Another year, another D-Day. This year Denon have rolled out a slew of new product including some new rackmount mixers (DN-S900 and DN-S500) but of most interest to us skratch heads is the spanking new DN-S3500 DIRECT DRIVE deck and some new headphones in the shape of the DN-HP1000.

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18 months ago at MusikMesse 2004, I asked Rane if they had an update to the 56 on the cards. The response was "how do we make the 56 any better?". Sam from Serato chipped in with "build in a USB port or Serato itself". Well somebody has beaten them to it.

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The annoyingly good people at DJBattle.net have episode 4 ready to roll.

According to the site - "This month the 2004/2005 Swedish DMC champion, Kid Sid, shows us exactly how well the Rane Serato works. We also throw a few questions at the legendary Jazzy Jay and Shaheem. As a bouns we got two freestyle clips från Tigerstyle and Rafik who you might remember from episode 2."

So get over there and take look. Mine's still downloading...

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I'm contacting the Guinness Book of Records - I claim the longest ever time to do a review. In a previous existence, I managed to score a Xone:02 from Allen & Heath but for one reason and another, never quite got round to reviewing it. So feeling guilty, and more importantly receiving a timely call from Allen & Heath, I set about finally writing it up. 2.5 years is long enough to get to know a mixer I think... 8)

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Slowly but surely, I'm getting through my list of outstanding reviews. It's hard because as soon as I tick another one off the list, somebody else brings out another one. I'm not complaining though - choice is good right? Anyway - this time I'm casting my eye over Numark's 100% digital skratch mixer, the DXMPro. In reality it's just an updated PPD01 with the effects ripped out. But unlike the PPD01 this one doesn't disappoint.

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Bored of watching DMC DVD's? Need some fresh footage? Brought to our attention over at The Skratchlounge, this looks to be one hell of a DVD. The Turntablist Showcase DVD volume 1 features a little bit of everything you might need from a skratch DVD.

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As previously mentioned, Numark have officially announced the variable torque TTX, and today at the DJ North Show in Leeds, we witnessed it first hand.

It's a simple matter or pressing keylock and quartz lock at the same time and then it cycles through the torques. Check this short movie to see it in action.

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German DJs and all round nice guys Noisy Stylus have taken a break from winning DMC and ITF team battles and have lovingly crafted a new LP for your discerning ears. Entitled "Table Manners", Tre Styles, Tobeyer, Adlib and Dynamike have put together 14 quality tracks of skratch loveliness.

It's a varied bunch of tracks - some full-on skratch madness along with more melodic chill out style stuff. I'm a bit hard to please these days when it comes to full CD's and often take a lot of listens to get into something but this grabbed me straight away.

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A whole year ago, I had my first play with a new prototype crossfader from Eclectic Breaks at PLASA 2004. Now, several prototypes later, the finished Pro X Fade is ready. A few lucky people have one, including myself and Laurent from Spin Science.

Get yourselves over to the special feature, that takes a look at the conception, design and production of the final fader.

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We've been here before right? Is this yet another hoax or the real deal? A guy called Dave has posted a link in the CDT story below to an image alleged to be a 3D render of Denon's alleged next super deck. Of course I checked with the good guys at Denon who said it is indeed a fake. But it seems that someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make such a hoax.

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Nothing earth-shatteringly new in these images - I discovered them on the Gemini site and figured I tease you all over again.

Minor changes include a track skip knob (too big IMHO) and the pitch bend buttons have been made more accessible below the pitch fader. The front panel also gets a minor change - the buttons are now recessed.

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I know I know... I must have mentioned this twice before but it looks like Numark were saving the TTX upgrade until Summer NAMM. The new variable torque motor is (according to the press release) available now with a suggested retail of $629.

But did anyone else notice the dropping of the "1"? The release refers to TTX but the image still says TTX1. The Numark website lists the TTX but the old Numark TTX1 site is still fully laden with beautiful oneness.

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First seen as a black prototype and a more fitting Silver/white 3D render at MusikMesse 2005, Numark sparked a frenzy of internet interest (and a shedload of traffic for as well). As summer NAMM approaches, Numark have properly announced the iDJ. Quite how the UK DJ magazine of the same name is going to take that I don't know but it sure does look like Numark have firmly looked the future of DJing in the face and made something to put them right at the forefront of the digital revolution.

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The Alcatech team put on quite a show for us at MusikMesse this year. Their big scary DJ Armin gave us a really good display and managed to call out Stanton and their Final Scratch offering (who were stood right in front of him) at the same time - which was nice. So I feel I had no choice - for fear of being hunted down by Armin - but to get their Digiscratch v2 product reviewed and as soon as possible. So Deft did the honours again and gives us the 411 (is that right?).

