PIONEER CDJ-1000 MK3 DJ-WORKSTATION

Product Information

The DMP-555 was a single deck tabletop CD-player in Pioneer's range for DJs that was introduced in April 2002 and discontinued during 2004. It included a loop function, as well as loop-out adjust, and other facilities associated with looping samples from the track being played.

The XDJ-1000 outputs audio through a stereo pair of RCA connectors only; there’s no digital coaxial output.

The fact that these decks were introduced in 2001 and are still being used by pro DJs tells you everything you need to know.

At the time of writing there is no HID support for Traktor, but there is HID support for Serato DJ from version 1. The pitch control was +/- 10% only, and Master Tempo allowed the pitch to be locked despite tempo changes being made.

We’ve suggested this to Pioneer, so hopefully we’ll be able to do this after a future firmware update. Subtle design changes like the metallic master tempo button also mark the player as the third generation of the industry standard deck. In addition, the unit borrowed several usability features from the CDJ line of that era, including a brighter fluorescent display on both the information screen and the central on-jog display. At The 2008 NAMM Show The MEP-7000 was featured along with Pioneer's DJM-3000 19" rackmount DJ mixer.

An updated version of the CDJ-1000, the CDJ-1000 MK2 was released in July 2003 with additional features like an improved jog wheel and faster response time than in the original model. It’s a fair point, which is why Pioneer has listened to the market and released the XDJ-1000: a CDJ without a CD player. The XDJ-1000’s control surface certainly looks like that of an 800-series CDJ, with the familiar 206mm jog wheel, pitch fader, track navigation buttons and play and cue buttons. The launch of a new Pioneer CDJ has always been greeted with much interest and excitement, but in among the usual cries of “NEED ONE!

We’d obviously prefer to have physical hot-cue buttons that you can press without having to enter a specific screen, but considering that the XDJ-1000 is not a flagship media player, and the CDJ-850 had no hot-cues at all, we’re extremely pleased to see them here.