The Cortex Dmix-300 is one of the turning points in DJing technology, and the first real iPod DJing dual deck platform, whilst previous iPod Djing platforms needed you to have two iPods and wouldnt allow you to beatmatch with the Cortex Dmix-300 all these iPod DJing problems such as pitch bending, beat matching and using just one iPod are resolved, whilst the Cortex Dmix-300 allows you to do all these great things working just off a single iPod, it does come at a price, first, the Cortex Dmix-300 is expesive though with the release of the Numark ID2 the price has come down a great deal, second the Cortex Dmix-300 weighs a ton, literally, its not exactly portable, so whilst your iPod is tiny and fits in your pocket, with the Cortex Dmix-300 you are going to struggle fitting it into a bag, and its a gas guzzler too, you’ll need access to a power supply, so definately for the indoors only.
The Cortex Dmix-300 comes well packaged with all the usual padding so its well protected when you pick it up, you’ll find the usual manuals and how to guides and really you’ll want to read these, the user interface on the Cortex Dmix-300 does take some getting used to and if you use an iPod with a Mac, you’ll need to do all sorts of things in iTunes to get it to work properly.
Looking at the Cortex Dmix-300 its super sturdy, with a cool black casing its well build and oozes quality and durability. The first thing you’ll notice is the two circular ‘turntables’, these are totally free rotating and make scratching, cueing up and ultimately mixing possible, the surface attempts to mimic the vinyl feel, but as you’d expect this is only a passing similarity, although the gooves on these turntables does allow a certain degree of grip. the edge of the turn table platter is rubberised and help with certain turntablist tricks as well as savingg you from cutting your hand up on any sharp edges. Bearing in mind that the Cortex Dmix-300 is meant to be an all-in-one iPod DJing platform, between the two turntables sits the built in mixer, this is basic with your usual volume fader for each channel, Gain, high, mid and low knobs, master and booth output volume, fader curve switch, its also in the mmixer section that you find the Cortex Dmix-300’s iPod Dock, the Cortex Dmix-300 is made for iPod approved so the majority of iPods work with the dock and if not they are also supported by inputs at the back that allow you to rig up USB sticks and any other digital media, not just other iPods. The action on the cross fader is easy and fast, being very responsive to control, whilst the volume controls are a little more sticky, as to be expected. by each volume fader is a gradiating light that allows you to get a feel for the volume level of each channel, under normal light this isn’t all that useful, but in darker conditions this is useful as a guide but not exactly critical to being a good DJ. The Knobs for each of the various variables are cased in plasting and stiffer to rotate, however they are very sensitive and allow for a fairly decent creativity when your DJing, but they are a tad bit close to each other. The iPod Dock itself is well built and comes with various size adopters which you put in place to match the type and size of the iPod you are Djing with. For those of you with iPod Shuffles, you’ll have to plug the iPod in at the back. The iPod adopters however are a bit of a pain, being totally free of the Cortex Dmix-300 unit it’s clear they are really easy to loose, something that puts the Numark IDJ2 in another class (god is in the detail after all)
Back to the turntables, we now turn to the iPod controls,along the top edge of the entire Cortex Dmix-300 unit are a stack of controls that essentially allow you to control your music between the iPod and each turntable channel. first thing you notice here is a blue screen you’ll probably be able to tell its not exactly plasma TV here, essentially this screen that its above each turntable channel serves as view of your playlist, your track length and your control view, all that is abstract on only primative, its like looking at ms-dos, back in the early days, again something the IDJ2 beats the Cortex Dmix-300 on. to the side of this screen are three plastic buttons, and beneath the screen is a directional input, buy using these buttons the idea is that you can control the music for each channel on each turntable without having to touch the iPod, works great in theory, in pratice it takes a bit of time to get used to and you’ll have to be a bit fiddly. On the right you can see the pitch fader, which is the real life saver for any iPod DJ or for anyone looking to pitch control with an iPod, the pitch control is fantatic and performs as you would expect and at the top of each pitch fade are two buttons, essentially allowing you to sharply bend the pitch of the track. Above the turntable platter you’ll notice a small button, this button allows you to select the control of the platter, as a fas forward tool, pitch control or scratch platter, the idea behind each of the two turntable channels is that they work independently of each other, but off the same iPod allowing you the typical range of flexibility that any conventional DJ would have, including, volume control, pitch control, fast forward and rewind, and cue, loop and track menipulation.
At the back of the Cortex Dmix-300 you find all the useful connections, you can find 2 sets of booth outputs and one master output, a firewire connector, usb input, and 2 phono inputs. And at the front you get a mic input with master high and low EQ the on and off switch and a monitor output, with channel fader and volume, really useful for when you’re trying to beat match.
All in all the Cortex Dmix-300 is darn good, there are a few snags, as to be expected but a second generation iPod DJing platform, and a first generation single iPod DJing platform. if you’re looking for a reasonably priced and marginally portable iPod DJing setup, you really can’t go wrong with the Cortex Dmix-300, certainly if you want to be beatmatching and altering pitch of each track using only one iPod the Cortex Dmix-300 would be your iPod mixer of choice, and whilst the Numark IDJ2 is good, the drop in price of the Cortex Dmix-300 should, in theory make it a more attractive choice.
