Digital Vinyl Emulation comparison from The Axledental DJ
From Ssl-wiki
Contents |
Introduction
This chart represents an overview and comparison of current Digital Vinyl Emulation Systems. Thanks goes out to The Axledental DJ who gave the permission to use his original chart.
| Last updated on: 8-22-2010 by The Axledental DJ. |
| DVS Systems | Miss Pinky | Mixvibes Cross/ Cross DJ | Serato Scratch Live 2 | VirtualDJ 7 | [1]DJDecks/PCDJ DEX 1.0 | Numark Virtual Vinyl | Torq | Traktor Scratch Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (Minimum Advertised Price) | $99.00 (software + 4 Pinky vinyls) | $299.99 (software & soundcard + CDs and Vinyl) | $539.99 SL1/$699.00 SL3 (vinyl & CD's included) | $299.00 (software only) | $199.00 (software only) | $299.95 (soundcard, vinyl & CD's included) | $299.95 (soundcard, vinyl & CD's included) | $599.00 (soundcard, vinyl & CD's included) |
| Current version / Last updated | 3.7.2/ Oct. 2009 | 1.4 / Aug 2010 | 2.1/August 2010 | 7.x/Beta 2010 | 0.99 / August 2010 | Same as VDJ 6 | 1.5.3 / July 2010 | 1.2.6/ April 2010 |
| Software copy protection / License | ?/? | ? | Software tied to hardware / copy protection inside SL1, SL3 box | serial key / 2 same PC/Mac | serial key/activate online | Same as VDJ except no support for the Denon DN-HC4500 | hardware/1 per Torq Conectiv hardware | Serial Key, Web Authorization Required. 2 per Key. |
| Scratch Mode (with mouse) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Screen resolution | 1024x768 | 1024x768 or higher | 1024x768 or higher | 1024x768 or higher | 800x600 or higher | 1024x768 or higher | ? | 1024x768 or higher, 1024x768 stretch mode for higher resolutions |
| Off-line player mode | ? | Yes, compatible with ASIO interfaces | Yes/without SL1, SL3 box or TTM57SL | ? | ? | ? | No | ? |
| Endless Loop in Time-coded Vinyls | No | Yes | Yes (on side B, force back to rel mode to enable | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes |
| # of Decks supported | 1-6 | 1-2 | 1-4 (depends on hardware) | 1-2 (or more) | 1-4 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 4 |
| Kinds of timecoded vinyls | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 (Miss Pinky, FS, SSL, VDJ) | 2 | 2 (Ms Pinky) | 1 |
| Soundcard included | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sampler | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Sampling from Input sources | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| MIDI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Wave in S/W GUI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Waveform display (zoomable and different color themes) | Yes / can change color of waveforms | Yes | Yes / single or 3 band view and horizontal view | Yes | Yes / zoomable | Yes | ? | Yes, Zoomable & Color can be Changed |
| For Windows 2000/XP | Yes | Yes, XP SP2 | Only XP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Only XP |
| For Windows Vista | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Unofficially, Vista Info |
| Compatible with Mac OS X/10.5.x Leopard | Yes | Yes | Yes/Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Compatible with Intel Mac | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Pitch Correction/Key Lock | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (works with Time-code) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Effects/Filters | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Song Media Type | Wave, MP3, WMA, OGG, AIFF, AAC | AAC, Wave, AIF, MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC | AAC, Wave, MP3, OGG, AIF, AudioCDs | MP3, FLAC, AAC (DRM-Free), OGG, Wave, WMA (DRM & DRM-Free), Audio CD | Wave, MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC | ? | WMV (audio only), WMA, MP3, MP2, M4a, flac, mpc, ogg, wav, aif, aiff, au, caf, paf, sd2, w64, voc and Redbook Audio-CDs | MP3, WAV, AIFF, Audio-CD, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, non-DRM WMA and AAC (DRM not supported) |
| Archive/Explorer File Tree/Browse by Artist, Album, Genre | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mute reverse/Forward | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No |
| High Quality Time-code recognition | ? | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes/2KHz |
| Built in skins | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
| GUI Skinable | Yes can change skins | No | No | Yes (a lot of skins) | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Skin design/SDK | Yes | No | No | Yes (XML) | Yes | Yes (XML) | No | No |
| Mute by Velocity | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | No |
| Needle Dropping in Relative Mode | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Needle drop to cue points | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Relative mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Absolute Mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Soundcard / Pre-amp to RIAA | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple Cue Points | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Out of Timecode minutes/ Internal Mode (works without time-coded vinyls) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| # of Time-coded Vinyls included | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 1 Turntable usage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Future Compatibility | Works with Neuromixer Products. | All MIDI, HID and ASIO compliant | 2 Control Signal Audio CD's Included which allow use for CD DJ Decks | Time-code CDs can be made via downloading the Time-Coded MP3 | anything that can be bought to work with FS, MsPinky, SSL or VDJ also works with djdecks | ? | 2 Control Signal CD's are included for CD DJ decks, Certification program to expand hardware support. | |
| Soundcard Quality/ Soundcard Support | Good, depends on soundcard, supports ASIO 2.0 | ASIO 2.0 | ASIO/Core Audio | ASIO 2.0, WDM-KS, DirectSound (WDM) | ASIO 2.0 (depends on sondcard and setup) | ? | ? | Audio 8 DJ supports ASIO™, Core Audio™, DirectSound™ |
