At last, final details have emerged from Pioneer DJ on their two new flagship models of media player and mixer. Yep, it’s still a CDJ, but now they have touchscreens, MIDI input, and FLAC support. The DJM-900NXS has EQ-specific FX controls, a 64-bit mixing processor, and an independent standalone Send/Return. Learn more inside:
Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS2: Touchscreen, FLAC Support, 96/24 Soundcard
Pioneer has done a a solid job of taking some of the most requested features and putting them into the new CDJ-2000NXS2. The best features on this new unit include:
- Better Sound: A 96 kHz/24-bit sound card is built into the unit, with a 32-bit D/A converter and improved digital out to really give the best possible sound for this high-end CDJ. They’ve even separated the power supply to reduce noise issues.
- Better Sound File Support: FLAC and ALAC support, at last!
- Color Touch Screen: a 7-inch touch screen like on the XDJ-1000s. You can use it to trigger a new track filter mod to filter by metadata, type in a search on the QWERTY keyboard, and more.
- 8 Color Coded Hot Cues: They’ve increased the Hot Cue section to four buttons (two banks) and color-coded them to match what you have set up in Rekordbox. They can also be named in Rekordbox!
- MIDI control: Finally the DDJ-SP1 has a use in a pro setup – it can be connected to a CDJ setup to control up to 4 CDJ-2000NXS2s with Pro DJ Link activated. This means quicker cue, loop, slip, and browsing – and MUCH BETTER pads to play cue points with than CDJ users have ever had. Now all we need is Midi Fighter support…..
- Fractional Quantize: allowing you to change what level of beat quantization you use – between 1/8, 1/4, 1/2
- Pro DJ Link Update: An improved Phase Meter with two modes, beatgrids now accurate to the microsecond, and a quantized beat jump. The press release only mentions beat jump for 1 beat forward or backward – we’re hoping this isn’t the case and that 4/8/16/32 are also options.
- Rekordbox DJ HID control: coming soon
- 3 position playback lever: Slip Reverse, Forward, Reverse
What we still think is missing:
- The hot cue buttons still feel misplaced, up in the top left of the unit. We were hoping they might take center stage like on the DDJ lineup.
- there’s still a CD slot on the unit – we understand that Pioneer wants to continue to have a player that works for everyone, but do CDJ/DJM users really still use CDs if given the option? Are DJs paying money for a feature (and extra weight) that goes unused?
DJM-900 NXS: 64-bit mixing, Send/Return, New EQ-Based FX, 2 USB Ports
The DJM-900NXS2 is here, and yes, we know that there’s been a leaked photo that we haven’t posted that has been all over the web. Here are the confirmed features:
- Better onboard digital sound: a 64-bit mixing processor, enhanced dithering technology, and a low-jitter clock – all deliver a warm, natural analog sound. There’s a 96 kHz/24-bit sound card and direct digital connection, as well as a new power supply designed to eliminate extra noise.
- Improved analog input: Pioneer has a new phono amp circuit, plus a new signal GND terminal to easily attach ground wires from analog turntables.
- EQ, Fader, Clip control improvements: Improved channel fader curves: the three curves have been fine-tuned for more precision and control, while the EQ curves now have more precision across the highs, mids and lows. There’s a more accurate clip indicator, paired with a redesigned gain structure ensures meters don’t go into the red too early.
- An independent Send/Return FX loop – you no longer need to use up Beat FX to send and return an external effector. This makes a lot of sense when using something like the RMX series. Can be used with 1/4″ jacks or via USB, and brought back into the mixer as insert FX or as AUX input. InterApp support means you can use FX/Instrument apps on your iPad – for example the virtual RMX-1000 app.
- 6 Sound Color FX: New Sweep: replaces Gate/Comp. A new parameter knob alters different parameters for each effect, and the Sound Color FX have bigger knobs for more fine control.
- 14 Beat FX: New FX: Ping Pong, Vinyl Brake, Helix, Pitch, improved Reverb; Bigger X-Pad with OLED screen.
- Beat FX Applied To Low/Mid/Highs: three buttons allow you to select what frequency range to apply these effects to.
- New I/O: Two USB ports, 4 Phono Inputs (meaning there will be no DJM-900SRT2), and DVS support
- Better build quality: The new Magvel Fader (as seen on the DJM-S9 mixer) is a highly responsive magnetic crossfader designed for smooth operation and superb durability. There’s also Gold-plated RCAs on the rear of the mixer.
- 2 headphone plugs: ¼-inch stereo jack and 3.5mm MiniPin
Simplified Pro DJ Link Connection
This is an obvious feature, but Pioneer have finally made it way easier to get HID support working between a full DJM/CDJ NX2 setup and a laptop. Of course, this might only work with Rekordbox DJ for a while, but the pain of aggregating CDJs and hoping that the soundcards worked was always a pain. Skip past all of that and simply plug a single USB cable into the setup and you can access all of the CDJs and mixers.
Both the CDJ-2000NXS2 and DJM-900NXS2 can now both be ordered in the DJTT Store. All sales support more great articles, videos, and artist interviews! The MSRP is $2,199, but final street price might be lower than that (closer to $1,999, if the last models are any indication). (Sadly, Pioneer confirmed that that is also the street price. That’s more than half of a new Technics SL-1200G/GAE turntable!)
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Weight: 27. 1kg (including packaging)
Warranty: 12 months
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What difference does it make , my Xponent from M-Audio does more with Tracktor and Torq.
With a Layla Echo 24 , my setup sounds clean and superb . I donno why would one spend tons of cash for shit that does the same thing …. CD’s are History .
