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We are 7! – When people ask me how old I am, I’m of an age that requires serious grey matter overload, accompanied by a look to the sky and an unsure response delivered with an annoying upwards inflection. But this is not so with skratchworx – I’m pleased to announce that skratchworx has reached the grand age of 7. Older than me in dog years, but only just.
Beathook – like a meat hook, but less blood – The mixer, the floor or on top of of a moving platter. These are places that my headphones usually end up – none which are ideal, but what are you supposed to do in the heat of the mix? This is exactly what Charles MacEachern pondered for some time, and thus set about finding a solution. And that solution is the Beathook – a stupidly simple idea that should safeguard your headphones.
4MidiLoop – now with Pro X Fades – A little while ago, we talked about the best Traktor controller that NI never made. Well they’ve filled that particular gap, so where does that leave 4MidiLoop? Just about ready to ship that’s where – and it’s come on quite a bit since you first saw it too. DJ geeks always dreamed of a mixer box full of prime time faders, and 4MidiLoop has not 1 not 2 not oh bugger it there’s 5 Pro X Fades inside this beauty, as well as what looks like all the buttons and knobs in the world too. Say hello to the finished 4MidiLoop.
4 decks? Try 99 with Virtual DJ 7 – Just using 2 decks is sooo old now. Next week it’ll be retro and the week after vintage. It seems it’s all about running 4 decks now, and like lemmings people are chucking themselves at this weeks new controllers as if it’s quite impossible to mix 2 songs together with just 2 channels. Perish the thought. Unless you wanted to drop cash on an ITCH controller or Traktor Pro, you had little in the way of more than 2 deck control inside your computer – until now. Virtual DJ 7 was unleashed at the DJ Expo in Atlantic City yesterday, and technically has the ability to use 99 decks. That gig bag looks a little small now.
The Bridge is open – biddy bye bye – Cast your minds back to BPM 2008 – yes 2 years ago now – when Serato announced that they were getting into bed with Ableton to merge the DJ specific environment of Scratch Live with the much more music making world of Live. NAMM 2010 saw the first public demos and complete descriptions of exactly what this would exactly entail hit the netwaves. Mixtape spits Live-friendly files out of Rane boxes, and The Bridge essentially drops Live into the SSL world. And now, the day after NI’s most awaited DJ announcement, and after an achingly long time where the shine threatened to disappear from this borderline mythical partnership, the public beta – yes PUBLIC – is available. It’s about bloody time too.
NEW: Traktor Kontrol S4 – Traktor controllers are nothing new. Being the de facto standard MIDI DJ application for eons, many lumps of hardware have come out that have been made to work with Traktor. But when the word was out that Native Instruments were making hardware specifically FOR Traktor, we all knew it had to be special. And having seen how focussed the Kontrol X1 was, it was clear to see that NI would have something special for us. And while it’s taken years to arrive, the Traktor Kontrol S4 just raised the bar for other controllers considerably.
NEW: Denon DN-MC6000 4 deck MIDI controller – DJing is evolving in 2 directly opposing directions. On one hand, the digital age allows us to do so much more than we ever could before, yet at the same time we want to scale down our setups into highly portable units that can be slung into a flight friendly case. More stuff – space = challenge for manufacturers. But they are trying their best to give a 4 deck experience in a small box. A&H have the xone:DX, American Audio have the VMS4 and NI have whatever it is they have – and now Denon have their very own 4 deck DN-MC6000.
NEW: Denon DN-SC2000 single deck MIDI controller – I’ve often wondered why manufacturers churn out complete DJ setups in handy sized boxes, but neglect the 3rd and 4th channels offered by Traktor that could easily be handled with a simple MIDI enabled deck. EKS, DJ Tech and Reloop for example do single MIDI decks, and now Denon enter the fray with a more substantial steel cased MIDI only deck. The DN-SC2000 is a MIDI only audio-free box full of knobs and buttons, but importantly a jogwheel too.
Denon’s Hybrid Mode – media-free DVS action – Hybrids – the ill-fated CD and vinyl technology that everyone thought they craved but actually didn’t. But Denon’s hybrid mode is something different. Essentially, via a free firmware update (yes it’s that simple), Denon’s DN-S3700 and DN-S1200 get an update that allows them to be used as timecode-free spinny platter decks for “various supported DVS applications”, but most notably Serato Scratch Live.
DN-X1600 – leaves your interface at home – The digital DJ’s life has for some become a nightmare of cables and additional lumps of hardware that allegedly makes life more simple. Yeah right. But Traktor Scratch certification does make life simpler – Native Instruments bestow this upon mixers with built in audio interfaces capable of handling the heavy demands of Traktor Scratch Pro, thus allowing you to leave a large part of the birds nest at home. The Denon DN-X1600 Digital DJ Mixer has just got itself one such sticker to put on the faceplate.