MrQwest

So I started DJing back in 1996 when my brother got some DJ turntables for his birthday. He lost interest in mixing after a couple of months and instead of leaving the turntables to gather dust, I thought I’d have a go and was instantly hooked. 4 Years on, I had my first gig in a club, and after several other years full of clubs & bars – I done a couple of pirate radio shows too.

Anyway, I digress. When I started mixing – vinyl was king. The thought of mixing with digital media was years off – and even if the technology came about, I thought I’d miss the feel of vinyl.

5 Years ago, I moved out of my parents home & in with my girlfriend (now wife). Paying the rent & bills meant I didn’t have a lot of cash for vinyl – especially when it cost around £8 each! It was at this point that CD turntables were available & Pioneer were running things. However, the cost was astronomical. I’m pretty sure these decks cost £1000+ each. Faaaar out of my price range. The cost now-a-days hasn’t changed much, with a pair of Pioneer CDJ-1000’s running up at £1500. The cheaper CDJ-400’s CD turntables still come out to between £800-1000.

I’ve spent the last 5 years playing with some of my old vinyl (half of my collection is still at my parents). This monotony of my old vinyl has made boredom set in when it comes to mixing so I’ve been looking for a new medium.

So vinyl’s out of the question because of the cost of vinyl. CDs are out of the question because of the cost of the turntables…

But there is another option. Time-Coded vinyl. Basically, you plug a specialised soundcard into your laptop, and the other end into the mixer. Load up the specialised time-coded vinyl / CDs on your equipment and then use the special vinyl to control MP3s via your laptop.

I managed to pick up a Torq Conectiv from the SnF forum last week and haven’t looked back. It’s ticked all the boxes for me. I can keep the feel of vinyl & use my existing Technics 1200’s turntables. I can load up all the music from my external HD and use those to mix via my decks!

With an abundance of new online music shops that pop up every week allowing you to buy music online, being able to buy tunes from iTunes or any other sites for roughly £1 each beats vinyl at £8 each.

Example. I’ve just searched for Appaloosa – Kitsuné (The Day We Fell In Love) on iTunes (here). It’s £3.16 on iTunes for 5 mixes. The Same EP on Juno (with one less mix, only 4 – here) is £6.99 + P&P (which adds between £1.80 & £6 depending on the option you choose). It doesn’t take a genius to work out the good value there!

So there we go, I’m all digital with my DJing now! It may not be ideal when I DJ at clubs & have to cart around my laptop – but i sincerely believe this is the future! CD’s will only go so far.

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