I noticed to today that Cakewalk released a new version of Pyro.

That really isn’t news in and of itself though.

Here is what they say about it:

Cakewalk Pyro was the first consumer digital music management product to offer an integrated system where users could play, organize, edit, and share mix CDs of their favorite music; digitize and restore LPs and cassettes; create MP3s; record Internet broadcasts; and create data CDs; all from one easy-to-use interface. New version 5 adds ringtone creation and delivery, disc burning enhancements, improved audio editing, enhanced support for portable players, and more.

Whay I found interesting was that this cheap program can be used to create ringtones. Interesting.

American Audio Center. , a online seller of DJ and ProAudio products is receiving a lot of bad press. The store offers great prices on proaudio products but fails to note why they can offer such a great deal. It became apparent though after a bit of research why. They undercut the competition by selling lower than the lowest authorized price of the dealers.

No big deal right ? Wrong !

If you buy a product from these guys you will not have a warranty from Pioneer or Numark. Probably others as well but we haven’t verified that. Numark went to the trouble of going on forums to warn about these guys. Pioneer put out a press release about them not being an authorized dealer.

American does point this out in their info page:

American Audio Center is not an authorized dealer for any of the name brands shown on this site. Any defective products can be sent back to American Audio Center for repairs or exchange. American Audio Center will take care of all warranty needs.

Unfortunately it is in extremely small type on the info page at the absolute bottom. We did not find it anywhere else on the site.

The check out process we went through presented with the following information about the terms of service the customer had to agree with. Many of them conflicting with the promise of American Audio Center taking care of the warranty. We added the highlights to emphasize the points we take issue with. The misspellings are theirs. “[…]” indicates we left out a section we thought didn’t pertain to the issues at hand.

By purchasing, making payments, and submitting an order for our products or services, you indicate your acceptance of an agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions set fort below.

[…]

Any merchandise sold as is cannot be returned for any reason.

All return items must be in original conditions including all boxes, packing, instructions and warranty cards.

No refunds or exchanges on special orders.

[…]

All products carry manufacture warranty only.

We will ship your defective item to the manufacturer for all warranty and non warranty repairs.

In case of a return for repair, customer shall cover the shipping cost going from their end to service center or warehouse destination, no excuses.

[…]

Absolutely no cash or credit card refund We do not give store warranty.

It says quite clearly here, They do not offer a store warranty and the items are only covered under the manufacturer warranty. However on the info page they identify themselves as unauthorized dealers and that means they can’t sell items with manufacturer warranties. I don’t know about you but I interpet this as, you get no warranty, and in my opinion it shows signs that they might be intentionally confusing the issue.

Should you get to the point where you send your item back, which reading all this I am not so sure you could do, you need to meet a long list of conditions. An original receipt must be provided, but seeing that its an internet purchase I am not sure what they want for that. Also you pay for shipping, possibily a restocking fee, and you never ever get any returns on your money.

These are definitely people to be avoided but the real lesson here is to make sure you read those policies when you buy online. Make sure the dealer is an authorized dealer and double check for bad reviews.

PLASA, the upcoming proaudio show in England, is shaping up to be the most exciting proaudio event of 2005. All the major corporations are going to be there unveiling their new technologies and lots of Europe’s best DJ’s will be on hand as well.

We are especially looking forward to hearing about the Digital Turntablism and Mixing session they are going to hold. Seems the majors are looking to push the move away from turntables even more. If you go be sure to leave a comment on how it went.

There is also going to be a session on video jockey’s which should be productive. We are still pretty uncertain what the future will be for video jockeys will be at the moment so this should be a good gauge for how the industry sees their future.

As we enter into the upcoming DMC championships I have to wonder how much of this is hype. I understand that dj’s want a way to compete and showcase their skills but when sponsorship payments start getting to the insane level they are now one has to question the artistic integrity of the work.

Are people pursuing the art of turntablism simply to whore themselves out to the nearest DJ equipment producer ?

Sometimes I think so.