| Latency | 2.5ms to 5ms | 1.5ms to 3ms | ? | Depends on setup, config and soundcard | 1.5ms to 7ms (depends on soundcard and PC setup) | Same as VDJ | ? | Presets (2ms - 40ms), Manually adjustable as well. |
| Stability / User Problems | Stable | Very stable | Super Stable product! | Very stable | Very Stable, frequent updates | Very Stable | ? | Stable |
| Control Video Files | Yes, Quicktime, AVI | No | Yes/with Video-SL plugin (.mov, .m4v, mp4, FLV) | Yes (vob[DVD], mpeg2, mpeg1, DivX, Xvid) (compatible with FreeFrame video effects plugins) | No | Yes | No | No |
| VST Plug-ins | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Loop In/Out/Reloop | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes and with Time-coded Vinyl | Yes and with Time-coded vinyl | Yes | Yes | Yes and with Time-coded Vinyl |
| Loop matched on the BPM/Auto Looping | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 ,6 , 8, 12, 16, beats) |
| Other Feratures Worth Mentioning | Has 3 other apps to use for effects, video, and audio | perfect iTunes integration | Track and crates selection region on Side A of Control Signal | 100% no-slip, no-slip behavior of timecode vinyls mode. Custom skin SDK | Phono Pre-amp calibration mode | ? | ? | BPM Counter, Key Correction, Deck Caching, 45rpm Mode, Emergency Mono Mode, Vinyl Select/Scroll & Flip, Auto-Absolute Mode, Hardisk Recording, 2khz Control Signal, Programmable HotKeys, Airplane Mode |
| Scripts | ? | No | No | Yes (Audio&Video SDK in C++) | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| User forums help | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Company Support / Tech Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Developer Team support in forums | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No |
| Product Marketing / Range of distribution in the USA (Online or in stores) | Online only | Online & In Store/ USA | Online & in store / USA | Online | Online only | Yes | ? | Online & In Store |
| Vestax VCI-100 | ? | Yes | Yes with Midi | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | ? | ? | Yes, if you upgrade to Traktor 3.0 |
| Denon D-HD2500 | No | ? | Yes/Native | No | Yes/Native | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Denon DN-HC4500 | No | ? | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | No | Yes | Yes |
| Denon DN-S1200 | No | ? | Yes with Midi | Yes/Native | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Denon DN-S3700 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Denon DN-HS5500 | No | ? | Yes with Midi | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pioneer CDJ-400 | ? | Yes | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | ? | ? | ? | |
| Pioneer SEP-C1 | ? | ? | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | ? | ? | ? |
Links
- www.skratchworx.com
- www.mixvibes.com
- www.eclerdjdivision.com
- Scratchlive.net
- www.mispinky.com
- www.virtualdj.com
- www.djdecks.be
- www.denondj.com
- www.rane.com
- www.neuromixer.com
- www.numark.com
- www.nativeinstruments.com
Info
"Native" means the software developer has made the controller natively supported themselves, without the need for manually configuring with midi mappings.
Modes and features explained:
1 Endless Loop This allows Club DJ’s to spin and beat match mix all night long without having to reposition the needles on the time-coded vinyls.
2 Scratching Mode: Using a mouse or an external controller other than the time-coded vinyl’s to scratch your songs.
3 Mute reverse: This allows the DJ to always mute the playback of the audio file while the record is being pulled back. When scratching over a beat, extremely fast “Crab” and other similar scratches are possible without even using a Cross fader!
4 Mute by Velocity: This allows the DJ to always mute the playback of the audio file while the record is below a configurable velocity. This can tighten up your scratch to make it sound much more clean and distinct.
5 Velocity Mode/Relative Mode: In this mode, the software only calculates the record's speed and direction of rotation. Picking up the needle and placing it back anywhere on the time-coded vinyl continues the playback exactly where it left off.
6 Position Mode/Needle Drop/Absolute Mode: This provides the most realistic "virtual vinyl" experience. In this case, when you pick up the needle and move it, the audio track you are playing will cue appropriately to the new position.
7 Out of Time-code minutes/Internal Mode: If the song is longer than the Time-coded Vinyl, then the s/w may still continue to play the song.
8 Absolute Relative Time Mode: For example, a 3 minute song can use up the entire 12 minute Time-coded vinyl, and allow needle dropping.
9 Airplane Mode: Allows audio output to be routed through onboard soundcard if present. Allowing the user to listen/prepare tracks without having the audio interface connected.
10 Key Correction: A time stretching feature that enables a DJ to increase/decrease tempo without affecting the original key of a music track.
11 45rpm Mode: Enables a DJ to use control record(s) at 45rpm even though the control record(s) is pressed at 33rpm.
12 Emergency Mono Mode: Timecode control is unaffected if you loose one channel from the Turntable/CD Deck output, ie: Faulty RCA cable or Cartridge wire.
13 Auto Absolute Mode: Allows a DJ to switch from Relative Mode to Absolute Mode via control record or CD.
14 Vinyl Scroll/Select & Flip: Allows a DJ to scroll/select and load their tracks via control record or CD. Flipping the control vinyl will load the immediate next track in the playlist.
Thanks go to
- Nik39 (for starting this SSL Wiki)
- Rane and SSL Dev Team
- DJ One37 (owned FS1/2, now SSL and Ms. Pinky!)
- Adrien Wurth (Mixvibes DVS Engineer/Team)
- Eric Guez (Mixvibes Team)
- Patrick Vantroeyen (Mixvibes Team)
- Adion (DJDecks programmer)
- Mudo (Owner of a Ms. Pinky!)
- DJ CEL (VirtualDJ Team)
- DJ Quartz (Traktor Scratch info)
