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The most important piece of equipment a DJ should have is not a good mixer. It’s not a good pair of headphones. It’s not even stylish clothes to wear on stage. It’s something as simple as the humble flash drive.
Your music has to get onto the hardware somehow, and the tried-and-true USB reigns supreme. But, not all USB sticks are created equal. Some of them get their data onto the hardware quickly; others are slower. Some of them will automatically be in the correct format (usually FAT32); other will need to be reformatted. And, most annoyingly, lots of them only connect to USB-A ports. If you haven’t picked up on this by now, the entire world is moving to USB-Cs. Dongles to connect your USB-A device to a USB-C port are now almost necessary if you’re a live artist.
That is, unless you’ve got a flash drive like the PNY Duo Link V3. The newest product from PNY, this flash drive promises lightning quick read/write speeds and connectivity to both USB-A and USB-C devices. This, in theory, makes it a great stick for DJs: if all works well, you can get your music onto the stick quickly by plugging into your laptop (which may only have USB-C ports at this point), then instantly switch it to USB-A mode to quickly get that music onto the system when it’s time to perform (most systems I’ve seen require USB-A).
I got my hands on a copy to check out. Here are my thoughts.
Unboxing and Setup
You’ve seen how a USB stick is packaged before. This is no different. But, when you take it out of the package, it becomes very clear how this stick differs from a lot of its competitors.
As you can see, it includes both connectors on either end, and you can choose which connector to use simply by spinning the connector end. It’ll click into place when you’ve set it so that only one connector is showing – you just have to push on it and apply a little force to have it click out of place and switch to the other connector. Think of it as the USB version of a fidget spinner. It never will randomly unlock, thankfully, so you won’t have to deal with it moving around while it’s plugged into a port.
This arrived the day before my most recent show, so I immediately put it to work.
I hooked it up to my laptop (which only has USB-C ports), made sure it was in FAT32 mode, and threw my Rekordbox library onto it. The version of the Duo Link I have has 1 TB of storage, so I’m never going to have to worry about fitting all of my music onto it (to be fair, you’ll likely not have to worry about that even if you have the smallest version of this USB, which clocks in at 256 GB). This export was just over 7 gigabytes, and completed in just under three minutes. Considering I have other USBs that take closer to 90 minutes to complete a similarly sized export, that’s a great sign.
After that, I threw it in my backpack.
Performance
Here, you can see the USB plugged into a CDJ the next day. The CDJ instantly recognized everything on it with no latency whatsoever. I had backup USBs with me in case this didn’t work for some reason, but those remained in my pocket.
On the day of the show, I also re-plugged it into my laptop a few times, as I had to make a few changes (i.e. place a couple markers, load another song I forgot to include on my USB the first time, etc). Normally, I’d have to get a dongle to do that, but not this time. I just plugged it in, made the changes on Rekordbox, exported everything over, and five minutes later, I was done. It made it so much easier to make last-minute changes to my setlist.
Needless to say, the show went great, thanks in so small part to this wonder stick.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
This is one of the best flash drives I’ve ever used.
Quick uploads? Check. Ability to connect to any port that I’ll need to connect to? Check. Sturdy build? Check. Enough storage? Check. Option to double as a fidget spinner in case I get stressed before my set? Check – but I probably shouldn’t do that. This thing has it all.
There are several storage and pricing options.
The 1 TB version I have usually costs 82 USD on Amazon. Don’t need a full terabyte or want to save some money? The 256 GB version is only $35. That’s more than enough space for all of your music at a reasonable cost. If you think 35 dollars is a little steep for a USB, I’d like to remind you that a good USB could be the difference between you successfully performing and you not being able to load your music not the mixer, so it’s worth it to splurge a little bit.
Cons:
No protection for either connector.
My only gripe with this stick is that there’s no way to protect either connector from potential damage. A plastic cover or a small bag to keep it in would have been a nice touch. But, as long as you take good care of your equipment, this won’t be a problem for you.
Conclusion: Should you get it?
As I’ve said a few times now, this is up there with some of the best flash drives on the market right now. If you’re a DJ, yes, you should get it.
Buy the PNY Duo Link V3 here.
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