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Hercules USB DJ Console Reviewed 171

Posted by CowboyNeal from the turntable-replacements dept.
SpinnerBait writes "Professional DJs and House-Party Beat Masters alike, will certainly be interested in a new product that the folks at Hercules Audio are bringing to market shortly. Although you may remember Hercules for being one of the first in PC Graphics, HotHardware has a review and showcase up that takes a look at the new Hercules USB DJ Console. This little deck comes with dual mixing pads, for blending and scratching of your favorite MP3s etc. It also takes over as your main PC sound system, with full Dolby 5.1 capabilities, when plugged into any PC via USB."
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Hercules USB DJ Console Reviewed More

Hercules USB DJ Console Reviewed

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  • http://www.virtualdj.com

    Quite impressing...

  • Yeah right (Score:4, Insightful)

    by O ( 90420 ) on Saturday November 01, 2003 @12:08PM (#7366585)
    So you're trying to tell me that professional DJs are going to ditch their pair of 1200s and huge collection of vinyl for some shitty little piece of plastic with a USB connector on it?

    Sure thing.
    • As far as I know, you're the only person suggesting professional DJ's are going to "... ditch their pair of 1200s and a huge collectio of vinyl...". They're sure going to be interested in it though, as /. says, if only for the purpose of laughing at anyone using it. But that's what all professionals.

    • Yep. (Score:1)

      by krilli ( 303497 )

      So you're trying to tell me that professional DJs are going to ditch their pair of 1200s and huge collection of vinyl for some shitty little piece of plastic with a USB connector on it?

      Unless said "professional DJs" are idiots and don't get the point, they actually might.

      What matters is what you actually play and how it sounds.

      Using SLs and vinyl is like l33tsp33k. It's clever, but there's no particular point to it, and it's unneccessarily difficult.

      Do you know how much vinyl weighs? Those things are HE

      • This assumes that either the software that comes with it is usable or that the unit can be made to work with something like Traktor [nativeinstruments.de].

        I doubt the former, and hope for the latter.

      • Re:Yep. (Score:4, Informative)

        by Rai ( 524476 ) on Saturday November 01, 2003 @01:02PM (#7366811) Homepage
        and it's unneccessarily difficult

        Vinyl is much, much easier to work with that CDs or any other type of digital format. On a record, you can see the changes in the track by the variations in the groove pattern. This makes it easier to find your cue point and know when the breakdowns and other changes are coming up. It also makes beatmatching and cueing easier as you can manipulate the actual movement of the record and not just a 'play' button and some stationary jog wheel (though there are CD players that try to emulate the rotation of a record.)

        The only digital media that seems to come close to vinyl is Staton's Final Scratch which I have yet to try.
        • Valid point, but if you have digital music files, you can see the peak info directly. It is actually superior to "reading" the vinyl, which needs at least decent illumination to be possible.

          Have you tried Traktor?
      • Uhm. Go get yourself a pair of 12s and some vinyl and let's see YOU dog DJing after that.

        I've been spinning for quite some time now and it requires huge amounts of skill, finesse and ability.

        I think many DJs will pass this up and go and get Final Scracth [finalscratch.com] because LOTS of professional DJs do use this in addition to turntables.

        There is a certain touch and mystique to vinyl that you will never get anywhere else, but especially when playing techno (which requires a lot of layering) or turntabilism, the ext

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Steve Cowan ( 525271 )
      Nope. The real DJs will use Final Scratch [finalscratch.com].

      (If you don't know about it, seriously check it out -- it works very, very well)

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:3, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      New technology doesn't have to replace old technology. We still use steam power today, the heat's just usually not generated by wood fire (still plenty of coal though, sadly.) The invention of the plane didn't replace the automobile. And this thing isn't intended to replace vinyl, just to make it easier to use the digital audio files that people are already using.

      DJs are going to augment their pair of 1200s and huge collection of vinyl with some shitty little piece of plastic with a USB connector on it.