IMHO, pioneer have priced themselves out of the dj market with this new kit. sure the features are awesome, but one has to ask, is it really worth the extra coin? I live in Australia and the new CDJ2000NXS2 units come with a recommended retail price of AUD $3299. I can afford to buy this but would I really want to if none of the clubs are going to pull the trigger and buy these units for their booths? why would they when they probably already have perfectly functional older 2000 or 2000nxs units in place?
Anybody else feels the new pioneer DJ logo looking really tacky? Makes it look like a bootleg imo apart from looking like a kid’s toy already
Hey,
i just got an djm 850.
The 900nxs or nxs2 i find too expensive.
But judging the cycle i could imagine a new mixer in that range for april.
Im torn if i should send it back and wait 🙂
Or just get an DDJ RX/RZ.
But i had a real bad experience with build quality on an DDJ SX thats whats holding me back.
Pioneer needs a MAJOR overhaul on production quality.
Most of you don’t realize just how poorly these are built. Absolute bottom of the barrel components, when I say the bottom, I mean so bad I wouldn’t even use some of these parts in a beer fridge.
Their profit margin is so incredibly high because the production costs are so low it’s almost robbery.
They’re sadly the industry standard, and that’s why they get away with these practices.
Our touring company goes through these like toilet paper since we have no time for repairs.
They travel in $400/each custom flight cases, are used a total of 8-12 hours per gig, and still break so often we travel with 2 extra CDJ’s and 1 extra DJM. When the spares get opened up and used due to a malfunction, we bring in another backup. It’s just absurd.
USB ports going bad, screens dying out, knobs breaking off, boot issues, bad ethernet jacks, so many bad ethernet jacks I started questioning our stage manager, but nope, our club back at home had the same issues.
They sound mediocre when compared to an Allen & Heath
I cannot wait for the day people wake up and stop supporting these practices. Unfortunately their payola going on with all the big name DJ’s will ensure this continues on for a very long time.
I can’t blame Pioneer really. Yes they are bribing big name dj’s and the like but it’s competitors must step up a few notches first both in quality, features and PR. Denon have some good cd-players but their layout is a mess and the pitch on them are of bad quality! They and others need to be more forward thinking and bring something revolutionizing taking Pioneer off guard.
Two years ago,I think djtechtools was most professional change so much.why?
Ravin? WTF
First impressions!
I had to go into my local gear supplier today to pick up some styluses and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a complete NXS2 right setup in the demo area! The awesome guys @ StoreDJ in Melbourne were Pio’s dealer of the year and had 2x CDJ2000NSX2 and the DJM900NXS2 setup and ready to play – running pre-release firmware which might have limited a few features.
Overall impressions
Starting with the DJM900NXS
– Filter subtlety is the new black. The DJM900NSX2 filters are finally closer to A&H Xone quality in terms of subtlety and control. If you’ve ever played on a DJM2000 then you’ll also have a sense of what you’re in for. No more busting through the limiters the minute you dial in the HPF. Sweet, sweet heaven.
– the frequency targeted Effects are amazing. Again if you’re an Xone;DB4 fan you’ll be thrilled. Want to screw with the rhythm of a track but only in the snares – then dial in Delay but apply it only to the Highs. In some respects this trumps the Xone:DB4 which by offering SO MUCH control makes it harder to punch in a quick change.
– i might be imagining things but it seem to me as though split que has been tuned to enable it to function well even when the master volume is dialled back, a flaw in the DJM series that I think let’s it down compared to the A&H mixers (that and the absurd master level VU meters which still indicate post-master volume line levels instead of pre-master volume – makes absolutely no sense that I can figure out and I think is a primary cause of Pioneer Peak Syndrome)
– ergonomics are great. the new faceplate is a smudge resistant black, so not only will if reflect less unwanted glare in the booth, OCD types won’t see so many fingerprints.
– the cross-fader is just ridiculously, buttery smooth and just highlighted to me how much progress has been made since the DJM900 – you have to play on it to understand just how great it is
– finally & happily the purposeless bull-nosed fascia is gone and there’s a cleaner “four square” look to both the mixer and the CDJs with a matching bevelled edge on both
CDJ2000NSX2
– if you’re a fan of intimidatingly large numbers of buttons and controls to scare away Noobs, then you’ll want these babies on your rider – there are buttons everywhere and for everything – I did a quick count and it looked like at least 10 new buttons/controls and that’s BEFORE you get to the touch screen
– waveforms on the new screen looked great, although they felt a little sluggish – if you’ve used a XDJ-RX you’ll know what I mean, something’s not quite right about them for my style of playing (frankly, like most bells and whistles I ignore them once the track is in play other than to eyeball transitions so it’s possibly a moot point)
– Hotcue buttons are smaller, flat smooth and lacked any sense of “give” or damping to them as they were played – very much a hard mechanical feel, certainly didn’t feel like an instrument to be “played” – switching between the two banks of 4 was easy and the new colours for the HQ buttons are a great feature – verdict – good, but not a game changer and maybe even a backward step compared to the 2000+NXS
– the updated three way direction lever now adds momentary “Slip Reverse” – it does pretty much what you’d expect and for reverse junkies means you don’t have to engage Slip constantly in order to show a little momentary performance flare
– sadly the pre-release firmware I was using didn’t appear to have track search working – or if it did I was unable to figure out how to search my (240GB) USB – which to be clear was exported using the latest RB4.x software) – which was a shame as this for me is one of the killer features and I’m looking forward to having a hack once Pio get closer to release
Overall?
