Beamz — what if someone else had made it?

Beamz have themselves a hot potato of a product for all the wrong reasons. But as a technology, does it bring anything useful to the DJ game?

Beamz Grandmaster Jay

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While the Beamz controller has been around for a dog’s age, it’s just recently and especially this weekend that the product has garnered a lot more attention that it ordinarily would — and just about all of it negative. If you haven’t seen it, the latest Beamz video features the self-titled legendary Grandmaster Jay (who nobody has heard of) unbelievably miming over a Jazzy Jeff set (the above video is the redacted version). Scandal aside, I did ponder about Beamz as a product though, and what if a respected and established company had put it out.

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Imagine if a big player in the DJ market had come out with Beamz, and pitched it as a real alternative to touch or physical technology. You’ve probably all seen laser harps and theramins — technologies that are based around interrupting light beams or proximity technologies. It’s certainly not a new technology, but one that in the whole controllerist scheme of things is very valid, and full of creative options.

So let’s say that Native Instruments decided to throw commercial caution to the wind, and put the completely imaginary and not in any way real Traktor Beamz into the market place, as a device that enabled remix deck control with RGB lasers plus a greater level of interaction with the crowd — would you take it seriously? Or if doyens of the controllerist scene DJ Techtools embraced the technology to add another niche product to their repertoire of boutique controllers — would that make you sit up and take notice?

Beamz Grandmaster Jay

One thing is for sure — Beamz has pretty much shot itself in not one foot, but both of them with this marketing own goal. The old saying goes that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but in the case of the latest video debacle, and subsequent social media avalanche of scorn and disbelief from such DJ luminaries as Cash Money, Grandmaster Flash, and Jazzy Jeff himself, it’s hard to imagine that they’ll recover from this. Product aside, their reputation is shot to pieces now.

But it does raise the question of Beamz as a technology, and drags this back to the point of the story — if Native, DJTT, or some other respected manufacturer experimented with Beamz-like product, would you take it seriously? Does it bring anything worthwhile to the DJ’s or performer’s table?

Mark Settle
Mark Settle

The old Editor of DJWORX - you can now find Mark at WORXLAB

Articles: 1228

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39 Comments

  5. https://www.facebook.com/thegrandmasterjay/posts/10152034679126518

    Trenton Knew Michael,
    I AM a DJ. This has nothing to do with hip-hop, it has to do with the
    art of turntablism. A true master of the art, Jazzy Jeff, did this
    routine, and it was the most AMAZING thing I have ever seen someone do
    with turntables, and I highly respect
    it. I respect guys like Q-Bert, DJ Scene, Premier, and Jazzy Jeff just
    to name a few people that I look up to. Honestly, you need to check
    YOURSELF before you go calling me “stupid” based on a misunderstanding
    of my frustration, because this video is falsified nonsense, the
    “performance” is 100% faked, and as a REAL DJ, with REAL experience
    using MANY forms of DJ equipment, I KNOW with 100% certainty that the
    performance is fake.

    I
    don’t give a damn if you’re the president of the united states. If you
    take something that I love and am passionate about, and cheapen it,
    disrespect it, and basically falsify it for the sake of making a dime,
    I’m gonna call you out on it. In this regard, Grandmasterr Jay,
    unfortunately, you have SOLD OUT turntablism as an art and craft. It’s
    worse than David Guetta going on stage and pretending to mix while his
    CDJ’s are TURNED OFF. Worse than appearing on TV and pretending to
    perform on gear with no cables plugged in. Nothing to do with hip-hop,
    homie, I’m not about that life. Spinning, however, I’m all about,
    homie.

    -this was just too well said

  7. Yawn. I’ve seen the Beamz guys at trade shows for years and have always wondered how they could afford to keep exhibiting because certainly nobody was actually *buying* their product… Apparently there are people who feel that a few laser MIDI triggers are better than an actual DJ controller.

  9. I don’t think that this product could go anywhere. If it could then NI or Vestax or Livid would have taken a crack at it by now. There’s just no advantage to this over a cue point controller. Even the performance value is silly.

  11. Here’s the thing. The Beamz controller is in reality a 4 button controller. That’s all. There’s no proximity effect, gesture sensing… nothing. So the question you’re asking here is really “Would anyone be impressed with a 4 button controller?”.

    Beyond that, there is another wrinkle that makes the Beamz controller even worse. In order to use all 4 “buttons” effectively, YOU NEED TO USE BOTH HANDS. So now we have the question “Would anyone be impressed with a 4 button controller so poorly designed that it REQUIRES 2 hands to operate?”.

    I won’t even go into the cheap build quality or it’s huge footprint, because that’s just beating a dead horse.

    But the biggest problem with the Beamz controller (in my eyes) is their frankly embarrassing marketing. All of those overly emotive movements communicate to the use that the Beamz controller is much more than it actually is.

    There is NOTHING wrong with using body movements to control sounds. It can be very compelling. But why on earth would you spend $160 on a stupid Beamz controller (that can only ever be 4 on/off buttons), when you can buy something like a Leap Motion controller (which is MUCH smaller, and offers infinitely more options for control) for $90?

    • …or two leap motion controllers for 50$ total, which wasn’t that hard after the preorder craze died down and people realized this thing wouldn’t give you scientologist touchscreen powers unless you were ready to mess with the SDK :) good times for nerds.

