My first DJ set in a venue had a CDJ 2000 and a 2000 Nexus, I still remember the panic when my hot cues I worked on for all of my tracks would not load lol. Noone told me about the Hold/Call Button and how all of that works lol. It was a total disaster at first, but then I just mixed normal without hot cues and all was good.
For my first radio show I worked so hard on setting my tracks, hot cues...practiced at a friend's house that had 2000NXS2s and a DJM900NXS...when I got to the radio show studio, they had 900s and a super old, busted looking mixer. I crashed and burned for the first 40 minutes trying to figure everything out. The last 45 minutes I threw my plan out the window, leaned on tracks I knew very well and saved the set. 3 years later I find 900s fun to use but man was that a trainwreck... I'm not sure I'm over it. lol
I practiced for a set at a festival on my friends cdj 3000’s and everything was perfect and when I showed up to the stage to play half of my .wavs wouldn’t load on the 2000nxs 😂 I only use aiff now just incase.
Yes! I remember the technician of a venue I used to DJ at tell me that the 2000 and 2000NXS were not meant to communicate with each other. I had this exact set, with an old Dateq 12 channel mixer with no effects whatsoever. It would happen so often that hot cues wouldn't load or the link would just cut out leaving me stranded with one CDJ... Still had great times DJ'ing there and I learned a ton from those experiences!
Quick advice: Always use the orange digital ports to connect your CDJs and your mixer. This prevents you from clipping the input signals, you have less latency and the audio quality is better as well.
Ah, was waiting for the inevitable dig at tech house 😁. Thank you for not disappointing. Like tech house. My favorite one from you is still something along the lines of "this transition technique will really hype up your 125.1 to 125.2 BPM transition in your tech house set", but I forget which video it was from.
Smashed it mate. 2015 me would have cried out for this video, and I'm so glad you included the bit about calling hot cues at the end. I'm so traumatised by this terrible design decision from my early DJ experience I just religiously only use memory cues on CDJs these days. Trust issues that will take years for Pioneer to rectify. Another feature I never understood was Autocue. I thought this would set a cue for me so I always had it off in my preferences, then got annoyed when tracks would start when loaded! Learned that the hard way.
You are an an absolute hero. Really valuable and appreciated info. As a new DJ who’s playing on all sorts of janky equipment and just having to wing it at times the battle pack is an amazing addition. Thank you dude - you’re awesome
I'm glad I started DJing in the early 90s and kept up with the technology. I've always seen new things as challenges and sometimes made odd detours, but almost always with the right outcome. That's why I also sold my CDJs two years ago and switched to SC6000s, the best choice in years.
@@ReallyChrisM I find them absolutely great, especially in combo with Xone96. They have build in WiFi, Bluetooth all my music is inside on an SSD. Stream services like Beatport and Tidal directly on the unit. They have on-board touch effects with the multi touchscreen. They read Rekordbox USB's and I could go on like this for a while. They are far superior than anything on the market right now.
This video would of been helpful if it existed when i started djing as I was always extremely nervous what club glear I would be using for my first gigs and if it had a beat counter or not. Sick video, definitely super useful for those starting off.
played my last DnB set on 2 CDJ 850s, thankfully the venue let me play on them at sound check since ive learned to DJ on controllers and modern gear. def an experience only being able to mix by ear but it worked better than i thought :)
Thanks for the video. It is not only very informative and interesting, but also entertaining. As usual, your well-timed humor takes it up to the next level, LOL!
I still remember my first gig on each CDJ, I've come across them all within a year and each time was like relearning how to DJ which was a LOT of actual fun haha
i own the OG 2000s, and played a gig on the weekend that had Nexus2s. Kept it all simple, didn't try to get into the nx2 features to avoid problems or mistakes. Set went well!
Case in point for the CDJ2000, "unfortunately on the way out some bits fell off". When the CDJ2000 was first released it was a game changer. We weren't worried about features that didn't exist yet, we were excited about getting hours in our weeks back not having to burn CDs, and thst screen, thst gorgeous LCD screen. Heads and shoulders above the CDJ1000 screen that preceded it.
Yeah but they're rarely included in most venue's setups nowadays. Unless you're important enough to have them included on your rider, I wouldn't count on them being there. Plus nobody cares that you can mix on vinyl, it's an irrelevant boomer flex
@@jamesknox9924 It's a skill which means you can mix on almost everything else using your ears and not your eyes, which was exactly what was needed in this case, and exactly why I brought it up. Nothing to do with 'flexing' and everything to do with being able to mix when software glitches means you have to use your ears instead. I never said I gave two fks if anyone 'cared', the point I made was very relevant to the issues of this video. A good DJ does not need everything pre-written for him like cue points, etc, to be able to do a great performance, because from years of experience mixing on vinyl, they know the tunes well enough to be able to set cues in realtime on the fly. Nowhere did I even suggest that vinyl is or should be in a modern club, merely the skills gained from being able to mix on vinyl are lacking with the younger gen. Get over yourself, read what I actually put, and do one.
@@DjNikGnashers apologies, you are a rare case where your comments about vinyl are from a legitimate perspective. There's so many old DJs on social making the same "bet you can't do that on vinyl" comments, coming from an obvious place of insecurity, having their skills superceded by technology they don't understand (you just push buttons) etc. In hindsight your comment was more sophisticated than the usual generic ones and I put you in the wrong basket.
@@jamesknox9924 And apologies for telling you to do one, sorry. Peace my friend, we are both obviously music lovers and not ego maniacs. I actually use a controller these days, so I am not stuck in the past, and I embrace modern technology. I do think that past skills help when technology doesn't always work as it's supposed to do !!
xdj 1000mk2 has some of these CDJ 3000 features, i know i know these are never seen in clubs and festivals but having them at home is useful to get familiar with any of the gear mentioned in this video
How do you guys find the rekordbox import on device? I used it a few years ago and it couldn't hack larger drives / databases. A ton of tracks just straight up wouldn't load and it was super buggy. Might've needed a firmware update?
