D-Jam

I’ll just make them myself with sounds and such I find around the internet.

For the actual voice, I’ll find a friend with a good voice, and coach him/her to say it exactly the way I want it heard.

I did pay experience voice talent Mitch Craig for drops many years ago…but that’s because I wanted authentic sounding classic Chicago WBMX style drops.

Well…there was a word from AVID finally. Not sure if it should be taken seriously or seen as corporate smokescreen speech…

While there were no new hardware products introduced at NAMM, Avid remains keenly interested in the world of Digital DJ and continues to sell and support Torq 2 software.

Since the launch last year, Avid has delivered multiple maintenance releases to continuously improve the stability and performance of the product. These updates included compatibility for some of the most popular DJ controllers like the Numark NS6 and Mixtrack Pro. The latest version, 2.0.3 is available as a free download for registered customers.

For new customers who want to check out all the capabilities of Torq 2, the product continues to be available as a 30 day, fully featured, free trial available on the company website.

Avid recognizes the loyalty of our installed base of Torq 1.x customers who are all eligible to upgrade to Torq 2 for an incredibly low price of $49.99. Customers who purchase Torq Xponent and Torq Conectiv are entitled to a free upgrade to Torq 2 software.

I’m going to have a little faith and stay with Torq, but definitely going to get rid of my Xponent and check out those Behringer controllers. I don’t know if AVID will ever make any new hardware…but we’ll just have to wait and see.

It’s a shame too because I honestly do like the software.

Belt drive uses a small spinning wheel with a rubber band wrapped around part of it. The other end of the band is wrapped around part of the platter. It’s like the mechanism in the car where the small “wheel” sticking out of the engine has a belt going to the main fan to make it spin.

A direct drive turntable has a motor right on the platter. Many now use the design of when you turn on the turntable, a magnet pulls the platter in place and the motor spins…hence why you should not remove the platter while the TT is on.

Vineoak said it best. When I started on belt drives, I would have to condition myself to put enough strength (but not too much) when I released the record so it would spin at the right speed. Or else you hear it go quickly from slow to normal.

With direct drive, the motor is more powerful and thus you don’t face this problem as easily.

I don’t think any DJ turntables now are belt drive anyway. Do you want to get into vinyl? Or use midi control?

I agree

I use Torq and I like it…but I’m losing faith in it.

Many of the users and I were greatly disappointed in how AVID had a poor showing of Torq at the recent NAMM. Even from some talking to AVID spokespeople, they’ve made comments saying how AVID seemingly isn’t invested in making new controllers to update the Xponent or X-Session Pro, and their silence is almost making us believe they have made Torq a low priority or worse, they might discontinue it.

I’m holding off on anything new in DJ stuff til I see if there are any plans for Torq from AVID, but I’m also now looking into possibilities with VDJ or Traktor.

As for mapping, it’s very easy in Torq. You simply right-click on an item on the screen, then move your controller item and it will map. I wish they all would be this simple.

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad (I can’t remember the model number right now).

I love the build quality. It’s made for punishment, and in our line of work that’s important. The internal metal frame can handle most of the punishment many other laptops cannot.

The hardware is top notch in my book. I rarely ever have a problem with it.

Start here:

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/03/how-to-succeed-at-djing-part-1-what-type-of-dj-do-you-want-to-be/

First off, make sure that logo accurately displays your style as a DJ. It seems very “electro house”. So if you do that, then cool…but if you one day decide to be hip-hop or deep house, you might find trouble in selling your brand. I mentioned in an article to be careful on how you portray yourself, and explained why I went for a logo that did not allow someone to assume anything.

If you’re happy with that, then the best scenario is to draw the logo in a VECTOR-BASED imaging program. Adobe Illustrator is the more known program, but if you’re a poor student then try the open-source alternative, Inkscape.

Why vector? It’s the ideal way to have your logo so it can be scaled in any way, shape, or form. You can make it tiny to show up on a mobile device, or huge on a billboard. I’d tell you to either try yourself or hire someone to draw that logo as a vector. If you ever have a bitmap item in there (like an image of something), then make sure you have it large enough so any graphic designer can use it. Seen too many times where a client hands me a tiny little image of a logo, and I tell them this is useless.

That’s it. I’d also suggest having scenarios of the logo for different occasions. One for light-colored backgrounds, one for dark-colored backgrounds, etc.