      • Re:Yeah right (Score:2, Insightful)

        by ewwhite ( 533880 )
        Final Scratch or a Denon or Pioneer DJ-oriented CD deck would be much better additions to a traditional setup than this toy. Again, this particular product is an example of how corporations are capitalizing on the popularity of DJ culture. It's a shame because it's flooding the market with less-talented, less-experienced DJs.....

        The real stuff.... [djedwhite.com]

      • Re:Yeah right (Score:2, Redundant)

        by Jonny 290 ( 260890 )
        Nope, this thing is junk.

        If a DJ's going to play tracks off a laptop, he's going to get Final Scratch. Right now, nothing else compares.

        and yes, I am a dj.

      • DJs are going to augment their pair of 1200s and huge collection of vinyl with some shitty little piece of plastic with a USB connector on it.

        No, we won't. The number one most important aspect of any controller is just that, the "control". Quality of parts is so important when it comes to proper control. Quality is the reason why 1200's are so popular. They don't have fancy features and gizmos, they just work, and they work well. I've played with CD decks that have a similar "UI" as this USB deal, an
    • You're right. This is trash. It's a shame that DJing has become cheapened by flood of consumer "DJ toys". This is as bad as the DM2 mixer... I'll stick with my Technics...

      http://djedwhite.com [djedwhite.com]

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:3, Funny)

      by lungofish ( 6224 )
      I don't think they're trying to sell it to professional DJs.

      If they were, it would cost $2500 instead of $250. They'd also be selling it through specialty stores that are only open on Tuesdays between 12:30 pm and 3:53 pm, and are staffed by surly lesbians.

      I think they're targeting the tinkerers and the wedding DJ types, the kinds of people that buy those Newmark "DJ in a box" setups and mixers from Radio Shack.

    • Re:Yeah right (Score:3, Interesting)

      by kidlinux ( 2550 )
      Wtf makes you think a DJ using Technics is the target audience? Obviously no one is gonna bail on their 1200s, but this might be an interesting toy for a skilled DJ. I remember hearing a story from my buddy about a DJ who was mixin up a storm with a fisher price record player and some 45s. Like anything else, it's all about what you can do with a given tool.

      Anyway, I think they're targeting somone like myself, who's very interested in mixing, but has neither the time nor the money to get a full blown sy

    • No, but they'll integrate it the right way with Final Scratch [finalscratch.com]. Really cool device that syncs digital media up with your real turntables, lets you manipulate them just like you can real vinyl, and you can watch the waveform at the same time. Oh yeah, and it runs Linux.

      Check out Part Time Sucker Radio [parttimesuckers.com] tonight 7-10pm EST for live Chicago drum and bass on Rewind Radio [rewindradio.com] for some cool cats mixing their own tracks with viynl using Final Scratch. Much cheaper than pressing all your own tunes to dubplates first!

    • Perhaps there are people who are interested trying out DJing who have 50 GB of MP3s they don't feel like ditching. Who said that the target market is entrenched established vinyl DJs?
      • i hate to say it, but MOST new dance music comes out on vinyl first.

        if you stick to DJing digital formats only you won't be able to keep up with new releases.

        of course you can buy a turntable and encode everything but goddam that's a pain.
  • $250 USD makes it a viable alternative to huge digital pads... grab this and a mini-PC and you've got a totally portable solution (minus the speakers, of course). Very interesting. I wonder how many people would give this a whirl...
  • The first (only) time I liked Rap was when I was in 7th grade -- 1983. We used to wear Pink shirts with white colors, razor thin white ties, white patent leather shoes, and gold tie bars (??? some random imitation of black culture, we shopped at the Chess King). The summer before the fad was crew cuts and the summer after the fad was mullets and parachute pants.

    Anyway I remember doing camel hops on my BMX down my friend's quarter-pipe in his driveway, and then we went and scratched records on his two tur
    • Firstly, it sounds like you were pretty much a wuss in 7th grade.

      Secondly, hip-hop is much more than a fad. You wouldn't call rock and roll or jazz a fad, would you?

      Thirdly, Elvis imitated no man.
      • Bullshit. Sam Phillips Sun Records recorded black artists, and was EXPLICITLY looking for a "white artist who sounded black", so he could get white people to listen to it. Watch a documentary some time.

