|
Nobody mentioned the biggest thing: THIS ISN'T A CDJ! There's NO CD DRIVE in the player! Now there's "rumors" that you'll be able to connect up their dual-deck CD transport unit and use that, but yeah this looks way too complicated for club installs. It's more for mobile jocks and bedroomers.
An integrated hard drive doesn't make sense for a club install, and I don't like how you have to duplicate all your music for each player. Backups are one thing, but that's stupid.
If Pioneer does something similar with the CDJ-1000, I would like the following:
1. Add the ability to play DVD's with digital files (data) on them (not video, that's a whole different beast). DVD drives are cheap, no reason not to provide support for data DVD's.
2. Leave the deck and layout pretty much untouched. Add two buttons, one which selects the playback mode: CD/DVD, USB, MIDI. Add one more button near the platter: menu/back.
3. Have the decks link-able via USB, with an additional USB port on top or in the front. With them linked, any USB device connected to the chain would be accessible via any deck. (not sure if USB prevents this sort of thing with it's protocol design, if so make the decks ethernet linkable and do something else)
4. To play a USB file, hit the menu button. They could replace the vacuum tube vinyl display in the center of the platter with an LCD (keeping the vinyl animation when tracks are playing), and display a very simple iPod like browser interface for tracks (most people know how to use an iPod, why not take advantage of that). Use the side of the jog to select, tap the platter to go into a sub-menu. Tap the platter to select a track and cue it. Allow the "play" button to be used to "preview" a track but not cue it. Hit "back" to go back a menu. Very simple.
5. In MIDI mode, provide an API for software to display things on the 1000's display, so it doesn't appear so "dumbed down" when running on MIDI. This might not be done over MIDI, but make the API available for developers.
6. If a CD/DVD is inserted, automatically switch to CD/DVD mode. Good for emergencies.
It's all theoretical, but wouldn't create a deck that someone already familiar with a CDJ would be intimidated by, and would provide a lot of flexibility. Would eliminate the need for a laptop based solution in most cases.
|