There's no denying that VJing is the next level of DJing. But adding the visual dimension to a DJ's set significantly adds to the mountain of gear needing to be lugged around - not least something to actually monitor the video output. Numark brought out the original VM03 some time ago so now it's time for an update with bigger screens and greater images control.

---

There are a number of trends emerging in the digital DJ market - vinyl emulation, MIDI controllers, USB connectivity and software interoperability. The Numark DMC2 (that's squared remember) hits the latter and is designed as a companion to Numark's very lovely Cue software but is capable of working with others as well. Essentially, it's almost a pair of iCDXs in a rackmount unit. And yes - the little wheels allegedly do scratch. But no - it's nothing to do with the other DMC.

---

With USB being the acronym word on every manufacturers lips right now, Numark continue to propel themselves down the digital highway with the DJ-io - a neat and tidy USB output interface for Macs and PCs. Now you can just plug and go... or is it plug and play... wash and go? Oh hell - I'm all confused now...

---

It wouldn't be right if I didn't mention another A&H release. The new Xone:S2 is what is commonly referred to as a "club mixer" and comes in a "rack-mounted 4U" configuration and can even be configured with "rotary faders". Yes I know the scratchernet is not used to such terms but I'm sure a quick trip to Google or Wikipedia will clarify things for you. Sarcasm aside, this is quite a beast and even has a full curve control for the crossfader. Nice to see that A&H realise that all DJs like to scratch a bit. And no - I don't know if a Pro X Fade can be installed, but knowing Ebsel it's probably a done deal. Most interestingly though is the inclusion of USB, embracing the direction that many DJs want to go towards.

---

I always love when Allen & Heath come out with something fresh. Why? Because they're English and any manufacturer that comes from the UK and shows the rest of the world how to make DJ gear properly puffs out my chest with a great sense of sadly waning national pride. So having introduced the Xone:3D last year, I wondered what could possibly be next? Well there is the thorny issue of having to offload your existing mixer to make space for a Xone:3D, something A&H have clearly thought about as well. The result is the Xone:2D - essentially the controller part of the Xone:3D, allowing you to put whatever mixer you want between a pair and still having MIDI at your fingertips.

---

It's not very often that we have anything to post about Technics but rumours abound about the 1210MK5G being discontinued. So being the dutiful DJ hack that I am, rather than post rumour, I got FACTS. Clarification came from Panasonic UK to squash the rumour that I've both read and received in my inbox. And It's not what you might think.

UPDATE: For those of you using this story as some sort of gospel to refute the current (Nov 29 2009) Technics is dead rumour - this piece was written nearly 3 YEARS AGO. And as it turns out, despite the official word from Panasonic UK, the MK5 is still in plentiful supply, thus casting some doubt on any Technics rumour to be honest. So stop quoting this over and over again.

---

Time for another teaser. Having broken free from their Stanton contract, Native Instruments have some hot gear coming out at NAMM - the briefest of brief glimpses I have for you here. I should be getting more info later this week but it won't be released before NAMM. So as ever speculate away - let's see what wackiness you guys can come up with.

---

Sometimes, is soooo on the ball and ahead of the pack, it's embarrassing. This however is equally embarrassing but for the wrong reasons. I commissioned Ceri Grafu to write a Vestax Faderboard review - which he did - but for a whole load of lame brain excuses jolly good reasons, I never published it. Having spotted a few posts on various forums on the scratchernet recently, I figured it was time to dust off this 2 year old review and give the Faderboard the attention it deserved.

---

The biggest event in the gear geeks DJ trade's calendar is Winter NAMM. God knows why it's called Winter NAMM as citizens of Anaheim haven't got a clue what Winter really is. The temperature dropping to 75° is classed as a cold spell out there. But it all kicks off in a couple of weeks and sadly, I've decided that there really isn't enough going on to warrant me spending £1500 to get there to give manufacturers a whole heap of free publicity. So I need to recruit basically anyone who is going and has a camera to feed the massive with all the hottest info direct from the show. If you're going and want to help out, hit me up at the usual address and we'll work out the details.

