Vinyl sales are up. They’re one of the few forms of physical media that’s seen gains in the last five years. But is it just a fad in the music consumer market, or is it also the case in the DJ industry? We take a closer look at a fascinating trend in DJ technology in today’s article.
2016 and Turntables vs CDJs
In May of 2016, turntables captured about 14% of the US market’s unit share for DJ technology. Comparatively, CDJs only captured 6.3% of the units sold. (DJ controllers were far and away the winner with 42%). While we’re not allowed to share too many specifics from sales data (via MI Salestrak), what we can say is that this is only a continuation of a recent trend over the last few months.
Turntables have eclipsed the CDJ (and other media players) in unit sales for three months in a row, and it seems like this might be a trend that will continue. But what are the reasons for this growth, and how does it actually compare to the rest of the market? Read on.
Reason 1: Consumer/DJ Crossover use
The full gamut of DJ turntables are included in these types of industry sales reports. Because of the low-cost of some OEM Technics-style turntables like those made by Audio Technica, it’s very possible that some of these sales are going to consumers who might never DJ with their turntables.
Why would record player sales pick up? As noted at the beginning of this article, vinyl sales overall have seen major gains compared to every other form of music that isn’t digital radio or streaming:
But just because a turntable is low-cost doesn’t mean that it won’t be used by a DJ. Have you heard of portablism yet?
Reason 2: Rise Of Portablism
One of the other most popular turntables sold on the market right now is Numark’s PT01, a belt-driven, battery-operated turntable. The PT01 runs just $99 – and it’s one of the primary weapons of choice for the so-called portabalist movement. This is a growing group of turntablists who have descided to take their skills into the wild, allowing them to perform wherever they want with a simple standalone crossfader, a phone/MP3 player for the backing track, and a scratch record:
Still No Match For Controllers….For Now?
Even though turntables are beating out CDJs consistently for the last few months, they’re nowhere close to touching the popularity of digital DJ controllers. Controllers are selling over 36 times more units – and completely dominating the market.
Why? Here’s some basic speculation on the continued popularity of DJ controller:
- DJs don’t need to buy “anything else” when they buy a DJ controller. Software is often included, and music is already being collected digitally. DJing with turntables requires a mixer and a record collection (or at least a DVS setup).
- The wave of “new DJs” is still strong. “Being a DJ” is still high on the aspirations of many music fans, and many of them are looking for a simple solution to learn quickly. Vinyl
- You can’t just buy one turntable to DJ with. The price of two is often well past the price of a nice DJ controller.
That being said, more and more DJs seem to want to switch to standalone DJ gear (the above graph is from an article we wrote about DJs moving in that direction). Maybe the rise of DJ turntable sales is just part of the story?
Are you a DJ who has bought/considered buying turntables recently? Share your story in the comments.
[…] are still the preferred way of mixing tracks for a lot of DJs and the proof is in sales statistics. But that doesn’t mean that change hasn’t come. In fact, DJ controllers have become all the […]
Had cdjs once and never again ,i brought back some old school 1210s again
I wanna take this moment to brag about how happy I am with the Reloop RP-8000 decks… Had two sets of 1200s over the years and I love them, but after moving overseas and having to part with my last pair, I decided the price was just too high to buy another pair and went with the RP-8000s. Yep they’re based on Hanpins but don’t let that discourage you. The one thing I can tell you about hanpins is the tonearm certainly feels of lesser quality than the 1200s (balancing them the first time was very strange after being used to 1200s) but everything else about the RP-8000 deck is in m opinion better or just as good as 1200s. I was initially worried the tonearm wasn’t up to it due to skipping when cueing and scratching, but it turns out my needles just needed a bit of wearing in.
