Observing the switch from Analog to digital

Hello everyone, I’ve been dabbling in the digital domain since its conception. Observing the switch from Analog to digital. On many levels we have all heard the many opposing opinions that Analog is better than digital. Then of course we have heard that digital is better than analog. I’m not writing this to argue that point because that’s simply an opinion and both have their advantages and disadvantages. I’m writing this because I have found a profound parallel to this argument in the DJ community and it has greatly affected me as a professional Dj. Let’s begin with vinyl…

Oh vinyl, since I was a kid I’ve have played all of my music on that medium and still do. Some of you might be thinking, “They still make vinyl?” Well in the House music world absolutely! It’s very unfortunate but just like “tape” for recording; vinyl production is slowing down tremendously. Then of course we have the Compact disc (CD) Again another very popular medium for playing and storing our music and other data. As DSP has gotten faster and storage has become easier to manage with memory sticks and hardrives that can fit in your back pocket with Terabytes of space. We have entered another realm of accessibility and performance. We all know that Pro Tools is the most powerful way to Record, Edit , Mix, and Master our music productions. But I would like to share with everyone another powerful “performance” tool that was designed for Dj`s but I feel that even bands can use. Its called Serato Scratch: its basically a digital dj system that allows you to have all of your .wav files organized on your laptop (even in itunes) connected to a converter box via USB which is then connected to a Dj mixer. It comes with your choice of both CD and Vinyl controllers.

Basically the cd and vinyl controllers are embedded with a “tone”(time code) that synchronizes through the converter box allowing you to access any audio file on your computer. The software allows you to load up two songs or audio files of your choice in a “dj” fashion allowing you to playback and cross fade between the two. This has revolutionized how a professional dj or hobbiest can access and store a very large database of songs for performance. Even though it’s very cool to do this I want to share something else for people outside of the dj planet. Since we can now import, record and edit with DAW`s like Pro Tools just think that with the export or bounce to disk command in Pro Tools we can customize and edit grooves of our own.

Organize them in to folders or itunes. Then when your band performs you can have a bandmate playback custom grooves and samples of your own tracks to add that extra flavor. How cool is that? VERY! As a dj it has allowed me to travel with all my new and old catalogs without carrying all those crates of vinyl. Don’t get me wrong I’m a vinyl head for life but this digital thinking is more accessible and streamlined. That still allows me to keep the “feel” of vinyl with the tone embedded vinyl controllers. So whether you are going to use this amazing technology for Djing or sample playback for your band I highly recommend it for it’s sleek ability to allow the digital enthusiast to customize and edit in Pro Tools while accessing and performing your creations live in a very powerful accessible medium.

If you want to learn more about it check out there website

Have fun creating!