Three BIG issues I encounter when playing in smaller venues with older equipment across South East Asia: 1) No FLAC, meaning converting batches of files to AIFF and praying they're the right tracks for the party 2) No support for modern filesystems like ExFAT, meaning I need to keep some max 32GB FAT32 formatted USB handy just for that 3) The lack of beat jump. Means having to set hotcues that I otherwise would not require. And of course since this also means working with a freshly converted batch of AIFF for every gig, means having to set these hotcues again! I've contemplated switching to storing everything as AIFF, but it would double the cost of my storage options, not to mention fit less tracks per USB. At home using Denon SC6000 which has all the 21st century features you could think of. In general, playing on Pioneer (old or "new") feels like stepping through a portal, to some ancient era.
I read up on the fat32 issue a while back and there's a good fix. There's a free program called Aomei partition assistant that will convert a large thumb drive, like 128gb to fat32 so it'll be compatible with the older cdj's, and you won't have the drive size limitation anymore. Best to do it with a new thumb drive since it reformats/erases it, but you won't be limited to only 32gb drives anymore.
Loved the curved top hotcues from the cdj-1000. Perfect for very accurate timing. Never understood why they made them flat on newer models. Mabye because of people smashing(breaking) them too hard. They also allowed to assign different hotcues to different songs simultanously, just like on the cdj-2000. As long as you had them on the same cd. Hence you have to load them first. It gave creative options that got removed on the newer cdj's that do not require manual loading.
Oh boy! intro cause instant PTBS! for my very first gig I ask what equipment they got: „pioneer cdj“… but it was cdj 850-k 😵 … the display was the size of a Nokia 3310 … i barely could see anything and no quality of life functions at all
@ReallyChrisM The exact reason that I bring my own gear. Dennon Prime 4 +. By the way the CDJ 3000's have been banned in all the clubs in Sydney Australia due to reliability issues, the plastic spindle that supports the Jog wheels breaks easily and that half arsed media player then gets written off.
@@JohannesNielsen I learned my lesson on that day and i am kinda glad that i learned it early on … So i agree bringing gear, you know that works and you know to work with, is the best way! If this is not possible for any reason, prepare for the worst … what ever they say! I don’t know but pioneer seems to be getting worse every year …
Excellent video thank you… would be great if you did the same video for Pioneer mixers comparing the V10 and 900NXS2 which are the most common in club rigs these days.
Thanks Chris. I just picked up the Battle Pack. I have a issue that drives me nuts. I have play gate set in Rekordbox for hot ques and my DDJ1000 works great. I hit A, B, etc and the track jumps to that mark and waits for for me to hit play. I use to to QUE up where I want to start the track. BUT on CDJs, everytime I hit hot que buttons the track play at that location... it doesn't pause. I have to some crazy pause wizardiary and usally back it up to the que point and it QUE. This is dumb as hell! How do I get the same functionality on CDJs as my Rkbx and DDJ1000? Any advice welcomed!! :) Cheers
First ever gig was on CDJ-2000's. When I tell you the fear I had when half my songs wouldn't load, only to find out AFTER that it's because it didn't support FLAC...
i got booked for my first ever "real" gig at the aggie in town in 2022 and i showed up with my little sb3, and after running a sound check it sounded terrible through rca. i had 45 minutes to learn how to play on cdjs, prep tracks in rekordbox, and get over nerves for a sold out crowd lol, this video would have saved me so much trouble
Small tip: make a 4 color combination your standard A through D, so that if you’re playing NXS2’s you can always tell if you’re in A through D or E through H. Did so for years and always saved me (or hook up a pad controller, that works really well too)
i generally use only memory cues. the problem is that on some older hardware, the memory cue delete button, is under the right memory cue call button. I'm not sure what's under the buttons for older cdj models (probably membrane or something like that), but you push the right memory cue call button and suddenly you see them disappear, because it also presses the delete button.
As someone who's not in the DJ world, the limitations around CDJ's always amuses me, like what do you mean you get an emergency *loop*. In a year where even relatively cheap phones can keep 22 hours of FLACs in RAM, your expensivo CDJ's can't even fit a single track?
emergency loop is a term where if you're running out of song time you set a loop that plays a determined amount of measures in a loop. that's determined by the DJ (4 bars, 8 bars). The idea is to use this if you weren't paying as close enough attention and are rushing to mix the next song in. CDJs don't need to store music because DJs are not bringing their CDJs to gigs. It's standard the venue has their own backline of CDJs. It's completely irrelevant. That's why we bring USB flash drives. Just like DJs brought their records, but not their turntables back in the day. it's the same principle with the flash drive, but here we are in the digital world where that's what we store our music on.
@@FEEDTHESTRAYMUSIC does the emergency loop also not activat when you unplug the usb accidentally? CDJs absolutely do need to store music. I mean, usually only a second or two of it, but that’s nothing. They could load the entire song into the RAM to make the emergency loop, just give you the entire song to work with
I don't know what the use is in all this info and gizmos. If you know your tunes what do you need huge screens and HD waveforms and that for? They look cool, and USB I guess is a convenience, but I've still no reason to upgrade my set of 800 mk2.
Owner of a few cdj 3000s, and planning on getting a 4th. Not a flex, just context. With quantize disabled im not finding any lag (just me being off beat a bit when spamming said hot cue). When you say hot cues lag, do you mean when quantize is on? If i press them slightly late w/ quantize on, they jump to the next beat instead of the closest (previous) beat. This scews me up big time but im still new, and developing the muscle memory to turn quantize on/off. Im trying to do fast, technical mixing. Ive never tried the cdj 2000 nxs2 to compare to the cdj 3000. Does the 2k nxs2 not act the same when activating hot cues with quantize enabled?
