New Turntable Toy

[STRATEGY_510]

Well, I still can't afford new 1200's, CDJ's, NS7's or even VCI100, so in my recurring lust to have some form of tactile control over the songs in the wiki-wiki sense, I'm trying the latest cheap-ass virtual turntable" solution, the ION DISCOVER DJ:

http://www.skratchworx.com/reviews/discoverdj.php

I already tried something kinda along these lines. Stanton's "DaScratch" and was horribly dissapointed (but got my money back)

This new shit is even cheaper, but somehow I'm more hopeful that I'll be able to actually have fun with it, based on the demo video from Scratchworx. Looks better than DJ Hero at least, and costs less. I figure I'll pass it down to my kids when I get some real decks (or deck controllers).

My question is, assuming its passable for me on the platter control aspect, how can I run the audio from it into Live? It has its own DJ software and let's assume it doesn't rewire or have a vst version. Can I just run the software and run Live and set it to a Live audio input somehow? If not, I'm willing to run it into Live from another computer (my laptop), but what about setting it on two outs to my Fast Track Pro then back into the Ins of the Fast Track Pro then into Live? That will kill the two outs I need for cueing, but I could live with that at least for recording (I don't play live anyway).

I'll have it an few days hopefully

Thanks,
STRATEGY

[STRATEGY_510]

Ninety bucks on Amazon by the way; free shipping, no tax.

STRATEGY

[Bleep Blop Ima Robot]

The design isnt half bad, definitely true that it looks like nothing out there. I do also wonder how one would be able to run this with live

[anachroschism]

you know that thing actually looks kinda badass. wanting a VCI100 even after my APC40 because im used to the "traditional" eq setup and the whole wiki wiki thing too would be fun.

Get one lemme know how it is.

[STRATEGY_510]

Get one lemme know how it is.

yep, watch this space, should have it by end of week.

STRATEGY

[McQ714]

i think it looks like a fucking toy or a controller for dj hero. the fact that it's made by Ion Audio is a huge turn off. they make nothing more than entry level gear that can be bought at best buy and urban outfitters of all places. half of the shit they make is just for transferring media to digital formats.

[nuxnamon]

if your on MAC, use SoundFlower from Cycling74 and it's FREE.. it's what i use to route audio from app to app.. it's a godsend for sampling from the internet into Ableton. I imagine it would work for getting audio from the ION software into Ableton. Almost certain it would work... if your PC, I don't know of any equivalent software..

[mescalin]

i'm just curious, but how would that work anyway?

I'm not a DJ but I enjoy messing with the crossfader on the APC from time to time with two tempo synced mp3s from my collection.

But basicly ablton never struck me as being compatible with turntables (I mean it was never orginally meant for DJing), not like Traktor or somthing, for a start if you slow the tempo it does it's best to maintain the pitch and therefore wouldn't sound like a record

[starving student]

so who's got this thing and let me ask if the scratching on it sucks what would be the purpose of having this?

[STRATEGY_510]

i'm just curious, but how would that work anyway?

I'm not a DJ but I enjoy messing with the crossfader on the APC from time to time with two tempo synced mp3s from my collection.

But basicly ablton never struck me as being compatible with turntables (I mean it was never orginally meant for DJing), not like Traktor or somthing, for a start if you slow the tempo it does it's best to maintain the pitch and therefore wouldn't sound like a record

not in repitch

STRATEGY

[STRATEGY_510]

Get one lemme know how it is.

yep, watch this space, should have it by end of week.

STRATEGY[/quote

I got it yesterday and tried it out a bit.

The scratching on it isn't horrible. It's no CDJ, tends to slip/drift a bit when you stay on the same spot of the platter, but not that much, can usually adjust by ear or even look at the waveform when that happens. It doesn't handle speed to well if you scratch real fast, but I'm still getting used to it too. Haven't tried out the beat sync yet, still trying to sort out a few blends manually first.

If people want to heat some samples, I'll record a simple routine. For scratching period, it kicks ass all over Stanton's Da Scratch, which ain't sayin' much. The software seems real easy for a basic two turntable setup. Will play with it some more when people wake up.

Any questions?

STRATEGY

[STRATEGY_510]

i'm just curious, but how would that work anyway?

I'm not a DJ but I enjoy messing with the crossfader on the APC from time to time with two tempo synced mp3s from my collection.

But basicly ablton never struck me as being compatible with turntables (I mean it was never orginally meant for DJing), not like Traktor or somthing, for a start if you slow the tempo it does it's best to maintain the pitch and therefore wouldn't sound like a record

not in repitch

STRATEGY

although I don't see how that would be a dealbreaker either way when integrating turntables with Live. I think mixing from Live to turntable works great, in all it's manual glory. Mixing from turntable then back to Live, a bit more trickier but totally doable if you have any sense of timing and aren't too spoiled by auto beatsyncing.

STRATEGY

[STRATEGY_510]

Get one lemme know how it is.

yep, watch this space, should have it by end of week.

STRATEGY[/quote

I got it yesterday and tried it out a bit.

The scratching on it isn't horrible. It's no CDJ, tends to slip/drift a bit when you stay on the same spot of the platter, but not that much, can usually adjust by ear or even look at the waveform when that happens. It doesn't handle speed to well if you scratch real fast, but I'm still getting used to it too. Haven't tried out the beat sync yet, still trying to sort out a few blends manually first.

If people want to heat some samples, I'll record a simple routine. For scratching period, it kicks ass all over Stanton's Da Scratch, which ain't sayin' much. The software seems real easy for a basic two turntable setup. Will play with it some more when people wake up.

Any questions?

STRATEGY

Still not getting satisfactory scratching results, it's more to the sound of it. In terms of responsiveness, it meets expectations. I noticed the scratch sound gets better as latency is brought down. Makes sense as I'm guessing lower latencyincreases the frequency of updated platter information (?).

I'm wondering if I could try it in Deckadance or Traktor Scratch demo or something, just to see if the 'scratch sound' can be improved with better software.

I'm guessing that the bare minimum for 'semi-pro' platter control is still a vci-100? Where does the line get drawn in CDJ land for platter control? I just need something a bit more usable than this, though I have to say overall the plastic toy overperforms and I really have no complaints for what I paid for.

I can still record something for shits and giggles if anyone wants to hear it. The scratshworx video had a much better 'sound' than my limited tests, but I will load up 'Change The Beat' today and compare apples to apples.

I am curious to know the minimum Pioneer single deck that provides what I need, if anyone knows. Really just wondering If I could get away with less than a cdj-800

STRATEGY

[starving student]

I think you have a good idea of where you need to be on this, the cdj 800 is as low as you can go cdj wise, in my opinion the dennons sound like crap, but another route you might want to check out is the numark cdx original, they are to expensive new but can be found often for a good price used, I have one I got from a pawn shop for $250 and it's better than any of the pioneers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uhR4veZHK0

[joshspoon]

Anyone been able to get the crossfades to not invert on the Discovery DJ?