Digital Vinyl Emulation comparison from The Axledental DJ
| DVS Systems | Mixvibes DVS 7 Pro | Miss Pinky | Mixvibes Cross | Serato Scratch LIVE | VirtualDJ 6 | [1]DJDecks/PCDJ DEX 1.0 | Numark Virtual Vinyl | Torq | Traktor Scratch Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (Minimum Advertised Price) | $299.99 (software & control vinyls) | $99.00 (software + 4 Pinky vinyls) | $129.99 (software & 7″ control vinyl) | $539.99 SL1/$699.00 SL3 (vinyl & CD’s included) | $299.00 (software only) | $199.00 (software only) | $299.95 (soundcard, vinyl & CD’s included) | $299.95 (soundcard, vinyl & CD’s included) | $599.00 (soundcard, vinyl & CD’s included) |
| Current version / Last updated | 7.21 / Dec 2008 | 3.7.2/ Oct. 2009 | 1.2.5/May 2009 | 1.9.2/Oct 2009 | 6.0.3/November 2009 | 0.96 / July 2009 | Same as VDJ 6 | 1.5.2 / July 2009 | 1.2/ Sept. 2009 |
| Software copy protection / License | serial key/? | ?/? | ? | Software tied to hardware / copy protection inside SL1, SL3 box | serial key / 2 same PC/Mac | serial key/activate online | Same as VDJ except no support for the Denon DN-HC4500 | hardware/1 per Torq Conectiv hardware | Serial Key, Web Authorization Required. 2 per Key. |
| Scratch Mode (with mouse) | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Screen resolution | 1024×768 or higher | 1024×768 | ? | 1024×768 or higher | 1024×768 or higher | 800×600 or higher | 1024×768 or higher | ? | 1024×768 or higher, 1024×768 stretch mode for higher resolutions |
| Off-line player mode | ? | ? | ? | Yes/without SL1, SL3 box or TTM57SL | ? | ? | ? | No | ? |
| Endless Loop in Time-coded Vinyls | Yes (V2B vinyl) | No | ? | Yes (on side B, force back to rel mode to enable | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes |
| # of Decks supported | 1-2 / Pro 1-4 | 1-6 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 1-2 (or more) | 1-4 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 4 |
| Kinds of timecoded vinyls | 4 | 3 | ? | 2 | 1 | 4 (Miss Pinky, FS, SSL, VDJ) | 2 | 2 (Ms Pinky) | 1 |
| Soundcard included | Yes in bundle | No | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sampler | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Sampling from Input sources | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| MIDI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Wave in S/W GUI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Waveform display (zoomable and different color themes) | Yes | Yes / can change color of waveforms | ? | Yes / single or 3 band view and horizontal view | Yes | Yes / zoomable | Yes | ? | Yes, Zoomable & Color can be Changed |
| For Windows 2000/XP | Yes for XP | Yes | Yes, XP SP2 | Only XP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Only XP |
| For Windows Vista | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Unofficially, Vista Info |
| Compatible with Mac OS X/10.5.x Leopard | No | Yes | Yes | Yes/Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Compatible with Intel Mac | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Pitch Correction/Key Lock | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (works with Time-code) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Effects/Filters | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (with Rane TTM 57SL mixer) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Song Media Type | Wave, MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, Audio CD’s | Wave, MP3, WMA, OGG, AIFF, AAC | ? | AAC, Wave, MP3, OGG, AIF, AudioCDs | MP3, FLAC, AAC (DRM-Free), OGG, Wave, WMA (DRM & DRM-Free), Audio CD | Wave, MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC | ? | WMV (audio only), WMA, MP3, MP2, M4a, flac, mpc, ogg, wav, aif, aiff, au, caf, paf, sd2, w64, voc and Redbook Audio-CDs | MP3, WAV, AIFF, Audio-CD, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, non-DRM WMA and AAC (DRM not supported) |
| Archive/Explorer File Tree/Browse by Artist, Album, Genre | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mute reverse/Forward | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No |
| High Quality Time-code recognition | HD Time-coded CDs/2nd gen time-coded vinyls | ? | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes/2KHz |
| Built in skins | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
| GUI Skinable | Yes | Yes can change skins | No | No | Yes (a lot of skins) | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Skin design/SDK | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes (XML) | Yes | Yes (XML) | No | No |
| Mute by Velocity | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | No |
