This a new turntable from Vestax which is made more for the scratchers out there. It is designed for vertical position which keeps the pitch control vertical but moves the arm to the top of the turntable to keep it out of the way for when you are scratching.
It has double start/stop buttons on each side of the platter, and the usual stuff such as high torque motor, pop up light thingy, +/-10% pitch. Quite a horny deck I'd say.




This is the predecessor to the PDX-A2 and is one of the best turntables on the market. It was built specifically for the dj and has a high torque direct drive motor, +-10% pitch. Its main feature is a joystick control which allows you to speed up or slow down the record by pushing it up or down respectively. Or by pushing it to the left or right it acts as a pitch bend with variable bend control. This allows you to stop the record from drifting without actually touching the record.
It retails for around £400-500.




And of course the Gold edition Technics...nuff said.

These turntables from Gemini have been around for a while and alot of you probably recognise them due to the fact they are virtually Technics clones.
They offer the same kind of functions as the technics ie fast start up time, high torque motor etc but with +-10% pitch and £300 for the PT-1000 and £350 for the PT-2000 (I think). The difference between the 2 is the PT-2000 has changable needle arm height.

This is a new mixer from Roland, its a 2 channel affair with EQ, mic, master an booth O/P's but the main feature is the addition of a reasonant filter with realtime cutoff an reasonance control and a set of modulation tools which will twist the sound to pieces...apparently the BPM counters aren't that good though.

This Numark mixer has been around for a while but under different names...ie its a reincarnation of a previous mixer but with the addition of kill swithes an rotary kills. Personally I don't think this mixer is up to scratch...The one I tried, two of the line inputs weren't connected internally so you were unable to connect CD players to it or anything...It claimed to have +15dB's of gain...did it fck, and the Kill switches are crap...ie turn them all on, and crank up all the gains/input levels and master outputs and you shouldn't be able to hear anything but you can. My Soundlab DSM30 mixer has better kills than that, ie you can turn everything up and you won't hear anything at the output...its worth £195 in the shops but I'd go for something better.

Another newer mixer by Numark is the Pro SM 1 claiming to be a proffessional scratch mixer with a highly reliable longlife active crossfader with super quiet photo coupler, crossfader reverse toggle, crossfader slope control, bass, mid an treble boost an cut on each channel. It goes for £395, looks like a vestax rip off and has a hamster control (thats a special little crossfader so your hamster can have a go).

Behringer mainly make cheap mixing desks suited to more production sides than DJ mixers but they seem to be banching onto the market with a couple of mixers. There is a two channel one, a three channel version (with XLR O/P's an send/returns) and a larger instalation mixer. er...cheap definately.

This is a fairly standard mixer that has been around for a while. Build quality and sound quality are both good and different versions have kill switches and samplers but the main things are 3 channels (3 phono, 3 line, 1 mic), beat indicators, PFL (pre fader listen) cue monitor, balance, booth and master O/P's, plus you can monitor the input or output level on the LED display. £150-200

The MW3000 is a bit of an old mixer but it still has some quality functions, is built to last, and has exceptional sound quality. It features 3 band EQ/cut, has a spectrum analyser and its main feature is a drum pad and four track sequencer with 20 CD quality sound effects to enable the DJ to create custom drum tracks and synchronise the tempo with live mixing. It goes for around £600-800.

Three CD type things from Pioneer (well 2 CD things and an FX unit). The CDJ 100S is one of the latest additions to Pioneers range of CD players and is a front loading player with vinyl feel and jet, zip and wah sound FX. It also has the usual features like pitch bend and loop etc. It goes for about £325.
The EFX 500 is an FX unit with Delay, Echo, Flanger, Rotary Kills and loads more. It goes for £400.
The CDJ 500 is their first design and has the standard features like pitch bend, loop an all the other CD type stuff thats available...it goes for around £420.

