Finally, Pioneer has moved beyond the Pioneer CDJ 2000 with the introduction of their new flagship, the Pioneer CDJ 3000 multi-media player. Among some of the new things to enjoy, a nine-inch touch screen with 150% more screen brightness compared to the NXS2, coloured cue buttons now situated underneath the screen, a dedicated Beat Jump, as well as eight-bar loops. You can cue tracks from the browser without having to load them onto a deck. The new gigabit ethernet port can link to six players and play from a USB stick.
The new MPU (micro processing unit) will allow for seamless updates, which should keep the Pioneer CDJ 3000 the player DJs expect for another 10 years. The two chips inside handle track preview even while a track is playing. The CDJ-3000’s enlarged screen enables you to see both the current track and the cued track all in one place as they stack on top of each other, simplifying your mixing process without needing to move too much between CDJs.
Here are some other features.
- Key Sync and Key Shift leads to a mix in perfect harmony.
- The jog wheel is smoother.
- The pro DK Link provides enhanced lighting support.
- In terms of file formats, it can handle WAV, AIFF, FLAC, and Apple Lossless thanks to the upgrade to 96kHZé32-bit.
You can plug your laptop in and play your rekordbox library directly, play off a USB or an SD card, or plug your iPhone into the CDJ-3000 with a USB cable and mix tracks directly from the phone.
All in all, the Pioneer CDJ 3000 lives up to Pioneer’s record for being a standard tool in the DJ box. Certainly, the first few shipments have been flying out the door even with a $3100 price tag, but suppliers are confident that future shipments are on their way.
