With the onslaught of new controllers, there remains an old friend common to just about all of them, the USB connection. And just as our DJ equipment keeps evolving and improving, the folks behind the USB protocol are ever pushing to keep up too. With the now old announcement of USB 3.0 and it’s failure to show up on new equipment, DJTT dug into the background a little to see what gives and when we too can look forward to some new USB zoom-zoom.
Author Archive
Extend Your Laptop’s Battery Life
You get to the club with plenty of time, carefully set up all your equipment and, with just five minutes before start time, realize the worst: the laptop’s power supply is at home. In this nightmare scenario (which is more common than you might imagine) it is essential to know how to extend your battery life and get as much time as possible out of the laptop before the music stops. Let’s go into some tips on how to avoid this situation and deal with it if the problem pops up.
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Multi-Colored Dicer LED Mapping
The introduction of the Dicer may have heralded a new marriage of turntables and controllers, but as with all new marriages, there is a lot to be fully explored. The current rash of YouTube videos featuring the Dicer have only begun to skim the surface of the technical and creative possibilities. While mapping my own Dicers in Traktor Pro, I discovered a whole slew of LED color options, as well as the possibility to control the LED intensity. In this article we have a short video and matching color table that will demonstrate how to map your DJ software to various color outputs on the dicer or other multi-LED controllers.
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My Visit To The TechTools Labs
While in San Francisco, I dropped in on DJTT to meet the people I have been working with in the virtual world and to pick up some of the hot new items from the store. We all feel very familiar with our online community but I was wondering just what the physical TechTools is like? Read on to meet the crew and take a look behind the scenes as I chronicle my visit to the lab.
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A New Traktor Controller is Coming
NI just released a teaser video featuring Dubfire rocking Space, Ibiza with an un-identified Traktor controller and software. Learn what we know about this new release along with some high resolution screen grabs after the jump!
MacBook USB Port Inequality
An audio issue is every DJ’s worst nightmare, after all audio is our art! For digital DJs, there are two sets of audio to worry about: analogue and digital, with USB being the most popular means for our digital hook-up. For MacBook and MacBook Pro users, the choice of which of the two available USB ports to use for your sound card hook-up may have never occurred to you. New evidence is showing, that especially with the new i5 and i7 models, you might be missing out on performance by choosing the wrong port.
Traktor VS Itch
For years Traktor was the only game in town if you wanted professional dj software that accommodated controller DJs. Now with two years under it’s belt, Serato Itch has 4 decks, FX and sync, and is starting to look like a real player in the internal mix market. Many DJs are understandably confused as to which platform will better suit their needs with so much marketing hype for both products. To help save you some trouble, lets look at a straight up comparison of what each platform has going for them. Continue reading Traktor VS Itch
Using Multiple Controllers With Itch
Serato Itch is well known for its tight controller/software integration, but this comes at the price of having no externally mappable functions. With its fixed controller layouts, many have longed to have at least cue point juggling from a controller that is better laid out for that purpose, like the Midi Fighter. Using a couple of simple tools, I will show you how to do just that, and more.
Allen & Heath Xone DX Review
The long awaited arrival of A&H’s four-channel midi mixer has brought about its share of both criticism and praise. Boasting some great specs, the first version of Serato Itch with four decks, and full midi support for use in any other software, it seems to have it all. But beyond the hype lies the end user – you. The DJTT team cut through the fluff and put the Xone:DX through its paces to see what it can do.
Know Your Connections- Dj Essentials
Connecting dj gear, setting up speakers and re-wireing a booth under pressure can be a harrowing experience. When people are paying you good money to play great music, they also expect the sound to be up to snuff- so understanding connections really well is just as important to DJs as pulling off the latest mixing tricks. In this article we will cover a few connection essentials and expand deeper into the balanced and un-balanced concept.
Bringing Producer Tools to the Masses
By: Philip Matthews
An iPad pretending to be a full on hardware synth? Has the time come when our beloved hardware is replaced by software? Anybody who has used a software synth is rolling on the ground laughing now but Korg may get the last laugh. They have released a digital version of their much-loved electribe for only 10 bucks, making us wonder how serious is this thing?
