I’ve been so busy these past few months I’ve nearly forgotten about my personal website! For the handful of you who care: I apologize. To the rest: hai!

Some time ago the winners of the Fretta Contest were announced. Much to my surprise, Prop Hunt won 4th place. So what does this mean? Well, for Garry’s Mod players it means that in an upcoming update you will receive 5 additional gamemodes, including Prop Hunt, to play. For me, this means I have a lot more work ahead to get the gamemode polished and ready to ship.  I also need to get some non-copyrighted taunts to replace what is included with the current downloadable version. If I can’t find any or don’t have time to make my own, I’ll just offer the existing ones as a download pack.

If you have any suggestions for the gamemode now is the time to let me know. Post a comment or shoot me an e-mail. I may not respond, but I do read everything. Stay tuned and have a great weekend!

A new version of Prop Hunt is now available. The specific changes include:

• Fixed enemy players being able to walk through each other.
• Fixed Props rotating up/down after Garry’s Mod Update 78.
• Prop players can now hold down right-click when they aren’t moving to lock their prop rotation and look around.
• Removed crowbar from Hunter loadout.

Today, out of nowhere, Google launched a new service called Government Requests. The new service lists the number of times a country has requested content to be removed from Google servers. It also shows the number of times a country has requested information about people who visit Google.

Brazil is in first place for both categories, which was a surprise to me seeing as China has been a real pain in Google’s ass lately. But after reviewing the map again it all made sense:

I agree with you Google – a big red communist question mark fits better than any number could.

When I choose to upgrade to Virtual DJ 6 Pro I found that there was one feature in particular that was no longer available with the standard Hercules DJ Console RMX MIDI map. With the OEM version of Virtual DJ 5, when you pressed the “Loop-In” button (Button 1 on the RMX) after already having the loop set, it would divide the loop in half. This was useful for creating your own custom “Benassi style” build-ups before a song’s climax.

After a few minutes of digging on the Internet it became apparent that I would need to write my own VDJScript to get the effect I wanted. Thankfully the solution to the problem was extremely simple:

loop ? loop_half : loop_in

If you go ahead and stick that in to the RMX button map of your choice using Virtual DJ’s built in MIDI map editor you’ll be cutting down your loops in no time. Make sure your RMX is connected or Virtual DJ will not let you edit your RMX map file. If you don’t have your RMX handy, just open up the ‘Hercules DJ Console RMX mapping.xml’ file using your favorite text editor and edit the <map> tag of your choice:

<map value="BUTTON1" action="loop ? loop_half : loop_in" />

Practice and enjoy!

Before I dove head first into the DJ scene, I did a few weeks of research on what gadget would be a cost-effective way to test the water. Eventually I decided on the Hercules DJ Console RMX, which runs for about $329:

Now there are a couple reasons I choose the DJ Console RMX over other MIDI controllers. The first is the price. It isn’t dirt cheap, but it won’t break the bank either. And the second is that the RMX is one of the few MIDI controllers out there that is also an external sound card. I knew that if I pursued DJ’ing that it would be crucial for my MIDI controller to have analog inputs and outputs. There are four RCA inputs (channels 1-4). There are also two ground outlets so you can hook up vinyl turntables (time coded vinyl is also supported). And there are two types of output for all four channels, RCA and 1/4”.

The RMX comes packaged with Virtual DJ 5 OEM which is a stripped down version of Virtual DJ built to work exclusively with the RMX. While this is OK for plug and play, it becomes apparent that you will need more control over Virtual DJ and how it interacts with your RMX. For this you will need to bust out your credit card to buy Virtual DJ Pro. Fortunately, if you purchased the RMX (and held on to your Virtual DJ 5 OEM cd-key) you will be eligible to get 50% off the retail price of Virtual DJ Pro ($299).

The RMX ended up being a great way to see if I enjoyed DJ’ing enough to pursue it. Coincidentally, the RMX is what made DJ’ing enjoyable for me. I highly recommend it to anyone who is just starting out or even veterans looking for a new mixer. Once you get serious you can purchase some rack-ears and mount your RMX alongside the rest of your DJ gear.

Practice and enjoy!