Todd Oddity

One word: Legacy.

Basically, in the early 2000’s Pioneer managed to make their gear the industry standard, and because of that, it’s what people expect to see in many booths and therefore they are familiar with working with them. Despite what many will try to tell you, there are no technical advantages over equivalent high end controllers or other brands of CD decks (the term CDJ is now used to describe most brands, but it really is a Pioneer model code). It really just comes down to people using what they are comfortable with because it’s what they have always used.

But things are changing. I watched CD’s get integrated into most booths in the 90’s, and then I watched Pioneer take over all those booths. I see it happening again, this time with digital. It’ll take a few years, but CDJ’s will disappear. They have already mostly made the exit in my city.

As far as equipment shots go ask yourself – “who is the target market for my website?”

I was at a web design seminar a few years back where they did an interesting comparison of print advertising – the iPod ads that were just coloured silhouettes of people dancing around, versus the Dell whatever-they-called-their-mp3-player ads which had a product photo and a list of technical specs. As we all know now, the iPod pretty much killed everyone else, and their advertising almost never showed an actual piece of equipment.

They then started talking about amusement parks (I was at the IAAPA show – a convention for amusement park operators) and how some parks focused on all the tech specs of their latest and greatest rides, while others focused on shots of families having fun and smiling (the photos could have actually been anywhere as there was little background in most of them). The logic for the amusement park business was that women tend to make the decision to go or not go, and that the photos showing happy emotions had far better traction with that demographic than the tech specs of some rides. Ditto for the iPod’s – Apple sold fun while Dell sold a piece of hardware.

This isn’t to say you should or shouldn’t do something on your website, just that you should know who your target market is and make sure your website appeals specifically to that group (if you do weddings – show happy couples, if you do nightclubs – show packed dancefloors and oh-so-many laser shots, if you are trying to be a go-to site for information – fill it up with content and lots of text).

The irony is that I don’t do enough of this on my own site – but I know what I’m evolving it to eventually be… Eventually…

Depending on what he is looking to do, some quick thoughts…

• The Samsung lacks a dedicated video card, so no VJ’ing options, but has 4 USB’s which is rare to find, so plus for that.
• The Lenovo also has 4 USB’s, but none are 3.0. Does have dedicated video (and 2gb to boot).
• Acer doesn’t say how many USB’s it has – also check Google for Acer’s throttling issue. It scared me away from their product line.
• HP also has 4 USB’s but none are 3.0.

I’d also look up reviews for each model to see how hot they get. Considering some of the environments we work in can get rather warm all on their own, it’s important to have a computer that stays cool.

Sorry – from the guitar *rig* to the mixer. If he’s been playing the guitar for years I think it’s safe to assume he knows how to hook it up and what is involved with bringing it along with him. I meant you don’t have to set up a full DAW to hook a guitar in.

New products can fall into one of two broad categories. 1) It is something totally new for the company (like when Denon released the MC6000 – it’s first attempt at an all-in-one), or 2) it’s a new generation of something they already do (to keep with the Denon example – the MC3000).

In scenario 1 early adopters may run into a few bugs, as there are only so many variations manufacturers can test their equipment under (everyone is running something slightly – or sometimes radically – different, and how it all interacts is hard to predict). While you might think a lot of firmware releases early on are a red flag, it’s actually a good sign the manufacturer is working with the customer base to quickly fix any issues that come up. You can also run into actual design problems with how a unit is built – these are much harder to fix (think problems with the original AA-VMS4).

In scenario 2, you are generally a lot more safe, as synthet1c pointed out, the tech behind the unit is well tested, so unless they totally screw up on build quality it’s a safer bet.

Mike Check, post: 23281, member: 1342 wrote: This is a cool video but I don’t think it would translate live. Also to do this little trick you’d need some form of audio interface for your guitar plus you must be using software that also doubles as a DAW. Personally I’d be too fearful that my laptop would crash w/ all this going on.

And I don’t know if you’ve started playing out yet but most DJ booths don’t have room for you to comfortably play a guitar. Also you’ll need to have that guitar standing somewhere for 99% of the night which would take up space or be subjected to drunk people messing with it or running into it.

Good thought tho’. Personally I like when original artists incorporate DJ with live instruments, but I think that the crowd who sees those acts (e.g. Moby, Dirty Vegas, etc) are also looking for that musicianship…. a club crowd is a different animal.

Mike: You’re making it WAY to complex. He could just plug the feed from the guitar into it’s own channel on the mixer, bring up the line level, and have at ‘er.

Tony: It would be a total gimmick but if done in short bursts at two or three times through a night (and done well of course), I agree with others here, it would go off huge and totally set you apart from your competition. Then you package it up as a premium offering, so when talking to owners or promoters you can say “I have my regular set for x dollars, or for a little more I can put on this show for ya.”

Jamie ‘Zenjay’ Robb, post: 23304, member: 808 wrote: It’s just frustrating spending this much time finding music I love, building a big bank of songs for every occasion, and then have it all torn down in seconds without any power to correct it :/

Jamie ‘Zenjay’ Robb, post: 23298, member: 808 wrote: I tell them politely I only have a certain collection with me (truth is I have 0 top40… I collect all sub genres, but not list pop) and they walk off (only to return again 5 minutes later, asking the same question).

You are contradicting yourself. If you refuse to collect or play top 40 then you don’t have music for every occasion – in fact you are missing the main soundtrack for the majority of occasions. If you want people to like a song you like, slap it between two songs they already like. It really is that easy.

Your controller should have a mono switch on it somewhere. Just plug one XLR into the left jack (check, but normally left doubles as mono). It’ll still sound fine.