I haven't slept too well this week. A combination of builder-induced house carnage, stuffy weather and a poorly Mrs Gizmo has meant that I'm not exactly on top form right now. So you can imagine how many times I had to rub my eyes upon reading "CDJ-850 review" in my inbox. Surely some mistake right? But no - it seems that Andrew Unsworth's proximity to Pioneer UK's HQ has paid dividends big time. Announced just a few weeks ago and not yet available in any shops, we have the world's first review of the new Pioneer CDJ-850.

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Ninja Tune is 20, and to celebrate they've hooked up with a number of companies to help you win an ultra special prize as part of their anniversary tour. And when I say part, I mean get up on stage in Paris alongside the likes of Amon Tobin, Coldcut and Kid Koala. Gulp. So to facilitate this, MixVibes want you to make a mix - using Cross - good enough to get you on such an esteemed stage.

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Livid make cool stuff. For them, it's not about spewing out plastic controllers to the mass market, but very much about crafting wood and metal into objects of beauty and functionality. While they haven't quite got the Apple resources to go unibody, they have taken their existing Block and streamlined its quirky screwiness - i.e. they de-screwed it.

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It's really nice that I'm able to talk new technology, but this time it applies to one of the oldest DJ technologies in the book. While we're often bedazzled by much flashing light new shiny stuff, there's still a need for the traditional stuff to take the spotlight. And while Ortofon's range has largely been new paint jobs with slightly tweaked specs, the new Ortofon Serato S-120 range does have a new technology to push forth - asymmetric suspension. And you'll be pleased to know that I got excessively nerdy with these new carts and can hopefully shed light on what they're all about.

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Hmmm… that's better. Having sated my hunger with the finest bacon butties, let's all pull up a chair and pour over this NI teaser video frame by frame and see what we can deduce in a Sherlock Holmes stylee.

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A very long running willtheywontthey saga in the DJ scene has been the possibility of a full sized Native Instruments branded Traktor controller. Tongues have been very firmly jammed into cheeks when quizzed about such things, leaving a trail of vague hints at the tentative possibility that such a thing may or may not appear from them perhaps at some point in the next 10 years. Maybe. Or maybe not. Well it seems that the shapeless rumours now have form, and DJ VIP Dubfire has been quite conspicuously playing out with it recently. Thankfully NI decided that it's time to tease us a little with a blurrycam video.

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In these day of mass produced plastic controllers, it's nice to see that at least one manufacturer remembers the good old days when DJ gear actually had wood on it (and real meters too). But enough showing my age - Livid is a company hand crafting beautiful controllers in the good ole US of A. No plastic boxes here - all machined from a variety of materials, and assembled with love. The Ohm64 is one such stunning controller, and resident button basher Chris Cartledge cast his experienced eye over this object d'art.

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Pioneer's new species continue to evolve from the DJ gene pool at an alarming rate. While we've seen the CDJ-2000, 900 and 350 drag themselves from the primordial Pioneer ooze, there was a gap - the missing link if you like. The CDJ-850 sits neatly in the gap between the bedroom DJ 350 and all purpose DJ 900, and simply updates the 800 to sit in the rekordbox workflow. Or does it?

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The purpose of decksavers has been plain and simple - to keep the crap that your life generates away from your expensive shiny gear. Keeping up with trends, Decksavers have tended to cater for the latest gear, but now the ultimate decksaver is here. At last the oldest lump of DJ gear gets some plastic love - behold the Technics decksaver, as well as a few others of note. And I've got some to give away too!

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A few weeks back, the question of the briefly seen Vestax VCI-300 MKII's availability came up on the Serato forum. Using my sage knowledge and experience of Vestax's somewhat flexible approach to timescales, I proffered what I thought to be sound advice along the lines of "I wouldn't wait - it's a minor upgrade and won't be out for eons". Oh dear. Looky what just popped into my inbox.

