Table of Contents
1 of 4: The last decade — Darren’s View
Before we get going… a message from the editor
Before the year end, we decided to do a team roundup of what the last decade has brought us, and offer some of our usual tongue in cheek awards. This the team duly did, but I have been somewhat tied up with other things. But I’m now untied from said things, and can deliver four different opinions on what has made us happy, sad, and otherwise captured our attention over the last ten years.
These will be delivered over the next four days, finishing with my own take on Friday. First up is team member and Isotonik Studios’ Darren Cowley, to offer a somewhat more Ableton focussed take. Off you go Darren…
The opinions expressed in these end of decade pieces are the author’s own, and not necessarily those of the whole DJWORX team.
DJ tech 2010-2020 Darren’s blinkered view
I tend to stick to what I know. My Serato fanboy position hasn’t really wavered over the last decade — hell I still organise my playlists in iTunes. As such my contribution to the extensive DJWORX output has been limited to reviewing Ableton Live specific stuff and nagging at Mark to stop procrastinating (it’s working- Ed).
That said, there’s been stuff I’ve really enjoyed so in the continuing style of our end of year awards.
“Great idea that didn’t take off Award”
This was simple to choose — Native Instruments Stems feature seemed like such a good idea on paper, an even better one in practise. Having your favourite tunes broken down into elements to remix on the fly has always been an ambition for me to do live, but without the Stems of those tunes I quickly lost interest. Much seemed to be promised at launch with Stems creator software and the like, but whilst a quick search on Beatport brings up 13,950 Stem Packs, the range to me as a 45 year old DJ seems limited to releases from the past few years.
If only someone went into Strictly Rhythm‘s back catalogue and started releasing the classics?!
Deezer’s Spleeter tool looks promising for the future, but it needs a simplified front end to make it commercially or in my opinion publicly viable.
“It’ll replace all my other gear Award”
There’s so many MIDI controllers that I could list here that I’ve thought would become the mainstay in my performance set up. One thing that I’ve noticed in the last decade is the quality of product from the likes of AKAI, Novation and Native Instruments has increased. In the last decade I’ve had to replace one Novation LaunchPad (MKI) and an APC40 MKI, but everything else has held up to the rigours of travelling, and me trying to hack them with MaxforLive.
It seems that if you want to use it for anything other than the designed intent, each new shiny from a manufacturer has come with its limitations though. The new Novation Launchpads (X and Mini MKII) for example don’t appear to let you use the navigation buttons in Custom Modes, rendering them almost perfect but in third place.
The AKAI Force is showing the most potential, especially if they can continue developing both the standalone and live control side of things — and so takes my second place award. For simple playback of an Ableton Live set it’s already pushed past the Push 2 with its large touch screen, but it’s nigh on pointless for using it to produce in the DAW. That’s better left to the standalone mode which can then be exported as files to be used with whatever your favourite DAW might be.
My go-to controller and worthy award winner though is the DJ TechTools MIDI Fighter Twister. Out of the box it’s got a good feel, and the LED ringed encoders that double up as a push button are a dream to play with. When you invest some time in their editor though it’s beyond what you can achieve with any other controller out there directly from the controller itself.
So many times I’ve begun a mapping project only to find that the controller I’ve chosen sends CC when it need be Notes and vice versa. But the MFT goes one step further, and allows such esoteric button behaviours such as Note Toggle and Note Hold. No wonder you see them increasingly more in Ableton Live performers setups.
“The gift that keeps on giving Award”
I was fortunate enough to see the Novation Circuit in the development lab at the Focusrite head office And within five minutes of playing, I totally got it. On release day many people viewed it as a toy, but with two Nova Synths and a sequencer to boot it represented a decent sound for a cheap price.
Shortly after release and in an interesting move, Novation shut their online user forums and switched attention to social media, which whilst not to everyone’s tastes, has definitely contributed to the success of the groove box as it publicly grew a legion of fans sharing performances online.
It caught peoples imagination, and although there seems to be a healthy used market for them, Novation continued investing in developing the firmware taking into account user requests.
Whilst other manufacturers in the same time have struggled to address bugs, the Circuit has seen eight updates, bringing new features with each wave. Having worked with the team on the original editor, what Novation have managed to add to an already released product is nigh on miraculous!
DJ tech 2010-2020 Dan’s looking back at the decade
The opinions expressed in these end of decade pieces are the author’s own, and not necessarily those of the whole DJWORX team.
Over the last ten years, we saw the end of Vestax, the sale of Rane, the hibernation of Native Instruments, and the inexplicable (OK not really) domination of Pioneer DJ. It’s been a decade of consolidation and, to an extent, stagnation.
That’s not to say there haven’t been flashes of inspiration… I’d argue the Kontrol S8 was daring and forward thinking (which doesn’t usually work well with DJs), and Denon DJ have thrown pretty much every little bit of tech at their hardware, and if you ignore the software, it’s very impressive.
On a personal note, I threw myself head first into the industry (which is now my bread and butter), and started a family… we got married, bought a house, had two kids. I also co-ran a techno night in Huddersfield for a couple of years, and saw my DJ setup evolve from a Korg KM-404, Stanton C.324s and two Faderfox DX2s, to a Xone:62, two 1210s, and a pair of X1s, to now having a custom Xone:96/K1, 1210s, and occasionally a Push.
