If there's one product that it's fair to say I've overlooked it's Virtual DJ. The reason for this is quite simple - no Mac version for a very long time. V5 came, crashed my Mac a lot and ended up in the trashcan. But V6 is here, with a heap of bug fixes, but importantly a truckload of new stuff as well.

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Due to Apple's closed approach to music use on the iPhone, real DJ mixing apps are still someway off. It seems that anything encroaching on iTunes capabilities is deemed as evil and threatening to the Apple mothership, when actually people would still buy iPhones anyway. Still, Beats by Bjango is a really useful tool, that for me harks back to my early DJ days of manual BPMing of tracks and writing it down on paper, as well as a few other tricks up its sleeve too. Do iPhone apps have sleeves?

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While DJs and video technology are still circling each other and slowly forming an uneasy alliance, Inklen continue to develop their MixEmergency video mixing package and have now pushed it up to v1.2. And it's still able to use Scratch Live as an external controller too.

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The DVS scene is somewhat dominated by the big 2 of Scratch Live and Traktor Scratch Pro, in that order and by some margin. On reflection, this is probably because of the all in one nature of the product. So for now, it seems that the 3rd place position is being jockeyed for by a handful of potential packages such as Torq and MixVibes. But Deckdance is very much up and coming and should most definitely be taken seriously by every player and potential buyer. Skratchworx OG Professor BX has been playing with Deckadance for an eternity, right up to the brand spanking new v1.5 under the skratchworx microscope and is suitably impressed.

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AAfter the recent ruckus caused by the first rushes of the new A&H xone 2:02 virals, the dust has settled and the final versions are ready for DJ consumption. The theme is still the same, but the intent of one of them has been... can we say somewhat muted.

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While the rest of the DJ scene has stuck with the normal dark aesthetic, Allen & Heath's somewhat distinctly industrial looking Xone mixer range image has been very much of an acquired taste, more resembling a science lab than a DJ booth. But the charcoal paintbrush has been wielded big time to drag the Xone range kicking and screaming over to the dark side.

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When I had a real job where I actually had to go to a place of work, it generally meant leaving the house and having to drive to the aforementioned hellhole of tedium and politics, thus necessitating a car. But now my trip to the office is down 2 flights of stairs, the need for a car is almost nil. So in a radical carbon footprint and general bill reducing move, I said a fond farewell to my little black roller skate. What... you though I rolled with the big dogs?

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You may recall from the recent Traktor Scratch Pro review, that I've identified a phenomenon that I'll refer to as "review rot". This is where a review is completed but sat on because the next all singing and dancing bug busting version is coming out - allegedly. By the time it comes out, a significant rewrite is needed and a massive delay has you guys all antsy and shouting at us for the bloody review already. Well the news that Deckadance v1.5 has been announced is a cause for the review not appearing. This will soon be fixed.

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It's been some time since Tonium shamelessly used skratchworx to tease the original Pacemaker, and then cast us aside like an unwelcome relative at Christmas. But after some badgering with "you're too scared to send it to us" type emails, that has all changed, and the all spangly Pacemaker 60Gb has made its way to the skratchlab, and will subsequently be on its way around a few reviewers for a flash mob equivalent of a review.

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While you all unload your wallets to get the higher end of the range, Ortofon have made a cart for the rest of us in the shape of the Omega. And bringing the epic Ortofest to a close, Yorick cast his highly critical eye over the runt of the litter more affordable end of the Ortofon range.

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Yorick's ongoing series of Ortofon reviews continues with a look at some that you may not have even seen before - the MF6 and MF7s. Indeed, they don't even appear on the official Ortofon website (which actually needs an update whoever is reading this). But they do apparently stand up incredibly well to the established Shure standards in the scene. Has Yorick gone off his rocker? Is this heresy?

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Yeah - I know what time it is. And so can you courtesy of our friends at Flud Watches. Starting this month and continuing for the next 6, I'll be giving away one like clockwork... hahahaha... look it's Monday OK? Witty repartee take a few days to get going.

UPDATE: The big red closed letters across the main image just that. No more entries thanks.

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My love of the Korg Zero4 is well documented and is largely based upon the creative possibilities and flexibility offered when used in its Traktor Scratch certified mode, and only having a Firewire cable instead of a birds nest or RCAs attached to a magic sound box of tricks. Well Korg and NI would love for you to indulge in the love parade and have got a special offer for potential Zero mixer owners.

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Yorick's marathon Ortofest continues with another review - this time the rather more orthodox SH-4 headshell. No fancy art nouveau stylings here, but just plain and simple aluminium stamping, but in a variety of colours to suit your aesthetic needs.

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It's fair to say that while most people care passionately about which carts they use, they will almost certainly just use the stock headshells that come with their decks of choice. But you do have choice, and Ortofon recently brought some style to the usually utilitarian industrial design with the Evolution headshell. Worthy investment or snake oil pandering to image led DJs? Yorick finds out.

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There's something I've discovered about reviewing in the digital age. Back in the good old days before software and firmware updates, a product did exactly what it said on the tin. It was sent, played with and reviewed - end of story. Now however, v1.0 rapidly becomes v1.1, which becomes v1.2 etc etc. Such was the way with the skratchworx Traktor review. The skratchworx review of v3.4 was written way back in August, which then became Traktor Scratch Pro, so Deft held off and wrote that review instead. But wait... v1.0 is becoming v1.1 with cool new stuff so just wait a little while. We did, but we're waiting no more.

