Hi-res onboard screens, CDJ-style jogwheels and DJM-style mixer FX.
the closest thing to a CDJ
or DJM set-up ever found on a DJ
controller. This is our review of the
Pioneer DJ DDJ-1000 for Rekordbox DJ. Don't
forget to like and share this video with
your friends so we can keep on making
more great stuff like this. Now, before we
dive into the jogs, displays and FX,
let's do an overview of the controller. The DDJ-1000 is a controller for Rekordbox
DJ. You need to connect it to your
laptop in order to spin with it. This is
not an all-in-one system like the XDJ-RX2. It has a standalone 4-channel
mixer with trim pots, 3-band EQs, colour FX knobs, and an assignable Magvel
crossfader. It's got two decks and each
deck has a jogwheel with a built-in
display, performance pads, a pitch control,
transport controls, deck select buttons
for switching to decks 3 & 4, and loop
control buttons that are similar to what
you'd find on a CDJ. Now you're probably
thinking why aren't there any FX
controls for Rekordbox DJ's FX?
Well, you've got pad FX mode in the
performance pads, but more than that it's
because the DDJ-1000 already has two
built-in hardware FX onboard: Sound
colour FX and beat FX, which
is exactly what you'd find on a modern
DJM club mixer. The rear of the unit has
XLR and RCA master outs, 1/4"
booth outs, four RCA inputs with two of
them being switchable line or phono for
turntables, and two mic inputs. It's also
got a power jack, power button and twin
USB sockets for connecting up to two
laptops for DJ switchovers. The front of
the unit has 1/4" and 1/8"
headphone outputs. Alright cool, now
let's dig into the good stuff starting
with the jogwheels. The jogs on the DDJ-1000 are full size and mechanical, like
what you'd expect on a standard CDJ, and
they feel more solid than
what you'd find on say the XDJ-1000. They really do feel similar to a CDJ-2000
Nexus 2, thanks to its mechanical nature
and the addition of jog adjust controls.
They have got to be some of the best that
Pioneer DJ has put out and are easily my
favourite jog wheels at the moment on any Pioneer DJ controller, and that's a lot
considering that I was never really a
fan of the mechanical jogwheels. I just
preferred the tight feel of
touch-sensitive full-sized jogs like
those found on the DDJ-RZ and DDJ-RZX, but these jogs on the DDJ-1000 are making
me change my mind big time. They're
responsive plus the jogwheel adjust
controls let you set how loose or tight
you want them to be. The jogs also have
looping controls similar to what you'd
find on a CDJ, which makes it easier for
you to make the jump from using a DJ
controller to spinning with CDJs at
the club, at least from a looping
standpoint. The quality jogwheels and
jog adjust controls are pretty
surprising considering that this
controller comes in at under $1,200,
that's practically unheard of in a
Pioneer DJ controller. The DDJ-RZ
for example sets you back $2,400 and
you're busy getting better jogwheels on
the DDJ-1000 compared to those found on
the DDJ-RZ. Imagine that!
Not iPhone 10 or
Samsung S9 stunning, but they look
amazing especially for Pioneer DJ gear. I
was a bit skeptical at first thinking
they'd be like I don't know a low frame
rate screen found on say the CDJ-2000
Nexus 2, but man they're certainly a generation
apart from the screens found on Pioneer
DJ's current line of media players. They're
hi-res, have a high frame rate and they
feel like you're working with a screen
that's built for today's DJs, and we're
already used to looking at high-quality
screens thanks to our smart phones right?
The display shows the album art, tempo,
waveform and time. It also shows a phrase
meter that has an indicator for every
four bars, which is kind of cool because
when it comes to dance music, important
developments in a tune happen after
counting four bars, so basically Pioneer
DJ just made it a lot easier for you to
tell where you are in a
four bar section thanks to this phrase
meter. You've also got two ways of viewing
your position. First is via a playhead that
goes from left to right in the track's
waveform, and second is via a bar
that goes around the display kind of
like a clock's hand. Now, I have two minor
gripes about the jogwheel displays. The
waveform is quite small and condensed onscreen,
so if you want to do some
detailed cueing, you'll probably still
want to look at your laptop screen. It
would have been nice if you could zoom
in on the waveform to make those precise
movements. Also you can't browse your
library using the jog displays, again
you'll still have to look at your laptop.