The “Hardware of the decade” award: Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol X1 (+ Mk2)
In all seriousness, I don’t think there’s any hardware that has had such a profound impact on certain corners of the DJ world. It’s such a succinct companion controller, and thanks to Richie Hawtin, captured the imagination of a generation of techno, tech house, and progressive house DJs. Slap a pair of these next to a club mixer and you’ve got full control over all four Traktor decks, and all four effects banks. It not only proved that four-deck mixing was achievable, it also managed to unite the turntable crew alongside by providing the perfect companion to Traktor Scratch.
The design also set the tone for the next half-decade of NI’s industrial design, with the Maschine, F1, D2, etc all sharing the familiar build quality. Native Instruments should be very proud of this bit of kit. I just wish the Kontrol D2 saw similar success…
The “I’m glad that was just a fad” award: the Portablist starter pack (Numark PT01, GoPRO, hiking boots)
Jesus Christ. Who the fuck wants to see another shaky video of a dude in a snapback doing chirps on a cheap 7 inch turntable while on a cliff or kite-surfing?
The “Single-handedly bringing back a trend but in a good way” award: Rane MP2015 rotary club mixer
While rotary mixers were a thing long before linear faders became standard, the Rane MP2015 represented an accessible, idealised view of rotary club mixers, with its class wood panelling, chunky chromed knobs, and big LED level meters. It also helped it was actually really, really good. Off the back of the 2015 and the boom in vinyl sales, we saw the resurgence of boutique rotaries from the likes of Superstereo and Mastersounds, which are far cooler than scratching sat on the side of a fucking waterfall.
And finally…
The “Fuck me, those crazy bastards really did it” award: Denon DJ Prime hardware range
I mean, regardless of Pioneer DJ’s perceived market domination, the technology is tired and stagnant. Most recently, the DDJ-200 came out and is an abomination (in my opinion), and the ‘new’ XDJ-XZ is really completely whelming and overpriced. Yeah, yeah, rekordbox USBs. Whatever.
Then we got a studio visit from the Prime 4, having been introduced to the SC5000s. And we were privy to not only a demo, but some super secret tasty surprises hiding inside… We now all know about the built in networking and new streaming ability. But what the Prime series (except the mixer, which just feels OK) offers is pretty much from the future: two decks per unit, super smooth multi-touch screen, cue buttons, all the connectivity you could ever need.
DJ tech 2010-2020 – Ray
We’re a passionate bunch at DJWORX. We care deeply about the gear that is made, who makes it, and how it is made. After all, writing about it is all we do, and that passion shows in our assorted scribblings, especially in these end of decade roundups.
And there’s nobody more vocal than Ray. His piece is as passionate as it gets, and that’s reflected in the language and the emotion. It’s how we talk in real life (especially in our Slack channel), and now it’s how we write.
You see, as we push forward into the next decade, we have to be who we are, and express ourselves accordingly. We’re not like the rest, and it’s time to underline that.
Anyway, on with Ray’s unloading. Brace yourselves — opinion is coming.
SOME PERSONAL CONTEXT
At the beginning of the last decade, I half-seriously got into battling. Having competed in Laptop Battles / Beat Battles for 3 years prior (rightfully getting my ass kicked every single time — great learning experience), I’d finally won two of them in a row in 2010, and then went on to accidentally taking my first national IDA Show championship the same year. I say “accidentally” because I did it purely for fun, knowing I can’t scratch my way out of a paper bag, let alone a proper battle. Still, I somehow ended up with a title I managed to hold on to for a couple of years to follow — until I stopped competing because you don’t get points for hacking in a turntablism battle… and because those titles ultimately mean very little if you’re as bad at self-marketing as I am.
One good thing about battling is: it drove me towards experimenting with all types of tech, and that in turn opened a door for me to freelance as a showcase artist with a couple of brands. This gave me access to a nice arsenal of musical weapons right as they hit the market. I’ve built the original APC 80, which coincided with Ableton introducing Combination Mode (letting you use multiple APCs as a single control surface — something I wanted to script myself, but ultimately didn’t have to), won a few more Beat Battles with that, and eventually joined the DJWORX family to write strongly opinionated words for you.
Over time, I’ve progressed towards doing some pretty complex things, utilizing a massive pile of gear that makes people look at me like I’m a madman every time I roll up to a gig, dragging more flight cases and Magma bags than a single person should be able to even move (airlines love me). I’ve started exploring live visuals, incorporating decidedly non-DJ tech like Kinect and LEAP sensors, a Theremin, a laser harp and others, more or less successfully — all the while waiting for mobile processing power to get to a point where I can do all these things without worrying, which it finally has. For PC users, at least *cough*.
On the tech side, this decade was very kind to me. At times it seemed like the industry was reading my mind, giving me exactly what I wanted. Other times they gave me exactly what I wanted without consciously planning for it to be used the way I used it — simply enabling me to hack things to suit my purposes. Overall I’m tremendously grateful for everything that happened, but there were some rage-inducing disappointments along the way — which should explain the Disaster Girl x Ray faceswap above. Get ready.
