The Lowdown
DVS user looking for a bag? You may have just found it in the Jetpack Remix. It’s a great little bag: a really nice size, genuinely innovative, well thought through, and a decent build quality. You could take it on a plane with you no problem, and there’s no fuss with carrying your control vinyl around. Not cheap, but good.
Video Review
First Impressions / Setting up
DJ controller bags come in all shapes and sizes, but one kind of DJ we haven’t seen catered for too much is the DVS DJ. Carrying round your control vinyl, your audio interfaces, your laptop, maybe a stand plus all the paraphernalia like leads, phone, headphones and so on is a necessity for any DVS DJ, so it’s nice to see Orbit Concepts producing a bag especially for this purpose.
In fact, the company came out with a Jetpack bag a year or two back that has now developed into the model we’re reviewing today, the Jetpack Remix. Sleeker, more compact but carrying the same design tradition as the original Jetpack, this boutique bag is “by DJs, for DJs”, and it shows throughout. So let’s take a closer look…
From the off, I have to say I prefer this bag over the original. The original was a well-made and well-thought-out bag, but this one is more “compact” and holds its shape better. It’s a squared off, black waterproof nylon weave-type affair, with decent quality zips, complete with waterproof sealing, and some nice subtle Jetpack branding. The shoulder straps are comfortable (it’s a backpack-style bag), and there’s a clip for joining them across your chest.
It has “thumb holders” on the adjusters, and there’s a top handle too. The padding in the back has a large “hollow” section, to help you run cool when wearing it. There are no big external pockets to break its lines; instead, it has three “internal” compartments which between them hold everything. That is why it is both compact and neat.
The front compartment has a zip that opens the top half or can actually zip the whole front flap off (more about this later); once you get inside the white-lined interior, there is room for business cards, pens (does anyone carry a pen around with them any more?) USB/SD cards, and a wide mesh pocket for leads and so on. There’s also a key hook.
The main compartment behind that unzips to about two-thirds of the way down, and has a big, padded laptop compartment, two deep flapped pockets for small gear items (think DVS breakout boxes, small modular controllers and the like), an upper thin zip mesh pocket for phone, wallet and so on, an elevated large zipped mesh pocket for your headphones (it’ll fit most DJ cans; I managed to get the Nox NS900s in there without an issue, and they’re a model that doesn’t fold). The headphones pocket is designed so your headphones don’t fall down into the bottom part of the bag.
Conclusion
DVS user looking for a bag? You may have just found it in the Jetpack Remix. It’s a great little bag: a really nice size (as big as it has to be, no more), it’s genuinely innovative, well thought through, and of decent build quality. You could take it on a plane with you no problem, and it’s just great that there’s no fuss with carrying your vinyl around – pop the vinyl itself into the pre-stitched-in sleeves, and you’re good to go.
For controller users some of the features are redundant, plus there’s no obvious compartment that’s perfect for a controller, due to all the pockets and so on.
However, I fitted a Vestax VCI-380 into it at a push, to give you a size idea. Also, you’d be pushed fit a controller and a stand-in here; conversely, with an SL2 interface and my control vinyl plus laptop, headphones, a load of leads and other bit and pieces, I still found room for the (also very innovative) Hercules Stand. The personalisation stuff is a clever bit of icing on the cake too, and overall I can thoroughly recommend this bag if you’re a digital vinyl user. It ticks every box and then some.