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As opposed to just playback from a laptop with little to no real-time modulation... http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?id=timex ile_us&flash=0 "Tim has spent the last year creating and perfecting a radical tool for live performance. Based entirely around Reaktor 5 and a set of customised faders and controllers, it allows him to manipulate samples and his own voice in real time. The unique Exile setup has been showcased at raves and gigs all over the UK and Europe. Native Instruments talked to Tim about his musical past, present and future, and got some very interesting answers. The interview was held at Fail Headquarters in London. " Also, can't get to it right now, but search him on youtube and you can find videos of him performing live. Also see Scrambledhackz... http://www.popmodernism.org/scrambledhackz/ Check the videos section... "Technically my mind music machine was realized in form of a software, which basically consists of three modules: a pre-analyzer, a database and a synthesizer. Using the pre-analyzer it is possible to automatically split up an arbitrary amount of audio material into small musically and rhytmically meaningful snippets. For each of those snippets its sonic properties (sound signatures) are extracted by means of psychoacoustic techniques and saved in a database so that a soundpool of samples referenced by their sound signatures is becoming available. The synthesizer analyzes an audio input stream and again splits it up into small snippets and calculates their sound signatures. For every input snippet (or actually its sound signature) the best match out of all the snippets in the database is found and each input snippet is continuously replaced by the best matching (most similar-sounding) snippet from the database. The audio input, which can be other music or as I use it, just human voice, is virtually describing music to be automatically constructed out of samples found in the database." Also see Merzbow...

Computer music composition has moved far beyond sequencers and hardware instruments. To be a serious contender Linux would have to run this or this, and also this. There are some clever ways to get some VST instruments to work under Linux, but that's far beyond what most composers will tolerate, and none of the above programs will work in any way on Linux. They're kinda like the composer's Photoshop. There are many more programs that also have no equal on Linux, but almost all the sound libraries rely on the first two, as does all the serious competition for the third.

Final Scratch 2 and Traktor DJ Studio 2.6 (3.0 will work too) is a killer combonation.

Go get yourself a set of inexpensive direct drive turntables and a 2 channel mixer, hook up a Final Scratch 2 to a Firewire port, fire up Traktor DJ studio 2.6, let it analyize your mp3's, and you'll be mixing within a few hours.

Traktor 2.6 works with the Final Scratch 2 and let's you do everything you would normally do with records with your mp3 (pick up the needle, move it forwards and backwards and set it down, spin it up, slow it down, scratch, wind it backwards, everything), and Traktor will give you very clear visual cues to help you get your beats in line.

Of course beatmixing is one of the easier skills to acquire, and alone does not make a good DJ. But given that you can probablly put this together for around $1,000 dollars and have a totally viable digital DJ system for learning on, I'd suggest it to anyone who's serious about learning how to make this happen without buying top of the line gear which can easily top $10,000 for just a basic setup.

So you can run software like this without needing a peripheral.

I would kill for a Powerbook with knobs on it.

As it is I don't mind using a few of these, but you know, it seems logical to me that small well-engineered knobs are an obvious addition to the Powerbook cult ..

From my opinion as a student of computer arts/digital arts, the first thing you have to ask yourself is how to include the computer in your artistic work.
I can recommend the Book "Composing Interactive Music" from Todd Winkler, as I found it not only interesting for re-thinking how to use Computers in artistic installations, but also how to completely rethink computer interaction.
Winkler proposes a framework of 5 stages which i think can also be adoped for any digital works, not only music.
The book is inteded for composers working with max/msp, a visual programming language where object boxes can be "patched" together; this style of working shows fast results, as this kind of software is working "realtime", meaning you get constant ouptput of the things you are doing or the parameters you are changing.
I am working with this kind of "patchable software interfaces" for more than five years now; and this is also teached on the University of Applied Arts in Vienna/Austria, where I am studying.
If it comes to interaction (sound-visual, sound-dancers, graphics-interface, whatever) in the field of artistic work, these tools such as
PD Pure Data (windows/mac/linux) - Audio/Video/3D (GEM,Framestein) -opensource-
Cycling74 max/msp (windows/mac) - Audio/Video/3D (also see Nato and Jitter) -free 30days demo-
Native Instruments Reaktor (windows/mac) -commercial, but has education pricing-
vvvv (win) -free-
are used from lots of the people around.
there are hell lots more, you might want to take a look at the audiovisualizers.com tool shack, or pawfal.org for example.