DEM FEELS AWARD
Three recipients need to share this one. This decade saw the end of Ecler, Vestax, and OG Rane — all beloved brands with great, aspirational and innovative products many of us drooled over, and some are lucky to own to this day. Ecler had the Evo5, Vestax had the PDX3000 and Controller One, and OG Rane had the Sixty-Four which is still one of the most capable 4-channel mixers in history. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears… in Rane.
DON’T FIX IT IF IT AIN’T BROKE AWARD
This one goes to the Traktor team for knowingly leaving in the hex editor backdoor, allowing users of non-scratch-certified mixers to use them with Traktor if they wanted to. That’s long before Traktor Pro 3 started supporting any interface you’d want to use, of course. It was a really cool move, because they knew only nerds like myself would even bother and it wouldn’t really impact their hardware sales. How do I know they did this on purpose? Well, when 2.9 came out (introducing STEMS), that backdoor was accidentally shut. I immediately complained to the team, because I didn’t want to downgrade to Serato just to keep using the Sixty-Four, and they promptly opened it again. You’re welcome, 3 other people who actually relied on this to work outside their bedroom.
BTW, when I say “downgrade”, I don’t mean to insult Serato users. It’s just that certain things (like looping in VST effects through a DAW in a DJ set) aren’t quite possible to pull off with Serato DJ, as the channel routings for whichever audio interface or mixer you’re using are hardcoded. I get how this is a UX thing, but it really needs to be configurable in preferences.
GOOD SAMARITAN AWARD
This one goes to Ableton and NI for Link and STEMS respectively, the specs of which were made available to the industry upon release, allowing anyone to implement the feature set at will in their products. While STEMS wasn’t very successful (because people are resistant to ideas unless you stuff’em down their goddamned throats), Link was — and is now found across many DAWs, DJ software, iOS apps, VJ software (shouts to Resolume), and even some dedicated devices which put out MIDI clock slaved to a Link session, letting you tie in pretty much any piece of hardware. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah, baby!
Did it kill MIDI clock sync? Nope. But once you’ve figured it out, it makes multiplayer jamming a breeze — and will help you sync software locally on a single machine, too (localhost sweet localhost). Like anything, it has a learning curve, with DJ software especially — but it’s awesome. One thing many people don’t know is that Link works over LAN too, ensuring stability even in a club with 1000+ people who each have their own phones and could potentially mess up your WiFi signal. Of course, you have to pack a router and cables for that — and if you’re on a Mac, you need an additional USB-C/RJ45 adapter, because why make a “pro” thing actually pro, amirite Apple — but the stability is well worth it.
OVERUSED ROUTINE GIMMICK AWARD
Pioneer’s S9 made some cool things possible for performing DJs — but for fuck’s sake, I’m tired of tone play. I don’t remember who did it in a battle first, I think it might have been Eskei83 (correction: it was Four Color Zack in 2012 – cheers 69Beats) — but since the S9 pretty much took over the battle landscape, every other 3Style set contained some form of it, because pads need bashing. That part at least I agree with — but most executions were either cringeworthy, off-key or both. There were exceptions, of course, some creative arpeggio-style moves (reminiscent of Shiftee’s earlier routines), cool Traktor mappings utilizing entire keyboards (69Beats has some neat explainer vids on his page) — but god damn it guys, please at least edit your stuff better and try improving on a trick once you’ve appropriated it.
Also: not really a hardware-related thing, but stop it with Liberace’s “And now for my next number, I’d like to return to the classics” already. Seriously. Stop it. It’s been done, and overdone. There’s so much great stuff you could sample instead (but please not “the champ is here” — Ed).
UNDERRATED CONTROLLERIST MASTERPIECE AWARD
I had both the Numark Orbit and the Novation Twitch lined up for this, but no. This one has to go to the Electrix Tweaker. I still have my pair, and use at least one of them in every set. This is, without doubt, the most awesome controller I’ve ever owned, and one that well deserved to take off — but mysteriously didn’t. Built in collaboration with Livid Instruments, sturdy and versatile, with a layout that can adapt to most performance styles and awfully vibrant RGB LEDs, it’s the MIDI controller equivalent of a Swiss army knife — if you take the time to make your own mapping.
ULTIMATE MARKETING CRINGE AWARD
While I feel like I could give this out every other time PR arrives and we play Bullshit Bingo in the DJWORX Slack (game-changing! next-level! revolutionary! oh fuck off), there’s one thing you all probably forgot. And I apologize for reminding you of it. But hey… yo, remember BEAMZ?
That laser-tripwire MIDI controller, which was effectively a very inefficient way to push 4 buttons, was an insult in itself — but what really took the ticket was this “Grandmaster Jay” figure promoting it. Dude popped up from seemingly nowhere (later proven to actually have been from nowhere), miming a “performance” to the sound of Jazzy Jeff’s routines, and they seriously used that offensive fucking GARBAGE as their main marketing vehicle.
Beamz failed hard, wrists were broken worldwide because of the heavy facepalming, and it all died a miserable death. Good riddance. That said, the brand still exists, and they do some cringeworthy VR stuff now, with equally cringeworthy promos featuring people like Megadeth’s David Ellefson playing shitty pre-recorded riffs with Vive controllers. Will it ever stop? (For balance, Beamz pivoted and does a lot of good work in schools and with children in challenging circumstances, so I forgive them — Ed).
