Laptopless Digital Djing

As already said, waiting for unannounced technology is pointless as no matter what you buy and when, there is always something else newer in the pipe. Don’t let yourself get sucked into that “must always have new shiny” cycle. If you want to go without a computer, and you’ve set the RX as the high end of your budget, then you have a few options but not a lot.

– There is the unit from Stanton, and it is very affordable although no longer even close to being cutting edge, but a recent software update for it shows that they are still giving it some love…

– You could get a pair of CDJ350s with USB sticks and a small battle mixer. It wouldn’t be the most portable of options but it would give you that result, and might be a little cheaper depending what mixer you settled on.

– Or you could just go with the RX. It has more than enough features on it that you should be happy for some time.

Actually, there is a lot of expected (Pioneer mainly, but Traktor very likely too) new gear coming. Pioneer will want to cash in on their new full DJ RekordBox concept and I personally expect to see more XDJ variations (like an XDJ-SZ with 4-channels).

Traktor is bound to come up with some new controllers that fully support Stems, maybe a 2-channel S8?

My personal opinion is that laptopless DJ-ing is somehwat of an “idee fixe”. You’ll always need a computer for prepping. And even with the current state of affairs, searching in an extensive library is still a b*tch if you don’t have a keyboard or some reasonable screen real estate (I’d say 7″ is indeed the minimum, but not if you have to give half of that up for an on-screen keyboard).

What I do see happening is the laptop moving from a front and center barricade in front of the DJ to a position more to the side (for library searching and stuff like that).

Just my two cents as usual. And as usual I could be totally wrong 😀

Couple of points:
1. Pioneer is also using tablets and phones for preparing tracks so it’s kinda no-computer idealogy even at preparation-level.
2. There has been usb stick players for ages. If you don’t want/need the things computing and analyzing brings, you have plenty of old and new hardware even before controllers came.
3. XDJ-Aero is already quite cheap (499€): http://www.pioneer.eu/fi/products/44/1992/34209/XDJ-AERO/page.html
support may stop anytime soon, if not already stopped. I didn’t like the limited options that hardware and recordbox gave.
4. Standalone seems to be only quite rock solid option, if you want stability. Sad but true.

“4. Standalone seems to be only quite rock solid option, if you want stability. Sad but true.”

Not true at all actually. I wouldn’t trust standalone units any more than anything else. I’ve had CD players die mid show. USB keys that won’t read. Anything that requires digital processing of one sort or another to run is subject to the occasional glitch.