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Having spent an an unnatural amount of time with headphones for the huge group test, I'm always oh so pleased to see yet more of the buggers make it to market, because like we don't have enough to choose from right? But I've seen these new Denon DN-HP500s somewhere before…

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When Pioneer teased and then finally released the new species of CDJ, the overwhelming feeling was one of sticking a middle finger up at pretenders to the Pioneer club throne i.e. vinyl wielding DVS systems. But times have very rapidly changed, and rather than alienate a massive and growing market sector, Pioneer have gone to great lengths to ensure that their CDJs snuggle up very happily with the market leaders via the medium of HID. Traktor did properly in v1.2.6, and now the yet to be released for a while v2.1 of Scratch Live.

UPDATE: And there's now a movie too.

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The digital age has always been about cramming more into less. But there has to be a practical minimum at which DJing becomes impractical. So imagine the task given to the clever people at Allen & Heath - please squish 4 decks into a laptop sized bag. They did a hell of a job with the xone: 3D and 4D, but no - they needed smaller dammit (fist thuds on boardroom table). Oh and one last thing - they want it plug and play as well as MIDI and effects and cue and loops and ridiculous ins and outs and at ridiculous high quality… and for less than the price of a 4D. That's quite some task, but the bitter pill was sweetened with the addition of Serato's ITCH. What came out was the xone:DX and an eye-opening DJ experience for this vinyl veteran.

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One often seen box of tricks on skratchworx is Behringer's seemingly too good to be true DDM4000 all singing and dancing 4 channel with effect MIDI mixer. Coming in at an obscenely low £310/$399, feedback tells me that it punches considerably above it's weight. And now you can make it even better courtesy of a custom Infinium fader. Called the X1 (yes just like NI's controller), this is a familiar Infinium optical fader made specifically for the DDM4000.

Big thanks to Nanofox for the tip.

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NAMM is here again. No not the Winter one in Anaheim, but the lesser known one Nashville. Skratchworx won't be in attendance, if only because the big DJ guns tend to get wheeled out in January. But as ever, the mighty Numark corporation is there and has some stuff of interest - namely MIXTRACK.

UPDATE: Prices added.

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Seems that it's MIDICON 2010 round these parts. Controllers are popping out of the woodwork at an alarming rate - this time from long time German maker Faderfox. They've clearly be building on the foundation of a small but loyal following, and honing the range just that little bit further. There's 5 to choose from, but the mass market appeal has just taken several steps up the popularity ladder with one fell swoop - they're now USB. Rejoice.

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As ever, closely guarded technology secrets are leakier than BP's oil pipes. Such is the case with Novation's new MIDI controller. Rather than being a controller that DJs seem to adopt, Dicer is aimed directly at DJs, and quite specifically Scratch Live DJs using Technics turntables. And if you didn't get that from the teaser pictures then you should hang your head in shame. Hell I even gave you the name with my "dicing with journalist death" comment.

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This is going to be an interesting week for DVS users. Not only have Novation got something up their sleeve, but a guy called Joe Ward has hooked up with Vestax Controller One inventor Ricci Rucker aka The Ruckazoid to present an highly interesting take on MIDI controllers for DVS users. C1 meets MIDI controller in the all new Quickswitch deck controllers.

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It had to happen - reading one too many knee jerk "fake DJ" comments on tha internetz made me snap. So I pose this oh so simple question for you to ponder and get hot under the collar about - just what the hell is a "real DJ"?

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For those of you who follow me on Twitter (why aren't you?), last week I twatted about receiving a hot new piece of nextlevelness from a secret source that paid an all too flying visit to skratchworx towers, and that you'd just have to wait a while for it to be launched. Well Novation don't seem to be able to contain themselves and have posted the vaguest of teasers about said product - with a counter and everything.