The Numark TTi iPod Turntable is the first turntable to take advantage of the iPod, as a mass storage device, for most DJs this turntable will serve as a fantastic addition, and for any music collector with tons of vinyl the Numark TTi iPod Turntable with its iPod dock and USB audio interface means you can record your vinyl straight to your iPod, this versatility means that for a home DJing setup, for an iPod DJ this is a fantastic additional piece of kit which will allow an iPod DJ to record vinyl tracks on to their iPod. Included in the package is software that alls the DJ to record tracks and archive them for iTunes, and for those of you who are worried about pops and crackles that come with vinyl records the Numark TTi iPod Turntable software allows you to brush up the quality of the recording.The Numark TTi iPod Turntable also boasts the kind of quality that Numark is renown for, with a metal platter, pitch control, s-shaped tone arm, a built-in phono pre-amp. The one down side is the Numark TTi iPod Turntable is a belt drive turntable, for DJs this means the Numark TTi iPod Turntable is relegated to a studio recording and play back turntable, for transferring music from vinyl to iPod rather than as a mixing turntable. This being said the Numark TTi iPod Turntable is cheap enough and high quality enough that the ability to record to iPod makes it a must have for iPod DJs and vinyl music lovers.
Bird Electron are a Japanese based electronic company that are one of the few producers of iPod accessories, in particular, iPod DJing accessories. The DJ-4S and DJ-4 are effectively variants of the simplest type of iPod DJing mixer. the mixer has two inputs, and one out put with a volume controller for each input channel.
if you’re looking for a highly portable and compact iPod DJing with out too many bells and whistles. Then you’ll want to check out this affordable and portable iPod DJing mixer.
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.
This is the second Bird Electron iPod DJing mixer, specially made to allow iPod DJs with a small and portable DJing mixer that is able to work with an iPod without having too many bells and whistles and without breaking the bank. What you have here is the premium DJ5 from Bird Electron, this mixer is the top of the line iPod DJing mixer it has two volume sliders/faders, and has head phone monitoring, with volume control knobs for each channel for the headphones, this is good for you to listen to you mix before it plays out to the audience. Along with the two input sockets there is an output socket and a headphone socket. In addition to this the whole device acts as a headphone amplifyer as well and is battery operated. For any iPod DJ this is the top line in affordable and simple iPod DJing equipment. Check it out here.
Bird Electron are a fantastic Japanese company that produce some really innovative and minimalistic iPod accessories and electronics, they are also the first retailer to take iPod DJing seriously, and have 4 iPod DJing mixers as well as a collection of special iPod speakers and iPod docks, to add to this they also have iPod accessories such as iPod cases and other useful electronic items.
the simplest iPod DJing Mixer Bird Electron make is the DJ7, the DJ7 essentially allows two iPod outputs to be combined into a single output, giving you two decks and allowing you to mix using the volume control on each iPod. Like most iPod DJing solutions its still lacks that one critical point, it doesn’t allow you to control pitch, so you’ll have to organize your music like this.
This being said the quality of the cables is fantastic, and the idea is superbly simple, and the size and portability make this a fantastic solution for any DJ on the go..with two identical iPods.
DJing has always been seen as a bit edgy and ’street’ and has always been perceived as a way to engage a hip and cool crowd, hence why DJing has gained popularity with a mainstream audience, including that dodgy balding bloke who leers at girls in clubs.
The Sims DJ seems to be the EA games Sims franchis’s growth into capturing this new edgy DJing, iPod loving crowd, its developed as a sims game for the iPod allowing you to effectively become a DJ and begin DJing on your iPod in order to complete various goals. You essentially pick tracks and ‘mix’ them to keep the dance floor full of Sims, by doing various things, including pouring drinks, you get ‘DJ creds’ which act as points. In addition you get several mini games, to take your mind of the DJing side of the game.
As it only costs around a fiver, its not really iPod DJing as such but for those of you just the slighted bit curious about iPod DJing or for those of you who have a spare moment on the commuter trains The Sims Dj might just avert your attention for long enough to miss a stop.
iPods are unique both in relation to other mp3s and in terms of their looks and software, the iPod was developed by Apple, and is essentially a hard drive with a linux based software, in an effort to support the likes of Belkin and other iPod accessory producers the Apple iPod team have allowed certain information on the iPod to be made available about the iPod for iPod accessory makers, the aim of the Apple Developer connection (specifically for the iPod) is to provide iPod accessory makers with information and an accredited seal to ensure quality and a degree of partnership, effectively a seal of approval and standard that consumers can rely on.
So next time you go shopping for an iPod or an iPod related DJing tool, make sure you keep an eye out for these logos.
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!
The idea of DJing with an iPod has been bounced around since the first generation of iPod was released in to the market, as the price of iPods has come down, and the higher end iPods such as the iPod touch becoming more functional the desire to DJ using an iPod in a portable manner has grown. Whilst there have been creations such as the Pacemaker, this is a totally different tool and probably doesn’t suit most peoples budgets. It comes as no surprise the there have been attempts to create a portable iPod DJing device. One of the most functional and fun is this little Japanese creation, its basically a case that holds two iPods, each with a volume fader on either side and each installed with the Linux base iScratch software, this then feeds into a single output which plays out the headphones and/or an amp, it’s home made and still doesn’t tackle the problem of adjusting the pitch which has been a persistent problem in iPod DJing.
