Is DJ Tech as Good as It's Going to Get YES/NO? I Have Seen the Future!

0:00 Have we reached the end of DJ technology?

So, have we reached the end of DJ technology? Can it go any further? Can we get something better? No, we can't. Because we've got the best controllers, we've got the best CD players, they do everything, we've got the best mixers. So, can DJ kit get any better? No! But yes it can. It can get better. So, why? What's going on? Why am I going no and yes? Let me give you an analogy. Many, many, many years ago, in fact, even probably more than many, many, many, many years ago, in fact, if you timesed many by many, you wouldn't even be there. Let's look at the Bronze Age. In fact, let's look at the Stone Age. In fact, let's look at an age before even the Stone Age, maybe the Fluffy Age. You had technology then that reached a pinnacle. So, let's imagine the Stone Age. You had technology using the stone.

And it got to the stage where they made that stone so sharpy and pointy, it was the pointiest, sharpiest stone ever. They couldn't make it any pointy or sharpie because it was the sharpiest, pointiest stone in the world. But what happened? We then had another age, the Bronze Age. And then we have the Iron Age. I hope I'm getting this in the right order. So, we had different so-called ages of technology using different materials, different ways of making things. Now, the wheel has always been round and a pointy stone, whether it be a pointy stone or a pointy piece of metal or plastic, has always been pointy. But it's been different materials. So let's look at DJing from that perspective. Let's just imagine that when people started DJing, it was like the Stone Age.

Dodgy turntables that bounced all over the place and needles that lasted about five minutes.

2:15 No longer did we have a mixer with a tone control

And sound systems that sounded absolutely horrendous. And then we moved on to another age, which was, we could class maybe as the Iron Age, where we had techniques and we had decent mixers. No longer did we have a mixer with a tone control. No! Oh no! I can remember a mixer with a tone control. And I can actually remember my Citronic 19 inch mixer. Finding out that I could add on a one unit, you'll know about that, 19 inch crossfade. Yes! I could add a crossfade but still, I didn't have any bass, mid or treble. It was just volume controls and low and high for the EQ. So, that could be classed as another age. And then of course techniques much better. Direct drive. And people then, if you think about it, if you were a DJ in the 80s, that was it!

It was like, wow look what we've got! We've got this turntable that doesn't jump, that sticks to that beat. Is as smooth as silk and the mixer we've got in front of us, this huge 19 inch rack mount mixer is the best mixer since mixers. But, then what happened? We got into another age. The digital age, slowly but surely. Where things started to progress at some incredible rate. So let's have a look at that graph. This is the beginning of time. DJ time. And then it started to do something like this when the technics came in and all of a sudden digital mixers and controllers and it's just gone bumf like that. But what has happened? With the kit we have now. It's got to that plateau where people, companies are scratching their balls, their heads not their balls.

Because they, really, they're bald heads!

They're scratching their balls. See I've got that one so easy. They're scratching their balls heads and wondering what on earth do we do? Well, I believe the future of DJing in many ways, shapes and forms is VR. Virtual reality. This potentially could be the next step where you have kit in front of you but also even if you don't have kit in front of you you can use that kit whether you've got it or you haven't in a virtual reality environment. Now this is already happening in some way, shape or form. I'm involved with it in some way, shape or form that I'm not going to talk about too much at the moment because it's at its growing stage. But what I can say it's to do with Silicon Valley and it's very, very, very exciting.

It is really exciting. So what's DJ doing? What is the DJ industry doing? What are people doing? What do they do that manufacture these products? Believe me, they're not sat there going well we've made everything now let's just sit back and go to Ibiza and play some music and drink beer. No! They are designing new kit with just crazy features. Let's look at it another way. You bought yourself maybe the iPhone X last year and you're holding it and you're thinking wow look at that this is amazing technology. Do you honestly think that Apple once they brought the iPhone X out have like gone done it now right bye guys go home cheers see ya. See you in a year when we start to maybe think about designing the next phone.

Not at all. Believe me probably two-thirds maybe even halfway through designing the iPhone X they were designing the next model to supersede it because the last thing you do is have one model out and then go right now let's start on the next one. No, there are company there are people sorry in the Apple industry. There are people here who will be who would have designed the iPhone X but next door there are probably people who are designing the one after that maybe they taking leave tips and tricks and whatnot but they will be designing the next one. It's exactly the same in the car industry. In fact it's the same in any industry. It's exactly the same in the DJ industry as well. So the likes of controllers like this Pioneer DDJ-1000 it's pretty damn good

But trust me Pioneer will be making as we speak designing building something else and it's going to be exciting just the same as all of the other companies. So lastly before I finish this video and this involves you if you're a DJ it's happened to all of us. You go to a shop, a store you buy the latest piece of kit from manufacturer X you bring it home you put it on the table and you start having a mix you wake up the following day and you realize that that company has just brought a Mark 2 now apart from getting a gun and shooting your brains all over the carpet you probably get really really annoyed and think damn why didn't I wait. Well if the truth be known if you did wait and you didn't spend your money on the kit you've got in front of you

And you did indeed wait for the next piece of kit they brought out sure enough within one or two years, 18 months, 36 months that would be superseded and you might as well end up blowing your brains out anyway. Not a good idea because you'd never be able to see the Mark 4. Alright so I hope that's been a help practice and enjoy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.