The geniuses over at Pioneer DJ equipment have again been steadily at work and have brought forth a brand new DJ player\deck that features a high quality touch screen with a GUI replacing a lot of their physical components often seen in their DJ gear. It’s specifically wired and more importantly advertised to us to work seamlessly with (the relatively unknown) rekordbox DJ software (best for performing), so if you’re looking for a program to use it is plus, but this thing also works with the DJ software we’ve all come to love (Serato, Traktor, etc). Whether the touch screen features are worth it depends on how you like spinning, as I’ve heard individuals use the physical components of their mixers\decks\DJ controllers for memorization so they can feel around without looking while performing to focus on more important DJ tasks. Let’s review the Pioneer XDJ-1000.
Main features\specs of the Pioneer XDJ-1000
- Weight: 7 lbs.
- Dimensions (W x D x H): 305 x 382.5 x 110 mm
- Comes with Rekordbox DJ software
- 7″ LCD screen with full touch features
- Powered via USB
- Total of two (2) USB ports on the unit
- Plays files: MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF
- MIDI compatible
- Built-in auto-standby
- Browse music via USB or Wi-Fi (needs a LAN router)
- Jog wheel size: 206 mm
The touch screen is what’ll really steer you towards or away from this thing. It’ quite nice in terms of clarity and the touch screen is responsive as intended. You can browse, play, perform, quantize, cue loops, sync, master, track view, and watch the track itself. I always love being able to put a picture to what i’m mixing as it helps give me an image in my mind and plan overall. What’s most noticeable about the touch screen is the browse feature as it makes things pretty dang easy to work around. You can call up an entire QWERTY keyboard to search for keywords, scroll through your list of tracks and select it right there. You can also view the track’s info (you’ll have to set it in your computer if there isn’t any meta data already), such as the artist, title, BPM, time, genre and the artwork for kicks. We’re starting to see the trend move away from having an entire laptop or computer in front of you and i’m OK with it.
There’s also a few more features worth noting. You can really navigate through tracks in a customer manner, such as with “beat jump” which gives us the ability to jump back of forward from playback position, you can “loop move”. The only kicker is that with quantize and beat sync, you’ll have to map the music with Rekordbox first with their “beat-analyze” feature. A few other features include “slip mode” for a nice silent track playback and lastly “needle search”, which emulates navigating through a track like a real piece of vinyl.
As stated previously, this is a bit hard-wired to work with Rekordbox DJ software. It’s compatible with either Mac or PC but they’ve also got an app out called the Rekordbox App that works well with phones and tablets. I personally don’t use this because I’m sticking with Serato DJ, but again that’s just personal preference. I really don’t like how Pioneer is slightly pushing their software onto us but at the same time it isn’t like this piece of gear doesn’t work with the major DJ software, it’s just a bit of a pain.
The final word on the XDJ-1000 DJ player
We love it and think it’s revolutionary yet again by Pioneer. They’re never too afraid of taking a jump and coming out with new technology, so as times goes on we’ll have more of a feel of the longevity of this thing and whether or not the touch screen capabilities is worth it. I personally dig gear that has touch screen, and although I can see where some people are coming from when they prefer physical knobs and buttons, it isn’t too big of a deal for me personally. Some also request cue points and looping to remain external as well. Some say it rivals their 2000 nexus deck and we’d agree, but a bit more improved and tweaked.
This is perfect if you’re looking for a new and exciting way to work with your DJ sounds. Better yet, grab two and complete your entire setup if you don’t have a DJ controller already. Another huge plus with this is if you don’t have any DJ software yet — I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Rekordbox for the long run, but it works effectively and will be even more seamless if you decide to grab aone. We think the Pioneer XDJ-1000 is awesome and if it fits your needs, don’t hesitate to grab one (or two)! Like any Pioneer piece of gear, you can link up to 4 if that’s what you fancy.
Make sure to check out our top 10 best DJ controllers article for some more options if you’re looking to compare with other popular DJ gear.
Pros:
- Super nice and new technology with the 7″ screen
- Very seamless browsing for easy workflow
- Overall stable and strong build
- Works with all DJ software
- Gives you a sleek setup if you grab two of them and pair it up with a mixer
Cons:
- Some prefer physical knobs\buttons for their DJ sets and recordings
- Hopefully they don’t come out with a XDJ-2000 for a few more bucks and force us to upgrade!
- I don’t like Rekordbox
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