        Your defensiveness amuses me -- you're obviously projecting your own insecurities. Touched a cord?
    • rap wasnt invented until circa 1987 ?
      • Herbie Hancock's song in like 197? started the sound. Amazon says Whodini, Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys, Grandmaster Flash released major label albums in 1984-5. So I think my memory is correct: we as dumb white kids were the last to get on board // first to pay attention. It was definitely an underground thing.

        LL Cool J represents the beginning of the "2nd wave", along with the other guy who far better at being a Beat Box then the original (the Human Beat Box). I consider MC Hammer to represent the "3rd wave

      • Uh, try the late 70's. (Score:5, Informative)

        by phillymjs ( 234426 ) <slashdot@stanTWAINgo.org minus author> on Saturday November 01, 2003 @01:49PM (#7366976) Homepage Journal
        Here's a basic history of rap as I, a 30 year-old white guy, know it:

        Modern rap goes back to NYC in the late 70's. "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang dates back to then. Also, around the same time, DJ Kool Herc was the first guy known to use two turntables to cut seamlessly back and forth between songs.

        Things picked up in the early to mid 80's, when we saw NYC-based acts like L.L. Cool J, Public Enemy, and Run-DMC. The Beastie Boys became the first white rappers to hit it big. Rap crossed over to young, white America (the MTV generation) mostly thanks to Run-DMC collaborating with Aerosmith on the remake of "Walk This Way" in 1986. Most pre-1988 rap was innocent (and mostly clean) braggadocio of the "I'm cooler than you [and here's why]" variety.

        In the late 80's and early 90's, gangsta rap got big with acts like Ice-T, Eazy-E and N.W.A., and later Snoop Doggy Dogg, who were actually gang members/criminals, whose violent lyrics raised the ire of older whitebread America. It was around this time that the whole east coast rapper vs. west coast rapper war broke out. At the same time, Vanilla Ice gave white rappers a bad name.

        Around 1994 I felt that most new rap that was coming out was shit, so it is at this point that my history gets sketchy. In the late 90's there was essentially a cavalcade of mush-mouthed, lowlife bastards like Notorious B.I.G., DMX, Ja Rule, 50-Cent, Busta Rhymes, etc, whose already-incoherent words were further drowned out by overly-thunderous bass. Oh, and Tupac, who became quite prolific and released more albums after he was dead than he did while alive. Videos became nothing but pissing contests to see who could squeeze the most whorish-looking women and the most garish Cadillac Escalades into a few minutes of video. The music became secondary because every fucking rapper on the planet was too busy trying to do movies. It was also around this time that we got the highly-annoying Eminem. Oh, and let's not forget shitty rap-rock acts like Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit, etc. Yuck.

        My iPod has about 400 rap/hip-hop songs on it, and very damn few of them are dated after 1995-- but I still listen to and enjoy almost everything that came before.
        • I'm 32, and I *definitely* do not consider Public Enemy to be part of the first generation of Rap. LL Cool J and Run DMC *almost* qualify, but I listened to a *lot* of Whodini and Grandmaster Flash before that. (I guess they were big in NY before they were big nationwide).

          All of the stuff you're talking about sounds to me like comparing Kiss with the Yardbirds as conteporaries :-)
  • I wonder if we're going to see an influx of geeky DJ names with this thing. DJ 31337 DJ g33kX DJ h4x I call DJ Wallhack.

  • Not bad... but will it multitrack? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tinrobot ( 314936 ) on Saturday November 01, 2003 @12:14PM (#7366601)
    A six channel, 24 bit USB audio interface for under $250 is not bad at all... Forget the pads, it might actually make a nice audio interface for home musicians. I wonder how well it works with the popular multitrack software such as Cakewalk, Cubase, etc...

    • Re:Not bad... but will it multitrack? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Steve Cowan ( 525271 ) on Saturday November 01, 2003 @12:21PM (#7366635) Journal
      Well you'd think that 6 channels at 24 bit sounds good for under $250, but think about it -- a cheezy old SoundBlaster and a previous-generation multi-thousand dollar Apogee or ProTools rig are all based on 16-bit technology... but merely because this is so does not mean they will sound the same.

