Christmas Party 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQtdrPaPUDI&feature=youtu.be

Great Party, Great DJ's, Great Music.  Thank you to all that came and joined in the celebrations. Special thanks to those who have supported and continue to support Tranquil week in week out without fail, who contribute to bringing together those that have a love of Drum and Bass music, creating a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere.  It makes Tranquil feel like a family and a home,, nothing fake about that! Boobhugs to Dark, Devour, Joe, Lola, Makro, Menor, Qthe Physicist, Ripp, Wookie ;)

The drum and bass beat - What makes drum and bass drum and bass

I recently realized the answer to the question nobody ever asks: What makes drum and bass drum and bass?

I came back to SL after a long time not in the world. I had always loved djing when I was in-world, but I never much did anything else. And now I know why. After playing tons of games between then and now, I finally realized how lame SL looked when I played it back then. The animations were just so bad. Of course, I had never learned anything back then about AOs, I just came in, djed for 2-3 hours, and then left. This time when I came back, I knew about animations so I got a better walk, run, fly, you know. And I have been using those as-was for a couple of months now. But something still wasn't right...

Until yesterday, when I finally succeeded in making a walking sound script work. What I had been missing all this time was the walking sound!

Ok, so drum and bass. Or more specifically, the drum and bass beat. Put simply, the drum and bass beat, every drum and bass beat, is the Amen break (or some variant) from a 1969 song by the Winstons called "Amen Brother."

From Wikipedia:

The Amen break is a 6 to 7 second (4 bar) drum solo performed in 1969 by Gregory Cylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons. The full song is an up-tempo instrumental rendition of Jester Hairston's "Amen," which he wrote for the Sidney Poitier film Lilies of the Field (1963) and which was subsequently popularized by The Impressions in 1964. The Winstons' version was released as a B-side of the 45 RPM 7-inch vinyl single "Color Him Father" in 1969 on Metromedia (MMS-117), and is currently available on several compilations and on a 12-inch vinyl re-release together with other songs by The Winstons.

It gained fame from the 1980s onwards when four bars (6 seconds) sampled from the drum-solo (or imitations thereof) became very widely used as sampled drum loops in breakbeat, hip hop, breakbeat hardcore, hardcore techno and breakcore, drum and bass (including oldschool jungle and ragga jungle), and digital hardcore music. The Amen Break was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music—"a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures." It is one of the most sampled loops in contemporary electronic music and arguably the most sampled drum beat of all time.

Note that the original Amen break was itself part of a remix of sorts. For a fascinating history of the Amen break, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac

So what is the connection between the missing walking sound and drum and bass? People think that drum and bass is about exactly that, the drums and the bass. Technically, this is true. But every type of music has a drum and a bass in it, so what makes this particular type of music take on the name itself, "drum and bass?"

Quite simply, it's the hi-hat shuffle played at 170 beats per minute. The hat shuffle is why the first person to sample the Amen break did it. It's what makes you bob your head and dance. And the shuffle is on an upbeat, so that as you count out a song, the hits of the hats come after the main downbeat counts. Something like 1 da-da-DA-da, 2 da-da-DA-da and so on.

But I get ahead of myself. A basic drum and bass beat is composed of a kick, a snare and the hats. The length of a basic loop is 16 beats, so count to 16 at the speed of 170 beats per minute (remember your basic physics: distance (d) = rate (r) x time (t) so rate = d/t if you want to know how fast that is). The bass plays on the 1 and 11 beats, and the snare plays on the 5 and 13 beats. These two alone make a beat that is surely recognizable as drum and bass, but still something isn't right. Something is missing. The little shuffle sound of the hats. The hat shuffle, in its various incarnations, is what makes drum and bass drum and bass.

