Sonic Walker

At the Musikmesse 2006 in Frankfurt/Germany, Numark has presented a hole range of interesting new devices for the digital DJ.

• HDMIX
  DJ performance system with built-in hard drive
  • User replaceable 80 GB HD
  • A three-channel professional mixer with EQ & Gain on each channel
  • CD drive for ripping and CD playback
  • One display area controls all of your music
  • Support for MP3, WMA, WAV formats
  • Large jog wheels for pitch and scratch control
  • Beatkeeper™ technology with auto-synchronization of loops, effects, and MIDI devices
  • Track search by artist, album, song, genre, and BPM
  • Automatic track identification and naming through the onboard Gracenote ® Music Recognition Service
  • Record to hard drive while performing
  • Create custom playlists while performing
  • Mac/PC compatible (no special software required)
  • Large jog wheels for pitch and scratch control
  • Keyboard included for fast searching
  • XLR and analog RCA line outputs
• iDJ2
  iPod mixing console with scratch and pitch control
  • Integrated iPod slot with adjustable mount
  • Seamless looping
  • Pitch control
  • Large backlit display with revolutionary user interface
  • Ability to scratch music
  • Real-time visuals include Track Profiles and Waveforms
  • Record to an iPod or other connected USB media
  • Facilitates mixing with three or more USB Hard Drives or Apple iPod’s with USB hub
  • Many USB ports to plug in iPods, memory keys and hard drives
  • Play music off two iPods simultaneously, play two songs off same iPod
  • Formats supported: mp3, ogg vorbis, FLAC
  • Pitch control with multiple ranges up to +/- 100%
  • Beatkeeper™ technology with TAP override function
  • Scratch and search ability via two large jog wheels
  • XML playlist support
  • USB Keyboard support
• Virtual Vinyl
  DJ hardware and software package
  Virtual Vinyl is Numark’s premier DJ hardware and software solution that lets you scratch, mix and sample digital audio and video fi les using your computer and any analog turntable or CD player. Using a traditional turntable or CD player (sold separately) and included control vinyl or CDs to control digital media content, Virtual Vinyl provides in-depth features including; master tempo, seamless looping, instant pitch-matching, automatic beat-matching, BPM-aware effects, hot-cues, sampling, and more. The software includes two independent zero-latency virtual decks, seamlessly controlled by traditional 12” records that are familiar to DJs. Virtual Vinyl can play any digital audio file including; MP3, MP3Pro, WAV, AIFF, direct CD, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, MP4, iTunes (non-DRM), and more. Virtual Vinyl is compatible with music subscription services such as Yahoo! Music Unlimited, Virgin Music, Napster Music, and
  others.
• iCDX
  CD, DVD, mp3 and iPod player/controller
  • USB port for connecting mass storage class iPods, hard drives and memory sticks
  • USB port for interfacing with HID compatible software
  • Illuminated slot-load drive with support for CD/CD-RW/DATA DVD
  • Touch-sensitive scratch wheel
  • Large, backlit LCD display for system information including MP3 ID tag information
  • Integrated DSP effects include Phaser, Filter, Flanger, Echo and more
  • Key Lock (± 100%)
  • Large pitch slider for controlling music playback speed
  • Automatic BPM counter
  • Hot starts, seamless looping, scratching with sampling, Full support for MP3 playback
  • Digital outputs

Prices and availability are not known yet and considering Numark’s reputation and the fact, that all images are just 3-d renderings, I would not expect to see them in the stores too soon. Unfortunately it is a common practice in the musik industry to announce early and deliver late but together with the CDX, HDX and the x2 Hybrid, Numark has proven to be an innovative company with interesting and modern DJ equipment.

The Numark iDJ is a 2-channel mixer that enables mobile DJs and iPod enthusiasts to seamlessly integrate their portable music libraries with other music and sound reinforcement systems—transforming the iPod from a personal music player into a source playback device.

A press release revealed today, that the suggested retail price will be $399. The Numark iDJ will be available Q3 of 2005.

What we are missing on the iDJ is at least a pitch control. Without this, it seems to be not more than a nice and expensive gadget (you still have to buy 2 iPods as well), which is otherwise useless for DJing. Today, Numark also announced the CDMIX3 DJ Station, probably more interesting for DJing.

On endgadget pod left a good comment:

The price point alone makes me think ‘gimmick’. Your average DJ mixer worth buying costs a minimum of $600. If I was a club owner, and a DJ showed up with this, I’d have security slap him around a few times, get my money back, and then book a real DJ, one who can work a real club mixer and real DJing tools like a pair of 1200s, a pair of CDJ-1000s, or a laptop loaded up with Ableton.

Scott Kelby, editor of the Photoshop User Magazine and Mac Design Magazine has published an exclusive video of the new iPod Flea - the smallest iPod the world has ever seen. The video has been produced by the slightly unstable minds of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals staff.

Click here for the Quicktime video (28MB).

As you might have read, Apple introduced some proprietary RSS podcasting tags with their podcasting support in iTunes. Because of this, podcasters around the globe started to adjust their applications, but a nicer solution might be there, as reported by techbasedmarketing.com:

Feedburner has finalized it’s iTunes support. In a nutshell that means your podcasts will be properly picked up and described for people using iTunes. But what is the big picture? What does all this really mean in simple English?

You see, iTunes, Yahoo Media RSS, Odeo and probably many more media archives in the future require special coding in your RSS feeds in order to properly list your podcast, video cast or whatever cast in the software or directory.

Many of them have their own little requirements so it is a real pain and you’d have to manually edit your RSS file if you want in on these directories. But feedburner has made it as easy as clicking a checkbox and filling in your details.

More information is available on the feedburner site:
Support for iTunes is Live