Yeah quantise on is the primarily complaint from lots of DJs I spoke to (and my experience). It's a bit better with recent firmware and somewhat subjective so it may bug you more/less than others
My strategy is to never remember exactly how all the controls work and figure them out all over again every time 😂 oh and being really prepared and knowing my music really well helps a lot too ✨
@@ReallyChrisM I'm maybe exaggerating slightly, but I always spend some time at the beginning of each set playing around with the gear a bit to get a feel for the controls and try to find any quirks, and generally I don't ever take for granted that the gear will work how I expect. I never play on gear that looks exactly like what I own, I play on a diversity of gear including Denon and pioneer, and sometimes that gear doesn't work perfectly. So the mindset that I must confirm how everything works or know how to adapt if it doesn't do what I expect is really important
I'm glad you made this, I'm looking for a 3rd deck to hook up to my XZ, so the 3000 isn't the be all. Good to know! Also like all the DnB you're loading up in this 😁
On my first 2 payed gigs (Both Warm-Ups) in two different Venues i had to work with old CDJs and an old mixer - can't remember wich models. Missing Cue Points, Wrong BPMs, Extremely Laggy, Hard to press Hotcues (Probably because of spilled drinks) and wrong Crowd for my Music style. After this happend to me two times i thought im the one who is at fault and thought im just shit at Djing. On the third time totally different story - right crowd, new equipment, many compliments throughout the whole Set 🙏🏾 BUT it showed me, i need to practice more so i can play with the Play button only if necessary. Still alot to learn here, wish i had a pair of CDJs to practice the right way - only got an controller at home.
I'm a controller guy and every time I use a CDJ I can't work out the cue button. On my controller I set the cue normally and if I don't like it I hold the shift button and press it again to clear it. What is the CDJ equivalent because I can't work out how to change the cue point once it's set.
From this video alone, I'd definitely prefer the 2000NXS2. Also, if the CDJ-2000 was released in 2009, I wonder which CDJs Justice were using for their first tour back in 2007/2008. CDJ-1000MK3 perhaps?
This video is very useful. I don't think I'll use CDJs in a near/middle future, but I found it very interesting. CDJs 3000 look like standalone controllers nowadays. I see that the screen and features are very nice, but I've read many complaints about their stability. I guess that these bugs are software based, so they'll be solved in future updates. You got me when I saw the cat setting hot cues 😂😺
Because i keep it simple i just use jog wheel, pitch, and cue/play.. i barely notice what players im using lol. I actually hate the new displays. As ive beern doing this for a long time i dont use the search features, im all about having properly setup playlists.
You had me at the moment saying "you need to know the difference between CDJs". If this is considered "pRoFesSiOnAl" gear then changing the physical layout between revisions is an absolute taboo. The video industry had this rule for decades at this point. But then again electronically those are fancied up car radios so where we were again...
The only real issue I have when I hop on CDJs is I am used to my cues being gated on my controller. Other than that, it's pretty intuitive imo. Especially if you have all your tracks organized and you set "CDJ Settings" in Rekordbox settings before exporting to USB. This is still a helpful video though, I learned a few things.
Could you go back in time one more step to the OG CDJ-1000? What else is it missing? At least you don't have to worry about software updates or a subscription/license. If upgrading from a CDJ-1000, what would you recommend as the minimum standard to go for (not controller, any manufacturer)? Thanks.
there's some other differences between the CDJ models as well that can bite you in the bum. USB Formats! the more modern CDJs can read ExFat as well as Fat32 (as well as some other formats like the old Mac HFS format). The older CDJs cant read ExFat, which can really screw you up if you show up with a modern large USB, and try to use it on an older CDJ. I havnt tried it but I wouldnt be surprised if the oldest CDJs cant even read Fat32, and might require Fat16!
@@ReallyChrisM I like to use ExFat on CDJ3000 and Opus Quad amongst others. have also used it on CDJ 2000 Nexus 2. Seems to work fine on those at least but ive had some USB sticks not work on earlier CDJs, especially larger USB sticks. I usually use 512GB, sometimes 1TB sticks. On Some older CDJs I had to use much smaller sticks (eg 32GB) On the Opus Quad we get to use USB 3.0, which loads tracks super fast.. almost instant (maybe 10x faster). As for CDJ3000.. saw a recent video from James Hype where he explained why he uses CDJ2000NXS2... he says he cant mash the buttons as fast... do you know what the specific issue is? I do prefer CDJ3000 and I use a lot of the creature comforts. like waveform stacking.. but also, previewing the track ahead using the touch screen, even whilst playing the same track at a different point. I find it useful to find the best mix out point on unfamiliar tracks, and mark it with the green line
@@aerojez Yeah I think ExFat *can* work on newer gear, but Pioneer won't put their name on it for official compatibility. I think Hype's primary beef is with Hot Cues plus quantise not being very responsive on the 3k
Use the free program Aomei partition assistant and it can convert a large thumbdrive to a compatible fat32 without the drive size limitation. Just be careful to convert a NEW empty drive first, because it will erase during the conversion process. But after, you'll have a compatible fat32 drive that will work in all of the players, but without the 32gb size limitation. It's a lifesaver.
This is beyond top quality content. Well done and thank you!! bonus points for "just like tech house it took everything we loved and made it worse" .. dead
I used to dj on vinyl years ago & I’ve never used digital gear. There are so many functions that it seems overwhelming & overly complicated. I don’t think I’d really enjoy it.
@@ReallyChrisM It's just weird the way you presented this (otherwise very comprehensive) video: "in this cdj that's 10 years older they REMOVED this feature" like, what?? Also, waveform at the bottom "making it difficult to understand song structure" and the solution is to add memory points, instead of just knowing the tracks? Not a good example for beginners.