Further reading:

DnB HiHat explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sclVMvTHlmk

A good history of drum and bass:

http://www.dnbscene.com/article/227-a-history-of-drum-and-bass-1990-2000/1

For a scholarly treatise on drum and bass: http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/issue_03/pdf/quinn.pdf

Bonfire Party 5th November

For 400 years, bonfires have burned on November 5th to mark the failed Gunpowder Plot to blow up the houses of parliament in London in 1605.   Among them was Guy Fawkes, Britain's most notorious traitor.  People place effigies of Guy fawkes onto bonfires (we threw a noob on lol), and fireworks were added to the celebrations.

Thanks to DJs Jahka Flow, Makro, Devour for mixing DnBs and everyone that came, was a good fun party

HALLOWEED FESTIVAL

We all gathered at Tranquil Apocalypse for the Halloweed Festival 2015.  Great party, great DJs! Thank you to all those that came along to join in the party and DJs, Joe Bass, Jahka Flow, Q the Physicist, Makro and Rippledee for their music.

Click video link to see highlights of the party.  https://youtu.be/u0xWrCsVZdQ

HALLOWEED FESTIVAL

see inworld at

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Images%20of%20Love/208/211/22

TRANQUIL APOCALYPSE

Sneak Preview

Hi Tranq DnBers,,,we shall be travelling to Tranquil Apocalypse as of Thursday 21st October,,,, Halloweed Party on Saturday 24th October and Open Stage there until 1st November when we shall make the journey back home to the beach!

Jimmee and I went on ahead and made ourselves right at home,,, 

here's a sneak preview lol

DnB Wednesdays

Every Wednesday we have DJ Q the Physicist play from 11am slt til 1pm slt followed by any DJs that are around wanting to continue the party.  This week it was DJ Mak.  Everyone had a great time and it's been more and more popular each week.  Thank you to the DJs for their music and those that came along.   
ZeezeeDee Resident, Qawi Aji, rippledee Resident, Chace7 Luik, Marnie Ansar,
ArrowAndBow Resident, biebi Beebe, makro Enyo, Zoebug Agrawal, 
skank Aurbierre, Boa Tutti, pookie Bombastic, Devour Graves, Fenia Babii,
KAMTCHAMKA Laryukov, Kimmy Svenson, moogy Erin, Lea Motniak,
Eifachfilm Vacirca, Sugar Caerndow, carol Broono

 

Interview with DJ Q

Second Life Name: Qawi Aji 
Second Life Rezz Date: 15th June 2006

DJ Name: Q the Physicist
DnB Genre: Liquid
Real Life Location: Budapest 
Soundcloud & Mixcloud: q_the_physicist 





