The successful Digital Jockey series has grown by one new version: the Master Edition. All the critically acclaimed controller features, allowing the perfect control of Traktor, are still on board. A reasonable novelty is the symmetric output – this way nothing can prevent a club PA to be connected directly. And with the second booth output the DJ gets his own monitor.
Vinyl is dead! … Well, that would be bold statement. And no, … it isn’t. But it is safe to say DJ’s that are working with good ol’ vinyl records are getting scares. Earlier this month, Panasonic wrote a letter to retailers that production of all analogue turn-table products is being terminated at the end of this year. This public secret is floating on the internet since 2009, but now we can say it is really over for the magnificent SL-1200.
Well this afternoon mr. Steve Jobs will get the attention of the world when he will be hosting the ‘Back to the Mac‘ event. Most likely he will be introducing a new version of OS X? Tiny MacBook Airs? iPhone announcements? Who knows… Steve Jobs probably does! On the Apple forums there have been already set up discussion forums for the core components of the iLife suite, iMovie ’11, iPhoto ’11, and GarageBand ’11.
The Denon DN-HC1000S is a dedicated Serato controller enabling DJ’s to navigate around tracks, trigger cue points-samples-loops and effects. Plus with 4 midi page banks it’s also simply to create your own custom templates directly in Serato.
Digital 1 DJ/ PCDJ announces the release of PCDJ DEX for the MAC computer platform. PCDJ, which stands for personal computer disc jockey – is synonymous with the MP3 DJ revolution. “Releasing a MAC version of our popular DEX DJ software is very exciting for us”, says Ryan Sherr, Digital 1 Audio’s G.M.
Native Instruments has started to tour the new S4 KONTROL, Native’s own DJ controller for their Traktor DJ software. Yesterday the dutch importer Amptec gave an exhibition of this much anticipated controller at Bax-Shop in the Netherlands. Gearjunkies was invited to get a first ‘hands-on’ look at this new DJ controller from Native Instruments.
The at the MusikMesse of this year announced CTRL-ONE and CTRL-SIX controllers by Gemini have received their final ‘facelift’ and are now shipping with VirtualDJ LE software. Since the advent of the “laptop revolution” in the DJ realm, DJs have had to struggle to find a controller to work with the DJ software that gives them the feel of their traditional decks and turntables. Gemini set out to make these controllers just for DJs, giving them a familiar interface along with their favorite playback, mixer, and song-shaping tools.
Drawmer has unveiled the HQ, a combined precision high-quality monitor pre-amp/volume controller and DAC aimed at devotees to high-fidelity audio everywhere. Bringing together Drawmer’s respected expertise for precision design in both the analogue and digital domains, the HQ is a critical listening device incorporating a highly accurate pre-amp and offering finely balanced volume control over a variety of analogue and digital input sources, with extremely low inter-channel crosstalk. The HQ also boasts a state-of-the-art DAC for clean conversion of digital sources to analogue for reference monitoring.
The ADI-6432R BNC provides 64 channels of format conversion from MADI to AES-3id* and vice versa. Based on RME’s highly successful MADI-AES/AES-MADI converter ADI-6432, the newly developed ADI-6432R BNC offers broadcasters ease of integration and fail-safe operation through the utilization of industry standard BNC connectors and dual redundant power supplies, while offering 64 channels of I/O capability. The BNC version targets broadcast and professional users who require AES-3id connections – coaxial 75 Ohm cables with up to 300m length.
Not official yet but RME is about to introduce the Fireface UFX as the new flagship of RME’s audio interfaces. 60 channels of audio! Digitally controlled high-end preamps, reference class converters and full 192 kHz operation. Ultra-low latency operation with USB OR FireWire combined with the legendary RME driver stability and maintenance. Including active jitter suppression, professional reference level support, advanced stand-alone functionality, RME’s unique DIGICheck metering and analysis toolbox and – of course – identical operation on Windows PC and Mac.
Eleven Rack is a revolutionary new guitar recording and effects processing system designed to eliminate the challenges guitarists have faced in the studio and on stage. Say goodbye to the lackluster guitar amp “models” of yesteryear: Eleven Rack utilizes a unique tone cloning design and one-of-a-kind, custom-designed True-Z input to re-create the experience of playing through a full guitar rig. By combining studio-standard Pro Tools® software with a DSP-accelerated high-resolution interface, Eleven Rack puts professional recording into the hands of every guitar player. Whether you’re tracking in the studio or playing on stage, Eleven Rack delivers fresh, mind-blowing, hyper-realistic guitar amp and effects tones that will inspire your best performances.
The new 4midiloop controller is a collaboration between FADERFOX and Glanzmann Digital DJ Solutions. It is the first controller which allows an entire and simultaneous control over four decks and four Effect-Slots in Traktor Pro. This ability is achieved by over 600 electronic components, equipped with the world’s best cross and line fader from Eclectic Breaks (Pro X Fade). Only 166 keys and almost the same number of Leds allow simultaneous control over nearly all of the operations in Traktor Pro as well as indicating all the important visual feedback signals of the controller’s software. Each device has a control for every function, which makes operating a mix of four decks most enjoyable. The controller attracts, not only by ergonomics and functionality but also with its revolutionary stylish light-aluminium body. 4midiloop is great new hardware for ambitious DJs, created to provide excitement and inspiration for many years to come.
Akai Professional, the name synonymous with music production, announces the SynthStation25 keyboard controller and the SynthStation music production app, both for iPhone and iPod Touch. Akai Pro will unveil the SynthStation25 and SynthStation app at the 2010 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA, January 14–17.
Now and the coming months several big electronics manufacturers are releasing their own touch tablets, all trying to get a piece of the Apple cake. Over the past two, three years the role of the iPhone and, recently, the iPad has matured from gadget to serious tool in a studio or live performance environment. Looking at the first music apps for the iPhone, I personally have to admit, I thought this was just a temporary fad, craze. But with the iPad, and because of its larger format, the HD apps are maturing fast and deserve to be taken seriously.
AVID today introduced Pro Tools | HD Native, enabling a growing market of music and post-production professionals to tackle demanding audio projects using the full capabilities of Pro Tools® HD software running entirely on computer CPU host-processing power. Taking advantage of the rapid advancement in the performance of computer processors, this newest member of the Pro Tools family couples the cutting-edge software features, premium sound quality and broad compatibility of Pro Tools | HD systems, with a highly efficient native audio driver. This combination offers customers outstanding performance without the additional dedicated processing hardware included in larger Pro Tools | HD DSP-assisted systems.