Now to the part that is largely ignored in reviews or barely spoken about – how well these things hold a beat. The pitch appears to be digital as it moves in 0.02% increment/decrements on the screen, and in DVS (Traktor in my case) the number you see on the deck matches what you see in the software. The pitch slider actually “feels” great and super accurate too. I don’t know if its a combination of the motor torque or whatever but I can do long mixes on these and nudge with extreme precision better than I could on my 1200s (for example if you need to brush the platter with your finger to slow the track down a bit when beatmixing, the 1200s in my experience seemed to try to compensate when getting back up to speed by going a bit faster and then “stabilizing” in speed – the RP-8000s don’t seem to do this, or at least nowhere near as much – so you can make very subtle nudging to stay on beat without worrying about any subtle compensation) as for wow and flutter, I played two of the same tracks at 0% then at 3% and 6% and in all cases they stayed in sync and the audio had light flanging to about the same extent as my 1200s did – that’s obviously no scientific test but it also accounts for imperfections like warping in the two vinyls. In short, if you can’t beatmatch with these decks then you probably can’t on CDJs or anything else either. So if that had you worried about dropping the cash on them, I can assure you that my pair work great.
I haven’t got around to mapping those buttons down the side yet – they are indeed a nice addition and you can find plenty of info on that aspect already. Overall I’m convinced that these are worthy replacements of my 1200s – seeing as for the most part you barely see 1200s in a club any more, I think its time to let go that the 1200s are “industry standard” and embrace that there are affordable alternatives out there that are in many ways better than 1200s… Hopefully this helps with the sales of turntables overall because I for one never want to see it completely discontinued and replaced with all-digital setups! Drum machines didn’t replace real drum kits – if you catch my drift!
Very tired of the hipster anti CDJ/ Technology in general attitude DJTT has been taking for quite a long time now. Probably not going to buy from them if this continues.
Fernando Midi talking out of his ass clearly. Everything that you’re doing with your turntables can be done with CDJ, and with them you can stop using your machine, which you seem to use only for hotcues, which the cdjs have. So please get your facts straight before talking shit.
by the way… finding those sc-3900’s was hard ! i wonder if the cdj’s with spinning platter will come back …. i personally love them….
having a pair of super oem’sfor over 12 years, having traktor controllers (F1’s, X1mk1, X1mk2’s, reloop mixtrack4, denon mc-3000, behringer cmd MM-1, behringer cmd DVS-1) since this year (and traktor software) , having a pair of denon dn-s3500’s and having since this year a pair of denon sc-3900’s, a kaoss pad 3 and a kaoss pad quattro and a denon dn-x1500 my conclusion is:
it’s damn difficult to chose from in all honesty….
the feeling of a spinning platter just feels more natural to me: that’s why i like my super oem’s and my sc-3900’s, pitch bending, feeling the platters ‘slide’ trough my finger and having the size of vinyl under my hands is a unique feeling.
But owning a bunch of different (modular) controllers: gives you so much room for creativity, but sometimes too much creativity…. .
my truth: the problem is that it’s just to much to carry around i see the possibility’s going digital but it’s a lot more time consuming in preparation and if if i take all equipement all with me, controllers, mixer, external effect box, tt’s, sc-3900’s …. + vinyl
It just might be my opinion but I don’t see the purpose of spending thousands of dollars for dj equipment that’s takes up way too much space not to mention how much money spent on searching and buying vinyl when a good controller can do the same thing
[…] They also point to the rise of “portablism”, with Numark’s belt-driven, battery-operated PT01 turntable one of the best sellers on the market. [via DJTechTools] […]
[…] isn’t going to be news to most of you. We all know that vinyl sales have been going through the roof. And there are more than enough DJs out there willing to bend your […]
Ok, I used to DJ with turntables 1970s then in 2006 I bought a VCI-100. I liked the availability of music in digital format, and not destroying my own vinyl. So I went on a quest to buy the best sounding most involving DAC And system to make digital have the emotional impact of analog.
I am one of the High end audio industries best audio tuners for the high end audio shows Like the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, CES, T.H.E. Snow Newport Beach, etc.. So I felt I could get close enough to the emotional impact of vinyl and a high end mixer like a Bozak ! Urei 1620 etc. I bought a Bozak and a a Stanton tube mixer.
Here is what I found.
In order to make digital have some semblance of ” soul” where the music touches your heart, I had to do several things.
1. Use Tubes in either the pre- amp or amplifier or both.
2. Use very costly cabling
3. Do a lot of power conditioning- also quite costly
4. Use an expensive DAC ( the least expensive good one was $2700 and a really good one can run $24,000)
And even then….. Compared to say even a mediocre Citronic mixer I could get a lot more soul and groove wanna dance spirit out of a turntable and a reasonable
cartridge.