Standing in the store playing for 30 minutes I had a few people come around and chat to me about the gear (oddly no one was pushing to get at them, which surprised me). I think most telling to me was the incredulous SHOCK at the price tag – more than one person remarked that the contents of the coffin was worth more than their car and that a fully decked 4 CDJ spaceship wasn’t even worth thinking about. I agree.
The second comment that struck me reflected Jacob’s opinion below – that unless you are stringing against the limits of 8 hot cues, unless you’re planning to move prep and your workflow to Rekordbox (or even know what it is) then either the 2000NXS or XDJ1000 are probably more than adequate.
In summary, while I would LOVE to upgrade my fleet of (8) CDJ2000NXS to NXS2’s, I can’t justify it for the price and I don’t think I’m alone. Pio could have a problem on their hands. Want to use 8 hot cues and FLAC? Then you either buy a $500 controller OR a $10,000 NXS2 setup – everything else in the middle starts to seem more than a little pointless. And who knows, maybe that’s their strategy – lock up the low end with RB+bedroom DJ toys and rely on the riders of those same DJ’s to force clubs/hire companies to kit out the booth with NXS2.
Only time will tell.
Nice feedback, thanks! I’m craving for a Flac+SPDIF compliant CDJ/XDJ that doesn’t cost an arm.
You might be waiting a while…
It may come from another brand before Pioneer launches an XDJ2000
I think you can take that to the bank, Gemini anyone? 😉
Denon crushes those puny Pioneers. Pioneer = overpriced
that pretentious video full of sell out idiots tho…
these CDJ’s are like Ipods lolol… a different model every year… at the end of the day they all do the same thing haha
The big question here (aside that Pioneer is messing us all with wild price increases) , are they going to update the XDJ firmware with all this new features???? Screen is the same size and I bet processor is also the same… so, they can do it if they want…
I don’t think they want that, it’s called product differentiation (a means to maximise profit). That’s why the XDJ-1000 has beat jump and the 700 hasn’t. One feature they should incorporate in the XDJ-line is FLAC/ALAC support. Don’t think they’ll do that either though.
Flac / Alac support is the thing I miss the most from CDJ/XDJ (except NS2 now). It’s 2016 Pioneer.
So.. What benefits a Traktor DJ from the two USB ports?
Will it dj for me?
Having had the day to think about this some more, is there any reason why the DDJ-SP1 couldn’t work with the CDJ2000NXS assuming some sort of firmware upgrade? I totally “get” that Pio would prefer to push folks to upgrade their equipment, but there’s enough other goodness in the new players to drive folks to do that and surely once you’ve got 4 spanking new NXS2s then I don’t see much use for the DDJ-SP1 anyways other than to provide uniform support for 8-hotcues on “legacy” gear.
Obviously this is just me wishing and hoping – I like the idea of being able to develop a routine that works from one club to the next that can be practised at home.
Because then there would be less reason for people to give Pioneer ridiculous amounts of money
i walked into that….
I think the best news this brings is that the sound will be better in clubs.
This is not a good sign.
“There’s no current plans for support as it’s only just been announced but it’s always a possibility in future.” -Serato on Twitter
https://twitter.com/Serato/status/687011069164822528
“There’s no current plans for support as it’s only just been announced but it’s always a possibility in future.” -Serato on Twitter
This is not a good sign, https://twitter.com/Serato/status/687011069164822528 .
I think the DJM NXS2 incorporated features that a lot of great, creative DJs can utilize successfully. However, I think the CDJs took a wrong turn. If the build quality is lacking, there are going to be so many issues with these units in Clubs (especially the touchscreen). I’m just excited to get my hands on now (reasonably priced) 2000s!
In which way is a touch screen going to be more worn down than a button ? Anyways CDJs are highly repairable, so I guess there’s a way to easily swap touch screens (if you look at the design they are not flush so makes even more sense that you can change it)
So…price drop on the 2000’s and 900’s that are out now? That would be the only way i pick them up
So for the NXS3 Mixer, is Pio going to have another indicator above the ‘Clip’ indicator that says ‘No, really, its clipping now!’. What a joke. Stop catering to shit DJs that can’t manage their levels. Another example is the track filter search. If you are a DJ and don’t know your tracks and can’t find the next track that will mix well by ear…you shouldn’t be DJing.
Because at what point are you just pressing buttons? With both sync and track filter search?
If I see one more noob redline, no even go 2-3 yellows in….
^ this! The red colour wasn’t enough?
Track filter by key is used by many pro DJ’s…i’ve been using mixed in key and Now Serato DJ’s new key system and boy it makes my workflow much much faster and the mixes sound so awesome if you already know what you’re doing…it’s a night and day difference
Good for you. I do it by ear and feeling and its never let me down. I think its dishonest to let a computer pick your tracks, because like I said, at some point you are just a button pusher and nothing more.
I still use my God given gifts of feeling out the music + hearing, but organizing by key makes using those gifts even easier that’s my point….what you’re doing is feeling out if it really flows well together….that’s the key+tempo most of the time…it still requires skill to do it right.you should try it,you’ll be blown away…by the way you’re very beautiful if that’s you in the pic 🙂
Veronika must be a musical genius with not only the ability to detect key by ear but also the ability to pick a harmonically sound track out of thousands pretty quickly. There are some of them out there, but for them to go around and knock others for simply not being able to detect key by ear on the fly and using tools to do so is a lame and elitist attitude. Way to be humble with your skills!
Either that or you don’t mix in key all the time, in which case your sets probably have some funny sounding harmonics going on or you wait until the very last parts of the tracks when there isn’t many harmonics going on to mix into the next track. Which is lame and boring sounding.
