For all of Pioneer’s current DJ market dominance, they still face strong competition in the controller, mixer, and vinyl turntable arenas. But in the media player/CDJ/digital turntable world, they’re nearly completely unchallenged. It’s been a year since we first saw the XDJ-1000, but with the CDJ-2000Nexus now 3 years old, it’s about time that we saw an update to the top of the line player from Pioneer. What will it look like, and what will it do differently? Read on and share your own speculation inside.
Speculative Features On The CDJ-3000 / XDJ-2000
With feedback from some of the DJTT community and our own crystal ball of DJ speculation, we’re ready to make a few guesses as to the feature set on the next Pioneer CDJ/XDJ player. As always, none of this is based on inside knowledge (Pioneer keeps their product development on ultra-secret status) – so don’t take this article as a guarantee:
- Beat move / loop move: Being able to jump around by 1, 2, or 4 beats was first introduced on XDJ-1000, and despite our hopes we haven’t seen the feature added to any of the other players. We’re willing to bet this feature will make a strong appearance in the next player – ideally with an expandable move range to 8, 16, or 32 bars!
- Dual Deck Control: When you start pairing players only with digital music files, there’s no reason you can’t have the ability to control multiple playing decks with one controller. Add an A/B deck selector like on the DDJ-SX, and a screen that can show both decks (like the Kontrol S8 or Kontrol D2).
- Bottom-of-deck Cue/Loop controls: We’ve seen these under-jog pads make an appearance on almost every controller in the last three years, including Pioneer’s XDJ-RX all-in-one controller. Considering the rise of Rekordbox DJ, it seems all too possible that Pioneer’s top-of-the-line player will gain this style of control.
- Three color options: Naturally, Pioneer will come out with this in black, white, and shiny silver platinum – just like every other piece of gear that the company has made in recent memory.
- Mixed In Key Integration: With over 24,000 likes on a recent post petitioning Pioneer to add Mixed In Key metadata importing (Key + Energy + Cue Points), it would be pretty surprising for the company to not at least consider integrating the software in some way to their players. But with the rise of the Rekordbox DJ software, it’s unlikely that they would make development for a 3rd party utility a priority. We can dream!
What Do YOU Want The Next CDJ/XDJ To Do?
As always with these speculative articles, one of the best parts is reading what ideas the DJTT community has. In the comments, post your feature requests, Photoshop mockups, and dreams for the future of DJ media players. We know Pioneer is likely watching – which makes it all the more exciting.
[…] Read our thoughts about the next Pioneer media player (likely called XDJ-2000) here. […]
Completely remove the CD part that should save a bunch of weight and money.
Make them cheaper. Better build quality.
Pitch down to 0.01 % please.
This is my dream setup, motorised vinyl platter CDJ & DJM mixer with FX on each channel!
What do you think?
They should take their turntable and replace the tonearm with a laser to read timecode vinyl then give me a massive commission for that brilliant idea.
[…] Read our thoughts about the next Pioneer media player (likely called XDJ-2000) here. […]
[…] Read our thoughts about the next Pioneer media player (likely called XDJ-2000) here. […]
[…] Read our thoughts about the next Pioneer media player (likely called XDJ-2000) here. […]
would be really interesting to have streaming as an audio source built in. connect to the internet using that ethernet port the players always have, via the kuvo system that still hasn’t gotten anywhere and could be pushed forward with this type of connection or by wifi, seeing as many of their products already can take tracks from the rekordbox app over wifi. Then the DJ pays 10$ a month or something for the service and puts a registration file onto their usb (again, much like the kuvo service) and they’ll then get access to streaming from something like the spotify or beatport catalog. Would be a great advantage to mobile DJs especially with that new keyboard search feature.
The thing holding this back is pioneer would ideally want to use their own streaming service for this type of thing and right now they seem to have no plans to develop something like that. The development of their own DJ software suggests they don’t want to work with third-party services but it’d be a very interesting feature to see none-the-less.