THANKS FOR NOTHING AWARD
Apple’s iPad and its operating system have become really impressive tools for mobile music making. Over the years, we’ve seen nearly every major company put out some sort of cool iOS app, ranging from touch control surfaces and sequencers to effects and synths, most of which are genuinely powerful.
So far, so good. But in terms of making all of this stuff usable in a “proper” production or live performance environment, there’s very little the industry as a whole has done to make it happen. Sure, iConnectivity has released interfaces that can tie in the iPad as an audio/MIDI device using proprietary cables, and they work fine even on Windows — the only product of this kind I can vouch for. Aside from that, Alesis and even Behringer made docks, and of course there’s a plethora of various connection kits that sometimes worked a bit, but mostly didn’t — especially if your main machine wasn’t a Mac.
To be fair, it’s generally possible to sync via Link and somehow send and receive MIDI using some hardware add-on contraption. So if you REALLY want to tie the iPad into your rig, I guess you can. If you’re willing to put up with the effort of using a special audio interface for the sake of one or two iOS apps — or a MIDI only box, looping the iPad’s 3.5mm toy output through the preamps your “proper” audio interface and compensating for the delay manually. You know, like you would with an analog synth. Except it makes no sense with something that is fully digital and has a freaking port with enough bandwidth for nearly every possible application. It should literally be seamless plug & play at this point. The experience is tolerable within the Apple ecosystem, but becomes a royal pain in the ass as soon as you take one step outside of it. Which is of course intended and understandable — but also incredibly stupid, because it cuts off a major part of the potential user base. And then we get shit like this.
The fact that there’s no “total integration” for iOS devices yet (I’m referencing the Access Virus TI synth) makes them nothing more than gadgets in my eyes, and the fact that there is no VST version available for most of those awesome apps — especially the Moog ones — makes me angerous. “I wanna use it but I can’t” — I’ll let Martin Landau’s portrayal of Bela Lugosi provide the appropriate reaction to how that feels.
iPads still make great touch screen controllers, but their vast potential as powerful DSPs with an integrated touch screen is limited to and by their shitty walled-off platform. Make a goddamn dedicated “iOS device” plugin already! Send MIDI, receive audio, compensate latency, done. Access did it cross-platform as far back as 2005 — and it worked even if you weren’t using the Virus TI as the main audio interface in your DAW (source: I owned one). The year 2005, ladies and gentlemen… allow me to emphasize this a bit as I draw a deep breath… was FIFTEEN YEARS ago! That’s before iOS even existed! Hit’em again, Bela!
ONE HAND CLAPPING AWARD
For every tool that does DMX lighting control integration with DJ sets. Rekordbox, ShowKontrol, SoundSwitch, I don’t even know them all to be honest. Let me start by saying that I appreciate the work that has gone into making these things happen, even if they’re not for me. If you’re a resident DJ who works the same spot every weekend and can work on interfacing with the club’s DMX setup, or if you’re a mobile jock with his own lighting rig — these things are undoubtedly awesome.
Having said that… the untapped potential in here for the rest of us who have no use at all for DMX is fucking infuriating. Think about it: we have tools that can trigger external things in direct response to what we do in DJ software, in fact we’ve had them for years… and we limit that shit to DMX? Are you fucking kidding me, industry? Rekordbox, to pick an example, already has a powerful built-in editor for the lighting stuff. You can trigger commands, draw parameter envelopes, and have all of that stuff nicely sync up and follow any song from your collection. Can you imagine the absolutely wild, crazy shit a skilled DJ could do in a routine if only these things were to spit out something genuinely useful — like MIDI or OSC? For fuck’s sake, people. This isn’t that hard to figure out. Build it! First one gets a cookie. And my money.
UNEXPECTED ACQUISITION SYNDROME AWARD
I’m gonna give this one to Teenage Engineering‘s entire line of products. Everything I wrote about the iOS stuff being ridiculously annoying to tie into a “proper” production environment… yeah, this applies to their stuff as well. In fact, it applies to nearly every mini synth, sequencer, drum machine and whatnot I’ve seen so far. These things are great for what they do, but I’ve always discounted them on account of the absolutely crazy power of modern VSTs and software in general.
There is, however, one thing VSTs don’t offer out of the box: hands-on fun. Sure, you can make a full controller mapping for pretty much anything that supports MIDI (in the DAW realm, that’s basically everything) — but you have to put in the effort, and I perfectly understand how a small box with a bunch of knobs could be more appealing in comparison. A Korg Volca won’t sound like UVI’s Falcon, but you also don’t have to spend the equivalent of a CompSci semester learning how to use it.
Despite that, I’ve never actually wanted to have one of these. Novation’s Circuit was the first unit of this kind I liked (and I finally own one), but for me, Teenage Engineering was the company that knocked the ball out of the park. The OP-1 won’t tie into my live rig, but on its own, it’s a creative powerhouse and well worth the price tag. The OP-Z does things I would’ve never expected from such a small unit, all the way up to producing visuals in conjunction with a companion app on iOS. I’ve first touched the Teenage Engineering stuff at Music Tech Fest in Stockholm — and I haven’t been able to get these things out of my head since (especially the Pocket Operators). I genuinely think they’re the best gateway drug for making electronic music because of the awesomely fun interface design. It’s just a notch above every other thing I’ve played with.
