A Watershed Moment

There’s hype, and then there’s HYPE! And never before has so much hyperbole surrounded an innovation in the DJing world - the Pioneer CDJ-2000 has well and truly landed, ruffling feathers and changing the way a lot of jocks think about music, let alone approach their sets.

The CDJ-2000 is, seemingly, the complete package; Pioneer has taken heed of DJs desire to functionally combine hardware and software into one sexy-as-hell unit. Multi-media compatibility, the ability to link up to four CDJ-2000s and work them from a single USB stick, the ability to pre-prepare cue points and sets to a level previously unimaginable, a large, colour display screen, audiophile sound quality, needle-search function plus Rekordbox and more - let’s just say that genuine innovation has rarely come in so many forms in a single, fairly future-proof device.

The potential is, if not limitless, certainly mind-boggling.

Who better to speak to regarding this development than Collee Chappel: loveable rogue, staunch Pioneer man for more than 15 years, and someone who’s been involved with more DJs than Paris Hilton in his time at the company. He’s seen it all since the introduction of the CDJ 500, and is better positioned than just about anyone to discuss this amazing piece of kit.

As the result of four years of research, collaboration and constant development, I’m interested to know how closely Pioneer work with DJs through these stages.

“Very closely because the DJs are the most important ingredient in the mix of development, even as far back as the development of the original CDJ 500 back in 1994 - we had people like Roger Sanchez and Paul Oakenfold working with us on development, to name just a few,” says Collee.

“We have a very close alignment with our ambassadors. Our local ambassadors (including Grant Smilie, Stafford Brothers and many others) bring so much to the table that we constantly put them in touch with Japan. It’s a very important mix - no product will go out, even in a test stage, without being looked at extensively by both the global and local guys. Phil K has been instrumental in a lot of early development with both our decks and our mixers. He was doing things on some of the products that the Japanese weren’t even aware of.”

Ask any avid vinyl-lover about the Pioneer CDJ series and they’ll mumble into their food-stained beards about the killing of their ‘precious, their sweet precious’ - interesting then, that Pioneer designed the CDJ to stand alongside the Technics 1200.

“We never intended to emulate vinyl. I guess the thing that set it off was a national campaign with the CDJ 1000 where we ran posters saying ‘start de-vinylisation’,” Collee laughs.

“Those posters got ripped off walls, spraypainted, taken out of Sanity stores ... the thing is, Pioneer has never tried to emulate the turntable. Our players don’t have a spinning platter - every other product that copied us tried to emulate vinyl. If anything, Pioneer gear sat side-by-side with the Technics 1200s - the 500s were designed to sit above the mixer or next to the turntable.

“The death of vinyl? I don’t believe it’s dead to the purists. The hip hop community still backs vinyl - I still listen to vinyl at home, and most of it is freshly pressed stuff. For portability, though, how can lugging crates or bags of vinyl around compare to carrying a USB stick or a sound card? Why would you?”

So how has the CDJ-2000 being received in the clubs and by DJs?

“Initially the price point was always going to be a concern, but once the riders started coming through from the internationals ... put it this way; clubs will sit back and say ‘Oh, we’ve got a Mk3, we don’t need anything else’, but what’s happening is that once people get hold of it, they just demand to use them. I looked at the Future Music Festival DJ rider, and they needed four stages with the new CDJ-2000s - the Mk 3s are just not acceptable. In 30 years, they’ll still be running. They’re like the Technics 1200s - they’re super tough, and will be the industry standard for years to come.

“The culture for DJing, however, remains no different from rock n roll; guy gets rig, gets gig, meets girls, gets laid, gets paid and spends it all on sharp jeans, kicks, T-shirts and ... whatever.”

The Pioneer CDJ-2000 is available now from Lightsounds, 2/72 McLachlan St Fortitude Valley and Store DJ 71, Brunswick Street Fortitude Valley.