Compared to say a. Bozak mixer, decent cartridge, on a standard Techncis 1200 MKII ….a super expensive digital Set up only had say 1/3 of the groove potential that makes people want to get up and dance. Though With EDM it is much closer and pure electronic tones it can be much closer though oddly women’s synth does suffer still it’s digital. Perhaps because the pure smoothness of altogether synths is lost.
So since the 1970s I have tried SUCCESSFULLY to make up for some DJ skills (lacking) by playing good set lists timed perfectly on really good sounding systems. I always get compliments throughout the. I got and the end of the on night….which I think is funny since I am far from the best DJ I ever heard, but people react to not just what is played or the sheer volume but the timing of the music, as well as the musical quality. Like , why should a fantastic drum kit sound like a Fischer Price Drum kit when played through a bad system?
So after trying, somewhat hopelessly , to try and make a Technics 1200 sound as amazing as a true high end turntable…. I went to see the newest Technics 1200GAE 50th anniversary turntable, made with all new tooling, new motor, new chassis, new feet, and WAY WAY WAY IMPROVED MAGNESIUM TONE ARM with better tone arm wiring too! I really expected the turntable to sound …well sorta like a Technics, ( plodding, dull unsophisticated without detail, a muffled quality, but with great bass) I thought, the bass would be better and speed accuracy and smoothness of notes, but not much more.
Well I was DEAD WRONG. The new 1200GAE can stand up to ANY $4000 audiophile turntable, and well, I think perhaps stand up to any $15,000 high end turntable. It was that good. Plus they should be more durable too.
I bought (2) yikes ! For my birthday, and I am still paying them down.
So my intent is this… To be able to switch from a DVS set up, to a Vinyl Set up, to a controller set up seamlessly, using a high Quality preamp.
I intend to use the 1200GAE mostly for simple mixing, little scratching, and use my Technics 1200 MKII for the regular scratching table, and use a ” Sugar Cube” for any of my I older scratched to hell 45’s.
So my feelings are this:
Most stuff recorded in digital in protools or any other digital workstation…abelton whatever…. Can go through my controller. And in my set lists.. I will use vinyl to get people into the floor and grooving…and then try to keep them the using digital for a long time, and as I see them getting that blank “digital wear down, not as into it dancing ” I’ll hit them with some more analog.
So I bought turntables as my secret weapon.
The down side . They now weigh about 40lbs each. Figure on 50lbs in their cases.
As for controllers , I still enjoy my Ean Golden Arcade Vestax VCI-100 . I enjoy the compact layout ( using V3 overlay ) and compactness for just being able to bring that alone for small parties. I miss motorized platters like in the Numark NS7. I just did not like the button feel and compactness- it sounds faster. More in time to scratching though .
I am so glad vinyl has returned, but I don’t think you have to be all vinyl to have a good time, I do think it is needed sometimes to get people in the mood. Vinyl is the new club Drug with these new Technics 1200 GAE.
Started and ended there. I’m sure all the cool battle DJs helped too.
My two cents -I’m 41 years old and started out DJing with two cassette decks and a mixer from middle school through college then resumed DJing in 2012 with a controller. When it was time to build up a proper home setup, I grabbed a nice mixer (that handles both analog and DVS) and a turntable. I was able to keep my preferred software (VDJ) and I can’t be happier. In fact, I even flipped my nice starter tt for a 1200 MKII recently. DVS lets me mix with only one tt by cloning to the other deck. I’m happy as can be. Everything about a CDJ represents taking several steps backward from all but my old cassette setup. I’d rather do a gig with my mixer and MacBook using hot cues alone than mess with a CDJ. I can mix on a CDJ, though. They just not worth over $1000 each to me in any way.
