(Credit:
Quirky)
Here at Crave, we love things that serve more than one purpose. From a laptop case that doubles as a notebook stand to a mouse that's also a wireless presenter, we just go gaga over little stuff like that. Which is why the Quirky Scratch-n-Scroll caught our eye.
(Credit:
Quirky)
On the surface it looks like just another plastic mouse pad. But write on the surface with a stylus or even your fingertips and you'll be able to scribble quick notes to yourself.
It works by using little black magnetized particles under the surface that adhere to the transparent top layer when pressure is applied. To erase, lift the top layer and you can start with a clean slate.
The unique mouse pad is available for preorder at its online store for $9.49, excluding shipping. After this period, the price will revert to $14.99. However, there is no guarantee that this product will actually hit production lines as the company requires 225 orders before it will manufacture the mouse pad.
In the event the peripheral is canceled due to lack of interest, fret not, as your credit card will not be charged unless the unit loses its vaporware status.
(Source: Crave Asia)
The Allen & Heath Xone 4D is some serious tech for DJs who mean business.
(Credit: Allen & Heath)With the upcoming release of the video game DJ Hero set to retread the path of the Guitar Hero phenomenon, you can bet on seeing a surge in amateur DJing. But unlike guitars, most people are pretty clueless when it comes to DJ tools. Strings, frets, and whammy bars are one thing, but crossfaders, EQ kills, and cue points are a different beast.
Local music stores have been doing a brisk business selling electric guitars and drum sets to ambitious Guitar Hero and Rock Band prodigies, but the game-to-reality upgrade path for DJ Hero isn't as cut and dry. Two turntables and a mixing deck is a nice start, but most DJ Hero graduates will want to launch samples, create loops, and see their music library in the familiar context of a laptop screen.
Fortunately, digital DJ rigs have really hit their stride in recent years, offering tons of cool features at increasingly affordable prices. Some of these digital systems are meant to retrofit analog turntables, while others replace turntables altogether using jog wheels or imitation vinyl.
Hit up our slideshow for our top digital DJ picks.
Artist and newly crowned TV show host ANDREW WK joins The 404 today in what might be the crowning moment of our careers. We run the gamut in our extra-long show--we chat about his music career, an upcoming album, his new show "Destroy Build Destroy," and Jeff and I actually reveal our two chance encounters with the man. IT'S TIME TO PARTY!
Posi posi posi posi.
(Credit: The404/CNET)After pimping out his appearance on the show for the past two weeks, we're very, very excited to welcome Andrew WK to our humble studio. Unsurprisingly, Andrew's super posi vibe gels well with the group and we get right into the interview, beginning with a story about how Andrew got into the piano as a kid and how it shaped his music today.
AWK and Justin freaking out
(Credit: The404/CNET)If you haven't had a chance to see Andrew play live, do yourself a favor and check it out with The 404's highest recommendation for a guaranteed good time. Also be sure to listen for a very special clip from Andrew's newest sold-out record, "DAMN! The Mixtape Vol. 1", currently only available for download on iTunes or Amazon. We also pick Andrew's brain for his opinions on the current state of music, including the overuse of auto-tune and his newfound appreciation for Dave Matthews Band.
After the break, we launch right into a conversation about Andrew's newest endeavor, a brand new show debuting on the Cartoon Network this Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EDT called "Destroy Build Destroy." The premise is simple: two teams of teenagers (with plenty of guidance and safety measures) compete to destroy a large structure, build the remnants up into something else. The winner of the competition gets to obliterate the loser's! You had us at "destroy," Andrew, the premise sounds like a mix between Double Dare and Battle Bots.
AWK's all over the place! In addition to Santos Party House, his successful bar in downtown Manhattan, Andrew also talks about his next solo album entitled "55 Cadillac" that's a pretty wide departure from his normal rock and roll. Listen to a few clips on his MySpace, give him a call, and let him know how much you love it!
Click on the slideshow above for candid shots from our interview with Andrew WK, courtesy of Sara the Woah-mantern, and a big thanks goes out to Anna David for introducing us to AWK! Wait, is it time to party yet? Yeah, it's time...LET'S GET A PARTY STARTED!
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The Numark-manufactured Scratch Deck
(Credit: Genius Products/Numark)If plastic guitars were 2007 and drums 2008, then the 2009 plastic-peripheral throwdown of choice is definitely the turntable. Whereas Activision showed off their goods in a Twitter leak a few weeks ago, Genius Products waited to spill the reveal of their Numark-designed rig, the Scratch Deck, until the days before E3. It's the centerpiece peripheral for the upcoming Scratch: The Ultimate DJ. First impressions suggest it's more compact than Activision's plasti-turntable, while also bearing greater similarities to the old Konami Beatmania controller.
The Scratch Deck has a spinning, "touch-sensitive" turntable, as well as a crossfader and five Akai Pro MPC drumpads. It's impressive that the equipment carries the label of a legit music industry standard. Price, however, has not been given, leading us to believe that brand-name design might carry a brand-name tag.
Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, a beat-sampling alternative to Activision's upcoming DJ Hero, promises live remixing of tracks and custom sample uploading, both from 60 included battle records or a USB microphone. The Numark pad, as can be seen in the photos, can flip over for left- or right-handed operation. The PS3 version is pictured, but Scratch will be released for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 this fall.
Who will win the DJ Battle? Most likely, it will come down to who has the best samples and tracks. As a consumer, we'd wait this out--at most, a household should only have one video game turntable.
