James Hype has spent years making technical DJing a major part of his sets, using four decks to layer vocals, loops and different tracks live. That approach is now behind Project 1000, where he plans to take on 1,000 tracks in two hours using 16 CDJs and four mixers. The idea grew from his experiments with larger multi-deck setups earlier this year, but the scale of the final challenge goes far beyond anything he normally attempts. Even James Hype has admitted that he is trying something he believes may be impossible.

How James Hype Ended Up With 16 CDJs

The road to Project 1000 started in September when James Hype revealed a square booth containing four separate groups of CDJs, giving him 16 players in total. His aim was never to run 16 tracks at once. More decks meant more immediate access to vocals, loops, samples and full tracks, allowing him to prepare several ideas at the same time without constantly reloading the same players.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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That freedom also created a problem his usual four-deck setup never had to solve. PRO DJ LINK normally connects groups of four players, so expanding to 16 meant dividing the decks across four mixers and finding a practical way to bring the entire booth together. The hardware was only one part of it. Once the setup worked technically, James Hype still had to retrain the way he reached for tracks, prepared transitions and kept track of what was happening across each side of the booth.

The Jump From Eight Decks to 1,000 Tracks

By October, that process had already started with eight decks, giving James Hype a halfway point before attempting the complete setup. After one practice session, he admitted there was still “a long way to go,” which made it clear that doubling his usual number of decks was not something he could simply adapt to overnight.

The eventual target makes those practice sessions even more important. James Hype says one of his normal two-hour sets contains around 50 to 60 tracks, while Project 1000 asks him to fit more than 16 times that amount into the same two hours. At an average of roughly 7.2 seconds per track, there will be very little time to introduce one piece of music before another has to enter the mix.

Project 1000 Is More Than a Speed Test

That pace could easily make Project 1000 sound like a challenge based only on numbers, but James Hype has described a different idea behind it. His four-deck sets already rely on quickly combining acapellas, loops and sections from different songs, and the larger setup gives him far more material to pull from while doing the same thing on a much larger scale.

“In December 2026, I’m attempting something I think is impossible,” James Hype wrote. “In a regular two-hour DJ set, I play 50-60 songs. This time I’m attempting to play 1000 tracks in 2 hours using 16 CDJs and 4 mixers.”

He later called Project 1000 a “love letter to all the dance music tracks that I’ve loved through history.” That makes the choice of 1,000 tracks more interesting than a simple attempt to mix as fast as possible. The set gives him space to pull from different periods of dance music while turning years of fast multi-deck mixing into one concentrated two-hour performance.

The Full Attempt Comes This December

Everything James Hype has been testing over the past few months will come together when Project 1000 takes place in December 2026. Red Bull is involved with the project following other work with him this year, while details surrounding the venue, audience and broadcast have not yet been announced.

The unknown now is whether the full idea can actually work at the speed he has set for himself. Months of building, testing and practising have led to a challenge where every few seconds matters, and reaching 1,000 tracks will depend on how well James Hype can translate his usual four-deck instincts to a setup four times the size.