I learned to DJ without using headphones which I know sounds kinda crazy but I would always just use my eyes and knowledge of my tracks to mix on rekordbox or on newer cdjs. I only used headphones if I needed to mix tracks I didn't know. So imagine how horrified I was when I got to a show and they had 2000s with those horrible disgusting rectangles that are almost impossible to mix with visually and I was absolutely cooked. Every cool transition and Hard mix I had were all scrapped by the 5th track and I was either beat matching the easiest tracks I had or relying on the emergency hot cues I always put on the impact after the dj intro LOL. Taught me to start using headphones more and bring them to gigs even if I don't use them.
personaly i just export the playlists never use hot cues or anything else and i played on mutiple cdjs every month never had an issue i also cary 4 usbs 2 main 2 backups so iv never had an issue
Amazingly helpful video again - thank you! I have something a bit related to this which I encountered yesterday that I think you would know the answer to. I have an RX3 and exported my music to USB normally. It plays on CDJs and the RX3 no problem, however, yesterday when I was supposed to play a gig and plugged it into an RX1 I got this error "E-8307: DEVICE NO RESPONSE", which as you can imagine, was a little concerning.... Anyway, it didn't work and I've done research to find out why. It was because my (in RB export mode) USB device library setting was set to 'CDJ/XDJ(excluding RX1)' - this makes sense. I needed to have the key set to "XDJ-R1" - that was the issue. My ask (sorry it's taken so long to get there) - is other DJs playing yesterday didn't have this problem and didn't even know what I was talking about when I mentioned the device library settings AND they said their keys work on CDJs too. So, the ask - should I just set my USBs to "XDJ-R1" to have the most compatible key for all devices - RXs through to CDJS. Sorry it's a big one! Had to give context as I think others will run into this and ppl come to your videos for this type of advice.
Thanks for this video, I'm probably better off bringing my laptop and do a DVS set if I want to play digitally. Never been on CDJs before but these things look to be a hot mess. I'd rather have those denons in the both or just 2 working turntables.
cdj 2000 nexus was such an upgrade from the 2000's. tbh understanding the track structure i dont fully agree when you're a EDM dj (or hardstyle in my case) since you play for an hour in most clubs and festivals and know every track from a to z.
I've literally had zero problems with any of these problem features. Very interesting video, but I have to ask, are DJs using even half of these random features like the song filter, or the sliding keyboard to search? I feel like as long as you're organized and have a intentional organization to your music, none of these features are ever going to be used.
CDJ 2000 NXS and NXS2 will be the best models ever made although Denon will steal the spotlight with such good features that they provide in a few years, just my personal thinking
Remember my old CDj-1000mk3 the last CDJ i ever played on it was awesome apart from mastertempo that sounded like a robot as soon you went above 3 % pitch XD
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I love the club standard being 5 different standards
😅
should see mountain bikes. industry standards change every like two years.
Remember when every technics 1200 was the same as every other technics 1200 except for maybe a detent or LED light?
@@weplaywax Not really true. The professional line isn't the same as the consumer stuff.
it took me years to convince PioneerDJ to fix the loop double/half bug on their CDJs … glad someone else figured it’s fixed 😂
We thank you for your service 🫡
"it stops u pulling it out, whilst bangers are being delivered" - the calm in your face.... good video btw ;)
My first DJ set in a venue had a CDJ 2000 and a 2000 Nexus, I still remember the panic when my hot cues I worked on for all of my tracks would not load lol. Noone told me about the Hold/Call Button and how all of that works lol. It was a total disaster at first, but then I just mixed normal without hot cues and all was good.
Glad you managed to recover! 😅
For my first radio show I worked so hard on setting my tracks, hot cues...practiced at a friend's house that had 2000NXS2s and a DJM900NXS...when I got to the radio show studio, they had 900s and a super old, busted looking mixer. I crashed and burned for the first 40 minutes trying to figure everything out. The last 45 minutes I threw my plan out the window, leaned on tracks I knew very well and saved the set. 3 years later I find 900s fun to use but man was that a trainwreck... I'm not sure I'm over it. lol
I practiced for a set at a festival on my friends cdj 3000’s and everything was perfect and when I showed up to the stage to play half of my .wavs wouldn’t load on the 2000nxs 😂 I only use aiff now just incase.
Yes! I remember the technician of a venue I used to DJ at tell me that the 2000 and 2000NXS were not meant to communicate with each other. I had this exact set, with an old Dateq 12 channel mixer with no effects whatsoever. It would happen so often that hot cues wouldn't load or the link would just cut out leaving me stranded with one CDJ... Still had great times DJ'ing there and I learned a ton from those experiences!
This is why I got a pair of CDJ850s. If you can play on those you can play on any CDJ that will be in front of you.
I play on cdj 350 in 2024
Literal legend
I play on a numark ndx 400 and a numark m2 mixer. I will always love this setup.
350s r the best!
I'm sorry
same here. loops are of but the rest works!
Quick advice: Always use the orange digital ports to connect your CDJs and your mixer. This prevents you from clipping the input signals, you have less latency and the audio quality is better as well.
Ah, was waiting for the inevitable dig at tech house 😁. Thank you for not disappointing.
Like tech house.
My favorite one from you is still something along the lines of "this transition technique will really hype up your 125.1 to 125.2 BPM transition in your tech house set", but I forget which video it was from.
Smashed it mate. 2015 me would have cried out for this video, and I'm so glad you included the bit about calling hot cues at the end.
I'm so traumatised by this terrible design decision from my early DJ experience I just religiously only use memory cues on CDJs these days. Trust issues that will take years for Pioneer to rectify.
Another feature I never understood was Autocue. I thought this would set a cue for me so I always had it off in my preferences, then got annoyed when tracks would start when loaded! Learned that the hard way.
You are an an absolute hero. Really valuable and appreciated info. As a new DJ who’s playing on all sorts of janky equipment and just having to wing it at times the battle pack is an amazing addition. Thank you dude - you’re awesome
"It looks horrible but it clearly separates the bass middle and treble" Haha, I couldn't have said it better myself!
