Category — DJ Equipment

Like most other nerds out there, I spent a few hours in front of a Apple store last weekend waiting to buy the new iPhone.  Now that I have spent countless hours getting up to date with all of its new features, I have been feeling the urge to go buy some accessories. The only problem is that most of the accessories you see in the Apple store kind of suck! So naturally I started looking around on the web this morning, and  was surprised to find a whole slew of nice iPod docks I had never seen before. It was actually more of a bummer since I don’t really need my iPod(s) anymore since I can now store my music on my iPhone, and most of the docks were only for iPods, but I figured they would be worth posting in case some of you guys are on the look out for a new dock.

As it turns out, Porsche doesnt just design cars, but also products like phones, GPS, and iPod docks!  The Eton P9120 is a table top system made of extruded aluminum and includes three 1.5″ full range drivers, and a 15W 3″ active subwoofer.  It has a separate dock, and a remote control that seems to have far too many buttons than necessary to operate an iPod.  The Eton has a OLED alphanumeric display with a clock function, AM/FM tuner and DAB tuner for the British market.  A wallet buster though at $600.

The next one I found is a new dock soon to be released by LG Electronics called…hold on let me check that again…the FA163DAB iDock Micro System.  Despite the random name, the dock itself should sound pretty good with a output power of 160W, and its two subwoofers.  It also features touch sensitive controls, a vertical slot-loading CD player with a MP3 encoding function, auto-equalization and DAB radio which provides over 50 stations in digital.  Should be available in stores later this month for around $400.

The iTUBE by Fatman promises to match your decor while delivering a “luscious warm analogue sound”.  It not only comes with a built-in amplifier (25Wx2) and iPod dock, but also two other source inputs, as well as the option for matching speakers.  The dock allows for any iPod to be used except for a iPod Shuffle, and it also comes with a 27 key remote control.

UPDATE: Turns out that there is a new iTube docking system that is even better than the first!  The new design, called the Red-i, is based on the first iTube, and also features 25 watts per channel and two line-level inputs, only this one also has a 3.5mm jack so you can connect to your other digital devices, and best of all, it works with the iPhone!  Apparently its one of the few music systems properly equipped for use with the phone as it is capable of eliminating TDMA noise - the noise that happens when the phone is put too close to an audio device.  It will be available exclusively in the UK from Henley Designs in September for approx. $700..yikes!

If you are less concerned about sound, and more interested in having a unique looking dock, then perhaps the Mytunes MP3 Amp is for you.  While it does have working treble and bass knobs, they are probably mostly useless as this little guy can only push out an output of 5W.  But in terms of of iPod docks that look cool, this definitely near the top of the list.  Only $40.

I just discovered that there is a new Flickr group dedicated to Audio Art. It’s basically a nice collection of artistic pictures of audio equipment, and there’s actually some pretty good looking pics.

Feel like nerding out?  Check out the Flickr Audio Art Gallery

The world famous Rock Steady Crew will soon be hosting their 31st anniversary party, which celebrates the preservation and evolution of Hip-Hop Culture.

The Rock Steady Crew was founded by breakdancers Jimmy D and Jojo in the late 70’s, and first gained serious media exposure in 1981 when the crew, under the leadership of the legendary Crazy Legs, participated in an outdoor performance battle again rival crew The Dynamic Rockers, which was covered by local New York City television stations, as well as several news publications including The New York Times.

The celebration will be in the form of a four-day festival in the New York City area from July 24 to Sunday, July 27.

Here’s the full calendar of events.

Thursday, July 24

Celebrity Benefit Basketball Challenge
Location: West 3rd Street & 6th Avenue (New York, NY)
Come watch members of the Hip-Hop and Film community compete for bragging rights.

Against The Grain: Concrete B-boy /B-girl battle.
B-boys & B-girls from all over the world battle it out for the $500 prize.
Location & Time: 11:00am - 3:00pm
DJ: Servin’ Ervin
Admission: Free

Workshops
Time: 1:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Red Bull Building - 15 Watts(by W. Broadway)
Admission: $25.00
*B-boy / B-girl: Crazy Legs
You want to know how it’s done? These speakers are the best at what they do and share insight on how they make their magic happen.

“For The Funk Of It” Funkstyles Party
Time: 9:00pm - 1:00am
Location: Red Bull Building - 15 Watts(by W. Broadway, NY, NY)
DJ: Doc
Admission: Free
Self explanatory! Come get loose and show us what you got. Live Performance by Kurtis Blow

Friday, July 25

Frienemies
UK B-boy Championships US Qualifier: U.S.contestants go at it to see who will represent the U.S. in the UK B-boy Championship.
Location: 101 River View Grand Hall - 101 Sixth Ave.(btwn. Grand & Watt, NY, NY)
Time: 3:00PM - 9:00PM
Hosted By: Crazy Legs
DJ: Crazy Legs & Red Alert (Celebrating his 25 years on Radio Anniversary)
Admission: $20.00
This event will bring an underground event to crown a 1 B-boy/1 B-girl as the BEST. Each one has to represent the most effectively throughout the day in a STRICTLY CIPHER driven event.

