Ms Pinky’s “Interdimensional Wrecked System” (IWS) is a set of software and vinyl products that work together to turn a standard DJ turntable into a powerful, accurate, and flexible control device for multimedia. The name may sound strange, but the idea behind it is simple: We want to use our standard DJ turntable as a generalized controller in the digital dimension. This way we maintain the hands-on physical contact and subtle gestural control we’re used to having when spinning records, yet we’re able to apply those gestures to whatever we want to inside the digital dimension. For example, imagine putting the needle down on a piece of vinyl and what starts to play is both video and audio. Or imagine “scratching” the cutoff frequency and Q of a filter while simultaneously scratching a sound sample played through that same filter. With the Interdimensional Wrecked System(IWS), the possibility exists to scratch just about anything. Ms Pinky’s IWS is the most open-ended and flexible digital vinyl controller product on the market, offering working solutions to users with widely varying needs and preferences. Those who wish to simply use our pre-built software have the option to do so. And users who wish to create their own customized systems also have the option of applying Ms Pinky’s vinyl controller technology using either the tools of Max/MSP, or Ms Pinky’s Software Developer’s Kit (SDK).
How is it possible to translate the physical motion of a needle tracing the groove of a vinyl record into highly accurate measurements inside a computer? This has been Ms Pinky’s research focus since 2000. The results have been astounding. But Ms Pinky doesn’t take all the credit for these achievements, though she is very proud of the results. Without the work of our ingenious forebears, none of this would have been possible. First and foremost, we give endless respects to Chris Bauer for his pioneering work in the field of digital vinyl control of multimedia. We also owe much to the work of Dr. Gottfried Ungerboeck whose Trellis Coded Modulation creates an optimal way to encode the ones and zeros in analog waveforms to allow the maximum amount of data to be transmitted over an analog telephone line by minimizing small noise induced distortions. Dr. Ungerboeck’s coding techniques are at the heart of Ms Pinky’s Interdimensional Wrecked System.
