The latest upgrade to the CDJ range from Pioneer has been around for about a month and we at Onion Audio got a chance to play on it earlier this month! It doesn’t seem so long ago that the CDJ2000 was released so I was a little surprised to find out that its been almost three years! If the time its been since the release of the first version was a shock, then the amount of new features on the latest version was mind blowing! I am going to run you through some of the biggest and most impressive below but if you have a little more time then check out the DJKit.tv Youtube video below because they go in to detail with all the new features!

The biggest feature in my opinion is the Sync button. This has been around for years on software such as Traktor, but it has never featured on a piece of hardware like this before! How good is it? Amazing. The CDJ2000 Nexus also lets you edit the beat grid manually, so it you are playing drum and bass, or something where the beat isn’t obvious, you can nudge the beat grid in the the correct place. This means the sync feature should always work, just as long as you are willing to put the time in to fine tuning.

The second one for me was actually available on the CDJ900, but I was so caught up in the release of the 2000 at the time (with the CDJ2000 set to become the new industry standard) that I missed the ‘Slip’ feature. Pressing this button, means that whenever you stop the track, re-load or hit a loop, as soon as you are finished, it continues to play where it would have done had you not touched it. Imagine spinning a tune back and then it jumping back to the place it would have been anyway! Madness.

The third big feature for me is the iPhone Rekord Box feature. You basically hook your iPhone up via USB and play the songs from an app on your phone. Now you don’t even need to remember a USB stick. Just your phone. And the special cable……

For me, they are the most impressive and most powerful features on the new CDJ2000 Nexus. If you want to find out more, I would watch this video as they run through all the new features!

On another note, I have just published a Hub on Hubpages called ‘What Is A Rider‘ please check it out!

Pioneer have been pretty busy recently. The Pioneer DJM900 nexus has just been released and the DJM850 is following with a release this March. The two mixers both follow a layout that is similar to the industry standard DJM800, which Onion Audio’s DJ Equipment hire section supply. [Read more...]

Sadly not, but there are quite a few big festivals announcing some serious line ups already. Orbital have announced that they will be appearing at a number of UK festivals this summer including Bloc, a big London dance event, and Bestival. Bestival have decided to announce a band a day for at least the next month or so, which seems [Read more...]

Its been well over a year now since the CDJ2000 was first released. Since then its fast becoming a standard fixture on a lot of pro DJ riders. A lot of DJ equipment hire companies were originally court  out by just how fast the top DJs would take to the new technology. But other than the very top, most DJs still seem content with the CDJ1000mk3.

I think the reason for this is that the major benefits of the 2000 are its ability to play songs from a flash drive and its sampling abilities. Its easy to see why a top DJ making tunes on a  flight to a gig might much prefer to put his song on a USB stick as he lands rather than try to burn a CD at 30,000 ft.

The sampling abilities seem to be appealing to the most creative DJs. Thats not to say only the ammeter  DJs aren’t creative but when you look at the price point its easy to see why the turntablists have yet to really get a hold of the cdj2000 and really experiment with it.

The CDJ2000 as a turntablists unit really only works well with the DJM2000. Which brings us on to if the DJM2000 will ever make it on to the pro club circuit riders. Im really not sure if Pioneer ever intended it to. If they did then more fool them. I said it when the DJM2000 came out and Im sticking to it. Im sure the DJM800 will stay a staple of the club DJ rider for quite some time yet.

I was recently having a chat with a DJ when he said “everyone is in to this now so thats what Im playing” he then went on to say that he was enjoying the tunes I was playing on my iTunes and he would like to come round and rip them in exchange for me ripping his collection.

The thought of playing something because other people are enjoying it and not because you love it fills me with disdain. I would like to think that the songs I choose to play (as a bedroom DJ) represent me and the style of music that I enjoy. The music I play is defined purely by what I enjoy. With my taste in music being as unique as the next persons this by default gives me a unique style. Playing something because other people like it gives you a soulless selection of songs.

I spend hours upon hours searching for quality songs. I spend my hard earned cash buying those songs. The selection of songs I have is a personal collection that represents the music I love. If you think you can come to my house with your hard drive and rip my entire library you can think again! I don’t mind telling you the names of tracks you like but this is my selection. My style. Get your own style and create soul in your mix!

Do you mind when people copy your entire music library?

Hey guys, check this out! Ive seen it around in various forms but this does look like fun!

Im not sure anyone who isn’t a DJ even cares. Most of my non-technical/non-DJ friends don’t even notice the medium the DJ is using to produce the music we hear coming from the sound system, let alone cares enough to give it moments thought. After a festival event this weekend I pointed out to my friends that the DJ was using three vinyl turntables & and during the last song was cutting between three songs all playing at the same time. No one cared.

In the DJ world the question of what a DJ is/should use to play the music still remains a personal choice. But isn’t DJing just about playing one song after another in an order that pleases the people on the dance floor?
As someone who does like to see a DJ perform it infuriates me to see DJs hunched over a laptop screen. The glare of the backlight illuminating their face in a dark club. Its boring. If I worked in an office it would remind me of my boss checking his Email in the morning, not what I want on a Friday night.

Im not against DJs using computer software as their way of providing the music, far from it, but I do want to see them doing something; Pressing buttons & turning knobs. I want to see the performer performing! As a punter do I deserve to see physical actions that I can here the results of instantly or should I just be happy that there is a great DJ playing great tunes?

There was a post on a forum I read a while back from an angry clubber/bedroom DJ about an experienced drum & bass DJ playing CDJs. He was annoyed that he had two CDs that didn’t come out of the CDJs during the performance & all the tracks had the cue points set so they didn’t need to be set on the fly. He complained that this made the performance boring. I can imagine that watching them play vinyl would be far more visually appealing but isn’t he missing the point? I’d bet there was a thousand people behind him going nuts for the music?!

I think you can reach a balance between performance & music but remember that its all about the music! You could have the most visually appealing performance but if your song selection sucks, you suck!