House music heavy-weights Pete Tong, Roger Sanchez, David Guetta, and Paul Oakenfold, talk about the tools of the trade; Pioneer comes out as a clear winner.
The arrival of the original Pioneer CDJs was the first step in the revolution that moved away from DJing with vinyl. CDs gave people more control and, importantly, less to carry (which a difference if, like Roger Sanchez, you regularly play 8-10 hour sets). Roger Sanchez applauds the way that the Pioneer CDJs reproduced the tactile feeling of mixing with vinyl. David Guetta is also a ‘Pioneer guy’ using the Pioneer 800 (his favourite toy), CDJ 1000s, and a Pioneer Effects Box 1000.
The next step was the release of a range of programs of the likes of Final Scratch, Ableton Live and Serato, that took mixing into the arena of the laptop and led to many DJs being accused of ‘checking their emails’ rather than responding to the crowd, an accusation that Paul Oakenfold claims has some grounding in reality. David Guetta has made the move to Ableton Live for producing music, on the recommendation from Pete Tong as it allows him to record his radio shows on the plane.
However, for Paul Oakenfold it is about connecting with the crowd and getting them to feel rather than listen to the music. In fact, even being a bit out of time occasionally means that they know you are doing it for real.