I'm glad I started DJing in the early 90s and kept up with the technology. I've always seen new things as challenges and sometimes made odd detours, but almost always with the right outcome. That's why I also sold my CDJs two years ago and switched to SC6000s, the best choice in years.
How are you finding them?
@@ReallyChrisM I find them absolutely great, especially in combo with Xone96. They have build in WiFi, Bluetooth all my music is inside on an SSD. Stream services like Beatport and Tidal directly on the unit. They have on-board touch effects with the multi touchscreen. They read Rekordbox USB's and I could go on like this for a while. They are far superior than anything on the market right now.
i dunno why but ppl that buy denons are like first time vegans ... they tell everybody
@@ReallyChrisM "...the best choice in years"
@@gbrl_cyber have you tried them out yourself for a longer time period than just once or twice?
This video would of been helpful if it existed when i started djing as I was always extremely nervous what club glear I would be using for my first gigs and if it had a beat counter or not. Sick video, definitely super useful for those starting off.
This guy kills me , I love your humor man😂🙏🏼
Up next.. the cdj 900, just imagine the cdj 2000 but with all the good bits removed.
played my last DnB set on 2 CDJ 850s, thankfully the venue let me play on them at sound check since ive learned to DJ on controllers and modern gear. def an experience only being able to mix by ear but it worked better than i thought :)
@symphony1966 You’re a true pro.
Nicely done!
Thanks for the video. It is not only very informative and interesting, but also entertaining. As usual, your well-timed humor takes it up to the next level, LOL!
Loved the idea of going back in time and removing features. Really interesting concept. A pity you stopped at the 2000
I still remember my first gig on each CDJ, I've come across them all within a year and each time was like relearning how to DJ which was a LOT of actual fun haha
i own the OG 2000s, and played a gig on the weekend that had Nexus2s. Kept it all simple, didn't try to get into the nx2 features to avoid problems or mistakes. Set went well!
Amazing and useful video as always Chris!
It’s funny that pioneer makes their mixer layouts intuitively evolve but not so much with their cdj’s.
Case in point for the CDJ2000, "unfortunately on the way out some bits fell off".
When the CDJ2000 was first released it was a game changer. We weren't worried about features that didn't exist yet, we were excited about getting hours in our weeks back not having to burn CDs, and thst screen, thst gorgeous LCD screen. Heads and shoulders above the CDJ1000 screen that preceded it.
Love the fact its done backwards as if they are Devoluting 😂😂😂 As always wikid video dude x
Large ups for the help as always 🔥
People who had years of experience mixing on vinyl, have no problems with any CDJ.
They mix using their ears, and not with their eyes.
Yeah but they're rarely included in most venue's setups nowadays.
Unless you're important enough to have them included on your rider, I wouldn't count on them being there.
Plus nobody cares that you can mix on vinyl, it's an irrelevant boomer flex
@@jamesknox9924 It's a skill which means you can mix on almost everything else using your ears and not your eyes, which was exactly what was needed in this case, and exactly why I brought it up.
Nothing to do with 'flexing' and everything to do with being able to mix when software glitches means you have to use your ears instead.
I never said I gave two fks if anyone 'cared', the point I made was very relevant to the issues of this video. A good DJ does not need everything pre-written for him like cue points, etc, to be able to do a great performance, because from years of experience mixing on vinyl, they know the tunes well enough to be able to set cues in realtime on the fly.
Nowhere did I even suggest that vinyl is or should be in a modern club, merely the skills gained from being able to mix on vinyl are lacking with the younger gen.
Get over yourself, read what I actually put, and do one.
@@DjNikGnashers apologies, you are a rare case where your comments about vinyl are from a legitimate perspective.
There's so many old DJs on social making the same "bet you can't do that on vinyl" comments, coming from an obvious place of insecurity, having their skills superceded by technology they don't understand (you just push buttons) etc.
In hindsight your comment was more sophisticated than the usual generic ones and I put you in the wrong basket.
@@jamesknox9924 And apologies for telling you to do one, sorry.
Peace my friend, we are both obviously music lovers and not ego maniacs.
I actually use a controller these days, so I am not stuck in the past, and I embrace modern technology. I do think that past skills help when technology doesn't always work as it's supposed to do !!
this was me until i found that loops are super helpful
xdj 1000mk2 has some of these CDJ 3000 features, i know i know these are never seen in clubs and festivals but having them at home is useful to get familiar with any of the gear mentioned in this video
Definitely!
That is so not true. People often use them as a third deck. I have seen 1000 and mk2 in plenty of clubs.
Nice video and thanks for this one. Great video of Pio's CDJs.
1) Get the SC6000
2) Save lots of money
3) Enjoy better features
4) Still use your RB sticks
5) Thank me later.
Pretty much. SC6000 is the better product, period.
Yepper ,ditched Pioneer years ago . I got the DENON SC 5000 it' s great . Plus it's TWO players/decks in one. love it !!
How do you guys find the rekordbox import on device? I used it a few years ago and it couldn't hack larger drives / databases. A ton of tracks just straight up wouldn't load and it was super buggy. Might've needed a firmware update?
Good thing Denon stays stuck at home in the bedroom. Never see a chance to belong in a club 😊😊😊😊😊
This is why I'm using 1200s with DVS.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the CDJ-1000s.
I guess its just because it aint *Digital at all* meaning it only go with CD :P
Wow, I'm still rocking the 900's Still going strong.
Three BIG issues I encounter when playing in smaller venues with older equipment across South East Asia:
1) No FLAC, meaning converting batches of files to AIFF and praying they're the right tracks for the party
2) No support for modern filesystems like ExFAT, meaning I need to keep some max 32GB FAT32 formatted USB handy just for that
3) The lack of beat jump. Means having to set hotcues that I otherwise would not require. And of course since this also means working with a freshly converted batch of AIFF for every gig, means having to set these hotcues again!
