DJ-70

Back in the early '90s, this workstation brought DJ flair to sampling with its innovative Scratch Dial, letting you mimic vinyl scratching right on the panel for that authentic turntable feel.

At its core, it's a digital sampler with 24-voice polyphony and 37 full-size keys sensitive to velocity and aftertouch, paired with a large backlit LCD graphic display for easy navigation. You get 2MB of sample memory expandable to 4MB via SIMMs, 16-bit A/D and 20-bit D/A converters at 44.1 or 22.05kHz sampling rates, plus editing tools like auto-looping, truncate, normalize, time-stretch, and resample. Controls include 8 sample play pads, a pitch/mod joystick, alpha dial, fader levels, octave shifts, and an RPS sequencer for up to 8 tracks, all backed by a 3.5-inch floppy drive with Load While Playing to keep performances seamless. Stereo inputs/outputs, MIDI I/O/Thru, and a headphone jack round out the connections on its compact 780x330x126mm frame weighing 8.6kg.

Owners love its straightforward sampling workflow—hook up a source, hit record, and it's instantly playable—and the resonant digital filters with per-partial LFO and envelopes for synth-like sound design. The scratch wheel charms as a fun gimmick, though some note the floppy drive feels dated now. It's a solid vintage pick for hands-on beatmaking.