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Back in January, Serato announced an all new version 1.1 of their video mangling Video-SL package. The key feature was being able to use the SL-1 interface rather than only being available to Rane TTM-57SL users. Strictly beta up until today and now you can download the full version and use it for 30 days for free.

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Not wishing to appear last out of the box on this thing, but I pride myself on giving you the official info, rather than heresay and rumours. So when the alleged new Serato ITCH based effects unit for the Vestax VCI-300 hit tha netz, I decided to neither confirm nor deny the existence of said unit. But Serato have broken the silence at last and posted an official semi-confirmation/denial on their own forum. And it seems that Vestax have backed it up with a comment on Ean Golden's djtechtools as well.

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Having teased the world with the omgwoot trailer, Propellerhead Software have released Record - an all new self contained solution, that allows music makers to dispense with recording engineers and do the whole recording process from the comfort of their own laptop, or digital audio workstation as it were. Looks like Propellerheads have approached the recording angle from the musicians end rather than that of the engineer. Still looks incredibly complex to me, but hopefully once I've worked my way through the beta, I'll have a clue about how to use it.

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While I didn't win the £110m lottery rollover on Friday night (I did get £30.80 though), it seems that we did have a win in the skratchworx family, namely our very own reviewer Johnny 1 Move. Up against some stiff competition (including former UK champion Asian Hawk), J1M romped home to take the DMC UK northern heat for a clear win on home turf.

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Propellerheads are up to something. No word as to what it is other than speculation that Reason may or may not be getting audio recording. Either way, Propellerheads have a series of Producers Conferences (I guess the clue is in the name) all kicking off tomorrow where it's expected that all will be revealed. But judging from the reactions in the video, we're all going to want... whatever it is.

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Time to break some fresh ground - both manufacturer and reviewer. Ortofon sent me a box of stuff to take a look at, and after being bugged for something to do, I asked new blood Yorick if he was capable of reviewing carts. Back came a list of gear including gauges, thus the box was extradited to Australia for further examination. The first product up for dissection is the Ortofon Arkiv.

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While some of you seem content to label real DJ gear with the toy tag, the next wave of console gaming really can be described as toy DJing, with 3 button controllers being flavour of the day for Activision's upcoming "DJ Hero" game. The PR casually throws around the usual big words, but unless there's 2 platters and a mixer, this old man won't be going near a 3 button box and calling it DJing.

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A name not especially well known in today's DJ scene is N2IT. Headed up by legendary Techno DJ John Acquaviva, N2IT were instrumental in bringing modern DVS systems to the market - something that we should be very thankful for, and equally something that N2IT feel they should be paid for. Not because we should be showing gratitude of course, but because they hold trump cards - patents. A short time ago, Native Instruments reached an agreement, but now N2IT have unleashed the legal dogs upon M-Audio and their Torq software.

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You'll recall a few weeks ago that I put out a request for as many of you as possible to get yourselves to Somerset House for a Gadget Show feature experiment about social networking, in this case the effectiveness of Twitter vs Facebook. Well I did what I could and last night's show had Twitter trouncing Facebook. I doubt that it was anything to do with me, but for an oh so brief moment, skratchworx appeared on TV. Here begins global media domination.

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Fancy hobnobbing with some of the higher echelons of the UK DJ trade? Want to lay your hands on the NS7 in a trendy London night club? Well Numark have very kindly passed on 4 x VIP tickets for the UK launch party of the aforementioned and somewhat wonderful NS7. So if you're happy to make it to 24London (round the back of Hamleys) on 18th May for a bit of a bash, read on...

UPDATE: Seems that trainers are now acceptable.

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3D Computer Interface from Free Flow on Vimeo.

Sometimes, in a quiet moment I close the blinds, pop on my favourite hardcore scratch tracks and partake in a short frenzy of air scratching. It's like private dancing for turntablists in the comfort and security of their own homes. But some smart arse just couldn't let it lie and had to go and take it a step too far. Welcome to the nextlevelness user interface world of Free Flow, where touch is a dirty word and X and Y just aren't enough. They gotta have Z as well.

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Spinning vinyl ipod app from Theodore Watson on Vimeo.

So we've seen the AR scratching post below and marvelled at just how much spare time people seem to have to pull off such crazy pointless yet awesome stuff. This apparently Theodore Watson's response to the AR scratching clip and uses the iPod Touch/iPhone as some sort of proxy deck. Here's hoping the next iPhone has a spindle hole.

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AR scratching from vanderlin on Vimeo.

Having emerged from the self imposed hermit like existence to get the NS7 review out, it's time to play catchup. First up is an unusual mashup of motion camera work and augmented reality markers. If you're not down with AR, just check out the plethora of Youtube videos for a better idea. In this case, Todd Vanderlin used an AR marker on the record label and what transpires is a mind melt of label artwork and using the markers to scratch actual audio.

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Finally, after much prodding, poking, playing, probing, photographing and ummm... philming, the very much anticipated and alarmingly epic Numark NS7 review is ready for human consumption. I'll make no bones about it - I love it with a passion, so much so that I seemed able to gush on at extreme length about it. But it's not just the hardware that puts this on the map, but Serato's groundbreaking ITCH is about to make big noises in the DJ scene too. There must be something in the water in New Zealand.

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