Doing Good in a Bad Situation
In the last few years, I have got really into Stoicism – the ancient philosophy of the Stoics, such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus. One of the themes in their teachings is that adversity is a chance to show character, and develop your good attributes through right action.
Well… I didn’t really expect the world to be thrust into the kind of adversity that 2020 has generously handed us all, but here we are. We have adversity. Plenty of it, more than enough to go round.
So, we are left with choices about how to face down this challenge – and, happily, a lot of people are choosing to do good, to serve their communities, to help others through this difficult time. Its a pleasing reminder of the goodness of mankind that is there, so easy to forget.
In some instances, its been larger institutions offering hardship funds for musicians – for instance, Help Musicians launched Corona Musicians in the UK, offering £500 hardship grants to musicians suddenly cut off from making income. This had an incredible uptake, showing the trouble that many in the music industry face when unable to perform at events. While this particular fund is now finished, they will be rolling out new initiatives soon for musicians facing hardship.
UPDATE: Having received well in excess of 17,000 applications for the Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund, we are now pausing the fund while our team take a much-needed break over Easter. We are still fundraising in order to pay all that are eligible.
— Help Musicians (@HelpMusiciansUK) April 9, 2020
The Recording Academy (the people behind The Grammys) launched the COVID-19 Relief Fund, in partnership with their affiliated charitable foundation MusiCares.
Spotify has teamed up with various organisations to create a fund where every $1 donated (up to a maximum of $10m) will be matched by the streaming service. Called the Sustaining Creativity Fund, it is of the same ilk as the Help Musicians fund above, providing emergency grants for musicians and creators who are struggling. Interestingly, they are also working on a feature enabling artists to fundraise directly from their fans (music creators get a famously small amount of money per stream on Spotify, so a direct donate button could even be a great addition for after the crisis, much like how Bandcamp allows you to pay more for a track if you wish to)
Its great to see music companies stepping up in the way you’d hope, but even more impressive has been the way that DJs big and small have come together to raise funds for charities, food banks, and help people in this unusual and stressful time.
Ever the character, legendary dance music figure Fatboy Slim has announced that he is throwing a huge free party for NHS workers in his hometown Brighton, on 28th October.
Beatport ran a 24-hour livestream called ReConnect which featured some of the biggest names in dance music, and raised over $185k for COVID-related charities. DJs like Carl Cox, A-Trak, Toddy Terry and Nina Kraviz were involved. After the huge success of this fundraiser, they announced a follow-up for Friday 17th April, 36 artists across 36 hours, from Tiesto to Maceo Plex to Claude Vonstroke to Jack Back (David Guetta) – you can only think that if they have more success, this will become a feature of lockdown life!
Resident Advisor have done a great job of compiling multiple resources in one easy-to-access page – a genuinely global selection, with a short explanation of each. AdHoc, a Brooklyn-based concert promoter and publication, have put together this page with various suggestions for ways to help. Both of these have a real wealth of ideas an information, well worth a look.
At the top end of the pop world, Rihanna’s charitable foundation donated $5m towards efforts fighting COVID-19, benefiting various organisations. Both Rihanna and Jay-Z’s foundations also donated $2m between them to efforts in New York and Los Angeles.
Bruno Mars donated $1m to the MGM Resorts Foundation (matching the launch donation by MGM Resorts themselves), to support MGM employees impacted economically by the Coronavirus. “The people at MGM have given Bruno Mars the rare opportunity to be able to continuously gig while he’s in the creative process of working on his next album. With the closures across Las Vegas, Bruno wanted to show his appreciation to the amazing employees who help make these shows possible in hopes that we’ll all be out of this situation and having fun together again very soon”.
Legendary singer-songwriter Dolly Parton donated $1m towards the search for a vaccine, while Taylor Swift donated to her favourite record store in her hometown, as well as paying their health insurance for 3 month, and also made a donation to Feeding America. They also benefitted from Elton John’s “Living Room Concert For America“, which filled the gap in the schedules of the cancelled iHeart Radio Music Awards. Stars like Mariah Carey and Dave Grohl pitched in with performances!
DJ Khaled’s We The Best foundation donated 10k masks, as well as gloves and PPE for frontline healthcare workers in Miami and New York, and is working with SimpleHuman to provide touch-free soap pumps to communities across the USA, starting in Los Angeles.
