Finding good open source DJ tools seems to be hard. I’ve tried a few applications that said to have a scratching function, but Tactile12000 is the first one that really has working turntables in it.
Tactile12000 looks pretty cool, a digital visual turntable, not a window with a single black disc in it. All the buttons you need are on this table as well. This is why Tactile12000 looks more like a DJ simulator than functional mixing software. There are levers to let your lp start spinning, buttons to change the pitch and the volume of the two turntables, all the basic things you can use to mix some records. A nice, but useless, extra is that you must drag the records of your songs to the turntables, which supports my idea that it’s a simulation.
The buttons on the table all work well, and do give you the basic needs to mix a few songs. You can even listen to a not yet playing track in the left ear of your headset (if you have two audio devices), making it able to pick just the right moment to blend in the sound of the track on your speakers, or setting the right pitch or speed of the track. Tactile12000 also offers an auto mixing function available for the lazy DJ’s among us which allows you to play a pre-defined playlist, and let the computer do the cross fading.
Tactile12000 is very basic concerning the methods you can use to scratch. You can only drag the plate back and forth, giving it a scratch like noise, but it’s not very realistic. It seems that you can only scratch at a few different speeds, and it’s practically impossible to let the record run slower than the pitch allows you, which should be able by just dragging it. There are also missing a few options that are available in more advanced commercial turntable applications, like the possibility to scratch, but that the music goes on where it would have been if you shouldn’t have scratched.
Next to the scratching, I miss the possibility to record your creativity. It would be perfect to make some samples that you can use in other mixing applications. Another thing that this application lacks, is the compatibilty with different kinds of mp3’s. Some of the mp3’s that I used let the program crash after 10 seconds, or directly if I started to scratch.
Tactile 12000 is not the right applpication for the people that search high quality DJ software. It’s quite basic, and it doesn’t offer a recording option. If you want to just have some fun playing your own music, and play around with changing the speed etc. , or if you want to have an application where you can be sure the cross-fading works, tactile12000 can be interesting to you. It lacks some compatibility, but let’s say 95% of the music that I have did work.
Evaluation
7/10
Screenshots
Platforms
All windows 32bit systems, OS X, Apple Mac OS Classic
Links
Website
Project Link
Download Link