LOL apparently you think it takes a ‘musical genius’ to mix harmonically and detect keys that work together? Wow that is the saddest thing I’ve heard all day.
I’m sure anyone that doesn’t rely on poser-DJ tools like sync and mixed in key would seem like a ‘musical genius’ to scrubs like you. How pathetic.
Lol I’ve been beat matching since the vinyl days ???
But I’m not the one taking down on others for not being as musically talented as you are. What a self absorbed cunt.
I’ve also been using key codes for years now and I don’t see the point in your rant against being able to sort your tracks by key. It’s a very “my shit smells better than yours” kind of childish statement to make.
The difference, motherfucker, is being able to *know* the key and THEN sort your tracks by it, and then put a little label on your LPs with the key or BPM. That involves the DJ actually having musical analytic ability and in-depth knowledge of the tracks, versus what these posers are doing which is hitting a button and having their shit sorted for them.
They never learned the proper way first. Same with beatmatching, there is an entire generation of posers that grew up on sync. They are garbage and some of them even actually believe that if your first track is in a specific key like Bm, then your *entire mix* has to ONLY be that one and only key. This is the kind of shit that makes the rest of us look bad.
You’re incredible right…. If is needed sync button, key track matching, beat sync and so on..,the best thing to do is buy a book to learn basic musical theory, buy a pair of turntables and begin to learn how to mix….
The clip indicator isn’t catering to DJs. It is catering to club owners and sound guys who can’t get shitty DJs to stop clipping.
I call bull….if thats the case then those club owners and or sound guys should not book those shitty dj’s no more because they are shitty and mess up the levels.
So what you are saying is : because of the clip light pioneer is catering people to let shitty djs play on their high end gear?
Because those shitty club owners don’t know a shitty dj from a good one.
I dont care much in relation to the clip indicator, there will be always “that guy”…
About the track filter search, I think its a great idea and as per usual, if used in moderation it will be of grate usefulness…technology can’t emulate your experience and feeling for the “next track” so anybody who actually thinks they can play a full set only using this function, I wish them good luck…
I believe that these tools are to make the Pro’s better and not to cheat your way trough a set…but then again…
Uff, Pioneer Did bring their game up to a new level. I heard a few people mention “Traktor” which was my first choice in DJ software years ago. I still play with it here and there for features and stability as I believe we all know Traktor does has good features and is one of the most stable software there is but I think they’re falling or are not paying attention to the DJ world. Call me crazy or what ever but I own also Serato DJ, Virtual DJ 8.1 and Rekordbox and all this other DJ software seem to be doing more for the DJ on their GUI interface and library feature and architecture. They actually feel more fun.
Q.? For DJTT- Will you be taking trade in plus cash and provide a good reasonable deal for one of this bad boys.
Bravo, Pioneer. Exactly zero women DJ’s in your promo videos.
Too true.
Simply there are no DJ women with such big profile like DJ’s shown.
Gee, let’s see here. Off the top of my head without opening my Rekordbox or anything, there’s Annie Mac, Maya Jane Cole, Anna Lunoe, Nicole Moudaber, Tini, Blondish, Mary Anne Hobbs, DJ Heidi, Ellen Allien, Miss Kittin, Anja Schneider, to name a few who have pretty highly regarded stature.
…and Paris Hilton. 😉
dj niki belucci
OK. Apparently I am more ignorant than I thought. I will check them. Thanks.
Well… except the last one.
Black Madonna…she is superb
why is this an issue?
Because it emphasizes the picture of DJs being a crowd of fist pumping, coke snorting bunch of raver bros. (–>edm scene) Instead of the picture of a diverse, open minded, creative scene that it actually is.
in a technical post, you manage to see a gender issue. Bravo! your priorities are a bit misplaced.
To be honest, what I wrote doesn’t 100% represent my opinion, I more or less just quoted other people who engage more in this topic.
But if the biggest company in the DJ industry brings out the soon to be booth standard for the next few years with a promo video and completely ignores the huge amount of female DJ talent I wouldn’t call this a “technical post”
I really wouldn’t even think about this, if this wasn’t mentioned. But probably there are only one or two female Dj’s that could come close to the notoriety of the Dj’s listed on the video. Then You have a big problem, all of those female Dj’s are much more underground, than the referred DJ’s. Another problem, the most known: Nicole Moudaber (despite being a techno Dj and accordingly underground) only plays with Traktor and DJM2000.
Other issue, most of the female Dj’s are known by their musical selection other than their technical skills, so if you think: on the video, most of the Dj’s (if not all) are technical “monsters” that usually engage on some elaborate stuff during their gigs. (I’v already played with the “old guys” there)
Misstress Barbara in her heyday was (and still is) a serious mixer, but prefers vinyl.
maybe they can book her for a video with the PLX-1000
I know its hard to judge which DJ is how popular. But there are more than enough female DJs that are famous enough to reach the same impact as the guys in the video.
As I said it’s not a big deal for me, but I transports a certain message and image of a brand.
I absolutely have to disagree on the “musical selection vs. technical skills” part.
C’mon… what is the real skill about playing with those new CDJs. Even the DJs in the video do very simple A-B mixing 95% of the time and shine through their brand and track selection.
Just to cite one of them: “I can search for a track when I’m at the end of my playlist and the promoter tells me I can play one more… that’s definitely a game-changer”
I have to disagree totally!
Have you seen Erik Morillo Mixing? James Zabiela? even Afrojack (with his awful music)? I would say that from the bunch only Jamie Jones (the one that you quoted) is better known for is selection than from his technical skills. All the others do much more than mixing from A to B (and even Jamie).
