There not going anywhere anytime soon, just evolving and big time clubs will never just tell a DJ to show up with his equipment. Club owners will not risk a PROFIT producing night on equipment that has never been used in that club before, that’s why they invest in house installs and the DJ’s accomodate around that. CDJ’s are not going anywhere, and hip hop clubs will continue to have 1200’s.
To put things into another perspective check out last years DJ Mag top 100 (not arguing here who’s number 1, but without question these are all well established DJ’s/producers). Just taking a quick look in the Top 20, about 15 use strictly CD’s/CDJ’s.
At mega clubs like LIV, Space, Pacha, Pure, XS etc. this won’t happen — a house set up of CDJ’s and DJM-900 is pennies compared to what they bring in a weekend. The mid-level clubs trying to compete will follow suit. It’s these night clubs that truly drive the DJ industry…smaller clubs, local scenes, sure it happen’s all the time; but those clubs really don’t have much of an impact.
Compete with what? Compete to get DJ’s on their house equipment?? Those clubs have an impact on the DJs buying equipment? Really? Since when does any night club drive the DJ industry?? Since when is a night club going to impact what 1000 15 yo noob Djs spend their money on, who btw will be club Djs in a few years. Explain how a club that holds 1000 people will have more of an impact on the “DJ Industry” compared to a smaller club that only holds 200 people. The “DJ industry” as a whole is driven by mobile DJs because there are a lot more mobile DJs out there that will buy equipment. “The mid-level clubs trying to compete will follow suit.” They aren’t competeing to buy DJ equipment. The clubs are going to get what the DJs want, they didn’t get 1200s and then cdjs because they decided this is what the DJs will use because WE say so, they listened to the DJs and got what they wanted AND more and more DJs are going to want to use their controllers, its going to get to that, maybe not tomorrow or next year but its going to shift. All this talk about clubs not trusting the DJ with a controller and not knowing what could happen is the same as saying that all clubs have their own set of cds for a DJ to use because they can’t take the chance that the DJ’s cds are scratched and will skip and people will walk out. If you are a professional DJ playing in a club, you will expected to have a certain level of professionalism and have professional equipment that isn’t going to crap out.
You’ve got to be completely lost with the world if you think mobile DJ’s drive the industry. Mega clubs that hold 1000+ have a MUCH larger impact than smaller clubs or any mobile DJ cause guess who plays there – Roger Sanchez, Axwell, Kaskade, etc. and the rest of the top line up that bring in millions of dollars globably to the DJ, Music and Club scene — not the guy playing a wedding in smalltown Oklahoma. Until those guys stop using CDJ’s and Mixer, that’s what you’ll find a clubs that worth a shit.
CDJs will stay standard. Much like with Beats by Dre, whose popularity can be attributed to celebrities using them, you can see many major acts ‘using’ them which will cause those who can afford them to purchase them. But the main thing with CDJ’s, unlike beats, is they actually work. They provide a standard platform for playing music. A venue is not going to put a ‘house’ computer for controllerists to use, but house CDJ’s or turntables actually make sense.
I respectfully disagree. Right now it wouldn’t make sense to put in a house PC because people prefer to have their collection set up the way they like and they trust their own machine, and there’s every chance a house PC would end up full of crap and run slow after no time at all. BUT, if there were some kind of DJ specific PC that ONLY ran a very solid piece of DJ software partnered with a hard wearing large touchscreen in the booth and integrated with CDJ style controllers and a mixer, it could become a new standard.
The beauty of mixing with just CDJs is that all you need to bring is a CD wallet/USB stick and a pair of headphones. If you could put all the features of DJ software into an installed system we could go back to that simplicity, and everyone could just analyse their tracks and add loops, cues and whatever with a free piece of software at home.
I know the image isn’t great but this is what Andy C is using for his alive shows:
You can see a nice big screen with traktor running right above the mixer, but the actual computer is tucked away somewhere else. I know this is a live setup for a big name DJ, but I think this sort of thing could be the most logical next step for installs. The hardest part would be getting the software right.
I’ve never really understood laptops being a huge deal for DJing, like they’re some unavoidable monolith even when the newer CDJs are in the booth. Aside from a few extra hot cues, there’s not really much Serato has going for it over a CDJ 2000 with a Rekordbox drive in it. Creative and remix potential aren’t really tied to software, and Ableton is really kind of the breakpoint for “potential” vs “redundancy.” It’s just kind of strange how pure CDJ users talk about how awesome AHID is in Serato, and how it provides something really close to… What the CDJ does already, but without a DVS…
Also, CDJs without a CD slot is a hilarious thought. Pioneer wouldn’t cut a $30 cost if it meant screwing every single country where CDs are a norm or a legal requirement.
plus having cd support is just a good backup plan anyway… i’m sure any big club will have something cdj-ish in for a long time to come - certainly no controllers - but hopefully factor in the space to allow dj’s to plug in extra kit if they want to. they’ll keep adding features to the cdj’s anyway until they can do all that our laptops and software can.
i like the idea of some kind of builtin computer with tough screen etc but a cdj is only really a kind of computer+controller and most dj’s are going to expect them to be there.
It wouldn’t cost much to put a minidisc slot in there either but they’re not going to do that. CDs are a dying medium, it’s undeniable. No one buys music on CD any more and DJs only burn them because the clubs have CDJs.
You’re forgetting that there’s an entire world that isn’t England or America, many of which places legally require the originally purchased CD to be played by a DJ with a license to do so.
someone just last week said that legally they could only play stuff actually from a bought cd. not going to be the case anywhere in europe or the usa ofc - but don’t know so much about other places…
as stated before, the biggest names use cdjs so thats what will be the standard. its that simple. and its just common sense to believe a controller can never be a club standard due to the fact that its too personal. everyone and their mother knows that every single midi controller is unique to its owner. different mappings for every button, knob, fader, etc make it far too complex a machine to make “standard” equipment. then there are the cats who use more than one controller, and that just puts things over the edge more. CDJs and a mixer? now thats simple, effective, and has been proven to work. and i dont even use CDJs im a proud s4 owner. it just doest make sense that CDJs get booted out for controllers at this point in the club standard side of things
Why would pioneer need to do anything other than just remove the cd drive from their machines? There is nothing easier than turning up to a venue with 1 or 2 thumb drives! No club install pc required, no laptop, no dj own controllers and no cd wallet. Just one thumb drive to use and one as a back up.