For some visual examples and also works, you might want to take a look at
http://www.harvestworks.org/maxreel/
http://puredata.info/community/ (mostly audio)
talking chair (vvvv+hardware)
http://www.realtimearts.net/

or you might also want to take a look at the department of digital art in the university of applied arts/vienna.
currently we are a group of people trying to bring opensource and arts together. there are also workshops and lots of projects going on: http://5uper.net

for sure there are also "standard" programs teached, which are good for working with business and advertising companies -- but if we are speaking about digital arts, that's going beyond the standard approach of software use. at least for me.

Here's a link for Guitar Rig, which seemed to have been stripped from my previous reply.

I didn't post above, but I currently use both XP and 2000 daily. Make your own decisions but I also use OS X daily and it's far and away the most pleasant working environment I've encountered to date. That doesn't mean it's perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but that's not the point now, is it.

As for "OS 9," um, who's talking about OS 9?

If you want Unix, install Linux... FreeBSD... SuSE... Debian... Lycoris... Lindows... There are choices in the Windows world.

Well, by the time I've finished clicking through the (Continue) buttons in an OS X install I've managed to install both the entire GUI environment and the entire Unix OS. I can also install other Unix systems on Mac hardware, but frankly I've got everything I need right here.

I don't need to install anything else except Logic Pro 6, Ableton Live, MetaSynth, ArtMatic Pro, MetaTrack, Voyager, VTrack, Absynth, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniDiskSweeper, Studiometry, FileMakerPro, Adobe Creative Suite, LaunchBar, MySQL, Perl 5.8.3, Fink, Plone, Keynote, BBEdit, FastTrack Schedule Pro, Sonasphere, Toast 6, ZBrush, and a few more but I'll get to those tomorrow.

I run all these (plus my email, internet, contacts management, calendaring, etc) in the same operating environment; not an emulation shell, not after dual-booting, but in the very same operating system and simultaneously.

To top it all off OS X comes with a full set of developer tools, documentation and optimization utilities, plus Cocoa+Obj-C is a match made in heaven.

There's no need to pay Apple for a decent Unix experience.

Well, I believe there is. I enjoy the ability to support quality whether it's a film, a restaurant, a music venue, a book, clothing, my neighborhood, an artist, etc. every single day.

The hardware is just a hunk of material until you've discovered/designed an interface with which to use it. Solely on a base consumer level, I'm very happy to pay Apple for what is, in daily practice, a superior computer operating system. From the level of both a technology consultant and a media creator, the solution is very simple.

OS X is a very impressive "Holy Grail" for all my current activities. Strap me in because I'm ready to get to work.

How come something that emulates the MT-32 1987 sound module that most people haven't heard of gets into trouble, yet programs like Propellerheads's Rebirth, which emulates three much-sought after pices of Roland gear, seems to have no trouble? Did they pay royalties or something? What about Native Instruments cloning Yamaha's DX-7 synthesiser and Sequential Circuits's Prophet 5?

This assumes that either the software that comes with it is usable or that the unit can be made to work with something like Traktor.

I doubt the former, and hope for the latter.

As a DJ and audiophile I've archived my CD collection with Ogg Vorbis, [...]

May I enquire what you, as a DJ, do with these Ogg files? Traktor doesn't seem to support it and as far as I know there aren't any other viable computer-DJ-solutions out there. Traktor does support the iPod, incidentally, but maybe it will support that Dell thingy (or other players) at some point in the future.

As a DJ and audiophile I've archived my CD collection with Ogg Vorbis, [...]

May I enquire what you, as a DJ, do with these Ogg files? Traktor doesn't seem to support it and as far as I know there aren't any other viable computer-DJ-solutions out there. Traktor does support the iPod, incidentally, but maybe it will support that Dell thingy (or other players) at some point in the future.

Hello.

Custom Software running on Custom Hardware vs. Custom Software running on Commodity Hardware.

Duh ...

All of the above have problems though for any DJ who plays house, pop, any form of techno/dnb/IDM/trance etc. I'd say my experience here in Toronto is that a small minority of DJ's use CD decks like the pioneer CDJ-1000. Those who do complain about their inability to get new records. You have to understand that in dance music most remixes come on vinyl and the underground releases "white labels" which often contain tracks with uncleared samples or bootleg remixes. The sorta stuff trendy clubbers and raves go nuts for.

