Is the Wii controller the new mouse? They’re starting to pop up all over the place, with all sorts of applications. As the villain in Pixar’s The Incredibles says at the end of the film, “When everyone’s super, no one is.” The related principle is, “When everyone has a gimmick, it’s not a gimmick any more.” Result: the gimmick disappears, and people focus instead on sounds and (in the case of Wii) the fun of moving around. And that’s a very good thing. (Hey, we got far more mileage out of the darned mouse than we every should have.)
We saw a proof of concept scratching using SuperCollider and the Wii remote a few months ago. I enjoyed that the results were sonically a little strange. But our friends at DJWiiJ now have more practical scratching set up with Traktor.
More details:
Wiij Scratching Now a Reality – Demo Video Provided
Yes, turntablists, I know — it doesn’t sound so much like normal scratching. As one commenter noted here, though, if you want vinyl, just use vinyl. Here, there’s almost a cartoon-like, digital scratching effect, like what turntablism would sound like in a universe with different physics than our own. This also demonstrates what can be possible with a different controller: you can differentiate what you’re doing in terms of custom software or software setups and … well, practice. DJ ! says he’s practicing, for his part.
Keep the examples coming. Oh, and CDM isn’t becoming the all Wii, all the time network — I’m still catching up after a long weekend, but more soon. I’m hoping you’re also catching up on work, so we’re kinda even.
What? You actually still want more Wii DJing? Fine…
Wiij points to this demo video of Deckadance. And yes, that is Deckadance — an Image Line product, as in FL Studio — running on a Mac. Never thought that day would come.
Unfortunately, the Deckadance Wii implementation turns out to be a little screwy. Stay tuned to see if they get that sorted.
Now, let’s see … Traktor, want to keep up with Deckadance here? Traktor’s OSC support means that might be the best way to set up the Wii controller.