Are CDJs here to stay?
So I’ve been thinking more and more about where I really want to go with DJ’ing and what I want to be able to do and I’ve kind of decided that switching to CDJ’s is somewhere in my future (I’m currently using an S2). But what I’ve been wondering is with the way controllerism is picking up and how more and more people are using controllers are CDJ’s on their way out or do you still see them staying as the major thing used for mixing at clubs and shows?
I cant really see controllers taking over cdjs as a “club standard” at least not any time soon. the biggest reason being that there is no real consistency in the controller market, every few months or so a new controller will come out and claim that it is better than the rest. also we all use controllers for different thing, it would be pretty hard for “controllerist” to agree on a “standard” controller. another reason is that the current club standard setup can accomodate plenty of different djs wether they use cds, usb, or dvs.
cdjs are now controllers.
and after the next couple of models i can see them doing away the cdj drive all together and they just be pure usb
I see clubs going the route of just having the sound system in place and making it the responsibility of the DJ to bring their equipment…
I think CDJs in their current format (ie with a CD drive) will be around for at least another 5 years, but probably not too long after that. All modern high end CDJs are now controllers too and I think the logical next step is for a standard club install to have one USB cable that connects your laptop to the CDJs either via a hub or some kind of LAN based Pro-DJ-Link variant for software control by HID. We already have all the technology available to do this but you normally have to bring your own hub or use control CDs at the moment.
CDs themselves are a dying medium and I doubt there will be any need for them after a couple more years, a lot of people use USB drives these days if they’re not using a laptop, and who wants to have to change the CD over every song anyway.
Laptops are here to stay at least for a while so it makes sense for there to be an easy streamlined method of plugging in and playing straight away. Club standard installs change far slower than the DJ hardware market, but in a few years time I see the standard setup being 2 CDJ type controllers (with sync buttons, let’s be honest) that play USB sticks or similar but not CDs and a dual USB audio interface a la SL-4 feeding a club mixer similar to what we have now. There are many ways you could make this more streamlined, but things like serato’s reliance on a hardware dongle make it unlikely that built in mixer sound cards will be universally compatible any time soon. All in one controllers won’t become standard install for the reasons others posted above, but I can see booths being much more spacious and accommodating of large numbers of controllers etc.
In the longer term I wouldn’t be surprised if some kind of installable PC with a heavy duty touch screen appeared so you’d have all the benefits of software without having to bring a laptop and interface, but there will still be hardware mixers and controllers with big jog wheels.
Oh and also, I doubt timecode will be around much longer. Maybe for vinyl users, but HID is quite simply a far superior way of controlling tracks than TC CDs. The next generation (or the one after that) of serato/NI interfaces may not bother with inputs to make them cheaper, lighter and smaller.
idk about that…what makes you say that??
yeah
just like Vinyl has been all of this time, CDJ’s will still be here for a long time yet.
Firstly (just like vinyl) there will always be some DJ’s who claim they can hear a sound difference and want to DJ only from CD, not even well ripped, high quality MP3’s. What they will fail to realise (just like vinyl) is that very few sound systems are good enough, and well set up enough, that the difference is noticeable, and even if they have well tuned, practised ears that can hear the difference the crowd don’t, and wouldn’t give a f**K anyway even if they did long as they can dance along and sing the words if there are any they will happily put up with some shocking quality sound systems and music. But they’ll be a loud enough minority to be heard and keep CD’s going.
And secondly the wonderful, and at the same time limiting, factor of all of this amazing equipment is that its so customisable, and as people have said this means that everyone has their own set-ups, own controllers, own midi maps etc etc and there will almost certainly not ever be a “standard” layout.
Thirdly while what’ll probably become standard is using the midi/hid functionality of most CD decks nowadays, set up with USB cables so people can use them, they’ll never take the CD part away as a back up. It acts as a great backup in case someone’s laptop goes tits up (I always carry enough CD’s, and keep them up to date, that I could get through a night without them and not totally suck should the worst come to the worst) and also the bar staff in the club/bar wont have laptops all set up for DJing so when they’re in setting up before the DJ arrives, and cleaning after, they’ll want something to play some CD’s through. Particularly again if its a bar they’ll want background music for during the day etc.