I've contemplated switching to storing everything as AIFF, but it would double the cost of my storage options, not to mention fit less tracks per USB. At home using Denon SC6000 which has all the 21st century features you could think of. In general, playing on Pioneer (old or "new") feels like stepping through a portal, to some ancient era.
I read up on the fat32 issue a while back and there's a good fix. There's a free program called Aomei partition assistant that will convert a large thumb drive, like 128gb to fat32 so it'll be compatible with the older cdj's, and you won't have the drive size limitation anymore.
Best to do it with a new thumb drive since it reformats/erases it, but you won't be limited to only 32gb drives anymore.
Loved the curved top hotcues from the cdj-1000. Perfect for very accurate timing. Never understood why they made them flat on newer models. Mabye because of people smashing(breaking) them too hard. They also allowed to assign different hotcues to different songs simultanously, just like on the cdj-2000. As long as you had them on the same cd. Hence you have to load them first. It gave creative options that got removed on the newer cdj's that do not require manual loading.
What a nice idea for a video! thanks man
Oh boy! intro cause instant PTBS! for my very first gig I ask what equipment they got: „pioneer cdj“… but it was cdj 850-k 😵 … the display was the size of a Nokia 3310 … i barely could see anything and no quality of life functions at all
Ouchhh
@ReallyChrisM The exact reason that I bring my own gear.
Dennon Prime 4 +.
By the way the CDJ 3000's have been banned in all the clubs in Sydney Australia due to reliability issues, the plastic spindle that supports the Jog wheels breaks easily and that half arsed media player then gets written off.
@@JohannesNielsen I learned my lesson on that day and i am kinda glad that i learned it early on …
So i agree bringing gear, you know that works and you know to work with, is the best way! If this is not possible for any reason, prepare for the worst … what ever they say!
I don’t know but pioneer seems to be getting worse every year …
Excellent video thank you… would be great if you did the same video for Pioneer mixers comparing the V10 and 900NXS2 which are the most common in club rigs these days.
Thanks Chris. I just picked up the Battle Pack. I have a issue that drives me nuts. I have play gate set in Rekordbox for hot ques and my DDJ1000 works great. I hit A, B, etc and the track jumps to that mark and waits for for me to hit play. I use to to QUE up where I want to start the track. BUT on CDJs, everytime I hit hot que buttons the track play at that location... it doesn't pause. I have to some crazy pause wizardiary and usally back it up to the que point and it QUE. This is dumb as hell! How do I get the same functionality on CDJs as my Rkbx and DDJ1000? Any advice welcomed!! :) Cheers
Have something coming on this soon - but the TLDR is cdjs just don’t have the option - hope you enjoy the battle pack!
First ever gig was on CDJ-2000's. When I tell you the fear I had when half my songs wouldn't load, only to find out AFTER that it's because it didn't support FLAC...
i got booked for my first ever "real" gig at the aggie in town in 2022 and i showed up with my little sb3, and after running a sound check it sounded terrible through rca. i had 45 minutes to learn how to play on cdjs, prep tracks in rekordbox, and get over nerves for a sold out crowd lol, this video would have saved me so much trouble
oof - baptism of fire!
Hi Chris,
thank you a lot. I really appreciate your effort, your knowledge and mostly your humor...
cheers from cologne. .
Excellent video brother!
Very fortunate that my local venues all use 3000’s for 90% of events.
Small tip: make a 4 color combination your standard A through D, so that if you’re playing NXS2’s you can always tell if you’re in A through D or E through H. Did so for years and always saved me (or hook up a pad controller, that works really well too)
Great tip!
such valuable content, big ups to you g
i generally use only memory cues. the problem is that on some older hardware, the memory cue delete button, is under the right memory cue call button. I'm not sure what's under the buttons for older cdj models (probably membrane or something like that), but you push the right memory cue call button and suddenly you see them disappear, because it also presses the delete button.
This video is so fkn crucial as I'm investing in my next equipment to match with equipment I could have in clubs. Thanks a bunch!
As someone who's not in the DJ world, the limitations around CDJ's always amuses me, like what do you mean you get an emergency *loop*. In a year where even relatively cheap phones can keep 22 hours of FLACs in RAM, your expensivo CDJ's can't even fit a single track?
emergency loop is a term where if you're running out of song time you set a loop that plays a determined amount of measures in a loop. that's determined by the DJ (4 bars, 8 bars). The idea is to use this if you weren't paying as close enough attention and are rushing to mix the next song in.
CDJs don't need to store music because DJs are not bringing their CDJs to gigs. It's standard the venue has their own backline of CDJs. It's completely irrelevant. That's why we bring USB flash drives. Just like DJs brought their records, but not their turntables back in the day. it's the same principle with the flash drive, but here we are in the digital world where that's what we store our music on.
@@FEEDTHESTRAYMUSIC does the emergency loop also not activat when you unplug the usb accidentally?
CDJs absolutely do need to store music. I mean, usually only a second or two of it, but that’s nothing. They could load the entire song into the RAM to make the emergency loop, just give you the entire song to work with
Now do a video about what changed to the SL1200's from release within the same time as all of the CDJ's in this video were released ...
Dude, KY Jelly Babies mix of Access popped up as first track when you type A in search...you my friend, are awesome!
One of my favs!
I don't know what the use is in all this info and gizmos. If you know your tunes what do you need huge screens and HD waveforms and that for? They look cool, and USB I guess is a convenience, but I've still no reason to upgrade my set of 800 mk2.
makes me glad i dont rely on hot cues or loops, worst issues ive ran into are the lack of file support on certain players
Time to get the DENON SC 5000 or 6000 I left pioneer 3 years ago .
Owner of a few cdj 3000s, and planning on getting a 4th. Not a flex, just context. With quantize disabled im not finding any lag (just me being off beat a bit when spamming said hot cue).
When you say hot cues lag, do you mean when quantize is on? If i press them slightly late w/ quantize on, they jump to the next beat instead of the closest (previous) beat. This scews me up big time but im still new, and developing the muscle memory to turn quantize on/off.
