Common Ground '07, Adelaide - SOLD OUT!!!

*is resident Yoga Guru for Common Ground 07*

I want to make it this year...I really don't know what's going on with Uni though and if I'll have exams...I'll find out soon though

First year it was my 18th birthday during CG!
This year it will be my 20th!

I hope I can come!
I've missed everyone heaps

hehe it would be great to see you Roar

Also - anyone is welcome to DJ (I counted you among the 'top chill lineup' earlier mentioned Gabe! ) but you must bring your own headphones, and also make every attempt to fit in with the suggested flow - ie if you want to play trance, you play later in the day. etc. This will all become clearer when we redo the site.

yes, i hope that non psy/non prog djs get a fair chance.
poor UCOF got booted last year after playing about half hour of eclectic music, after waiting patiently for me to finish mostly 4/4 beats tunes...!

been collecting tasty slow beats all summer to share with u guys.

I think its a bit unfair that you seem to be suggesting that there was discrimination against 'non-psy' music at CG. While I'm the first to admit I love psy, I also love non-psy styles.

The reason why I think you may have noticed a lot of psy played is that:

1) The guys that own the rig and brought it down love psy and played psy sets on it - fair enough I think - they do provide the rig free.

2) during the day when most people didnt want to play a set, Biggins did an awesome job of playing epic psy sets (psy btw is what Biggins likes to play, we didnt twist his arm).

3) Most of the DJs wanted to play on the big rig and didn't take the opportunity to play on the little one, when I'm sure Biggins would have been happy to have had someone play for a few hours to break up his 8+ hour sets.

I didnt actually play at all, I gave up my set on the big rig so that we could accommodate some of the late editions to the lineup, that would include you, Bender and UCOF.

The DJ set times on the festival day were agreed and up on the site several weeks before CG.

sorry Bender, but it seems to me that you think we were somehow preventing non-psy, when really people were just playing what they wanted to play.

That said - I certainly WILL prevent some psy and non psy if people try to break it out. I personally find sexist violent gansta rap offensive, some mashups involving simply wrong material eg rape, paedophilia offensive, and most heavy metal offensive. Additionally I think that psy that contains obvious drug references is not appropriate either. If you think this is unreasonable lets talk about why you think that limiting the music to tunes that make people generally feel good or relaxed is wrong.

ugh - I hate to be confrontational like that, but I couldnt let that one go, and also - I think people need to know where Kate and I stand on this issue.

We believe that music is incredibly important and has a big impact on the vibe of the weekend. We want everyone to be happy, but we can't be radio DJs playing requests all weekend. If you want to hear a given style of music bring it along, with your headphones, and I'll teach you how to use my decks, and you can play a good long set of whatever you want - as long as its not offensive (as defined by us ).

as I said last year, Id love to hear more sets of;

-world
-vocal
-ambient
-classical
-dub
-electro
-techno
-hiphop
-breaks
-bolywood
-accoustic
-experimental

and stuff I've not ever heard before ++++!!!!!

You played a great set last year Bender, I can remember it.

I'm really looking forward to your set this year.

Josh

monkey magic theme ... but i like obvious drug referances... hmm...

yeah course you can play 80s

sounds like an excellent daytime happy set.

I'll run a how to use Josh's decks workshop on the friday night for anyone who may be unsure of how to mix n stuff.

Remember tho - if you want to DJ you cant just plug in your mp3 player and leave it on shuffle - you need to actually DJ (ie be there! )

Josh

Are you talking 80s and in the kind of stuff i'm going to hear on the radio, or more doof? just from the 80s? cos if its the former then ill say "whee!"

oh, and why cant people just leave ipods on shuffle? It gives the same purpose. it creates music. i dont think its fair to people who dont have the gear. not that i want to play anything im far to shy have people listen to my music, but maybe other people might.

Rouge, there will be other places that people can put on a CD/plug in an iPOD and listen to their tunes while they twirl etc, but the main system is for people who want to use the decks - and thats a number of people.

I personally don't think it's fair if one person goes and plugs in their iPOD and then goes off to spin - for one the music equipment is expensive and needs a supervisor at all times and another thing is there would be a number of other people who would really want a chance at using the decks and not even get the chance because this person is off *not using* the Dj equipment.