  18. Why the hell would you spend $200 on such a piece of crap…. I’d rather buy dicers, the midi fighter, rmx-1000, ableton push, etc, etc…..what this retards that are marketing this product dont realize is that most of the dj controllers nowadays are midi capable lol. this product is the biggest joke ever… I just hope that a high recognized DJ takes the beamz on stage and just smash the hell out of it in front of a crowd

  19. wikipedia entry says it is a “great way to involve special ed students in music making.” I think that pretty much nails it and also explains Flo Rida’s involvement.

    • Well the company uses these as ways to rehabilitate people via music. It helps students (especially autistic) to interact and express themselves. Don’t sit up and bash them for their accomplishments. It’s great they are doing something to help people. They’ve donated thousands of these units to rehab/special needs programs.

  20. Gotta jump in here, lol. Thank you for posting the article. I’m responsible for this global fiasco. I didn’t expect it to grow so big. The guy was talking smack on Facebook after I contacted him about the video. Needless to say, I took it to an extreme by contacting Jeff, Flash, Red Alert, Cash, Tat, and some others he mentioned. BUT it was all justified. I did some digging into Beamz (and this guy) before letting the dogs loose. I actually checked out the Beamz and their mission statement. They seem professional and very well organized so I don’t see why they would allow this crap to happen. Have you seen the FLO RIDA video? That’s almost as bad. Anyway, this controller is basic at best. Perhaps with some remodeling and features this could lend some creativity to DJing but as it stands this is just like GrandFaker Jay….. useless.

    • This was so funny. Dude really tried you and you blasted him, lol. I was so shocked when you said you called Grandmaster Flash, then Flash posted up asking you who is this guy. I KNEW it was gonna be trouble then. But the guy wouldn’t quit. I loved the radio interview you and Jaycee did. Straight crushed that guy. Best part was then you challenged him to battle and he backed down, then later said he’d battle for $10,000 and you ACCEPTED. He was NOT expecting that. lol. #SaluteDJTeeoh

  21. Oh and they are suppose to address the public this week. Beamz and Idiot Zero.

    They will speak on the video, the social media backlash, and apologize.

    • TEEOH!! I salute you for putting this guy on blast. I remember when it first started and the dude was just on FB lying to you. He really didn’t know who you are, but that didn’t last long. And when you hit up Jazzy Jeff, he got right on his website and posted about it. It was great to see all the legends come out and back you up. Hell, YOU are a legend. Been following you since you did shows with Lil Jon and Tyga. You are a BEAST MAN! Big ups.

  24. Hadn’t heard about beamz until the furore of the last few days, but had the same thought that despite the lameness of the video, there might actually be a semi-useful, or at least fun product lurking under there… personally wouldn’t care who had made it. Guess I’d been duped by the video into thinking that it offered variable control though, not just on/off triggering… Thinking a bit further though, stuff like the “Hot Hands” controller or Onyx Ashanti’s BeatJazz stuff is way more interesting for 3d hands-in-the air type control… as for controller-free, think there are a few interesting Kinect hacks out there too with a lot more to offer.

    Redub of their even lamer direct marketing video is a CLASSIC though:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNZ5v0vrsyM

  26. The dj Fails Page (on facebook) seems to have quote Grand Master Flash asking on twitter who this guy (Grand Master Jay) is? as supposedly he came up with him?? There is also a video of Grand Master Jay flexing some seriously suspect skills on the ones and two with the best ‘Serato’ face/stare ever

  27. I spoke to the Beamz CEO Charlie Mollo and just got a call from Andrew at Virtual DJ.

    Now, for those who didn’t notice… the software Beamz is using is a modified version of VDJ.

    VDJ does this for a lot of entities who are developing products. What the company does with that software and all things tied to it do not fall on VDJ.

    That being said… VDJ IN NO WAY CONDONES THIS MAN NOR HIS ACTIONS.

    Andrew has been following this since day one and is very avid in finding out what has happened.

    The crew at Beamz are not DJs. As such, they are out of touch with the DJ community. They have not understood the GRAVITY of the situation until Andrew contacted the CEO today.

    Beamz is legally investigating this man and are shocked that he has con’d them.

    You all saw the videos. He’s a slick talker. He knows what to say and how to spin it. But I assure you that neither Beamz nor VDJ has anything to do with the lies he has been stating.

    They did not send him to do any conferences, which is showing him talking all this shit. The actual video of him mimicking the DJ Jazzy Jeff routine was done by someone in his own team and then given to Beamz.

    NOW this doesn’t excuse Beamz using the video BUT without any DJs on their staff, I can see how they would not catch it.

    **If someone handed you a CD and said it was them, you listened, and didn’t know it was another person….. you can’t be held responsible for them lying to you.

    Beamz is in Damage Control mode. They just got hit with a bag of bricks and they will make a public statement soon.

    In closing to this post, all parties involved are now assessing the situation and once they get a handle on all of this a statement will be released.

  30. Why didn’t you guys mention DJ TeeOh for being the one who crushed this guy? He’s the one who contacted Jazzy Jeff, Flash, and Cash Money. He also confronted the guy on live radio (with DJ Jaycee – Ludacris’ former DJ).

    Problem with the DJ culture is people will shine the light on jerks like this guy, but not give credit where it’s due.

    Shout to TeeOh! Never met him but I’ve and seen great stuff from him.

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