But I got a mail a couple of days ago that I felt was worth taking the time to fight with my ADSL line to bring to your attention. I've bemoaned at length the near total lack of customisation for DJs and their gear, largely down to the absence of standards. Wouldn't it be nice if faders, pots and sliders where all easily interchangeable and available off the shelf as 3rd party spares? Well DJs-face! aims to give you a step in the right direction with the ability to order fully customised faceplates AND fader caps AND knobs in a variety of colours and sizes.

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Skratchworx followers on Twitter will know that I've been trapped for close to 4 weeks in a slugish support line spiral of phone line death with o2 and BT to get my landline fixed, thus updates have been thin on the ground. This time of year traditionally sees news dry up to a trickle anyway, but combined with the recession, getting news worthy articles as rare as my connection to the interwebs. But I just wanted to stop by and let you know that the wheels on the skratchworx bus are still going round and round, albeit everso slowly.

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The UK 3 pin plug is a design conundrum. On one hand, its ability to stick to the wall like glue is legendary in comparison to the rest of the world. But the downside is the sheer bulk, not to mention the damage they do to our expensive stuff when wedged into our laptop and DJ bags (and feet when stood on). Well check this out people - pure prototype right now, but I'll happily send them a donation if it helps to clear up the collective clutter that is 3 x 4 and 6 way extensions sat at my feet. This readers, is the best idea I've seen in a very VERY long time. Dragons Den - jump on this now.

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Firstly, well done to Moto from the US who won last month's inaugural Flud Watches competition. This month sees my favourite of the 6 I have up for grabs - the Gun Metal Tableturns. While I wouldn't wear it myself, I really like the Black Chrome stylings. And just like last month, all I need is an email from you.

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Followers of skratchworx will know that I have long desired one particular item of non-DJ nextlevelness. And last Friday, I finally gave in and joined the cool cats of the iPhone fan club. Yes people - behold the geeky trouser trauma joy that is the 32Gb iPhone 3G S.

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Akai's MPC range has long been the accepted face of button bashing, to the point where anything with a set of square pads is almost generically known as an MPC. But there's a new player on the scene that aims to loosen Akai's vice like grip around the neck of the beat making scene in the shape of Native Instruments' Maschine. Essentially a MIDI controller, Maschine's huge benefit is that all the work is done inside your computer on a big screen, thus opening up a world of production capability that's not especially workable inside your average small groove box window. Another fresh reviewer in the shape of Chris Cartledge got intimate with Maschine and wrote words and made a video as well.

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The steady but slow march forward to v2 of Scratch Live hit a milestone last month with the release of the GM version of v1.9. While not radically changing the face of SSL, a handful of key features were added that make it even more attractive to users and buyers, without suffering feature creep. Words come courtesy of new fresh reviewing talent - DJ Bozak casts his seasoned SSL eyes over v1.9.

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It has been firmly established that from a DJ's perspective, PLASA is pants. But in it's place is The BPM Show, which clearly is not. And despite the global crunch, BPM is moving to a bigger venue - The National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham (again UK, not Alabama) which is better served by road, rail and air. This is happening 3rd and 4th October, and if you feel like being an early bird, you can save £4 on the weekend ticket price - that's £8 instead of £12.

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It's nice to know that when I write reviews, a lot of people read them and some actually act upon my unfocussed ramblings. So when I laid my bag-loving hands on the 69ep h bag, I expressed on one hand my love for the minimalist stylings and extreme quality, but constructively and very politely opened both barrels on the lack of shoulder straps. 69ep clearly heeded my words (plus those of others I suspect) and made the necessary changes.

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While skratchworx started its life as a turntablist focussed gear site, that niche expanded almost from day 1 into an all encompassing generic DJ gear news and reviews site - and with this expanded portfolio comes a whole different set of products to look at. One such area of product is digital audio workstations or DAWs for short. New reviewing blood Flexinoodle has been test driving Cockos' Reaper v3 through the beta cycle right up to the final release and pulls no punches in his opinion. And bugger me if we don't have a copy to give away as well. Double whammy!

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DBM Labs are a company with a vision, part of which is "building upon those who turn their passion for music into a lifestyle". So considering that's what I did when I started skratchworx, I guess that means they're supporting me. And in a bit of mutual backslapping, DBM Labs have offered up some of their somewhat delectable t-shirts for you lucky readers.

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Yet another example of "just wait for the next release it's sooo much better" problem with reviewing technology has been the epitome of nextlevelness - EKS's OTUS MIDI controller. I've had it since Christmas, and revisited the review a couple of time with each new firmware upgrade or software release. But with the last release, I drew a line under my writings and have released the review for public consumption.

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Welcome to last week. That's when the world saw the first renderings of Numark's scratch deck controller and learned a little more about the new game from QD3 and Numark called "Scratch - The Ultimate DJ". Having already established that this type of game does nothing for me at all, and that my blessing is hardly going to make or break a game, I was livid to read about Activision's latest marketing for their competitive and still litigious DJ Hero game.

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If there's one product that it's fair to say I've overlooked it's Virtual DJ. The reason for this is quite simple - no Mac version for a very long time. V5 came, crashed my Mac a lot and ended up in the trashcan. But V6 is here, with a heap of bug fixes, but importantly a truckload of new stuff as well.

