While Stanton has just announced a third installment of their Final Scratch vinyl-digital crossover, of which the details are kept scarce until the final project release, Native Instruments are taking steps into the same direction. The company is about to launch two nifty new packages for digital DJ'ing.

The NAMM show, typically the opportunity for hardware manufacturers to present their new toys to a global audience, saw two related new product innovations from the Berlin based music technology developer. First is the software, which was given the title Traktor Scratch, leaving no doubt about the intentions of duelling with Stanton's flagship product. Traktor has been garnering a fanbase over the years as one of the most complete mixing suites around. Fact is that scratching remains hardly possible using a mouse, or a controller. Besides, some might still find it a bit awkward to use a laptop, rather than turntables or CD's.

The answer comes in the form of Traktor Scratch, a set of tools to control digital music files using turntables, or CD decks, in this case combined with traktor's existing software mixing ability. Of course, there is some hardware required to achieve this, first and foremeost a sound interface to make output crisp and latency free, and to decode the input from the 'scratch' vinyls and CD's, which allows the software to determine the record's speed and position.

The Audio 8 DJ, also sold as a separate DJ product, is a USB 2.0 bus powered interface, with four high gain stereo outputs, four stereo inputs, and two optional phono preamps. It is housed in aluminum, and optimized for portability. Along with the interface, two timecode records and CD's are shipping, and of course there is software
support, in the familiar Traktor interface.

The multi deck program supports a variety of effects, has virtual record crates, support for iPod and integrated Beatport support. Moreover, the package promises the most detailed tracking and digi-scratching, rendering it a serious competitor to Serato Scratch, M-Audio's recent torque and Stanton's Final Scratch.