Digital DJ Turntable

Daniel Gomez-Ibanez writes "I made a digital turntable - it stores digital audio and plays it back like a record player. This lets you scratch the audio from a CD. I like it because there's no 'computer' involved- a four year old can figure it out. There's a description here." Daniel also has a more descriptive web page on the inspiration and design of this beast.

Comments

How about a real Digital Tuntable?

[RAruler]

Final Scratch

Final Scratch, uses a hybrid of actual turntables and digital audio. You use a pair of special vinyl records, connect the audio out of the turntables into this strange USB device which controls the software that allows you to cue/scratch mp3s...

It was only available for systems running BeOS, but they are branching out with Mac OS/Win32 and Linux versions.. You only need a 'standard' DJ setup, two turntables and a two line mixer.. it's insanely cool.. the only downside is the price, $500USD, but thats relatively cheap to a stack of vinyl, or your Technics 1200's.

Re:How about a real Digital Tuntable?

[spoonboy42]

Actually, Final Scratch is Linux-based. The install CD comes with a bare-bones linux distro and partitioning utils to get you started. Alternately, you can just put the final scratch software on any laptop that already has linux installed. Oh, and you still need a good set of direct-drive tables to use it effectively (1200's or something comparable, i.e. Vestax PDX-2000's, Stanton STR8-100's, etc.).

I should also note that the Pioneer CDJ-1000 has beaten this home-brew to the punch. It has pitch-adjust and a substantial jog-wheel that is actually adequate for scratching. DJ Nu-Mark and Cut Chemist have been using CDJ-1000s in their live shows for some time, now.

The CDJ-1000 has the benefit of almost zero latency and no skipping. On the other hand, you can drop-cue in final scratch, and its "record box" categorization system is very convenient (and 3 ms of latency is not too bad). You can also plug your final scratch system into pretty much any club setup. Lugging around CDJ-1000's is not so easy.

Re:How about a real Digital Tuntable?

[TeknoDragon]

I've started mixing with CDJ's... here is my opinion on the current problems with the CDJ1000

* cd buffering to memory is too slow, making it hard to do extremely quick seeks and scratch off of a randomly selected point you seeked to on the disk. Note you can do this using the hot-queues, but that's because each hot queue holds a small buffer of it's own.
* the rapid seek function is not as smooth as even the CDJ100
* too few queue points, you need a direct song map or multiple queue points so that you can approach a "needle drop" skill on a digital TT

I should note that very few players offer the true control of the CDJ1000. Even tho the platter doesn't spin pressure on the platter halts and resumes play. I haven't touched the Dannon yet, but none of the other Pioneer DTT's do this.

DJ's generally HATE anything but vinyl. DJing is a community of luddites. Final scratch is a step towards what they like, but the sample rate and resolution of mp3's and even CD's are not rich enough to completely match the performance of analog records passed through effects and slowed down. Perhaps with a next generation DTT with DVD-A support.

Of course this begs the question that most audio is produced in the studio at 48khz so what would DVD-A do for you that a better interpolation algorithm wouldn't?

Scratching ...

[White Shade]

As has been posted before, there's more to the sound of scratching than just speeding up/slowing down the sound ... There are significant changes in volume, and increases in teh amount of noise. And, if you move the record really slow you get a strange sorta softened crunch noise which is very different than the 'normal' sound you get from a slowed down audio stream..

Still, it's a damn good idea, and if nothing else (and it's definitely more than this), it would be a kickass gimmick to have on stage with you!

Technology is a good thing...

Interesting choice of words...

[guttentag]

I like it because there's no 'computer' involved- a four year old can figure it out.

Many four year olds are more computer literate than their parents, but I suspect they'd have trouble figuring out a turntable.

Re:Scratching isn't simply sped up audio

[panaceaa]

I have some turntables and I definitely agree that vinyl is a whole lot sexier than cds. But CD djs are definitely taking over the low-end of clubs. At an average dance club, most patrons don't know or care that the music is on CDs. It's unfortunate.

Vinyl will continue to be the medium of choice, though, because most house and trance songs just aren't available on CD. And you can see the musical progression on a record, so you can easily line up phrases (32-measures) and see where breaks are without the need to completely know a song 64 measures ahead.

What it comes down to is the quality of mixes you can create on each medium. You can create a much better experience, as a dj, if you can see the grooves and know where the climaxes and breaks are with relation to the needle. Until you can do that with CDs (with some visualization firmware), and until decent tracks are released on CD, vinyl will remain.

That said, going to good clubs you still see greats like Tiesto and van Dyk using CDs for about 15-25% of the tracks they play.

From the site:

[ByteHog]

A digital signal processor seemed to be the answer but the cost of the development kit was $3000. Fortunately, thanks to a generous "donation" from "corporate sponsors" I obtained the development kit and a DSP board.

Does this make anyone else wonder where he got it? :)