Seemingly out of nowhere, Pioneer DJ has teased a brand new CDJ-3000 media player on their Instagram account. The company, which has stayed relatively quiet on the media player front since Denon DJ’s own Prime lineup has fired multiple challenges at them, dropped the below teaser on social media with the marketing tagline “A New Dimension”.
Update: multiple alleged photos appear
As usual with a product teaser like this, there have been a number of alleged leaked images and photos of the new Pioneer DJ player. Here’s what we’ve seen so far – keep reading for our analysis of the original teaser too.
Our analysis of the CDJ-3000 teaser
We’ve ripped the teaser apart and taken a closer look at every scene in the video to analyze what’s to come on this new media player. Be warned: GIFs, distorted images, and heavy speculation follow.
The teaser starts with a highly mechanical process, what appears to be metal rod rotating a plate above a CDJ-ish platter. This could be a view into the production process of CDJs – or perhaps a view into a testing process that simulates heavy use (the next scene supports this). It also could be an indication of motorization – this is a mechanical spinning of a CDJ platter, so is that a hint at motorized platters?
Then we move on to another process – this one I’m dubbing “the cue button tester”. How many times have you tapped the cue button in time with the beat on a CDJ over the years? Pioneer DJ is clearly noting the build quality of CDJs – past or future – in terms of these heavily used buttons.
From here, it gets a bit more interesting – but predictably distorted. Make no mistake, Pioneer’s marketing team knows that their promo video is designed to tease – without anything close to a full reveal.
This shot shows some clear motion and light underneath of the CDJ platter. Likely this is an indication that the CDJ-3000 (or whatever we’re calling it) will have under-platter lighting that moves with the playback of the track.
Bear with me here; this deduction might like a stretch, but everything about this sequence seems to be mirrored. But instead of just being a video effect, perhaps the hint is that we should be thinking about dual/doubles – in other words, the new CDJ-3000 might have dual layers (as Denon DJ’s SC5000/6000 both have).
Here’s some new buttons for you: this is clearly the top left of the CDJ platter (that’s a big yellow loop out button for you) – but a few things to note: first, two new buttons below the loop – one small, circular, and yellow, and the other rectangular and white. Perhaps we’re looking at something relating to loop move / beat jump here?
And don’t forget the red and blue lights at the top of the image – those are probably rearranged cue point / performance pad buttons, perhaps finally in a horizontal configuration (to match the rest of the industry, including Pioneer DJ’s own highly-successful controller lineup).
Great news, the new CDJs will have USB ports on them. More duality here seems to indicate dual decks. No, those aren’t second USB slots – but rather the plastic slide up cover to protect the USB slot when there’s no drive inserted.
A mirrored look at the color waveforms on the CDJ – again, heavy implications of dual layer playback on a single unit here. They’re mirroring it to only show us one layer, right?
It also is pretty clear that we’re going to see the 3-band waveform in these new units – and ideally it would be amazing to see those waveforms react in real time as you sculpt the sound with your Pro Linked mixer’s EQs, right?
The grooves on the platter look great in this shot. Again, the motion seems to hint at moving platters, but then again, it could be just snazzy lighting. I slowed down this section a few times in hopes of seeing the actual grooves moving. It’s too low quality to say for sure.
These new CDJs are for sure getting the DDJ-1000 style jog displays (example below) – you can pretty much see them in action in this shot. There’s also more clear signs of a horizontal row of performance buttons above the jogwheel here.
Above: welcome to the most convoluted, heavily distorted shot in the entire sequence. Yes, it appears to be the orange cue and green play buttons in this shot, but there’s a lot more around it that’s very distorted. Anyone able to make out what’s being conveyed here?
Everyone has to use the Browse knob to find and load tracks. It looks like there’s a new design here, with metal in the middle – and could those be backlit white buttons around it?
It’s late here in the US, so that’s all the analysis from us for the moment. This is clearly a marketing-driven hype-train, but I’m here for it. It’s about time Pioneer DJ steps up to the plate with a new media player. Over to you guys in the comments – what can you pick out that I’ve missed?
Keep reading: here’s what we thought the CDJ-3000 might look like back in May. We’re probably really, really close.