[…] Say hello to a brand new DJ turntable, the Pioneer DJ PLX-500. Set to be in stores September of this year, Pioneer’s new record player is a clear sign that the company has noticed the recent resurgence in vinyl-loving DJs (read our article about how turntables are outselling CDJs). […]
[…] Say hello to a brand new DJ turntable, the Pioneer DJ PLX-500. Set to be in stores September of this year, Pioneer’s new record player is a clear sign that the company has noticed the recent resurgence in vinyl-loving DJs (read our article about how turntables are outselling CDJs). […]
[…] Say hello to a brand new DJ turntable, the Pioneer DJ PLX-500. Set to be in stores September of this year, Pioneer’s new record player is a clear sign that the company has noticed the recent resurgence in vinyl-loving DJs (read our article about how turntables are outselling CDJs). […]
Selling my TT’s is never going to be a question, i will always keep them and I’m feeling more confident about never selling them now that i see this nice turn in the game for TT’s vs CDJ’s. I have mixed emotions about controllers but i guess at the end all this new technology and easy-to-access digital DJ’ing is going to benefit the whole industry.
The very reason why turntables are selling better than cdjs is the price. Here in the Philippines, buying the lastest pioneer cdjs and mixer is like buying a new car. It’s that expensive! While turntables have a lot of budget friendly options, like the Stanton turntables. But for a regular joe like me, that still costs a fortune. So its just controllers for me. Would be good to invest on standalone systems like the xdj for mobile gigs but it costs same as buying a dvs set up. The xdj are perfect for mobile as there are no moving parts like that of turntables though. But in the end, It’s always been the price.
I just soid my used pioneer 800 mk2s! They were great but what I realised is that cdjs fail! Also, no cdj can fully replace the feel of vinyl! Also, money! It’s far cheaper to go the dvs route than burn cds as most of the bars I play at don’t carry nexus kit! Most djs where I am use serato (I use traktor) and plug into the pioneer djm 900 nexus! Done! I have the s8 with two 1200s and love being able to switch between digital and analog! I’m scheming on Maschine next!
I can’t fathom why anyone would buy CDJs since digital media has taken over. A turntable makes sense for the feel or love, but if you’re going digital, it seems you get more value with a controller for a home setup.
got 3 babes and a mixer.. sl1210 and dateq XTC .. no need 2 say more 😉
No need to buy new TTs. My SL-1200MK2s I bought back in 97 are still rock solid.
Much as I love my vinyl and TTs I rarely play much on it and never DJ with it. Things have moved on. But I find it annoying how the whole vinyl boom is all about big labels selling back catalogues of classic albums and the latest big pop act. It’s no longer about the music fan, it’s just big business and when the fad passes they’ll drop it again like nothing. Also I’m sure most vinyl is being played on crappy all in one retro looking TTs that come from Amazon for $80, they must sound terrible compared to a decent set up
I buy loads of great records every week from my local shop that have nothing to do with back catalogue represses. At least in the hip hop/beats community vinyl has and always will be king. Nothing “fad” about it.
I hope to buy new turntables soon. I still have fun with my Numark TT1.
[…] post Are DJ Turntables Outselling CDJs? appeared first on DJ […]
Why are cunTROLLers sold the most? Because now every Sucker without skill and/or a real music collection, can “DJ” with a cunTROLLer. It’s all about being a Ferengi nowadays. They were also successfull in the Star Trek World even though nobody really liked them. And how did the Ferengis eat? The let their food pre-chew by their females. So remember cunTROLLer-“DJ” = Ferengi Male and Not-moving-platters/buttons = Ferengi-Female (so no danger involved of breaking a tooth/dj-set…since everything is taken care of). With that extratime at hand, people like Ean are now toping cats like Shadow on the production-tip, Q-bert on the scratching-side, DJ Precision on the beatjuggles and are dissing DJ Craze from the “being-a-complete-DJ”-tip…
…the fuck are you talking about?
upvoted because…just wow o_O
This immediately came to mind….
whoops!
WTF is that hahahahahahaha
id be worried about life if i understood that
Always stuck with vinyl, never got on with digital due to the 0dBFS glass ceiling which digital has giving poor crest factor. Being a service engineer i’m seeing an overwhelming amount of Technics turntables come in for service/repair and its growing rapidly. One word of advice, avoid using pioneer mixers for vinyl because the RIAA curve is not true rendering the phono preamps to be a poor quality. Result is your vinyl will sound worse than it should.
0dBFS is not a “glass ceiling”. It’s easy enough to see it’s there, and it’s not intrinsically tied to “poor crest factor” or particular loudness mastering choices.
Evidence the Pioneer RIAA is substantially less accurate than many other DJ mixers’?
Yes, A/B comparisons always prove this by ear alone.