Im trying to do fast, technical mixing. Ive never tried the cdj 2000 nxs2 to compare to the cdj 3000. Does the 2k nxs2 not act the same when activating hot cues with quantize enabled?
Yeah quantise on is the primarily complaint from lots of DJs I spoke to (and my experience). It's a bit better with recent firmware and somewhat subjective so it may bug you more/less than others
My strategy is to never remember exactly how all the controls work and figure them out all over again every time 😂 oh and being really prepared and knowing my music really well helps a lot too ✨
That's certainly one approach 😅
@@ReallyChrisM I'm maybe exaggerating slightly, but I always spend some time at the beginning of each set playing around with the gear a bit to get a feel for the controls and try to find any quirks, and generally I don't ever take for granted that the gear will work how I expect. I never play on gear that looks exactly like what I own, I play on a diversity of gear including Denon and pioneer, and sometimes that gear doesn't work perfectly. So the mindset that I must confirm how everything works or know how to adapt if it doesn't do what I expect is really important
@@Hollybalolly Very sensible approach 👍
Wow this video is super useful! Thanks a lot!!
I'm glad you made this, I'm looking for a 3rd deck to hook up to my XZ, so the 3000 isn't the be all. Good to know! Also like all the DnB you're loading up in this 😁
I have two CDJ 900’s hooked up to my XZ👍
On my first 2 payed gigs (Both Warm-Ups) in two different Venues i had to work with old CDJs and an old mixer - can't remember wich models. Missing Cue Points, Wrong BPMs, Extremely Laggy, Hard to press Hotcues (Probably because of spilled drinks) and wrong Crowd for my Music style. After this happend to me two times i thought im the one who is at fault and thought im just shit at Djing. On the third time totally different story - right crowd, new equipment, many compliments throughout the whole Set 🙏🏾
BUT it showed me, i need to practice more so i can play with the Play button only if necessary. Still alot to learn here, wish i had a pair of CDJs to practice the right way - only got an controller at home.
Check out the most recent video - May help with this
6:22, Chubrub! Nice!
Banger
i have been able to mix on cdj 300 on my second jig, so i feel unstoppable
Luckily my first time was on CDJ2000nxs but I requested 4 decks only got 2, still made it happen though! Being able to adapt on the fly is a must.
This is why I just use them with serato, the software always have the same features on my mac no matter the setup.
I'm still using a ''PRO Audio Citronic'' console and Pioneer CDJ-100s
😅 I love that fun feature with the que points on the original 2000 that has made me look fabulous 😂 on more than one occasion 😢
It’s not the best 😬
I'm a controller guy and every time I use a CDJ I can't work out the cue button. On my controller I set the cue normally and if I don't like it I hold the shift button and press it again to clear it. What is the CDJ equivalent because I can't work out how to change the cue point once it's set.
I love my Nexus 2
I own 3 - CDJ 3000
I only used the 3000 for
My business vs using them to play on!
this was very entertaining and informative haha
Thanks for doing this!
From this video alone, I'd definitely prefer the 2000NXS2. Also, if the CDJ-2000 was released in 2009, I wonder which CDJs Justice were using for their first tour back in 2007/2008. CDJ-1000MK3 perhaps?
thank you
This video is very useful. I don't think I'll use CDJs in a near/middle future, but I found it very interesting. CDJs 3000 look like standalone controllers nowadays. I see that the screen and features are very nice, but I've read many complaints about their stability. I guess that these bugs are software based, so they'll be solved in future updates.
You got me when I saw the cat setting hot cues 😂😺
🐈🐾
what about xdj 700 for practicing a set to be played on 2000nxs?
Because i keep it simple i just use jog wheel, pitch, and cue/play.. i barely notice what players im using lol. I actually hate the new displays. As ive beern doing this for a long time i dont use the search features, im all about having properly setup playlists.
Hello, please can you explain how to get the same key green labels in performance mode that you see on the CDJ3000?
ua-cam.com/video/-iAWMz1hDb4/v-deo.html
@@ReallyChrisM thx pal
You had me at the moment saying "you need to know the difference between CDJs". If this is considered "pRoFesSiOnAl" gear then changing the physical layout between revisions is an absolute taboo. The video industry had this rule for decades at this point.
But then again electronically those are fancied up car radios so where we were again...
The only real issue I have when I hop on CDJs is I am used to my cues being gated on my controller. Other than that, it's pretty intuitive imo. Especially if you have all your tracks organized and you set "CDJ Settings" in Rekordbox settings before exporting to USB. This is still a helpful video though, I learned a few things.
Yeah I always miss the gated HC's
Could you go back in time one more step to the OG CDJ-1000? What else is it missing? At least you don't have to worry about software updates or a subscription/license. If upgrading from a CDJ-1000, what would you recommend as the minimum standard to go for (not controller, any manufacturer)? Thanks.
there's some other differences between the CDJ models as well that can bite you in the bum. USB Formats! the more modern CDJs can read ExFat as well as Fat32 (as well as some other formats like the old Mac HFS format). The older CDJs cant read ExFat, which can really screw you up if you show up with a modern large USB, and try to use it on an older CDJ. I havnt tried it but I wouldnt be surprised if the oldest CDJs cant even read Fat32, and might require Fat16!