Absolutely 0 (zero) scratch artists use digital machines. Their haptic interfaces aren't nearly as robust as vinyl. The basis of urban/electronic music is sampling. The catalog of vinyl records out there is huge and most of all they're cheap! To this day most hip-hop is produce like so: Sample a record into an Akai MPC, re-arrange and have an MC rap on top of it. Sure you could get your hot James Brown beat on a CD in some greatest hits or remastered disc but this is music from the ghetto. "Real" hip-hoppers are poor and even when they make their millions and are dripping with ice and fat chains they still use records. Vinyl is cultural. All of these new digital products definitely have their creative niches though. Ming & Fs use CDJ-1000's exclusively so they don't have to get acetate pressings of their records while they do extensive touring. Lots of people use traktor and final scratch to play their own new material that they aren't yet ready to commit to a a short run of records.

I guess my point is that even though CD/MP3/OGG/Whatever units are more economically and technologically advanced vinyl is cultural. An analogy would be between a string section in an orchestra and some of the more advanced MIDI keyboards we have today. To the untrained ear a synthesized string pad sounds the same as a performed one. But classical music is an instituition. There are professionals who've trained for decades to play their instruments. Telling them to replace their Strad with a Korg Trinton keyboard would be laughable. DJ's are no different, scratching and mixing is no less challenging. I have the unique position of being both a classical viola player AND somebody who likes to play a few records. I dunno what DJ Scene you're from but here in Toronto which is home of a very vibrant urban/electronic/dance music scene a large majority of DJs use vinyl.

Fair point, but it's not the same as a pair of decks. It doesn't have the hands-on feel to it, and it certainally doesn't hold the same mystique for the fans of the art.

Plus, let's hear some scratching on those CDs... ;-)

The only reason that vinyl is still alive is because most dance/underground/techno is released on vinyl FIRST. That's why.

Not strictly true, the whole scene is dominated by vinyl, not just the releases. Fans don't get excited by someone pressing buttons!

Don't get me wrong, I love all the new tech here, I for one have never owned any vinyl, despite being old enough to have had it available. The apps like Atomix and Trakor really interest me as all my media is digital, but when I show them to my DJ friends, they are curious, but uninterested. DJs get the girls, nerds don't.

Reaktor by Native Instruments. It's got incredible analog synth support and a very extensible architecture. Since it does full sound modeling, you can create your own custom instruments from scratch. Not the cheapest around, but if you search Usenet, you'll find lots of user praise for it.

By all means, give us the ability to make good mixed disks at home, but surely you don't want your personal master recording unable to be put on any other disks or mixes you make because it has elements of other songs in it?

By the way, if you are into mixing, check out Stanton's Final Scratch. It's a linux distro that hooks up over usb to normal turntables. You use a couple of special vinyl disks with encoding on them, and it translates the position and speed of the disk onto the PC, which manipulates the mp3/wav/ogg in the same way. Apparently you can mix between digital and vinyl music transparently, using normal DJ skills.

I've not tried or seen this product, but it sounds pretty neat.

For a software product that is similar, check out Traktor. I have tried this products demo, and it's pretty cool. You need two soundcards to get the most out of it, otherwise you won't be able to preview the mix.

Note the Traktor does BPM calculation and automatic sync'ing (if desired), a travesty according to my DJ'ing friends. Final Scratch doesn't (AFAIK), it just lets you use digital media on a turntable. You need your own decks, mixer and DJ skills for this.

Like the poster above said, a guy who plays one song after another is not a "DJ", he's a "Dude that plays music at your bar mitzvah/wedding/party". The difference between "DJ" and "Dude" is that you might pay money to hear a DJ spin and create a continuous musical experience, while Dude is just there filling the time with whatever crap he's got on his iPod. I'm sure he can keep the folks entertained, but a DJ has to be able to touch and manipulate his music, not just play it.

Though I don't see MP3's as a real problem, I mean the guys chopping up the music, adjusting the EQ and pitch and speed, so what if the music has a little barely-detectable MP3 sound.

(flamebait)Besides, vinyl is so shitty anyway, MP3 is probably an improvement.(/flamebait)

Surprised more folks haven't mentioned Traktor amd similar software, which lets you do real DJ stuff with the tracks, besides just playing one after the other. Another cool thing about Traktor is you can record a mix and save it independently of the MP3 files, which would be a cool way to distribute mixes (if everybody has the same MP3 files).

