Perhaps more than any other segment of the music products industry, the DJ market continues to grow aggressively, offering a prime opportunity for retailers to reap profits. Few brands within the category have the cachet to match Numark, which, for more than 40 years, has combined cutting-edge technologies with a deep understanding of DJs’ needs to create extremely compelling products at prices that serve to democratize the market. Boasting a global engineering team that has grown substantially, as well as product developers who themselves are also DJs and performers, Numark is uniquely well positioned to excel. Speaking to Senior Product Manager Chris Roman, The Retailer learned why NV, the company’s recently released intelligent controller for Serato DJ, has grabbed the industry’s attention.
To say that Numark has a distinguished history in the controller space would be a bit of an understatement. “Numark made its first ‘computer’ controller in 2000, before USB even existed as a standard interface on most laptops,” Roman remarked. “It was a serial-port-driven unit for PCDJ, called the DMC-1.” In late 2006, the company introduced its first controller designed for customers who were getting into DJ software: Total Control. “There were a few strong software options that potential customers were using, including the CUE/Virtual DJ user base and Traktor,” he continued. “So, we designed this interface very simply, with basic features, to be a standard controller for those applications.” Following NS7, a huge milestone in professional-grade controllers that was shown in 2007, the company in 2010 introduced two particularly significant controllers: the top-selling Mixtrack series and the all-metal, more portable NS6. NV finds its roots in this impressive lineage.
Asked about NV’s development, Roman stated, “We were acutely aware that the DJ was focusing more on the computer screen than on the audience, which makes for boring DJs plagued by ‘software face.’” Numark’s extensive global engineering team researched and completely reinvented the way screens would be used in a controller environment. “In collaboration with Serato, we developed the correct feature set for those screens,” Roman added. “We added our capacitive touch technology; separated the mic from the mixer; made the unit sleeker and lighter; and stepped up the visual appearance to the level expected of a modern DJ control system.”
As he delved into NV’s finer details, Roman could not hide his enthusiasm. “We fully anticipate that it will really change the expectations of what a DJ controller is and should be,” he declared. And, to be frank, it’s hard to dispute that point. Integrated into NV’s chassis are two 4.3-inch, full-color, high-resolution screens that provide extensive visualization of Serato’s flagship DJ platform and advanced interactive controls. “On the screens,” Roman continued, “you can navigate your software music library, much as most of us already do on our mobile devices. Then, after you find what you’re looking for, you can see the entire track waveform and cue details without doing any more analysis than you do with Serato already.” In short, NV was designed so DJs could perform with laptops out of sight, without having to sacrifice functionality.
Numark’s NV is equipped with 16 velocity-sensitive pads, and it features 10 modes of control from the five buttons above the pads to manage samples, loops and cues with ease. “In addition,” Roman remarked, “we include our capacitive touch knob technology and drop it in on most of the knobs of the controller. This means EQ kills and Effects activation are spontaneous and ridiculously fun. In addition, we not only brought over the filters from NS7II, but also dropped in our custom filter rolls and effects.” Numark’s intelligent smart learning capacitive technology—perfected over 10 years of development—autocorrects for environmental and human capacitance nuances. “That means, when you grab our wheels, they’ll respond to your touch each and every time, just as you expect,” Roman added.
With NV, Numark has achieved a level of integration with Serato DJ that blurs the line between hardware and software. “Intentionally, and to the DJ’s benefit,” Roman affirmed. “We’ve developed top-selling control solutions for all major DJ software providers, but what our engineering team has done with the team in New Zealand really does create a solution that’s no longer just a MIDI or HID map but that, instead, brings into the hardware what you see on the screen.” He continued, saying, “It wasn’t easy, and it’s not as simple as putting a video on the screen.” So, what does this all mean for the audience? There’s far less focus on the “computer wallpaper” that can come between the performance and them. And, for the DJ, he or she can once again pay attention to the crowd and be more interactive.
Numark’s multiple-decade market leadership brings with it high expectations from the company’s loyal customers, who eagerly await each new product. At this year’s DJ Expo in Atlantic City NJ, at which NV was shown, the response could not have been more gratifying for Roman and the team. “The feedback has been absolutely great!” he enthused. “Everyone who has touched it, tested it, felt it and used it has said they really like what we did. It’s taking all the best features and bringing them forward, which, on its own, sets NV apart.” He called it an industry first that helps to solve real-world user problems, saying it “was designed for all the controller DJs who want to interact with the crowd more and spend less time bending their neck to see the computer screen.”
It seems clear that NV’s going to be a hot-selling product for months—and years—to come, and Numark is reaching out to all its brick-and-mortar partners to make sure they’re aware and well positioned to capitalize. Roman explained, “DJs buying equipment at this price point always want the newest and hottest gear, and NV is just that.” In fact, the company designed the unit to self-sell. “When plugged in at retail, the screens actually put on a performance of their own, explaining what NV does,” he remarked, adding, “You can’t really say that about any other controller on the market at the moment since…well…they don’t have color screens.”
NV’s available now with a $699 MSRP.