iPod DJing

Home made iPod DJ Mixer

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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.

iScratch - iPod DJ software

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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.