Wavering on a DDJRX – help me decide!

RekordBox DJ, while definitely good software, is not at the level of the other big contenders quite yet. Credit where credit is due, Pioneer does upgrade often and tackles most issues quickly. As for collection management, it is no surprise that RekordBox DJ, coming from collection management only, has a good leg up in that department. I am currently a Mixvibes Cross user and can say it has excellent features that I like, both with and without iTunes in the mix.

I don’t do any tagging in DJ software (or iTunes for that matter), but all of that gets done in other software. Just my workflow. It means tracks don’t get into my collection until they are truly ready, i.e. tagged, artwork, gained, keyed, etx. In the software I only have to worry about (smart) playlists, cue points, loops and such.

The RX is only a 2-channel controller/mixer. Sure you can switch back and forth with those tiny switches every time you want to use another input, but personally I think that is good for occasional use of the “other” input, but if it happens regularly having 4 faders beats having 2 imho.

While not giving you the Pioneer “eco-system”, the Denon MCX8000 is something to consider. I can say from personal experience that it is one awesome controller. Engine software isn’t there yet (the Denon equivalent of RekordBox), but will no doubt receive a few reworks soon. Actually guessing that we are looking at the final bits of the 1.x version and the near future will give us a new and improved version 2.x.
It’s fully 4-channel, has two separate mic inputs (should that interest you), both built-in and laptop powered FX, built like a tank, decent screens, pro-outputs, the works. And – to boot – it’s a couple of hundred cheaper than the RX. Comes with Serato, supports DVS (needs Serato upgrade) should you chose to move in that direction after all.

Just my 3 cents as usual.

p.s. If you are visual guy, be sure to get your artwork in order and have it show in your DJ software in a way that works for you.

Just to clarify one point here – Vintage is speaking of the XDJ-RX (a two channel standalone controller), not the DDJ-RX (a four channel RB controller) that you are looking at. Different units – incredibly unhelpful model names from Pioneer to say the least!

I believe this is the unit you are interested in…

I had a specific comment (lol!)

I owned a ddjRX from pioneer, in fact I may have been the first person to own one in Canada (am I allowed to say that?).

the big thing that attracted me to the RX was the sampler that was supposed to record your sequence and then quantize that routine so you could play it back to the audience over any other channel already playing in time and on time (watch the Ean Golden example).

but even before I could work my way to that I couldnt get pass the bug I think I found (at least on my system):
A. I could not pre cue the filter!
also
B. I could not pre cue certain color/beat fxs

I couldnt get past that whatsoever so I took it back, lost some money for restocking fee(because yes I had faith in Pioneer that they would live up to their “big/reputable” name and fix these issues and gave them three months to do so) and went back to the NI way of doing things with an s8.

Later on I found through buying an djm900 nxs that their are certain color fx and beat fx that you just cannot pre cue – probably the reason why it didn’t work on the ddjRX.

Finally, I left pioneer and their ecosystem of quantization via lan (rented a cdj just to see how this system worked – wow!, but way too expensive) and opted for another external mixer in the Allen and Heath Px5. sound quality blows the 900nxs outta the water – I guess what they say really is true – analog is the way to go!

so now I run Traktor, with two d2s through my PX5 and soon Ill be releasing a mix!

I dont’ know if that helped but if you need to pre-cue (like I do) and sculpt your sound precisely before letting your audience hear it, then I wouldn’t go the pioneer route. it sucks because YES their rekordbox music management system is awesome and I believe the dj software package can and will grow to be as good if not better than traktor and serato – but its not their yet. its a tough decision because music management is arguably the biggest part of djing, especailly in the digital music era where personal collections have grown one hundred fold – and in this area alone, Pioneer really have nailed that part down.

I hope this helps rather than confuses. for me though I’m still using the Itunes for music management, and then importing into traktor. I heard about and then tried the beatport pro app as well but that seems to have just inserted one more step into the already two prong thingy Im using now.

cheers

charles