Rosie Helendale: tell me what brings you into second life?
Qawi Aji: It was dnb that brought me into second life the first time, back in 2005, and dnb brought me back. actually, the first time then i was looking to find a place to dance, a dnb club in second life
Let me tell you the story right quick...
 I was at a party in Budapest, pretty high, and the DJ changed. it was the morning already, btw and when the DJ changed the music changed from good to bad.
Rosie Helendale: ahh not good
Qawi Aji: I saw right there that I would get a computer program to be able to make my own mixes. So after that party, as soon as I got home, I downloaded virtual DJ.
It was at the same time after I had finished playing star wars galaxies where my character was a musician and dancer, that I was looking for a place to continue that. In swg, I used to socialize with bar patrons in the game, turn down the music, and watch my character dance while i listened to drum and bass.
Rosie Helendale: so how did you get from there to second life?
Qawi Aji: so, right after I got vdj, I also simultaneously came into second life. After a couple of days, I found a club that sometimes played dnb, so I went there to dance and by coincidence there was somebody in the club asking about how to be a DJ. The club gave lessons, so I jumped into their conversation and said I wanted a course, too. and they taught me how to stream and gave me a job. That place was called voodoo lounge. So for three years, I played dnb in the voodoo club and essentially learned how to be a DJ.. I had my first rl show at an exhibition here in Budapest because my painter friend thought it was stupid that I was playing as a DJ in a game, lol
So sl gave me my start and now I  have a residency in a bar about 170 meters from my house in Budapest every month :)
Rosie Helendale: OH nice one.  A game? how dare they say its a game lol
Qawi Aji: hahaha
Rosie Helendale: What genres of DnB do you like to play?
Qawi Aji: I only play liquid. At first I played every dnb style, I had three shows, one with neuro, tech step, one liquid, and one raggamuffin jungle. I found that I can't keep up with that much new music so I stuck with liquid
You know, as a DJ, you have to go through so much crappy music to hear the gems. That takes time.
Rosie Helendale: ahh yes I can imagine the quest for good tunes is a time consuming and never ending one,,,, whats the most enjoyable part of DJing for you?
Qawi Aji: Hearing the tunes. I just love dnb, so I am happy to hear the tunes over and over again. A close second is hearing a good mashup in my mix, when it makes a new tune for about 20-30 seconds
A close third is knowing that people like what I am playing, when someone says "choon!" I love that too, but I can still play to an empty crowd as you know so those other two are first
Rosie Helendale: How do you go about making a set?
Qawi Aji: I used to plan all my sets, but now I just look through the list and select a new tune based on how it "feels" while the other tune is playing. I use a key selection system so when I choose a new tune, it should blend well with other tunes
What nomally happens is that while one tune is playing another can often just pop into my mind. then I play that.
Rosie Helendale: all about being in the moment
Qawi Aji: yes, now it is. I still like to prepare a mix, though, because then I can be in the moment during preparation for a much longer time and hear a lot more mashups
Rosie Helendale: ahh I see,, it works well,, I always enjoy your sets.
Qawi Aji: also, when i started connecting with people on soundcloud and they started to send me tunes, my stable of DJs got smaller and I realized I play the same few producers alot.
Rosie Helendale: I think all Djs tend to do that
Qawi Aji: yeah, I think so too, but in the past , they were basically forced into playing the same songs because they were limited by what  they could carry. Now we are limited by what we can see in the playlist. I think i have about 4000 tunes, mp3, and my list is long so sometimes I play a new song just because I was looking and scrolling the list too long and its time to put a new track on.
Now its all about folder management
Rosie Helendale: Do you DJ in any other clubs in second life?
Qawi Aji: When I first came back a couple of months ago, I played in a few different places, looking around till I found you. so no, just here.  Someone, I forget who, recommended your place. I'm glad they did
Rosie Helendale: ahh thank you for the compliment :) and very happy  you came!
Qawi Aji: The fact that you switched to  dnbheaven is great
Rosie Helendale: hehehe, its my favourite station, and lots of others like it too,, How did you get to be a DJ on DnB Heaven?Qawi Aji: I was actively searching for an online radio to DJ at and they were looking for DJs
Rosie Helendale: So you applied and then what happened?
Qawi Aji: They listen to the mix and decide on that
Rosie Helendale: Nice one,, Whats been your biggest influence?
Qawi Aji: Random movement for sure
Rosie Helendale: And finally, What's your favourite tune at the moment?
Qawi Aji: Random movement - soul on fire
Rosie Helendale: thank you so much for chatting with me today,,,I've enjoyed listening to your story

Pow Wow party

Tranquil Tribe Pow Wow ~ 11th Sept 2015

A sucessful get together, everyone enjoyed chilling to wicked DnB tunes. Thank You to the DJs and everyone that came to enjoy the party

Click the link below to see a video of the party

http://www.screencast.com/t/cXncAaotnz

The Story so far......When our favourite DnB beach hangout closed in April of 2015 we thought noooo, we want this to continue,,, so we opened our own beach. Now five months down the line, we have a small community of DnBers that regularly hang out together, welcoming anyone that wishes to join us.  We are lucky to have some talented DJs who come along to share their music mixes every week, including Rippledee, Mak, Menor, Q the Physicist (a DnB Heaven Radio DJ), Wookie, Devour, Joe Bass, Bouche, Barbarick to name a few.  Here are some photos,,, there are alot more which will all go on a Flickr page eventually