Despite these, I still really like the jogwheel displays, granted I'll still be
looking at my laptop from time to time
but I'm not really that bothered. You've
just got to see these screens to really
appreciate them. They're fantastic, especially
at this price point, and I can imagine
many DJs are thirsting for this
controller just because of those screens.
Alright, now let's talk about the
FX here. You've got four sound colour
FX taken from the DJM-900 Nexus 2.
There's also a beat FX section
which is the first time beat FX
have ever been featured on a Pioneer DJ
controller, because they're just found on
mixers. You can select any one of the 14
beat FX via the rotary switch in
the beat FX section, and you can
view which one you've selected via beat
FX OLED display. You've got low-cut
echo, echo, delay, spiral, reverb,
transformer, enigma jet, flanger,
phaser, pitch, slip roll, roll and two
Mobius FX. Now the FX sound
good, but more importantly, they work
exactly the way you'd use FX when
you're spinning at the club with a DJM
mixer. That means that you can practise
using those FX at home while you're
spinning with your controller, which is
sometimes confusing for newer club and
bar DJs who haven't really spent much
time mixing with a CDJ and DJM set-up.
It basically gives you more confidence
to step up and use the beat FX
during gigs, because you can get very
expressive using these compared to just
isolating yourself to the sound colour
FX, which are relatively easy to use.
The DDJ-1000 has eight performance pads per deck, with eight pad modes:
hot cue, pad FX 1, beat jump,
sampler, keyboard, pad FX 2, beat
loop, and key shift. The latter four pad
modes are accessible via a shift layer.
The pads themselves are smaller than
what you'd find on the DDJ-RZ or DDJ-RZX
and are closer to the size of the
ones found on the DDJ-RX. They're
springy and responsive and are built to
be used and abused which is great
because having the keyboard pad mode
onboard means that you can play melodic
cue juggles on them, kind of like what
you'd be able to do on the
The DDJ-1000 is an important
controller for Pioneer DJ because it
represents a leap in the way that the
company produces DJ gear. It releases
gear often, but usually they're just
minor updates of its previous
controllers. Maybe a new silkscreen, a few new buttons here and there, but nothing
that makes a massive difference in the
way that the controller works. That's not
entirely the case with the DDJ-1000.
Sure it may look like a souped up DDJ-RX,
but there's so much going on in this
controller that makes it a much better
device built for the demands of the
modern digital DJ.
What you're getting is easily the most
powerful and advanced DJ controller that
Pioneer DJ has made for its Rekordbox
DJ software, and one that could very much
be at the peak of its current
technological powers. It's hard to think
of what other innovation Pioneer DJ
could add to this device moving forward
without introducing maybe a paradigm
shift in what DJing is or what DJ
controllers should have onboard. The only
drawbacks are the waveform display and
the lack of library browse. Being able to
zoom in on your waveforms would have
been a nice to have, along with the
ability to just view your tracks and
playlists via the jog display. Again,
you'll probably still want your laptop
to be somewhere near you in the DJ booth
for these reasons, but I did find myself
staring a lot less at my laptop screen
because of the jog displays. This is far
and away the best controller Pioneer DJ
has put out in recent years, and honestly
I can't think of a better device for
professional gigging laptop DJs. The
closest thing to it I can think of is
the Numark NS6II for Serato DJ Pro,
but then you're not getting the same CDJ-style jogs and DJM-style mixer FX.
It's kind of like Pioneer DJ
finally decided to graph a huge chunk of
it's club standard DNA
over onto DJ controllers and the result
is a fantastic hybrid of all the things
you'd expect in a modern laptop DJ
controller. So that's it for this talkthrough video of the DDJ-1000 from
Pioneer DJ. I've got the full review
over at the Digital DJ Tips site, the link
is in the description box below. Hit the
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