Sounding Off

PIONEER DJ CDJ-3000 & NUMARK CONTROLLERS

CDJ-3000: New features advance the DJ game.

By Wesley Bryant-King & DJ Deets

Editor’s Note: In this edition of Sounding Off, we deliver three reviews from two different writers. Denver’s Wesley Bryant-King takes on Pioneer DJ’s CDJ-3000 media player, while Minneapolis’ DJ Deets runs Numark’s Mixtrack Pro FX and Mixtrack Platinum FX through their paces.

PIONEER DJ CDJ-3000

By the time you read this review, it will have been almost a year since DJ Times editor Jim Tremayne and I were camped out in Southern California, walking the enormity of the Anaheim Convention Center at Winter NAMM 2020. For several grueling days – it’s quite a large venue – we checked out all the latest DJ, PA and home-studio gear. (Unfortunately, both Jim and I will have to miss the fun this year; NAMM has gone virtual for 2021 due to the pandemic.)

Among our favorite annual NAMM stops is the Pioneer DJ booth, and at the start of 2020, the L.A.-based company showed a number of interesting new products. In addition to the DJM-V10, a 6-channel tank of a mixer, we also saw the XDJ-XZ all-in-one, standalone DJ system, which we recently reviewed in the magazine. But we had to wait until the late summer for one of the company’s bigger releases in recent memory: the CDJ-3000 professional DJ multi-player.

Building on Pioneer DJ’s 22-year history with the CDJ line-up, the CDJ3000 takes its place as the company’s flagship media player. It pushes aside the still-available CDJ-2000NXS2, while (thankfully) dispensing with the tonguetwisting NXS/NXS2 suffix that has been a fixture of the naming conventions of Pioneer DJ’s flagships for a few years now.

While Pioneer DJ does still make several media players that have disc drives on-board for digital disc-based content playback — including the aforementioned CDJ-2000NXS2 — the CDJ-3000 follows the current trend of looking very much like the CDJs of old, but playing back only content from various types of solid-state media. With the CDJ-3000, that includes content on USB- and SD card-based media.

Though I’m puzzled why a DJ might want to do this, it’s apparently also possible to connect a CDJ-3000 to your iPhone. I wasn’t able to personally test this, but using an Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter — a common way of connecting generic USB devices to an iOS device — you can control and playback media from the rekordbox iOS app. Pioneer DJ isn’t clear on how this might be integrated with a broader DJ set, and the owner’s manual is completely mute on the entire topic.

In the CDJ-3000, Pioneer DJ clearly didn’t just drop the disc player deck from the CDJ-2000NXS2 and call it done, of course. The 3000’s improved touch screen is bigger and clearer than the earlier flagship, and the company has improved the user interface as well.

Unfortunately, the CDJ-3000 suffers from some of the same drawbacks as the XDJ-XZ. First, the user interface design doesn’t seem as contemporary as it feels like it should; it is a touch screen, but it has no multi-touch support (e.g., things like pinch to zoom) to which we’ve all become accustomed in the smartphone era.

But beyond aesthetics, the CDJ-3000, also like the XDJ-XZ, has a pretty strong dependency on the rekordbox computer software. While the 3000 will playback unprepared audio from solid-state media, it’s a big compromise to do so. If you want full music analysis and full playback functionality, all the analysis and prep must to be done offboard with your computer first, saved to the replaceable media, and then used on the CDJ-3000. (Or, you can connect the unit to a laptop, too, as I’ll mention in a moment.)

While the CDJ-3000 has some compromises in those areas, they start to fade away as you begin to use the units. There’s a lot of really great gear on the market these days, no question about it. I’ve said before, and will again… it’s truly a great time to be a DJ with the options we have available to use. But Pioneer DJ has always had a certain cachet as a brand, and a lot of that is supported by the ruggedness and feel of their gear — and the CDJ-3000 is no exception.

In particular, I’ve always loved the jog wheels on Pioneer gear – and on the CDJ-3000, the company has further improved them. But it’s not just the jog wheels I like about Pioneer DJ’s stuff, it’s everything else about the gear that simply feels solid; it feels “right” under your fingertips.

In any case, playing content from solid-state devices is not the CDJ-3000’s only trick; the players are a Hardware Unlock Device for rekordbox, meaning that when connected to a laptop, the full functionality of the software is available at no additional cost, and with no subscription required. This is also Pioneer DJ’s method of bringing streaming services to the table – via the laptop and the rekordbox software. With everything set up and the necessary subscriptions in-place, you can play back music from Beatport Link, Tidal, SoundCloud and others as part of your set.

With a street price of around $2,300 a pop, the CDJ-3000 is likely to find use in a very specific niche of the DJ market, a niche that I’d argue has some elevated performance expectations. The units deliver with eight hot cue buttons, dedicated beat jump buttons, and loop controls that allow the performing DJ to slice, dice and perhaps even julienne their music in countless creative ways.

Other new features on the CDJ-3000 include: Key Shift function, which allows DJs to manually shift key of track up or down; Touch Cue, which allows DJs to listen to another part of a track that’s currently playing; Touch Preview, which enables quick track selection; Stacked Waveforms, which help the DJ spot perfect mix points of a track; and support for 3Band Waveform, a color-coded system which allows DJs to understand how a track sounds without listening to it.