      You get what you pay for. Be very careful when trying to define sound quality with bits and sampling rates alone. There are a lot more variables than that when it comes to digital audio hardware, many of them purely subjective.
      • The reviewer liked the sound quality. He didn't sound particularly audiophile-ish, though.

        RTFriendlyA.
      • Regardless there's plenty of lo-fi market which would die for a $250 multitrack recorder. HOWEVER, you can pick up E-Mu Darwin 8 track recorders and they will take an Orb or Jaz, as they have SCSI. They will export multichannel WAV files; I have a utility which is supposed to break those up into stereo or mono files. You do need the latest software for that; I bought the software for some friends once but they never bought it from me (there's a prom and a jumper lead that must be installed.)
      • With the KX project audio drivers, it's possible to use multiple Soundblaster Live! cards in one machine. I'm running two at the moment, providing me with the ability to record four stereo digital inputs simultaneously. Each additional card provides another two inputs.

        The Soundfont capability of the Live! cards is also an incredible feature on a budget. I have over 1000 patches available from my cheap USB midi controller ($150) in real time, right now, just push the button. That's 600 megs of audio sam

        • I record, ok well tried to record, my guitar and bass on my computer using CoolEdit and my soundblaster live, and I have never been able to get any good sound quality from it. My friend has an Echo Mia card, it has 4 quarter inch input jacks, and the quality was way above what I was doing. I realize that he actually has a card that is made to record, but I was not impressed with how my sound blaster live did it. Is there something im missing, do I need to record at a certain bit rate, or what?
          • You definitely need to record with the mic preamp turned off. All that misfeature does is introduce a lot of static. Other than that, your SB Live will record with a reasonably high level of fidelity whatever you manage to feed it - you can use the 1/8" in jacks (some models have gold plated jacks), you can use the 1/8" SPDIF if you have some other digital interface, or you can plug directly into the pins on the card.

            That said, if you have a good mic (as good as you can with an 1/8" input) and turn off t

      • Yeah, but the gap between pro and consumer has narrowed considerably in the past decade. I'd probably invest my money in a good microphone and a tube preamp before I spent any money on an Apogee.
    • if you're looking for a piece of multitrack recording hardware skip things with silly scratch pads and go for something useful, like the tascam US-428 or US-224. or get a nice pci card from m-audio. the tascams are great cos they have full control surfaces which interface with quite a few multitrack progs. or you could try mapping the control buttons via midi to yer favorite multitrack prog. either way, like i said, skip the silly scratch pads [unless you really are going to use them] and use the right too

  • Herculus Graphics... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01, 2003 @12:16PM (#7366609)
    Flight simulator on an 8086... If you flew the plane over 65536 feet, you'd come up through the ground again.

  • no good (Score:1, Troll)

    by DavidH_Mphs ( 657081 ) *
    USB may be good for digital cameras & the like. However, I doubt a serious DJ would want to rely on a USB connection, especially if he's doing a big show. It's true that USB is versatile, but it's not always the best solution. I certainly wouldn't trade it for digital audio links.

    In general, I try to stay as far away from USB as possible.

    • USB has more bandwidth and less latency than 10mbit ethernet, so I don't see what problem you have with it.

  • Even better product (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Nothing surpasses the true sound of analog vinyl ! Get the best of both worlds with final scrach http://www.finalscratch.com

    This package includes digitally encoded vinyl that sends the signal to your laptop running Linux/Mac OS, and synchronizes your mp3 with the vinyl. It then sends it back into the mixer for mixing.

    Coolest toy I have played with in awhile, and it still keeps my sound clean and bad ass playing thru any pair of technic 1200's
    • Even better product? For any serious DJ, Final Scratch is the ONLY product... I am supprised that more slashdot peeps dont know about this. The software uses a linux (for stability) and allows you to play your regular vinyl as well as mp3's.. mixing back and forth between the two if you like. Final Scratch is the only way to go if you want to walk into a club or rave and be taken seriously...

