WirelessDJ
Tested V-Scratch & V-Control last night with the help of AxldedentalDJ
V-Control
We got a chance to try out Virtual DJ's V-Scratch & V-Control last night. We used a 'borrowed' a web camera from my roommate (old logictech quickcam express).
The way it is supposed to work is that you aim the web cam at a turntable and it scans the record as it spins. What's nice about this idea is that it can never wear out since there is NO tone arm used or NO record to scratch. What is also nice is that Web cams are only $20 in the USA.
You aim the camera at the platter and let it run for a minute or so. Once the program has gotten down the pattern, it stops calibrating and you are ready to go. Exit the calibration mode and now when you spin the record it spins the MP3! forward, back, stop, spinback. It is an interesting feature A novel idea! No special hardware needed and came FREE with the software -- I can't complain.
However, with the camera we tried, the frame rate was so bad that it lagged behind too much to use effectively. Even though we disabled auto brightness as suggested in the manual, the lighting in the room kept throwing it off. Ideally, you should have some sort of contrast on the record. silver sticker on a technics 1200 bare platter worked the for us Pitch control did NOT for us. We can only guess that it is too small of a change for the web cam to notice. A problem I see is that most DJ booths are dark so this feature wouldn't work at all unless you had light shining on the turntable.
If only I had a high speed web cam. We checked the internet, and found that firewire cameras have the same 30 frames per second (identical to the logictech we tried). I am Not sure if this was a usb 1.1 limitation, or the program cound't keep up with the camera, or the camera just sucked! (remember it was and old webcam).
I think with the right camera, alignment, lighting this could work quite well, but it could never compare to a real vinyl emulation that uses special manufactured tone records like Final Scratch, Digiscratch or DiVinyl 2020.
having already had experience with vinyl controlled mp3 products, it makes it easy to compare. AxldedentalDJ was one of the first USA beta testers of DiVinyl 2020. The review can be found here http://www.axledentaldj.com We both tested Final scratch at the last Atlantic City DJ show. Digiscratch has NOT been released yet.
V-Control could never support needle dropping, but not all DJ's use this feature. DEFINITION: Needle dropping is the ability to move the needle on spots of the record. as you move it further in to the record, the MP3 advances further in the track. This FULLY emulates a vinyl record. Final scratch supports needle dropping. Divinyl 2020 does NOT support needle dropping. It is NOT known if Digiscratch will support needle dropping?
V-Scratch
This works along the same line but you do not need a turntable. move your hand in front of the camera and it scratches back and forth. move left it scratches reverse, move right it scratches forward. We found that even a non moving background interfered with the V-Scratch. The V-Control was more useful.
Overall, I found V-Scratch & V-Control very amusing to play with, and it was FREE -- but could not use it unless it was made more accurate.
IDEA: Maybe Virtual DJ could SELL some piece of hardware that sticks to the side of a turntable and scans a special OPTICAL record or slipmat. THEN, it could truely compete with Final Scratch, Digiscratch or DiVinyl 2020!
IDEA: How about an InfraRed light source and detector so regular light does not interfere? InfraRed would work in all light conditions.
WirelessDJ
Has anyone had any other experiences with this feature? Please share.
V-Control
We got a chance to try out Virtual DJ's V-Scratch & V-Control last night. We used a 'borrowed' a web camera from my roommate (old logictech quickcam express).
The way it is supposed to work is that you aim the web cam at a turntable and it scans the record as it spins. What's nice about this idea is that it can never wear out since there is NO tone arm used or NO record to scratch. What is also nice is that Web cams are only $20 in the USA.
You aim the camera at the platter and let it run for a minute or so. Once the program has gotten down the pattern, it stops calibrating and you are ready to go. Exit the calibration mode and now when you spin the record it spins the MP3! forward, back, stop, spinback. It is an interesting feature A novel idea! No special hardware needed and came FREE with the software -- I can't complain.
However, with the camera we tried, the frame rate was so bad that it lagged behind too much to use effectively. Even though we disabled auto brightness as suggested in the manual, the lighting in the room kept throwing it off. Ideally, you should have some sort of contrast on the record. silver sticker on a technics 1200 bare platter worked the for us Pitch control did NOT for us. We can only guess that it is too small of a change for the web cam to notice. A problem I see is that most DJ booths are dark so this feature wouldn't work at all unless you had light shining on the turntable.
If only I had a high speed web cam. We checked the internet, and found that firewire cameras have the same 30 frames per second (identical to the logictech we tried). I am Not sure if this was a usb 1.1 limitation, or the program cound't keep up with the camera, or the camera just sucked! (remember it was and old webcam).