Yeah USB formatting is key. But ExFat is risky, even on newer models. I don't believe it is officially supported
@@ReallyChrisM I like to use ExFat on CDJ3000 and Opus Quad amongst others. have also used it on CDJ 2000 Nexus 2. Seems to work fine on those at least but ive had some USB sticks not work on earlier CDJs, especially larger USB sticks. I usually use 512GB, sometimes 1TB sticks. On Some older CDJs I had to use much smaller sticks (eg 32GB) On the Opus Quad we get to use USB 3.0, which loads tracks super fast.. almost instant (maybe 10x faster). As for CDJ3000.. saw a recent video from James Hype where he explained why he uses CDJ2000NXS2... he says he cant mash the buttons as fast... do you know what the specific issue is? I do prefer CDJ3000 and I use a lot of the creature comforts. like waveform stacking.. but also, previewing the track ahead using the touch screen, even whilst playing the same track at a different point. I find it useful to find the best mix out point on unfamiliar tracks, and mark it with the green line
@@aerojez Yeah I think ExFat *can* work on newer gear, but Pioneer won't put their name on it for official compatibility. I think Hype's primary beef is with Hot Cues plus quantise not being very responsive on the 3k
Fat16 LOL 🤣
Use the free program Aomei partition assistant and it can convert a large thumbdrive to a compatible fat32 without the drive size limitation.
Just be careful to convert a NEW empty drive first, because it will erase during the conversion process. But after, you'll have a compatible fat32 drive that will work in all of the players, but without the 32gb size limitation. It's a lifesaver.
most of my last sets were on a XDJ 1000 mk2 and XDJ 700, using beatjump was a nightmare
That thing you mentioned in the end with the 2000 that loads the last track has happened to me before in the 2000nxn2, any explanation why?
This is beyond top quality content. Well done and thank you!! bonus points for "just like tech house it took everything we loved and made it worse" .. dead
You should do one on mixers and all the functions they’ve removed
Fader start, lan hubs, jet/zip fx
🤔
also Midi-out or Balance/Pan
I still mix with my cdj-200s and my djm-400 and fkn love them.
I learned to play on a set of CDJ-100s. yes not missing a 0 there. playing vinyl was easier lmao.
I used to dj on vinyl years ago & I’ve never used digital gear. There are so many functions that it seems overwhelming & overly complicated. I don’t think I’d really enjoy it.
The bar between de players and de mixer, what is that?
Stops people stealing the gear from the studio 🚔
Wait until this dude finds out how many features are "missing" on vinyl turntables...
"whaaa', no waveform?? omg it's like going back in time!!1!"
I learnt to DJ on (not very good) turntables
@@ReallyChrisM It's just weird the way you presented this (otherwise very comprehensive) video: "in this cdj that's 10 years older they REMOVED this feature" like, what??
Also, waveform at the bottom "making it difficult to understand song structure" and the solution is to add memory points, instead of just knowing the tracks? Not a good example for beginners.
Could you do the samewith xdj players as well?
I learned to DJ without using headphones which I know sounds kinda crazy but I would always just use my eyes and knowledge of my tracks to mix on rekordbox or on newer cdjs. I only used headphones if I needed to mix tracks I didn't know. So imagine how horrified I was when I got to a show and they had 2000s with those horrible disgusting rectangles that are almost impossible to mix with visually and I was absolutely cooked. Every cool transition and Hard mix I had were all scrapped by the 5th track and I was either beat matching the easiest tracks I had or relying on the emergency hot cues I always put on the impact after the dj intro LOL. Taught me to start using headphones more and bring them to gigs even if I don't use them.
personaly i just export the playlists never use hot cues or anything else and i played on mutiple cdjs every month never had an issue i also cary 4 usbs 2 main 2 backups so iv never had an issue
Nice video, although I was hoping you were going to drop back to the CDJ1000’s 😂
Amazingly helpful video again - thank you! I have something a bit related to this which I encountered yesterday that I think you would know the answer to. I have an RX3 and exported my music to USB normally. It plays on CDJs and the RX3 no problem, however, yesterday when I was supposed to play a gig and plugged it into an RX1 I got this error "E-8307: DEVICE NO RESPONSE", which as you can imagine, was a little concerning.... Anyway, it didn't work and I've done research to find out why. It was because my (in RB export mode) USB device library setting was set to 'CDJ/XDJ(excluding RX1)' - this makes sense. I needed to have the key set to "XDJ-R1" - that was the issue. My ask (sorry it's taken so long to get there) - is other DJs playing yesterday didn't have this problem and didn't even know what I was talking about when I mentioned the device library settings AND they said their keys work on CDJs too. So, the ask - should I just set my USBs to "XDJ-R1" to have the most compatible key for all devices - RXs through to CDJS. Sorry it's a big one! Had to give context as I think others will run into this and ppl come to your videos for this type of advice.
side note - I tried to post this in the RB community forum but there's something wrong with their website. Not letting users post new threads.
Thanks for this video, I'm probably better off bringing my laptop and do a DVS set if I want to play digitally. Never been on CDJs before but these things look to be a hot mess. I'd rather have those denons in the both or just 2 working turntables.
8:04 Veak Remix 🔥🔥🔥
My first Cdj setup was two old Technics 1200's and a Dj Jazzy Jeff mixer 🤣 Because Cdj's did not exist yet is what I'm sayin. I'm old!
cdj 2000 nexus was such an upgrade from the 2000's. tbh understanding the track structure i dont fully agree when you're a EDM dj (or hardstyle in my case) since you play for an hour in most clubs and festivals and know every track from a to z.
GREETINGS from CABO VERDE ISLANDS🤩🤩🤩
I've literally had zero problems with any of these problem features. Very interesting video, but I have to ask, are DJs using even half of these random features like the song filter, or the sliding keyboard to search? I feel like as long as you're organized and have a intentional organization to your music, none of these features are ever going to be used.
CDJ 2000 NXS and NXS2 will be the best models ever made although Denon will steal the spotlight with such good features that they provide in a few years, just my personal thinking
that will never happen as no club or DJ will switch to Denon
if no DJ is willing to change, no club will. Screw Pioneer/AT overpriced garbage.
@@BlueHawk80 DJs wont. Clubs too. Won’t happen in a million years
Remember my old CDj-1000mk3 the last CDJ i ever played on it was awesome apart from mastertempo that sounded like a robot as soon you went above 3 % pitch XD
good vid. BUT you didnt cover 'loading' when DJs load a USB into the said CDJs