      • Re:Even better product (Score:2, Informative)

        by ewwhite ( 533880 )
        I actually get annoyed when I mix with DJs that use Final Scratch. While it's a good idea and well-executed, it's a hassle for the traveling/gigging DJ. Here in the Chicago scene, it's difficult to obtain access to AC power (for your laptop) and inputs into the mixer for the Final Scratch USB unit. Most of these clubs are permanent installations, and this becomes an issue when you have several DJs in the lineup for the night.

        I own a Denon DN-S5000 CD unit [djmart.com] in addition to my Technics. That's a way to incorpo

        • Good thoughts. I understand what you are saying. I am on the west coast and spin psy-trance which is often impossible to get on vinyl... much of it is released only on cd.

          However, cd's are not what I want to be spinning. I love vinyl and have a lot of psy-trance on vinyl and the ability to use and play mp3's just like vinyl is worth the extra time it takes to set up or hunt down an extra powerstrip.

          I'm downloading your Phunk vs Tek mix now. Thanks for making your mixes available on line like that. V

  • Huh ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phoxix ( 161744 ) on Saturday November 01, 2003 @12:37PM (#7366708)
    When did americans become obsessed with this idea that a DJ's sole job is to scratch records ? No wonder our DJ's are pretty much crap.

    Most of the big name DJ's I've seen rarely if ever bother to scratch. These DJ's are not concerned with such, instead they are concerned with creating a smooth flowing stream of music by engaging in the arts such as beat mixing, volume matching, etc.

    I suggest looking on kazaa/usenet/etc for videos of any of the following DJ's in action, and one will easily see they are nothing like the american stereotype DJ. (Paul Oakenfold, Sasha, Timo Mass, Paul Van Dyk, etc)

    Sunny Dubey

    PS: I'm not saying all american DJ's are crap. We've got some good ones like Sandra Collins, Mark Farina, Danny Tenaglia, and such.

    • Maybe DJ Skribble? I'm not sure where the scratching/turntablist obsession came from. I cringe when people find out that I'm a DJ and make the "wikki-wikki" sound while scratch-gesturing with their hand....

      I'm a House DJ [djedwhite.com] though, so it's not as big of a deal in my genre....

      Check out my mixes... [djedwhite.com]

    • ..that's what scratchpads are for; not just actual scratching, but beat mixing - you still need to be able to slip the record, to get it to drop in at the right moment and to bend the beat to synch up. you sound fairly knowledgable, you should have known that :P

      Danny Tenaglia?! Please...Maybe if I had free admission and the club was a block down the street..oh wait, I did and it is, and I still didn't.
    • PS: I'm not saying all american DJ's are crap. We've got some good ones like Sandra Collins, Mark Farina, Danny Tenaglia, and such.

      I'll give you Farina and Tenaglia, but Sandra Collins? I saw her live at a show here in Nashville a few months ago. Her track selection was crap. (And yes, I realize she plays progressive trance. It still sucked.)

      Tiesto is also good, as far as beatmixing goes.

    • Great points. I think most American listeners are largely clueless as to what constitutes a great DJ these days.
    • Paul Oakenfold, Sasha, Timo Mass, Paul Van Dyk, etc

      All shitty house DJs.

      Check out something a bit more thoughtful. e.g. Coldcut.

