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Test System Specs
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack
2 (DirectX 9.0c)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP, 2166 MHz (13 x 167) 3000+
Motherboard / Chipset: ASRock K7S8X v3 / SiS 748
Memory: 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter: RADEON 9200 SE
Disk Drive: Maxtor 6Y120L0 (120 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Sound Card: Emu1820
Turntables: Technics SL1210mk2
Cartridges: Shure m35x, Shure m44-7
Control Records: Serato Scratch Live CV02
Introduction
Using your PC for dj'ing has now seemingly hit critical
mass, with it being a real viable option for a lot of people out
there. There are many ways this can be achieved - from
real-time sequencers such as Ableton Live across to 'vinyl emulation'
software such as Stanton's Finalscratch and Serato's Scratch
Live. Lots of us here at Skratchworx still have dusty old
vinyl decks hanging around and still need that familiar tactile
control. This is reflected in the ever growing range of digital
solutions which allow vinyl style control via control records.
djDecks is such a piece of software, though it's ability
to manipulate audio via control records was added later as
a plugin. Seemingly ready for us to abuse here at Skratchworx,
we felt it was only fair to have a look whilst we attempt
to cover all the main bases. The immediate striking thing
about djDecks is probably the price! Frankly, $30 is a disgustingly
low price for something that could get us rocking in the
world of vinyl emulation. The low price is primarily driven
by the fact the development team is a one-man band, which
goes by the name of Adion - a software developer from Belgium (the land of
tasty beers). Will the low price be reflected in low performance? Hopefully
we will find out in this David vs. Goliath battle of the vinyl emulation
market.
The Package
Err, well there isn't really a package of sorts. If you are desperate I'd recommend getting an old cardboard box and writing djDecks on it with a marker pen. Everything is available from http://www.djdecks.be , and you will need the main installer and the relevant plug-in for vinyl control. Obviously you also need the relevant control records you wish to use. At the moment djDecks supports MsPinky, Virtual Dj, Finalscratch and Serato Scratch Live vinyl. Worth noting that the demo version is fully functional but quits after 35mins, so you can easily get a fully accurate idea of how it will work without features lopped out.
Installation & Set-Up
Installing and activation went without a hitch, and the associated "Getting Started" guide is well written and has plenty to be getting on with. The control record plugin currently only supports one side of the vinyl at a time, so I went for the side A of my SSL CV02 vinyl. You can use djDecks in a variety of ways, but in this instance we want to compare it to other similar programs on the market. In reality this means we need a 4-in/4-out soundcard that has ASIO drivers. So if you haven't got this capability existing with your PC you need to factor these sort of costs into the total you will need to spend to get up and running. A popular budget choice for the card seems to be the Audiotrak Maya 44 USB, but it's worth heading over to the djDecks forums to see what setups others are successfully using. The other important consideration is whether you will need separate phono pre-amps as well. This again adds to the total cost, but we will touch on these requirements some more later.
Main Software Interface
Honestly, the default skin and startup layout feels really clunky
and the way the playlist/file browser and effects panels fight
for the foreground is really counter-intuitive and a little frustrating.
It only takes a bit of effort to move things around to where
you might want them but it's not the best introduction to a piece
of software. Looks aren't everything but we all know first impressions
count! You can toggle the FX panels and playlists in and out
via the buttons on the central control panel and although the
default skin isn't the prettiest at least it's clear and obviously
laid out. If you want to get involved and create your own or
see what other skins are available you can check out the online
forum dedicated to creating new skins for it.
Like I mentioned,
djDecks began life without control vinyl ability so all the transport
controls and Cdj style buttons are there on the players for those
who want to use it in an 'internal' style mode. It's really easy
to use like this if that's your bag. Easy pitch bending via the
mouse and reliable automatic BPM readouts. Plus you can get 0.02%
pitch steps right upto the 100% range (and can even effectively
get to 0.01% steps if you click in between values with the mouse!).
Not even I will moan about that kind of accuracy! Providing you
are using ASIO drivers then the players build up an overall track
overview and zoomable waveform. It looks like it has to do this
each time a track is loaded, but there is a streaming ASIO option
for those who might need to hop around the file instantly and
can't wait to build up the overview. You can also edit file tags
of those loaded into the players, but this didn't seem to be
reflected in the playlist for .wav files - but seemed to work
for mp3 files ok. There is a mixer section, but if you have a
multi-channel soundcard and a hardware mixer this could be largely
redundant. The software eq can be switched from passing to shelving
and the frequency points adjusted via the FX panel, though there
aren't any Q values that are adjustable as far as I can see.
The effects panels for each player are actually pretty cool,
though it can take a while to get used to the controls - as it's
the same layout for all the effects. It has an assignable touchpad
but I think it would benefit from having a custom panel for each
effect type to make things a bit clearer. It doesn't take much
fiddling to get your bearings though. What effects section would
be complete without the trusty flanger? The mainstay of all the
superstar dj's! It's got a nice obvious sound to it, and the
extra high-pass control is useful. Some regeneration like on
the Electrix Mo-FX to really mangle the sound would be nice as
an extra. I always struggle to come up with anything useful with
the gapper style effect (automatic sound cutting). It has shaping
but can be pushed too hard too easily so you need to be careful.