At the very least, if they are going to keep their prices all high and mighty, noses down upon us, with their big over sized psychopathic corporate ego prices, they should at least make them out of 24 carrot black gold! if that even exists! It sucks hard because they literally only cater for the rich and as the saying goes, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but real talk – if they keep pricing their shit as greedily as they have been it will 100% backfire on them sooner rather than later because i’ve been lucky enough to test out the Pioneers against Native Instruments, AKAI and Numarks and pennies against pounds, you really are getting your pennies worth with the “lesser” brands and if they don’t catch up, fix up and start looking as sharp as they price themselves to be they are definitely, 100% going to be doing a Nokia nose dive into the land of two-thousand and late. What do i want from you Pioneer? compatibility with EVERYTHING, high-end outs, decent build quality, a price for those of us who have the ability to empathise unlike you multi-millionaire money is everything, never been loved or was bullied in school so grew up screwing everyone over just to get more money as a result as feeling the need to feel superior, as a result of low self-esteem counterparts or were just born into money psychos. Keep it knobby! don’t go to crazy with the touch screen, the XDJ was not enough knobby, the design of the CDJ2000NXS has always been sexy as fuck, keep it that way but also still include a decent touch screen. If you are going to change the design, especially if you are going to remove the CD feature (tbh i’m actually not that fussed…) you should keep the 2000nxs face theme but make it denser, like the macbook air, the same dimensions as a macbook pro but squished downwards like a piece of pastry that doesn’t expand at the sides, so it looks even sexier =)
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My key ask would be that it had 8 RGB Pads.
I’d be really happy with a high end XDJ model over CDJ if it helped keep the cost down a bit. At anything +£1000, I’d expect it to be able to play CDs even though I do not use them.
An SD Card slot like on 2000 Nexus for discreet primary library.
Better iPad Rekordbox app, basically a full browser so I can keep the player in performance or waveform view and keep my library visible on iPad with drag to deck loading.
Digital Out would be nice.
As Rekordbox DJ’s rising up and as the DDJ-RZ (and the DDJ-RX) are not standards in festivals’, clubs’, bars’ and in any of others venues’ dj booths, and as Allen&Heath Xone:92 is a better and a more standard mixer from my point of view, Pioneer should develop an independant controller dedicated to Rekordbox DJ functions, which are not controllable with with Pioneer standard gears (CDJ-2000NXS/soon: XDJ-1000)
I mean a controller with:
-16 pads: 8 hot cues per deck, pad FX, slicer (with slicer capture), 16 slots sampler, sampler sequencer
-loop capture
-1 effect management section per deck like on the DDJ-RZ (FX1, FX2)
-10 sound color FXs
-21 changeable beat effects with time adjust
-19 changeable single FXs with time adjust
-changeable release FX
-quantize effect.
exFAT and/or NTFS support! Currently it is too difficult/complicated for Windows users to use USB storage media that is larger than 32GB. Pioneers “solution” is to use a 3rd party tool to make a larger FAT32 partition, but in my experimentations I was not able to copy anything to the media (as Windows thought it is full even that it was empty…)
although I consider FLAC support much more important than this (pls upvote it also, I made also a FLAC thread somewhere below (or above) 🙂
this right here more than anything!! i would love exfat or ntfs support… would much prefer to use larger flash drives in their proper settings… i’m sure ntfs is a license issue with microsoft.. i’m sure they’d have to pay them to be able to be compatible.
yes, but if cheap CDJ clone like Numark NDX-800 does support NTFS (it does, I reads in the manual and I tested it myself!), which costed like 300eur or something…?, then there is absolutely no excuse for Pioneer to not have NTFS support in a 1800eur CDJ product
yikes!! i wasnt aware anybody had NTFS Support. On the pioneer forums one of the moderators keeps yapping that ntfs support would make the player cost more money. Hopefully they don’t use that excuse the next time around.. and hopefully they add usb 3.0/3.1 so we can get some faster load times! It’ll be great when we can use external SSDs and take advantage of their speeds
Gemini CDJ-650 and CDJ-700 have also NTFS support
I use SSDs and even without support for USB3/3.1, they are faster. It is very noticeable when I use link compared to my Patriot Supersonic Rage XT 64GB, which is a very good USB stick. When exporting from Rekordbox it’s a huge speed difference. I can recommend using SSDs all day long 🙂 .
