Well, it’s that time again. Time for me to write an intro to the latest TF mag. There’s always so much to talk about and it’s hard to focus on what aspect of life here at Tasty needs to be told. This time however, the story is simple and 2-fold: Cornerstone and the Podcast.

Guys and Gals, this year is a major first. Tastyfresh will be running the dance club nights at the Cornerstone Festival. We’re doing it in partnership with BTU Live and taking over at the suggestion of the Underground, which has run the stage for the past two years. Chris and Cindy did an awesome job with it for the past two years. We have a LOT to thank them for. If you see them on the board or at Cornerstone this year, be sure to let them know that you appreciated their hard work.

This year is looking great. I can’t tell you who is playing just yet. We are making some big changes though. First, we are only going to have 2 DJs a night. Since we’re so limited by time, we decided not to cripple the opening DJs by only giving them 45-minute sets. That’s shorter than the demos we require. We also have permission to run a bit later this year, not much, just 30 min, but it still counts. People should now be able to catch the last main stage show and still make it for at least 30 min at the barn. The festival has also agreed to keep the area outside of the barn cleaner and to add more gravel to help with the runoff from the food vendors. How cool is that? Anyway, we’ll be feeding you more details over the coming weeks. Keep your eye on the homepage and the forums for more information.

How many of you have checked out the podcast? To date, the podcast’s 2 shows have been downloaded over 1,600 times. The third show is almost ready to go live. I’m just waiting on the last mix. It will be up by the end of the month.

For those of you who don’t know, we started a podcast back in January as part of the shows offered by BTUlive.com. Our show is between 2-3 hours each month and features some of the best Christian DJs and producers. So far we’ve had Jeremy Kadinger, DJ Dima, DJ Nigel Mack and well… myself. The next show will feature the music of Matt Hyatt of Giantslayers (www.giantslayers.com) and Paul Cooper (Ikon) – if I get his mix on Monday that is.

So, if you haven’t checked out the podcast yet, please do. There’s a main link on the site that will tell you how to subscribe and it is of course… free. If you are looking for some great music to keep you going at work or wherever, this is the place to find it.

That brings me to the content of this issue.  We’ve got 6 lovely articles for you this time around. First up is another culture commentary piece by Shana Gray. Next, we’re continuing our exploration of what it really takes to be an Ableton Dj. Some say not much, but the deeper into Ableton Live you go, the more technical it seems to get. The battle here is not beatmatching on 2 decks, but setting up a rock solid system and set of templates before your performance. Last time, DJ Dual Core gave us a basic idea of what type of hardware we needed. This time around, Chris Reiche takes us deeper in the quest for the perfect Ableton Live template.

We also are bringing you an interview with Wim van Wingerden of Deepsink Records that was originally posted on the Deeplife Records blog. If you love trance and haven’t heard of Deepsink yet, you should read this interview. Lastly. S. Zeilenga returns to us this issue with a look at not only how we should use our talents for God, but the responsibility that we have to do so. 

OK…  I know, I know, I’m supposed to have the 5th article in my Unity series this issue. I blame Cornerstone. I gotta have a breaking point. It is coming though and I am planning to do it for the next issue.

As always, thanks for checking out Tastyfresh and for being involved here.