So that's why we have the rule of if you want to use the Dj decks you gotta use the decks or your computer and you HAVE to be there. Welcome to the world of the DJ - it's nice you get to hear your tunes but it comes with responsibilities too.

A question regarding the saturday night performance.

If we want particular music tracks for our segments, who should we give them to? and on what medium should they be on?

oh yeh....(assuming that i am allowed to do the show) bear in mind a couple of things.

come find me as soon as you can iwtrh your music, i'll be wandering around the site (look for the dreads & coopers ale bottle) as i'd like to be able to have a quick listen to the music before the show.

if you are gonna want music then please remember that most of my cds are of electronic music (and a fairly narrow genre with in that category) so it probably pays to bring your own trax.

it would help if you know (approximately) how long your fire sets are).

....oh....and organisers, no last minute line up changes in the show as this leads to confusion and slight embarrassment......and lets face it, it doesnt take much to confuse me

The song in mind is an MP3, but I can make it into a CD audio track if that would be more agreeable to Mr. Biggins

80s and Bollywood. My life is complete

Hmmm.... *imagines a fusion of Buddha Bar, Kitaro and Axion of Choice amongst other new agey and worldly stuff *

hahaha...its true...if you look for the sunburned dready person with a coopers bottle maybe you'll have more luck

Lex may not be coming *dan dan daaaaaaaan......*

We may need communial harassment on that one.

Im trying to get my sister to play a bolywood vs SE-asian pop set. She's got some interesting choons!

In addition to what Kate said;

Rougie - all you need is a set of headphones! If you have an Ipod then you have headphones! and some CDs! The reason why I would like people to DJ is it encourages them to be selective with their choices - if you stick an mp3 player on shuffle, well you wont be being very selective - and thus we will probly end up listening to loads of tracks that arent even YOUR favourites. Its the nature of mp-freeness that people tend to collect reams and reams of rubbish music - that they wouldnt pay money for in a fit!

Also - if you'd rather be out playing in the field, then you should be doing that! to Dj you have to really WANT to play your choons to people - and you give up dancefloor time for that. Plenty of times during sets I've played I've wanted to be out on the dancefloor listening to my favourite tunes, but playing them to other people took precendence!

One more thing - mp3s can be really really dodgy sound quality - and vary a lot depending on how much the person that encoded them cared about the music ie it takes much more care and more time to encode them at higher bitrate and variable bitrate than it does to just whack a whole abba album on the net encoded at 128 (which is noticeably lower quality than cd).

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why we dont want just 'radio playing in the background'. In fact, if it were that kind of party, then...well, it would be being put on by people who dont really care about music (ie not Kate, me, Biggins, marty, serena or anyone else that has taken a major role in making CG happen in the past).

I dont think its too much to ask that if you want to play your music at 150 people you should at least be there making sure its the best tunes you have.

Perhaps you were thinking about wiping your iPod and only putting Mp3s on it for your set? well that would in theory be ok - but wouldnt address the issues that Kate raised, and also - I think its likely that if we open it up to the ipod shufflers we will be listening to music that simply isnt good (or even sufficiently cheesy) in any way, cuz every man and his dog has an mp3 player filled with some good tracks, and many they may not have heard, or even like.

yep Biggins, I think the billions of mp3 players on a table in the dark is a recipe for disaster (as is anything else that's battery powered in a show).

What we will do is set up a playlist on a laptop with people's choice of tunes, which you can then mix with Biggins.

Also - we should have 2 rigs - so we will be able to set up and sound test the show rig during the day this time!! (anyone who was around for the hardcore effort required to get the show ready last time would attest to it being much nicer if it were all doable in the day)

hmm, just wondering josh, whats a good bitrate for djing?

This semester I have Mondays and Tuesdays off, if the timetable stays like that next semester then count me in...

Or if it doesn't and I have class on the Monday...then count me in anyway

I cant pick the difference with bitrate = 320 but I certainly can at 128. I think bigger is better, but bigger than 320 is a waste IMHO and CD is best :waits for the vinyl bashers to decend on him:

hmm.....i just wrote a long "anti-mp3" answer then trashed it cos it was boring and geeky but personally i would say at least 192 kbps.


oner laptop wityh all the tracks = good
two sound systems also = good

are you having drummers? if so.....well you know....