donaldpiret.com

<>The moment you open up the box of a pair of HDJ-2000 Pioneer headphones feels almost magical, and it better would, as the first thing you can say about these headphones is that they're definitely not cheap. Pioneer really put the price mark far above most other DJ headphone offerings on the market, around 300€'s including VAT in Europe, or 350$ in the US. This is over twice the price of a very decent pair of Technics headphones (like the rock solid DJ1200A I’ve owned for a while now). The question is, do these headphones really deliver your money's worth, or does Pioneer believe their reputation and brand name will be enough to sell you a product on par with the competition at a much greater price? Let me put things this way: I put my bank account in the red buying these headphones, but after having tried them out at home have never regretted that move. These headphones are by far the best ones I’ve ever tried, and while I still use my Technics for listening to music on the

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On 1 November 2008, Native Instruments, the company behind the hugely popular Traktor software line released the latest version of their DJ-ing software package named Traktor Pro, along with it’s companion Digital Vinyl System (DVS) Traktor Scratch Pro, allowing users to control tracks on their computer using traditional turntables and control vinyl’s.

<>All these changes clearly indicate a paradigm shift away from the traditional 2 decks mixing of Traktor 3, towards a more flexible and live-oriented performance software that Traktor Pro is aiming to be. Interestingly, in the DJ software world, the largest player for live performance software has always been Ableton Live, of version 8 was recently released. So how would Ableton react to Native Instrument’s intrusion on their digital turf?The answer didn’t take much time to arrive, as on October 17, just a few days after Native Instrument’s official announcement of Traktor Pro, Ableton announced their own partnership with anoth

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