Little over a month ago, I attended DanceFair 2017 in the Netherlands, the sixth edition of a show aimed squarely at DJ/producers. Not as well reported as some of the more established shows, with 6000 square metres of expo floor there is nonetheless plenty to do.
One of the main attraction of DanceFair is the “demo drop” service where you can quickly and efficiently bring your music to the attention of some of the best labels. Also they work hard to offer lots of workshops, masterclasses, presentations and so on covering just about any issue that might be of interest to DJs and producers. From production tips to recording and mastering, from legal issues to marketing and anything in between, there are sessions for everyone.
Of course, shows are inevitably about shiny new things, so here are some of the things I noticed that might be of interest to our readers.
New Products
djay Conversion Utility & Traktor Tag Sync Utility
What manufacturers don’t want to give us, users create themselves. It’s the reason Dutch DJ MixMasterG has created two tools to help him achieve something not possible within the relevant platforms.
While only available for Mac OS and of course pretty niche, these utilities only cost pennies and just may help some readers out.
djay Conversion Utility lets you transfer cues, loops, beatgrids, keys and more from Traktor Pro 2 to Rekordbox, from Traktor Pro 2 to djay (“regular” or “Pro”), and from Rekordbox to djay.
Meanwhile, the Traktor Tag Sync Utility (formerly Traktor Key Checker) does a few Traktor housekeeping tasks for you. It checks if all your Traktor tags have proper Camelot keys in them and collects the tracks that don’t in a separate playlist for easy repair. It also checks if all tags from your iTunes library came across to Traktor correctly. It will also reformat the key info in such a way that the information is usable in the comment field, alongside a few other MP3 and other tagging issues.
LD Systems MAUI 2G
One of the first to market with a highly portable single sub/ twin satellite PA systems that belied their small size in recent years, LD Systems has faced lots of competition, many competitors featuring array satellites instead of “traditional” models.
But with the MAUI 2G systems LG has two great offerings again. they are one sub / one satellite systems, so you’d need two for stereo, and they are pretty compact and portable. Sound is good, the biggest of the two systems definitely fuller than the smaller one. A built-in mixer, Bluetooth connectivity and a few other semi-standard features complete the packages.
Features 2 x 6.5” lows in the sub, 8 x 3” midrange arrays and 2 x 1” tweeters with waveguide horn, all powered by a 500W RMS class D (digital) amp, the smaller MAUI 11 G2) is just €545 street. So just under €1,100 gets you a stereo system small enough to set up in your practice room and powerful enough for most smaller parties (75 to 100 people should be easily done with a pair of these). For all you fashion junkies, they are available in white as well as black.
Big brother MAUI 28 G2 has 2x 8” in the sub, 16 (yup, 16!) 3” midrange speakers and also 2x 1” high end with waveguide horns. There’s 1000W RMS digital power to drive these speakers to a full, warm, complete sound with plenty of low end oomph, with market price around €999 apiece meaning the system offers excellent value as well.
Improved Alpine MusicSafe Pro
Alpine is a worldwide supplier of hearing protection. The company has a few product lines that are great if you want relatively low-budget, generic solutions. They told me that they will be coming out with an improved version of their most popular model, the MusicSafe Pro, with a new shape for even better comfort and better (swappable) filters.
While they made my custom earplugs, which are great, this is a service that is only available to the Dutch and Swiss markets and soon to the UK market, whereas the off-the-shelf models are available anywhere (and for less cash, naturally).
Finally…
Certainly after the non-event of Musikmesse (although this show was actually just before that one), DanceFair has its finger on the pulse for DJs, and for that reason alone, if you’re wanting to attend a European show in Spring next year, maybe scrub out Musikmesse and insert this one instead!
Were you at DanceFair? Got anything you’d like to add to the above? Any views on these products? Let us know in the comments…
DJ Vintage
