About 2 months ago a brand new controller showed up out of no-where and the big three, CDM, SkratchWorx and Dj TT all wrote about the mixer in the same day. The small website dedicated to the controller crashed under the weight of the traffic and the creators of the multi colored Aurora, were surprised to find them selves besieged with requests to buy their new product. The only problem? There was no product.
As you may have noticed, djtechtools.com has been seriously dysfunctional for the past 24 hours. Our host providor, Blue-Host aka “the last company you every want to depend on for reliable service or hosting” randomly deleted a bunch of files inducing every picture we have upload in the past year. During the process of trying to recover those files, they made more mistakes and our wordpress installation became corrupt. After a full day of work its all back now but any comments or questions asked over the past 3 days have been lost along with the article I wrote for today. That article, a review of the Aurora controller, will get posted on wed instead.
Any recommendations for a new server?
About a year ago, I suggested a feature to the Traktor team which they quickly implemented much to my joy. It was instant deck duplication to and from any deck. Even though this is great for the obvious application of freeing up a deck its also turned out to be good for many other creative uses. Lately I have been getting into juggling opposing copies of the same track with different treatments and cue points tricks. Lets walk through 5 fundamental techniques and then roll them into one routine:
Continue reading ‘Rockin Digital Doubles’
The Vestax VCI-100 made quite a splash in the digital DJ market, selling a significant number of units and raising the bar for DJ MIDI controllers. The most significant difference between the VCI-100 and its larger cousin, the VCI-300, is more conceptual than physical. The VCI-100 is a multipurpose MIDI controller designed to interface with a broad range of DJ software by offering a generic palette of controls that could suit many purposes. The VCI-300 adopts an entirely different approach. It has been designed specifically to control one piece of software, the Itch program from one of the leaders in the DVS world: Serato. The goal, as explained to me several months back, was to eliminate the disconnect between hardware and software design so that all the important controls in the software are found in a logical place on the physical mixer. The end result would be a cleaner marriage between the virtual and analog world and a much easier setup for the user. Anyone can plug in a VCI-300 and have it work right out of the box with the supplied Itch software — no MIDI mapping or tedious software setup required.
While not exactly a new concept, djing with a wireless Nintendo Wii controller aka “Wiijing” certainly fits into our theme this week. For those that missed Mondays post, we decided on a whim that this week is National Nintendo Week. Dont ask me why, I really have no idea.
That conversation got started up in the forum about making a VCI-100 look like a Nintendo paddle. Little did the they know we have been working with several companies on creating some very high quality overlays for the VCI-100. The final product (available in about 4 weeks) is able to wrap around the top and sides of a VCI, changing the color and graphics to anything we want. These are not low-quality vinyl stick-ons but the same manufacturers that make durable, OEM overlays for products like Moog and Rane mixers. That means they will last forever and always fit on perfectly. So I told the Ryan, who started the thread, ” we can make that happen!” Since then one of our most frequent posters, Tekki and I have been working together on fine tuning the final design which has come a long way from the original concept.
Who amongst us has not had their love of buttons forged in the fires of Super Mario land? None, I surmise, none. There-fore its not surprising that most men in their 20’s still have a soft spot for all things Nintendo, especially the original NES paddle. With the exception of the Wii, frankly, its all been down hill from there
Check out the video below for a guide on how to re-use those original paddles for other interesting things like giant Nintendo controllers.
When djing, your essentially a pilot manning the helm of a plane. While there are many obvious things your in charge of during the flight, there is one that you may not think of. Its your job to make sure the sound coming out of the speakers is the best quality it can be. Lets look at a few basic rules you should follow to keep yourself out of the red.
Continue reading ‘Dont Crash the Plane- Follow these rules.’
Readers are Saying