---

So NAMM is in a few weeks and information slowly seeps from within the assorted PR departments around the world. This is the sum total of what M-Audio will give me before the show starts. Let the speculation begin...

---

So as 2006 draws to an end, so does the Rane Fest competition. The entries have been collated, scrutinised, adjudicated for double entries and randomised. All I need from one person is a number between 1 and 1769. The first number posted in the comments will match an email address in the randomised list. I'll then contact that person and inform them of their frankly enormous New Years pressie. Once they respond, then I'll announce the winner. So I'm waiting...

---

Just over a year ago, the scene lost one of it's most respected people - ZeeVee from SqratchAttack. As a testament to the loss and the level of respect felt by those around him, DJ Happee has devoted a track to ZeeVee on his upcoming "The Renaissance" LP. If you feel that you'd like to say a few words about ZeeVee, you can leave a message on the Zone Seven office line - 858 366 4600, or alternatively you can record an MP3 and email it to happee_at_djhappee_dot_com. Our thoughts are with ZeeVee's family at this time of year.

---

In what can only be described as selfless devotion and dedication to his new product, one guy called Moe has frankly been bugging the hell out of everyone with his amazing energy in promoting Promats slipmats just about anywhere he can. So having had a pair for a while, I figured it was only right to scribble a few words about yet another slipmat. And I'm glad I did as they're rather nice.

---

Times are a' changin' quicker than many of us can deal with. T'was but a few years ago when I used to pop off to to my local record boutique and pick up whatever was in stock, often without a clue what I'd bought aside from the artist having a Hiphoppy sounding name. These days, every new release is but a click away and jumping on the digital download gravy train bandwagon, Serato bring you whitelabel.net - a way for all you SSL users to get hot new releases first, using SSL as a dongle no less.

---

2 golden rules of computing - never use v1.0 of anything and never use a beta if you're doing something important. Well v1.0 of SSL is ancient history now, but the next big upgrade of SSL is upon us as a public beta. But be warned - use it at your own risk. The New Zealand boys will laugh in the face of fat cat lawyers toting frivolous lawsuits.

---

One of the beauties of all this digital stuff is it's portability. Grab your laptop, SSL box or 57 and off you go. But it's just not the done thing to turn up with Tesco bags or your gran's shopping trolley bag so to stop crsuhing embarrassment and complete loss of street cred, Rane, Serato and UDG have teamed up to make The Creator Backpack.

---

Serato have been a busy bunch as the next 4 news story will attest. Story number 1 - despite being pretty safe and sound under the hood, SSL has a glitch here and there that are easily and regularly fixed with maintenance updates, the latest of which is v1.6.3.

---

I love the digital age. If something doesn't work right first time, you just shout at some programmers and after they've stopped crying (assuming you shouted hard enough), they tap their keyboard repeatedly and out the other end comes a new version. Such is the case with M-Audio and Torq. Not that Torq was running like a bag of spanners, but everything can work just that little bit better. Out of the M-Audio programming factory comes v1.02.

---

You can always trust the Soul Brother Number 1 to make not only a momentous entry, but also an equally memorable exit. This morning - Christmas Day - the Godfather of Soul, the amazing Mr Please Please Himself James Brown passed away. It's all over the various news channels so I'll leave you to get all the details.

Don't be sad - Mr Brown came, he saw and he funked like no other. Instead of mourning, push aside the pile of discarded wrapping paper, fight your way to the decks and put on your fave James Brown tracks and get the whole house up on the good foot. That's what he would have wanted.

---

...another Christmas greeting from - but we mean it every year. And this is the 4th one I've posted - not bad for tiny little niche DJ site innit! This has been a pretty bloody momentous year for yours truly and next year looks to be much the same as well - something that I'll cover in my end of year retrospective and message to the DJ nation. But in the meantime, get off the internet, get down the shops and buy those last minute gifts for friends and family and have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year as well!

---

Behringer isn't a name you might expect to see on the pages of but when they approached me with couple of units to review, I just thought it would be plain rude to refuse. One is the Tweakalizer - an ultra affordable effects unit - that I'll be inserting into my FX loop over the Christmas break - and the other is the BCD2000 midi Interface. Deft took delivery of this a while ago and the results of his usual extensive testing can be found right here.

