This video demos basic interaction with the TIMBAP digital DJing system.

TIMBAP is a new solution for the digital DJ, developed by students and assistants of the University of Ulm.

It provides a rugged tangible interface for browsing your music collection AND manipulating playback by scratching, pitching, skipping etc. Like many others, it is based on an acoustic timecode signal recorded to vinyl records.

In contrast to existing digital solutions, though, it completely releases the DJ from mouse, keyboard and monitor. Instead it relies on physical interaction with the standard club turntable only.

No laptop, no mouse and no keyboard is required.

The rotation of the turntable serves as a means for scrolling through the music collection automatically. The user stays in control though and can always intervene manually – for example by holding the record or winding it back.

The shown features include:

• Switching between browsing and playback
• Scratching, skipping and cueing of tracks
• Using the tone arm to position in the cloud of artist name initials

This looks like it could grow into something very cool – digital DJing, but without the geeky computer interface.

via Ronny Pries