Could the iPhone/iPod touch replace DJs' timecoded vinyl?

Mopho DJ puts a whole new spin on the concept of iOS DJing.
Mopho DJ puts a whole new spin on the concept of iOS DJing.

A researcher at Stanford University has come up with one of the most inventive musical uses for an iOS device that we've seen thus far - as an alternative to timecoded vinyl systems.

The Mopho DJ concept, which is still very much in development at the moment, is the work of Nicholas J Bryan and involves taking a pair of decks and placing an iPhone/iPod touch on each of them. These then send accelerometer/gyroscope data to a computer running a piece of dedicated mixing software as the turntables spin.

Using this setup, you can use the decks to manipulate the digital audio playback in real time, thus enabling wireless scratching.

Check out the video above for a demo, which we think is pretty impressive. A paper on Mopho DJ will be presented at the NIME (New Instruments for Musical Expression) conference in June.

(Via Engadget)

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.