Learn the tools of the trade! Learn the industry standard. No laptops! Remember when a certain nightclub banned laptops from the DJ booth? Well, technically, this isn’t a laptop. And “industry standard” – hey, you didn’t say which industry. (Nintendo’s definitely an industry standard.)
This video just crossed my desk, and it’s a clever hack that shows the combination of Virtual DJ and a 7″ Windows tablet, for an ultra-portable DJ rig.
No one likes big, hunky controllers. So the NES30 controller stands in – small, tactile, classic.
Okay, I’ll admit – this is totally ridiculous. (That’s the point.)
Seriously, though, there is something to be learned here. One of the big problems with the state of laptop DJing today is that it’s unnecessarily unstable (hello, El Capitan bugs) and irrationally large. The whole advantage of digital DJing, after all, is opening up new ways of playing and providing a mobility advantage over vinyl. You won’t beat the CDJs once you’re in the club – two Rekordbox-formatted USB sticks literally fit in a pocket. But then that’s meaningless when you’re on the go.
And even if this is a silly proof of concept, I actually think there’s no reason mobile platforms couldn’t find their way into a DJ booth. At the very least, it makes a heck of a lot more sense to carry a tablet around and use that as the storage and computing device with other tactile media.
Yeah, you’re making a ridiculous argument, Peter, this is a video of an NES controller plugged into a tablet.
Yeah, it is. But… really, is it any more ridiculous than lugging a business machine into club that’s basically a typewriter attached to a TV by a hinge? No, not especially. And don’t get me wrong – I love laptops. That’s why I think they need to start evolving and stop devolving.
But no need to worry about that now. In the meanwhile, why not show off ridiculous DJ rigs? After all, a gimmicky abuse of hardware in flagrant violation of how equipment was meant to be used — that’s where DJing came from in the first place.
Previously, same person. (Trial version – this is some serious ghetto fabulous professional DJ rig action. Someone send this DJ a license, yeah?)