  • Not even close (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nystul555 ( 579614 ) * on Saturday November 01, 2003 @12:41PM (#7366727)
    This isn't even close to being what a DJ (pro or amature) would want. It's really more of a toy. Only now are we seeing CD tables - like the Pioneer DJM-1000 that are high enough quality to be considered worthy of using. 90% of DJs are still into vinyl. And before anyone says anything about how they are living in the past or whatever - there are several reasons for that. You still have greater control over vinyl - you can touch it and move it exactly how you want, other systems have to simulate that. Also, ALMOST ALL GOOD DANCE MUSIC COMES OUT ON VINYL ONLY!! Go to www.dancerecords.com or www.satelliterecords.com, and see exactly how many tracks are available on anything other than vinyl. Yeah, if you are spinning Top 40 right off the cd you got at BestBuy, or in this case the MP3 you downloaded from iTunes or wherever, and you aren't trying to do anything advanced, then maybe something like this could be a fun diversion. But if you are trying to mix interesting, unique music you are still going to use vinyl. But again, this just doesnt have anywhere NEAR the functionality that a DJ would want. They would be better off to buy two cheap tables and a cheap mixer off of ebay than to try to use this thing. And yes, even amatures usually have 2 1200s and a stack of vinyl.
    • Heh... I was slow to adopt the CD thing. I've been mixing for 10 years, but just recently purchased a Denon DN-S5000 CD deck to go with the turntables. See the studio [djedwhite.com].

      This is just the corporate world capitalizing on the popularity of DJ culture. It's a shame, because it simply cheapens it....

      • That's a nice setup! And congrats on the 10-year mark, it's becoming a rare thing it seems.

        Yes you are 100% right about the corporate world trying to capitalize on DJ culture. I have NO problem with Denon or Pioneer working on making CD tables that can really simulate the vinyl experience - as a matter of fact it'd be great if the technology were 100% there (and its getting close) and you could get good quality cd tracks.

        But, as a DJ and a promoter myself, it really ticks me off when someone comes out w
    • I must agree with you: most DJ's are using vinyl. Most DJ's will continue to use vinyl because it provides warmer, fuller sound than traditional digital sources. And there's something about the ability to physicallly touch the record while trying to match-up the BPM that you just couldn't do with a CD.

  • Not to sound stupid, but (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Gregoyle ( 122532 ) on Saturday November 01, 2003 @12:43PM (#7366731)
    They don't do Mac?!?!?

    They really aren't going to be taken seriously in the DJ world until the release a product that is compatible with Macintosh laptops. I don't know a single DJ who uses a laptop running anything besides MacOS.

    I know Mac OS X has trouble with 5.1 sound, but I would think you could get it without too much work by bypassing the normal soundcard. Hell, if it worked well enough DJs would use it instead of their soundcard for digital output. Plus if they had a Mac version they could do away with USB and the audio compression that is necessary to use that transfer method and go straight to firewire.
    • The only thing that sounds "stupid" is the suggestion that Mac OS X has a problem with 5.1 surround sound! Since 10.1, the underlying "Core Audio" architecture has had no problem with far more channels than that.

      Um.... don't worry too much anyway Gregoyle, I don't really think this product is aimed at people who want "to be taken seriously in the DJ world". Could you imagine, really, getting up in front of over 200 people with that silly looking thing? Don't worry. You can always run Traktor on a Mac,
  • This is a toy at best.. real DJ's will continue to use:
    • http://www.finalscratch.com
    And an added bonus. It's linux based!

  • Latency? WTF? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Awptimus Prime ( 695459 ) on Saturday November 01, 2003 @01:13PM (#7366844)
    "To keep things honest, and unbiased, the DJ Console does have one minor flaw, there is a bit of latency between button push, and software response. Though, this is somewhat expected due to the Consoles USB 1.1 connection to the computer. The resident HH DJ (yours truly), was having a few issues timing his beat matching/scratch/etc due to being accustom to the instantaneous response of actual DJ Equipment and traditional turn-table. All in all, we did learn to compensate for the delay in response and we were back to having fun with the equipment in short time. One question can only be raised here however, as to why a USB 2.0 interface was not implemented during the design process of this console.

    Heh, a musical instrument with a latency issue. Oh yes, sure, Pros are going to stock up on these things. Not bloody likely.

    Anyway, how's this news? There's like a hundred gimmicy little audio things you can hook up to your PC. Is tomorrow's headline going to be about one of those electronic midi guitars with the plastic strings? I can see the headline now "Yamaha introduces new electronic guitar, Jimmy Page surrenders".. Wait a sec, that's a Fark headline! It's a trap! NSFW! [lolfun.com]

    USB 1.1 on that thing reduces it from a toy to trash, IMO.

