How Does Timecode Vinyl Work? (Pt. 3) | Hacker News Reader

How Does Timecode Vinyl Work? (Pt. 3)

mixxx.org

15 pointsSamWhited10 comments

This is for that DJ thing where DJs use record players which use dummy records that just have position info, I think. Then that data is fed to something that indexes into the audio file, giving the illusion of DJ spinning and scratching effects. This allows DJs to pretend they are using "vinyl". Is that right?

That's correct (I used to mess around with this stuff several years back). There's a bit more detail in part 1 of this series as well: https://mixxx.org/news/2021-11-21-dvs-internals-pt1/

Your use of "illusion" and "pretend" seem a bit dismissive or cynical.

It's just a vinyl interface to a digital set up. The alternative (when using digital music) is a digital controller which also tries to mimic vinyl, just more poorly.

I feel you're being dismissive but it maybe TFA would make more sense if the use case was more clear. The typical vinyl DJ setup is a pair of turntables, mixer, and PA. This adds a laptop and one or two of these encoded records to the mix (pun intended). Some signal routing between the laptop and the mixer allows your encoded records to work just like regular vinyl - you can have an analog record on one deck with digital on another, both players analog or digital or however you want to handle it. Your digital tracks just become records you can fade into the mix alongside your existing analog workflow. You mix using the regular DJ mixer, everything is almost exactly the same as using regular vinyl records except you can also have a shipping container's worth of tracks in a laptop sized format.

It's not for people who wanna play at being a vinyl DJ (there are digital control surfaces for that), it's for people who are vinyl DJs and have all that stuff and are used to using it but who would also like to occasionally dip into a larger record bag when at a show.

I think of this as belonging to the same class as electric cars with software-simulated clutches and transmissions.[1] BYD makes a driver training car which is an EV with a totally simulated stick shift and clutch.)[2] The trainee can try grinding the gears and stalling the engine, but it's all a software-generated illusion.

[1] https://driving.ca/column/motor-mouth/toyota-stickshift-ev-m...

[2] https://blog.tmgps.org/2021/05/

There's no illusion with a DVS setup, latancy is so minimal you effectively have the exact same fine control over the track as you do with a standard record.

This may be a better explainer than the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7OgQJ2r0RI

That's not a good analogy. Mostly shows you don't understand the problem being solved.

It's not "faking" an analog system within a digital system. (If anything, that's what a full digital DJ set up is.) It's an adapter between the two.

As such a purist, would you prefer that digital music is never used? Or that digital music must only be used with digital controller? In that case DJs that use both types of music have to lug around two separate controllers.

Are timecode vinyls cheaper than encoding the rotation of the disc directly be the player? Is it for backwards compatibility with old players?

That compatibility can be pretty valuable as it allows you to mix between digital and analog vinyl on the fly on the same hardware. DJs of a certain age grew up around the UX of the Technics 1200s and these sorts of tools allows them to keep the feel of the instrument that they've learned to play.

A Phase DJ is $400 for a pair, compared to $80 for the Serato timecode vinyls.

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