Virtual Deck is an iPhone and iPod touch application that allows you to have a virtual deck, literally, a virtual turn table complete with pitch shifter and a close up view of the vinyl which can be scratched and tweaked as you would with normal vinyl, whilst this is only one deck, for those of you who are luck/rich enough to own both an iPod Touch or two and/or an iPhone, you can rig both iPods to a mixer and start iPod DJing away…and whilst this isn’t as portable as we’d hope it to be after all you’d have to lug around Two iPods and a mixer, at least we now have built in pitch control…something thats always been a bit of an archillies heel in iPod DJing.
check out the beatmatching video of virtual Decks here.
SO today marks the announcement by Apple that a new iPod has been launched, this, the new iPod nano is the christmas feature unveiled by Steve Job, this iPod is designed to be skinnier, and cheaper than other iPods and is rumored to be longer, thinner and with a larger curved screen. In the same unveiling the iPod Touch was also going to get an upgrade of memory and a long awaited price cut. Also out was a new iTunes, iTunes 8 with some great new features but for DJs, sadly not much.
As for the new iPod Nano I personally don’t think its going to be a big dent for iPod DJs, or iPod Djing, your Numark IDJ or cortex dmix might need an upgrade for the software to be compatible.
if youre looking to DJ with your iPod, then these new hardware upgrades really won’t have a significant impact, as iPod Djing doesn’t rely on the iPod other than as memory, so unless you’re a cool trend setter, theres no need to chuck your first gen iPod in the bin just yet.
With the arrival and massively hyped launch of the new 3G iPhone by Apple, there has been a real surge in the number of iPhone applications that you can download from the iTune app store, whilst some of these programs are free there are also some that you have to pay for. More interesting however is the number of iPhone apps, that have been created specfically for DJing on the iPhone and the iPod touch, some of the key ones to look out for are below:
Circle Theory - allows you to see the relationship between different musical notes
Ravers d’lite - more of a novalty item, allows you to sync images with the BPM of the music playing.
Proremote/ Proremote lite edition - a 32 channel touch sensitive platform that allows you to control Protools via your iPhone or iPod Touch.
virtual deck - basically a virtual deck this is great for creating loop samples you can then use with other iPod and iPhone applications
Beatloops - great for setting up drum loops.
iTM Matrix - allows you to setup an 88 touch pad MIDI controller using WIFI for your favourate DAW or VJ/DJ tool. Great for sampling various Loops
iTM MCU - allows you to setup 8 faders with solo and mute functions, allowing you to fade various sections of the track.
iTM XY pad - this is like having a kossilator in your iPod, its great and allows further meniputation of your tracks/loops and music.
BtBx - nice easy to use sample creator with drum loops and effects as well as synths.
BeatME - userful BPM finder that allows you to tap to the beat and find out the BPM of a track.
Diddy DJ lite - sampler mixer which allows to mix up samples on the iPod.
Beatmaker - literally a mobile DJ studio on your iPod
Daniel Johnston is one of those fantastic artists that you’ll never have heard off but this track is awesome, check it out, and if you’re up for a challenge try an iPod remix of this. its great!
So the eagerly anticipated iPod phone or iPhone 3G will be launched in the UK on the 11th July 2008, it still has that unique Apple styling whilst the casing and the shape retains much of its original sharp and clean cut design, the difference between the iPhone 3G and the iPhone , is that the iPhone 3G has 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping technology and will support more business features such as Microsoft Exchange and like the original iPhone you get an iPod, phone and internet browsing tool all in one with that revolutionary and ground breaking multi-touch screen that made the iPhone so popular. As with the original iPhone, you get access to the app store, where you can download and use various free (and not so free) applications to use on your iPhone, naturally these include a handful of DJing related apps that allow you to DJ on your iPod iPhone, the fact that you have Wi-Fi internet on your iPhone means that you can literally download DJing apps on the go and use them there and then.
All this makes the iPhone 3G one of the most eagerly anticipated products of the year,a nd some companies have taken advantage of this, if you’re looking to make free calls on your Apple iPod iPhone 3G, then you might find Truphone and their VoIP service to be a great asset allowing you to make cheap and free local and international calls.
OK, I know this blog is all about iPod DJing and using an iPod as a DJing tool, but I couldn’t resist showing you this beauty of a concept table designed with music and the iPod in mind, it’s a beautifully slick white finished table with an iPod Dock built in, looks fantastic, now if only it was integrated with so DJing equipment so you literally had an iPod Djing table that looked slick and clean like this iPod Piano table, now THAT would be schweet!
Here’s a little treat for you iPhone and iPod touch DJs, the video shows another new program for iPod touch and iPhone users that allows the iPod touch and iphone as a Midi controller for Ableton, it brings the concept of a midi controller a step more in line with with iPods than the PS2 midi controller.
I love how companies try and jump on the band wagon, and latch on to the success of another product, in the case the iPod, the iPod, has become a true iconic product that is globally recognized, no surprised then that iCondom, which took four years to produce, it has “latex with memory”and comes in California strawberry, diet cola or natural porridge flavors, regardless of how much it piggy backs off the iPod, you have to give them credit for the iPod style design that they’ve achieved with great success.
You can check out the iCondom here.
OK, whilst this isn’t totally related to iPod DJing, I simply couldn’t resist, its simply fantastic what you can do with technology these days and certainly if the same effort was put to making the iPod more DJ friendly we’d seen more DJs appearing, more creative music and faster progression in the field of iPod DJing.
The MIDIator is a PS2 to MIDI controller it, it comes either DIY or pre-made, an allows you to covert an old PS2 controller into a MIDI controller for your DJ software on a laptop, with software such as Ableton, the long shot of this is that if the MIDIator could be modified to hookup to an iPod, it could be used as an iPod DJing controller in the same way that the MIDIator contols the software on a laptop. you really need to see it in action, here the link to the MIDIator site.
And heres a video, not the guitar hero controller at the tail end of the video:
Intersting new development for iPod fans and iPod addicts now, considering that virtually every now has an iPod, Singapore Airlines, has now created iPod docks on some of their seats in all of their Airbus A340-500 business class seats between, New York, LA and Singapore, naturally this is probably a trial for how well the iPod Docks will do, but the idea is strong, knowing how passengers will want in-flight entertainment that suits their taste, using the iPod as an entertainment center by allowing passengers to watch films and listen to music via their own iPod, makes sense and saves the hassel of having to bring massive libraries of films and music. To further enhance the experience of passengers Singapore Airlines will also provide 15.4-inch widescreen LCDs, pretty sweet! For iPod DJs, this might mean that soon you’ll be able to VJ (Video Jockey) in mid air, cool huh? OK, we need to wait for iPod technology, at least from a software perspective to catchup, but you can always dream!