HACK THE PLANET AWARD
This one goes to Stray, the developer behind NativeKontrol. He’s been creating software tools that enhance the functionality of countless MIDI controllers for ages, doing stuff lightyears ahead of the industry. I could name a lot of things he created, but there is one that stands out to me as an Ableton Live user: ClyphX Pro.
ClyphX is to Live what JavaScript is to web design. Putting it overly simple, it allows you to place code onto clips and even arrangement timeline markers in Live, and that code can do things you’d normally have to do with your keyboard and mouse — in addition to pretty much everything you can do with any MIDI controller. Except it can now all be triggered by a single button. There’s almost no limit to what you can do with that power — once you’ve put in the time to learn it, you can automate things that are impossible any other way. This is very nerdy stuff, but this is DJWORX — we love nerdy stuff. If you use Live, I highly recommend you look ClyphX up over at Isotonik Studios.
TECH (MIS)APPROPRIATION AWARD
Around the time I started exploring the world beyond 2 decks and a mixer (mid-2000s, ish), the D-Beam feature on some Roland hardware absolutely fascinated me. The idea that I could very organically control synth or effect parameters just by waving my hand above a sensor was crazy. Alesis copied the tech, and we briefly saw keyboards like the Photon X25 as well as fun but poorly-designed toys like the AirSynth or the AirFX — until they vanished, presumably having been sued into oblivion by Roland. For a long time, that was it — no magical hand-waving for Ray.
Then, a Kickstarter popped up: LEAP MOTION. A cigarette-lighter-sized sensor capable of tracking hand movements with ultra-low latency, sub-millimeter precision and an impressively high refresh rate. A lot of people bought these expecting to get the full Minority Report experience, perhaps because of the similarly styled marketing videos — but they didn’t read the fine print, explaining that something like this would require some coding from scratch. So a LOT of these things went on eBay for half the Kickstarter price, and I snagged up a couple, aiming to build a MIDI translator tool. You know, like if Beamz actually worked as advertised.
As with Ableton’s Combination Mode for my APC 80, an idea I’ve had was executed very well by someone else before I could get into it, saving me a lot of precious time. Tons of love to Geert Bevin, formerly of ZeroTurnaround (now Moog), for GECO — the gesture control app for LEAP, which is now completely free. This tool lets you map every axis of hand movement and output the resulting value as MIDI or OSC, easily adding a very expressive layer to playing synths, controlling effects, or triggering visuals. Theremin eat your heart out! Of course, you need to make sure what you’re doing translates visually on stage as well (otherwise people will wonder what the hell you’re doing flailing your hands around)… but it’s not like you can’t download Unity, grab a few stock assets and build a visualizer. Which is exactly what I did a few months after using the stock LEAP visualizer in that IDA routine.
“FUCK IT, I’M NOT REVIEWING THIS” AWARD
When Nu-Rane announced the Twelve and Seventy-Two, I got genuinely excited for a second. But then I took a closer look at both these units, and the ra(y)ge meter went past 11 faster than a scared marketing executive can ALT+F4 this window. And you know what? Fuck it, I’ll address them directly.
Aside from going through various design iterations after release, which left many customers rightfully angry, the Twelve is a pile of wasted potential and weird design decisions. The touch strip should be below or to the side of the platter, not above it, so we can touch it mid-scratch without lifting our hand off the platter — have you learned nothing from the Controller One and DIY projects like the Button Box? The lower left corner is just wasted real estate, and I’ve actually seen people put Dicers there because it just makes sense. Triggering hot cues, especially in a battle routine where pinpoint accuracy and timing matters, should happen via pads — Reloop solved this very well on the RP8000, proving it’s possible and handles great.
Then there’s the on/off switch, copied nearly 1:1 from the Technics 1210 — a completely unnecessary throwback I haven’t seen a single person use in a routine yet. A brake duration knob would’ve been smart instead. And let’s not even get into the potential of pad modes — this is where Reloop showed everybody how it’s done, making a modern take on the Controller One which deserves praise. Shame every version of the RP8000 I’ve touched in the wild seemed to have some weird motor issues though.
However, what most annoyed me about the Twelve was the Serato partnership. Call me salty if you will, I’m primarily a Traktor user and we’ve been waiting for something like this for way too long (although I did manage make it work with Traktor in a routine from last year with an impractical but functional workaround, just to prove I won’t be fucked with) — but it’s not about what I want. It’s about this unit being heralded as the new standard, as everything is these days. No, Nu-Rane. Just no. If you’re gonna make bold claims like that, make the damn thing work with everything out of the box.
Just embed some onboard storage, or at least a USB/SDHC reader, and add RCA outs. You did the ground work 10 years ago with the V7 (that was technically not Rane, but Numark — but both are inMusic now, hence my calling it Nu-Rane), it seems like a no-brainer. Keep the Serato functionality for all I care, but let us load our own timecode, or perhaps even a bunch of tunes or scratch/juggle sentences to make the whole setup fully independent of any specific DVS. Then, and only then, you can claim to have created something that could evolve into a new standard — but that’s only if your users choose to make it so. Your marketing department has no power here.
