An Introduction To Digital DJ Solutions 

A Digital DJ Solution, sometimes referred to as a Digital Vinyl Solution, is a combination of computer software and hardware that allows a user to control digital audio files, such as MP3 or WAV files, using a traditional DJ setup of turntables for vinyl records, or CD players and a DJ mixer. The hardware component sits between your DJ mixer and your computer and talks to the software running on it.

How do they work?

Without getting too caught up in the technical details, let me explain roughly how the system works when connected to a traditional turntable setup.

The DJ mixer is plugged into the control box of the system, which in turn is plugged into the computer running the digital DJing software. The DJ uses a control record on each turntable. Although the control records appear blank, they actually contain a high pitched time-code signal indicating the position of the needle on the record. The time-code signal gets passed through the control box to the software where it is matched against the relative position of the digital audio file and the sound is output.
 
Why would anyone want to use this?

There a plenty of reasons, both practical and personal, why digital  solutions are becoming increasingly popular.




No more heavy crates to carry!

With traditional vinyl DJing, DJs had to own or acquire the record of every song that they wanted to play. DJs would often have to carry 3 or 4 crates of records to a gig in order to have a decent selection of music and styles to play. One of the biggest conveniences of digital DJ solutions is that all those heavy crates of records are now replaced by a laptop and portable hard-drive full of MP3s. This gives you the freedom to have a stockpile of many genres of music, which is especially handy if you’re playing one of those free-for-all type gigs where everyone wants to hear something different (e.g. weddings!).

Greater selection and sources of music

DJs are no longer at the mercy of their local record store. The selection and availability of music online is almost limitless. DJs don’t have to wait for their record store to get a tune in on vinyl, if in fact it makes it to vinyl. DJs can now download the latest tracks from iTunes, or create their own tracks and use them straight away, without compromising the familiar hands on feel of traditional vinyl DJing.

The hands-on feel returns

There is much debate between DJs that use CD players and those that prefer turntables & vinyl records. Many DJs rely on the feel of vinyl and the way it can be manipulated during playback. There have been some excellent CD based products that have done their best to mimic this feeling, but until the release of vinyl based digital DJ solutions, there wasn’t anything that truly replicated the feel of spinning with vinyl. With digital DJing solutions, the control records are real records, so they feel and respond the same as any other record in your collection.

Increased creativity

Back in the day, people dreamed of being able to scratch the sound of their own voice, or sounds from TV, movies, etc.

Unless you had some kind of expensive vinyl-cutting machine, or you were fortunate enough to get some of your music pressed on to vinyl this was never possible. With digital DJing solutions anything that you can record to your computer can be scratched, mixed or manipulated using your turntables. Some digital DJing solutions also include the ability to record live from a microphone and scratch it immediately.
 




What are the options?

Most major players in the DJ equipment market have a digital DJ solution out. More and more manufacturers are introducing products to this market as well, so there are plenty of choices. Some of them are:

• Stanton FinalScratch
• Searto Scratch Live
• M-Audio Torq
• Numark Virtual Vinyl
• Native Instruments TRAKTOR SCRATCH
• Mixvibes

Is this the end of vinyl records?

Will digital DJing solutions slowly put an end to the manufacture and purchase of vinyl? I’m not too sure. Digging for, and buying records is a culture in itself. When you buy a record you get something incredibly tangible. Records have many attributes that make them exciting to own: their size, cover art, liner notes and labels all contribute to the beauty of owning music on record.

Some DJs also prefer not to be at the mercy of technology. Computers and operating systems are becoming more advanced and reliable, but things still often go wrong. If you’re relying on your computer for your set and it crashes it can be quite embarrassing!

Even though I own and use a digital vinyl solution I still like to take a bag of backup records containing a few classics with me, just in case.
 






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