Good to hear! I think i’m going to be upgrading my desktop ssd’s soon. Might as well shove the old 128gb samsung 840 pro in an enclosure and see how that goes. Thanks for the input/ hinted suggestion!
ExFat isn’t hot pluggable. Say goodbye to all your data if you yank out your USB.
maybe you are mixing with NTFS…? ExFat was designed for external storage and AFAIK is hot pluggable.
I’m surprised that so many find it difficult to format a USB to FAT/FAT32. I have otherwise intelligent friends who trashed their expensive USB’s after formatting them to exFAT and bought new ones…. There are a number of ways to do the formatting, but I prefer a little program called guiformat.exe. I use it for my USB’s and SSD hdd’s and it works like a charm with the Pioneer gear. If you dare, klick the link 🙂 , or look it up yourself. http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm . It’s not only Pioneer’s gear that requires drives to be in FAT/FAT32, but almost every media device on the market. So this little program comes in handy to have on your desktop.
Just make this for 499.99 Pleeeaaase.
Looks like it’s time to sell the decks on Ebay before they drop even more in price…
And Pioneer, I want:
– Rotating platers with more of a vinyl feel. (Prob NEVER gonna happen)
– More cue bottons to access the now 4-8 hot cues in your software
– Better beat grid analyzing in Rekordbox
– FX manipulation knobs on the CDJ (to manipulate FX in new Rekordbox software)
– No CD slot (because CD’s are dead and my laptop doesn’t even have a CD drive in it.)
– Touch screen for better on player song search and GOOD performance features. Like maybe an X-Y FX pad and that’s it. (No lame ass touchscreen buttons like XDJ did)
– Stacked waveforms on each CDJ screen instead of phase meter
– Timecode vinyl implementation alongside CDJs at the same time. (hopefully with new software)
– BETTER iOS app that actually SUPPORTS LOSSLESS FILES or it’s useless to me.
Where to begin.. lol
I started on the TRAKTOR S4 and was in love and still to this day prefer it., but I switched over to the XDJ-1000’s (and since learned CDJ-2000s) since these are the standard in any club or damn near any festival or other event. Controller DJ’s (at least where I’m at) are still looked down upon.. but with that said I love the look at feel of my XDJ’s.. but they are nothing compared to TRAKTOR and PIONEER needs to step it up in the next iteration if they want to even think about staying in the future DJ market.
But I digress.. here is what I am hoping to see in the next pro XDJ controller:
1. Beat Jump feature revamp: In TRAKTOR you can scrub and entire track from beginning to end just as fast as you can turn the knob. The XDJ “performance mode” beat jump is clunky, its delayed, and it lags behind the more you press it as if each jump request is being processed in a queue. It practically worthless for any DJ attempting to use this feature as an effect or to quickly get to the part of a song you need in time for a drop or other key point in a song. I gave up trying to use it for anything more than a quick “Oops I missed the drop, let me catch it up one measure”. Track scrubbing on the XDJs is slow in general. This needs to be revamped. Ditch the old “CD player” style and get with the times. These are MP3 players and should function like one.
2. Loop Effects: One of the other cool features of TRAKTOR that i miss is the Beat Masher effect. In many ways that effect works like a “quick loop” feature., and with the addition of rhythmic stutters and patterns it makes for some really cool and transitions. “Oops that track is almost done and im not ready” Slam on the beat masher, tweak it a bit while you transition with your other hand. And this leads me to my next item..
3. MIDI CONTROLLER SUPPORT!!: Why can’t we feed IN a midi controller to the XDJ’s? Why not be able to trigger the play, pause, cue, loop, beat jump etc all from an external source? Why can’t I use my midi fighter for faster response buttons? etc. . especially if they added in a beat masher type feature this would be almost a requirement.
4. ON THE FLY TRACK ANALYZATION!!: It is so annoying to have a flash disk chock full of MP3’s but yet because I havent sat down at a computer with REKORDBOX and analyzed each track I now loose 75% of the awesome new functionality from my XDJ’s.. Plus now I can’t sync, so now thats something else that I have to worry about instead of focusing on DJ’ing (no offense you beat matching artists out there). This seems so obvious and yet no one talks about it. TRAKTOR can do this.. and yes I know some people will say “well TRAKTOR is on a computer” – but honestly at $1k a pop., these things should be nothing less than full blown mini computers that a dedicated to playing music.