It’s worth mentioning too that the CDJ-3000 supports Pioneer DJ’s proprietary Pro DJ Link, which allows you to network multiple Pioneer DJ units of various types together via standard Ethernet cabling. With multiple players networked in this way, you can share media sources across decks, and it’s also the vehicle to support Pioneer DJ’s own RB-DMX1 lighting interface, which in turn allows you to sync your light shows to the music (continued on page 32)

NUMARK MIXTRACK PRO FX & MIXTRACK PLATINUM FX

After several iterations, Numark’s Mixtrack range of controllers have enshrined themselves as impressive DJ controllers for beginner, advancing, and skilled DJs. Now, a decade since the release of the original Mixtrack, Numark has added two new flavors of Mixtrack to their range: The Mixtrack Pro FX and the Mixtrack Platinum FX.

By today’s standards, the first-generation Mixtrack controllers – which had two channels and touch-activated jog wheels – might seem relatively basic. But, make no mistake, they were instrumental in introducing legions of DJs to the world of MIDI controllers and made it possible for many individuals to experience DJing for the first time.

The second-generation Mixtrack added performance pads and a sleeker, more modern look. Along with the secondgeneration Mixtrack, the tablet-sized Mixtrack Edge was one of the slimmest DJ controllers ever offered, and the Mixtrack Quad offered a 4-channel mixer. The current third-generation Mixtrack adopted a long and slender profile, while retaining performance pads, decently sized jog wheels, and a spacious 2-channel mixer with 3-band equalizer controls and a dedicated channel-specific high/low-pass filter knob. The Mixtrack Pro 3 added a built-in soundcard, and the Mixtrack Platinum featured small screens in the centers of the two jog wheels.

Midway through 2020, Numark introduced the Mixtrack Pro FX and the Mixtrack Platinum FX. As the FX in the names suggests, these two new controllers add exciting new features, especially in the effects department. Form-factor-wise, the two controllers share a lot in common and continue the long and wide stance found on current versions of the Mixtrack range, and both controllers have dramatically expanded effects sections. On previous Mixtrack models, effects are controlled by buttons on each individual deck section. However, on the Mixtrack FX models, effects are controlled by a single effects section located in the center of the mixer, which is similar to the layout on the Numark Scratch battle mixer.

The centerpieces of this new effects section are two springy paddles that trigger effects – pulling them down activates effects temporarily while the paddle is pressed, and pushing them up locks in the effects. Above the paddles are buttons to activate six different software-based effects – highpass filter, low-pass filter, flanger, echo, reverb, and phaser. Above the buttons for activating the individual effects is a wet/dry knob, a rotary knob to change the number of beats an effect repeats for, and a button for manually tapping in the tempo. I especially appreciated that the effects were post-line fader and post-crossfader, which opens the door for various effect-laden transitions.

The only main differences between the Mixtrack Pro FX and the Mixtrack Platinum FX are the central jog wheel displays and the ability to control four decks, which are both found on the Mixtrack Platinum FX only. The center jog wheel displays are very similar to those found on the Mixtrack Platinum and Numark’s NS6II. The outside of the display shows the playhead, and the inside of the display shows the track’s BPM, the deck selected (1 or 3 on the left deck section and 2 or 4 on the right deck section), the time elapsed in the track, the key of the track, and the pitch-change percentage.

In my testing, the screens are sufficiently well-lit, even in low-light environments. They did take some getting used to, but after a few minutes of practice, I was able to quickly read them. On the Platinum FX, 4-channel functionality can be activated by holding shift and a button on the bottom right of the jog wheels – this triggers the additional decks. In my opinion, the screens are definitely a worthwhile feature to have, but I could easily live without 4-deck control, especially when I don’t have four dedicated channels on my mixer.

On both controllers, each deck section is identically laid out: in the center, there are large 6-inch jog wheels (on both models, the jog wheels are equally sized) and, at the bottom, there are eight rubber performance pads, transport controls, and looping controls. The pads control cues, auto loops, and

Mixtrack Platinum FX: Four decks, plenty of effects.

Mixtrack Pro FX: Serato DJ controller & more.

the sampler. They also control a new mode called “Fader Cuts” – this feature acts like a gate and cuts the track in and out, much like how a scratch DJ would manipulate the crossfader. It was an interesting feature and allowed me to layer effects on top of my scratching since my normal crossfader hand was now free.

At the right of each deck section, there are wide pitch sliders. Unfortunately, there is no center-click or light to indicate when the pitch sliders are centered – I needed to consult the center jog wheel display when using the Mixtrack Platinum FX and the software on my laptop when using the Mixtrack Pro FX. At the top of the left deck, there is a knob to control the mic level and, at the top of the right deck, there is a knob to control the master volume.

The center mixer is logically laid out and has two fully-featured channels: each channel has a 3-band equalizer (treble, mid, and bass), high/low-pass filter knobs below the 3-band EQ, and trim controls at the top of each channel. The line faders have a fair amount of resistance, and the crossfader feels really good to use; that being said, I would’ve liked to see a dedicated hardware switch to change the crossfader curve. (Nonetheless, it can be controlled in the software, if needed.) Headphone cueing controls and VU meters are located just above the crossfader and between the line faders. The top of the mixer has a thick browse knob and dedicated loading controls for each deck. Double-tapping the load buttons triggers instant doubles.

Located on the front of both controllers are a 1/8-inch and a ¼-inch headphone jack and, on the back, there is a master output on RCA, a USB Type-B port to connect the controller to a laptop, and a ¼- inch microphone input. Both controllers are built with solid and durable-feeling plastic cases, which make them both strong and lightweight. Chunky rubber feet at all four corners hold the controller in place.

In use, both the Mixtrack Pro FX and the Platinum FX feel great. The jog wheels on both controllers shine. At 6-inches, they offer ample room and are superbly weighted. These jog wheels wouldn’t feel out of place on DJ controllers costing much more, and it’s really impressive that they were able to be (continued on page 32)