The Pioneer XDJ-1000 is the first in the line of the XDJ series that Pioneer launched last year. The reason for me going back in time and doing an updated review of this, is that I really do not think people have caught on for some crazy reason. It has certainly been a success, as the units have been flying out of the door, but still some people either haven't heard of them, or seem to bypass them in favour for the older CDJ's.
I think I know the reason, but I may be wrong here....
Is it that nightclubs haven't taken the plunge and have stayed with the CD versions? Maybe.....
Is it that people still cant bear to lose the cd functionality, even though they haven't played cds for over 4 years? Maybe....
Is it that people don't think that the XDJ's will catch on? Maybe.....
These are the first things that come into my mind, as the fact of the matter is that they are virtually the same as the Nexus models apart from the hardware being slightly different, as in a few extra physical buttons. This however has been combated on the XDJ-1000 by its high-res touch-screen, where you find all of the features on its extremely responsive system. As for the cd option, you really have to ask yourself if you are paying for a function that you'll never use, especially as you have a powerful processor to read large external USB or external hard drives with the XDJ, not forgetting the HID mode for those using DVS systems.
As for will it catch on? For sure.... The Pioneer XDJ-RX is arguably the best selling unit that Pioneer have ever produced and with CD's surely being redundant in a few years, this looks like the natural progression.
So lets look at the main features here....
Like all the new CDJ models, Pioneer have called the XDJ-1000 a ‘multi-player’. This unit allows you to play music files in 2 ways - USB media and using HID mode.
You'll notice something completely different and new with the XDJ-1000, as it has an ultra-responsive touchscreen display. By removing the CD drive, Pioneer have been able to keep the price low and move a lot of the physical buttons from the Nexus onto this feature. You'll still get get the big and small waveforms, sync, quantize, beat/bar display, countdown, beatgrid adjustment, hot cues, slip mode and so one and so on...
The link function is still here also and all you need are LAN cables you can link to other players or your laptop running Rekordbox, mixer or other XDJ/CDJ. When linked with those mixers, the beatgrid info is sent through the link, so your FX will always be tightly quantized right on beat.
Going back to the touchscreen, I can not fault it, I'm even quite sure that if DJ EZ got his rapid fingers on this it would have no issues. The screen has a very high resolution, one even better than the CDJ-2000 Nexus, making the fonts more clear and you can adjust the brightness to suit any venue. For me personally, some of the buttons on the screen wasn't too much of an issue, but this could be a little issue if you have sausage fingers or you're playing after a few beers and your hand - eye coordination is the best its ever been. One of the other great features of the touch screen is the QWERTY keyboard that you can use to search your files. You still have the 'sort' feature like on the nexus models but with the XDJ-1000's you can actually call upon a full keyboard, but as previously mentioned, awesome if you have precise fingers. You have to remember though, this is kind of a replacement for the CDJ 850, which to be fair, didnt have a fraction of these features, so its really hard to pick faults with it... just the screen buttons (like hot cues) can be a little small..... All in all though, the touch screen is a massive win for me and my girly hands.
Once you plug your USB into the unit, you'll notice one thing straight away - the speed of the processor. I use an external hard-drive (1Tb passport) and most of my playlists have 1000 tracks in them (the maximum that Rekordbox allows), which you can select instantaneously using the search nob. I remember using this same hard-drive at a gig where they had CDJ 850's and lets just say, I had seconds to mix in the track as the dreaded egg-timer was still rotating.... I no doubt think that that egg-timer will now be a thing of the past, as the XDJ-RX is the same speed too as the 1000's... So impressive!
One thing that I haven't personally tested is the HID mode, but honestly, do you really need to use Traktor or Serato, when Rekordbox is on form at the moment? I used Traktor for my sets for years, mainly as I didn't have to worry about it being a nightmare, searching through 1000's of tracks on my USB or Hard-drive... There's no question that Traktor and Serato have MEGA plus points, but for those DJs that don't want the hassle of taking out their laptop, Rekordbox, along with a 3.0 storage device and either Pioneer Nexus or XDJs, you're onto a winner....
I do think that the XDJ's are certainly the way forward and it'll be interesting to see Pioneers next move is with their CDJ 2000's and 900's.... will they be the last of the CDJs? Maybe.....
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