I'll stick with my crossfader. The Echo is probably the crowning
glory. The sync to BPM works really well and it is great for
layering things over breakdowns. You can even isolate and chop
down the echo in timing steps to get instant rhythmic drum rolls.
A lot of fun! The loop control just expands on the player loop
ability and the tempo control allows 'master tempo' style control
as well as separate pitch shifting. The sound quality really
suffers so is only useful as an effect at the moment. You can
load VST effects but none of mine worked! It is stated as a definite
beta area so hopefully this will improve in the future.
File Management & Organisation
The playlist section has a library browser for searching your hard-drives or you can drag and drop from Windows Explorer. YOu can also automatically import directories and subfolders into playlists so it's not too hard to get things where you want them. What info is displayed needs to be set as %[artist] style strings in the options so it's not as easy as it could be - a more graphical method would be nice though personally I am pretty comfortable with this kind of approach. Also sorting the playlists could be done more easily by clicking on headings instead of going through an option tab. There is a case system which you can manually sort into sub-crates by creating directories in the playlist program directory. Again it requires a bit of manual fiddling so an easier graphical method would be nice.
Vinyl Control & Performance
djDecks physically worked on my setup without pre-amps, but the
pitch of playing records was a little unstable and made mixing
uncomfortable (like belt-drive emulation perhaps!). Thankfully,
using separate phono pre-amps solved this pitch stability problem
and I was able to mix my collection of .ogg, .wav and .mp3 files
with ease (djDecks also supports .wma). Although from this experience
it is clear to see that scratching would be better served with
pre-amps too, you might get away with not using them as the pitch
fluctuations were quite small - though it could have implications
on tracking when very slow scratches are performed or where the
software could struggle to work out positioning. Adion thinks
that Finalscratch records might be more likely to work without
pre-amps as the code is more clearly defined (if a little less
clever!), but I haven't be able to compare them directly myself.
The actual scratch sound and overall tracking is really good
- on a par with most of the competition and certainly better
than the majority of the dj cd players on the market. I didn't
notice any cue point slipping or other irregularities when I
was using it. You can use it in absolute or relative positioning
modes. You can also pass audio through the players if you want
to simply play normal vinyl, though this necessitates phono pre-amps
as otherwise your normal vinyl will be running into your mixer
line inputs unless you get a switch box.
The only real issue is latency, and this will be directly related
to your audio interface. I think it's pretty well accepted that
the drivers for the Emu range of soundcards aren't perfect, so
I was fighting an uphill battle to be honest. I couldn't get
my ASIO buffer below what is the equivalent of 12ms, which leads
to a total system latency which is too much to be wholly useful
for scratching. I did manage to workaround this by using the
generic ASIO4ALL driver - but that only allows 1-deck usage because
there are no multi-client WDM drivers for the Emu. But playing
around with this it became pretty clear that for realistic scratching
you need an ASIO buffer size of 256 samples or less, preferably
right down at 64 samples. This adds quite a bit of processor
stress, so it's going to vary from system to system. I suppose
this is the main disadvantage of a package like this in comparison
to Serato Scratch Live or Alcatech's Digiscratch, where you are
pretty much guaranteed low latency use with their bundled hardware.
You won't know until you have tried it with your soundcard and
system what is possible. For mixing it's not a massive issue,
so for those less scratch inclined it won't be as important.
Anything Else?
Like most software, there is a lot of extra depth available within djDecks that I didn't really ever need to go into. The basic options stayed largely as they were and I didn't get into adding my own scripting, keyboard short-cuts or MIDI control. It will also do recording/encoding and control via the DMC1/DAC2 hardware controllers. Plus there is actually a sneaky third deck in there too!
Final Thoughts
There is something really nice about the whole home-brew feel
of djDecks. I think that kind of DIY approach fits quite nicely
with the mindset of your average tablist. It's not particularly
slick in terms of looks, it doesn't come in a pretty box and
some of the options and sorting might not be graphical enough
for some - but it's in constant development at time of writing
and has an active forum where it's creator is happy to take all
questions and suggestions. Don't let the "beta" tag of
the version fool you, it's been rock solid all the time
I have been using it. Although not everything included is perfect
or perhaps 100% implemented, the core running of the program
works really well and belies it's tiny price tag. You probably
will need additional hardware depending on your current setup,
and for scratching I would emphasise the need for low latency ASIO
drivers to get the best performance out of it. But what are you
waiting for? The demo is fully functional so you have nothing to
lose. The fact you can skin the program and create scripts yourself
may be a big plus for those who like to get their hands dirty too.
To me, at the price point, if you can get the demo working to your
satisfaction then it really is a no-brainer. For the cost of a
few pints down your local you can help support the development
of a worthwhile piece of software and enjoy whatever else is added
for at least 2 years.
Rating - 83%
Thanks to Adion at http://www.djdecks.be for supply of the software and all his help and support.