- WiiWare
- Bruiser and Scratch (Steel Penny Games, Inc., 1,000 Wii points): Help Bruiser and Scratch get out of a lost world by solving 48 puzzles in six areas. Meet up with friends and foes in this mind-bending adventure.
- Hockey Allstar Shootout (Big Blue Bubble Inc., 500 Wii points): It's the season for hockey so why not celebrate the coolest sport around? Participate in up to three challenges, all with varying difficulty.
- Virtual Console
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992, Sega Master System, 500 Wii points): This version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was made exclusively for the Sega Master System featuring different gameplay and graphics.
Update: The Sonic game in this Virtual Console update is not the Sega Genesis version of the game but for the previous console, the Sega Master System.
What games do you think are missing from the Wii Virtual Console? Sound off here!
DaScratch is more than just a USB trackpad for DJs.
(Credit: Stanton)DJing with your laptop has loads of advantages, but emulating realistic DJ scratching can be tricky. Some people solve the problem with Wiimotes, but the most common workaround to get vinyl-like control of your DJ software is to convert your old turntables into digital-MIDI controllers using expensive systems such as Serato, Torq, or Traktor Scratch. Now, if you want to get all touchy-feely with your digital-DJ software without breaking the bank (or your back), Stanton is offering a new option called DaScratch.
DaScratch is a USB-powered MIDI controller that offers touch-sensitive control over your DJ software. Stanton includes integrated-software support for popular applications like Traktor and Serato, as well as advanced MIDI support for more musical apps, such as Ableton Live.
DaScratch does more than just give laptop DJs scratch control over their MP3s. The trackpad at the center of the system responds to multiple gestures, which can control EQ settings, effects, crossfade, and even trigger samples or cue points. A selection of buttons placed around the DaScratch touchpad offer some standard playback controls for those times when multigesture touch control is too much for your brain to process. You can see a video demonstration of DaScratch at the end of this post.
The DaScratch system has a retail price of $299 and is due out in October.
The price of protection: the i114 Clear Scratch Resistant Film.
(Credit: iLuv)I just got a press release from iLuv announcing its new line of iPhone 3G cases, which are--excuse the pun--just luvely. However, in clicking through to the site I was struck by one accessory the company is selling: the i114, which also goes by the longer name Clear Scratch Resistant Film. It's designed to lay on top of your scratch-resistant iPhone screen and keep it from getting scratched. That's cool. But the thing costs $9.99. Throw in some tax and shipping and you're probably looking at close to $15 for a thin piece of plastic that can't cost more than 10 cents to manufacture.
Of course, iLuv isn't the first company to make such an accessory--and probably not the first to charge $9.99 for it. But come on, this thing should cost no more than $3.99. I realize the electronics accessories business is good for a reason (really large margins), but I gotta call foul here. Anybody else like to point out an outrageous price for a marginal accessory (AV cables withstanding)?
(Credit:
Crave UK)
DJs are a funny bunch, mostly preferring to use clunky old vinyl to work their magic. But technology rarely takes no for an answer and Traktor Scratch is no exception, offering traditional DJs who can't be separated from their Technics decks access to massive digital music libraries.
Put simply, Traktor Scratch is a simplified version of Traktor DJ Studio, which enables you to mix music without any special hardware. What the Scratch system adds is a very high-end sound card that enables multiple audio inputs, via which you can connect either vinyl or CD decks.
What's the point of that, you might ask? Well, you aren't just connecting playback devices to your computer, because Scratch comes with timecoded vinyl and CDs. To find out more, click here.
(Source: Crave UK)
It's a fact: DJs get more chicks than gamers. If you're looking to transition your skills at Zelda into something more musical, the Protein DScratch software for the Nintendo DS might just have you rocking a dance floor on a Saturday night.
The software allows you to load your own WAV files, and then tweak them with effects, pitch changes, and scratching. The software even sends out MIDI clock messages that will let you sync up the DScratch tempo with other electronic music gear. Hell, you could start an entire Nintendo DS band at this point. Just get a few friends on Electroplankton, come up with a catchy name, and you're a MySpace profile away from a cross-country tour filled with free beer and nerd groupies. Go live the dream, my friend.
(via Create Digital Music)
The Stanton T.90 offers DJ battle features and USB output.
(Credit: Stanton DJ)Turntable manufacturer Stanton recently announced its new T.90 high-torque turntable with built-in USB and S/PDIF digital outputs. Even if you're not an aspiring DJ scratch battle champion, the ability to record your vinyl collection directly into a computer is big convenience. While USB-capable turntables such as the Numark TTUSB have been around for a while, the Stanton T.90 is the first to include features that today's DJ really want, namely digital key locking (the ability to change a song's tempo without changing pitch) and a high-torque direct drive motor that puts an unholy amount of force behind keeping the turntable spinning in spite of the energy a DJ exerts onto it by scratching records.
It may be old news, but the Numark TTX is still my dream turntable.
(Credit: Numark)While the inclusion of USB is a great feature, it's hard to tell from the press release whether they've done away with standard analog outputs altogether. The Numark TTUSB may not have all the bells and whistles of the T.90, but Numark's inclusion of USB and analog outputs ensures that the turntable will still be usable long after USB goes the way of the dinosaur.
The T.90 sounds fun, but it still doesn't beat out the features and extremely cool looks of my favorite geek-worthy turntable, the Numark TTX. The TTX has a blue LED display for both BPM and RPM information, S/PDIF digital and RCA analog outputs, a reverse button, and the ability to pitch-shift your vinyl into chipmunk oblivion.
No word yet on pricing for the Stanton T.90.
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