Scott Hobbs is a British product designer who seems to me like the kind of guy who’s going to create some awesome things in his life. He’s just now finishing his 4th year at Dundee University and he’s already come up with a new form of turntable as a part of a project called Sensing Sounds. He’s taken the record and traditional turntable out of the equation and has replaced them with two touch sensitive screens that gives you a visual of the waveform the music is creating.

Based upon the videos above it looks pretty damn cool. It’s kind of like simplifying the act of DJing to a super-simple level, you can just look at the screen and literally SEE the beats, which I’m sure would make it much easier to match beats. I’m a very visual person, so seeing this makes it seem like something I could really do. For more information about the project including an entire written proposal, visit his site by clicking the link above.

Bobby

7 Comments »

1. I love how he’s running this on Leopard, judging by the dock on the right side of the screen in the second video.

   Comment by Piers — May 26, 2008 #

2. pretty brilliant… but it looks like you need 4 hands to control it all!!

   Comment by jacob — May 26, 2008 #

3. If vinyl ever disappears, this’ll be a good replacement I think. Judging from Jacob’s comments the interface needs a little optimalization.

   Great post!

   Comment by Matthew — May 27, 2008 #

4. i think its kinda cool. however unless there are some glaring issues with these ever replacing a turntable/vinyl setup.
   all the functions he demoed are already found on cdjs. additionally him scratching… actually just pushing the wave form indicated huge amts of lag. all that could be easily remedied (i presume), however in the end it comes to the question… why? if there isnt anything new being presented… then it isnt more than a toy. i think the idea would be a lot better suited for live production instead of vinyl emulation/music playback.

   Comment by djbrigidope — May 27, 2008 #

5. […] Scott Hobbs is studying his 4th year at the University of Dundee in Scotland and he has created this incredibly awesome digital instrument/tool using touchscreen sensors to emulate the traditional DJ setup. [via] […]

   Pingback by Visual turntables let you scratch using touchscreen interface | Doobybrain.com — May 27, 2008 #

6. […] +Info: Scott Hobbs +Videos: Uso de la interfaz Fuente: +KN […]

   Pingback by El Blog de Majofesa » Un tocadiscos maquero — May 30, 2008 #

7. […] By Scott Hobbs, via Kitsune Noir […]

   Pingback by Stuff I See ->Visual Turntables — June 15, 2008 #

Leave a comment