiful Soul Mate (The Jinster), good friends, great weather, amazing sounds and a brand new sequencer for me to get to grips with.

The Jinster (above) was in full effect this weekend. Favourite quote "It's F**cked" pertaining to amongst other things: the shower in the bathroom, the can opener etc, etc... Since we stopped working for The Man life has really started all over again. We're both so chilled and feel like a whole new chapter has begun - which I suppose it has. The Book has been nagging me again (lots more on this to follow) and ideas are coming thick & fast. It really makes me wonder just how much we could all achieve if we weren't - as my brother so affectionately calls it "Wage Slaves"....

We were lucky enough to entertain one half of the Space Turkeys and I:Nerve this weekend. It got messy (it was always going to if we're honest). I:Nerve dropped a copy of his latest EP "Mystery Bags & Budgie Smugglers" - amazing dark and twisted Breaks. Hope to get audio clips up for you soon....

Anyway, Space is calling. We're viewing a property in Talamanca (Ibiza) shortly and if all goes well we'll be living by the sea on the most amazing of Islands. While we're there our favourite Club puts on it's weekend special - so it'd be rude not to drop by :) Tiefschwarz are playing as well as Jeff Mills and quite a few of my homies from Basics.... all things considered it should be a blinder. There will of course be a full review on this very blog (and subsequently posted to the Hub).

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Music - Todays Playlist

Todays Playlist:


  • Amplified Heart - Caged Baby

  • Square Eyes (Miguel Ramirez Mix) - Riton

  • Mouth (Pepe Bradock Remix) - Iz & Diz

  • Complete Life ( Jazzanova Remix) - Liquid Lounge

  • Damaged Goods - Riton

  • Drum 'N Boogaloo (Mo Horizons Remix) - Fort Knox Five

  • Say What - Trevor Loveys

  • Beautiful Day (Banzai Republic Vs Trentemoller Mix) - Laid Back

  • One Design - Mooli



It's a beautiful day :)

Terrace Favourite at the moment - Riton. Also as I type this, Caged Baby's "Evolution" is playing which really makes me smile, Big Thanks to my friend Frenchy for getting me hooked up with "Will See You Now". He turned me onto Tom (Caged Baby) last year and the album blows me away everytime I play it. Check my links for more info.

Also on the Music side of things I've just bought Logic Pro (much more on that later) it should arrive in the next couple of days - can't wait.

As Iain M Banks would say "Connected to the Hub" - very addictive. I'm new to the whole blogging thing and my rants will no doubt come thick & fast. But I thought "what the hell". So here it is..... Music, Nature & Philosophy will be the main topics. Oh and living in Ibiza! Much much more on that later.

Peace & Love

Miguel

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Truth

"The Truth went a stage further, holding that this was a difference that could be made to make a difference. What was necessary was for people truly to believe in their hearts, in their souls, in their minds, that they really were in a vast simulation. They had to reflect on upon this, to keep it at the forefront of their thoughts at all times and they had to gather together on occasion, with all due ceremony and solemnity, to express this belief. And they must evangelise, they must convert everybody they possibly could to this view, because - and this was the whole point - once a sufficient proportion of the people within the simulation came to acknowledge that it was a simulation, the value of the simulation to those who had set it up would disapear and the whole thing would collapse."

Iain M. Banks - "The Algebraist"