Touching Bass

By Pat Sherman
Photos by Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan

Like the translucent crime-predicting machine Tom Cruise’s character manipulates in Minority Report, the Emulator is one helluva cool electronic tool.

“It’s a completely new interface,” says hospitality maven Matt Spencer, co-owner of SD Creative Media, which operates Firehouse in P.B. and Analog and Vin de Syrah in the Gaslamp.

Spencer, who purchased the Smithson Martin-made machine for about $7,000 (plus another $2,000 for the computer and software required to operate it) is confident his investment will pay off.

“My biggest issue with current DJs is, when you see them, they have their apple computers right in front of them,” Spencer says, “which blocks the energy from the crowd to DJ (and vice versa). With the Emulator, you feel like you’re interacting with the DJ a little more. You can see when the DJ’s dropping a track, when he’s looking for music, when he’s turning the bass on and off.”

Emulator operator DJ Cheyenne Giles says the device allows him to work four turntables at once, as well as rows of effects and samples that can be plugged in simultaneously.

He says the reaction from club-goers has been jawdropping.

“I’ve never been tagged in so many pictures on Facebook the next day,” he says.

sdcreativemedia.com, smithsonmartin.com, djcheyennegiles.com