Saturday, July 26

5 on 5 crew battles.
Location: 101 River View Grand Hall - 101 Sixth Ave. (btwn. Grand & Watt) (New York, NY)
Time: 3:00PM - 9:00PM
Hosted By: Crazy Legs
Spy Awards: The Spy Award is being presented to BEBE and A-B-girl
DJ: DV One & Skeme Richards
Admission: $25.00

July 26 is Official Rock Steady Crew Day In NYC, as proclaimed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

Sunday, July 27

3rd Annual Lincoln Park Music Festival
Time: 12:00pm - 8:00pm
Free Outdoor Concert & Food Drive In Memory of “Frosty Freeze”
Location: Lincoln Park - 1 Lincoln, Newark, NJ (Broad St. & Clinton Ave.)
Hosted by: E.O.W.
DJ’s: JS-1, Eclipse & Sucio
Beat Battle: Meet The Producers vs. Big Tune Em Cee’s: The Beatnuts, Buckshot, Craig G & Marley Marl, Sadat X, Soul Sonic Force, Positive K, Grand Master Caz, DJ Premier feat. NYG’z & Blaq Poet, Termanology & DJ Statik Selektah, A-OK, Akrobatik, Skyzoo, Double Barrel, a Female Cipher - Lyric a.k.a. Sara Kana, Mala Reignz, Patty Dukes, Miss Nana & Rece Steele

Official After Party
Location: Redbull Building - 15 Watts by W. Broadway, New York, NY)
Time: 9:00PM - 1:00AM
DJ: Evil Dee
Admission: Free

While clothing brand WeSC hardly got famous for making headphones, they have certainly managed to push themselves into the market recently through collaborations with various high-profile artists such as DJ Steve Aoki. The headphones may not be top of the line in terms of sound quality, but they definitely have some of the better designs. Peep some of the new designs by artists Delta, Marok, & Kazuki.

These high-end turntables just keep coming out of nowhere…this time its the Acutus Reference Turntable. While this one certainly has a sleeker look than the Disc Master, its no easier on the pockets at $24,000. Even more baffling than the price, is the fact that the tonearm is sold seperately.

Oh and in case you were wondering what the box on the left is..its the power-supply.

Here’s another weird looking turntable I came across. It supposedly took the guy who made it several decades to finalize the design for this thing, which I find a bit surprising since it just looks like a deli meat slicer with a few extra knobs.

The Disc Master “uses an arrangement of opposing magnets to drive the platter, virtually eliminating any motor noise from the record/stylus interface” which in effect makes you “not hear the LP, an experience akin to riding in a car whose wheels do not touch the road”.

I’m all about superior sound quality, but at $17,000 this thing probably won’t make its way into my studio.

Source

If you’ve been trying to give your studio a more modern look, then the DMT-100 speakers by Proclaim Audio should definitely do the trick. The design features a stationary woofer pod, as well as treble and midrange pods that rest on adjustable arms that can be moved to achieve optimal sound quality based on the shape of the room they are in. However, unless you happen to have bags of money sitting around, they might be slightly out of purchasing range with their $25,995 price tag.

So I was in the middle of recording a new demo last night in my apartment, when I was rudely interrupted by a security officer that seemed to pop out of nowhere. Apparently I had been blasting the music too loud, had received numerous complaints, and since I obviously didn’t hear the doorbell, the security guy had invited himself into my apt. to tell me to turn it off. Aside from getting completely freaked out and nearly knocking over one of my speakers when he tapped me on the shoulder, the incident got me thinking that I badly need to do some sound insulation. Instead of dishing out the dough for pro-foam, or looking like an idiot by using egg-crates I decided to do what this Los Angeles-based commercial and movie composer Brad Breeck did…using quilted down blankets from IKEA to cover the walls, and putting rubber underneath my carpets. I know using blankets is nothing new, but these look just like a tiled white wall. So if you’re in a similar situation…there ya go!

Here’s a pic of his studio…

via Unplggd

The Montegiro Lusso is certainly the most visually intriguing turntable I have ever seen.

Here’s an excerp from the Montegiro site:

“the lusso is built upon alternate layers of aluminium and black acrylic, including the topsy-turvy cone for the aluminium platter fitted with an acrylic platter! The lusso is driven by a newly developed, extremely precise high-end synchronous motor suspended within one of the cones. The cones, connected to each other, embrace height-adjustable feet that serve for perfect set-up.”

Montegiro makes a few other more traditionally shaped, yet equally unique looking turntables all of which can be seen on their site. I’d love to find out what they sound like! More pics of the Lusso after the jump.

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Aside from a few improvements, and some direct hardware support, the new release for Serato isn’t anything major. Here’s a snippet from the ScratchLive site:

Thursday 22nd May 2008. Auckland New Zealand.

Serato Audio Research is pleased to announce the release of Scratch LIVE 1.8.1.
This is primarily a maintenance release to improve performance and stability and also introduces support for the following 3rd party controllers:

Denon HC-4500
Denon HD-2500
Numark DMC2

Scratch LIVE 1.8.1 includes changes and improvements to the following areas:

USB performance
iTunes Library support
External Midi control
Offline Player
Deck and playback controls
Library Crates and Tracklist
Preferences and setup options
Video-SL integration

Go here to see the full list of changes.