Its true… I forgot about Zames Zabiela who is notorious for adding some personal stuff. But I just watched a set of Erik Morillo and while he is definitely doing some great stuff most of the time he isn’t doing that much more than a-b, some fx, thats it. It’s a great performance, but it’s not necessarily about technical skills.
Only if he changed a lot, the first time He’s been in my Dj booth e played with 4 turnables and was awesome (Scratch, pass pass, and all the gimmicks) the 2nd time he played with 4 CDJ’s and was even more impressive technically.
By ‘technical skills’ we now seem to mean ‘trying to use as many FX as possible’ rather than the more traditional skills of beat/phrase matching and harmonic mixing, which are now essentially redundant if playing digitally. A constant barrage of FX does nothing for me, I’d prefer to see a brilliant selector/programmer who can work a floor properly rather than a producer turned DJ who thinks that having 50 different types of FX on whatever equipment they are paid to endorse is the most important thing.
Well… it’s just so freaking easy with traktor or cdjs to do phrase and beatmatching. So it’s really not that much of a skill nowadays.
I am totally with you. The real skill of a skilled DJ is hard to describe as its composed by so many different soft and hardskills
Mistress Barbara..but she only rocks Vinyl.
Don’t listen to this backwards chauvinistic troll…
And then what?
And that’s 1 too many
Because DJs still bring burned CDs as back up in case all else fails, as does tend to happen from time to time. You heard it hear first: CDs will still be around even 10 years from now.
I had a problem with my USB sticks for some reason recently and went to my backup CDs and actually had one of my most fun gigs that way! Going back to basics can feel really refreshing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to stop using USB sticks, but it’s an important skill to have as a DJ and an important capability for manufacturers to retain. Above all else, it can be a darn good time =)
I’m sorry but you are (most likely) wrong.
the real question is, will we all come back to this thread in 10 years to see who’s right or not 😉
I set my alarm.
Is this an attempt at humor?
We travel with a 48′ tri axel semi of production, with 6 CDJ-2000nxs and 2 DJM-900nxs (near double for backup because Pioneer is built like utter shyte) for our festivals and tours.
In 2015, we had 0, yes zero, people use a CD in any of the players. I never saw 1 CD booklet, or even a test CD from any local our touring act.
Our system tech, monitor tech, and FoH all had bags full of USB drives. Less than half of the artists used a laptop, and of those about 70% used Traktor, 20% used Serato, and 10% used Ableton.
365 days without a single CD in sight.
You’ve heard it here first: CD’s are dead.
Can you post images of your 48′ tri axel semi? That sounds amazing!
Just like vinyl was dead
You and your little tour don’t speak for the rest of the world.
Everyone that thought there would be no CD slot and they’d be cheaper. HA! Remember, this is Pioneer we’re talking about.
Just one question: Is there exFAT or NTFS file system support for USB-sticks/USB-drives…?
Both filesystems are under microsoft patents, royalties are already being paid for FAT32 (microsoft) and HFS+ (Apple Inc.).
I know that. And it did not answer the question. Anyhow exFAT support is really a must. exFAT formatted sticks and drives are becoming very common
If they don’t pay for the patents, you aren’t going to get support for the file system. Think of all the patents that go into a CDJ as it is. Sony, Phillips, Apple and Microsoft all take a chunk before it even goes out the factory door. FLAC support was something that I couldn’t understand them not supporting as it is licensed under the GPL.
If it were a budget product I could justify that reasoning. But this is the most expensive CD/USB player in the world so I think it is a quite bad excuse. Especially as there are to my understanding camera products that cost fraction of CDJ-2000 price who support exFAT.
GoPro Hero camera costs 120eur and it supports exFAT. CDJ-2000 NXS costs 15-20x that price and it does not support exFAT. So I dont buy it that exFAT license would be too expensive for it to be possible.
http://www.amazon.de/GoPro-HERO-Actionkamera-megapixels-71/dp/B00O32GU6O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452739861&sr=8-1&keywords=go+pro+hero
The FLAC library is BSD licensed. If it was GPL I’m sure Pioneer wouldn’t use it. (The flac command line program is GPL though.)
Cool piece of knowledge, they are also using mpg321. Makes me wonder if they are using a stripped down BSD Free kernal.
A cool little bit of info, they are also using mpg321.
Since Pioneer sold Pioneer DJ to a hedge fund company, you can see that they are trying to keep a bunch of stuff in house. Presumably, to keep more profits from going out the door. Rekordbox 3.0 being the big one, when they split from Mixvibe.
I can see them using code licensed under the GPL to keep overhead down and have a stable foundation to build upon. Without having to code from the ground up. As it is, they haven’t been able to supply the Windows community with 64bit ASIO application drivers. Even Apple has been known to do it too, think of how close OSX is to BSD Free.
Personally, if I were to design a player I would probably start with a foundation like this…
http://www.wandboard.org/
http://www.mikroe.com/add-on-boards/audio-voice/audio-codec-proto/
Way to go Pioneer! We have been waiting for this a long time… 🙂
All of you can thank me because this had to happen the second I buy a pair of CDJ2000NXS.
Well, anyone who shops for new gear this close to NAMM deserves it. You should know better by now.
And any DJ remotely paying attention knows they are overdue on their 3 year cycle. It I predicted they would wait till January and release the DJM along with it
Some happened to me! :/ I’ve researched the hole internet & asked in musicstores cause the time was right for a new model.. But im still very happy with the “old” 2000nxs, because i dont need those new features (except that nice touchscreen – Damn!)
