The Tonium Pacemaker is possibly one of the coolest gargets you can get your hands on for under $500 if you're a DJ.
Last week somebody told me that real DJs are analog. While I’m a huge fan of the warm sound of vinyl, I’m pretty sure this person has never lugged 15 crates of albums up four flights of stairs, only to have to return to the van to get the turntables and mixer. While some DJs are visiting the chiropractor for their back problems, Tonium introduces the Pacemaker 666. This handheld portable mixer might not replace a full kit for pros, but for hobbyists-or even club DJs looking to, um, mix things up for a while-the Pacemaker stays on-beat.
So what is it?
The Pacemaker is essentially a Portable mixer, MP3 player, and turntable midi controller crossed with pure awesome. In a nutshell it is a DJ tool that lets you make mixes using songs on its 60GB internal hard drive using a combination of buttons and a circular touchpad. Controlling tempos, effects like reverb, audio properties such as treble and bass are done via the circular touchpad through a series of gestures.
You can store and mix tracks right on the device, or do it on the included software (which makes it really easy by he way) and this makes it possible for professional or amateur DJs to take their beats on the road with them. If needed, the device could essentially act as a makeshift DJ booth just in case a rave breaks out and you have your Pacemaker handy.
Using the device was much easier than I anticipated. The quick start guide showed you the simple gestures required to do whatever you wanted to the track, whether it was fade to the cued track, add in reverb, or beat-match. Soon enough, I had the gestures memorized, and was making poor attempts at mixing some really awesome songs. The controls on the Pacemaker include a few buttons to select between the two tracks, a touch pad for doing the bulk of your controls and selections, a touch slider to control the fade, and a switch on the side that acts as sort of an alt-choice selector. The display is beautiful and gives you BPM readouts, EQ, track names, and with the right gesture, can show all the different sound effects you can add in.
The Pacemaker will make many DJs extremely happy, whether they want to simply mix and save tracks on the go, listen to their own mixes and re-mix them, or put on a make-shift rave. The headphone out and audio-out allow for two tracks to be played and cued respectively so the DJ can beat-match and control volumes as well. Syncing your own tracks to the device is as easy as it can be. Drag and drop them onto the device through the included software. You can even import your entire 1980′s techno collection from iTunes the first time you start the software.
The Crux:
At $499.99, the price can seem very steep if you just want to play DJ. However, if making mixes is a passion of yours, the Pacemaker is incredibly useful. IN summary it has the cool factor but it is definitely a musical instrument-if you are willing to learn how to use it, you will get better with practice.
This Review brought to you by Auckland DJs