Tonetable (App Store link) is a $7.99 application for DJs who want to control their digital vinyl system from their iPhone or iPod Touch.

It produces a control tone that is compatible with most digital vinyl systems such as Serato’s Scratch Live, Native Instruments’ Traktor Scratch, M-Audio’s Torq, Image-Line’s Deckadance and many more.

via inklen

The Moogist -”Music is Finished” – Glenn Gould Mashup

Tim Tsang, aka The Moogist, jams with a style that’s heavy on the knob-twiddling and light on the prog-style pitch bending.

Is music finished? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

via timtsang3

Open Reel Ensemble, with String Quartet, perform Theme of Oplapscal.

The Open Reel Ensemble performs by “scratching” 4 reel-to-reel analog tape recorders.

via garudagroove:

SB Reel-to-Reel Tape Decks …… Ei Wada

Guest Player :
Violin …… Takumi Namba
Violin …… Junya Makino
Viola ……. Yoshiaki Kato
Cello ……. Rika Ishigai

Camera, Edit, and Direction …… Haruka Yoshida
Compose, Architect, and Produce …… Ei Wada (Crab Feet)

At the Scratch Academy in Miami Beach, DJ Jungleboy discusses the Stanton SCS.3d,  and demos using it with Serato Scratch LIVE.

via SCSystem:

DJ Getdown rocks the Numark N7 at Remix Hotel Miami 2009.

via NumarkVideo

This video demonstrates Jack Lykins’ Static: an Interactive Approach to Animation.

Lykins triggers video clips via MIDI and then manipulates them, using a turntable as a control interface.

The animation is cool by itself, but it’s even more interesting how Lykins uses technology to blur the lines between music and animation.

via Peter Kirn at CDM

This is an official Native Instruments overview of its new Audio 4 DJ, 4-channel DJ soundcard.

Trailer for Scratch: The Ultimate DJ video game.

via djsemantik

Scratch (2001) is a documentary film, directed by Doug Pray, that looks at the birth and evolution of hip-hop disc jockeys (DJs), scratching and turntablism.

Interviewees include:

• Grand Wizard Theodore (the inventor of the scratch)
• Grand Mixer Q-bert
• Grand Mixer DXT, Z-Trip
• Mix Master Mike
• Rob Swift
• DJ Premier
• Afrika Bambaataa
• Jazzy Jay
• Cut Chemist
• NuMark
• DJ Craze
• DJ Shadow
• DJ Babu
• DJ Krush
• Madlib
• Peanut Butter Wolf

You can watch the whole thing for free; YouTube is experimenting with hosting full movies.

BestDocumentaries, via wiretotheear

Jesse Kriss and DJ Axel Foley have put together an interesting collection of Visual Scratch videos:

We capture turntable velocity using Ms. Pinky and fader position using an Ecler Nuo 4. The scratching sound is generated in Max/MSP. Then we scale the control data (turntable and fader) to ±1.0, the range of digital audio signals. The control data is saved to one audio file, and scratch audio to another.

With the two sound files as input, the graphics are generated in Processing, using the incredibly helpful Ess, PDF and MovieMaker libraries. The y-axis position reflects the velocity of the turntable, color is based on the frequency content of the scratch audio, and the thickness of the line is based on the volume.

It would be interesting to see this type of work combined with generative video visualizations.