What’s new on the Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS2
The Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS2 is the third revision of Pioneer DJ’s flagship DJ media player. Each new version has certainly been an improvement on its predecessor, particularly the jump from the CDJ-2000 to the CDJ-2000NXS which saw the introduction of the Nexus range.
The biggest enhancement from the original to Nexus was the introduction of the full colour screen and waveform. Of course there were many other cool new features but this was something of a game-changer as it offered the same level of visual feedback a DJ gets from Traktor Pro or Serato DJ.
The CDJ-2000NXS2 is perhaps not quite as big a leap forward as last time, although it is now mightily expensive. At around R 50K ($2,199) a pop, only top level clubs will use these I can assure you.
So depending on your level of DJ career, it may some time before one gets to play on these.
Here’s a list of the main new enhancements you can look forward to should you come across a pair at your next gig.
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Advanced/improved browsing options
Pioneer DJ has actually done quite a bit on the browsing, once again seemingly to compete more with what computer software can do. The browser knob is a little more complicated with a bunch of buttons surrounding it now. The top 2 are still the <back> Button and the <tag> button to tag tracks into a temporary playlist.
The bottom two are brand new.
Shortcut is as the name suggests a button that will shortcut the process of submenus by going directly to a browse screen that you have setup in your preference settings (presumably on rekordbox).
Track filter/Edit allows one to go deeper with a new browser menu that enables one to filter sets of tracks by categories such as rating, colour, bpm or key etc. Again this seems like another move to make the browsing on the CDJ-2000NXS2 as friendly and powerful as a computer DJ app where one can simply click on the category header and all tracks will sort accordingly in a playlist. This beats just being able to list tracks by key or BPM, by using this extra sort filter. A notable feature here is that the CDJ-2000NXS2 will now also show you related keys for mixing in key on the onscreen display.
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Touchscreen and improved onscreen feedback
The touchscreen was first introduced with the XDJ-1000 and whilst we’re sure this one is of higher quality, the one thing you can be assured; their touchscreens work very well. The brand new 7” touchscreen features enhanced colour waveform feedback and yet another enhancement that we can’t help comparing, this time to the iPad Traktor DJ app, is the ability to jump around a track by simply pressing down on the waveform. This actually replaces the needle search feature.
There’s also a QWERTY keyboard for manual searching which one can type on the touchscreen and the phase meter looks remarkably like the one you will find on Traktor Pro. This offers visual feedback as to whether your beats are spot on.
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New FX
CDJ-2000NXS vs CDJ-2000NXS2
EQ-isolated FX permits the DJ to choose which frequencies to apply FX to. This is quite an advanced feature as it allows one to remove the bottom end for example which means you could use an effect on a track playing out without it effecting the kick and bass of the track.
A colour FX parameter knob controls the depth of the effect.
A new Beat FX option includes a Ping Pong delay and something called Helix which freezes a moment in sound and then pitches it up or down.
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More cue points
The four cue point buttons have been updated to 8. Just like on Traktor Pro 2. Why have 4 when you can have 8, right?
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Improved syncing
The beatgrid accuracy in Rekordbox has been tightened up and this now translates to the CDJ-2000NXS2. So if the two decks are linked (via Ethernet cable) you can use the sync button to keep your tracks perfectly beatmatched. If you have quantized your tracks in Rekordbox this should be pretty seamless, plus you have that handy phase meter to assist visually too.
One final enhancement on the CDJ-2000NXS2 that’s worth a mention is that is has a 96 kHz/24-bit sound card and improved digital signal processing (DSP) and Digital Out. The big thing with this is that producers can now play their tracks out with higher resolution lossless files such as FLAC and ALAC.
[youtube_sc url=”dCbRYieYwWI”]Check out the new CDJ-2000NXS2 Pioneer DJ global website
