Jason Ross

All I can say is…. wow. Pioneer have knocked this one so far out of the park it’s crazy. Prolink works like a dream, and even better you CANNOT as far as I can see use the laptop screen, you use the unit’s screen to search tracks, and only playlists you have saved in rekordbox show up.

Even better though….. I have tested it in as many ways as I can in terms of ‘hot swapping’ sources from non rekordbox created flash drives, rekordbox created flash, Laptops via ProLink, AND Traktor, and you can seamlessly hot swap in and out every possible combination of these in the mix within seconds. A great feature indeed and previously always an issue with Traktor as its virtual ‘aggregated sound card’ always caused issues with playing decks before. This is quite simply an astounding piece of equipment for the money. Stick in a couple of CDJs or 1200s via the line/phono inputs and you literally have everything you could ever need.

Buy it and buy it now. Unless you can afford a full CDJ/DJM NEXUS setup, you will never look back and I can’t imagine a better machine being released for some time. I think this will become quite simply THE unit to own for anyone who aspires to ‘club DJing’ or mobile DJs who want most of the functionality of the aforementioned setup for a fraction of the cost AND weight, or quite simply those that have a completely digital library, but don’t want a software/timecode solution.

Hope these comments are in some way useful in making your decision!

I have a MAcbook Pro retina, so no bloody ethernet! Am waiting right now for a thunderbolt to ethernet adapter so I can try prolink but havent had a chance to use it yet. I am really hoping though that you can still search via the unit’s screen and not be limited to only using the laptop screen as TBH my whole point of getting into Rekordbox is to get back onto a standalone DJ platform and away from the laptop and the laptop’s screen, so I am more than happy with Rekordbox enabled USB sticks as the file source right now.

I think the complaint about a single knob as a search problem is probably utter bunk and just people looking for problems… what do they want a mouse? Then stick to a laptop! Since I stepped away from CDJs and went digital I have been using Denon MC3000 & 6000s with Traktor (superb controllers by the way, built like tanks), and they use a single search wheel which is more than sufficient if you have your library well organised. If you can’t use a single rotating knob (with push) and a simple back button to search your library then again… stay on a laptop! (obviously I don’t mean you personally but any of us). There are two schools here really aren’t there. Those who think you should prepare a ‘crate’ beforehand, and those that want to have access to every track they own. While its nice to be able to be spontaneous and play THAT track when inspiration strikes and yes it is more convenient to use a keyboard for this, Rekordbox does have an option to input letters via the wheel so you can do a search which I think is a great function considering the entire raison d’etre of the unit is to get the DJ away from the laptop (or at least the laptop screen). For me it comes down to this, if you want to use Traktor and a large screen this may not be the BEST controller, although of course it does have an excellent Traktor TSI file for it (I haven’t tried it yet myself but my understanding is functionality is excellent you just don’t get to use the inbuilt screen), or you want to step away from the screen and use a modernised very digital friendly evolution of the ‘traditional pioneer club workflow’. Of course Pioneer may in the future offer full HID support for Traktor on this unit as do the NXS CDJ900s/2000s & NXS DJMs which would truly be the best of both worlds! Just my two cents.