7:14
Do you need the high-end Pioneer kit?
On YouTube this video is called DJ Should You Buy the Top Pioneer High End Kit Question Answered
What this lesson teaches
He has just part-exchanged his way into a Nexus setup, and uses it to answer the question it provokes: should you invest in high-end equipment, and will it make you a better DJ?
The second answer is no, flatly, and he does not hedge. Equipment does not supply knowledge of the music, feel, or the judgement to read a room. He knows DJs on terrible kit who produce mixes that sound like a superstar made them, and he is drily rude about some superstars in the other direction.
The rule worth taking away
This is the part to remember, because it is specific and it is right.
If you have a fixed amount to spend - his example is around two thousand pounds, enough for either one flagship player or one flagship mixer - buy the mixer.
The reasoning holds up under examination. Everything you play passes through the mixer, from both decks, all night. It carries the EQ, the filters, the effects and the output stage, so it sets the sound quality of your whole system in a way that no single player can. Two decent players through an excellent mixer is a good-sounding setup. One superb player and one cheap one through a poor mixer is not, and you cannot even use the expensive one properly, because its partner cannot keep up with it.
There is a second reason he does not mention: mixers tend to date more slowly than players, which are tied to media formats and library software. Players get superseded by format changes - new media, new library software, new screens. A good mixer is still a good mixer in ten years, because making two signals sound right together is not a problem that keeps being re-solved.
The two warnings
On finance, his question is the correct one and it is not about now: can you pay that amount in month thirty-six? Equipment finance is sold on whether you can afford the first payment, and taken out by people imagining their best year rather than their average one.
On obsolescence, he is reassuring rather than alarming. Yes, there will be a Mark II, and yes, people buy a month before one lands and are furious. That is true of cars and phones and everything else, and waiting for the version after next is a way of never owning anything. Buy when you need it.
The analogy, straightened out
He reaches for a hotel - the mixer as the reception area, the players as the rooms - and then half-argues himself out of it on camera, which is honest of him.
It does work, with the emphasis in the right place. Reception is what everything passes through and what sets your expectation of the rest. A magnificent restaurant behind a man with a clipboard and a cigar does not read as a good hotel. But the rooms still have to be habitable - a superb mixer cannot rescue players that skip.
Which is really the same advice as the budget rule. Spend on the thing in the middle first, then bring the ends up to meet it.
Contents of the video
0:00 It's from Karmic Power Records
Alright guys, first off, the tune you're listening to is the original mix, DJ Alexia Dancing Grooving. It's from Karmic Power Records. Right, so I have just got the Nexus 2 series from Pioneer and a big shout out and thank you very much to GetInTheMix.com for letting me have the kit. It wasn't for free, I part-exchanged my old kit. So if you are interested in maybe upgrading, then go and check them out because pretty much what you can do, so long as your kit is still working, they do not want to tat, just give them a call, tell them what you've got, they will give you a rough idea of what you can expect to get, you send your items there, pay the remainder and you get some new kits. Okay, so, should you invest in high-end equipment?
Now that's what this video is all about. And also, if you invest in high-end kit, is it going to make you a better DJ? Well the answer to those two questions, first of all, is the first one, it depends on your budget. Secondly, the answer is very simple, no, it won't make you a better DJ. Just because you've got the best kit in the world will not make you a better DJ. It's useless. It's about you. It's about how you use the kit, it's about your knowledge of the music, it's about the feel, the vibe and the energy you give. I know of DJs who have got their crappiest kit in the world, yet they can come up with an organic mix that sounds as though it was made by a superstar. Strange thing is some superstar DJs can't even mix to save their lives but we won't go into that right now.
2:28 Both of them should be around about the same price
Don't do that. Let's not go there. Okay, so this system here is very expensive. It's club standard but it is very good. So should you invest in kit like this? Well if you've got the money, you've got the know-how and the knowledge and you are good at your trade and you are committed then by all means give it a go. If not, on the other hand let's imagine, let's ask a few questions. What should you get? Should you get the 2000 Nexus Mark II or should you get the DJM-900 Nexus Mark II? Now both of them should be around about the same price. Now without fail I would highly recommend you get the mixer. Why? Well, the mixer there is more to it. There is more life to it. In other words if you've got a couple of let's say lower end CD players or vinyl turntables
The mixer will do justice for you because you've got effects, you've got a better sound quality. There is more to it instead of investing that same amount of money and buying one CDJ-2000 Nexus Mark II. So you've got a Nexus Mark II, you've got a dodgy mixer and you've got another CD player. That's not a very good idea is it? On the other hand you've got two randomly pretty good mixers. Two randomly pretty good CD players and you've got a rather nice mixer in the middle. Now that works, OK. Also if you're going to go on finance just be careful and make sure that the amount you have to pay per month you can pay. Don't think oh I've got enough money now fine. You need to look to the future. You need to work out do you have that amount in say 36 months time?
If you've got to pay it over three years. Do you have it in 12 months? Over one year? 24 over two years? Or 5,548,000 months over your lifetime? And your children and their children and their children and their children. By then it will be superseded which is another thing. Now then technology is moving on leaps and bounds all the time. So do you invest in this thinking? Knowing that you will have the best kit? Or do you invest in this thinking that potentially there could be something better coming out? Or do you not invest in something like this knowing that there will be something else coming out and you hold tight. Now again it's entirely up to you because I know of people who have literally just bought something by someone, a company
5:13 I mean the CDJ Nexus 2000 is a very good player
And then a month later they've got a mark too. And they've been just very annoyed and unhappy. Which I can understand but then that is life. I mean come on it's the same in any industry. You don't buy a Ford Cortina and all of a sudden that's it. There will be something else that comes out. Look at an iPhone. I mean we're on iPhone what 7, 8 now? 7 exactly. You don't buy an iPhone 6 and then think that's it there won't be anymore. Nope there will be as there will be a new iPhone in the future. Okay so I mean the CDJ Nexus 2000 is a very good player. Touch screen, I mean you've probably seen a million and one reviews anyway. But like I said if you're going to have a choice, if there was a choice If you had pretty much 2K burning a hole in your pocket
I would go for the mixer. End of. Because you have got One excellent Reception area and the mixer is your reception area of the hotel. Let's imagine this. Here's a good analogy for you. You walk into a hotel And there is a trestle table with some bloke behind it Rough looking, with a piece of paper and a pencil Smoking a big fat cigar And you'd think I don't want to stay in this hotel Yet if you'd have gone into the restaurant The restaurant was pristine Stunning with shadows With chandeliers everywhere Now that is the equivalent of having a very dodgy mixer And having a CD player. What's the point in having a great room But when people enter the hotel They are confronted by some dodgy person sitting on a chair On the other hand if you've got a very plush reception area
That looks fantastic Then that's welcoming People will enjoy that They will look at that and think All of the hotel The rest of the hotel must be fantastic But in a way the analogy works the other way Because the reception could be great But the rooms are shabby Because you've got inferior CD players Oh dear The mind boggles But anyway hopefully you get where I'm coming from here Okay So expect to see a few more videos on this in the future There will be info in the description On GetInTheMix.com And go and give them a call Tell them what you've got And you never know You might have some sort of a deal And I'll finish off with Practice and enjoy Thank you very much
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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