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Ill Ill Ill Video…

Having got through the BPM coverage, it’s now time to get back to the business of news and reviews again. Teasing me badly are the new Pioneer CDJs and the putting together of the preview feature. I was going to do it all in one lump, but I figure it’s easier to trickle the material out as you’re probably somewhat hungry to hear my thoughts on this new shiny stuff. First up is Slip Mode, something that had me scratching my head as to what exactly it was. Watch the video and then you’ll know.

Essentially, it allows the current track to keep playing underneath while you pause, scratch or spinback on the platter. When you release, the track picks up exactly where it should as if it had kept on playing. It’s quite simple, but instantly understood when you try it for yourself.

It’s certainly a new feature to me, and one that will allow users to come up with some new creative ways to rock a crowd. Imagine the fun that could be had spinning doubles of the same track – perhaps offbeat as well to create new ideas for old sets. Of course, it’s also open to abuse in that a DJ could sequence a string of tracks on a USB key – all slam mixed together and only needing a spinback at the right point to appear like they’ve been mixed. I doubt however that a DJ who is in the market for such aspirational products like these is that type of DJ anyway.

This is the puzzling thing about the feature – why isn’t it on the 2000? This is one reason why I made the previous statement about which unit to get isn’t as straight forward as you might think. I’ve just filmed some scratching, juggling and drumming and will edit that into a 2 minute clip later this week. All you need to know for now is that the difference in feel between the 900 and 2000 is minimal, and that just like the older CDJs, both are extremely capable scratchers.

I’ve currently got the decks LAN’d up via an older wireless router and talking to each other happily. The next thing to get my head round is cueing and looping and how the units differ, which I feel will be another key feature that will make a decision one way or another for potential buyers.

Taken From Skratchworx.com

Many years ago, in a time before email, intranet and even wordprocessors, business survived on inter-office memos. In my employers case, memo pads were issued, and one particular guy took great delight in utilising these triplicate copy pads to the max. It came to a head one day when he actually sent a memo about a memo he was going to send next week. Needless to say, the scorn I heaped upon him did at the very least stop the ridiculous amount of pointless paper spewing from his tiny office. And I was immediately reminded of this when Serato yesterday posted an announcement… errr about an announcement they are going to make in January.

Here’s what they say, or don’t as the case may be.

ABLETON AND SERATO
At the BPM show in 2008, Ableton and Serato announced a creative partnership. One year later, we’re hard at work to make our products play nice together, and we’re gearing up for a big unveiling on January 14, 2010, at the winter NAMM show in Aneheim, California. Keep your eyes peeled on www.serato.com and www.ableton.com for more news.

We’re not letting the cat out of the bag just yet, other than to say if you own Ableton Live, and any of the DJ products that use Serato software, get ready to unleash your creativity in 2010!

So while I often refer to the announcement as alleged and mythical and generally mock Serato for the somewhat pre-emptive money shot, I know it’s very real and will probably be everything you want it to be. Exactly what it is will have to wait until January 2010.

Taken From Skratchworx.com

M-Audio Torq 1.5 introduced Tempo Anchors, its method for reining in songs that fluctuate in tempo. Inconsistencies in tempo can occur for a number of reasons, but Tempo Anchors may come in particularly handy for live recordings, older songs that weren’t recorded to a click track or complex tracks for which the Torq software can’t precisely detect the beat.

SYNC OR SWIM
If a song’s tempo fluctuates or Torq has trouble analyzing the tempo, then it will be more difficult to sync that song to others. Also, sometimes corrupted digital audio files will be cause a song to go out of sync or glitch because Torq will skip over a small portion of the song and then keep going. In those cases, Tempo Anchors may also help. See the video to learn how to set Tempo Anchors, which are saved in a song’s TQD file that Torq creates, so you don’t have to repeat the process more than once for a song.

A couple of things to remember about tempo anchors:

• If Torq’s automatic BPM is really far off the mark, play the song and use the Tap Tempo function by clicking in the BPM display box to get the tempo close before dropping tempo anchors.

• Always set them up before your gig — not during your gig — unless you really like to live dangerously.

• You don’t have to go crazy with them. If the auto BPM detection got pretty close to the mark, in many cases tempo fluctuations are minor, and you won’t need to drop a Tempo Anchor on every several downbeats. Often, a few tempo anchors can go a long way toward straightening out your tracks.

The need for tempo anchors serves as another example of why you can’t let yourself get lazy as a digital DJ. Software tempo analysis is still far from perfect, and if you assume that the analyzed BPM on your screen is correct before testing it, you could be embarrassed during your gig. The more preparation you put in before performing — including setting Tempo Anchors, the more fun both you and your audience will have. -Markkus Rovito

Taken from DjTechtools.com