09.17
Source: Gizmodo
Well I’m up late and I thought I would cover some breaking news about the release of the CDJ2000. This is, after all, LA news because Pioneer’s HQ is in Long Beach. It’s only a little past midnight on Thursday, the release date of the product, and Gizmodo already has a preview of it. Gotta love the blogosphere! The power of the future… today.
What do DJs use today?
Just to give a little background, I would say that Pioneer has definitely made itself the staple CD turntable of the DJ world. Some competition has been given by a few other CD turntables, notably the Numark CDX, Technics SL-DZ1200 and the Denon DN-S5000. However the Pioneer CDJs have really yet to see large competition from these guys in the DJ booth. Whenever you see Armin or Dubfire or Carl Cox or whoever else slip in a CD, you can bet that he is using CDJ-1000s. I would personally attribute this mainly to Pioneer’s great marketing and interaction with top DJs (having used the other products I would say the features are comparable), but that’s beside the point.
Today most electronic DJs either use CDJs, MIDI controllers, or Serato. Some still stay classic and use vinyl, but that is quickly fading away unless you are a purist who sticks to vinyl based on principle. Hip-hop DJs may stick to vinyl because it helps create authentic scratch sounds, but most electronic DJs don’t do any scratching – just effects done through the mixer or digital means.
Both Rob and I, the writers of this blog, use MIDI controllers to mix. It is probably the cheapest setup for a beginner – just a soundcard and a mixer which plug into your computer and play MP3s from it – no need for CDs or anything else. We use a combination of our mouse and the controls on the mixer to mix tracks and manipulate effects.This, of course, requires bringing a laptop to our performances in order to access the software required to interact with the controller and sound card.
Many of our friends prefer to use Serato or Audio8 or something similar – these products allow you to play music from your computer but using a typical DJ setup with vinyl or CD turntables to queue tracks and control the music, instead of the mixer-controller. Again, a laptop is required to run the software which interacts with the turntables and loads tracks onto each one.
Basically, unless you really feel like burning all your tracks to CDs, most new DJs use a laptop to load tracks straight into their equipment from their hard drives, expanding their libraries and options during live sets and eliminating the need to carry bulky CDs or vinyl.
What is the CDJ-2000 attempting to bring to the table?
With this new release, Pioneer is clearly attempting to cut into the new computer DJ market. With most DJs today exchanging music VIA mp3s and flash drives, the Pioneers allow you to connect a hard drive or even SD card directly to the turntables. They furthermore allow a USB connection to laptops in order to run controller-software (like Traktor or Serato) directly through to the turntables, seemingly eliminating the need for Serato or Audio8 (see above) for DJs who prefer to use turntables instead of simple controllers.
Pioneer is also installing a large display onto the turntables. This would, I’m assuming, attempt to lessen the need of laptop software to sort through the mass amounts of music on your hard drive, as well as give you the ability to sort tracks by BPM, key, or name in order to create better mixes.
So a DJ who purchases a pair of these tanks has two options
1. Bring the turntables and analog mixer, connect your hard drive (or SD card?) straight to the CDJ-2000′s, and don’t even worry about the laptop.
2. Bring the laptop and load up controller software, which may give you somewhat better control over your track library and effect selection.
3. Use CDs… but that is so old school! At least use DVDs.
Regardless, Pioneer’s new release is making a power move in the DJ realm. A lot of DJs don’t like to use a simple controller and laptop because it looks like all they are doing is browsing the internet and hitting buttons on a box. Professional DJs seem to prefer the use of turntables because it gives them more authenticity and crowd interaction (and they are used to them), and Pioneer is taking advantage of that factor by coming out with an excellent product that meets the demands of today.
So will we see laptops beginning to wean from the DJ booth? Are we witnessing the comeback of the turntable? Will Paul Van Dyk ever close that Macbook?
Most importantly: If a dj plays, will he no longer leave us for 15-30 seconds at a time to grab a new CD, instead blessing us with his presence during the whole performance???
That remains to be seen.
One thing I do know – with a pricetag of over $2000, I won’t be getting one (or two) any time soon. But damn I wish I was.
For more pics and the official press release on the product, please see the Gizmodo site.
© 2009, M Silin. All rights reserved.
