Pioneer CDJ-850 Lands in DJ World
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in DJ
The wait is over my fellow DJs – The all new Pioneer CDJ-850 has finally landed and looks set to be the missing link to span usage between bedroom DJ enthusiasts with seasoned pro’s alike. Sharing some of the feature set boasted by the top end CDJ-2000 and 900 units plus Pioneer’s popularity-gaining ‘Rekordbox’, this new digital audio (MP3, Wav,AIFF & AAC) library, storage and playback system, dubbed the 850, offers some major enhancements to usher the end of the former CDJ-800′s era. Physically, this model shares the same high quality jog wheel, response and ‘feel’ of buttons, faders and dials, alongside some of the main legacy Pioneer CDJ performance aspects displayed in the two other Pro models above it. Capable of being the ultimate bedroom DJ’ing CD and digital music player, the CDJ-850 has no fear of fading into the background either in full, live club performance territory.
I have to say, I really like the ethos behind Pioneer’s [now free] ‘Rekordbox’ concept, which sits resplendently in the CDJ-850. This is a system that combines digital music playback at the highest of formats (let’s be honest, MP3, whilst okay, just doesn’t compare), portability in the true sense of the word (your DJ set on a USB stick – go figure), a library navigation system that’s so easy to use (even emulating the old DJ habit of corner stacking your vinyls to ‘prep’ upcoming tracks for your set) plus possibly the best – certainly the most popular – CDJ jog wheel/platter response next to an actual ‘vinyl on SL-1200′ feel. Of course it plays CD-R/RW’s too (if you wanna get all ‘old skool’ that is *runs*) but jumping back to ‘Rekordbox’, the Pioneer-only software analyzes, tags tempo data and personal ‘notes’ and then fully integrates that information into the hardware playback system, showing its real bells and whistles with advanced looping techniques and (in conjunction with mixers like the DJM-2000), some very impressive effects possibilities. Oh, and did I mention that all this power and flexibility needs no computer connection whatsoever?
I could wax on lyrically about further technical specifications and the unit’s main feature set, but the reasons I love this new player are all written above. However, I did manage to grab some time with Pioneer product executive, Rik Parkinson, who very kindly took me on a video overview and product comparison guide (below) to some Pioneer goodies, one being the truly amazing DJM-2000 mixer (again, video coming soon to the DV247 Blog), the other being the very subject of these scribblings today – boy’s ‘n girls of the DJ world, please welcome the Pioneer CDJ-850 DJ media player/CD turntable.
Tags: AAC, AIFF, CD Player, CDJ-850, Club, DJ Gear, MP3, Pioneer, Wav