NAMM Hotness – The Emulator Multitouch Touchscreen MIDI Controller

2011 NAMM ShowSmithson Martin introduced the rather sextacular Emulator multitouch MIDI controller for DJs.

Above, CEO Alan Smithson gives an enthusiastic demonstration of the Emulator. Talk about eating your own dogfood – Smithson is a DJ that saw the initial Emulator design concept on YouTube and thought it was so cool that he decided to create a company to bring the multitouch controller to market.

Right now, Emulator works with Traktor Pro for the PC. Smithson isn’t officially announcing anything else yet, but said that they are working to make this cross-platform and compatible with other DJ apps.

The Emulator is available now, starting at $3,875. Details below.

Here’s the official blurb on the Emulator:

Emulator is the most revolutionary experience for DJ’s in the last 30 years!, is the first REAL and USABLE Multi-Touch DJ System that allows the crowd to see exactly what the DJ is doing on a huge transparent touch screen.
The art of DJ’ing is now part of the clubs lightshow, this is the next level in DJ performance!

Emulator is the first native multi-touch software for windows 7, this makes it possible to convert even a simple Tablet PC into a powerful multi-touch midi controller.
A version specifically for Mac OSX is currently under development.

Is ready to use and does not require any special programming or configuration, follow the basic set up instructions and you are ready to play within 5 minutes.

Emulator is the only MIDI controller that can show all the information needed on one single screen.
Our patented technology gives the user a ”heads-up” display of all tracks and information.

Supports multiple controller layouts, covering the most important DJ’ing software on the market.
Versions for Ableton, Serato and Virtual DJ are in development.
The Traktor Pro version is available now.

Is a complete multi-touch MIDI controller, for example, the Traktor version has more than 130 MIDI buttons, knobs and sliders covering all common features of Traktor Pro and more!!!

Emulator Multi-Touch System has an extreme low latency, with our touchscreen units the latency is only 7ms, this results in fast real time touch points, without the fear of false touchs or ghost points.

Is fully upgradable, buying the Emulator software or any of our multi-touch packages, you receive lifetime product software upgrades with direct support from our private support forum.

Software use low CPU resources, all graphics in Emulator are accelerated by hardware, our graphical engine guarantees low cpu usage.

Emulator is the most durable midi controller available, touch screens support extremely hard usage, the continuous usage will never deteriorate the sliders, knobs or buttons.

Emulator is awesome!

The Emulator Multi-Touch Professional DJ System is now available for purchase.
It is available as stand alone software for use in your Tablet PC or your prefered multitouch devcies and is available as complete hardware & software system with transparent touch screens prvided by us, 32? & 42? with custom sizes also available by request.

via smithsonmartin:

“Emulator is the World’s first and only multi-touch midi controller PC software for professional DJ and music”

28 thoughts on “NAMM Hotness – The Emulator Multitouch Touchscreen MIDI Controller

  1. Oh, hey look at me! I'm the DJ, I'm half blind that's why I need a BIG screen, oh and I kinda suck at mixing: that's why there's a big Sync button for you to see, we don't want to make a wrong impression do we. Oh and for the girls: You can read on the screen "Fuck me, I'm the DJ!".
    Yeah and lets hope it does better than the Lemur.
    Seriously, I pity the bonehead that will spend his money on an oversized controller-screen…

  2. Well, I do see some potential here. Although I don't DJ I do recognize the performance potential; its bound to look pretty overwhelming in a dark lit club; seeing all those meters and such going about it.

    Only thing which does bother me with the demo is that although he looks excited about his product the same can't really be said about his performance. That song, of which I don't know the name ("Oh Lordy, troubles are high" ?) is an excellent piece for mixing IMO. Even I can create some pretty funky sounding (at least to me) beat and mixes out of that when using Live and Tim Exile's 'The Finger' (for example).

    In those sessions I do a lot at the same time. I hit my keyboard, I use my APC to turn knobs and such and usually pretty quickly after one other.

    Maybe its the demo; but I am puzzled at how slow he's demonstrating all the effects. Sure; he turned a virtual knob relatively quickly up and down. But only one knob and one effect. Of all the stuff he showed us it was always 1 single effect being put into motion.

    Is this a device limitation or is it himself simply being incapable of squeezing more out of this critter ? Nothing to be ashamed of there, also no criticism here on that part, but if you're going to show something which has the potential (IMO it has) to provide something excitingly new then also (try to) show us that at the very least its capable of matching the currently available options.

    Just my 2 cents here.. And maybe I'm overlooking something obvious, could be, but I still think that "Oh Lordy" session was very weak, there's much more potential musical power to be found there IMVHO.

  3. “Emulator is the World’s first and only multi-touch midi controller PC software for professional DJ and music”

    heh. i'm not sure that's true and the grammar is hurting my head. what the hell is a midi controller PC software?

  4. Update: the song which name I couldn't remember: "Natural Blues" from the album "Play", all from Moby. The lyrics are also mis-presented, its: "Oh Lordy, trouble so hard".

    Its not a big favorite of mine but I really enjoy listening to it from time to time.

  5. whats the point? There is no point to this whatsoever. It actually only makes DJing harder (due to the obvious latency the system has). Get real… think about the point of DJing before developing crap like this.

  6. maybe everyone will get so bored with this bullshit they will forget that DJs even exist in the first place, and then we can all get on with our lives…. without them!

    oh to dream of paradise!

  7. This is a very interesting product,
    But i do have a question about a peculiar aspect, how does he make beat matching without going to the sync button on traktor?
    I don't see any giand wheel (pioneer style) for the forward/backward movement of the music!!!
    Any ideas?

  8. Impress your corporate client…. with a desktop background!!!!! WWOOOOAAAAAA.
    nice concept but way over priced at 4000.00

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  15. yes it should say "Fuck me, I'm the DJ". Why the fuck not? Maybe have that kind of scrolling at the top or something. I think it would add to the awesomeness. The price though, 4 grand…..does seem a bit steep. The rule of supply and demand says we're gonna have to buy it from this guy though, unless you want to find a way to replicate this product and distribute it for a price closer to that of an iPad. If you can't do it, oh well then stfu. Sometimes shit is expensive and thats a big ass touch screen. Too many complainers in this world that just love to blog about shit.

  16. A great piece of kit but its not something you could carry around with you as a last minute DJ,,,,,,,,we have to much technology which making the whole concept of Djing easier, to much technology and not enough talent.

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    That controller is gay by the way but I have just ordered a Quneo from KMI. Nice.

  18. I have seen this touchscreen in action. A band has one of these for one of their dj’s and to tell you the truth makes a big visual difference. If you have someone mixing loops or samples on one of these babies makes people look and gets their attention. It was a good investment for them in that aspect. If you think about it, if your 3 year old can use your iphone or ipad and it seems natural to them then they will eventually only expect to swipe screens so for their generation this touchscreen is perfectly natural. It might not catch on with the old dj’s but for the future ones this will probably be the instrument of their choice.

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