By ear alone. Right…. I had a good laugh at that.
Yes thats how easy it is to tell. Of course placing them under test on my electronics bench shows all kinds of other results. Such as this :- https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c26451fd8b70b128caf678a0c09f78881baccd46e20c529bf6011c28cb57af30.jpg
As for crest factor, a world renowned mastering engineer (Bob Katz) explains this very well. 0dBFS is a glass ceiling when set at 775mVRMS, but people increase said voltage whilst decreasing bit depth causing all sorts of other problems such as non linearity, jitter and ailiasing.
The definition of a glass ceiling is an invisible barrier. There’s nothing invisible about 0dBFS as the hard limit in the digital domain. Every digital recorder & software gives you an indicator of it. RMS is a different issue, as is aliasing from changing bit depth and everything else you’re talking about.
Watch the video I gave and also other videos of Bobs and you will see that your comments do not hold true. I guess you know who Bob Katz is?
You’re not relaying that information accurately. Peak levels and dynamic range of the content are two completely different issues. You’re talking out your ass, and it has nothing to do with Bob. Ditto on your horseshit mechanical copyright interpretation.
Digital will always give you non linearity, jitter, ailiasing which causes all sorts of issues. Vinyl is back for a reason because it has a better crest factor when cutting from an analogue (reel) master. And as such the perceived loudness is higher with plenty more headroom than anything digital will give you. Especially if mastered through the likes of an Aphex 204 (if you know what one of those are) 🙂
Completely wrong again.
Do you have a proof of claim for your comment?
I just switched from my Traktor S2 with some effectgear to a pair of technics and it’s way more authentic. if you have some spinnig plates in front of you it’s way more fun to dj. I still use the Traktor F1, X1 and the midifighter tho and also mapped my mpk for toneplays. lots of fun!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BILaFQmBaAq/?taken-by=michi_palaceone
I started with two 1210MK2 and a DJM-500 back in 1996. In 2016 I bought a DJM-900NXS2 and a DDJ-SP1 to use with my good old 1210MK2s. I digitized all my vinyl and switched to an all digital setup for djing. If I am honest mainly because some of my records are becoming just too precious for djing.
I was thinking about buying CDJ-2000NXS2, since I could connect them to my network and would not have to use DVS. But I am not sure about this: they are quite expensive and my hands are used to the size of 12″…
I definitely prefer a setup with single components around a decent mixer instead of a controller. Much more fun and customizable in my opinion.
No CDJ in the current market allows me to do what I do with my Vestax PDX 3000 Mk2.
how did you use the remix-deck samples and scratching at the same time on the same deck?
or do i missunderstand something here?
So far as I’ve seen, the remix decks travel forward and back just like a regular playback deck. once you trigger the cells, you can control the transport of the deck as a whole with a jog wheel or control vinyl.
in traktor you can only choose if the deck is a remix deck or a timecode deck. so i guess you have to map the turntable to the remixdeck first. but idk how 🙂
Any type of deck can be controlled by timecode .
This is very normal … What was the question? I’m using my deck “A” as a Remix Deck via timecode .
No love for the Maschine in your kit?
Total!! I use for all purposes. From a simple controller to a groovebox.
Same here! I bought mine because I wanted to tap out beats and use it with remix decks, only realizing it’s way better than just triggering loops and one shots. I just don’t want to go back to how things were (for me) before Maschine. I riff out melodies (on my keyboard) with VSTs, and even sing into it now. I’m very thankful for the synch option, but hopefully they’ll improve it (with two-way, communication over master BPM and sync start)… It’s kinda’ crude now.
Salut!
that’s quite cool and yo
I love that ttable BUT it is either extremely overpriced now or you can’t find it anymore…. back when vestax first went under you could get a set for around $1000… I should have snatched them up back then
… wow mad skills bruh..
No but actually any CDJ can do that.
You just have to not suck.
I like
Hard to say without knowing the final use of these turntables (dj or hi-fi)… I sold my 1200s years ago and now I’m considering buying a new pair of Reloop’s RP-7000 or AT-LP120 or even the new Numark’s TT250. However, I’m freaking out the decision between Turntable vs. XDJ. I should learn Rekordbox and mixing with memory sticks, because many clubs have them, but for me I still see turntables as the choice “pros”…
I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the Denon VL12’s when they drop later in the year
Nice, I didn’t notice this release from Denon…
Update: I just realize now that I can use Rekordbox dj with DVS pack, and then export my music library to a memory stick (cdj format)…
Take care what you buy : , the AT-LP120 is a piece of shit if you compare with Reloop 7000 or with Audio-Technica AT-LP1240 .
