Musikmesse 2016: Our Best Of the Rest

This is our roundup post of an assortment of products and experiences from Musikmesse 2016 that haven’t yet been featured on the site. It was quite a quiet show, coming as it always does so closely after NAMM, but as ever there’s nowhere better to get the feel for what’s going on in the industry than at a show…

Best of the rest

New Monster Go mini DJ controller

We’ve covered these before, although we dismissed them as a complete gimmick. yet they kept popping up at shows, and this time the company cleverly actually had a DJ playing on one of them… and she was doing a great job, too. So suitable chastened, we then spotted there was a new version coming out, with real knobs, and even built in speakers. No idea who it’s aimed at, but see it for yourself in this video.

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Mini arrays

Here’s just one example (think this was Adam Hall), but it seemed every PA company was showing mini arrays like these. We’ve all seen speakers at big concerts that look like this, suspended either side of the stage. They had a good “depth” as they can throw sound over people’s heads to the back of a room, and also fill in audio closer. These tiny versions usually attach to a pole that sits in the subwoofer, to give a small,powerful PA system, the subwoofer taking a bit more of the low mids off the mini array than usual

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American DJ Icon Profile lamp

This gobo projector can be used as a spotlight, is incredibly bright for its size, weight and price, and you can get slides made to project what the hell you want onto walls with it. Lights like this used to cost 1000s, but this is a true starter version, which would be just fine for playing smaller parties,or indeed, as an installation light in small bars,lounges and so on.

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PartyBag backpack DJ speaker

Aptly enough being demoed next to the tiny Monster Go Dj controller, this is a fun little design that can be thrown onto your back for easy transportation up a mountain, to the beach, or wherever. It had battery power and was packing quite a punch. Definitely one for your Christmas stocking list if you’re hell bent on causing musical mayhem in places you can’t take publix transport to, or plug into main electricity once you get there…

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DJ Tech crazy concept gear

Another year, another load of DJ Tech crazy gear. This stuff doesn’t actually even exist. We got the scoop on a standalone crossfader designed for completely portable scratch practice, and a Dicer metamorphosised into , well, a metal plank. Mad? Maybe. Will they ever actually happen? Well, is putting 12″ control vinyl into the over then cutting it down to 7″ crazy? Yup. Do people do it, yes they do. So who knows? If you do, these are your controllers.

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Vinyl pizza cutter

Here’s something we spotted in one of the display cabinets between halls as we hiked around the rather large space that is the Messe centre… this music-centric pizza cutter bills itself as “a cut above the rest”, and would be the idea present if you know a DJ who likes to play, ahem, Italian piano house, or whose sets tend to be a bit (four) cheesy, or who tends to go a bit overboard on the Slicer. OK, I’ll stop now.

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UDG record trolleys

Full circle for veteran bag company UDG Gear, which started off when I were a lad making record bags, moved into all kinds of production and DJ gear cases (which it still makes), but now has come back around again with a new range of record trolleys. One that caught my eye was the slanted version, where your music is held at aslant right from the off, making those “half out, half in” set selection techniques easier to pull off in the DJ booth.

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Reloop 20th birthday party

The Reloop team were in fine form at their now-traditional first evening sushi party, and so they should be, celebrating 20 years of manufacturing DJ gear, and doing so on their home turf of Germany. As well as the branded champagne and beer, they had DJ Angelo among others banging out the beats (and us Periscoping him live). Here’s to another 20, dudes… and looking forward to your 21st party. Same time same place next year?

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Magma Numark Dashboard case

No it’s not Magma branching out into making snooker cue cases, this is in fact Magma’s case for the Numark Dashboard, the device that allows you to add three screens to any Serato DJ controller, in order to help you ditch (or at least hide) the laptop. Magma had a few new things on display, including a rather heavy duty hard case for the equally heavy duty Denon DJ MCX8000. Review to follow soon…

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LiteConsole beer guard

Oh yes, we’ve all been there, someone tries to rest their drink on the narrow ledge between the dancefloor and your expensive DJ gear. It gets worse, though, because there actually is no flat surface at the front of a LiteConsole stand, so every attempt simply has to end in beer on the gear. Which as is pointed out in the video, can lead to fights. Not good. so here’s the solution. Marvel at its genius and simplicity.

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Record crate cushions

Ah, the memories. I remember parking myself on my (real) record box many a time outside clubs back in the day. These cushions are a bit bigger than a real record box, very comfortable, and surprisingly light, too. Demoed here by Dean from Rane, and my good self. They also don’t give you as cold a bum as metal boxes, if such information is of any importance to you.

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Reloop RP7000 Gold

We toyed with the idea of making a Spandau Ballet intro to this video, buy time and apathy got in our way. Not towards the product, you understand, indeed, it’s a rather fetching version of the company’s popular RP7000 model, only this time in gold, to celebrate 20 years in business. There was also a gold cartridge, and a gold… well,you’ll just have to watch the video to find out, won’t you?

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PlayDifferently Mixer

It was here, in a closed room on somebody else’s booth, not that we got to see it because there was nobody there when we turned up for our arranged appointment – the cheek! 😉 Anyway, expect news soon on this, an meanwhile here’s a teased pic.

Spot anything at Musikmesse this year that we missed? Enjoyed our show coverage? Got anything to say about any of this stuff? Let us know in the comments…