Controller to CDJ Anxiety

Do you do any tricks or fancy things with looping/cue points/scratching/effects? Or do you mainly mix in then mix out?

I´m actually in the same position as you, I play at a controller at home but if I had an upcoming, bigger gig I wouldn’t be able to bring my own beloved Mixtrack I would have to use their CDJ. It all depends on how your mixing style is. Mix in and out should not be a problem for you but when you move up and want to to more advanced mixing you´ll be pretty stuck if your not prepared.

I don´t have any real experience to be honest, only played in a club on CDJs once but I can try give some advice since I have been in the same thoughts for a while and I can tell you about my mistakes as well… You will most likely have a chance to show up early, test the gear out, It shuoldnt take you to long to get used to it so you can get around. Another thing is know your music! That´s a problem I had, I didn´t have access to my own library, I had to use another DJs music and got loads of problems by that.. If you know your music you know where it can be a good point to change track, you might have a couple of mini mixes you can do blind-folded, use em! Another is, dont get over your head! Don´t be more advanced than you can handle, take the safe-route, it might not be your ultimate set, but you can´t expect that with no hands-on experience. And at last, relax!

And another thing, If you play in a club, always remember that the tracks you play is what the crowd pays attention to the most, the transitions isn´t that important actually, but the song selection is, read the crowd! I don´t know about your club experience during the weekends but I got a lot, and even doe I DJ I don´t even pay attention to the transitions when I have had some alcohol in my system, the only thing that would bother me would be if the musics stops completely 🙂

If you are able to use Traktor and their DJM is Traktor Scratch certified then the DJM + 2ks would be just a good Traktor controller…
Even if they are not (as in not certified or you have no Traktor license) then using them is easy.
Just put your songs on a USB stick (and have a backup stick). If you are not able to use Recordbox (downloadable from Pioneer) to configure your songs for the CJD 2ks, then just put the simple mp3s in the root folder of the USB stick and put a number in front of them 1…X in the order you want to play them.
Put the USB stick into one of the CDJs and push the “USB” button, the CDJ will load your files. On the other CDJ hit the “link” or “LNK” button and it will also display your songs on the screen.
Both have a rotary knob that you can use to browse the songs and a load button to load the songs in the CDJ.
When the song is loaded the 2000 will even display its waveform, BPM and such in the display.
From there it just works like a controller. You have the buttons in different positions for looping and cue points, but they are all there and the transport section and pitch fader are clearly marked. There is a button near the jogwheel for jogwheel modes (like on most controllers).
So if you can handle beatmatching on the mixtrack, it will be no problem on the CDJs.

As for effects the DJM will have an effects section. Usually a big F/X selector knob or keys depending on model and a yellow’ish push button to activate. You must first assign the effects section to the channel you work on and can hit it off from there. Some have a dedicated filter knob (similar to some controllers) for a combined high/low filter.

Just be calm, do not panic. It is 95% the same workflow as with a controller. All the buttons are nicely labeled and if you can beatmatch you will be fine. There is no voodoo about CDJs, they are just very expensive controllers that can play CDs also…