Not all OEM TTs are OK .
Depends what you’re doing. I use the 120 quite a bit for A to B beatmatching and I have no problems. But I would not recommend doing any scratching or turntablism with it. Doesn’t have the greatest response.
So it just depends on your style.
as i said , to compare the AT-LP120 with a Reloop 7000 its a big mistake . A to B you can do even with a belt drive TTs , ,but
that does not mean a belt drive TT is a good choice .
I’m curious, how many turntables were purchased at each sale? We know DVS units only need one turntable (for scratching) and can be incorporated into a controller setup (as per Enfernos kit). Anyway, people may be picking up one record player as a matter of utility or bullying, or whatever reason, other than a teafitional two turntables and a mixer layout.
This is the pattern of my DJ setups over the past 18 years.
1998: Belt Drive Gemini turntables and 2 channel Gemini mixer.
2000: Vestax PDX A1 turntables and Vestax PMC-17A mixer.
2004: Technics 1210 mk5G turntables and Pioneer DJM 600 mixer.
2007: Technics 1210 mk5G turntables and Pioneer DJM 600 mixer with Serato DVS.
2010: NI Traktor Kontrol S4 (no turntables).
2012: NI Traktor, NI Kontrol X1 with Allan & Heath Xone DB4 (no turntables).
2014: 3rd hand Pioneer CDJ 2000 sticks and Allan & Heath Xone DB4 (no software).
2016: Pioneers CDJ 2000 NXS2, Technics 1210 mk5G turntables with Rane MP 2016 mixer (no software).
I’ve always embraced technology when it comes to DJing but ultimately the 4 years that I used controller and software only ended with me feeling fed up and bored with it all. I dipped my toe into the controller scene and enjoyed what I found but it didn’t have the lasting hold and enjoyment I found from manually mixing tracks together. Ultimately I’ve have gone full circle back to where I started, only with better kit and the ability to use digital music. There is no wrong or right way to DJ and I think that it’s great that the entry barrier is so much lower with controllers, I just hope that many of these aspiring DJ’s get to experience the joy of using turntables or even CDJs.
There’s another factor at play in this article that many people might not realize. As of late last year, Guitar Center no longer shares sales data with MIST. That means that the numbers MIST reports no longer include any major US retailer. So they’re getting their sales numbers from smaller shops. A lot of these smaller stores dabble in DJ at best, and only carry a handful of lower priced SKUs (favoring traditional MI product categories like guitars, drums, and PA). I think once you factor that in, these numbers make a lot more sense.
I am not saying that there isn’t an increase in turntable sales, or that this article ins’t accurate. GC might even be back to reporting to MIST (which would be great!). But if you’re trying to get a handle on DJ sales and you’re not getting numbers from GC or Sam Ash, then you’re not getting anything close to the real picture.
I would think comparing turntable sales to CDJs would be apples to oranges,sure they are both fruit, so the market overlaps a little, but the purpose can be extremely varied. I’m a bedroom producer, purchased an S2 to help with some projects I was working on and future plans, no solid plans of really DJing simply because I’d only want to play my taste, and my personal taste…eh…not going to find an audience for that haha. However I bought an AT turntable a couple months ago as a producer. Found a record shop near where I worrk and decided to try my hand at sampling (not my typical cup of tea, but it can’t hurt right?). It’s not to DJ with, I didn’t get direct drive, and have no plans on doing any turntablism with it – would rather continue my practice on the S2 frankly. Then I look at my folks, baby boomers who have and are retiring, they recently tossed most of their vinyl, but before they did – they bought one of those vinyl to mp3 converters. With how many units I saw touting that technology, I doubt my ‘rents are a particular case, there are most likely tons of baby boomers and the ilk, just ‘ripping’ vinyl to mp3, and needing a new record player to do it ‘easily’.