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This is probably one of the better CD mixers around and surprisingly for Vestax its slightly cheaper than the competition at £685 considering its got a built in mixer that you can also connect your dex to...Basically its a dual CD player with the usual joystick pitch bend an stuff.

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This is a Sony minidisc player thing, it is pretty new and its features are:-
its practically unscratchable, re-recordable CD quality, 8 hot start keys, vinyl sensitive jog dial, seamless loop, digital screen, pitch bend plus speed control, beat matching and a large jog wheel. Prices are around £800.

Well, what can I say...its exactly the same as their CD player (except you can't fit CD's in it), costs £1250, has pitch bend, cue, brake effect, voice reduction etc etc...oh an it records too.

If you like your sound like your women - sweet sounding, elegant looking and light on the wallet then these aren't for you...They are probably pretty expensive but they look nice anyway. You'd probably never use them though due to a fear of them getting smashed up at your next house rave.
Specs - Fourth-order vented box
Dimensions Height: 1370mm (53.9in) Width: 420mm (16.5in) Depth: 360mm (14.2in)
Frequency Response 49Hz - 20kHz ± 3dB on reference axis
Sensitivity 87dB spl (2.83V 1m)
Nominal Impedance 8 ohms (minimum 4 ohms)
Power Handling 50 - 120W into 8 ohms on unclipped programme
Drive Units 1x26mm (1in) magnetic fluid-cooled, metal dome - high frequency 1x165mm (6.5in) high powered Kevlar® cone - bass/midrange
Finish Gloss white, Gloss Black

These are a set of speakers originally made by B&W but have developed their own company called Blue Room. These speakers are called the Blueroom Minipods. I'm ordering a set soon as they cost £400 but you can get them for £189 from their site + their site is the bollox, all flash shockwave stuff an dead fancy. Tech specs below -
system type: 2-Way 4th-Order bass-reflex direct-radiating.
drive units: One 130mm (5") dia long-throw bass/midrange feat. Kevlar ® piston and 2mm (1") dia high-power voice coil on Kapton ® former. One 26mm (1") dia free-mounted high-frequency unit feat. Neodimium motor, doped fabric diaphragm and magnetic fluid for cooling and damping.
power handling: Suitable for use with amplifiers of between 10 - 100W RMS output into 4 Ohm on undistorted music or speech programme.
frequency range: -6dB at 55Hz and 25KHz
freefield response: Reference Axis: +/-3dB, 60Hz - 22KHz. Dispersion 2dB max deviation over Horizontal 60deg arc centered on reference axis, Vertical 40deg arc centered on reference axis.
sensitivity: 90 dB spl (1W at 1m).
nominal impedance: 4 Ohm
crossover: Frequency 3KHz. 2nd Order LF. 3rd Order HF.
distortion: Harmonics 1 & 2 < 1% 80Hz - 20KHz (90dB spl, 1m).
dimensions: H = 340mm (13.5"). W = 210mm (8.5"). D = 220mm (8.5"). Sputnik spikes add 100mm (4").
weight: 2.37Kg (5.5lb) with Sputnik spikes.
Click here if you have a small mind

Ok...not alot to say at the moment except its an MPEG mixer styled like the popular Denon CD mixer, check the above link for more details...

(taken from DJ mag)The Korg Kaoss Pad looks like a tricorder and is twice as much fun. Theres a rectangular touch screen with a sort of sight marked on it with 6 buttons above it an a couple of knobs. Choose an effect with the buttons and knob, touch the screen and waggle your finger about and the effects change. Superb, totally idiot proof an it sounds wicked.

This is a stereo from JVC and has a pair of 6.5 inch woofers built into the side of it which are designed to produce the low bass that most portable stereos can't. These woofers are powered by a 20 watt RMS per channel amp and the system also has two full range speakers powered by 2x 6 watts RMS. It isn't as loud sounding as the Panasonic Powerblasters, but the sound quality is certainly alot better and the bass is very heavy although not quite as low as I would have expected.
It retails for around £200 and will be found in most high street stores.