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As a club & festival Touring DJ, this update is fantastic news.
It doesn’t break the paradigm of previous models, same layout, same functionally, but improves a lot of little things that you’ll notice when you use CDJs every weekend :
On CDJs :
– the touch screen is a game changer for track selection (imo the most important skill for club DJs) : better search and finally filtering using tags. That’s a first on any Dj player / software.
– hot cues are fixed, 4 of them and work like software
– beatjump is here ! (I hope it gets up to 32)
On the DJM :
– filter resonance control is the best news. The filter was way to resonant before.
– Minijack : one of the most stressful thing is loosing yours when you’re touring
– always loved the DJM2000 effects but hated the layout. Best of both worlds now
– clipping indicator : the previous DJM had so much headroom it was hard to know when it was clipping, and sometimes you don’t hear it on booth monitors. Great addition.
– seperate send/return : I bet this could even get a few A&H heads on board. Looking forward to add a guitar pedal or iPad Kaoss pad to my setup.
– the two USBs is great in theory but I haven’t seen anyone playing Serato or traktor in ages.
I still own CDJ 2000s and I feel like they still make sense with these new units, as the fundamentals are the same, which is fantastic for a unit from 2009. Yet I’ll be really excited to play on the new ones in clubs. Not a lot of companies can maintain such a strong paradigm over the years and still satisfy the vast majority of the market.
Price wise, the units are really expensive and it’s a bummer that they even increased, but they are going to have a 3-4 year product life, so it’s pioneer’s only opportunity to raise prices before slowly going down. And also it means the nexus are going to be more affordable, and they are still 95% as good, plus now there’s the cheaper and very capable xdj1000.
It thanks to the monopoly Pioneer has in clubs that their gear are so expensive. Pioneer has a really big margin on them and we customers have to pay for it.
ALAC/ FLAC! Finally! Time to save literally hundreds of Gbs of space in my computer!
I had the same reaction and even started to sit down and prepare my plan for the change over – luckily I was standing at my CDJ-2000nexus as I was getting ready and I remembered that there will always be tons of legacy gear (850, 900, 2000, 2kNexus) that would also need to support ALAC/FLAC before i could put my library on a diet. 🙁
Here’s hoping that this feature finds it’s way back into at least the CDJ2000 onwards (including the new XDJs) or it’s practically an unusable feature in any sane workflow (IMHO)
I suspect that a on-the-fly ALAC / FLAC –> AIFF conversion during the export to be available in the next Rekordbox version, or else it could be a real mess for the first two years.
“suspect” or know a beta tester that knows? 😉
Seriously – I still think that would be a lose. How many times have you turned up to you regular club only to find they’ve swapped out their 2000s for 900s for the weekend to get them serviced without telling anyone? I think that’s the reason that most of my serious DJ touring buddies stick with MP3s and WAVs on a bunch of simple FAT drives using directories as “crates”
my last experience with Pioneer’s selective feature syndrome was at a smallroom club where i rocked up and the DJ asked me to step in and take over – only problem was the 900 firmware was way outta date and couldn’t read GUID/HFS which is what I format my USBs in (or did until now – turns out the XDJ-RX and XDJ 1000 can’t read GUID partitioned drives so I’ve made the shift for safety’s sake)
What Pio and the rest of the industry need to get into their heads is that most of us will opt for the lowest common denominator – not because we want to but because, a bit like 33 1/3rpm – you can’t afford to rock up to a club and say “oh, all my collection is at 66rpm because some marketer told me that it sounds better”
bottom line, Pio (and others) need to implement ALAC/FLAC across the portfolio ASAP or forget about it as a serious option and stick to AIFF which is sonically equivalent and while a storage hog, is predictably supported on everything more modern than a CDJ 1000 – Moore will ensure there’s always more disk space (just heard the largest HDD you can buy is 10TB – more than enough for a marathon set of even the most ADD DJ)
AIFF will never be as standard as FLAC you can forget about it.
I will definitely have a look at the CDJs, especially if it makes it easier to ditch Traktor in favour of Rekordbox; however having sold my DJM-900 in favour of a Rane MP2015 – and I’m now in the process of switching to a Bozak – I doubt I’ll ever use Pioneer mixers again; they sound awful for vinyl.
Stop barging. We get it. You are rich. Go to audiophile sites to complain.
I’m so sorry for discussing the relative sound quality of mixers that I have owned on an article on a new mixer, on a major DJ site.
It was a joke. I still envy you.
Anyways, What’s really wrong with Rane? Drivers? I bet it’s drivers. It’s always fecking drivers. I bet.
Really nice update!
Cool that is has a new sound card, too bad at most places they aren’t digitally connected but with some worn out crappy RCA cables.
The simplified USB connection is only a big one. Connection 4 players and the mixer through a five port usb hub or just plugging in one cable surely does make a huge difference.
Will be some time to pop up around here, but I’m really looking forward to playing on this!
Did nobody else see the “XDJ 700” folder on the CDJ at 3.45?
Sneaky little teaser of whats to come.
The XDJ 700 was released a few months ago. It’s a boiled down version of the XDJ 1000.
Do you think they will upgrade the XDJ-RX to be able to simulate the new products?
Interesting to see if they upgrade the xdj-1000 too with the filter tag functions
I think I’m pretty amped about this stuff!
I just bought my DJM900NXS, but I am within my product return period! (Thank you Amazon for having an extended holiday return policy through 1/31 😛 ). I wonder if I were to upgrade to the DJM900NXS2 would Serato DJ’s DVS initially support it?
