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I used Linux, TerminatorX a broken optical mouse and a $10 used turntable I bought from a grandmotherly looking ladies garage sale.

Picture here

I used Linux, TerminatorX a broken optical mouse and a $10 used turntable I bought from a grandmotherly looking ladies garage sale.

Picture here

Show them terminatorX
A friend of mine installed Linux, just to be able to run this app.
And it's a lot of fun to scratch on some Steve Ballmer samples!

Yes.

Check out terminatorX
No I mean really check it out, check out the turntables section. See the one made by toqer? Yeah thats me... Well anywho, on with my comment.

I know 3 DJ's (more hobbiest) and I spent a little time watching how they scratch records, mix and all that good stuff. I noticed that when they scratched, they had a special slip pad underneath the vinyl so it would slide smoothly. This got me to thinking that it was the record that provided the most tactile feedback to the DJ, and not just the turntables.

So I did that first prototype, it works good, but black doesn't reflect well enough so I would like to do something different. Here comes my big question to the people in the know.

Since this device is more than just a mouse (it takes pictures and sends them back to the pc) could you track the position on the record with a visual cue? Like a pattern, a barcode or something? I'm thinking if it could be done, just distribute a PDF so people could print up thier own records.

Check out terminatorX
No I mean really check it out, check out the turntables section. See the one made by toqer? Yeah thats me... Well anywho, on with my comment.

I know 3 DJ's (more hobbiest) and I spent a little time watching how they scratch records, mix and all that good stuff. I noticed that when they scratched, they had a special slip pad underneath the vinyl so it would slide smoothly. This got me to thinking that it was the record that provided the most tactile feedback to the DJ, and not just the turntables.

So I did that first prototype, it works good, but black doesn't reflect well enough so I would like to do something different. Here comes my big question to the people in the know.

Since this device is more than just a mouse (it takes pictures and sends them back to the pc) could you track the position on the record with a visual cue? Like a pattern, a barcode or something? I'm thinking if it could be done, just distribute a PDF so people could print up thier own records.

kinda reminds me of the very cool terminatorX program.... the author built a turntable for scratching using an old turntable and some mouse guts.

kinda reminds me of the very cool terminatorX program.... the author built a turntable for scratching using an old turntable and some mouse guts.

Those of you running Linux should be able to try this out with
terminator x.
And, it's GPL'ed too!

• SpiralSynth is becoming an almost self contained music production program. With basic sequencers, good synths, samplers and effects is one of my favorite programs.
• If you want to play DJ, go check TerminatorX to get fill all your scratching needs. They even hacked a turntable that works with the program!!
• Finally, for some real-time guitar effects, check Stompboxes2 , which is my own project. (BTW, i'm looking for developers).

terminatorX can do this kind of thing:


terminatorX is a realtime audio synthesizer that allows you to "scratch" on digitally sampled audio data (*.wav, *.au, *.mp3, etc.) the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records. It features multiple turntables, realtime effects (buit-in as well as LADSPA plugin effects), a sequencer and an easy-to-use gtk+ GUI.


There's a tutorial which explains how to take advantage of the support for a second mouse attached to the serial port which can be plugged into a dead turntable and controls the software, allowing users to make scratches with a real turntable for that hiphop look'n'feel. Check it out, it's a great project.

terminatorX can do this kind of thing:


terminatorX is a realtime audio synthesizer that allows you to "scratch" on digitally sampled audio data (*.wav, *.au, *.mp3, etc.) the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records. It features multiple turntables, realtime effects (buit-in as well as LADSPA plugin effects), a sequencer and an easy-to-use gtk+ GUI.


There's a tutorial which explains how to take advantage of the support for a second mouse attached to the serial port which can be plugged into a dead turntable and controls the software, allowing users to make scratches with a real turntable for that hiphop look'n'feel. Check it out, it's a great project.

I have to take issue with one thing in the harmony central article ... it says the records contain a time code. What do you do when you break these special records? ...

I've read about both finalscratch which runs on BeOS and the mixman, which is a mac/windows device. What about the open source linux based stuff? I've found only 1 called terminatorX on freshmeat about a year and a half ago. Just for kicks I let a DJ friend of mine try it with a optical mouse and he liked it. We tried putting the mouse over a vinyl that was spinning and he was sold.

Our setup is kinda cute. I gave him a K62 300mhz stripped down to nothing but X. He is a windows users, (please no boo's) so in order to run it headless we use reflectionX to connect to the machine and provide an X display. He bought 2 of the newer versions of the MS optical mouse (faster, increased response) and gutted them down to just the optical sensor which sits in a nice enclosure glued to the side of his turntables.

• Some cryptic error messages boxes which remind me of Windows'GPF...
  
• My laptop boot Linux in 30 seconds, then it needs 45 seconds to load KDE2.
  

featuring Jon 'CowboyNeal' Pater scratching
Hope he'll use TerminatorX.
Try it or listen to this song's intro which was twiddled using it.
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