I know this has absolutely fuck all to do with music but it is a fucking cool car so there...



For those of you into large amounts of bass for your car, you should check out this large 15inch woofer from Pioneer. Featuring the ability to go down to 18Hz...(you can only hear above 20Hz) this should shake your car quite sensibly. Personally I think it is a bit let down by the fact it only has a 200Watt RMS power rating...probably quite expensive too.



The latest model of this is virtually the same except it has a five disc changer, more bass (2x162 watts instead of 2x100 watts) plus the same 2x37 watts for the main speakers. It also has an 8 band graphic EQ instead of just high and low EQ. I recently got one an can tell you the bass shakes the room...ists all down to a handy built in band pass box with a large amp behind it. The model shown here is the 3 disc version and it £250 but the latest one is £300 and is availible in most high street stores. It has dual tape deck, line out plus line and Minidisc inputs and digital out...It also has a nifty reverb thing to make it sound like its in a tunnel.

For all you budding producers on a tight budget out there, this keyboard is for you. At £250 it won't put too much of a hole in your pocket and you can create music ranging from hip-hop, jungle, house, even hardcore and old skool. It features an arpegiator (from the days of acid house) and a real time filter so you can do those Josh Wink type effects. It has a 6 second sampler which you can trigger from the keyboard and a ribbon controller which lets you control any type of effect from a little thing you rub with your finger (ooh er). There'll probably be a tune out soon written solely on one of these and will go straight to number 1.

Once you have written your tune on your DJX you will need something to mix it down on...but this will probably be a bit too expensive. It is an 8 track digital Minidisc mixer/recorder which means you can master your track and record it digitally so you have a decent copy to send to record labels (or get pressed yourself). There are loads of features like 8 track bouncing (on an analogue 8 track, you will only get 6 track stereo bouncing) ie you can record all 8 seperate tracks then mix them all down to 2 stereo tracks, there is also seamless cut and paste functions (probably as easy as pressing ctrl+c, ctrl+v). The price is about £800 from specialist shops.

DJ Demo has brought out a range of Vital Element merchandise to go with his (proper) hardcore record label.
There is the usual range of MA2's at £55-£60, Prescott, Coach, Wentworth, Glacier, Antarctic, Border and Fleece jackets ranging from £35 to £60 and Record bags, slipmatts, hats & t-shirts for the usual prices, + the opportunity to buy VE008, 009 and 010 which are not in the shops yet.

The following was submitted by NSJ FlashbacK (1998 UK SQL Winner Novice 3)
'There is massive new speaker out by Clarion and it is called the 'ThunderDome'. It is a 32" Sub an needs a box the size of a transit van! It isn't that good and money would be much better spend, as I have, on a 2 JL Audio 15" W6 Subs as they play down to 14Hz, the lowest recordable sound being 11Hz.'
Cheers FlashbacK

The newest thing I've played on lately is the playstation music making program called PSX or something. Basically there are a set of riffs from drumloops an basslines to vocals and hi hats. These are split up into different groups called Techno, House, Ambient, D'n'B but no oldskool or hardcore. Everything is editable so if you choose a riff you like the sound of but not the actual tune you can edit it to your own tune etc. Everything on it is very easy ie all the cut an pasting an selecting riffs etc. There is also a video maker where you can make all sorts of flashing swirly screens to go with your tune. Basically it is edited in the same way as the tune bit and it all runs in time with it much like the standard audio CD bit of the playstation. You can also change the tempo of the tune in mid track. There are 16 available tracks but the only problem I encountered was running out of memory. You can have riffs repeated as many times as you like but can only load in a certain amout of different riffs. Overall a really good package as long as you don't take it to seriously (you won't get a proffessional toon out of it coz the outputs are to noisey - to much hum an hiss an stuff). Oh an you'll pro bably only get one decent tune out of it an never play it again. My advice is to hire it and record the results through a video recorder an take it round mates houses for parties etc. Click here for a tune I did on it.