A close-up of a time-coded vinyl record Vinyl emulation allows a user to physically manipulate the playback of digital audio files on a computer using the turntables as an interface, thus preserving the hands-on control and feel of DJing with

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from viny ...

. This has the added advantage of using turntables to play back audio recordings not available in phonograph form. This method allows DJs to scratch, beatmatch, and perform other

turntablism Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA sy ...

that would be impossible with a conventional keyboard-and-mouse computer interface or less tactile control devices. A ''digital vinyl system'' (DVS) may include a special time-coded vinyl record or be purely software.

Characteristics

Vinyl emulation normally uses special

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...

s which are played on conventional

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

s. The vinyl is a recording of analog audio signals often referred to as

timecode A timecode (alternatively, time code) is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing synchronization system. Timecode is used in video production, show control and other applications which require temporal coordinatio ...

. The turntables' audio output - the timecode recording - is routed into an

analog-to-digital converter In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, or A-to-D) is a system that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or light entering a digital camera, into a digital signal. An ADC may also provide ...

, or ADC. This ADC may be a multi-channel soundcard or a dedicated external USB or

FireWire IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony a ...

audio interface box, DJ controller device or compatible mixer (usually distributed with the software). The ADC sends digital time code information to the software, which then translates the signal into corresponding changes in the playback speed, direction and position of a digital audio file. The audio file will react as if were pressed directly onto the record. The manipulated audio output of the program is then sent back through the DAC or the computer's sound card, and can be routed into an audio mixer where it can be mixed like any other analog audio signal. The result is digital audio playback that sounds like music manipulated by an analog vinyl recording. However, there is always a short delay between the needle's reading of the time code and the software's playback of the audio. The delay time is treated as a

figure of merit A figure of merit is a quantity used to characterize the performance of a device, system or method, relative to its alternatives. Examples *Clock rate of a CPU *Calories per serving *Contrast ratio of an LCD *Frequency response of a speaker * Fi ...

for vinyl emulation products. A shorter delay allows the DJ to have better response and control of the music and is usually not noticeable by the user or listener. In some countries, for example

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

, a

digital DJ license A digital DJ licence is required in some countries, including the United Kingdom (with exceptions), Finland, Belgium and Italy, to publicly play digital copies of copyrighted music. The licence allows a DJ to copy music from original CDs, ...

is required to legally play copyrighted music publicly with vinyl emulation software.

Software packages

Final Scratch Final Scratch is a DJ tool created by the Dutch company N2IT with input from Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman) and John Acquaviva that allows manipulation and playback of digital audio sources using traditional vinyl and turntables. It seeks to cr ...

was the first vinyl emulation software sold publicly. Since its release in 2001, many similar software and hardware packages have been developed and marketed. Notable applications licensed under the terms of the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ulti ...

: * Mixxx *

xwax xwax is an open-source vinyl emulation software. It was initially developed in 2006 as proprietary software. In May 2007 xwax was licensed under the GPL-2.0-only, making it the first open source software of this kind. Unlike the software supp ...

Notable

proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern ...

applications include: *

Deckadance Deckadance (often referred to as DD) is a DJ console and mixing tool developed by Image-Line software and acquired in 2015 by Gibson. Initially released in May 2007, it operates on Windows and Mac OS X, and comes in a House Edition and Club E ...

* MixVibes DVS * Serato Scratch Live *

Torq A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some had hook and ring closures and a few had ...

* Traktor Scratch Pro Some vinyl emulation software products are marketed with specific time coded

, while others are software-only products. The following table lists all existing DVS packages which come with specific time-coded vinyl: This table presents all software-only DVS packages (Note that software products presented here are these which are "controllable" through a time-coded vinyl): {, class="wikitable sortable" , + Comparison of software-only vinyl emulation , - ! Product ! Manufacturer , - ,

Image-Line Image-Line Software (commonly known as simply Image-Line) is a Belgium, Belgian software company best known for its digital audio workstation program FL Studio and related audio plugins such as Sytrus and Harmor. Image-Line was founded in 1994. In ...

, - ,

, Mark Hills , - , Mixxx , The Mixxx team , -

External links

The Digital Vinyl System project (DVS) - 2003
origin of the DVS technology name explained.
Technical Information and Tips on Torq's Vinyl Control System by Chad Carrier
a technical abstract on Torq Control Vinyl time-code.
Who Invented Digital Vinyl?
Steven Carroll's history of digital vinyl and patent claims.
The Spacedeck project
developed by Chris Bauer in 1998. Acoustics software DJ equipment DJing

Characteristics

Software packages

See also

External links