5. Easier Cue Point Assigning: This one is always a headache as well due to the REKORDBOX integration. This should be just as simple as TRAKTOR., 4 buttons for cue points. Click once to assign on the fly., hold shift and click again to remove. Done.
6. STEMS.. : 4 channel support for Stems will be a requirement going forward. This will be the future and they need to jump on it now., even if that means loosing money on any STEM format licencing they have to pay for (if that is even a thing)
7. USB from Phones or other external storage device: We should be able to play tracks from our phones or Ipads or whatever. I think I’ve seen pictures of this supposedly working, but I have yet to ever make it work with my phone.
8. Faster Track Load Times: Now I know this is a feature of the Nexus 2000.. and I would imagine this would come default with the “high end” XDJ.. but I think its extremely unacceptable that a “cheaper” ($1k is not cheap in the slightest btw) version of the unit takes twice as long to load a file. This is made worse right now as those who want the XDJ features dont even have the option right now of buying a high end XDJ to have better performance.
There are plenty more things but those are my biggest ones. I just hope PIONEER is actually looking at the industry and seeing what they are falling behind on because it would be nice to have the best of both worlds.
Just a few points FYI to get more use out of your XDJ’s…
1. Beat jump does kind of suck atm with XDJ’s and is clunky. BUT if all you’re looking to do is scrub through a track quickly, just hold down the frwd or rev buttons and scrub with the jog wheel. This allows much quicker scrubbing that normal jog wheel scrubbing.
2. No beat masher, but hold down the yellow ‘IN’ loop button, and BAM, automatic 4beat loop is made. (A quick fix for that ‘oops that track is almost done and I’m not ready.’)
3. Midi support is being implemented with the NEW Rekordbox software this October.
4. Use Rekord buddy. Sends your library and playlists from Traktor over to rekordbox so you don’t have to reorganize or reanalyze.
5. Cue points aren’t quite as numerous or easy on the CDJ’s, but looks as though they’re changing that with the new software and hardware.
6. We’ll see how stems pan out.
7. Music playback on phones or iPads works. Download the Rekordbox app for your phone and plug it in via USB or use wireless. Easy.
8. Most of the time slow track loading is due to using cheap USB’s or very large hard drives. Get a higher performance USB drive and try again. I would guess your problem is most likely solved. All USB drives were not created equal I have found.
100000% agree on the USB drive issue. you get what you pay for! using the link cable puts a lot more stress on a single USB
Thanks Jake, some really good points! just a couple thoughts..
1. FWD and REV buttons do scrub the track., but they don’t stay in time. I want to be able to jump straight to a break down or drop, or hear how different parts sound together in time, and you can’t do that as is.
2. I am aware of the beat grab feature by holding down the buttons,. but the best part of the beat masher is that its not actually looping so the track keeps playing., plus the built in loop feature doesnt have any rhythmic features for more variation. Plus you have to hold the button to the next beat instead of just quickly toggling it., and once the loop is grabbed you have to adjust through the on screen buttons. It’s workable, but nowhere near the level of ease that you get with the midifighter.
3. New Rekordbox software., but does that mean a firmware update that allows us to send MIDI to the XDJ? or just control the Rekordbox software?
4. That would be fine if i needed to cross over my playlist from TRAKTOR, but I want the XDJ to analyze new tracks on the fly., say I just bought 20 brand new tracks and I dont have time to analyze them at a computer.. I want to be able to put my flash in the XDJ and have it analyze the tracks right then and there. These things are mini computers, they should be able to analyze a track.. even if that means you can’t play any tracks on the XDJ til its done.
