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Music

Mapping Projections Onto Moving Turntables

Who needs a screen to DJ?

Projection Mapping Onto Turntables from E.N.S. on Vimeo.

For anyone who hates seeing the glare of a laptop on the grimaced expression of a DJ in deep concentration, ENS and Mark Morris have come up with a solution that not only improves the vinyl-controlled DJ interface tenfold for the user, but is also a hell of a lot more interesting to watch.

By mapping projections onto turntables in motion, Morris’ interface allows for a dynamic visual display, making it possible to view the playlist, cover the entire setup in visualizations, and even see the image of the wave in play rotating on the record as it is playing, all without ever staring at a screen. The audio levels are projected directly onto each channel’s volume slider, and the waveforms can also be set up vertically on the sides of the mixer.

Though there are still a couple of signs of slight latency in the interaction, the mapping is clean, and there are a number of options for visuals. Hope you like smiley faces and sunflowers!

A touch of controversy surrounds the origins of this project, with a couple of people duking it out for credit on the DJ Tech Tools forum. Though ENS just posted their video this month, user Cyrusbuk has videos of a similar concept up from the end of last year.

Beefs aside, everyone who contributed to the evolution of this idea did something awesome for DJing.

@ImYourKid