HEY MR. DEEJAY: One of the last...

HEY MR. DEEJAY: One of the last bastions of vinyl records may be about to fall. Though CDs and cassettes have made the old black discs virtually obsolete, they’ve remained the life-blood of nightclub deejays, who like to “scratch,” mix and otherwise manipulate music in ways that just can’t be done with CDs and cassettes . . . until now, maybe.

Next month, Pioneer Electronics will release a system allowing “hands on” CD spinning. This mixer comes with a joystick-type device that manipulates the CDs back and forth and also allows deejays to change the beat speed without affecting the vocals.

“We showed deejays an early prototype and their jaws dropped,” says Scott Fisher, the marketing manager for Pioneer’s new media technologies division. “We also took in their feedback and enlarged the buttons and simplified the product.”

Is it vinyl’s last stand? At least one national deejay isn’t running out to replace his record collection.

“Plenty of companies have attempted this . . . and they’re nothing I’ve been stoked about,” says Baby G, deejay for the rap group Mad Flava and the winner of 1990’s Disco Mix Club championship--the biggest international deejay competition. “They’re easy to use, but with vinyl, I get to feel it, and I can manipulate it more.”

He fears, though, that the new technology could make vinyl records even scarcer. “Maybe we need to get a pro-vinyl coalition thing happening,” he says. “After all, the music that gets sold is (introduced) on the streets. If the 5% of us weren’t spinning it, 95% of the people wouldn’t be buying it. And we’re not spinning CDs.”