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There's no denying that the once mighty turntable is becoming a thing of yesteryear. I'm sure many would disagree, but when clubs are actually removing them, and finding one at a trade show or retailer is a rarity, you know that it's not looking good for the venerable wheels of steel. Thus demand has been considerably less, and supply even harder to come by for some models. The Vestax PDX has been notable by its absence in the retail chain, resulting in several emails enquiring about its demise. But now the PDX-3000 MKII cat is out of the bag. It seems that in these times of dwindling sales, one company is mad enough to at least pump some cash into a tad of R&D to update their range.

UPDATE: Fresh details added.

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Laptop DJing is nothing new. But MIDI controllers have been developed to plug into off the shelf laptops to give users that more DJ-like experience. That however hasn't stopped the original OODJ from evolving in its own sweet controller-free direction into the next generation of uber-laptop in a suitcase for video. Say hi to OOVJ.

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No matter how hard manufacturers try and flog the dead horse that is CD, media is dead. It doesn't matter how many products come out with CD in the ever lengthening nomenclature, we DJs want a quick and easy way to use our digital audio with our chosen lump of DJ hardware. Some like the ever classic feel of vinyl, while others take the MIDI controller route. Me? I like the best of both worlds and have fallen head over heels for Numark's ITCH based controllers. First it was the NS7, and now it's the more conventional V7. And as ever I wrote lots of opinion and made it perdy via the medium of photography.

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By the end of the week, I may have reverted to uncommunicative fanboy rather than objective industry commentator, as I drool over my new acquisition - a 16Gb iPad. My reasons for getting one are twofold - firstly Mrs Gizmo needs her own lightweight surfing box. But secondly, I strongly believe that the iPad will have a ridiculous impact on the DJ scene that the iPhone cannot have. And if the above video is anything to go by, we're in for some fun times ahead.

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What started off as a quick look at some leading headphones, has turned into an epic journey covering 15 pairs of headphones producing close to 10,000 words, 141 photos and a new recruit to the skratchworx team. Finally, it's here - the long awaited skratchworx 2010 headphone group test can be found after the jump. And I can assure you that I never want to see another pair of cans for as long as I live.

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T'is the irony of skratchworx - pumping generous scoops of nextleveleness out to the masses, but it really doesn't mean a hoot if you haven't got the skills to drive all this shiny stuff. But when someone with the prerequisite skills gets his hands on such things, you know that something special is going to happen. Native Instruments have procured the immense talent that is DJ Craze and like Rafik before him have unleashed him upon Traktor Scratch Pro and the Kontrol X1 unit. Sweet Jesus.

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For those of you that have followed my journey from full time employment to full time stressed out money free self employment, you'll remember that part of my repertoire was web design. I've done some work that I've been very proud of - especially the Innofader site. But I closed that business last year and have stopped doing it altogether now. But the Innofader site needs some updating, so I'm looking for a capable webby type person to take it over to permanently.

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Having got the DJ world somewhat excited at the potential of a full 4 channel MIDI controller, American Audio have garnered a huge amount of attention for their eagerly anticipated VMS4. But one thorny issue has been the software that powers it. But this has been resolved, and in some ways makes it even more versatile now. VirtualDJ LE is now the software of choice and now offers a degree of video capability at a near entry level price.

UPDATE: Image added.

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Being a very old school beat maker, you can imagine my abject delight at playing with Maschine for the first time. Sadly however, the radically addictive nature of NI's beat maker was such that I reluctantly despatched it to my reviewer who dissected it in detail and came up with a heap of constructive criticism as well as solid praise. But now the software update is upon us, and NI have listened to user comment to bring it to the level of maturity people have cried out for. And it's a free update too.

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My thoughts about iPhones as DJ hardware alternatives are well known round these parts. But everything is about to change with Apple's iPad. Now instead of attempting to cram a full setup into 3 inches of screen real estate, the iPad now offers a genuinely valid lump of hardware for DJs. Hell even I've become a paid up iPad developer and will be grabbing one should they ever make it to the UK. But "Destroy The Silence" has been set up to test the theory of DJing with just iPads. And as the above video shows - it's more than possible.

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