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 Pioneer CDJ-1000 MKII CD Deck Review
(UKHH.com CD DJ’ing special)

 deejay feature 0015 added 11.09.04 words Coakley technical: QED

Specs:Pioneer CDJ1000MKII

  • Quick start
  • Reverse
  • Real-time looping
  • SD card support
  • Cue memory
  • Anti-shock
  • Touch sensitive jog wheel (not motorised)
  • Vinyl style speed adjust (push on/drag back)
  • Jog wheel cue/loop correction
  • The current industry standard
  • Wave display
  • Oil-dampened floating suspension system (Anti-Skip)

Origins:
The original Pioneer CDJ 1000 CD deck was released in 2001 and immediately fucked every other CD competitor over, to become the overwhelming industry standard, installed in more clubs than any other professional CD deck.

It was no surprise that house heads like Carl Cox, Paul Van Dyk and that genius Erick Morillo immediately took to the equipment, with it’s on the fly remixing opportunities and creative DJ’ing features, to their hearts. These people are more open to new technologies and less sentimental about vinyl as us.

What was a huge surprise was when DJ Craze & Babu showered praise and Q Bert declared the Pioneer CDJ to be the greatest innovation in DJ’ing since the original Technics SL1200 and that “I love CDJ’s. They’re dope! I am open to it… the whole thing opens up so many doors for me. I can scratch just as well on them as any vinyl deck, plus everything else, like the looping and everything. They are the future!”

 Looks/Design:
These decks don’t look anywhere near as pretty as the Technics SL-DZ’s. Then again Mike Tyson wasn’t pretty either, but he was ruthlessly efficient at knocking his competitors the fuck out, likewise with the Pioneers.

The same 1980’s black plastic look has been retained from the MK1 and Pioneer really need to stop with the orange writing on the display as well, this is the year 2004 and people want cool blue or plain white. A minor gripe, yes, but then maybe I was abused as a child by a gingerman named Brian.

All I know is that orange = evil.

Other than that it is well laid out and functional but nothing awe inspiring….kind of like my ex girlfriend.

There are some subtle differences from the original MK1 CDJ in that there’s now a silver trim around the edge of the jog wheel and there’s a -+100 pitch range (why!?). The display is brighter and of course the MKII comes with a free 16mb memory card for saving your cue points, etc.

 Layout:
Search, play and fast forward-rewind functions are situated on the bottom left hand side of the deck, with the pitch control situated on the right hand side. Also on the left hand side is a ‘reverse’ switch which funnily enough, reverses the sound playing when you hit it. This works instantly so with a bit of patience and practise you can do a nice little effect/trick of mixing a record backwards into another record, and then hit the switch again to bring it in at the proper forward play, and then back again.

On the right of the display (more on that in a sec) are the cue point and looping point buttons, where you can store up to 10 cue/loop points internally on 100 CD’s or even more cue/loop slots onto the free 16mb memory card.

The eject button has a lock feature on it and there are also ‘start’ & ‘brake’ rotary’s so that you can control the speed that the deck starts up or brakes.

The Display:
The display of the Pioneer CDJ deck was… well, pioneering, when it came out back in 2001. Pioneer introduced the ‘wave display’ readout which has been copied by the new Technics, giving a treadmill exercise program style graphic showing the troughs and peaks, lows and high frequencies of your track, so you can zoom to the right spot/break in a second. The wave display has a progress bar indicating where you are on the track.

The jog wheel display has a simple revolving light show with a marker that runs according to the pitch speed; the digital equivalent of marking your records up on a 12 o clock marker. Cue points can also be marked up on this.

 Effects:
Apart from the standard looping and cueing there’s fuck all effects, a major minus against the Technics SL-DZ which has a good few. It’s fairly obvious what the game is here… Pioneer clearly want people to pay out extra for their mixers which have every conceivable effect you could care for.

 The Jog Wheel:
The jog wheel features a ‘vinyl/CDJ’ mode select where when ‘vinyl’ is selected the jog wheel acts just like a vinyl deck. Pressing down on the touch sensitive wheel stops the sound and rotating it in a forward/backward motion scratches or cues a track.

In CDJ mode, the dial when pressed slightly, will ‘nudge’ the record on and acts in the same way ‘twisting a record on’ with the middle spindle on a record deck would.

Despite the fact the jog wheel isn’t motorised and doesn’t rotate, you can pull off some ill cuts on this piece of equipment. Again it depends on your skill level, but most cuts can be done with no problem on the CDJ’s. It is however a completely different feeling to cutting with a ‘real’ (vinyl) deck, the best way I can describe it, being like cutting a record without the platter moving, using just hand power. It’s a loose feeling, but one you get used to.

Looping:
The CDJ’s came to become industry standard quite simply ‘cos the looping works… well. All you do to catch a break is punch the ‘In’ (real-time loop) button at the start of the loop and then the ‘out’ button to set the end point. Even a beginner DJ with little beat catching ability can edit the loop if it’s way off by using the jog wheel to correct it.

 Overall:
Pioneer CDJ1000MKIII first used a MK1 Pioneer CDJ a year ago when DJ’ing in a club in Birkenhead where they were the only equipment installed, and needless to say was shitting myself at the prospect of having to learn them with no preparation. I needn’t have worried. They are that intuitive that you can jump straight onto these decks (with a word of advice about where everything’s situated and what does what) and pretty much get mixing straight away. After witnessing how robust the cutting in was with the jog wheel I even ventured into a bit of turntablism, which worked just fine for me.

The only odd thing to get used to; is that the feel is a lot like DJ’ing on a deck with no power.

Basically what we have here is a product that, in comparison with some of its competitors extra features, is a stripped down piece of DJ’ing kit. It does exactly what you need it to do and no more….just better than anything else on the market. My analogy would be: If the Technics SL-DZ is the Vestax straight arm, bpm, pitch knob all singing dancing pretender to the throne, the Pioneer CDJ 1000 is the low on features but classic SL1200 industry standard king of decks.

The CDJ’s are quite simply the best CD decks currently on the market in my opinion, though they are more suited to house, DnB and garage, than Hip-Hop in comparison with the vinyl emulation offered by Technics on their deck. Therefore a MK3 with extra features (effects please) and most importantly of all, a spot on motorised must surely be a major priority for this company, if they want to appeal to the Hip-Hop battle DJ’s who demand the hands on feel of vinyl.

At just £70 cheaper than the brand new (and more features) Technics, they need to look at the pricing of this bit of kit if they don’t want to loose market share.

That being said they dominate enough in DJ booths across the country as it is!

Rating: 9/10

 Dope shit:

  • Solid, touch sensitive, platter.
  • The best CD deck display on the market.
  • Top of the market, reliable, cueing and looping.
  • The ability to remix ‘on the fly’.
  • Adjustable CD start/stop.
  • The industry standard.
  • More straight forward, less gimmicks.

Shit shit:

  • No MP3 support.
  • Platter isn’t motorised.
  • No effects at all.
  • Plasticky (you wouldn’t wanna drop these on the floor!)

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- thecoakley@hotmail.com

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