See, you could’ve gone for that. You could’ve listened to input I know for a fact you’ve heard, and you could’ve trusted the community to build deserved hype around your game-changing product on its own, as it did with Vestax… but you haven’t. Considering what it could have so very easily been, the Twelve fucking SUCKS. Now sit your 5-dollar ass down before I make change. And fix it on the mk2 if you’re ever allowed to make one.
Now, on to the Seventy-Two. What a convoluted mess of a mixer, it just pisses me off that something this bad could be attached to the Rane brand. I can’t blame anyone for copying Pioneer’s S9 layout — Pioneer has appropriated features in the past too, it’s fair game. But it all falls apart once you get to the touch screen (which, apart from the price tag, is one reason why the new Seventy doesn’t have one). The controls are very unintuitive, often leaving me wondering whether I can touch the screen or have to turn a knob to change a parameter. Menu navigation is a guessing game, but most importantly: the screen itself leaves a LOT to be desired.
Even on the fastest computer in my lab (hint: ridiculously fast), the touch FX display lags like hell, and the waveforms look terrible. It’s not like this couldn’t have been a LOT better. We all know Nu-Rane is part of inMusic — and so is Denon, Numark, Akai and many other brands. I can’t help but love the screens on the SC5000s — high FPS, crispy, responsive, tight. With this R&D resource being available to the parent company, there is no excuse — NO EXCUSE! — not to have it on a mixer marketed as the premium end-all superweapon for turntablists. Instead, this is Numark NV level of tech with an OG Rane price tag (which back then was appropriate, with manufacturing happening in the US as opposed to China). Just disappointing. NEEEEXT!
BLUE BALLS AWARD
Phase! Hooooly shit. How can you build so much hype, make your supporters wait that long, and then not deliver a product that is absolutely fucking flawless at release? Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve actually tried Phase recently, and it’s a very cool little gadget I’d actually like to own. The most recent batch seems not to suffer from Bloated Battery Syndrome either, and the firmware seems very stable indeed — so they’ve ultimately delivered, even though the first couple of months were tough. But god damn, did it take long! And I’ve still yet to test it with something other than Serato to do a proper shootout. Traktor, Rekordbox, heck — I’m curious enough to install Virtual DJ. As with the Twelve, Phase would’ve really benefited from an onboard sample playback function — no reason to worry about whether it will work with a DVS other than Serato when you could just load up any timecode you want, right? Pretty sure this would bypass potential copyright cease and desist letters, too.
I’ve probably just burned a bridge here, so might as well keep going: I think the reason I didn’t get a review unit in the first place was… FEAR. So how about it, Phase? You feelin’ lucky?
WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY THINKING AWARD
This one goes to NI for “The Culling” which, in the scope of an entire decade, happened very recently. Many Bothans died to bring us this information, and we’ve had to shut up about it until everyone else spilled the beans, watching many of our dear friends getting heartbroken and ultimately fired. Many of these great people have thankfully found a home elsewhere in the industry, but it still boggles the mind. This has got to be, hands down, the stupidest managerial decision I’ve seen in a long time (I’ve got a couple other examples, but they’re not public and we’re not fucking TMZ).
Why is this part of a hardware retrospective, you ask? Well. Millions in R&D were burned with heavily anticipated products basically sitting on the assembly line, waiting for a button to be pushed, and ultimately getting scrapped. People who were the living soul of a company I pretty much grew up with as an artist (the original Traktor DJ was the first piece of music software I bought — back in 2001) have been ripped out and replaced, for the most part, by avocado-toast-munching hipsters who have no connection to making or playing music whatsoever. As a long time fan and friend of NI, I was heartbroken too — and still am.
I don’t know where NI is going, but with the hardware part of the company being pretty much dead, I imagine they will focus on combining their sounds.com platform with their impressive offering for producers, and probably heading for some sort of subscription model because that’s the trend across many industries these days. KOMPLETE KLOUD? I don’t know, this is speculation based on publicly available data. In any case, we at least know that the Traktor team is very much alive and kicking, so there is hope for DJs. The question is: will they fix everything they need to fix in Traktor before Rekordbox becomes the ultimate DVS or something else comes along, and will anybody besides the most die-hard fans trust them again? I hope so, because it’s still the most hacker-friendly DVS in existence.
ENDURANCE AWARD
To you, for sticking with me throughout this epic rant. You see, I’m really passionate about this stuff — so once I get going, it’s hard to draw a line. There’s actually tons more I could talk about, but I’ll stop here. If you made it this far, I appreciate the time you’ve spent reading (probably just me here at this point, just checking for law suit worthy opinion — Ed). We might not agree on everything I said, but that’s what the comment section is for — let’s continue there.
The Editors view of DJ tech 2010-2020
PUT THAT PHONE DOWN — I’M TRYING TO TALK TO YOU
When sitting down to hammer my thoughts and feelings for the last decade into my almost broken MBP (I knocked over a cup of tea, but kitchen towel seems to have saved the day), I pondered what the last decade was actually called. Throwing myself at Google gave me many suggestions, but the ones that stuck out were those pointing toward this being the teens.