Overall the market is going the way of the controller. Let’s just be honest – space is a major factor, using established gear is becoming a major factor, and doing turntablism feels more like performance art these days than flat out DJing (not syaing you can’t/don’t integrate, just the crowds these days are there more for the songs than the DJ).
I think the cost and compactness factor is just such a win for controllers. I guess I’m kind of going the other way… I have CDJ-2000 NXS’s, Technics and a Rane MP-2015. The CDJ-2000 NXS’s are currently put away and are likely going to be sold. I’ve been playing on a pair of Kontrol D2’s with Traktor. The whole setup lets me do quite a bit more than just the CDJ-2000’s alone. There’s a lot more flexibility – stems are great! I still have my 1200’s though, so I can get my beatmatching/spinning wheels fix there.
Now, if I were still playing out regularly, I might have a different view… there is a lot to be said for just showing up with a USB stick and headphones… but for now, I can see the appeal of skipping the CDJ.
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I’d like to see a standalone player version of Denon MC6000MK2, dvs capable, onboard fx, symmetrical layout. In other words smaller XDJ-RX with dvs, no wider than a DJM mixer + X1.
Let’s be honest, CDJ’s (ie a unit that has a CD slot) are becoming obsolete. You would only spend money on CDJ’s if you were buying a 2000 NXS2 for example as they have all the extra digital control features, not because they have a CD slot. This shows why controllers and standalones (eg XDJ-RX) are taking over. Vinyl on the other hand still has many attractions such as sound quality (you would never think “hmmm I’ll go buy a CDJ as the sound is much warmer!”), early/exclusive release from record labels (which also makes them attractive to the labels for the same reason and no ability to pirate), collect-ability (never under estimate this as a human behaviour!!!) the list goes on. Therefore a controller or standalone with abilities to add a vinyl deck through another channel is going to win every time.
CDJ’s are not becoming obsolete at all, they are in pretty much every DJ booth in the world that has permanently installed equipment and will be for some time.
Despite the ease of the USB/rekordbox option, there are still a surprisingly large amount of touring DJs that still play using CDs… and vinyl.
I’d say controllers are more likely to be affected by obsolescence than CDJs due to how quickly they get replaced/updated/upgraded/break down/no longer work with the latest software etc.
I agree they are still everywhere (mainly because of history) but more and more clubs are switching to Nexus/Rekordbox set up, this is what I meant by the above, CDJ’s ie one with CD slot are becoming obsolete, not Pioneer digital capabilities, their units will be around for a long time but will they continue to build them with CD slots is my argument. I can’t say I’ve been to an event where there hasn’t been a Rekordbox enabled deck for a long time. I would love to see the stats but I bet the instances of people needing to use CDs is in an ever decreasing spiral and USB’s are being used more and more. Ask yourself, is Pioneers next big release going to have improved CD playing in anyway? I think the answer is no and that they are going to continue with the likes of the XDJ 1000 and expand that range to become the new mainstay in clubs. Just my opinion anyway, plus who can be arsed burning CDs anymore, losing them, scratching them etc..?!?
This is why I’m going with two turntables and maybe two cheap numark cdjs for my first setup. Vinyl is gonna keep spinning and as long as I have a media player that plays MP3s or .wav and works I’m money!! If one part of the system goes down all is not lost. If my computer takes a dump I’m just SOL with a controller. That and the planned obselence you mentioned.
Got two Technics turntables in January this year. It was a gift from my GF and family for my birthday. An epic one!
I started with turntables a long time ago, I skipped CDJs (only played on them 2 or 3 times), took a break and went back to DJing with controllers.
Couldn´t be any more happy with my two decks!
For the sake of diversity, and because I´ve got somewhat of a monthly “get together” in my apartment, I am probably getting CDJs in the future.
I like Traktor, but honestly I don´t have any Idee what should be next. Waiting for the next big Traktor upgrade, and really, it has to be big (Maschine integration… srsly one of the best Groove Machines/Drummachines out there, from the same company, and all they have to do is combine forces…).
Stems are nice, but I´m not buying another piece of hardware. I own a F1 for that, but the own implemantation from NI to play Stems with it, well let´s say it is absolutely bare bones. Wouldn´t take too much to make it a decent Stem controller.
So I will wait what NIs got in their bags and decide if stick with it or ditch it.