Uk Garage legend DJ EZ partnered with Boiler Room to perform a 24 hour set to raise money, and afterward left this inspiring message in a thread on Twitter.
There is so much goodness in the world, let’s embrace it and remind ourselves of the importance of hope, kindness and love, these are the things that truly change the world.
[Read more…]
— DJ EZ (@DJEZOfficial) March 31, 2020
It was of course EZ and Boiler Room that gave us one of the definitive DJ moments of the 21st Century…
Boiler Room have also been running sessions called Streaming From Isolation, with sets from across the spectrum, including from underground superstars Dixon, The Black Madonna and Four Tet. Funds raised are going to the Global FoodBanking Network.
This crisis has led to some unexpected, but inspiring, changes in how DJs are living their lives. London’s Gscratch is normally busy DJing multiple gigs a week, but had been volunteering for his local food bank for a while on the side. Then, when the COVID storm hit and all the clubs closed, his boss suggested he take on an expanded role, meaning he was able to keep some money coming in, and serve his community even more than before, right when it needed it the most.
“The way I see it, I have been earning my living playing music like grime and hip hop that comes from the struggle in these communities. I think its only right to give something back however I can. And I think that helping your community is a huge benefit mentally as well – it really helps me put my own problem’s in perspective, and its a such a positive thing to be able to help people who need it”
Others have used their platform to raise money – Complexion runs his popular Future Beats Show, and saw an opportunity to help when he had lots of fans wanting to make donations to his show.
“I’m very lucky in the sense that a lot of my listeners are always asking me where they can send money to me for the radio show, I’ve never wanted to accept anything because I’ve always felt that the money should be going to the musicians. As someone whose income depends solely on DJing, not being to work for the foreseeable future is a scary thing, luckily Soundcloud made it very easy to support their users by adding a support button to the profile page.
I was thinking I’d get 40-50 dollars which I’d put back into paying for my account, but the money just kept coming in and once I reached £500 I wanted to give some of that to charity, as a lot of people are struggling due to not being able to work. Every time I streamed or a new episode of the show came out people kept donating, on last count we had raised over £1600!
I’ve been very transparent with where the money will be going, a small sum is being used to purchase some equipment so I can keep broadcasting (a new mic, promotion etc), and the rest is making it’s way to food banks around the world. Whilst we’re in quarantine I’ll keep going with different streams and my radio show and support those that need help as much as I can.”
In Philadelphia, Michael The Lion (sometimes known as Apt One) is involved with 24HRPHL, helping to put together community resources in the fight against COVID-19. This grassroots group is a civics engagement project within Philly’s nightlife, arts and culture community. Full of useful information, this sort of resource is incredibly valuable for people struggling to navigate such a difficult time.
On Facebook #LIVEFORLOVE crew have raised almost £18k in just a few weeks through livestreamed DJ sets, from DJs like Deekline, Krafty Kuts and Artwork. All money is for the Trussell Trust, who run food banks across the UK.
And the event House of Dinosaur have been running all manner of ridiculously over the top livestreamed events and activities (called Isolation Station!) to keep people entertained and exercised, always with a fundraising link on display.
You don’t need to be an organisation, or have an established podcast/radio show – UK DJ Ollie Beavis set up a Just Giving page for a livestream, and smashed his target, way beyond his wildest expectations. People are looking for ways to contribute, and DJs are in a great position to give them a way to do so, while entertaining them.
Hell – you can even get really creative with how to raise money. The comments sections for all underground DJ sets are covered in “ID?” track ID comments – Alec Falconer came up with a novel way to leverage that into fundraising…
So, as you can see – people are reaching out to help others, in an incredible variety of ways. DJs are used to being at the heart of many people’s leisure time, and while this situation presents a lot of professional challenges for anyone in the music industry, it also gives us a chance to do some good, entertain people through a difficult time, and raise money for worthy causes.
Head over to the pool to load up on the latest tracks, edits and remixes for your livestreams. And come follow me over on Instagram!
Shutdown!
The world is experiencing a series of lockdowns and quarantines of varying severities, and club sets are pretty much a distant memory at the moment.
The upside to this is that it is inspiring a lot of DJs to switch up their game, so they can share their musical selections with audiences in different ways. One such example is the Shutdown mixtape series, available on Spotify.
