Yesterday I finally got my other Pioneer CDJ100S DJ cd player! I bought the other member of the pair last month. I was originally going to pick up both units at the same time, but finances have been a little weird lately. Since Michelle has been living with me, the little daily expenses have been a little larger. Picking up dinner for two people instead of one, extra bathroom stuff, and other little expenses. So, not wanting for me or Michelle to starve for a couple of weeks, I put off buying the second unit until this month.
Now I have it! – Yay!
My old CD decks have served faithfully for the last couple of years, but about two months ago, the transport on the left deck started occasionally pausing mysteriously during playback. This meant that you had to baby the cd player very carefully during any club event. The bass beat in a room could even cause a pause due to vibration. It meant that I had to watch my levels so carefully that I couldn’t concentrate on the beat match or dance floor response. I often had to kill the bass in some of my favorite tracks, and even that might not have been enough. I took the decks in for service, but spare parts for a unit as old as my Denton decks were are very hard to find.
I finally decided to break down, and drop a couple of grand on new equipment. Besides, I really wanted some of the DSP effects and a wider level of pitch control that are only available on newer units. It was time to upgrade.
So I bought the new units from Masterplan. Although Masterplan is not the cheapest place in town for equipment, the staff are really nice, and actually the salesmen themselves actually perform with the equipment that they sell. That means that they will tell you honestly how various pieces of gear behave on the road, and will warn you about the oddities of any piece of equipment that you may be considering. While I was there I also found out that they should be able to get me parts to give the old Denons a repair and a good tune up.
I am in love with the new units! They are almost indestructible and have a really nice feel. The huge jog dial has almost exactly the same feel as mixing with vinyl. You get a lot more sensitivity and control than you ever had with my old rack mounted units. The ease of chase mixing with them is phenomenal. It will take a little while for me to get used to the sensitivity of them however. They have a much faster response than older units I have worked with, so I have a tendency to be a little heavy handed when trying to give a burst of kick or drag to a track.
I spent about 3 hours with them last night, practicing old tricks I used to be able to do on the Denons. Looping is a bit different and playback speed from a cue point is a bit slower than on the older units, but having the DSP effects on the unit allows me to hide all but the worst train wreck mixes.
The Pioneers are the same model that Issac uses for Sanctuary, and that I used for spinning the night of the And One and Covenant concert. I fell in love with them that night. They are a bit weird to get used to if you are used to the rack mounted types. They cue very differently and are far more responsive, so if you are not used to them, everything seems far to sensitive.
Michelle has tried using them a few times and although she likes them, she isn’t comfor
I myself can’t wait to use them in a live venue. Some of the features that they have are only accessible via a Pioneer mixer, but the truth be known, I hate the Pioneer mixers (except for the very high end ones). The sample, transform, send, kill, and independent channel eq on my Numark are a godsend if you are trying to create new tracks out of canned music or doing a live off the cuff remix.
Although you really can’t get away with doing that too often when spinning industrial music (the crowd are “purists” who want only “the album version with no changes”), I usually put on a bit of a show when doing 80′s tunes and it gets amazing response from even a small crowd. My favorite live remix to perform right now is my “You Spin my Venus” mix (Dead or Alive vs. Banannarama – so much fun). I am trying to work out something with an erasure / depeche mix for the opening night of Labyrinth after the Tranist strike. It will probably help if I can get a third CD going. There is an old single deck American DJ unit at a pawn shop not far from me, but my pocket still hurts from the new Pioneer deck, so it will have to wait.
I can’t wait to get home to play with them some more!!!!
Hmmm…. I should record some of my stuff and put it up on my website.
Hmmmm….. Maybee I should bloody well finish my website this weekend.
I have also been trying to work out a good control system to use my laptop as a sampler when performing live. The output level of my laptop sound card is a little weak compared to the other equipment, and it is a little slow playing off a cue, but I figure I can find something to push a bit more speed and volume out of it.
I have also decided that all modern dance music owes its structure to New Order.
Nuff for now. Gotta run away. I just though of a mix I can probably do live! Need some samples from the breakfast club though….
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This is quite unlike anything I’ve produced before. It’s very light and airy. It’s not likely to represent the final version, but I thought I’d get this up here as a sort of milestone. 
Well, my first impressions are pretty good. It’s reponsive, easily programmable and adjus 