Dja-1000

DJA-1000
DJ Player, Sampler and Software Controller
by DJA.MD (www.dja.md)

The device described below it is still in development stage, so in the images you will see a mock-up made of plastic with a fake screen and back-lights.

The idea is to combine the best of the players ( Pioneer CDJ-1000), samplers (AKAI MPC series), software controllers (Novation Twitch, NI Maschine, NI Traktor Kontrol X2) in one device. It shoud be easy to use in the club and in the studio.

Since Traktor introduced remix decks, it shoud match perfecly this software, as well as Ableton Live or Virtual DJ.

The Touch-strips similar to ones found on Novation Twitch are used.

Does this device have a future?

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If you have +$100,000 in prototype money, then money from investors it might... but it would be much easier as a midi controller without the screen or the internal software. Then you have to consider how much it will sell for and whether that is worthwhile following through with such an ambitious project, but I suspect not as you probably don't have the expeirence, industry connections or the capital to pull it off.

It's probably best to start small... look at the midi fighter for example. It is only a pcb, some open source firmware a couple of bits of plastic, some leds and some buttons It probably costs $30-40 to manufacture in volume for a small company, & would have made Ean a lot of money from something simple allowing the evolution of the pro and now the 3d.

It reminds me of an OctaTrack for DJs. And by that I mean a totally awesome piece of hardware that does a ton of stuff, and has a bit of a cult following. If it matches the key design points of the CDJs (squishy rubber transport controls are a great way to completely kill your product), and the sampling power and simplicity of the MPCs, this could work. Numark are doing this exact thing on the software/controller side, and people are frothing for it. Forget about trying to make a controller stand out, good hardware units always have a place on the market.

i love the idea of the display but don't see how it's possible to get at that kind of data from something like traktor - unless it'd only be used for setup when it's acting as a midi controller and for all that stuff if it's acting as a stand alone unit without being connected to a laptop? it could still be used for scrolling thru names of affects in traktor tho - so long as they're setup in the same order in traktor itself and also the unit.

if the pots are encoders then you'll need led rings round them ideally and if pots then u can't use them so well (without soft takeover which i hate) for multiple layers/units so then you could do with adding some more.

as a midi controller it's sort of like the behinger pl-1 i guess - but replacing the jog with the buttons and touch strips.

i like the display+pads+touch strips but personally i'd see it being used more as an auxillary controller than dedicated as the main deck control/transport. i'm a bit old school and do like jogs tho.

i imagine a heap of money would be needed to get the display right - removing that would save lot of cash for your development but you'd need some kind of display to be used as a stand alone unit i guess.

whether it's really popular or not would probably depend on the projected price point.

I'd buy this. I'd buy this hard. I agree though, the screen isn't going to work. I don't know why it's there... You obviously can't send that kind of data from DJ software.

the screen would ofc be needed if running as a standalone player. if i was playing out in clubs and they used cdj's then i'm sure i'd rather use that than bring my own laptop and controller *but* then this would be the effing perfect controller to use as well as the cdj's as an all-on-one sample tiggering unit

edit: would then ofc need a tap tempo button but the sync button could be used for that when in standalone more

The new Pioneer mixers/cdjs can send some kind of midi clock right? So that the effects sync up with whatever is playing. If this thing can be connected to that way that would be so awesome. Or support for the X-Link thing Allen & Heath has going on right now...

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Originally Posted by jessevdriel

The new Pioneer mixers/cdjs can send some kind of midi clock right? So that the effects sync up with whatever is playing. If this thing can be connected to that way that would be so awesome. Or support for the X-Link thing Allen & Heath has going on right now...

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Pioneer Pro DJ Link enables to connect up to four CDJ-2000/900s and share a single music source. The Allen & Heath X-link is also for communication between devices, unsure if it is only midi or digital audio also. Both are standard RJ45 connections, but with different purposes. Cortex 5000 has something similar to Pioneer - Chain Link, but it is via usb connection. The LINK ( RJ45 connector on the back) in our project is also for sharing of music sources.

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Originally Posted by Shishdisma

It reminds me of an OctaTrack for DJs. And by that I mean a totally awesome piece of hardware that does a ton of stuff, and has a bit of a cult following ... Forget about trying to make a controller stand out, good hardware units always have a place on the market.

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Yeap, besides Octatrack there are recently appeared "KDJ-ONE" and "Beat Thang" which proves that there is demand for hardware units like this.

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Originally Posted by faderswagger

I'd buy this. I'd buy this hard. I agree though, the screen isn't going to work. I don't know why it's there... You obviously can't send that kind of data from DJ software.

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Our PROJECT is also a hardware unit so its display can show waveforms, pads names etc. In controller mode it will show less data, what it can get from the software: track name and position.