5. Here’s hoping 🙂
6. Stems may or may not be a buzz., but this is where DJ’ing needs to go regardless. DJ’s (IMO) should be painters of an experience.. a journey.. DJ’s should be considered artists and not worry about necessarily playing whats hot.. and I’m not trying to put down any DJ’s out there. The skill it takes to play tracks that get the crowd dancing, keep them on the floor., follow the energy etc, is all an art form in itself., but I think there are producers out there like me that will want to take a more production and artistic approach to DJ’ing and that will require stem type tracks to get the flexibility needed to be creative.
7. I will have to give it another try because with the App on my phone I still couldnt get the XDJ to read anything. Using a Galaxy S5, so maybe the phone is too old, idk.
8. Perhaps. I will have to look at the type i have. I am only using 16gb drives though.
Anyways, thanks again for the all the feedback!
Looking forward to seeing where Pioneer and DJing in general heads next.
-Adam
Good points all around! Just downloaded the new Rekordbox today, and I gotta say, there’s no way they can stay with their current CDJ 2000 nexus as their flagship. There are way too many features in the new software that they need to incorporate with hardware controls. So many in fact, that to me, it looks like not only new CDJs, but probably a new mixer as well. We will see I suppose.
Have you tried posting this in the Pioneer forums? They really do take user feedback into consideration. Excellent points addressed in here.
easier ability to link into CDJ for timecode generation and cue data to link to Front of House lighting & visual consoles
would like to see the entire link system redone. Not sure how. but as a sound tech for festivals with major artists, the link functionality of CDJ’s is not always 100% reliable. if you are constantly pulling the ethernet port in & out hundreds of times over a year transporting gear to events, eventually the ports start to wear out. and having to change the player number each time you plug in the CDJ is annoying as hell. The “Auto” only works in the order you plug in the CDJs starting with #1. but in a live situation where you are swapping CDJ’s and other equipment in and out, I currently have to plug in CDJ power, turn on, go into menu, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM because pioneer won’t move this option to the top of the menu, change the player number to the same channel the audio is running to on the DJM900 for on air display & fx quantize functionality on DJM900, then plug in the ethernet cable to establish the link and wait for it to connect. Doesn’t seem like much, but again, in a live scenario, where i’m hooking up gear in front of a 15000+ before an artist is literally less than a minute from starting their set, every second counts, and less chance of things messing up the better.
The next DJM900 successor should have the ethernet hub switch for 4 CDJ’s and 2 laptops built in, like on the DJM2000.
speaking of the next DJM900, again better integration with front of house for festivals and major clubs (i get that for most DJs this is unnecessary, but for the top end DJ’s, this would be very beneficial). Ability for FOH engineer to take control of the gains and turn down a DJ who is redlining. I think the FX section should have a sort of “App Store” where you can purchase & install custom FX chains. The FX creation can be sandboxed and certified so they are compatible & will work with the DJM.
This guy gets it. My main issue with current CDJs are the re-occurring problems, like link issues, and software problems, like the waveform not showing up-many CDJs have this problem after two or three years of use. And when I can request more than 2 CDJs at a big gig, there are sooo many link issues all the time.
Fix what you have right now Pioneer, and then add some more cue buttons (that work) please.
As far as mixer, the sound quality on Pioneer mixers are vastly inferior to Allen & Heath mixers, and they just do not stand up to club/gigging abuse. God, if I could only have an Allen & Heath xone92 with the effects rack of the Pioneer DJM900nexus, I’d be so thrilled. Might have someone build me a hybrid.
Make a X-DJ without a jogwheel!
What would really be awesome, a 2 channel audio interface. 😉
make them coin operated lol.
I’m sure a lot of djs will be hoping that it will still play CD’s.
Honestly I think Pioneer should jump on to the stems market.
What about updating the center jog display to a more graphical display to show information about the loaded track? That would also free up some screen real estate in the main display.
As long as its not touch screen I’m happy.
And Midi in/Out for sync with additional music gear would be unreal!
