Microsoft’s Surface Remix Project

[yizzle]

That’s right — a non-iOS tablet getting some attention on a DJ site. But this is worthy of your attention, because Microsoft have just announced the next iteration of their Surface tablet. And with Surface 2 comes a cool new way of using control surfaces, and ones that hopefully can be tailored to your own specific DJ and production needs.

The first of these is the Surface Remix Project. It’s a custom “blade” that hooks up to the Surface 2 and offers a dedicated music production and performance controller. This has only just been announced so little detail exist about how these blades are made or if custom ones can be designed. But rather than just being keyboard-like, they appear to be fully backlit with over 1000 sensors available.

It’s all a bit basic and v1 right now, but the principle is there. The question is if the very tailored and specific format of a blade would be popular, or does the more open and flexible format of external controllers connected via USB make more sense? The Surface platform is essentially a touchscreen Windows PC in tablet form after all. Does this offer enough over plugging regular controllers into established DJ software?

Still, as a format, it’s very slick. Let’s keep an eye on this and see how it develops. That said, Microsoft’s non-xbox hardware adventures usually end up going nowhere fast though.

Source: djworx.com