Hasta La Gadget!

Amateur and professional DJs are more than familiar with Pioneer and their line of digital media players, mixers, and DJ gear. The company just announced the Pioneer CDJ-850, a mid-level digital media player aimed at small clubs, music studios, or at-home DJs that want professional-level gear to practice and record sets with. The deck supports CD playback, and the 206mm jog dial on the top of the deck can be used for pitch control, song selection, and search/seek control on CDs and digital music files on a connected device.

The CDJ-850 supports digital music in MP3, AAC, WAV, and AIFF formats from any attached USB device or burned to a CD, and comes with Rekordbox, Pioneer’s jukebox application that can help organize your music library by genre or type. The app also helps you organize your collection by BPM and tempo, which are valuable if you’re prepping for a mix or need help beatmatching two songs in your music library. Track information (including BPM) is also displayed on the CDJ-850’s built-in display. If your DJ setup at home is begging for an upgrade, you can get your hands on the CDJ-850 for $999 when it’s released in August.

If you own a guitar and an iPhone and just want to practice or play for a few friends, there’s no need to carry around a massive amp or guitar rig anymore. Griffin Technology and Frontier Design Group have collaborated to create the Griffin GuitarConnect cable, which you can use to hook up your guitar to your iPhone, and the iShred LIVE iPhone app, which gives you all the features of a more complex and complicated rig in the palm of your hand.

The GuitarConnect cable is specifically designed to plug in to your guitar, bass, or other instrument using the quarter-inch cable on one end and into your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad on the other using its 3.5mm cable on the other. Once you have the GuitarConnect cable, you’ll want the iShred LIVE companion app to go with it.

Most DJs today, whether they’re spinning in their basements, house parties, or massive club venues with thousands of people, use more than just turntables or CD decks and a mixer to get the job done. Don’t be surprised to see laptops, effects generators, and other gear all over the booth before your favorite DJ’s set begins. Hercules, makers of gear for DJs who make heavy use of MP3 players and laptops for their sets, announced this week that the DJ Console MK4, a portable deck with good looks and features to match, is available now for $199 list at Amazon, Guitar Center, and other music stores.

The DJ Console MK4 is a lightweight, mobile deck that features two RCA stereo outputs to connect to speakers and a monitor or to another mixer, and one stereo 3.5mm jack for headphones and cue tracks. It also features a pair of RCA stereo inputs so you can connect another mixer, a laptop, or another audio source to the console to include in your digital mix. The MK4 functions like a standard mixer, with effects controls and jog dials for scanning tracks, changing pitch, and more. The MK4 also comes with the VirtualDJ software which will analyze BPM, help you beatmatch, and even line up tracks for you for smooth transitions. By that time though, it’s almost too easy.

Last year, Blue Microphones delivered a compact high-quality mic for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPod nano called the Mikey, and now it’s releasing the second generation. The new Mikey delivers improved circuitry that allows for higher quality recordings of high-volume events, like concerts. It also no offers a 3.5mm line-in port for direct recording of other sound sources such as a guitar or mixer. A new USB pass-through connection allows for simultaneous charging and syncing.

Mikey is now compatible with most protective cases. Also, it now features a 230-degree range of adjustability. It comes with a soft carrying pouch for protection while traveling. Blue also gives you a headphone extension cable for instant playback monitoring when using an iPod touch or iPod nano. It will be available August 20 for $99.99. 

Tritton’s gaming headsets are well known and loved by people who own them, and by gamers looking for high-end audio peripherals that are portable enough to be connected to any gaming console or their PC when they’re ready to fire up their favorite title. The AX 180 has been one of Tritton’s most popular wired headsets for a while, but at E3 this week the company unveiled a 2.4 GHz wireless version of the AX 180 Gaming Headset that features the sound quality of the wired version just without the wires.

Additionally, the Wireless AX 180 is a USB device, so it connects easily to your PC, Mac, XBox 360, or PlayStation 3. The headset comes with a compact receiver that plugs into your console or PC, and Tritton’s “Portable Control Unit” that features independent game and voice volume controls so you can tweak the volume of the game versus the chatter of your teammates and friends individually. The controller also has a monitor switch so you can mute or hear your own voice when you speak, and a 3D audio switch that toggles surround sound on or off. The Wireless AX 180 gaming headset will be available this fall, and retail for $149.99.