Avoid the touchscreen! PLEASE. (or at least minimize its importance) I need to be able feel my way around without looking at the damn thing all the time. If I wanted to be looking at a screen I would connect my laptop and bury my head behind it. Keep the tactile scrubber! I know its cheaper for Pioneer to dump all the functions into a touchscreen, rather than buying buttons…but tactile feedback is IMPORTANT! I don’t think I can emphasize that enough. If I wanted to DJ on a touchscreen I would be using my iPAD. Don’t screw it up Pioneer! I DO think they should upgrade the screen to one with better resolution. and more hot cues at least 4 to 8 cue buttons. CD Drives are on the way out, so let’s not be too concerned with that…my laptop cant even burn a CD anymore. More USB ports for backup in case one USB stick dies… USB C would be nice. oh and keep the SD slot. I hope they don’t mess with the play/cue buttons like they did on the XDJ 1000. What a disaster. I can’t even see them in the dark. We can only hope and pray they are making the sensible changes. Got my fingers crossed.
Physical Hot Cues. I’ve been waiting for years to buy a Pio CDJ, and if the next one doesn’t have it, then I’m swearing off Pio forever.
Wow, lot of hate in this thread. Kind of odd given the way cdj’s have evolved over the years. Sure they are expensive, but i doubt there’s another system out there that is as rock solid as the cdj/rekordbox ecosystem. Check out this recent interview in which M.E.S.H highlights how he plays on cdj’s. Wouldn’t have been possible without the innovation bij pioneer.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?2452
Yes there is – Denon S3700 / 3900 is cheaper and superior to Pioneer.
I’ve never played on them Scott, so can’t really say anything about their quality. They are certainly cheaper, but two xdj 1000’s will give you a substantialy more
Are you kidding me? I have a friend who works for a wedding company that uses them (because cheap) and he let me have a go on them. They are a far cry from the 2000 nexus. Hell, they are inferior to the fucking 350s.
Although he does say that he doesn’t have CDJs because he can’t afford them….
The build quality is a joke for the price.
What I find funny is that they remove the CD Drive from the XDJ and the price suddenly drops by 1K – clearly shows they have been price gouging after all these years and then have to sell due to financial trouble. Maybe In Music should buy them too and merge everything into Numark.
CDJ 2000 maby it could make stams format imagine that youll put CD with mp4 with Stam and you can get different dimension mixin of non computer mixin.that,my idea. also FLAC
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I don’t want or forsee any of those things, save for maybe the color options, which is a given knowing Pioneer.
The 2000 nexus is pretty much perfect as it is. The only thing I would like to see is a little better build quality (and of course to be more affordable, but that probably ain’t happening).
The one thing you didn’t mention that I would have to assume will be on Pioneer’s next flagship CDJ would be a touch screen (in which case I’m sure beat move / loop move would be on board.
Also, and I’m not expecting this, plug and play Advance HID WITH audio, with just ONE USB cable for Rekordbox DJ / Traktor / Serato DJ. It is rare when it happens in clubs but when you’ve got a USB plugged into both decks and the next DJ wants to do the same thing it can be more than cumbersome doing the switchover.
If it works with ProDJ Link and Rekordbox I don’t see why they couldn’t do it with Rekordbox DJ or any other software too. The XDK-RX only needs one USB between the controller and computer for audio and HID control.
Make them cheaper. Better build quality. Cheaper. Oh and cheaper. And you know what .. why should they release anything . The nexus is still doing the job. Let it be . Get back to your buttons bash’in and like every two seconds a new button or controller market. ?
agree on both points….the build quality is a joke for the price. Also the price, the fact that these cost more than a laptop is just dumb. I don’t get why Pioneer doesn’t want a pair of 2000s in every bedroom DJs setup.
Back in “the day” (haha) you could get a couple 1200s for a reasonable amount and you were able to use the exact same gear that you’d use when playing out. Now you’re dropping ~$3500….for what?
The technology in these players is nothing special and it’s encased in a cheap plastic box. Hard to understand how pioneer has been able to stay at the top so long with such an overpriced product.
” I don’t get why Pioneer doesn’t want a pair of 2000s in every bedroom DJs setup.”
I’m sure they would like that but that’s why they sell the XDJ1000 and XDJ-RX. You can put those in your bedroom for a lot less money than CDJ2000’s (and a mixer if you’re talking about the RX) and still just take your flashdrive when you go out to a gig with 2000’s and you’re playing on essentially the same setup.