Our teenage years are where we do a lot of stropping, claiming we’re adopted, and making an unholy mess of our bedrooms. But it’s also where we do most of our growing up. We change, both physically and mentally. While many of our traits are set in stone very early on in life, there’s a hormone storm that fundamentally turns us into the people who we’ll largely be for the rest of our lives. And for so many reasons, the DJ industry and the gear it produces has undergone significant change in the teenage years of this century.
As the rest of the team has already shown in their pieces, much has happened in the last ten years. But for me, it has been a decade of growing up and maturing. The revolutions of media players, DVS, and controllerism that happened in the naughties have got much closer to their final forms, with some new evolutions of exciting paradigms appearing.
So to a few observations before I dish out the awards.
Where the decade started
So that we can judge were we are now, let’s look at where we started this decade. Using NAMM 2010 as the line in the sand, let’s look at what was announced:
- Ortofon S-120 (one of my favourite reviews to write)
- Denon DN-X1600
- Rane Sixty Eight
- Vestax PMC 05 Pro IV
- The Bridge
- Allen & Heath Xone:DX (loved it)
- Numark V7
- Numark X7 mixer (never actually launched)
- Scratch Live V2
- DJ Tech modular units
- American Audio VMS4
To me, some seem older, and others newer. But a huge amount did happen in this decade, and for me, the following are the key talking points.
LESS IS NOT ALWAYS MORE
The industry itself has consolidated. Back in the naughties, the scene was vibrant and populated with considerably more companies than there are now. And some of those large players now fall under one single banner. It’s now a bigger industry than before, but in the hands of a considerably smaller group of companies.
THE RISE OF VIRTUAL MUSIC
The way music is delivered to DJs has changed out of all recognition. In the space of a decade, the digital revolution has evolved from physical media buying and music ownership still being a thing, to stores like Beatport selling downloadable music while you browse from the comfort of your own toilet.
But as we enter this decade, it’s all about streaming — no media, no buying, but just renting data from the likes of Tidal and Spotify. The role of the DJ has gone from being the curator to playing catchup with all the cool kids who’ve got all the same music on their phones in their pocket. The change is rapid and real.
The not so subtle shift of power
The biggest change has been the internet. While being well established at the start of this decade, it has been the social media revolution that has changed everything for… well everyone.
Cast your minds back — the magazines wielded the power to make or break products. Outside of shops, they were the way that the manufacturers reached the potential customers. Snailmailing a clipped coupon in a stamped addressed envelope for more info was a thing. The struggle was real.
Then the internet came along, and suddenly every business had a global shop window for you to press your nose against. The online media industry kicked off, with sites like skratchworx creating a place where the industry and end users could come together to read our take on new gear. And of course, you could just look at their web pages to get all the info you needed.
But everything changed with social media. Now the industry could talk with their customers directly, thus negating the need for the media at all. The shift of power was complete. There’s still a need for what’s called third-party validation i.e. respected tier one media pundits offering opinions on new gear. But even that’s being negated by distance selling laws that let people buy and return gear at no cost.
THE TOTAL DEMOCRATISATION OF DJING
When De La Soul spat the epic “everybody wants to be a DJ” line, little did they know how prophetic it was. That was in 1988, and it took a little over 10 years for that to become possible via CDJ-1000s (perhaps richer people anyway). The rest has been well documented in the pages of skratchworx and DJWORX ever since.
And now it’s possible to play a set on your iPhone while using streamed music, and bluetoothing to speakers. No dedicated DJ hardware, physical media, or sound system necessary. Some see this as an absolute travesty, while other fully embrace everything that is available. But this is today’s truth — everybody who wants to be a DJ can be. And that’s an amazing thing in my book.
SOME AWARDS
So to my list. Some of this is written with my tongue firmly jammed into cheek, and at times said tongue is being bitten so hard it hurts.
The “gone but not forgotten, but not quite gone either” award
Vestax.
Their impact is deep on the DJ scene, and is evident on the majority of mixers and controllers out there. StpVestax gives us a reminder of the glory years, but Vestax as we knew it is just a fond memory.
The “forgotten but not quite gone” award
Stanton.
It’s clear that the life support is about to be switched off. I only wish people were aware of just how pivotal they were in today’s scene. Perhaps that’s a story for my much threatened memoirs.
The “dropped ball that’s proving hard to pick up again” award
Traktor.
It was that left turn into the #futureofdjing walled garden that really did it. And it’s going to take more than knocking down the walls so everyone can play to fix things. Others should learn from how quickly an industry leading product can fall from grace. But we’re rooting for you.
The “resting on their laurels” award
Pioneer DJ.
After lobbing the spectacular Rekordbox grenade in the DJ room, they sat back and waited for everyone to jump ship. They didn’t, and top end filtering down strategy had to be revised to bottom end first long game. But Pioneer DJ seems unbothered, probably because sales are still better than everyone else’s. But that will only last for so long. See the above award for evidence of how the mighty can fall. My advice — stop messing about and get behind rekordbox 100%, especially DVS.
The “give me your fucking lunch money” award
Denon DJ.