Assembled by DJ Say Whaat, DJ Rapture, DJ Lumes, DJ Anrey and DJ Le Alen, Shutdown is their idea for DJs united against corona, and they have an incredible amount of 20-minute mixes up – approaching 200 already – covering a broad range of club styles, and have built up a substantial audience in just a week or two!
If you want to submit a mix, then hit them up on this email – [email protected] – get Google translate ready, as the default language is German! The standard is high, based on the ones I have listened to so far, and here’s a few of my favourites!
Heavy Hits Stay Home Challenge – Winner Announced!
The people have spoken, and Heavy Hits is happy to announce DJ Freazer as the #HHSTAYHOMECHALLENGE winner! He takes home an awesome first prize – a year’s free Heavy Hits membership, Hercules DJControl Starlight Controller, Serato Pro License, and a Heavy Hits Hoodie
Here’s his fantastic winning routine
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Congratulations to our runner-up DJ Mysterons – so close we basically had to run a tie-breaker vote on our Instagram! It was such a tight call that we upped the 2nd prize from 3 months to a full YEAR free membership with Heavy Hits!
Here’s his brilliant routine
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Then we had a 3-way tie for 3rd place – DJ Shy, Ardent, and Deejay Lomo. They all get a free 1-month membership!
Huge respect to everyone who entered, and everyone who voted! And of course to the good people at Hercules for their generosity!
Go give all these DJs a follow on their Instagrams, and of course the Heavy Hits Insta!
Be on the lookout for our next contest, which we will be announcing very soon! In the meantime lets all work together to slow down the spread of this pandemic by staying at home, washing our hands frequently, keeping plenty of physical distance between others and staying supportive, positive and productive.
Heavy Hits “Stay Home” Challenge
All over the world, people are being asked to spend a lot more time at home, and we are all looking for ways to keep boredom at bay – well, Heavy Hits has your back, and for good measure you have the chance to win over $500 worth of prizes!
Heavy Hits brings you the #HHSTAYHOMECHALLENGE!
Keep on top of your game and show your creativity by filming a short routine (should we call it a quaroutine?) following this format:
- – Film and upload a 30-60 second routine using at least two (2) tracks from the playlist below. Want to add your own flair? No worries, you’re more than welcome to add your own tracks and samples too.
- – Upload your routine as an Instagram post by 11:59pm (PST) on March 26th, 2020. Be sure to tag and follow @heavyhitspool and use the hashtags #hhstayhomechallenge & #heavyhitspool in your caption
Prizes as follows:
Grand Prize
- – 1 Year Heavy Hits Membership ($249 value)
- – Hercules DJControl Starlight Controller ($89 value)
- – Serato Pro License ($129 value)
- – Heavy Hits Hoodie ($49 value)
2nd Place
- – 3 Month Heavy Hits Membership ($75 Value)
3rd Place
- – 1 Month Heavy Hits Membership ($24.95 Value)
Judging & Additional Terms
A panel of Heavy Hits judges will score the entries and announce the winners via Instagram on March 27th, 2020. The contest is open to everyone (both members and non-members). In the event of a tie, we’ll open it up to a poll on Instagram to decide the Grand Prize winner. Have a question? Feel free to DM us on any one of our socials. Good luck!
Pioneer DJ Sold!
But don’t panic – apparently its business as usual at the biggest name in DJ technology!
Japanese company Noritsu has taken on Pioneer DJ, spending $606m on the brand, and buying them from private equity firm KKR (who picked up Pioneer DJ in 2015). Noritsu is best known as a photo-printer manufacturer.
A short statement read…
“Our business, operations, brands, including brand names will not be affected.
We will continue contributing to the music industry with our innovative products and superior service through Pioneer DJ, rekordbox, KUVO, TORAIZ, Pioneer Professional Audio brands.”
Its interesting to imagine how the move from a private equity firm, whose focus seems to have been to reposition the business model of the company and get it better placed in new markets, to a hardware manufacturer will impact the company.
A KKR spokesman said…
“We are proud to have worked with the management team and employees of Pioneer DJ, now AlphaTheta, to assist the business’ growth in key global markets and to accelerate the company’s migration towards a software-subscription model to align with emerging industry trends – all as a standalone company,”
Interesting times ahead for Pioneer DJ!
Read more about their VM-10 mixer here
Coronavirus – COVID-19
Its a well established fact that you can catch several horrible diseases from playing low-quality MP3s in your sets, which is why things like the Heavy Hits Pool are so important for DJs.
But now there is a new risk for DJs, and looks like it is going to impact 2020 in some pretty unprecedented ways.
Ultra Miami and SXSW have been cancelled in the USA. Italy is basically closed for the next few weeks. Events of over 1000 people are banned in France. Football matches have been played behind closed doors, or postponed. Festivals across the world are holding meetings to work out how to proceed, wedding planners are having nervous breakdowns.
Health scares come and go, but this one looks set to be especially damaging, both in human cost, with thousands dead already, and economic, with stock markets around the world in turmoil as traders try to predict what damage this pandemic might cause.
Its therefore a very tough time to be working in the events world – an inherently unpredictable and volatile business at the best of times.
While its true that DJs and events professionals are generally not in the high risk category for dying from coronavirus, the fact is that we can easily act as accelerators for its spread, because of how many people we come into contact with in the course of a weekend, and because of how much we travel. We all have a responsibility to those who are at risk of death or serious ill-health from this virus, and a duty to try to slow the spread, so that health services are not overwhelmed.
So what can you do to make it less likely that you catch, or transmit, coronavirus/COVID-19?
1. WASH YOUR HANDS!!!
A lot. Way more than usual, with soap and water. The water will help rinse the virus off. Soap breaks down the virus and “kills” it, so lather up, and get washing your hands for 20-30 seconds at every opportunity. Wash them the moment you get home, the moment you get to work, the moment you arrive at a venue or restaurant or bar. This is the single best way that you can help yourself, and the people around you, and its so easy. A lot of people have been having fun with Wash Your Lyrics – converting your favourite songs into a helpful guide to time yourself!
2. If you can’t wash your hands – use hand sanitiser.
Ideally, you want 60% alcohol or above to have maximum effectiveness. As DJs, we get a lot of people grabbing our hands for handshakes, and high fiving etc. When that happens – quick bit of sanitiser, clean those hands, carry on. If you can’t get the 60%+ stuff, other sanitiser is better than nothing – but the high alcohol stuff is far more effective. Make sure the sanitiser gets into all the bits of your hands – between the fingers, on the backs, etc etc.
3. Don’t touch your eyes, mouth or nose if your hands aren’t clean
A big way that the virus is transmitted is from it getting on hands (hence all the hand washing!), and then people touching their faces or putting fingers in their mouths or noses. Try as best you can to avoid doing this, unless you know your hands are clean.
4. Disinfectant wipes
Wipe down the decks and mixer before you get started with some decent disinfectant wipes. I was already doing this anyway, because I’ve seen the state of most decks in most club, and they are disgusting! This won’t keep you totally safe, but it will help. Plus the decks won’t be gross. Its not clear whether these products will definitely kill coronavirus, but based on what we know, it seems likely that they will
5. Avoid unnecessary hand contact
Judging from my gigs last weekend, this one ain’t easy. But try to avoid handshakes, high 5s, bro hugs, kissing people hello/goodbye, etc etc. People might think you are being paranoid, but forget that noise. You’re being sensible, and its as much for their benefit as yours. Wave to people, make a joke of it and go for an elbow-boop, whatever works.
6. Cover your mouth with a tissue or your sleeve when you cough/sneeze
Not an easy thing to remember in the middle of a sneeze, but basically this is to help avoid it being spread in the air to people around you and to avoid getting it on to hands, because hands then have a habit of touching everything else (and therefore maybe transmitting to others). Put used tissues in the trash straight away.
If you do find that you have symptoms or you’ve come into contact with someone who has it, and you suspect you might have the virus – don’t go to your doctor, don’t go to a hospital. Pick up the phone, call the relevant helpline for the country you are in, and get the advice from there. They will have the best advice for you, you will minimise the pressure on the health service where you live, and you will reduce the risk of you spreading the virus, or you getting it from somebody else at a hotspot like a hospital. Listen to what medical experts are telling you, listen to what the big medical and scientific institutions are telling you.
Try to be responsible, and see the bigger picture. I personally have had my dream gig next month cancelled – two weeks DJing in Rome. I’m gutted, but I accept the reasons why it had to happen. I doubt it will be the only gig I lose in the next few months. Shouting at promoters who cancel events is not fair on them (they will not want to do this, and will most likely be losing a lot more money than you, having done a lot more work), and will only hurt your future chances of being booked.
It might be that you miss out on some gigs, and for DJs that often means you don’t get paid. Its hard to take when things outside your control hit you like that, but nothing is more important than your health, and the health of those around you. If you don’t have an emergency fund – let this be the event that motivates you to set one up, and put a little aside from every gig for these sorts of unexpected problems.
This is a time when everyone needs to pull together as a community, and support one another however we can. Hopefully we will get through this with the minimum harm, and be stronger for it.
More info here
US Center for Disease Control & Prevention
Music News – February 2020
Today we’re going to have a little round-up of the big stories from the world of music in the last few weeks.
Starting things off, a couple of sad stories. The untimely deaths of legendary DJ and musician Andrew Weatherall, and young rapper Pop Smoke, shocked their fans.
First off – the tragic death of Pop Smoke, shot dead in LA. The circumstances are still a little murky, but what we do know is that multiple suspects turned up at his rented property in the Hollywood Hills in LA, one entered the property around 4.30am, shots were fired, and Pop Smoke was killed. Many theories are flying around – his address was visible in social media posts that day on luggage tags, which led some to speculate that this was a robbery gone wrong. But the fact that the masked gunman appeared to exit without anything, and the others didn’t enter the property (according to sources who claim to have seen CCTV), seems to contradict that idea. Police are investigating the possibility that it was a gang-related hit – Pop Smoke has been linked with the Crips by some officials. Whatever the circumstances, its a terribly sad loss, and a tragic death for a young rapper on the verge of really crossing over into being a huge star.
Check out this New York Drill playlist, featuring several of Pop Smoke’s big tracks.
Moving on to Andrew Weatherall, who died in hospital of a pulmonary embolism, at the age of 56. He is probably best known as the remixer behind the classic Primal Scream album, Screamadelica, one of the seminal albums of the rave revolution in the early ’90s. He completely reinvented their blues-rock sound into something quite unique, creating multiple magnificent anthems that catapulted the band to stardom. I was a huge fan of his sound – I went to see Primal Scren at the time, had the famous sun logo on various T-Shirts, and I saw Weatherall DJ in all sorts of venues, at all sorts of times of day.
To me he was, without doubt, the best electronic DJ in the world. A master selector, drawing on genres as diverse as techno and rockabilly, with an incredible grip on dynamics, of tension and release – the key to a great dance music set in my view. He first rose to real prominence at the famous Shoom night, one of the earliest Acid House parties, and the one best known in the Acid House revolution in London in the late ’80s and early 90s. He went on to form Boy’s Own Records, and was instrumental in laying down the blueprint for Trip Hop.
One of the fascinating things about Weatherall was his career trajectory – he easily could have become a superstar like many of his contemporaries went on to be, but chose instead to stay true to the music he loved. Memorably, he was quoted saying
“It’s a lot of work, once you go up that slippery showbiz pole, and it would keep me away from what I like which is making things. I mean, I had a little look in the early nineties. I stood at the bottom of that pole and looked up and thought to myself ‘The view’s pretty good. But it’s very greasy and there are a lot of bottoms up there that I might have to brush my lips again. So, maybe I’ll give it a miss’.”
As a result, he remained a relatively underground figure, but absolutely beloved and universally respected within those circles. A true gentleman, an incredible story-teller, and a real one-off.
Every time I saw him DJ, I would be blown away by his selections, almost never recognising a single song. Even with the advent of Shazam, I would rarely be able work out what he was playing, other than that it was brilliant. I last saw him in the late afternoon in a converted warehouse in Hackney Wick late last summer, and he played a magical, mid-tempo, disco-tinged set as the light from the windows slowly changed.
If you are curious to hear more, fans have compiled a truly incredible goldmine of his sets here, in what has been dubbed the Weatherdrive. Over 900 hours of his mixes, spanning decades, with more to be uploaded.
Staying in the UK, news came out this week of something which may make a huge difference for DJs across Europe.
New visa rules for performing artists were announced, to take effect from January 1st 2021. A tier 5 visa of this sort would cost £244, and last for between 12 and 24 months, and would be required by both the artists, and their crews. Politico reported that they would be needed for live performance as well as competitions, auditions, promotional activities, workshops, talks and taking part in cultural events. Its not clear if this is a final position, or if this could be subject to change should the UK government manage to arrange a deal with the EU. As someone who DJs regularly across Europe, and loves to see the best European DJs play in London, I will be following this closely. It certainly could have a huge impact on small and medium level clubs, promoters and acts, where margins tend to be razor-thin.
In more light-hearted news, Eminem has launched what he is calling the Godzilla Challenge. Its certainly a hell of a challenge to spit that fast, and that precisely! He’ll be reposting the best efforts, and awarding prizes, and it’ll be interesting to see what talent this unearths!
“Fill ‘em with the venom and eliminate ‘em” @triller #GodzillaChallenge is on. Who can spit it? Reposting + got prizes for my favorites. https://t.co/jWfW83X7P8 pic.twitter.com/jKMpJH7nw7
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) February 25, 2020
Over in Ibiza, bass-driven event Together at Amnesia has announced its line-up for summer 2020. Chase & Status will be performing 10 shows to mark them playing at Together for 10 years, and the likes of Shy FX, Sub Focus, Holy Goof, Wilkinson, Redlight and more will be joining them.
The Brit Awards 2020 took place earlier this month, which I wrote about here.
And finally, The Roots were honoured by Philadelphia City Council by having a stretch of East Passyunk declared “Avenue Of The Roots”, a well deserved recognition of their incredible career!
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Brits 2020 – All The Winners
The annual Brit Awards has become a real institution in the music calendar, and given the global reach of the British music scene, that should come as no surprise really. Last week the winners of the 2020 awards were announced, and so here’s a little run through who won what!
So, without further ado, the big winners on the night
Male Solo Artist – Stormzy
Stormzy’s endless march forwards shows no sign of slowing down!
Female Solo Artist – Mabel
Mabel has had a great year, both as a featured artist and as a solo artist in her own right. She performed her celebratory break-up song Don’t Call Me Up
Best Group – Foals
Foals have been around for a while, and came back with a bang in 2019. They were rewarded with the Best Group award
Song of The Year – Lewis Capaldi “Someone You Loved”
Lewis Capaldi has had an incredible year, in part because of his hilarious presence on social media. But, in fact, his songs are generally pretty emotional, and this video starring his second cousin Peter Capaldi (who you might know as Dr Who) is genuinely moving
Album of The Year – Dave “Psychodrama”
Probably the biggest talking point of this year’s awards show was Dave’s powerful performance of Black. This one certainly set Twitter alight…
Best New Artist – Lewis Capaldi
More success for man like Capaldi!
International Female Solo Artist – Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish has been hoovering up awards this year after her meteoric rise, and she performed her brand new Bond theme, No Time To Die.
International Male Solo Artist – Tyler, The Creator
Tyler, The Creator made a point of sarcastically thanking former British Prime Minister Theresa May
So now, head over to the Heavy Hits pool to snap up some tracks by these guys!
Heavy Hits
Brits 2020
Happy Birthday Rihanna!
This might be a day late where I’m writing this from, but somewhere in the world it is still Ri-Ri’s 32nd birthday!
Party DJs all over the world understand the huge appeal of Rihanna – she’s delivered hit after hit after hit since debuting with Pon De Replay, a song which still goes off in the club!
Here at Heavy Hits, we have a crazy selection of Rihanna classics, edits and bootlegs – check out the updated Rihanna playlist here.
And of course, she made one of the ultimate birthday tunes for the modern DJ!
Its rare for a modern performer to have such a long career at such a consistently high level – probably only Madonna and Beyoncé can claim to have been at or around the top for a longer stretch than Rihanna, and there’s no shame in that!
One of the great things about Rihanna is that she constantly pushes the envelope for what constitutes pop – BBHMM, Work, Pour It Up to name but 3 – while also being one of the best when it comes to straight up, anthemic, singalong pop choruses – We Found Love, Rude Boy, Diamonds.
So, happy birthday Rihanna, here’s hoping there are many more, and keep the hits coming – or to put it another way, please don’t stop the music!
NAMM 2020 DJ Equipment Round-Up
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.