I think with the right camera, alignment, lighting this could work quite well, but it could never compare to a real vinyl emulation that uses special manufactured tone records like Final Scratch, Digiscratch or DiVinyl 2020.
having already had experience with vinyl controlled mp3 products, it makes it easy to compare. AxldedentalDJ was one of the first USA beta testers of DiVinyl 2020. The review can be found here http://www.axledentaldj.com We both tested Final scratch at the last Atlantic City DJ show. Digiscratch has NOT been released yet.
V-Control could never support needle dropping, but not all DJ's use this feature. DEFINITION: Needle dropping is the ability to move the needle on spots of the record. as you move it further in to the record, the MP3 advances further in the track. This FULLY emulates a vinyl record. Final scratch supports needle dropping. Divinyl 2020 does NOT support needle dropping. It is NOT known if Digiscratch will support needle dropping?
V-Scratch
This works along the same line but you do not need a turntable. move your hand in front of the camera and it scratches back and forth. move left it scratches reverse, move right it scratches forward. We found that even a non moving background interfered with the V-Scratch. The V-Control was more useful.
Overall, I found V-Scratch & V-Control very amusing to play with, and it was FREE -- but could not use it unless it was made more accurate.
IDEA: Maybe Virtual DJ could SELL some piece of hardware that sticks to the side of a turntable and scans a special OPTICAL record or slipmat. THEN, it could truely compete with Final Scratch, Digiscratch or DiVinyl 2020!
IDEA: How about an InfraRed light source and detector so regular light does not interfere? InfraRed would work in all light conditions.
WirelessDJ
Has anyone had any other experiences with this feature? Please share.
Posted Sun 24 Aug 03 @ 2:43 am
apopsisdj
I have also tested these features before a week or so,
using a creative web cam also usb 1.1 and i agree with you.
Great idea but useless. In my case after the calibrate it worked for some minutes, but after it needed to calibrate
again. Maybe with a usb 2.0 or fireware or with a real video camera connected through a video capturing card, the results
will be better, but it needs light, all the time.
I also tested a tv tuner as the video input and this gives some
interest results, making virual dj scratching like crazy - depend
on the tv program...
using a creative web cam also usb 1.1 and i agree with you.
Great idea but useless. In my case after the calibrate it worked for some minutes, but after it needed to calibrate
again. Maybe with a usb 2.0 or fireware or with a real video camera connected through a video capturing card, the results
will be better, but it needs light, all the time.
I also tested a tv tuner as the video input and this gives some
interest results, making virual dj scratching like crazy - depend
on the tv program...
Posted Sun 24 Aug 03 @ 4:42 am
nscode
Funny you should menthion infrared, becouse I think most WebCams can actually see some infrared (At least a Samsung webcam that I borrowed some time ago did). Turn off the light and shine your TV remote on the camera. You should see a pulsating white light on the screen. However, a remote is a weak source, so I guess you would need something brighter.
The second thing you could use is ultra violet disco light. I know it is out of fashion with all the smart lighting out there, but if you shine it to a wright surface (I think it should be white) the surface will reflect it brightly.
Third thing to use in a DJ booth is a goose-neck flash lite, intended for crate searching but could be useful here.
The second thing you could use is ultra violet disco light. I know it is out of fashion with all the smart lighting out there, but if you shine it to a wright surface (I think it should be white) the surface will reflect it brightly.
Third thing to use in a DJ booth is a goose-neck flash lite, intended for crate searching but could be useful here.
Posted Sun 24 Aug 03 @ 9:23 am
Nebula
The infrared idea probably wouldnt work, as infrared receptors only pick up heat. (hence why when people are viewed, different parts make the receptors more active - the different heat makes the colours appear differently to one another). i think the best way would be a platter which is raised up a centimeter or so, with holes in the side and a light in the middle shining out. point the camera at this and somehow make it only receptive to the colour of the light (so as to avoid interferance from the hand movements or people walking past lol)
If this was to ne made and marketed by vdj, it could use usb 2.0 and have a camera built into it. camera's come pretty cheap now a days
Could potentially look pretty cool too! hehe
I'm probably gonna try and make a prototype soon, hopefully photo's too on my blog
What you think?
Nebula
If this was to ne made and marketed by vdj, it could use usb 2.0 and have a camera built into it. camera's come pretty cheap now a days
Could potentially look pretty cool too! hehe
I'm probably gonna try and make a prototype soon, hopefully photo's too on my blog
What you think?
Nebula
Posted Sat 02 Jul 05 @ 12:40 am