For those who have snowboarded before parks were standard at every resort, before pipe dragons were manufactured, or the term “Super Pipe” was even coined, may remember a revolutionary snowboarder by the who was responsible for changing the game with his strong skateboard influence. If you don’t remember him personally, he’s the man behind the iconic Sims board with bottom of a skateboard with trucks as the base graphic. I’m talking about Noah Salasnek!
He’s been off the grid for several years now, but in the older vids which were lucky to be filmed on hi 8mm, he threw down the first generation of “jibbing” along with a hybrid part including amazing snowboarding and skateboarding. (Shout out to John Cardiel too!)
Powder to Rails has put together a couple documentaries about this amazing rider and even if you rode back in the day and desired his Sims pro models, or am a new rider from today, Noah is a pioneer that you should check out and see why snowboarding is where it’s at today.
I think we’re all familiar with the yellow bordered magazines, be it in your current subscription lists, parent’s collection, library exposure, or the scrap book collection in art class. I am referring to the iconic National Geographic Magazine.
National Geographic has brought their entire collection, from 1888 to 2008 into the digital world with the recent version of the Complete National Geographic Software experience which includes the past 120 years of National Geographic accessible through your desktop computer!
The company I work for, Effective UI, was the UX agency behind creating this year’s version o the collection. Our team did an excellent job bringing this unique software experience to life and making it an enjoyable and exciting adventure throughout the past 120 years of magnificent National Geographic content, including the intriguing articles from around the world and of course, I must mention the visual thrill ride of their amazing photography. The other cool aspect is that this presents the issues an volumes exactly how they were originally published including the advertisements dating back to their first volumes in the late 19th century (1888).
Not only can you go through the volumes in a digital page by page metaphor, but the application also offers other features such as trivia and Geobrowse which allows you to search, correspond and relate articles geographically with an interactive global map.
The software was built with Adobe Flex (AS3.0) and wrapped in Adobe AIR, and is a cross-platform compatible software package with the Adobe Air Install.
Luan Oliveira takes the Tampa Am again this year! The whole contest brought out a bunch of talent that killed it. Here is a video below with highlights from the contest.
The world of DJ’ing is constantly moving towards the digital world for sometime now. With the introduction of CD DJ controllers several years ago, to Turntable interface integrations such as Serato Scratch, and to the latest popular USB/MIDI controllers.
If you are going digital for convenience, expense or just because you love using your laptop over traditional devices, it is becoming a lot easier and a lot more prevalent to see a laptop on stage or in the DJ booth.
Don’t get me wrong, I love vinyl, and I prefer to use Serato Scratch as my primary channel of DJ’ing along with traditional vinyl, but the tools offered today are making the opportunity to DJ with a library of thousands of songs within the convenience of your own backpack very tempting. And I’m not just talking about pushing play on iTunes and sending it through the coffee house speakers.
Vestax just released a new controller named Spin.
These controllers are nothing new, as Vestax has several of these including the VCI-100 ($399) and VCI-300 ($899), Numark has a device, and Hercules ($329) has a really solid one with a sound card, but they all range well above $330 – $900+.
The Vestax Spin on the other hand, is only $250 and it has a built-in sound card for audio input like a mic!
Now the old saying, “you get what you pay for” is aways true, but Vestax is known to put out solid product. I will say that this is a price point device and has plastic controllers and faders, so it’s not professional grade, but for $250, the platters look solid, the functionality is there, you get an audio input, MIDI control, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner who wants to DJ their iTunes library for fun, begin messing with DJ’ing, or a pro looking for a quick inexpensive portable set up, then this might be the answer.
This set up also comes with a basic DJ application called DJay3. This was a freeware app several years ago that allowed you tap into your iTunes library and digitally mix on your computer. They have now improved upon it and added many more features to pair up with the Vestax Spin.
Since the device is USB/MIDI, but I still have yet to verify if you can use it with other applications such as Serato Itch or Tracktor.
Even though tools like this are becoming a lot more accessible, please keep in mind that DJ’ing has various levels. Don’t think you’re going to get a set up like this and it’s going to make you an instant Mix Master Mike or Digweed. Dj’ing is an art form that takes time to master, I myself, am and always will be a disciple of the art.
As tools get less expensive and readily available, more complex and feature rich, then the opportunity for someone to get into DJ’ing is becoming a real possibility, but there is still the human factor of DJ’ing. That aspect is creating the experience and reading your environment and audience to know what to play, when to play it, and how to mix it in. No piece of technology will ever replace that.
I have yet to experience the Vestax Spin in person, but here is some more info Scratchworx.com:
