Fun fact: the XDJ-XZ hybrid console/controller appears to run a BSD of some kind. I wonder if the other products do too?
Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
11–20 of 20 posts
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#12I had thought serato paired with vinyl control records on traditional Technics MK2s was the sort-of stack of choice. Are people using CDs and these devices commonly today?
Yeah, it's way easier to set up, transport, and transitions between DJs when all you need is a USB (plus a backup or two) and your headphones
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#13I had thought serato paired with vinyl control records on traditional Technics MK2s was the sort-of stack of choice. Are people using CDs and these devices commonly today?
Most people getting into DJing now are either using Pioneer DDJ[1] which is a controller you plug into a computer, or the all-in-one system like XDJ-RX2[2]. Serato/Traktor Scratch DVS setups are usually favoured by people who like records but want to play digital too.
1210s (older MK2/3/5 or the newer MK7) are very expensive so its a huge call for someone to start with a pair of these (plus the additional expense of a mixer, needles and records).
[1] https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-au/product/all-in-one-system/xd...
[2] https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-au/product/controller/ddj-400/b...
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#14I had thought serato paired with vinyl control records on traditional Technics MK2s was the sort-of stack of choice. Are people using CDs and these devices commonly today?
Most people getting into DJing now are either using Pioneer DDJ[1] which is a controller you plug into a computer, or the all-in-one system like XDJ-RX2[2]. Serato/Traktor Scratch DVS setups are usually favoured by people who like records but want to play digital too. 1210s (older MK2/3/5 or the newer MK7) are very expensive so its a huge call for someone to start with a pair of these (plus the additional expense of…
Thanks for this and the sibling replies.
I’ve been out of the game a long time. I have a pair of SL 1200 MK2s in the original boxes (boxes beat to hell, they were my only cases) in my moms attic.
They were expensive new, I picked up a djm-500 at the same time. Looking at eBay, they don’t seem to have appreciated much in value, if anything gone down given inflation.
It was all thanks to a summer job at Intel between my first and second years at college. Blew a ton on this setup!
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#15I had thought serato paired with vinyl control records on traditional Technics MK2s was the sort-of stack of choice. Are people using CDs and these devices commonly today?
It was for a time, and then the ability to plug a USB drive into one CDJ and use it across multiple CDJs came into play. Suddenly, instead of bringing a laptop to a club that you have to fumble around with (no more unplugging and rewiring decks in the middle of someone's set), all you needed to do was bring a thumb drive. Nowadays you still see folk using Serato/Traitor for sure, but - at least within the dance music…
It makes sense that you’d wanna eliminate the entire laptop stack and everything they can go wrong there.
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#16I’ve just recently got back into it again with a small controller after having a break for a decade, and am having a great time, I started with vinyl then CDJs.
I’m using Beatport Link for my music which is incredible, but it doesn’t match vinyl shopping and really getting to know your tracks, as I already have 200 songs in various playlists and barely know the names of any of them.
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#17I've got 4x XDJ, 2x turntables and a mixer setup in the front room of the house :-). DJing is my creative outlet, a way for me to escape reality for a fee hours at a time.
I can either use DVS to "simulate" vinyl (laptop required), use actual vinyl or plug in several USBs.
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people getting into DJing now are either using Pioneer DDJ[1] which is a controller you plug into a computer, or the all-in-one system like XDJ-RX2[2]. Serato/Traktor Scratch DVS setups are usually favoured by people who like records but want to play digital too. 1210s (older MK2/3/5 or the newer MK7) are very expensive so its a huge call for someone to start with a pair of these (plus the additional expense of…
Thanks for this and the sibling replies. I’ve been out of the game a long time. I have a pair of SL 1200 MK2s in the original boxes (boxes beat to hell, they were my only cases) in my moms attic. They were expensive new, I picked up a djm-500 at the same time. Looking at eBay, they don’t seem to have appreciated much in value, if anything gone down given inflation. It was all thanks to a summer job at Intel between m…
Just had a look on ebay and I'm surprised at how much used SL1210 mk2s still go for.
I'm surprised, but not that surprised.
I still have my pair of 1210s I bought in 1996 I think. I dragged those to regular small bar gigs 2 or 3 nights a week for about 4 years when I first left uni.
They're still rock solid and work just like new. Whenever I think of good design the Technics SL1200 comes to mind.
The flight cases, however, are up in the loft and stink of cigarette smoke. Seems now crazy to think people used to smoke in pubs.
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#19Getting into djing was incredible. We had a friend working in a local music shop, they had gigantic rooms filled with guitars and pianos, but once djing became a thing they started dedicated a little angle to pioneer and Cdjs. They let us playing on 2 cdjs 1000, with an Allen Heat mixer. Deadmau5 was the most played there, 2010 was an amazing year for electronic music. People kept increasing, things started breaking…
I can explain why the business behind music in particular is troublesome, but first let me just complain about the combination of "Pioneer" and "once DJing became a thing." DJing was a thing before Pioneer ever got involved. Technics turntables outsold guitars in the US at least once in the late 1990s.
With that out of the way, what are you selling, in music? You can sell recordings, but Spotify has made that pretty difficult, and even without Spotify, the margins are surprisingly bad because of all the middlemen. So mostly you're selling live performances, i.e., parties.
Some people go to the party for the music, some people go there to dance, and many people go to get high and/or get laid. The people who love music and the people who love dancing will come back often, and that's not a problem. But the people who show up to get high either don't do it very often, or they're a problem. The people who show up to meet somebody either then date that person for a while or are sex addicts. So again, they either don't do it very often, or they do, and that's a problem.
So there's the demand side of the equation. There's a small number of customers you can build an ongoing relationship with, and a larger number with whom you can't. Let's look at supply. Here it's the same story as it is with movies or TV: there are tons and tons of people who want to do it and are willing to take a financial loss in order to do so. So until you get to a level where you can charge a lot of money, you're stuck at a level where you can hardly charge at all. That phase can last for years, even decades.
If you want to instead consider promoters and event organizers the supply side, everything I said about the customers applies to them as well.
So there you have it. It's a brutally tough business for most people and a cakewalk for a lucky few.
Re: Pioneer CDJ Guidebook: A Comparison and History of CDJs and XDJs
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for this and the sibling replies. I’ve been out of the game a long time. I have a pair of SL 1200 MK2s in the original boxes (boxes beat to hell, they were my only cases) in my moms attic. They were expensive new, I picked up a djm-500 at the same time. Looking at eBay, they don’t seem to have appreciated much in value, if anything gone down given inflation. It was all thanks to a summer job at Intel between m…
Just had a look on ebay and I'm surprised at how much used SL1210 mk2s still go for. I'm surprised, but not that surprised. I still have my pair of 1210s I bought in 1996 I think. I dragged those to regular small bar gigs 2 or 3 nights a week for about 4 years when I first left uni. They're still rock solid and work just like new. Whenever I think of good design the Technics SL1200 comes to mind. The flight cases, ho…
This sounds like good living. I’d take mine to house parties in college, mostly. Spinning house music. Stuff like Subliminal Records, whatever DJ Dan was into.
> Seems now crazy to think people used to smoke in pubs.
It was crazy and reckless but also interesting to have experienced if only for a relatively short period of time. (presuming no obvious personal long term impacts)
I presume we’ll feel the same about alcohol in a few decades. It’s a rather blunt instrument with which to alter consciousness. And it has a lot of unfortunate outcomes.