Pioneer has today unveiled the CDJ-2000nexus, an update on its high-end club standard CDJ2000 DJ deck (update: there’s now also the Pioneer DJM-2000nexus club DJ mixer to complement it). The headline features are its compatibility with the company’s rekordbox software, wirelessly via smartphones and tablets – and the fact that it adds a Sync button.
DJs can prepare sets and playlists using the new rekordbox app on their smartphone or tablet. Music can then be loaded onto the CDJ-2000nexus wirelessly via a network, much in the same way that the Denon SC2900 and Denon SC3900 work with that company’s own Engine software on the iPad. Read on for features overview, press release, videos and hi-res photo gallery.
Main features overview
As guessed by us on our Facebook Page earlier in the week, the unit also adds in the ubiquitous “sync” button, allowing up to four player to snap to a master tempo from rekordbox.
There are a whole host of improvements, most lifted squarely from software/laptop/controller DJing, and all likely to make DJing on CDJs closer to the experience of using controllers and software. Here are the standout items of appeal to digital DJs:
- Full colour, zoomable waveform display – The same waveform display visible in the rekordbox software is now accessible on the screen and can be zoomed in on
- Editable beatgrids – It is now possible to edit the beatgrids of your tunes on the player itself rather than in rekordbox
- Phase meter – Now that the players have sync, a phase meter shows how far the playing track has drifted from master tempo, much like in Traktor
- Slip mode – Slip comes to the CDJ2000 – it leaves the track playing underneath your scratching, cue juggling etc, ready to kick back in when you’re done, still in sync
- Rating on the go – It is possible to add ratings to your tracks as you’re playing, which will be relayed back to rekordbox and to your library
- Key analysis indicator – A “traffic light” system for key analysis – presumable green means same key yellow related key, red unrelated. Whether the software actually does the key analysis for you is unclear to me
- Autoloops – It is possible to add autoloops to your tracks in rekordbox which the player then executes for you. You can extend breaks, intros, outros etc, for instance to ensure a tune never “ends”
More about the WiFi feature
So the WiFi workflow would be to prepare your tunes on an iPhone, iPad or Android device, and connect to a WiFi network which the CDJ2000nexus player/s are also connected to (eg upon arrival at the club). From there you can load tunes over WiFi so no need for USB.
Note that while up to four players can be used in this way, they need to be connected to a standard router for this to all work – it’s not “ad hoc” like with the consumer-focused Pioneer XDJ-AERO. However, unlike the XDJ-AERO, it appears that this system actually loads the track fully onto the CDJ2000nexus before playing, so hopefully there’s no chance of a dropped WiFi connection stopping the track that’s playing.
Recommended retail price is a wallet-slapping US$2,399 / £1,599 / €1,899.
• See the launch videos with Laidback Luke, Kissy Sellout and Eats Everything
• Read the Pioneer CDJ2000nexus press release on the Digital DJ Tips Newswire
• See the Pioneer CDJ2000nexus photo gallery on our Facebook page
So, sync on a Pioneer CDJ? Wireless taking over the world? What do you think it’s going to cost? Comments below please!
Phil Morse
