It’s weird how things work out — the next one of these on my list was going to be Stanton’s last real trailblazing unit. And then the news broke of inMusic assimilating the once great company into the inMusic collective. So today seems like a fitting day to take a look back at the Stanton SCS.4DJ, which for me was the first proper standalone controller, and like so many units was released before the DJ scene was really ready.
I know I know, it wasn’t the first lump of DJ stuff to be standalone — that belongs to a number of rackmount units, but it was the first in a controller format. So instead of having to take a laptop, you could run from a USB key, USB drives, and iOS devices. And it was even possible to store the USB devices inside the SCS.4DJ too. Not only that — if you really wanted to run it with a laptop, mapping was an option too.
As a unit, it was very much about portability. It was all plastic, just small enough to go in a large messenger bag, and super light too. But given its size and price, it was a solid exercise in delivery maximum bangs for bucks. It was one of those units that you could take out of your bag, plug into the house sound system and play with minimum fuss.
The SCS.4DJ was a seriously overlooked unit back in 2011, which would explain why there wasn’t a followup. It’s not that it wasn’t designed and made to prototype, just that it never made it to production. If it had, Stanton’s position in the marketplace might be very different now. But what’s done is done — Stanton is in the hands of inMusic now. We can only hope that they use the brand to push boundaries, or at least to make stellar turntables again.
GALLERY