I wouldn’t bet my money on Serato DVS support. Serato and Pioneer switched from partners to main competitors with the announcement of Rekordbox DJ.
I wouldn’t wonder if Pioneer sooner or later would lock out 3rd party software completely sooner or later.
Sadly this is probably another nail in the coffin of Serato, if they don’t manage to get some great new cooperations (or own hardware) out really soon.
I don’t think thats true they just released the s9??? with Serato DJ support
They released it right now. It’s a completely new product which means they were working on / developing it since at least around 3 years. There might even be 1 or 2 more releases in partnership with Serato, but I highly doubt that there will be any new cooperations.
here we go
I fear you may be correct. I tried Rekord Box DJ, in it’s current iteration it doesn’t seem like much of threat to Serato. It didn’t impress me and also wasn’t altogether or stable.
It was just released. Give it another year or so and it will be all over. Traktor will still have their niche (and their own hardware) but Serato will have a very very hard time.
I think it’s sad … but it will happen.
To spin this sad utopia a bit further:
Then give it another 4 years and Pioneer will have their own content shop and another 2 and you will only be able to use exclusive edm pioneer approved songs. They are owned by a big investment group. They will milk the cow to the last drop!
Wow, I’m regretting my recent investment in Serato now. Say it ain’t so 🙁
rekordbox does have a “DVS plus pack” coming out sometime. I would argue that this will support 3rd party software. They recently canceled the serato specific djm900 and added serato support to the djm900nxs. Since the mixer is supposed to be a new club standard I would bet the mixer’s sound card will be usable with Traktor and Serato.
But the “DVS plus pack” is enabling Rekordbox to do DVS which speaks for no Serato / Traktor support
Looking forward to playing on these new decks, but I still can’t shake the feeling that we’ve been able to do all these newly-enabled tricks in Traktor for years. To be fair, I’m glad that more people will be able to perform in more creative manners, but all this new “manipulation” has been possible for a very long time with the controllers and laptops so many DJ purists speak out against. From a controllerists perspective, this just feels like playing catch-up.
Two completely different systems for two different purposes. I use Pioneer Gear and Traktor and while I love Traktor for it’s deep customization and features, the feel, flow, and sound quality from Pioneer is not matched by Traktor. It’s close but there is a reason most professionals who use Traktor use it with a DJM-900NXS. I’m selling my Xone:92 for this mixer to use it with both Traktor and CDJs
While I agree on your statement about the feel & flow of pioneer gear. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that people think their digital Pioneer gear sounds better or warmer (or insert random marketing bs term) than any other digital gear.
The only thing they are is loud…
Yes … on a mediocre soundsystem Pioneer gear manages to drive it more to the max and get more out. But on a high-end and powerful soundsystem Pioneer stuff doesn’t even get close to the sound of a Xone:92 paired with vinyl or a high end soundcard.
Long story short: Keep your Xone 92 🙂
or a Rane Mixer
Rane still haven’t sorted the firmware for the MP2015 to run Traktor on El Capitan..
it’s actually not a Rane issue…apple messed up their own Core Audio Drivers in EL Capitan which Rane uses…Rane is waiting for Apple to fix it…but i bet they’re going to switch to using their own Drivers like Pioneer and others with their next line of Mixers…my Rane MKII has audio buffering issues every 45-50 mins…i just move the slider from 2ms to 5ms & save to solve the issue for now….Pioneer Mixer is all good,which is what i’m using for long gigs
Apple released a public beta that seems to help with audio problems but still testing…only updated yesterday
Yes I saw that – I feel sorry for the Rane guys taking flak on their forum but I feel they could have done a better job working with Apple and testing the El Capitan betas; it seems like they only identified the buffering issues following user feedback on the forums.
Lesson learned for me is not to upgrade the OS for maybe 6-12 months…however I’ll be selling my MP2015 and going old school (Bozak) so I won’t have to worry software/firmware any more
Me and you bro,we gotta play it smart…i didn’t know about the Rane issues and DDJ-SZ till i got to a convention last year and had major issues and even the DDJ-SZ wouldn’t connect back then,SX was always cool and other Pio Mixers…luckily,a friend had a Rane 57SL which works with scratch Live…but i’m done upgrading OS until things are officially supported.
I agree that the marketing bs terms they have used are bullshit but to say digital gear can get louder and not have improved sound quality is wrong. If you compared the DJM 800 against a Xone DB4 (both digital mixers) you hear a massive difference!
They’re not for different purposes, they’re all for DJing.
If you think the sound from a computer doesn’t sound good, get a better sound card. I’ll be curious to hear how this new Pioneer gear sounds compared to my RME Babyface Pro that cost less than half the cost of a single CDJ.
I think this is the first time in history someone used an RME Babyface Pro as an example of something that was more affordable than something else.
Pioneer will never sounds as good as a RME soundcard no matter how much they tried.
Basically that kills Xone DB4 right in the face. I need to hear it but I think this will be my first Pioneer mixer ever.
I was planning on buying a DB4, this definitely makes me pause. Only issue is the price of this is still 500-600 euros more than the current street price of the DB4.
And finally FLAC! Now for Pioneer to support this in a cheaper CDJ!
Man. DB4 is nightmare. Drivers don’t work. They did not updated drivers for 3 years (A&H). Constant problems with everything. Made in China. Should I continue? DB4 is only good if you want to use it as analog mixer. But if you want to use sound card. Forget it. Sound drop outs, huge delay. Incompatible with Macs. No Traktor certification. I have DB2. Great sound and FX and nothing else. Just troubles. I will never buy A&H equipment again. Read their forums. Full of hate. A&H screwed a lot of people with DB series. And absolutely no resell value. Nobody wants to buy it. Everybody want’s to sell it. Just don’t even think about DB series. Denon or Pioneer only. Or Rane 🙂
Wow, didn’t realise it was that bad! Now time to see what Denon come out with….
