Hmmm, what's the best way to describe the new Tonium Pacemaker to someone who's never heard of it...
"An iPod on steroids?"
Well that's true. With a 120GB hard drive, there's more than enough room to carry your music collection around with you, and the Pacemaker supports MP3, M4A (AAC-LC), AIFF, FLAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, and SND audio formats.
"A mini-CDJ setup?"
Also true. The Pacemaker features 2 channel mixing, cue points, pitch-bend, audio effects, looping, headphone cueing, 3-band eq - in other words, everything you'd expect to find in a traditional CDJ rig.
What really makes the Pacemaker so compelling (aside from the fact that all of this fits into your pocket) is its ability to record all of your actions whilst you're DJ'ing on it. So any track mixes, pitch bend changes, effects, etc are all recorded as MIDI data. Why is this a good thing? Well, there are a couple of ways that this could come in useful.
Firstly, you can use the Pacemaker as a tool to help you prepare a DJ set. Nothing's more boring than sitting on public transport for an hour or 2 each day - with the Pacemaker, you can plug your headphones in and start mixing, trying out different tracks to see how they work together and picking the best time to drop in an effect. When you get home, you can transfer all of that data from your Pacemaker to 'Pacemaker Editor', the free software that Pacemaker provide. The software will then allow you to view & playback all the tracks, effects, loops etc from your session. You can play it back, see how it sounds, and then edit the mix to your heart's content.
Secondly, if you've used the Pacemaker to DJ a set at a club or friend's place, you've now got a recorded session of your entire mix. Once home, you can again transfer this to the software where you're free to adjust, tinker with, and refine it until it sounds the way you like it. You can then upload your mix to the Pacemaker website to see what others think of it. Tonium have a legal license that allows anyone to upload any mix of songs to their community website for peer review, and this is being touted as another big part of the whole Pacemaker experience. Need a way to promote yourself as a DJ, or just keen to see what others think of your mixes? The editor software makes it so easy as you can publish your mix from within the software - no export to a seperate file required. So you get a personalised site with all your mixes as well as free hosting. Not a bad deal.
It's difficult to define the Pacemaker in 'traditional' DJ'ing terms. I've talked before about the changing face of DJ'ing, and I think this is another step in that direction. The acceptance of digital as a valid medium for DJs has really opened the floodgates in terms of how you can put your music out there, and who's to say what's right or wrong? What's really exciting is seeing products like the Pacemaker, Ableton Live, Serato/Traktor Scratch/Torq etc come to light, and to see the possibilities that they all offer.
Is it something that we'll see used in a club environment? I'm not so sure that we'll see it used as the only piece of equipment, but perhaps as an additional tool to throw into the mix. I could be wrong, but I think it would look too much like you were sending txts from a phone or playing with a PS3 portable if you were to use it on its own. For DJ'ing at home I think it'd be great, especially on a recovery day when you just want to take some tunes around to your friends place and you can't be bothered to pack up your mixer/cd decks etc.
Where I particularly think it shines is in its use as a portable MP3 player with full DJ functionality, its ability to record everything you do in the mix, and its sheer fun factor. It does seem expensive (RRP is $1099, though we sell it for less), but if you think about everything you get for it and how flexible it is (use it at home, in the club, as an MP3 player while your traveling around) it's not too bad. And if you're already in the market for a new iPod anyway, then it's definitely worth a look. The ability to mix up a set whilst you're on a train/bus/flight would just be too much fun. Suddenly, just 'listening' to music on my iPod doesn't seem as much fun anymore! :(
If you have any questions about the Pacemaker at all just drop us a line.
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