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.
The iScratch is a homegrown software that takes advantage of the the job wheel present on most iPods, the iPod by Apple runs on its own software made specifically for the iPod, however, both Apple and iPod software is Linux based so with a little computer wizardry, you can put linux on your iPod and that when the iScratch application becomes possible. It’s possible to install linux on an iPod because the iPod is essentially a hard drive, and this is even more possible with larger iPods where the storage campacity of the iPod is comparable with your average desktop.
So what does the iScratch iPod Djing program do? and how does a DJ take advantage of the iScratch?
Essentially the iScratch iPod DJing program is a native linux program designed to work on the iPod, and use the job wheel of the iPod to scratch music playing out, this gives iPod DJs the chance to perform turntablism on the iPod directly. You can check out the iScratch iPod Djing program here.
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.
