Regular dates are beginning to take on popular cultural significance. May 4th has become Star Wars day, and we’ve just experienced the Roland themed 808 day in honour of the iconic TR-808 drum machine. And Roland has decide to continue this theme by making some huge announcements on 9th September — yes #909day.
First, watch the above video and come right back here.
And this is what Roland has to say about it on their Facebook page:
Musical instruments are constantly changing, reshaping our lives as they evolve. Their spirit and influence transcend the status quo through processes of fusion and transformation—acoustic and electronic; digital and analog; recording and live performance; private and networked. But what will the future actually sound like? “The Future. Redefined.” is Roland’s 24-hour “must-watch” online music festival, held across multiple time zones and broadcasting from some of the world’s major cities. With artist performances, interviews, and over 30 brand new product announcements, “The Future. Redefined.” showcases how technology will enable boundless creativity. Find out for yourself on #909day
So… it’s clear that Roland is making a rod for its own back by doing this. Each 909day, gear hungry hordes will be expecting Groundhog Day style epic product launches on each and every 909day from here on in. But for now, let’s focus on what might be coming in a few weeks.
Apparently the future. will be. redefined. And that’ll be done with “30+ products and services”, across these categories:
For us, the most interesting is the “Dance Dj”. And there will be live streaming from all over the world too.
So it does appear that Roland is dipping its toe into the DJ pool again. Again? Yes, for this is not their first paddle in the every changing DJ pool. Anyone remember the DJ1000 and DJ-2000 mixers? We’ve been around for almost 13 years now, and they’re before our time. I’m told that they were pretty awful bar an awesome filter.
AND SAY CHILDREN – WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
As you might expect, the close-knit DJ industry cannot make such waves without gathering at least a tiny bit of attention. But even after shaking the grapevine hard, I cannot confirm anything more than Roland is making DJ gear. What that gear might be is anyone’s guess though.
But putting together whispers, seemingly unrelated things, and a healthy scoop of stuff I’m not supposed to know about, when I join the dots lightly in pencil, I’m getting a pretty solid but relatively nuts hypothesis about what could be about to happen. And it could be huge, sending shock waves through the industry. Some of team DJWORX is skeptical of my theory, while others believe it might just happen.
I’m not going to lay my thoughts out in front of you here. Instead, I’ll let you speculate yourselves, otherwise my tinfoil hat rambling will become spread as fact because that Gizmo dude off of DJ works said it so it must be true. Been there – don’t want to go again.
SPECULATE AWAY
What do you think Roland is up to? Rebadged OEMs? Stuffing an 808 and 909 into a mixer? Something more producery? DJ is a very generic term these days right?
What’s the betting that the 24 hour release schedule has been carefully crafted so that the DJ releases are at stupid O’Clock my time?