Man. It’s simple. If you are short by 500Euro only. Borrow it or steal it. You will have high resell value. Their stuff holds value best in DJ market. I am telling you PNX2 is best option currently available to invest your time and money. Unless you want Rane MP2015 but thst’s another league…
Other option for you is only Denon DX-1600. You have only 2 choices now if you want hardware FX. That could be saving option for you. Or save more cash. Wait and by Pionner.
Plus it’s a industry standard so you find it everywhere.
You’re both right with your thoughts. Sad there isn’t much options. In some ways maybe going cheaper and getting a 43C with a few external effects is better (or as you say the x1600/1700). But most likely I suck up and get the nxs2, it’s future proof in the current market – i will use it with traktor and I’m not a huge fan of traktor FXs…..
Yep. Traktor FX are good but not best. Problem with my DB2 FX is that if I want to use them on the party I have to take my mixer with me. With Pioneer you will most likely have mixer there already. I hope and I believe new Pioneer sound quality is much better. I need to hear it to compare it. But still. If I were you I would go for PNX2. Or 43C and Pioneer RMX 500. Test FX somewhere if you can. PNX2 is future proof though…
Even using a db4 on analog sucks, because when on ana you cant even haven the channel gains and master gain pots half open because of the noise. So playing vinyl on a reasonable club volume is impossible…i own one, never had problems with the soundcard..using cdjs now, wich do sound fantastic thru it, but i had various hardware problems over the years..be carefull!
I do hope that they will redeem the xone series with the x92 follow up, but i think its to late with pioneer and rane who are now at the top of their game.
To add : this djm900nxs2 still got nothing against the db4 effects, cause those are awesome! Best part of the mixer
The DB4 effects is what attracts me to it. But clearly not enough to risk it.
What all this shows is as a manufacturer making DJ equipment is just not profitable, hence why A&H can’t commit enough resources to support users. So we’ve got Pioneer dominating massively. We need more viable competition….
You are sadly right. AH main focus is studio stuff. I hope they don’t end up like Ecler making only their flag analog mixers and nothing new.
You are right, i would also not go for the db4 effects as sole reason to buy it, you will be dissapointed by the rest. Its a shame cause the x92 is great, but to outdated for me.
My next mixer wich i can hopefully buy rather sooner then later would have been the rane mp2015, but seeing this makes it harder.
I do think that with the Rane i buy something that would last me 10 – 15 years, and somehow i dont have that feeling with this nxs2, but who knows..
Allen and Heath’s analog mixers are what their rep is based on. I would expect a xone 93 with two analog filters and fx routing plus an integrated sound are like the 43C. Also, most major online retailers list the 43C as a top seller and can’t keep it in stock (guitar center for one). Allen and Heath will continue to be the analogue holdout as Rane and Pioneer compete for the best digital DJ mixers. I agree that the DB series was ill conceived and hard to resell – the offset EQ was a bad idea.
Actually that offset eq works really nice, its a great lay out to be honest, its the quality that is not right.
You’re so wrong. I’m on El Capitan and i have the latest Firmware and driver from Db4 from Dec 15, is stable and the best mixer with effects ever.
Fair point, just read about that. Good to hear A&H haven’t abandoned their customers.
Yupz, thing is it took them from release till dec 2015 to fix it..thats the issue, firmware for db4 took 2 years since the previous, not to mention all the hardware issues. and why in gods name ask users for suggestions on the forums for future firmware, when after 2 years none of them are implemented??? There was a huge list compiled with features or improvements from wich none are in the latest fw…its a shame, be honest then and tell people its at full capacity.
here also running db4 with traktor on windows 10…smoothly…
It’s your computer that’s broken.
I prefer the placement of the Hotcues for a CDJ. On a controller the pads may work better but for this with the screen and everything to fit in the pads would just be too disruptive.
Looks like there’s no more needle search. That’s a deal breaker for me.
I’m sure it’s on the touchscreen now.
It’s on the touchscreen.
How do you assign the channel to the send? Can you plug a ddj-sp1 into the USB A port on the djm instead of a cdj? Will Serato support it? Everything looks pretty awesome, in the video they say the comp/gate can still be accessed.
Looking forward to the DJM 🙂 Will Traktor finally have support for two USB inputs or could the inputs even be used to play with both Serato & Traktor? 😀
my question…if 2 usb ports are used with only 2 decks…how will the switching of the midi be? switch on and off again to detect player?.audio is automatic..but cdj midi control?
my only complaint is they removed the MIDI port on the back. as a VJ I used that to get the BPM from MIDI clock of the mixer to sync visuals at FOH for shows. guess I’ll have to use a different approach
My complaint is that they’re taking away the Gate color effect. It’s one of the few effects that *takes away* signal instead of adding more, and it can be used very elegantly. IMO more useful than “Sweep”.
Gate is still there, it happens when you rotate the pot to the left in sweep mode; left gate, right sweep
One solution is to use a app called WaveClock (http://wavesum.net/products.html) that generates MIDI clock signal based on the incoming audio signal.
You can pull the MIDI from USB. which is better for you anyways because you can also pull sound too.
Gotta get my hands on the 2000NXS2 When do they ship? 8 hot-cues – about time!
February – we’ll have a product page up soon so you can place an order 🙂
they’ll be on display at NAMM 🙂 I’m excited to try it all out while I’m there