KORG KAOSS PAD QUAD Official Introduction Movie

This little devil from Korg just looks amazing!

American Audio VMS-4 Traktor FIRST LOOK

Nothing shows off the gear like a video. :) I think this is a pretty neat controller for Traktor. Like the touch faders that 's on theese controllers. I think we'll be seeing quite alot more of this type of additions to controllers in the future.

This video is from NAMM 2011

djTechtools - Nammies 2011

There where alot of great news last week about Digital DJ products beeing reliesed.
DJ Techtools did an article about the greates relieses at NAMM 2011, but I can't figure out why they didn't mention Pioneers DDJ-T1? Didn't Pioneer show it off at all? If so that was a pretty bad marketing move, or maybe it just isn't stable enough.

Anyway Rane delivered a solid soundcard for Serato and Re-loop did a solid controller release for Traktor. Check it out the new DB4 from Allen & Heath if you are interrested in expencive multifunctional mixers...

Read it all here

Ean Golden interview's Richie Hawtin at Namm 2011 (Future of Digital Djing)

One of my favorite digital DJs (Ean Golden) meets up with the godfather of digital DJing (Richie Hawtin) and talk about the start of it all and in what direction it is heading.

"It's not what the equipment does, but what YOU can do through it!" - Richie Hawtin, NAMM 2011 -

Pioneer DDJ-T1 Traktor Controller

The unit will be for sale in Febuary 2011 at a suggested retail price of $1299.

Big picture of the unit from digitaldjtips.com

Mission III is here!

The German hardware produser teased us about the release of a new controller at NAMM 2011. It has now been reliesed and the new controller is named Reloop Jockey 3. Not a revolutionary, but an ok controller never the less.
It is basicaly a compact, big button, small format, two channel, four deck controller with built-in soundcard.
Got to love ze Germans...

Notable Features:

• Analog mixer capabilities (Inputs can either be routed directly to faders or to soundcard)
• Adjustable drag for the touch sensitive platters
• 4 Modes for the platters: Vinyl, CDJ, Search and FX
• 4 Deck assignable (only two faders!)
• High-end 24 bit / 96 kHz audio interface with BurrBrown AD/DA converters and MIDI interface
• High res jogwheels
• Exchangable x-fader
• Channel VU-meters
• Two headphone connectors (6,3 and 3,5 mm jack)
• Dual master (6,3 mm jack and RCA) and booth output

Traktor Pro Hotkey stickers for Mac

KB Covers has done a keyboard mapping overlay for Traktor. You can use these stickers to make your keyboard much more suited for hotkeys. Sadly the stickers are only available for Macbook, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro, so the computerusers will have to look elsewhere.

Check it out here

Gemini CTRL-47

It's said to be a premium quality 4 deck controller for DJs. As I said earlier about Gemini is that in my experience (when I bought a Gemini mixer for about 15 years ago) they weren't very solid products. Hopefully this has changed.

However. The layout of the controller is in my eyes lacking a whole range of funtioncs that should be used by anyone who is wielding the mighty Traktor. So it's a four deck, dual transport midi controller with effect section and then some. I'm missing buttons for some loop functions, hotcues and beatjump. With only two buttons on transport control it's also missing quite alot on that arena aswell.

My tip:
Check out any other 4 deck controller before this one if you're thinking about going for Traktor. Don't limit your self to this controller and the simple lack of buttons and knobs.

Rane SL-4

Rane launced their new soundcard for Searto Scratch christened SL-4.
The soundcard is a 96 kHz/24 bit/10 channel input/output audio interface. Audio specs are similar to what Native Instruments has had in their Audio 8 DJ (-2 channels) for almost four years now, so welcome to the club. :)

The cool thing about this soundcard is that they have added two USB ports for quick laptop changes without reconnecting everything. I can't see how two computers are able to pull on the same hardware resource, so I'm not sure how well this works in practise. It's however a very nice idea.

American Audio VSM 4 Traktor

American Audio released a very good 4 deck controller called VSM4 about 4 months ago. At NAMM 2011 they announced that they are releaseing a variaty of the controller that is espescialy geared towards and bundled with Traktor.

Notable features:

• Midilog channels (midi/analogue faders)
• Touch sensitive scroll bar for track search
• Touchpad for mouse controll or 3 channel midi (on/off, X, Y)
• Nice beatjump section
• Reloop button
• 4 button hotcue section (small buttons)

As far as design and workflow goes I would recommend the new Pioneer DDJ-T1 before this. I would rather have the sync/master buttons pr. channel then a mouse pad and optional Midi/analogue controllers.

More at Skratchworx

Decksaver for Traktor S4

Decksaver for Traktor Kontrol S4

Decksaver is a very nice cover for your gear that helps you keep dust and dirt out of your faders and keep the gear nice and clean.

Under NAMM 2011 the released a bunch of new covers, but most importantly they've now got a decksaver for Traktor Kontrol S4. As soon as it's available I'm ordering one.

More info here