Digital DJ Tips reader Lee writes: “I was looking at the Numark NV and loved the idea of the displays. You mentioned in your Numark NV review that you think more controllers will go that way. I like the individual screens, but the visual I seem to use most in Serato is the combined one to beatmatch.
“My question to you is: How long before we see more information put on such screens? This is a first shot, and it will certainly improve over time if others do it. Who do you think will be next and what kind of stuff will we see?”
Digital DJ Tips says:
“Parallel” waveforms are certainly a help when beatmatching (although Traktor doesn’t have them, even on the big screen of a laptop). There are other ways to show this info though (again, Traktor uses “phase meters”, to give an example). Such an idea could definitely work on a pair of small screens.
Having one large screen is an option I suspect someone will try (think the Numark iDJ Pro, although of course in that case the large “screen” is a lot more than that, being an iPad), and a long, thin screen the width of the controller would certainly look cool – although I wouldn’t hold my breath for that any time soon!
What I think we’ll see next is bigger individual screens, with higher resolutions (those on the Kontrol S8 and Numark NV are more akin to first generation iPhones). We’ll get touchscreens too that will make the controllers more interactive and potentially smaller, as decent touchscreens could make having no jogwheels more palatable for many. I’m excited by the idea of more portable controllers because of this. And finally, I think a “powered by Android”, all-in-one controller is definitely coming from someone soon…
Anyway, I’d like to throw this one open to our members, who I’m sure have some ideas about where this could all be going.
So, over to you! What do you think is next for built-in screens on DJ controllers? What features would you like to see? Please share your thoughts below.
Phil Morse
