Between the excitement of the Super Bowl and an operation that had me laid up for a while, this post got a bit lost in the mix!
But, as mentioned on a few posts already, NAMM 2020 took place recently, and now we are able to go over the highlights of what came out for DJs in this years event.
It’s debatable if anything really jaw-dropping or essential was announced – most of the obvious things have been mentioned in previous blog posts, but there are some things worth adding to the pile for a lot of you!
We covered the impressive Pioneer DJM-V10 mixer here, but the response to this has been interesting, if not exactly unpredictable – nobody likes a moan quite like DJs!
Ignoring the fact that Pioneer themselves have been clear that they don’t see this as a replacement for the DJM900 series mixers, a lot of club DJs are baffled about some of the features it includes, and the hefty list price it comes with.
NEWSFLASH!!! – you don’t have to buy it, and it’s REALLY unlikely that you are going to end up playing on it in clubs unless you are supporting someone on or around the A-list, and they have requested one in their tech rider, in which case suck it up, buttercup!
That said, a lot of club tech guys I know are predicting an influx of tech-riders for 6 CDJs and a DJM-V10, only for 4 of the CDJs to be used as coat racks and drinks holders…
The Denon Prime series has certainly turned a lot of heads, not least because of the on board WiFi capability, which opens up a whole realm of possibilities (and questions!), some of which we explored here. It looks like a serious power play by a company with a deserved reputation for quality.
We didn’t mention one great-looking new Denon product – the Prime Go. This looks like it has everything you might need to throw down a set, plus the incredible bonus of a 4 hour battery life in case you find yourself on the beach or in the mountains, with no power outlets nearby! This really takes DJing into the realms of true mobility, it’ll be interesting to see which competitors build on this…
The Rane Seventy mixer looks like it is the business – Rane have a well deserved reputation as one of the best in the business. We covered this more here. For now, check out this awesome DJ Craze video they launched the mixer with!
There were a few other items worthy of note in this round-up.
The Reloop RMX-10 BT is a budget DJ mixer with a fascinating feature – it facilitates bluetooth streaming from your phone, or other music sources. You can plug things in normally, but it is interesting to see things like this and the Wifi of the Denon players creeping in – as technology improves and becomes more reliable, will the mess of cable spaghetti in DJ booths become a thing of the past?
Numark have an even more budget item – their DJ2GO controller has had an upgrade, to the DJ2Go Touch, so apparently the tiny jog wheels function in much the same way as the platters on far bigger controllers. This is a big step forward – I had a go on the original, and while it was still very good value, it is strange that they didn’t have that functionality, and were only really useful for scrolling through your library. This looks to be a far more complete item for a beginner, at a really good price.
Looking now to equipment for the mobile/wedding DJs out there, there’s some really cool bits here
My favourite – The ADJ MDF-2. A modular, portable light-up dancefloor! Super cheesy, but drunk party-goers lover things like this, and thats a fact! This would certainly grab people’s attentions vs a generic piece of flooring.
There’s some new speakers for anyone looking to upgrade their sound – the Electro Voice – Evolve 30M looks like a great piece of kit for a mobile disco, and EV have famously high quality sound, while Mackie have launched the SRM V-Class Series – again, a very well-respected brand.