Beginner needs help: Pioneer Rekordbox

And I have DJed in Japan. Yes they all have CDJs, but they also all have techs that setup your controller if you do not want to use CDJs.

So learn DJing and then think about Rekordbox later, you prolly wont use it anyways.

The XDJ R1, kind of supported Rekordbox, but its very limited, I believed its not even displaying Playlist that you made in Rekordbox, correctly, plus the display is just god-awful ugly (compared to the CDJ 2000 series)

There is nothing really in Rekordbox that you cant learn, if you already owned some sort of controller, the learning-curves in the Rekordbox its not all that steep, if you already mastered the basic of DJ-ing

It will not help you “better” in DJ-ing, its just assist you much nicer, when you use the rekordbox on any rekordbox-able CDJ’s, but hey you dont know what it is yet that you missing anyway since you aint try it yet, so you not missing much, imo

Install one in your laptop, and mess around on it yourself its another way to “learn” it functions and stuff

you do not need to “practice” rekordbox. It is a pretty organising software nothing else.
If you know how to DJ and you know how to use iTunes, you pretty much should have rekordbox figured out in 5min or less, or you simply are not there yet, no matter on what you practice.
And slapping a controller in a DJ backlog with your laptop and taking it around the world in your hand luggage on ANY plane is not that hard too. I mean I have traveled all over the world with TWO controllers in my hand luggage…

Having your tunes in rekordbox makes absolutely no sense, since rekordbox is absolutely awful to use as an organisation tool.
Most who use a Nexus setup (like me sometimes) use something else, many use iTunes to organise their music.

My workflow:
Organise Music in iTunes

Use MixedInKey to analyse and autocomment mp3-tags

Make playlists for gig in iTunes

Open Rekordbox

Select Playlist you have prepped for your gig and additional tunes to fill up the USB drives and hit ANALYSE in rekordbox (rekordbox has an iTunes integration going on…)

When analyse is finished setup CUE points in rekordbox for files that do not have them already

Export to USB stick(s)

Go to gig

No the issues of the R1 are still there and are not likely to be resolved as some of them due to comments from Pioneer staff are “working as intended”.
And yes you are right, if you use rekordbox with the R1 those files have to be re-done and re-analysed if you want to use them with anything else but the R1 (say a Nexus setup).
So actually using iTunes and a controller with some decent DJ software looks pretty nice by now…

You say you are lucky if you get any gigs, I have to say, yes because you are gear centric in your views. Promotors and managers usually do not know much about DJing, but they know people and being gear centric does make one look more unprofessional. Japanese are very intuitive people, so the right attitude and presentation is extremely important.
For instance I NEVER asked if I could play with my controller in a Japanese club. I went there with my controller as if it was the most normal thing in the world. You will most likely have to audition if it is a bigger club in Japan and they are a tough crowd to please. So I do not know how much luggage you carry, but wasting that extra 100 on a flight case and some extra luggage allowance on the flight might pay off.

Indeed the 2 new Akai come to mind.

If you would be DJing like us for over 20 years, nothing that Pioneer does surprises you honestly.
They have sometimes broken boundaries and release gear that was well beyond anything you could expect and perfectly done and then they brought out buggy software and gear that nobody knew why and how to use it without any explanation on how to use it.
I guess no company is perfect, but Pioneer has brought some really good stuff this year like the DDJ-SX2 and SZ. Two flagship controllers that really fit the bill and are perfect for their use case.
But then there are products like the R1, the DJM 2000 Nexus etc. that nobody really uses or I seldom see used.

If you want to use the CDJ systems of that clubs, just follow my workflow with iTunes + Rekordbox and you will be fine.
I had 2 short sets in german clubs last year where I did the same, just showed up with 2 USB sticks prepped the day before and went to use their CDJs. No worry there.