Real DJs Across The World Grimace In Disgust

DJing has been becoming more commoditized with every new "cool" & "revolutionary" DJ technology to hit the market. With another valiant attempt at this, as well as jumping on the iPod bandwagon, the quasi-craptacular DJ hardware company Numark adds a new Cool & Revolutionary product to their catalogue. Characteristically innovative yet lacking in the usefulness department, the Numark iDJ is a basic DJ mixer with integrated iPod docks & controls. Mixing tracks all night from two iPods may sound like a really cool idea, but from the looks of things and Numark's reputation, I can assure you this console offers nothing that spectacular.

Spec. wise, this is a pretty basic 2 channel DJ mixer. It has 3 band EQ, trim & level meters on each channel. For inputs it has a phono and line on each channel as well as USB ports for playing tracks from your computer. It also has an s-video output for iPod Photo capabilities, which seems pretty useless while playing a party. It lacks fader curve, kills and effects which some DJs find necessary. The main missing feature however, is any way to control the pitch of the tracks that are playing on the iPods (a flaw reflected in the price). Unless you beatmatch all your tracks before even putting them onto your iPods (neither easy, nor accurate), any kind of real DJing is going to send you back to your decks. Other than doubling as an expensive iPod computer dock, the same effect can be achieved with two RCA-to-Stereo Mini cables and any regular DJ mixer. How many people have two iPods anyway? The only thing this is going to do is detract people from DJing the right way and discourage support for underground artists who actually need the money from their record sales.

The iDJ is set for release in the 3rd quarter of this year at a MSRP of $399. Come Christmas time the Mac geek of frat houses across the globe will be painfully mashing & trainwrecking together Ludacris tracks from his iPods at a crappy party until someone spills MGD in it then beats his ass for being the frat nerd and getting all up in his face about it.

Fuck iPods, The End.

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