    "Boo" to the guy who wrote the article, as well. There were no performance benchmarks to demonstrate whether the card impacts frame rates when compared to other audio solutions. That's what I looked at when I bought my last card, I didn't want to go to the trouble of over-clocking my system just to have the wrong accessories eat up whatever FPS gains I picked up.

    Final thought on this review:

    Moving on to the next series of tests we listened to a various mixture of high bitrate Mp3's ( > 192kps) and audio CD's that spanned various spectrums of musical styles. Initial we tossed in Crystal Method's Tweekend CD due to its great sound range.

    WTF? Crystal Method's music has no sound staging or real depth to it. It's just a bunch of clicks and whistles for the raver kids. How about getting out something with real instruments and natural sounds next time, foo. Samples of resampled bits of music with a punchy bass sound ain't depth unless you are 14 and dream about having a car with a big stereo so you can be like the guys in The Fast and the Furious.. And get that glowstick pacifier thingy out of your mouth, dumbass.

    Peace out
  • Stanton created a package called Final Scratch [finalscratch.com] a couple of years ago that basically lets you use your existing turntables to mix digital files (mp3, ogg, etc..). Some said it would revolutionize the DJ market and eventually render vinyl records obsolete. It did not.

    You'll find that the high majority of DJs still prefer to use a pair of Technics SL1200s [panasonic.com] and a mixer. There's a level of control when handling the analog source (records) directly you just don't get with digital gadgets. Not to mention a crate
    • "Serious" DJs don't like digital toys? I will have to inform Richie Hawtin of this breaking development.

      Personally, I am getting sick of the "Analog v. Digital" holy war. And all the people who stick with the party line of "if 1200's and vinyl were good enough in my day, they're good enough for you". Fine. I like them too. I cut my teeth on Denon CD mixers, but the vinyl is definitely "cooler". Too bad it isn't about how cool you look, but about how good you sound.

      If DJ A can make a better sound than DJ B
  • I have a Hercules Game Theater XP (I'm pretty sure it's discontinued) and I can tell you it is the single greatest sound card I have ever come across. It's sitting right in front of me. Optical inputs, USB on the front and back of the breakout box, MIDI ports built in, 7.1 surround sound.

    I just checked Ebay, its still holding a $40 value.

    Hercules makes great products, and this one looks interesting, although the reviewer notes the company has changed a bit recently. Still, the price tag is a bit high,
    • Yes, the Hercules Game Theater XP is an excellent piece of hardware with excellent sound quality at a low price. There is no doubt in my mind that Hercules has some great hardware engineers working for them. However, the driver support for the GTXP was horrendous. The drivers would crash consistantly under WinXP for almost a year after that OS came out. It took them almost two years to have stable drivers in general. The GTXP got great reviews when it came because everyone was still using Win98.

      This

  • It's basic, but it probably works well enough, if anything it is to small and fiddly to work. But the arguments I see here is between digital and vinyl. It's a mute point as most DJ's use both.

    There is already a number of professional product for mixing digital music. The notables being the the pioneer cd player series, and final scratch for mp3 play-back. And are used extensively by many DJ's. Often to augment their vinyl setups.

    Still vinyl and 1200 setup is still the best playback and mixing medium, and

  • Any DJs actually comment yet? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by patrick24601 ( 323165 ) <patrick24601@yah ... Nom minus distro> on Saturday November 01, 2003 @02:10PM (#7367067) Homepage
    I am curious... anybody that has said "90% of all DJs" and "No DJ will..". How many of you are actually paid worknig mobile disc jockeys? I am. The group I work has 6 shows. And all 6 of them are CD ONLY - No Vinyl. Every DJ I know went to CD and got away from Vinyl as soon as possible. The weight alone is the major benefit, not to mention countless others. Scratching? I don't know of any PAID DJ that still does it, and I have never had a client that said "please scratch" at any paying gig. I am sure that there are some parties that might want it. But not from a mainstream mobile disc jockey show. FYI... I am the first DJ in our group to take the entire CD setup and RIP it to MP3. I am now experimenting with PC DJ and DSS to see how good I can get beat mixing with MP3s only. I have found I can do it with just a basic PC and soundcard, and the sound quality is great. Remember: Most paying clients don't want scratching or the highest quality sounds. They want their requests to be played and the DJ to show up on time and keep the crowd entertained. Most of them don't even care if you beat mix or not.
    • He's right.