Now that I don’t need them as much (because I quit throwing parties after 20 years) if the RX had a send/receive loop I would sell my CDJs and DJM today and get the RX. That is really the only thing keeping me from doing that (because I use the RMX-1000 so much). I love 2000’s and play on them at clubs but Pioneer has given people like me what we’ve been asking for since they came out, a much more affordable version for home that allows us to pull our Flash drive out, put it in our headphone bag, and head to the gig to play on the club’s $6000 CDJ + Mixer setup just like we do at home.
I agree with you.. but I think that NI is becoming even stronger competition for Pioneer since they now have STEMS.. I don’t know that Pioneer can work with that?? Maybe if they just make an upgrade on CDJ 2000 with better materials since cdj 2000 already can be used as controller.. and yes.. cheaper.. because.. it is a club standard, but if they want to produce DJ stuff they need to lower the price and do better materials also all formats support, and more possibilities while playing.. for the love of god.. S8 is cheaper, but I can do so much more with it than with CDJ 2000
Bingo. Beat jumping, more buttons, MIK, etc. are just window dressing; anyone who wants these things is probably already doing it with software and a $200 controller; none of these features is a game changer. Instead of coming out with a couple new features and conning clubs into shelling out another $5000 for upgraded hardware, they should improve what they have and make it affordable to more people. CDJ-2000 is a fantastic product in most ways, but it still feels like cheap plastic and certainly doesn’t feel like $2500 worth of technology.
I think pioneer should avoid gimmicks such as touchscreens, colourful hotcue buttons and slice features on their cdj line. Leave those features to the controllerists who use traktor and serato.
The vast majority of professional DJs use the cdj as record players for convetional mixing, where build quality and audio quality are the most important features. Also, there is no need for the cd drive anymore, djs who care about audio quality can download high res wav files and use usbs – easier and more flexible than cds.
The cdj should be a digital manifestation of a vinyl turntable, with the build quality to match.
What does the CD drive take away from DJs that download wav files? People still use CDs, believe it or not, and not everyone is in a place that every gig they show up to has proper Rekordbox-capable CDJs, so they would have to maintain a CD collection and a Rekordbox collection (and many of them just want to keep playing CDs).
There’s also those people that use timecode CDs.
Or times where something is going wrong with Traktor/Serato/Rekordbox or whatever and you have to play off your backup CDs while it gets fixed (this has happened to me and thank goodness I had some CDs just for this occasion, even if they were all older tunes).
Clubs and Pioneer need their $2,000 flagship to accommodate everyone and every situation. Removing the CD drive puts that further away, not closer.
The only argument for taking away the CD drive is cost, and it is hardly a cost at all. I’ve read on breakdowns that the CD drive and associated parts cost pioneer as little as $10 and no more than $20. That is less than, or at maximum, 1% of the cost of the CDJ2000nexus.
I think if people are really in need of a cd drive they can have cdj 2000s. The cd drive adds a (small) unnecessary cost, extra weight and moving internal parts. If you need a back up, why not just take 3 or 4 back up usbs? Why do cds have to be the next resort?
I agree. In my opinion, the touch screen -reliant workflow of the XDJ-1000 was a step in the wrong direction. The whole point of a CDJ-style device is to have proper buttons, faders, jog etc. Having an iPad with a giant jog wheel bolted on it somewhat defeats the purpose.
Hahaha, next a huge apple watch
Something like this?
They need to keep the CDJ with CD slots. I leave CD’s in mine at all times in case USB goes for shite, or HID dies out, etc etc. People pay me too much money to only use a iPod as a backup, the show must go on.
Great point – a lot of DJs still rely on the CD slot as a backup. That being said, what about a Bluetooth connection to your phone, and a SD slot? Seems like two redundant systems within one device would be fine..
My initial thoughts are “wireless = unreliable, Bluetooth audio = low bitrate”.
The better answer would be, wired to your phone, and SD. (which are both currently possible with 2000 Nexus)
Stems intergration. But I don’t think so there will a big update. Maybe a XDJ2000. A Player without a CDslot. Maybe a 4th hotcue. Slicer can Be added on the new player. I think with the new DJ software Rekordbox DJ the don’t gonna at too much on a New player.
