A couple of DJX “DAWless jams”

Over the past few weeks, I’ve tripled the number of keyboards in my office (the electronic music kind of keyboards, not the typing kind). As a result, I’ve probably more than tripled the amount of music I’ve played as well.

Before I took up the accordion, I played the synth. I’ll continue to play the squeezebox, but it’s also nice to get back to my roots.

The DJX jam

About five weeks ago, I drove to a Steak n Shake in Valrico to meet someone to buy their Yamaha DJX, a dance music keyboard released in 1998, and a keyboard I regret not buying back then.

A day after I bought it, I did a little “DAWless jam” (that’s the term the kids use these days for “playing a physical instrument without the aid of computer software”) on the DJX. I started recording, picked a beat, and jammed for a couple of minutes.

Afterward, I gave the recording a listen and thought, “this needs to be on a 1990s cyberpunk-style video.” So I took the track, grabbed some cyberpunk clips from Canva and Pixabay, and assembled this video in Camtasia:

All told, I recorded the jam in under ten minutes, and put the video together over a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon.

The DJX II jam

The other keyboard I regret not buying back then was the Yamaha DJX II, the follow-up dance music keyboard to the DJX, released in 2000. In more than a few ways, the DJX is a better keyboard than its successor, but damn, the DJX II is a better rhythm machine than the original.

Rare as the DJX is, the DJX II is even more so. I found the DJX through good ol’ manual Googling. I found the DJX II only because I’d cobbled together a little Python script to comb through Craigslist’s “musical instruments” pages in cities all over the U.S. for a DJX II. As I wrote in an article I wrote earlier, it worked.

On Saturday, I recorded another DAWless jam, this time on the DJX II, and here’s the result. No video this time — just the audio of me pretending to be the backup band for Morcheeba or Lamb or Tricky:

What do I plan to do with all these jams?

Among other things, I make technology videos, which I post on the Global Nerdy YouTube channel. While I think I have a pretty good narrating voice (I’ve been told time and again that I should be on the radio), a video still benefits from having a good soundtrack. I already do the writing, presenting, and graphics — why not also do the music?

My videos already incorporate my music, and there’ll be more — both videos and music — soon!