Beatboxing with Scratching?!

This dude seems to have swallowed a Technics 1200 and a Roland TR808 drum machine. Send help immediately! *ambulence siren sound*

More beatboxing examples here.

Serato LIVE is the Atari 2600 of Digital Turntable Systems

As I start up my DJ class again (this time focusing on scratch techniques), I am pondering which of the numerous software/hardware systems -- designed to allow old-school DJ turntablists to work with digital music files on a laptop instead of crates full of vinyl -- to get.

It occurs to me that Serato LIVE is the Atari 2600, Native Instruments Traktor Scratch is the Mattel Intellivision, and M-Audio Torq is the ColecoVision of digital turntable systems. Why? The Atari 2600 was not especially pretty but it worked well, had all the great games, and EVERYBODY had one. Intellivision was technologically much more advanced but it had a quirky interface and never got as popular, while the Colecovision was even more advanced but ... well that's where my analogy may not be perfect. I don't know enough about the Torq :P

Rainy Tuesday & Thoughts of Turntables Spinning In My Head

One of the hazards of any new hobby you may start is "Gear Lust." For me, right now, that lustworthy object is the Turntable, the modern term for a phonograph or record player.

Before my DJ class, these were delicate, antique devices irrelevant in today's world except for those with shelves full of old 12" LP records, or props used in hip music videos. Now I understand clearly -- turntables are the "stick-shift" of controlling the playback of music. Sure, you can do "automatic" with your laptop or even those tiny performance CD turntables. But what you really want is the raw power, the torque and feel of a pair of over-built spinning wheels of sound.

Everyone says Technics is the best. It's in 90+% of the clubs out there, apparently. Though according to some reviews, the other brands like Numark, Vestax and Stanton have caught up with equal or surpassing turntables.

I'm a newbie though. I could get by with a discount kit meant for "bedroom DJing". (This is an actual term! Why do DJs practice in their bedrooms?? Not the kitchen, dining room, parlor, basement or garage, hence the term "garage band"? If one gets "turntable" as a weapon in the game CLUE, you can be sure it's a DJ in the bedroom?)