As a digital DJ and event producer, I feel like the needs of the DJ community aren’t being very well served by the current crop of hardware producers. Once upon a time, it was all simple. The club had a pair of turntables and a mixer, each DJ brought their own vinyl, and they could each mix right into the next. Then, the standard changed to CDJs. Again, you brought CDs, or later USB sticks, and you could mix right into the last DJ’s closer. In both these cases, if sound quality was a priority, you could use a top-of-the-line Allen & Heath mixer and know it would sound great as long as the DJ didn’t redline, the media was clean, and the sound system was well tuned.
Now, most DJs I deal with bring their own setups. The DJ playing out of the house mixer and CDJs might sound great, but they’re the exception, not the rule, and the DJ who brings their own controller never sounds as good—even if they’re playing lossless files. Even the DDJ-SX doesn’t sound as good as a DJM-900, which itself is not renown as a great sounding mixer. I don’t see this trend changing, at least until CDJs ditch the optical drives in favor of performance pads, needle searches, and all the rest, all laid out in an idiot-proof manner and HID compatible with both Serato and Traktor. Given the direction Pioneer is moving with Rekordbox and the XDJ-1000 I don’t see that as likely.
What the new digital age of DJing needs is some combination of a higher audio quality standard and more competition. Quality DACs are very affordable. Companies like Schiit and Focusrite sell great ones for $100. Why does the only DJ controller that sounds remotely as good, the DDJ-SZ, cost $2000? Could it be because basically all digital DJ equipment is made by either Pioneer, inMusic, or Native Instruments? Are Serato and Traktor throttling the entry of compatible hardware into the market? Where’s the tech startup drive here? I’d buy the hell out of a $1000 DJ controller that combined four channels, two platters, performance pads, and a really nice sound card with two USB inputs. I bet a whole lot of other people would too. And where’s the simple, two-channel, high-sound-quality controller for $500? C’mon, free market. If everyone’s a DJ these days, why are there not more people selling us things? We shouldn’t have to spend $2000 just to get a DJ setup that combines the sound quality of a $100 Schist Modi and the functionality of a $250 Numark Mixtrack Pro II.
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