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Due to Apple's closed approach to music use on the iPhone, real DJ mixing apps are still someway off. It seems that anything encroaching on iTunes capabilities is deemed as evil and threatening to the Apple mothership, when actually people would still buy iPhones anyway. Still, Beats by Bjango is a really useful tool, that for me harks back to my early DJ days of manual BPMing of tracks and writing it down on paper, as well as a few other tricks up its sleeve too. Do iPhone apps have sleeves?

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While DJs and video technology are still circling each other and slowly forming an uneasy alliance, Inklen continue to develop their MixEmergency video mixing package and have now pushed it up to v1.2. And it's still able to use Scratch Live as an external controller too.

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The DVS scene is somewhat dominated by the big 2 of Scratch Live and Traktor Scratch Pro, in that order and by some margin. On reflection, this is probably because of the all in one nature of the product. So for now, it seems that the 3rd place position is being jockeyed for by a handful of potential packages such as Torq and MixVibes. But Deckdance is very much up and coming and should most definitely be taken seriously by every player and potential buyer. Skratchworx OG Professor BX has been playing with Deckadance for an eternity, right up to the brand spanking new v1.5 under the skratchworx microscope and is suitably impressed.

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AAfter the recent ruckus caused by the first rushes of the new A&H xone 2:02 virals, the dust has settled and the final versions are ready for DJ consumption. The theme is still the same, but the intent of one of them has been... can we say somewhat muted.

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While the rest of the DJ scene has stuck with the normal dark aesthetic, Allen & Heath's somewhat distinctly industrial looking Xone mixer range image has been very much of an acquired taste, more resembling a science lab than a DJ booth. But the charcoal paintbrush has been wielded big time to drag the Xone range kicking and screaming over to the dark side.

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When I had a real job where I actually had to go to a place of work, it generally meant leaving the house and having to drive to the aforementioned hellhole of tedium and politics, thus necessitating a car. But now my trip to the office is down 2 flights of stairs, the need for a car is almost nil. So in a radical carbon footprint and general bill reducing move, I said a fond farewell to my little black roller skate. What... you though I rolled with the big dogs?

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You may recall from the recent Traktor Scratch Pro review, that I've identified a phenomenon that I'll refer to as "review rot". This is where a review is completed but sat on because the next all singing and dancing bug busting version is coming out - allegedly. By the time it comes out, a significant rewrite is needed and a massive delay has you guys all antsy and shouting at us for the bloody review already. Well the news that Deckadance v1.5 has been announced is a cause for the review not appearing. This will soon be fixed.

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It's been some time since Tonium shamelessly used skratchworx to tease the original Pacemaker, and then cast us aside like an unwelcome relative at Christmas. But after some badgering with "you're too scared to send it to us" type emails, that has all changed, and the all spangly Pacemaker 60Gb has made its way to the skratchlab, and will subsequently be on its way around a few reviewers for a flash mob equivalent of a review.

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While you all unload your wallets to get the higher end of the range, Ortofon have made a cart for the rest of us in the shape of the Omega. And bringing the epic Ortofest to a close, Yorick cast his highly critical eye over the runt of the litter more affordable end of the Ortofon range.

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Yorick's ongoing series of Ortofon reviews continues with a look at some that you may not have even seen before - the MF6 and MF7s. Indeed, they don't even appear on the official Ortofon website (which actually needs an update whoever is reading this). But they do apparently stand up incredibly well to the established Shure standards in the scene. Has Yorick gone off his rocker? Is this heresy?

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Yeah - I know what time it is. And so can you courtesy of our friends at Flud Watches. Starting this month and continuing for the next 6, I'll be giving away one like clockwork... hahahaha... look it's Monday OK? Witty repartee take a few days to get going.

UPDATE: The big red closed letters across the main image just that. No more entries thanks.

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My love of the Korg Zero4 is well documented and is largely based upon the creative possibilities and flexibility offered when used in its Traktor Scratch certified mode, and only having a Firewire cable instead of a birds nest or RCAs attached to a magic sound box of tricks. Well Korg and NI would love for you to indulge in the love parade and have got a special offer for potential Zero mixer owners.

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Yorick's marathon Ortofest continues with another review - this time the rather more orthodox SH-4 headshell. No fancy art nouveau stylings here, but just plain and simple aluminium stamping, but in a variety of colours to suit your aesthetic needs.

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It's fair to say that while most people care passionately about which carts they use, they will almost certainly just use the stock headshells that come with their decks of choice. But you do have choice, and Ortofon recently brought some style to the usually utilitarian industrial design with the Evolution headshell. Worthy investment or snake oil pandering to image led DJs? Yorick finds out.

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There's something I've discovered about reviewing in the digital age. Back in the good old days before software and firmware updates, a product did exactly what it said on the tin. It was sent, played with and reviewed - end of story. Now however, v1.0 rapidly becomes v1.1, which becomes v1.2 etc etc. Such was the way with the skratchworx Traktor review. The skratchworx review of v3.4 was written way back in August, which then became Traktor Scratch Pro, so Deft held off and wrote that review instead. But wait... v1.0 is becoming v1.1 with cool new stuff so just wait a little while. We did, but we're waiting no more.

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Back in January, Serato announced an all new version 1.1 of their video mangling Video-SL package. The key feature was being able to use the SL-1 interface rather than only being available to Rane TTM-57SL users. Strictly beta up until today and now you can download the full version and use it for 30 days for free.

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