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Deft has been busy. When I suggested that we get up to speed and do a round up of the various digital offerings available to the discerning skratch DJ, he jumped at the chance. I think he wished he hadn't now as they just keep ending up on his desk at work without an end in sight. First up is the current daddy - Serato Scratch Live - but this one covers the latest v1.4 version.

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When I asked for entries to this competition to win some post Messe booty, all you had to do was send in a funny caption to the Yoga and Q pic. It seems however that many of you are in need of therapy or at least a hug as 75% of the very small entry was just plain offensive. But there were a handful of standout winners. Well done to winner Dave Murray, and runners -up Tek (yes - twice in a row) and DJ Predakon.

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Although pitching themselves as "the number one source for Swedish turntablists", the guys at DJBattle seem to be making a play for world domination with their continuing DJBattle TV series. This time resident host DJ Garry talks to former DMC champ A-Trak and just for good measure does a little freestyle as well.

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Something that has long bugged me about DJ gear - other than a slipmat, mixer faceplate or risky fader mods, your ability to customise your gear to suit your tastes simply hasn't really been an option. Flicking through all sorts of leisure magazines e.g. mountain bikes, etc the list of accessories you can buy to improve your setup is staggering. But in the case of DJ gear, a deck is a deck - a mixer is a mixer with little in the way of being able to tweak. Wouldn't it be cool if you could buy each element of your gear to suit your preference?

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Information is slowly trickling through about the long awaited Thud Rumble carts from Ortofon. Seems that Vestax will be distributing them in Japan and have released some information (in Japanese JPG so I can't run it through a translator). Hopefully sometime soon we'll receive official info and carts soon enough. Hopefully some nice person who reads Japanese will be able to shed a little more light on the text for us.

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Accessories are cool. I only wish we were able to add more to our gear. So I'm rather giddy when I read about Vestax bring out a few new odds and ends to their range.

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In these cautious times with little in the way of new gear coming out, it gives me a chance to play catch up. Even though the review list is more comprehensive than any other, there are still some gaping holes. One such hole is about to be filled in the shape of a Pioneer DJM-707 review.

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Sometimes the wheels run slow at HQ for all sorts of reasons. In this case it's fitting out a bathroom and a blown up PC. NdB has tried his best to get some more footage up but the Gods seem fit to work against him. So I've stepped in to literally throw up unedited movies of Netik, Skilz, Crazy B and Lil Mike on the MixVibes stand at MusikMesse.

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Now here's some good news for me - and for you too. Not only do I have my first real paying advertiser (yay!, but it's also for a competition to win some lovely shiny white i-series booty from the very nice people at Gemini.

Entitled “The i-Mix therefore i-Am Contest” - the contest will run over the next 90 days after which point Gemini will randomly select a winner from the (hopefully) long list of entries to win an i-Series package which includes two iCDJ Professional CD Player units and an iPMX 2-Channel 10” Mixer. The contest is displayed rather prominently on their front page and while you're there, check out the news section, browse the site, and take part in the little poll section where they’re putting up questions every couple of weeks that they’d like to get feedback on.

So you have nothing to lose - click the banner (when it appears) or visit the Gemini site.

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We all know the history behind the word turntablism - DJ Babu is acknowledged as having coined the phrase to describe what he felt best suited what he did, and it seems to have gathered general acceptance - as well as a fair share of critics as well. Pedestrian, Spin Science and Skratchworx have decided that it's time to get the various verbage associated with the artform we love to be recognised in the major dictionaries around the world.

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I know I can't stop mentioning the good people at Pedestrian but when they send said "hey Mark - here's one last copy of the Tutoritool™ for you to give away" - well what's a guy to do?

What we have is number 362 from the limited run of 1000. And as usual, all you have to is click on this link and send the mail.

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Being a member of the Scratch Perverts clearly indicates a man's talents on the decks. First Rate was one such person and now is most definitely back with a double album called "Walky Talkyz". And it looks like it's on vinyl only (I think) which is kinda cool. 8)

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After much yes/no decision making, I've finally put up a forum - The SkratchLounge. Join up, read the welcome message, play nice.

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Continuing the current shift towards scratch tools for the musically inclined, Kypski's full blown "Clocktaves" is finally available.

The concept of "Clocktaves" was first seen on "The Mazturbation Tool" - pressing scales into vinyl but now is available as a full product.

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I'll state this plain and clear - I love the Ecler HAK360. The Eternal fader is an awesome piece of scratchy engineering and should be in every mixer by law. But sadly for one reason and another, Ecler's global distribution isn't what it should be so many of you will not have had a chance to use one. But it comes as music to my ears as I've just found out about a limited edition Noisy Stylus HAK360.

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I'm a curious type of guy. I've had the Numark CDX for a long time now and have often wondered what the vinyl sounds like if played on a regular deck - so today I did just that. What I didn't realise was just how much crap had built up in the CDX vinyl. I feel quite ill now...

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