Review: Numark Dual CD Player creates DJ delight

The Numark CDN-88 Dual CD Player can give you more control over your CDs than you ever thought possible

In this story: Scratch a track Other features Fact Box RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Jack Poorman
CNN.com Reviewer

(CNN) -- If you've ever wanted to be the life of the party but couldn't "spin the platters," technology has finally caught up with your desire.

The Numark CDN-88 Dual CD Player will DJ your next party and give you all the credit. It can also give you more control over your CDs than you ever thought possible. How you deal with your newfound groupies is up to you.

The CDN-88 is really designed for the club DJ crowd, but amazing new features and the sheer number of tricks at this price make it a very attractive toy for the hardcore music hobbyist. It's definitely worth a look for anyone who wants to mix their own tapes or DJ their own party.

The maker's claim that you can "scratch" a CD that sounds "just like vinyl" was the first thing I wanted to test right out of the box. (Although I have no interest in performing on stage with Run DMC anytime soon, the ability to have such power over CD playback was something I had to see for myself.)

True to my usual lust for technology, the relevance of this feature to my life was beside the point -- the fact that it simply could do it was enough for me.

Scratch a track

And the CDN-88 performs as advertised.

Using digital circuitry and memory buffering, the scratch function works just like dragging a vinyl record under a turntable needle. As a former club DJ myself, I found no deficiencies in feel or sound.

There's a tactile difference in handling the unit's small wheel as opposed to a 12-inch vinyl disc, but I think DJs will learn to love it. I became a pretty proficient "master of the digital platter" after only two sittings.

With the prevalence of CDR technology there's also the added bonus of being able to scratch your own disc. Try doing that in the "good old days."

But digital capabilities provide more than just fun for the hip-hop crowd; this box has more features than any other CD player on the market.

Other features

The Numark's Beatkeeper function is a phenomenal feature that should appeal to music fans and gear heads alike.

When a CD is inserted into the unit, Beatkeeper automatically determines the BPM (beats per minute) and matches the two discs' tempo. Knowing which songs belong together in a mix is a different matter entirely and something a machine can't give you -- not yet at least.

The Key Lock feature enables the user to alter a CD's speed up to a whopping 200 percent (100 percent slower or faster) without a change in pitch (no chipmunk sounds or constipated vocals -- other than what was included on the disc in the first place). Most professional CD players feature only 50 percent.

You can also save two loops (samples) per CD and hot start and stutter (starting a section of music repeatedly to the beat) between any of them. It's easy to select an instrumental loop from one song and vocals from another and mix them together. Loops also work well for scratching phrases into your music with razor-sharp precision.

The Beatkeeper keeps everything tight even after random firings of your loop, making sure everything stays in time and in sync.

If you want more control over your "road" tapes, or have grand plans to be the next Grandmaster Flash, this toy could make you very happy.

All this is available for about half the price of a single professional turntable in 1980. Bravo. DJ deflation -- 20 years later.

Now if someone could just find a way to emulate the hammering click of a song change on an old 8-track cassette ...

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