More space will be designed in though, extra stands and shelves etc, to accommodate all the new gear, and they’ll build extra connections into panels on the wall or somewhere next to the decks to make it easy to add extra inputs in from sound cards etc without having to root in about the back of the mixer messing with system cables.
The other thing about this kind of thing is that I don’t think people would trust an installed PC/Mac either. Partly because you wouldn’t know who had been messing with it and whether it was stable or will crash, or if your gonna plug a memory stick in and catch some other DJ’s computer virus and take it home into your own systems as an extra wee surprise. It would need to have both Serato and Traktor plus some hardware to go with it and will venues want to pay for all that. and every time you went in you’d have to spend a whole heap of time changing the screen layout from the last guy, adding in your settings and mappings and collection etc etc.
Much easier to rock up with your own lappy, all set up the way you want and clean and maintained so you know it wont crash or fail on you, and whack two or three cables in and your done 
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That happens already in lots of smaller places here (basically to save some bucks) but i seriously doubt it will become the norm any time soon. Touring DJs still hand out a rider to clubs they play in, they don’t lug everything across the globe.
Pioneer as a company has taken on midi controll in the 850-2000 range of mixers and cdj 900-2000. Now after using the DJM 2000 in midi mode in its entirety I will say that all that is left for Pioneer to due is include a sync button create a stable software platform based around REbox take a cue from Stanton and incorperate a large touch screen into a larger layout to display decks and wave form info and they will have the new club standard
Club standars are dying.
personally think clubs will keep the CDJs in, but i think in time they will add a dj controller somewhere down the line, so djs can just take there hd/usb and plug it right in
Truthfully, the cost saving mostly…in the 80’s and 90’s a lot of clubs and bars had house drum kits and amps for musicians and that went out the door…I see the same thing coming for DJs…just the sound system and maybe a mixer…
This.
In 10 years there may be something that looks like a CDJ in the booth, but it probably wont be a CDJ.
Absolutely not…this isn’t going to happen, just like it hasn’t happened in decades and decades of night clubs being open.
The more I think about it, the more I can’t believe you even think that - you are too much man, toooooooo much.
This is what i I was trying to say, but far more succinct haha.
DJ-oriented media players will always be in booths. CDJs are currently the most inclusive (CDs, USB drives, and HID) and something like them will be for basically ever, though the details will change.
Controllers will never be a club standard. Some places might start building bigger desks to accommodate them, probably with XLR cables going straight into an FOH mixer. But that won’t replace what’s there now.
I’d love to see a CDJ with a USB port for thumb sticks and an input for control vinyl, but I doubt anyone cares enough to actually do it. Or just build it all into a vinyl turntable. Kinda like what gemini tried to do with the cdt-05. That thing failed because it was Gemini and didn’t use CV to control the cd signal, not because it was a bad idea.
[QUOTE] Originally Posted by MFilthy
I see clubs going the route of just having the sound system in place and making it the responsibility of the DJ to bring their equipment… [/QUOTE]
It didn’t happen in decades because there wasn’t a choice. Technology is moving faster. The more and more DJs that go into a club and want to play on their own set up will tell the club owners that they don’t have to spend and maintain anything more than a sound system to plug into. Ithink some clubs will always have a system there that a DJ can choose to use if the wanted to do so and some clubs will just have a line going into a soundboard for the DJ to plug in their own gear. I think eventually there will be a controller with a usb port, soundcard, and a bigger screen that acts just like a CDJ minus the actual CDJ that you can use the bundled software or plug into your laptop. Its the next step.
I don’t think it’s the next step. Controllers in general–not just controllerism–make up a very small segment of the professional (as in…playing in clubs) DJ community. It’s really easy to get a skewed view when you spend time on DJTT, but CDJs absolutely dominate what people actually play with in the real world.