| Needle Dropping in Relative Mode | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Needle drop to cue points | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Relative mode | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Absolute Mode | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Soundcard / Pre-amp to RIAA | Yes | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple Cue Points | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Out of Timecode minutes/ Internal Mode (works without time-coded vinyls) | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| # of Time-coded Vinyls included | ? | 4 | ? | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 1 Turntable usage | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Future Compatibility | 2 Time-coded Audio Cd’s are included for use with DJ CD decks. | Works with Neuromixer Products. | ? | 2 Control Signal Audio CD’s Included which allow use for CD DJ Decks | Time-code CDs can be made via downloading the Time-Coded MP3 | anything that can be bought to work with FS, MsPinky, SSL or VDJ also works with djdecks | ? | 2 Control Signal CD’s are included for CD DJ decks, Certification program to expand hardware support. | |
| Soundcard Quality/ Soundcard Support | High Sound Quality / Supports ASIO 2.0, Kernel, Multi Channel | Good, depends on soundcard, supports ASIO 2.0 | ? | ASIO/Core Audio | ASIO 2.0, WDM-KS, DirectSound (WDM) | ASIO 2.0 (depends on sondcard and setup) | ? | ? | Audio 8 DJ supports ASIO™, Core Audio™, DirectSound™ |
| Latency | ? | 2.5ms to 5ms | 1.5ms to 3ms | ? | Depends on setup, config and soundcard | 1.5ms to 7ms (depends on soundcard and PC setup) | Same as VDJ | ? | Presets (2ms – 40ms), Manually adjustable as well. |
| Stability / User Problems | ? | Stable | ? | Super Stable product! | Very stable | Very Stable, frequent updates | Very Stable | ? | Stable |
| Control Video Files | No (Yes in Pro version) | Yes, Quicktime, AVI | No | Yes/with Video-SL plugin (.mov, .m4v, mp4, FLV) | Yes (vob[DVD], mpeg2, mpeg1, DivX, Xvid) (compatible with FreeFrame video effects plugins) | No | Yes | No | No |
| VST Plug-ins | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Loop In/Out/Reloop | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes and with Time-coded Vinyl | Yes and with Time-coded vinyl | Yes | Yes | Yes and with Time-coded Vinyl |
| Loop matched on the BPM/Auto Looping | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 ,6 , 8, 12, 16, beats) |
| Other Feratures Worth Mentioning | ? | Has 3 other apps to use for effects, video, and audio | ? | Track and crates selection region on Side A of Control Signal | 100% no-slip, no-slip behavior of timecode vinyls mode. Custom skin SDK | Phono Pre-amp calibration mode | ? | ? | BPM Counter, Key Correction, Deck Caching, 45rpm Mode, Emergency Mono Mode, Vinyl Select/Scroll & Flip, Auto-Absolute Mode, Hardisk Recording, 2khz Control Signal, Programmable HotKeys, Airplane Mode |
| Scripts | ? | ? | No | No | Yes (Audio&Video SDK in C++) | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| User forums help | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Company Support / Tech Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Developer Team support in forums | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No |
| Product Marketing / Range of distribution in the USA (Online or in stores) | Online & In Store/ USA | Online only | Online only | Online & in store / USA | Online | Online only | Yes | ? | Online & In Store |
| Vestax VCI-100 | Yes | ? | ? | Yes with Midi | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | ? | ? | Yes, if you upgrade to Traktor 3.0 |
| Denon D-HD2500 | Yes | No | ? | Yes/Native | No | Yes/Native | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Denon DN-HC4500 | Yes | No | ? | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | No | Yes | Yes |
| Denon DN-S1200 | Yes | No | ? | Yes with Midi | Yes/Native | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Denon DN-S3700 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Denon DN-HS5500 | Yes | No | ? | Yes with Midi | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pioneer CDJ-400 | Yes | ? | ? | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | ? | ? | ? | |
| Pioneer SEP-C1 | ? | ? | ? | Yes/Native | Yes/Native | ? | ? | ? | |
| Behringer BCD2000/3000 compatible | Yes | ? | No | Yes with Midi | Yes (Mapper + SDK) | Yes | ? | ? | Yes, if you upgrade to Traktor 3.0 |
| Numark DMC2 support | ? | ? | ? | Yes/Native | Yes (Mapper + SDK) | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| PCDJ DAC-2 Support | ? | No | ? | No | Yes (Mapper + SDK) | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes, if you upgrade to Traktor 3.0 |
| PCDJ DAC-3 Support | ? | ? | ? | Yes with Midi drivers | Yes (Mapper + SDK) | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes, if you upgrade to Traktor 3.0 |
Links
- www.skratchworx.com
- www.mixvibes.com
- www.eclerdjdivision.com
- Scratchlive.net
- www.mispinky.com
- www.pcdj.com
- www.alcatech.com
- www.virtualdj.com
- www.djdecks.be
- www.denondj.com
- www.behringer.com
- www.rane.com
- www.neuromixer.com
- www.numark.com
- www.nativeinstruments.com
This chart represents an overview and comparison of current Digital Vinyl Emulation Systems. Thanks goes out to The Axledental DJ who gave the permission to use his original chart.