The is two more thing I want to see. A shift bottom so you can excess more than 4 hot cue’s and a beatjumps like traktor. So you can Jump 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 beats.
Yep, would love to be able to jump 8/16/32 bars – I noted it in the article, but jumping just 4 bars is almost useless to me…
If we see Stems integration, it’ll have to be through Rekordbox DJ – doubt they’ll let the standalone players integrate with that.
FLAC support! DJ Techtools should really have an article about this so that controller makers would finally add it. Even Windows 10 has it now 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/FLAC-support-for-Pioneer-CDJ-and-other-players-314590175320353/timeline/
…and ALAC please.
Yes, definitely thumbs up for both FLAC and ALAC support. Mac users need ALAC support, since many manage their music library with iTunes, which doesn’t support FLAC.
ALAC AND FLAC is supported in Rekordbox 4.
http://www.pioneerdj.com/en/news/2015/rekordbox-dj
Yep I know, but the topic of this post is about the next CDJ. I’m very curious what happens if you try to export your FLAC/ALAC files from RBDJ4 to USB stick (to use with CDJ’s). Looks like Pio supports these formats on their new software platform but not on their current hardware (CDJ’s). Logically they will support them on their new hardware, but then again, the XDJ-1000 doesn’t. My guess would be the XDJ-2000 will support them. We’ll see..
Ahh! Good point. Hopefully it’s just a simple firmware upgrade. Time will tell I suppose!
That’s what I thought as well, but I’ve read somewhere on the Pio forum that the CDJ-2000 is physically incapable of decoding ALAC/FLAC. So it seems that making it compatible with a firmware upgrade is out of the question: https://forums.pioneerdj.com/hc/communities/public/questions/203089269–SOLVED-Flac-lossless-format-support-
Denon SC3900 uses FLAC.
I tried to google this and found no evidence that SC3900 would support FLAC. Where did you hear/read this?
Yeah, where the hell did you hear this?
you guys first bitch over a vinyl turntable.and now your going off on what pioneers next cdj,will look like.
You seem confused.
it would be good is they just CUT a Ddj sz ad finally give to us a single deck controller (also a media player)
So how is that different from the XDJ-1000?
Actual buttons / knobs in stead of a touch screen. Price would be different as well..
This is what I’m waiting for about 2 years now a controller like the right picture above.
Native instruments did cut the S8 into a D2.
I hope Pioneer will do this as well or maybe Denon, like they build the DN-SC2000 in the past.
8 physical cue points .
cup holder
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A button that tells someone at the bar that I need another PBR.
Sounds more like a *mixer* feature to me than a CDJ feature 😉
Lol nice Dan
that would be like DJing in God Mode.
I think the next CDJ will look like a penis.
On a real note. I think the xdj series is the continuing movement for Pioneer. CDJ’s are pretty much done. I expect the next player to have bluetooth integration with rekordbox to use your phone’s storage. Also, A smaller profile with more featureset and less focus on the jog wheels.
Your comment falls in line with similar comments from a few people I saw on Twitter 😉
Any new player should probably ditch the CD slot. CDs are now artifacts!
So you are suggest ditching the superior sound source for all compressed formats?
Actually I can have a higher bit depth and sample rate via USB/SD card which would make them the superior sound source…
its only 16 bit 44,100Khz the standard is now (at the very least) 48000khz 24bit.
Hell you could play WAVs off a usb or SD card, the SD card could be a massive 128gb even higher.
Its possible to save metadata on an SD card, for stored cuepoints and beat information, as well as all artist data, or key data, an SD card can have cover art on each track.
The CD is totally antiquated at this point in time, I feel that CDs will be the next vinyl 😛
i would like to see a integration of stems and/or remix decks. maybe with addeble controllers like the k2 to the xonedb4 just withe 4 faders. to keep the orignial design of cdjs in focus.
Bigger screen…we are all getting old….hehehe
just rocking up with a couple of 42 inchers….
Being able to jump around by 1, 2, or 4 beats was first introduced on XDJ-1000
How about the CDJ-800? Furthermore, I believe the new player will get a touchscreen
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