Product Description for the Pioneer CDJ-2000

Pioneer CDJ's are the holy grail of the CD DJ world.  A standard in venues world wide they're also the deck of choice for touring and festival DJ's who need rock solid fail safe performance.  The CDJ-2000 is Pioneer's new flagship in the CDJ line and truly blurs the line between CD player, controller, and media workstation.  The CDJ-2000 will play back audio and data CD's containing all popular file formats.  You can also plug in a USB stick or storage device and play back audio files stored there.  It also functions as a controller and sound card that can map to Traktor Pro, Serato Scratch, or Ableton Live via HID and MIDI meaning you can leave your interface and control CD's at home.

One of the coolest things about the CDJ-2000 is that you can network them via ProDJLink ethernet ports.  When your CDJ's are networked to each other (works for two CDJ's) or with an ethernet switch (up to four CDJ's) you can you can then load tracks to any of the decks off of one CDJ-2000.  This means one Data CD, USB storage device, or SD card can carry all the tracks in your set rather than needing one for each CDJ individually.  Connect your ethernet switch to your computer and you can then source tracks off of your laptop via Pioneers new Rekordbox software.

Rekordbox itself is Pioneer's solution for building playlists on your laptop.  You can look at tracks in your current iTunes library and set cue and loop points of individual tracks.  You can then dump your tracks on a USB or SD storage device complete with your playlists, hot cues, and loops intact to play back on your CDJ.

If you'd rather keep your library in your DJ software, the CDJ-2000 can send HID data to your computer and maps onto Traktor, Serato Scratch, or Ableton Live.  HID is a more responsive protocol than MIDI and is becoming standard in many new DJ controllers.  HID control ensures the jog wheels have the maximum responsiveness for real "scratch" like controls when grabbing the wheels.  The CDJ-2000 is also a sound card so when controlling your DJ software your audio is automatically routed back to the CDJ-2000 making it an all in one unit for each channel of your mix.  One downfall of using these with Serato Scratch Live is you need to have an authorized Serato box plugged in for the software to work with multiple decks, but perhaps we'll see these decks supported with ITCH, Seratos controller software, in the future.

The layout and feel of the CDJ series and it's rock solid performance is really what has made it the industry standard for table top CD decks.  Now the CDJ-2000 gives you a way to employ that feel and performance in a number of ways.  Seems like a no brainer to take a digital deck and make it more than just a CD player but the devil is always in the details.  Looks like Pioneer found intuitive ways to make the CDJ-2000 a complete player, controller, and media storage/playback machine.

-Ghostdad 9.29.10

Manufacturer Description

The CDJ-2000 is the ultimate technologically advanced multi-format player in the world. No matter what your media preference is, the CDJ-2000 can handle them all with great performance, reliability, and confidence. It enables playback of MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF audio files on CD, DVD-ROM, SD card and USB memorydevices. You can also assign various buttons of the CDJ-2000 to trigger other devices, such as DJ effecters and software with MIDI mapping capability. With Pioneer’s new “Pro DJ Link” you can connect up to fourCDJ-2000’s and share a single music source from just one player. For displaying song titles, jacket art as well as detailed track information, the CDJ-2000 has a unique 6.1” Full Color LCD panel andGraphic User Interface so DJs can find information needed to select a song easily at a glance. Both the CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 turntables include rekordbox, Pioneer’s proprietary music management software that organizes and catalogs a DJ’s entire music library. When music files are imported to rekordbox, thesoftware analyzes each file and prepares them for use specifically with the new CDJ turntables.The CDJ-2000 is the natural selection for performing DJs worldwide.

• Multi Format Playback - The CDJ-2000 enables playback of MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF audio files on CD,DVD-ROM, SD card and USB memory devices.
• Pro DJ Link - New Pioneer Pro DJ Link that enables up to four CDJ-2000/900s to beconnected and share a single music source.
• 6.1” Full Color LCD panel and Graphic User Interface - For displaying song titles, jacket art as well as detailed track information and wave form display of each song so DJs can find informatio nneeded to select a song at a glance.
• Needle Search - Helps DJs instantaneously get to a specific part of a song with a simple touch of the Needle Search pad.
• MIDI - Users can assign various buttons of the CDJ-2000 to trigger other devices, such as DJ effecters and software with MIDI mapping capability.
• Free Rekordbox Music Management Software Included - Both the CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 turntables include rekordbox, Pioneer’s proprietary music management software that organizes and catalogs a DJ’s entire music library. When music files are imported to rekordbox, the software analyzes each file and prepares them for use specifically with thenew CDJ turntables.