---

Like it or loathe it - the laptop is becoming a standard lump of gear for DJs. Great - yet more gear to lug around and find a place for in our tiny little spare rooms or to stand safely on what are nothing more than creaky old tables at gigs. So you need something to make sure that your expensive investment stays safe and sound while you do your DJ thing. I got sent a Litlab Uberstand as part of the Rane Fest so I figured I'd put it through the review machine as see how it faired. And it faired very well indeed - IMHO one of the few wow products. Not just me however, NdB said the very same thing after seeing it as well.

---

A little while back, the relationship between long time buddies Native Instruments and Stanton officially came to an end, which of course led to a whole heap of people dancing on the still warm grave of the allegedly dead Final Scratch product. But just hold on to your horses people - I can officially, exclusively albeit somewhat scantly announce (well more like tease) the future of Final Scratch. You read it here first - again. Another brief but important world exclusive for !

---

My name is Mark and I'm a bagaholic. I have no space for them, don't have much to put in them but I love them. And my bag needs evolve all the time. Now I'm based at home, I only have need for a laptop bag from time to time, but when I travel, I seem to struggle with an immensely crap wobbletastic trolley plus a second cavernous bag that is a poor partner for the trolley. So when Magma told me about their new multi-purpose trolley/bag combo, it's as if it had been made especially for me and my increasing jetsetter needs. But it's made for you guys and your various needs or whatever you wish to use it for to be honest - versatility is the key.

---

It's all well and good writing reviews and telling people in geeky detail just how great a product is, but a picture paints a thousand words - and moving pictures replace the words completely. So check this movie out - UK DMC Champ DJ Muzzell has recently been sponsored by Vestax and Leisuretec and as a thank you, has but together a quality movie that shows off some of the new features of Vestax's flagship scratch mixer - the PMC-08Pro as well as displaying exactly why he's one of the world's best tablists.

And while I'm on about it, Muzzell also has new breaks wax made alongside Awekid called Donkey Work - hitting the streets right now.

---

In my scratchernet journey, I've had a tendency to buy domain names like buying DVDs. If I saw a name I liked, I just bought it without to much of a plan as to what I would do with it. But now it's time for an early spring clean chéz skratchworx so I'm getting rid of some DJ friendly domains, in particular some rather tasty skratchy ones.

---

Audio Innovate arrived on the scene last year with a mixer - the AEM-100 - that dared to challenge the established conventions of the scratch mixer scene. Analog knob twiddling synth style effects, left-of-centre thinking Fader Cuts buttons and dropping in as standard the almighty Pro X Fade made this a special mixer. It was greeted with a plethora of emotion - some derided the AEM-100 for its cheaty toy fader cut buttons, while other instantly orgasmed at the old school effects. Elliot Marx - being the owner of AI - listened to feedback and tweaked as much as he could without running into expensive retooling costs. The result is the AEM-100i.

---

It's the future - I'm telling you. Kidz wil b rockin dis on da tube fo shizzle... OK so it's not going to revolutionise the digital DJ market just yet so Serato can sleep easy at night but still, it's worth posting about just so we can see how far the influence of the DJ reaches into the digital realm. Presenting the mi Jam Mixer - the brand new iPod wonder toy aimed at putting us all out of work and killing the DJ forever. Or so you'd think from some of the rants I read around the scratchernet. Big up James for the heads up!

---

It's just come to my attention that people have been struggling to enter the competition. This has been due to a limitation of my hosts built-in form management. All entries have been saved and backed up and the database emptied again.

So if you've tried to enter after 1st December, enter again - only once though - to be sure of a chance to win the assorted booty! Sorry for any inconvenience caused. 24 days left to enter!

---

So Christmas is coming and what better gift for a DJ than a lump of DJ gear. So with this in mind, I've taken on Dolphin Music in the UK on a test affiliate scheme. If you click and buy something from them from the banner on the right, gets a small commission. And remember, if anyone you know needs an iPod for a loved one from Santa this year, get them to click and buy on the Apple banner on the right. That is all.

---