      Most clients couldn't care less about how the DJ does it. Vinyl, CD, mp3... they want their music.

      Don't let the audiophiles trick you into thinking that there's more than a niche interest in the "old-school" ways. If the music comes out, and sounds good, it's good enough for 90% of the people listening/dancing.

      • Re:Yes! (Score:3, Informative)

        by cdf12345 ( 412812 ) *
        From the post I'm guessing you do events like weddings and such, I think there's a big difference between event DJ's and club/rave djs

        they are completely different and need different hardware, regular djs never need to beatmatch or change pitch,

        whereas club djs have to have complete control of the sound, that's why final scratch is amazing, and this hardware will be passed off as lame.
        • But most of the people at the wedding will not be stoned off their ass. You have to admit that a large portion of the people at your typical rave will be so high they won't be able to tell what is being played.

          Come to think of it, that explains why techno 'music//dev/random piped thru /dev/dsp' is so popular.
  • Maybe it's just me but; isn't this product all wrong.

    Problem #1 PC only.
    At a time when Mac OSX and Linux have some of the lowest audio Latencies in the industry; and when there is so much more exitement on those platforms what is this company thinking making standard based hardware not platform independent?

    Problem #2
    Why USB and No Firewire (ieee1394).
    Newsflasch Hercules, the industry trend for MP3 music is.... iPod and iTunes, mac or pc.
    You can't make a new DJ product that can't control an iPod.
    That is ju
    • My mighty P133 may not be smooth, but it is hard to predict! 64MB ram, Sound Blaster, and this little script forever! Oh, yeah, don't forget a decent amp.

      num_songs=`cat ogglist | wc -l`
      echo $num_songs " songs on disk"
      LOBOUND=1
      HIBOUND=num_songs
      RANDMAX=32767
      count=1
      until [ $count -gt $1 ]; do
      BINUMBER=$(( $LOBOUND + ($HIBOUND * $RANDOM) / ($RANDMAX + 1) ))
      echo $count " of " $1 " requested songs:"
      NAME=`sed -n "$BINUMBER"p ogglist`
      echo $NAME
      ogg123 $NAME
      count=`expr $count + 1`
      done

  • Apart from the pervasive spelling and grammatical errors, the review was extremely subjective and not very detailed.

    Probably the single most important thing for an audio device is latency, yet it wasn't measured - and was only mentioned as an afterthought to keep things "honest and unbiased" (thanks for that).

    They also seem to think that it's the lack of USB 2.0 causing the latency, when it's almost certain to be the hardware/setup of the host computer that's the major contributing factor (decoding and mi
  • Hercules is not the company it once was. The original Hercules video card maker went bankrupt and Guillemot (a French pc-card maker) bought the name ONLY, to slap on their products. Prior to buying Hercules, Guillemot had developed a nice little rep for providing the shittiest support possible for their sound cards. Buying the Hercules name for a song was their way of trying to break free of their absolutely craptacular reputation.

    You can paint a turd with gold paint, but it is still a turd and that's a

  • umm (Score:2)

    by geekoid ( 135745 )
    "Professional DJs and House-Party Beat Masters alike..."

    could there be news thats less nerd like?

    Nerds have, for years, been the life of the party. If that party involves polish notation, star-trek and secret binary handshakes.
  • www.finalscratch.com is something that was initially developed for BeOS, but when BeOS pretty much died, they ported it to MacOSX and Linux (I think it's a bootable knoppix cd, not sure)

    The idea is that you get a couple of vinyl records, with a signal on that, when picked up by the software, accurately gives an indication of the position in a song. This means you can use pitch control, scratch, and the other usual trick you do on your SL1200's, with mp3's (or other) stored on your laptop.

    Fantastic stuff.

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