What'll really be cool is when the DJs go beyond just emulating the vinyl tricks, and create new MP3-only tricks, like resample the sound or combining it with another track in a unique way. That's what I"m waiting to hear. It'll really blur the lines between DJing, live improvisation, and sampling. Or maybe an artist that continuously combines other people's songs into his own in some funky way. The RIAA will love that guy.....

And please ignore the "gee whiz, them computers is nifty" CNN/Yahoo/AP articles.

• The days of playing sequences off a DAT are not numbered -- they're already long gone. Laptops have been used as sequencers to drive outboard MIDI gear for almost as long as there have been laptops (for me it started in 1992 with an Atari STacy). The new development, as mentioned in the CNN article, is using software synths (usually VSTi's) as live performance tools.

• I disagree that there are "limitations to the power and ability of software synthesizers". By example, I offer Absynth from Native Instruments. From the 68-stage envelopes(!) to the wave fractalization and spectral editing tools, this offers sound shaping tools that no hardware synth can compete with.

• Up until recently, you could argue that the latency problem with software synths kept them second-class citizens behind hardware boxes -- you'd hit a key and get your note a split-second later. This final limitation has been defeated with the advent of faster computers and cheap professional audio hardware. I use a 1.2 GHz computer and a $300 Emagic EMI audio interface, and my softsynth latency is about 2.5ms. Not perfect, but it actually beats some of my hardware synths. (Hit a fat chord with layered patches on an Emu Morpheus sometime and you'll see what I mean -- you get a flam, not a unison attack.) And when you play back sequenced software instruments, they're sample-accurate.

• http://www.kvr-vst.com - My favorite VST (softsynth and effect plugin) news and discussion site.
• http://www.em411.com - Another computer music news site.
• http://www.computermusic.co.uk/ - Lovely Computer Music magazine
• http://www.steinberg.net - Steinberg, makers of "Cubase" ... a software sequencer, music work environment and more.
• http://www.emagic.de - Makers of "Logic". A lot like Cubase. Sequencer holy warrior fanatics will track me down and rip me apart for mentioning Cubase first.
• http://www.cycling74.com/ - Makers of sound programming thingies Max/MSP and Pluggo. Pretty complicated, but reportedly worthwhile.
• http://microsound.org/ - Home of arguably the most snobbiest "experimental music" and computer music mailing list on the net. Plenty of interesting stuff here too. Prepare to listen to various 30 minute plus "masterpieces" of quiet shuffling sounds, only.
• http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?home_us - (English Link) Stylish softsynth and plugin rockstar company. They make some incredible products. Geeks will have hard-ons for Reaktor.
• http://www.refx.net - Maker of interesting VST plugins, notably "QuadraSID" which is a sound plugin based on the Commodore 64's famous, classic "SID" chip.

If you think Reason is powerful, you need to be shot. It is a simple sequencer with a few built in samplers, synths and effects. Perhaps you were thinking of Reaktor, made by Native Instruments. There are countless sequencers, effects and instruments out there that can be combined in any way you can imagine. Here are a few links to get you started:

Native Instruments
Cubase VST
K-v-R (huge VST resource)

Ok, I am a dj. I play vinyl mostly, although I've played around with cd's, and playing stuff off MD. (blatent self-promotion: djrightround.zyx.com

First to correct Cliff's comment:

I don't know about its revolutionary properties, but it does look to be a nifty tool, and it looks to be the perfect thing to learn on.


This is actually a very poor platform to learn how to dj on. There are 2 keys to good dj'ing. 1) Beat matching...getting two tracks to sync up. 2) Track selection...choosing the tracks that get everybody dancing. I guess there is also a 3) which is scratching. Depends on your style.

The DM2 automatically beat matches everything, so that kind of rules out learning #1, and the DM2 will only play the tracks you can buy from mixman. Ouch. So much for track selection.

Now to get to what Todd was asking about. You might be able to get the DM2 to do some neat stuff. A far more interesting device, however, is Final Scratch. This is what Ritchie Hawtin has been using in his shows lately. It's basically a device that will map mp3's off your laptop onto a special piece of vinyl that slaps onto an ordinary turntable. Less gimicky, and no hacks required. Team this up with csound and/or reaktor, add a sequencer, and you'll really be cooking.

As an interesting side note, you don't even really need a pro audio card for this kind of thing. Most high end consumer cards have a relatively clean audio out. As long as you're not recording anything, which requires a quality analog to digital converter, you should be fine.