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 has come up with a 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 hello 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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I hate stories like these, but it seems incumbent on me to report bad news on an all to regular basis. This week comes the shocking death of Guru from Gangstarr. He's been ill for some time after suffering a heart attack and being in a coma. But the inference from his friend and manager Solar was that he was getting better - hence the shock statement.

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Another week another competition. This time, DBM Labs are offering up more booty from their range of DJ oriented clobber. And all you have to do is take the shortest ever survey - just one answer is needed, so even the most hardened of lazy readers can surely be bothered to drop a line to them in return for some freebies. You can can't you?

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Just before I popped off for a week, I announced the next massive headphone group test. I also did a little but of last minute rallying via Twitter and got some extra pairs in the test, as well as word of those that won't quite make it this time around, but will appear at a later date.

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I'm back. A week off doing the traditional UK bank holiday pastime of decorating has seen the skratchlab descend into chaos, a key influence on who I am die, and DIY yielding a slightly cleaner looking kitchen but left me with a sofa lifting induced back injury. Indulge me for a second as I take off the holiday hat and put on my writing one. I'm quite sure than not one of you cares a jot for my freshly painted walls or architectural lighting, so I won't bore you with that at all. But I will briefly talk about Malcolm Mclaren.

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Some time ago, I worked out that at the current rate, Scratch Live would reach v2 in expansive time of 5 years. Clearly this scared the living crap out of Serato, thus decided to ramp up development and reduce this down to 9 months. Weeeellll… perhaps it was nothing to do with anything I said at all, but v2 is all out of beta and very much ready for you to use. Set yourself aside a quiet moment and read the extensive list of new stuff as well as changes. And it's all for free too.

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As technology marches forward, some choose to stick to their chosen DJ weapon of choice, while others reach the top of their tree but feel the need to be challenged again. One such soul is Woody aka Woody Madera. Having established himself as a key player and many times world champion in the turntablist market, he's now returning to his graphics roots and putting those skills to good use with in conjunction with Serato's Video-SL plugin for his "Turntables in Technicolor" project. And you can win suitably splendid t-shirts celebrating the launch, as well a being the official act for the upcoming UK DMC heats.

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After the Easter break (taking next week off), I'll be starting the well overdue overhaul to the original headphone group test. It was going to be a lot smaller, but as I started to plan it out, I realised that if I was going to do this, I should do it to the standard expected by you dear readers. So that's exactly what's happening, and if any manufacturer wants their headphones in this group test, they have 1 week to get a pair to me.

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I like to think that the people who visit here are intelligent readers wanting to offer polite and enlightened comment to news stories. But I'm not alone in noting that recent comments have taken a very negative turn. People randomly feeling the need to unload hate on a particular product - dissing DJs in videos and other posters - all of which is really unnecessary and doesn't add to the skratchworx experience.

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Finally - the server recovered from whatever breakdown it was suffering and I'm now in full possession of the multi-angled American DJ VMS4 demo by Berlin's very own DJ Freshfluke. It starts with some mellow hip hop mixing and kicks into demo mode at around 3.30.

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Native Instruments are a big company, with some big brands too. Arguably the biggest (at least in our scene) is Traktor, and brand loyalty is strong within the community. Given that at any one time, Traktor is neck and neck sales wise with SSL in Europe (according to my info), you'd understand that the heaving masses of Traktor users might want some branded merch to show off. There has been a small amount of control vinyl released, but a bag has been requested for a looong time. And finally it's here - the Traktor Bag by UDG.

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