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Today is my first day back in the office following a trip to Frankfurt in Germany for the 2010 Musikmesse and Pro Light + Sound Exhibitions. These co-located international trade fairs feature everything from woodwind instruments to pianos and recording equipment to concert PA systems including a fair few stands featuring gear of interest to mobile DJs. The show is spread across eleven massive halls, some of which are two storey, so it is almost impossible to see every one of the approximately 1500 exhibitors. Of course many of the exhibitors aren’t actually relevant to DJs, so I did my best to track down and check out all of the gear that could prove useful as part of a mobile rig.
One of the halls features a section dedicated to DJ equipment and this is where most of the stands belonging to mixing and playback equipment manufacturers were located. Pioneer's large presence allowed visitors the opportunity to try out the new flagship DJM-2000 mixer for themselves as well as see it put through its paces alongside CDJ-2000 media players in a series of demos.
Numark were also displaying their latest top of the range mixer, the X7, which has been designed as a companion to the company’s V7 motorised turntable software controller. The new MIXDECK all-in-one DJ playback and mixing system was also on display, which I think is likely to prove very popular with mobile DJs when it hits the shops later in the year. Incorporating a three channel mixer and allowing playback from CD, USB device and a dedicated iPod dock, the MIXDECK is a unique and all-encompassing DJing package. It also provides MIDI control of DJ software and therefore brings together every current DJ music format in a single and compact piece of hardware. We’re working on getting a MIXDECK as soon as possible for an in-depth review in a future Pro Mobile. On the subject of reviews, the Numark stand also featured their iCDMIX2, as reviewed in the current issue of the magazine, which is the latest incarnation of the hugely successful CDMIX series of rack-mount combined CD and mixer units for mobile DJs.
The Hercules range of DJ hardware controllers have a provided many DJs with an affordable and useable platform for getting ‘hands-on’ with digital DJing software. The latest edition to the Hercules controller collection, the DJ Console Mk4, was on display at the show and attracting plenty of attention. Although I had already read about and see pictures of the new unit I wasn’t prepared for how incredibly compact the fully-featured controller actually is. Obviously designed for DJs on the move, the new DJ Console will easily fit in the smallest of laptop case assessor pockets.
Many of the exhibitors at the Frankfurt show are international brands, although there are also a fair smattering of UK based companies who use the exhibition to promote their products on the world stage. This year one such brand were mobile DJ gear specialists Kam who, amongst many other products, were showing off the latest model in their innovative LED bar series: the LED Powerbar. The new Powerbar incorporates four slim-line LED Par Cans on a compact and easy to setup bar, just like the original Parbar models, but each of the new product’s cans is equip with seven 3w tri-colour LEDs. This means that the light output from the Powerbar is 375% brighter than the original Parbar, creating a room-filling was of colour.
While many of the DJ related exhibits at the Messe were grouped together, a number of others were spread around different halls due to cross-over in product ranges. Peavey were located in the Guitar Hall due to their large range of backline amplifiers and other live music products, but were also showing off a number of new pieces of PA equipment of interest to DJs. The new IPR range of amplifiers make use of the latest technology (switch-mode power supplies and class D topology) to provide a huge amount of power from an incredibly light unit – look out for a review in the next issue of the magazine. Another interesting new product being previewed at the show were the Impulse 12D powered loudspeakers. These polypropylene moulded enclosures feature the same high quality top-end ribbon drivers used in Peavey concert line-array systems together with premium bass drivers creating excellent sound quality. The Impulse 12Ds also use the same amp technology as the IPR series meaning that not only do they sound great, they also weigh an incredibly low 11.8Kgs – when I tried picking one up, it was so deceptively light I almost launched it across the stand!
To getting to my next port of call involved a ten minute walk and a fair bit of jostling with the muso types trying to get into the guitar hall. American DJ had opted to exhibit in the lighting hall along with sister brand Elation. Key new lighting effects on display included the unique JellyFish reviewed in the current issue of the magazine and the latest addition to the Revo series – the Revo Rave. Like the other LED flowers in the Revo collection, the Rave projects a pattern of light dots generated from red, blue, green and white LEDs. The Rave’s ‘twist’ – excuse the pun – is inclusion of a motorised rotation effect. The two pieces of gear that particularly caught my eye on the stand were the Vizi LED Spot and Vizi Wash LED 108 moving heads. The brightness offered by these new fixtures really shows the leaps and bounds that have been made in the development of LED light source technology – impressive to say the least.
A further hall change was required to catch up with mixer and media player manufacturers Denon, who were exhibiting alongside sister company Allen & Heath in the Pro Audio hall. Together with their range of featured packed mixers and tabletop CD players, Denon were showing off their new DN-HC5000. A dedicated professional controller for Serato® ITCH™, the DN-HC5000 offers the familiar feel of the company’s twin CD player control units to the growing number of DJs who are ditching their CD collections in favour of digital files.
While I’m sure to have missed a few things, I’ve done my best to cover all of the major new pieces of kit that were on display at this year’s Messe. We’re now working on getting as much of it as possible in for review in the next couple of issues. While I hope that our detailed equipment reviews help readers to keep up with the latest technology advances, there really is no substitute for trying equipment out first hand. Fortunately the world’s leading DJ brands will all be right here in the UK in October for this year’s BPM, which is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet. |
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Posted on 28th March 2010 |
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