Liquid Rhythms Mixshow

Ok, so going through some tech website, I came across this little piece of cool information.  Not sure if this is where I would like to see the DJ setup go in the future or if I would go this route, but I do believe I would love to play around with it for a while.  Read on....



First came the insane press attention for the iPad DJ and now we have 2 more touch screen DJ concepts making serious waves in the blog-sphere. It’s safe to say that the DJ world is fired up about DJing with touch interfaces and chomping at the bit for something mind-blowing. Even though Gizmodo seems to think so, are these latest videos really that amazing?  After the jump, we will share the videos in question, talk to some creators and evaluate what the latest buzz in DJing really has to offer.

The concept of re-engineering Traktor into a touch interface is great- we love DIY hacks! Its not clear how Pablo Martin, the creator of MonoTouchLive, has managed to hijack the Traktor browsing interface and get a direct hook into a non-existent API, but the fact that he got it working somehow is quite cool. I like that the browser disappears and becomes a controller interface during playback, making a tiny 15″ screen much more workable.  Just because a technology is new, however, does not necessarily make it better. In this case the touch aspect does not really add much other than offering a low cost controller built into a laptop.
Assuming you don’t have a touch computer, an Emulator system will run around $5-800:

• $49- Emulator Software
• $299- HP L2105tm
• $199- Traktor Pro

You could alternatively purchase a mid-range Traktor LE controller like the Typhoon and a Traktor Pro upgrade for under $400 and get more functionality. Thats not to say that this concept does not have potential- it does. Once touch surfaces become more prevalent then the entire idea will get very cost effective. For now, however, this appears to be a great proof of concept but not a viable product.