When analogue and digital collide...

There are still some fools who clutch at your sleeve and whimper that vinyl sounds better than CD, and that their crackly old valve amplifier has a better ‘tone’ than your iPod. Although these people are clearly deranged romantics, many of their old analogue devices did have one advantage over most of the new digital gadgets: they felt great to use.

Luckily some manufacturers have agreed that the old ways are the best, and have sought to integrate an analogue feel into their digital products. One such analogue-digital crossover product is the Finalscratch system from Stanton. We want one so badly we could cry.

Finalscratch lets you use vinyl record players to cue, scratch and mix digital music. Instead of playing normal records, you place two time-coded vinyl discs onto your turntables. Finalscratch then correlates every move you make on the decks with the playback of digital music on your laptop. Every MP3 you own can be virtually pressed onto the vinyl you’re scratching. How gangsta is that?

Another digilogue (did we just say that?) product we dream about is the newly released Reason 3. This software simulates an entire studio’s worth of equipment – you can even rewire the devices by dragging virtual cables around. We love Reason's ability to rack up huge arrays of virtual equipment that would be mind-blowingly expensive in reality.