Pioneer DJ CDJ-3000

With the release of the CDJ-500 back in 1994, Pioneer officially became the godfather of digital DJ equipment. Since then, CDJs have become an indispensable part of our DJ culture. The CDJ-2000 NXS2 has been the gold standard in clubs and festivals all around the world since 2016, until today! Finally, Pioneer brings us a state-of-the-art multimedia player that once again exceeds their own standards: the Pioneer CDJ-3000.

9 INCH TOUCH SCREEN

The first thing you'll notice about the brand-new Pioneer CDJ-3000 is the 9” touchscreen with a higher resolution (1280 × 720 HD) and brightness than ever before. The user interface has also been completely redesigned in order to use its available space as effectively as possible. For example, stacked waveforms and touch cue functionality are some of the features that would never have been possible without this upgrade. This also makes searching for tracks using the QWERTY keyboard a lot easier. To illustrate the size of the display: you can now see up to 12 tracks instead of 8 using the browse section. The displayed waveform, which is a lot bigger as well, has a brand-new 3-band mode. This allows you to see the composition of the music just by looking at the waveform. The familiar RGB and Blue modes are of course still available as well. The 3.5 inch display inside the jog wheel, derived from the well-received DDJ-1000 controller, also shows useful information which was simply missing on previous CDJs.

Image: Pioneer CDJ-3000 with 3-band and stacked waveform functionality

POWERFUL MPU PROCESSOR

All the new features and improvements which the CDJ-3000 brings along would never have been possible without a substantial upgrade to its processor. The new MPU processor consists of a dual-core and a quad-core CPU. Thanks to this, Pioneer has managed to improve the internal sound quality to a breathtaking 96 kHz/32 bit: the highest audio quality ever achieved from a multi player. The speed has also been improved significantly: an uncompressed FLAC loads twice as fast, your premapped hotcues up to seven times as fast.

KEY SHIFT & KEY SYNC

One of the new functions which would only be possible thanks to the improved sound quality is the key shift/key sync function. Changing the key of a track has never been possible on a CDJ, until now! Not only key sync, which automatically changes the key in reference to your master deck, but also manual key shift ensures that harmonic mixing will be taken to on a new dimension. Is your master tempo switched off? Even then the CDJ-3000 will show in which key your track will be played back. Special about its key sync functionality is that it transposes your track up or down by a maximum of 2 semitones, so that your track always retains its original definition and impact. This is only possible thanks to a sophisticated algorithm which will automatically select the most musical match, without sacrificing sound quality.

PRE-LISTENING & TOUCH CUE

Previewing tracks is a function which used to be available in the Rekordbox software only. From now on, using a DJM-900 NXS2 or DJM-V10 mixer connected via Pro DJ Link, you can preview tracks or even another part of the track that’s currently playing by touching the waveform - without the audience noticing! Ideal during DJ handovers or while playing back-to-back. You activate the touch preview function by touching the waveform of any track, which is now also displayed in the browse section.

EIGHT HORIZONTAL HOTCUES

The hotcues, previously divided into two vertical banks of four buttons, have now been replaced by eight horizontal tactile hotcue buttons for optimal and more ergonomic ease of use. Unlike the XDJ and DDJ series, Pioneer has decided not to go for rubber pads this time. Extensive research with top-notch DJs has proved that the physical feedback of high-quality buttons is preferred over rubber pads for hotcues. Of course, the hotcues can be set in advance using Rekordbox or on the fly during playback like before.

MEDIA SOURCES

The CD drive has been removed for the first time in the history of CDJs, but SD, USB and HID support for Rekordbox (Windows/macOS/iOS) are of course all still available. You can even use the streaming options via Beatport/Beatsource LINK and SoundCloud Go+, provided you have an active subscription. The next update of Serato DJ will also provide official support for the CDJ-3000.

OVERALL IMPROVEMENTS

Another significant aspect of the CDJ-3000: the jog wheel! It runs smoother than ever before, resulting in less platter noise. It also responds twice as fast in compared to the CDJ-2000 NXS2. The play, cue and hot cue buttons have also been improved significantly to provide robust build quality even for the most aggressive DJs. During testing, the buttons withstood more than 1 million pushes without damage, whereas the CDJ-2000 NXS2 typically failed around 700,000. The ethernet port has now been upgraded to a Gigabit LAN port, allowing the Pro DJ Link functionality to be scaled up to 6 CDJ-3000's simultaneously! The multimedia player is not only equipped with an included stereo RCA cable, but also a high-quality digital COAX cable and a 'V-Lock' power cable. The new design also adds two physical beat jump buttons. And if you're looking for ways to bring your performance to life: you can also use these to move around an active loop. The aforementioned 'stacked waveforms' functionality gives you more insight than ever before while beatmatching.

Why buy your CDJ-3000 at ToneControl?

• Lowest price guarantee*
• Free device on loan during repair
• 2 years of warranty on Pioneer DJ gear
• Always the best service

* in comparison to other official Dutch Pioneer DJ dealers