PLAYBACK Cool New Feature: Bigger, faster touchscreen.
Solid All-In-One:
PIONEER DJ's By Wesley Bryant-King For most DJs, the past couple of years have been pretty tough. But as pandemic restrictions continue to ease in most parts of the country and as the latest wave of COVID winds-down, I’m personally feeling a sense of optimism about what the remainder of 2022 might bring for us. Perhaps that’s boosted a bit as I get the chance to go hands-on with some of the newest gear to hit the market, among them Pioneer DJ’s new XDJ-RX3 all-in-one controller — a replacement for its predecessor, the XDJ-RX2. There continue to be myriad choices for DJs in terms of gear they could use to perform a set. Pioneer DJ, like its competitors, has been on a mission to continuously improve its offerings in what I call the “standalone” controller segment. Pioneer DJ prefers the term “all-in-one,” but it promises the option of DJ life without a laptop. Plug in some digital media full of tracks into the onboard USB ports, and you’re off. It’s worth pointing out
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that most of these same controllers actually do support laptop-based DJing, for those who prefer it, and the Pioneer DJ XDJ-RX3 does exactly that, as a fullfledged Serato controller. First Impressions Pioneer DJ currently provides three offerings in this segment, from entry-level to flagship. The XDJ-RX3 fits in the middle of the line-up. The last time I played with a Pioneer DJ all-in-one, it was with what remains its flagship, four-channel model, the XDJ-XZ. While it was a nice controller, it was a bit of a beast, tipping the scales at nearly 30 pounds. The XDJ-RX3 provides many of the same capabilities, but thanks to dropping a couple of channels from the mixer, as well as some of the higher-end features, the XDJ-RX3 lands at right around 20 pounds, which makes a huge difference in terms of portability. The roughly two years between the introduction of the two models has given the company plenty of time to revisit the design. For starters, the XDJ-RX3 sports an enormous 10.1-inch touchscreen (vs. the 7-inch of both the previous XDJRX2, as well as the flagship XDJ-XZ), and Pioneer DJ has spent a lot of time improving the operation of the underlying operating system as well. The display is gorgeous, responsive and fast. (According to the company, “the song’s load time [when a track has hot cues] has been improved from about 2.5-to-5 seconds on the XZ to under a second with eight hot cues on the RX3.”) Like the company’s other all-in-ones, the XDJ-RX3 takes the majority of its ergonomic cues from Pioneer DJ’s industry-leading DJ media players and mixers. The approach is a smart one, as it reduces the learning curve considerably for experienced DJs accustomed to the company’s ubiquitous gear. The company has built in a range of ways to get your music into the system. As mentioned earlier, you can connect digital mass storage devices to the pair of USB ports, and you can connect either CDJs, vinyl turntables, or other sources into back panel. A switch in the mixer section, one for each of the two channels, lets you pick the desired input. And as mentioned previously, the
