Derek Sanders

News

User Registration

by on Mar.28, 2014, under News

I’ve been trying various methods to handle the spam accounts that get registered on wordpress sites. My latest was to require users to verify their e-mail addresses, but that doesn’t seem to really matter to the bots. Since I don’t want to close down registration entirely I have decided that from now on if you don’t have an approved comment within a few days of registering I am deleting the account. Accounts won’t expire, but I just can’t find a better solution.

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Show Updates

by on Jan.28, 2014, under News

It has been a few months since I did an Elysium, but I am going to attempt to make up for that. Starting in February, Elysium will switch to a twice monthly broadcast. It is slotted for the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month at 6pm ET on the same station. I will try to promote the show since now I can actually be available when it airs. It is only set for an hour, but since no one comes on afterwards, I will likely return to a 2 hour set every 5th show (80, 85, etc.).

It has also been more than a year since my last vocal mix, and I haven’t forgotten about it. I have quite the collection from the last year, but the problem is that the tracks as a whole don’t work together. So I will continue to wait. In retrospect I am happy that I discontinued Vocal Elysium, 2013 was a horrible year for vocal tracks, and I can’t imagine how much cheese filled other vocal radio shows to compensate.

I am also still exploring a new Grilled Sessions, and then a follow up to Kinetic Elysium to submit to DI’s Trance channel.

Elysium 077 will air February 6th @ 6pm ET.

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Vocal Elysium Update

by on Mar.22, 2013, under News

I have been receiving a lot of emails about this show, so I thought I would make a news post. I am officially ending Vocal Elysium as a regularly scheduled radio show. The last one I did was the X-Mas Special, and I had skipped December’s before that. For the last three months I kept consolidating material in hopes I could finally get a new show, but each month I fell short. I have said this before, but I will say it again: there is not enough quality vocal trance releases on a monthly basis for any DJ to think they can put out mixes that are actually of any quality, and certainly not any to meet my standards.

However, don’t fret, the spirit and power of the vocal mixes isn’t lost on me. A high quality vocal mix can motivate me more than any of my other styles, in fact, I pretty much only run to Vocal Elysium mixes. I will be continuing the mixes in some fashion. Whether I return to using the “The Vocals” title or continue with Vocal Elysium, the end result will be the same, and I will still be submitting the mixes to Digitally Imported’s Vocal Trance channel. My feeling is that this will be better for me, and for you, the listener. While there could be any number of months between shows (there was almost 2 years between The Vocals Volume 4 and 5), the upshot is that the quality of the mixes will always be high, and there won’t ever be filler.

Okay, that got wordy, anyways, I will end on a list of some of my favorite Vocal Elysium mixes:

Vocal Elysium 01
Vocal Elysium 02
Vocal Elysium 06
Vocal Elysium 12
Vocal Elysium 18
Vocal Elysium 21
Vocal Elysium Xmas 2012 Special

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Huzzah

by on Feb.04, 2013, under News

I took January off from mixing, but the shows will pick back up starting with Vocal Elysium on February 13th, and Elysium on February 21st. There might be changes to those schedules as I am considering transitioning Elysium to twice a month.

Some time ago I started the Disconnected series, which I had intended on doing weekly, but got sidetracked with work. Although, it was mostly because my CDJ’s kept having issues when plugged into my local network, so I couldn’t flip through my entire collection. I replaced my switch and ethernet cables, and that seemed to resolve the issue. I will probably start doing that on a weekly basis on Sunday probably around 6pm.

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End Of Year Mixes

by on Dec.23, 2012, under News

Vocal Elysium — Over on Digitally Imported there will be an End of Year Special on the Vocal Trance channel. If I can read the calendar correctly, then my set should be airing on Friday, December 28th around 2PM U.S. Eastern time. This is likely to be my last Vocal Elysium in any capacity as a regularly scheduled radio show.

Elysium — I am considering doing two EOY Elysium mixes. One exclusively uplifting, and then the other with the progressive, techy sound that has dominated this year.

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Happy Halloween

by on Oct.31, 2012, under News

I was feeling a little tired of my normal style, and decided to create a darker mix in celebration of Halloween. I enjoyed preparing the set, and it’s too bad not enough dark material comes across my ears to anticipate doing this every year. Though, a man can dream!

Anyways, join me in this festival of the dead!

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Reminders

by on Sep.07, 2012, under News

Vocal Elysium 023 will be airing on the Digitally Imported (www.di.fm) Vocal Trance channel Wednesday, September 12 @ 3pm ET. Then on Thursday, September 20 @ 4pm ET a special 2 hour Elysium 065 will be airing on ETN.fm’s Trance Channel.

I was also thinking about some of the most memorable songs in the past year or so. One that instantly comes to mind is Audien – Selective Hearing (Willem de Roo Remix). The song builds so masterfully, and the breakdown is beautiful, but what tops it off is the post-break. It is simultaneously filled with the same beauty of the break and the energy needed to make anyone listening to it dance.

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Disconnected Mixes

by on Jul.23, 2012, under News

For the last few weeks on Saturday, usually around 7pm ET, I have been getting on my decks and just having fun. I don’t really advertise it, but I do stream it on my own server (http://radio.derek-sanders.net:8000). I’ve been having a blast doing these; mainly for the reason that I have my entire collection to pick from when doing so. The problem with the radio shows is that they’re mostly my outlet for showing my favorite new tracks, and I never revisit the tracks.

I posted this past Saturday’s recording as Disconnected 001, and plan to continue to do this every week. I realize that 7pm ET is probably when everyone is going out, so maybe Sunday is a better day for this? Or just earlier in the day? If I get enough feedback I will solidify a time for this, and open up more spots on the radio stream.

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Good news everyone!

by on May.25, 2012, under News

It has been some time since I made any “news” postings on the site. A while back I was considering dropping my radio shows in favor of returning to my days of doing my “Individual Mixes”, that is, those that don’t have a common theme and aren’t part of a show. My friends encouraged me to continue the shows, but I also wanted to get back into doing my individual mixes. They always took time, and were meticulously planned, but I really enjoyed creating the perfect atmosphere.

The radio shows don’t necessarily allow me to do that, particularly Vocal Elysium. Too few good vocal tracks are released, and it ends up being these half-assed sets where I am basically annoyed. I try my best to keep them up to my standards, but I inevitably end up using a track I otherwise never would.

Some time ago I recorded my first mix in my return to doing my individual mixes. I’ve sat on it for a while since I was considering submitting it to DI.FM’s Trance channel, but was not sure on the tracks. Last week I submitted the tracklist, and got a response for consideration. The mix is titled Kinetic Elysium, but I will hold off on listing the tracklist until I know if it was accepted or rejected. If it is accepted I will post the mix after it airs, otherwise I will post it once I hear back.

I am also planning on doing The Vocals Volume 6 and Grilled Sessions Volume 3 and submitting those to DI.FM when I finish them.

Derek

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Elysium 050 special two hour show

by on Apr.02, 2011, under News

Elysium 050 is airing on April 21st and for the special milestone I am going to be doing a two hour show from 4pm EDT to 6pm EDT on the trance channel over at www.etn.fm

Vocal Elysium 11 is scheduled to air April 13th on the vocal trance channel @ 3pm EDT over at www.di.fm.

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