In the previous post I wrote an article about the format war between mixing vinyl and cd’s. Which one to go for? While it’s a personal choice (or dilemma) for every DJ on its own,  this revolution started when stages and clubs changed their booths. This effected DJ’s directly because they have to be prepared for the gear they gonna meet outdoors.

The mix standard
During the 90’s , the average DJ booth had two turntables for mixing, and some cd-players in case of emergency. Most of the time the CD-players weren’t used at all. As said before, the Technics SL1200 is the no.1 turntable to be found on stage. So for many seriously ambitious DJ’s this is the most important thing to get your hands on. Since “ SL’s “ showed up worldwide at stages and bedrooms, it became a must for every gig. Every DJ is following this industry standard ever since then and this is what keeps Technics being a legend. Even though other manufactures already invented better and cheaper turntables, Technics remained king on stage. It became the most common (and most of the time the only) thing on a DJ rider list.

Vinyl got less popular during the rise of the internet and downloadable music. And since we’re all living in the digital age, CD’s couldn’t be ignored by DJ’s anymore. But there still was a need for mixing the old fashion way, by pitching a record to another while having full control. Mixing is a delicate task which needs the right tools to get it done. DJ’s were waiting for a new standard to come. DJ’s just want the most common used stuff to match the standard. This way they can play at any “serious” DJ booth. So there was a need for a reliable, rock solid player with worldwide potential. When Technics announced the CD-version of the SL1200, DJ’s were very thrilled. But  it proved to be a shitty product, so it died as quickly as it came.

Before Pioneer started with their CDJ-1000’s, much research was done. (But in my opinion, they asked the wrong kind of dj’s). Nevertheless, it has its pros and its cons. It looks very “DJ” but the biggest complaint about the ”pioneers “ is the lack of a physically spinning platter. When you touch a record on a turntable, you’re really touching time. Pioneers do not have a spinning platter and this makes movements by hand relative. You’re not touching time but can only stop or adjust it. Turntablists refuse to use CD-players because of this, because traditional scratching can’t be done without a moving platter. To me, CDJ’s are not the best CD-players, there are better ones like the Numark CDX, that’s true vinyl feel and control.
However, Good marketing made Pioneer’s CDJ’s the new CD-player standard. They popped up at every main stage and club in a short time. While SL’s are aging, Pioneer is still growing and about to take over the DJ booth. True vinyl lovers deal with this every time they visit a new booth.. Will there still be turntables this week?? Soon there will be Pioneers only and you’ll find dusty SL’s somewhere left back.

Today, the battle between vinyl and turntables is still not over. Gear manufacturers try to make profit out of this by introducing tons of various new inventions. All in one solutions like hybrid CD/turntables, Harddisk-players with a fake vinyl platter. These things will never get mainstream because many dj’s will only buy stuff that already meets the DJ standard.

To me
I don’t think the battle between turntables and CD-players will last long. There’s a new enemy coming up fast, called the laptop. And it’s power will be bigger than man could imagine. I already knew this time would come, so I started to find a workaround for this problem 6 years ago.
Today I’m using turntables or cd-players AND a laptop at the same time. This way I always meet the industry standard, now and forever, no matter what gear they use!
Ciao! Beau.

Filed under: DJ Talk
by Beau