only under hip hop supervision

Users are not actually moving the CD against the laser; rather, using a touch-sensitive "jog dial" that imitates the spinning platter of a turntable, they are "scratching" a copy of the song stored in the machine's memory.

D.J.'s can come to a club armed with beats and songs they put together hours or even minutes before. "I used to have to get samples and new beats cut onto a temporary acetate, which costs $50, doesn't sound very good or last very long," said DJ Swamp. "Now I just burn the music onto a CD. My laptop burns CD's internally, so I can be backstage putting stuff together right before I go onstage."

Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5 takes the process even further; at recent shows he has ventured into the crowd to record audience members talking, quickly burned a CD onstage and then immediately scratched up the vocals using the CDJ-1000. "It's something that you could never do with vinyl or a traditional turntable," Cut Chemist said. "And the audience just freaks out when they hear it."