Praxis Doktor Andy is adding extra buttons to his Numark DJ 2 Go, ripping it apart and putting it back together again just in the name of making it more … button-y. But he also has something to say to the industry, something that might surprise you:
There are too many good DJ controllers.
He’s posted a full walkthrough of the modifications, enough so that you could duplicate it yourself if so inclined. But you might be equally inspired by a manifesto of sorts interwoven with the build pics. I’ll excerpt here my favorite parts:
Digital Dj’ing has become too clean.
When I was an early adopter of M-Audio’s Torq there were no usable controllers at all (let’s not even think about the xponent, never saw such an ugly piece of plastic).
… Nowadays the situation has changed drastically. There’s a huge amount of great Midi controllers out on the market. You only have to plug them in and that’s it. Most of the DVS-packages even come with pre-configured tepmplates ready for you to start dj’ing without any worries.
I don’t like it.
…
I just can’t help myself but for me digital djing always includes the need and the passion for some amount of own development.This surely can only be done in an area where errors can occur and you are not a stadium-filling super-paid person, but then … this isn’t djing…that’s a concert.
anyways.
Don’t worry. This isn’t another “you kids don’t even know how to beatmatch” rant, or a foray into the “beaten-dead-horse”-infested waters of the vinyl versus digital debate. It’s actually a quite reasonable, and practical, and personal explanation of what he likes to do and why. He explains why he’s adding those extra buttons – and why he abandoned vinyl.
An excellent read. It just might send someone to the garage with some button fever.
Adding 24 Buttons to the Numark DJ2GO