The CDJ2000, a ‘legendary’ new player from Pioneer. Every magazine and website has reviewed these babies and I feel a little behind I must say! Lets start with the price tag… A pair of these will cost you around £3000.00 (unless you manage to wing a discount- I got mine for £2600.00 so they could sell a few)- a very hefty price tage for a peice of DJ equipment, particularly when the rise of cheap, but effective and good quality Digital DJ gear is turning people left right and centre towards ‘laptop DJing’. The worst thing about the price is that because of it, Clubs/Bars/Venues around the world will be and have been very slow on the install of these in their DJ Booths. I’ve got my CDJ2000’s, check. I’ve got a hardrive packed with music, check. It all works and I’m ready to go, but wait… I can’t really use these outside of my bedroom because no-one has them! Its the most annoying thing ever when you’ve slaved for hours sorting your music in recordbox into genre playlists, colour coding them, sticking cue points and loops in etc. Whats the point???? I had to go play yesterday in town and had to revert back to my terrible CD collection on CDJ1000s for a 4 hour set and it was so bad! Another gripe of the players is Rekordbox, the music preparation software created especially for the 2000’s, and supplied with them is a peice of shit! Honestly, Pioneer, you really need to step up your game on this one. Maybe its just my copy, but its horribly unstable, it crashes all of the time and does all sorts of crazy stuff that I didn’t instruct it to do! I can see where they’re going with it, and in honesty, it has the potential to be really great (a few updates down the line). The layout is nice and clear, resembling that of the actual CDJ, and the preparation features, such as recording cue/loop memories and Hot Cue Banks does add a whole new exciting element to a DJ set if used properly, so perhaps I was a BIT harsh. Anyone had a go with the needle drop? I’m can’t quite think of what to say about this. What I do know is that I don’t really use it much! Part of the problem here is that you can only use it when the track is paused (it doesn’t work whilst a track is playing). It would be really nice for the function to work kind of like the needle in Traktor Pro, whereby whilst playing a track, you can jump to another section in the track or to a cue point/loop. What I like about the CDJ2000s… Brilliant idea and step up from the 1000mk3. Using a hardrive and linking 2 CDJs to play music is really stable (I have played 4 hour sets without a glitch). Tag List function is great when creating your set list on the fly. 4-Beat Loop is a really life saver (especially with the added Quantize feature). General layout and feel of the CDJ is wonderful, really elegant and looks great in the dark. LCD screen is nice and bright. The worst thing, once again, is that no Clubs/Bars have them- come on Pioneer, sort them out! Until them, looks like I’ll be a bedroom DJ once again…

The CDJ2000, a ‘legendary’ new player from Pioneer. Every magazine and website has reviewed these babies and I feel a little behind I must say! Lets start with the price tag…

A pair of these will cost you around £3000.00 (unless you manage to wing a discount- I got mine for £2600.00 so they could sell a few)- a very hefty price tage for a peice of DJ equipment, particularly when the rise of cheap, but effective and good quality Digital DJ gear is turning people left right and centre towards ‘laptop DJing’. The worst thing about the price is that because of it, Clubs/Bars/Venues around the world will be and have been very slow on the install of these in their DJ Booths.

I’ve got my CDJ2000’s, check. I’ve got a hardrive packed with music, check. It all works and I’m ready to go, but wait… I can’t really use these outside of my bedroom because no-one has them! Its the most annoying thing ever when you’ve slaved for hours sorting your music in recordbox into genre playlists, colour coding them, sticking cue points and loops in etc. Whats the point????

I had to go play yesterday in town and had to revert back to my terrible CD collection on CDJ1000s for a 4 hour set and it was so bad!

Another gripe of the players is Rekordbox, the music preparation software created especially for the 2000’s, and supplied with them is a peice of shit! Honestly, Pioneer, you really need to step up your game on this one. Maybe its just my copy, but its horribly unstable, it crashes all of the time and does all sorts of crazy stuff that I didn’t instruct it to do! I can see where they’re going with it, and in honesty, it has the potential to be really great (a few updates down the line). The layout is nice and clear, resembling that of the actual CDJ, and the preparation features, such as recording cue/loop memories and Hot Cue Banks does add a whole new exciting element to a DJ set if used properly, so perhaps I was a BIT harsh.

Anyone had a go with the needle drop? I’m can’t quite think of what to say about this. What I do know is that I don’t really use it much! Part of the problem here is that you can only use it when the track is paused (it doesn’t work whilst a track is playing). It would be really nice for the function to work kind of like the needle in Traktor Pro, whereby whilst playing a track, you can jump to another section in the track or to a cue point/loop.

What I like about the CDJ2000s… Brilliant idea and step up from the 1000mk3. Using a hardrive and linking 2 CDJs to play music is really stable (I have played 4 hour sets without a glitch). Tag List function is great when creating your set list on the fly. 4-Beat Loop is a really life saver (especially with the added Quantize feature). General layout and feel of the CDJ is wonderful, really elegant and looks great in the dark. LCD screen is nice and bright.

The worst thing, once again, is that no Clubs/Bars have them- come on Pioneer, sort them out! Until them, looks like I’ll be a bedroom DJ once again…