All those beautiful adverts you see for controllers and music gear always show the shiny devices floating freely in a wonderland of white space and light. Once you actually get the thing home you’re faced with using it in on a real-life table filled with cables, cups of tea and other pieces of electronic junk. I like to keep my laptop front and center instead of to the side, so mixing involved a lot of leaning over a table for extended amounts of time. There had to be a better way, so I started looking around for the ultimate laptop stand.
Continue reading ‘The Cheapskate’s Laptop Stand’
At this price point there should not be much of a difference right? Well, one thing we do not like around here is assumptions without any real evidence or experience to support that assumption. So, while writing a new column for Remix magazine about sound cards I took it upon my self to try and find out what separates a $100 sound card from a $800 one. After talking to all kinds of “experts” and engineers and after sifting through mountains of marketing propaganda I had a really hard time really finding any quantifiable differences. This reality is hard for us to accept in a society that places a high value on the price tag of a product. “Its $1000, so its got to be the best right?!”
Continue reading ‘4 Dj Sound Cards under $200 (updated)’
Even after our popular dj bag discussion, I was still searching for the perfect bag for my VCI-100 because after a few international trips I had ruined the pitch faders by not storing the VCI in a good enough bag. The guys at AMS suggested the UDG producer bag and were kind enough to send us one to check out. It looks like the perfect Dj bag for taking a VCI-100 or other small controller on planes but lets see if I ruin another set of pitch faders this summer in europe…..
The pitter-patter of excited chatter has been bouncing across cyber space about a new Dj device called the “pacemaker”. This hand-held player is essentially what everyone wished the I-Pod could do but with more realistic dj controls. Unfortunately it will set you back more than $700 and to be honest, I wonder if anyone will even enjoy using it. Most djs like twisting knobs because it taps into our male psyche in such a powerful way. I just cant see anyone really replacing knobs unless they do so with the one shape we enjoy playing with even more- the phallus. Need proof? Go to your local guitar shop.
Although the non-dj press is raving about how much they love the concept, ”An amazing gadget, this could be one of the biggest hits- Simon Perry, Digital Lifestyles” , it remains to be seen if djs will embrace it. Lately the target market of most digital dj devices seems to be squarely aimed at the bedroom consumer and weekend warriors as they correctly assume that market has the most buying power. While the economics of these designs is intelligent they fail to take into account that this group tends to look to the professional users for purchase guidance. Make a product that is good enough for the pros but cool enough that everyone wants to buy it and then you will have a truly successful offering. To their credit the creators of pacemaker have obviously put a lot of thought and intelligent design into a small package but we are curious to see who will end up using it.
An inexpensive way to add advanced midi technology to a simple controller
One of our active users, Matt, brought this great little device to our attention. Its a stick on touch pad that is designed to duplicate a mouse surface on your keyboard. Great for your Aunt sally’s desk job but its not quite enough to get djs in a tizzy. However, if you consider that this device is a HID (or human interface device) and you happen to know about a handy little program called Junxion. Well, then wheels start turning very quickly and my nerd side runs around the house excitedly. You see, Junxion will take ANY HID and turn it into very usable midi data. Translation. Stick this bad boy on your midi controller, program it with a HID to MIDI software program and bingo- instant X/Y pad on any midi controller.
Continue reading ‘$25 MIDI PAD’
There have been a few rumors and many questions floating around about the new Vestax VCI-300 controller. We held off reporting anything official until we got our own facts but now we have some good news for you from the Vestax distributor and Vestax Japan: Continue reading ‘The VCI-300 lowdown’
This thing is so cool. There, I did it; I gushed at a pro-sumer iPod DJ gadget. Having been deeply involved in digital DJ technology for the past five years, sometimes things get so techy that we forget in the end it’s all about music. The iDJ2 seems to step aside, give you just what you need to mix and let you enjoy playing music. Several times I completely forgot that I was writing a review and just really enjoyed mixing two tracks together. For a DJ that learned the ropes on vinyl more than a decade ago, that was very refreshing. If you want to cut, scratch, beat juggle and drop insane loops and effects, then the iDJ2 is not for you. However, if you just want to seamlessly blend together your digital music collection without needing a laptop, your search may be over.
Continue reading ‘Full IDJ-2 Review’
Dj Tech Tools shot video on all of the controllers from NAMM so as I get them edited they will get posted. Do you think we should do all the rest in one big “NAMM 2008 controllers” video or give each one its own video?
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