As Pioneer DJ rested on their laurels post Rekordbox release, Denon DJ planted their flag in Pioneer DJ’s booth territory and unleashed the Prime range. The software was anger-inducingly poor, but the hardware, especially the second wave is pant-wettingly outstanding. And you can bet that they’re not stopping there. Pioneer DJ should be prepared for wedgies and/or heads in toilets.
The “it could’ve been a contender” award
Stems.
Had the chance to be a real game changer, but terribly handled launch combined with total lack of back catalogue doomed this to be a non-starter. Dance charts from 1980-2000 are rich pickings for Stems. Stop fucking about and take my fucking money.
The “Resting Norwegian Blue” Award
Phase.
As a technology, it showed so much promise, but the execution was bloody appalling. Delay upon delay resulted in full price buyers being little more than beta testers at best. Social media posts revealed buyers were essentially playing Russian Roulette with their money just hoping that their batteries would charge, last more than a moment, and ideally not swell.
It’s quite telling that the “everything is just fine and dandy” PR kept coming with a plea to post it, but the review units did not. Too late now, but I suspect that was always going to be the case. Why put your new product in the hands of the most critical of DJ reviewers? And before you comment, I’m incredibly happy for you if your Phase purchase has turned out to be a good one.
The “I don’t know who I am anymore” award
Rane Twelve.
I went from not sure to confused, stopped off at anger, and ended up at disappointment. It caused an existential crisis as I could not see what it actually did for all the odd decisions, obvious flaws, pandering to the past, and the missed opportunities. As a reviewer of some experience, I was broken, and still am.
I persisted, but nothing changed. Thus I sent the Twelves and Seventy Two back, and the Twelve review remains written but unpublished. I use the term review loosely, as it’s more a lament of what could have been. The silver lining however is that the aforementioned existential crisis I suffered has inspired me to accelerate long-standing plans.
The “old dog that still has new tricks” Award
inMusic’s Chris Roman.
It’s an ironic accolade considering that he was the leading light on the Rane stuff that just didn’t connect with me, but Chris has consistently delivered gear I truly love since the start of my journey in the industry. My beloved TTX1 is obviously pre-teens decade, by the NS7 range is the most fun I’ve had in DJing. And god knows we need more of that in this all-too-serious game.
The “very definition of Phoning it in” Award
Technics.
Coming back to the DJ scene should have seen pomp and circumstance like never before. But having seen the product, you can understand why it was more of an “I’ll just leave this here” while backing slowly out of the room. Do or not do — there is no try, especially when trying to extract well over a grand and a half out of people.
The “I know what we said, but…” Award
Portablism.
It’s hard to look past the facepalming irony of a scene populated by DJs who previously swore a blood oath in the temple of Technics while wishing plague and pestilence upon those who did not. But now it’s apparently absolutely fine to do the very same scratches on a tiny flimsy plastic 7” turntable, often sat next to the aforementioned 1200s.
I am however happy that they do. Since the early days of skratchworx, I advocated for third-party products. I hope it continues beyond portablist gear.
The “Where is everybody? BEHIND YOU!” Pantomime Award
The Boiler Room.
I just don’t get this modern phenomenon of a crowd of people stood behind DJs, let alone in touching distance. Oh yeah — DJs are really bloody dull to watch, so the jiggling pretty young things make it bearable. I’ll be hiring a selection of hot young interns to stand behind me as I tap this drivel into my keyboard in the future. I’ll need to move my desk forward a bit though.
The “where’s the innovation… oh wait we’re not ready after all” award
The DJ community.
The “I get knocked down but I get up again” award
Me.
It’s fair to say that professionally and personally, this decade has been quite eventful. Family health scares, burglary, car theft, trolls, trouble makers, death threats, repeated hacking, and the steady erosion of revenue from DJWORX has definitely put this decade on the map.
That makes it sound like ten years of utter hell. But these were just momentary blips on my journey through life. What I’ve gained from building the good ship DJWORX and steering her through rough and still waters is immeasurable. And it’s these experiences that will be shaping the latter chapters in my career.
You see, it’s all about finding your place and voice, and being true to yourself. We’ve always been the most critical (and from what I’m told the most trusted and respected) voice in this industry, and it’s a matter of finding a way to build upon that in a positive way. And I believe I’ve got a plan that will satisfy everyone, and importantly keep me happy for many years to come.
Future challenges
As we leave the golden “another bloody controller” era, the industry and end users alike have to get to grips with a few realities:
- The process of playing music to a crowd has been nailed several times over. There will be no more revolutions for quite some time to come.
- This impacts on the churn of new hardware, and subsequently the huge industry that previously enjoyed the gravy train will have to make serious changes to keep the office lights on. They will have fewer chances to get it right.
- Environmental issues will impact heavily at all stages in the process of designing, producing, and delivering DJ equipment. Stop making non-recyclable future landfill — it’s time to make things that last.
- Brexit will have an impact as well. The UK is a massive market for the industry, but we have no idea right now how it will imprint itself.
This does paint a grim picture for the immediate future. But remember — regardless of the technology you use or the music you play, people will still want to dance. The rest is down to you. Have fun being you in the next decade.
Now go to your room and think hard about your actions in the last ten years. And I’ll take that phone thanks.