Now, when I think of these, I usually picture in my head either a dark, dynamic club environment, the booth stocked to the ceiling with thousands of dollars of Allen & Heath, Pioneer, Urei, and Ortofon merchandise, a deep and ominous beat pounding away in the dark reaches of the abysmal black, and two hundred people rubbing against each other uncomfortably yet persistently, or I imagine a very vivid, lurid, beautiful day in the living room of a Belgian DJ on a Sunday morning, who sips coffee as he stands over a Rodec BX-9, a pair of CDJ2000's, and a pair of Technics 1200's. I imagine these things because I don't have them.
Regardless, the meaning of these vibrant hallucinations is that the Pioneer CDJ must be presently regarded as the best of the best in digital audio DJing. The CDJ1000 kinda of just walked into the world of DJing and was mutually handed a crown and a throne, like some kind of perfectly liquid transition unimpeded by controversy, besides the obligatory and inescapable controversy that runs rampant on the internet. There were some who believed Denon were better, but their only opponents were usually people who invited them to expand their imagination. Other CD players have their niche, but Pioneer has bestowed upon mankind a family of machines that are tough, sensible, and immensely capable. In the last year, Pioneer has treasonously tried to murder their lord, the CDJ1000MK3, with their "New Species," the CDJ 2000 and 900. In most clubs, at most venues, and in many bedrooms, the revolution seems to be occurring swimmingly.
However, the revolution won't come without a high price. DJ Cotts has cited, hardly sarcastically, that a required expenditure in purchasing the brand new CDJ's involves selling your house. Based on my present financial situation, I can testify in a wholly literal sense. The CDJ2000 ranks upwards of 2000 US dollars (Hence the name, I suppose?), whereas the CDJ900 sits rather surprisingly around $1300. Although the CDJ900 requires that you give up hot cues, arguably the monetary turning point for the CDJ2000, it's still a rather galvanizing convenience. This largely arises from the fact that the 900 is only about $200 less than the CDJ1000MK3, but again, the hot cue dilemma arises. The 900 must accurately be regarded as its own kinda thing in some senses, but it still bears deep relation to the newfangled 2000, and therefore, in spite of your present locative circumstances, you and I are about to embark on a journey into the world of Pioneer CDJ's.
The CDJ's of earlier days, particularly closer to the beginning of the new millennium, were normally boxy and small, and only accommodated CD's. They were the absolute bear-bones players, and only few of them really made their way into clubs, that is, until the digital revolution really summited. In no time, there were boxes that turned vinyl records into digital controllers and Daft Punk's armada of sequencers, drum machines and synths were compressed into a program on a laptop - Alive 2007 was powered entirely by two MacPros and a whole lotta MIDI (and Moog modules). But as the new wave of technology was just beginning to form, the CDJ1000 hit the shelves, and the world was flooded with lost marbles for generations to come.
CDJ1000MK3
Not only could you play CD's with them, but they came packed with a big, fat, family-friendly jog wheel that even a drunk Swedish malcontent could hammer on and still produce a world-famous mix - and thus, Swedish House Mafia exploded with fame. But more importantly than all of this, you could operate the music with some magical new concept called "vinyl mode." Vinyl mode wasn't just a great idea, either; it was executed brilliantly. Over the 8 or 9 years during which the CDJ1000 reigned supreme, hardly anything was done to upgrade it, other than a new pitch slider cap for the MK3. Besides all this, the machine itself was a hulking, black, shiny, LED-covered masterpiece, as though Michelangelo had designed it on a Sunday morning after an electro party while frivolously scribbling things on a parchment over breakfast.
Very fluidly did the 1000 solidify its place in the DJ world. Ibiza adopted it immediately, as did anyone else who could just barely afford them, particularly gear maniacs, who bought them by the scores. I've seen owner-supplied images of studios full of CDJ1000's, and also, surprisingly, 3rd world bedrooms boasting them on a coffee table, with a view of the favela out the forward window.
Really dude?
This just makes me anxious.
In fact, the CDJ1000 became so widely used, that Pioneer decided to invent a CDJ designed for DJ's to use at home, to practice for clubs. The CDJ800 was born.
CDJ800MK2
The original model was eventually upgraded, and it became a half-as-expensive, no-hot-cues version of its older brother. Unlike the 1000, the 800 was silver and slightly smaller, and instead of hot cues, it had specialized beat loops. All in all, the 800 came to be regarded not only as rather stylish, but also a means by which one may be able to experience a big CDJ like the 1000 without forking out all that cash. It was adopted by a multitude of old-school vinylists because it was relatively inexpensive and sported a big jog wheel - and yes, it boasted vinyl mode, a feature that became essential on every CDJ thereafter, except for the CDJ200, about which there isn't much to say.
CDJ200
The CDJ200 was a Pioneer CD player with no vinyl mode for bedroomjays, and I would venture to doubt that you could count the number of CDJ200s that had seen a club on one hand. It was half as much as a CDJ800, but three hundred short of a CDJ400, which came around in 2007. The release of the CDJ400 was actually very anticipated; it was a compact version of its older brothers that even had a USB port for thumb drives, a revolutionary concept that landed its place in the bedrooms of millions. Occasionally, you saw one at a bar here and there, but they were $700 godsends designed for those who couldn't afford a CDJ1000 and were a hundred dollars short of a CDJ800. The 400 and 800 could hardly be ranked as their numbers denoted; the 400 was small and boasted a vast number of features, yet the CDJ800 was big and rather simplistic. In some ways, it was indeed a depressingly vivid image of the new waving off the old. However, both players still had their places in the market for a few years, completely separate from the unstoppable train that was the CDJ1000.
Good lord, nine years of splendrous glory. In less than a decade, Pioneer contributed to a sweeping revolution in digital DJing, most famously symbolized in the gap that the CDJ1000 filled; as club DJ's around the turn of the millennium prepared for the digital uprising, technology came and quelled their fears as the CDJ1000 swooped in wielding Vinyl Mode, the Excalibur of all DJ gear. Carl Cox's "three turntable" phenomenon was replaced by two Technics sitting lonesomely beside a pair of 1000's. Eddie Halliwell made famous a mind-blowing routine of jockeying the jog wheel like a madman. Ed Banger swore by them, A-Trak always had one on hand, and Daft Punk managed to remain famously indifferent of everything. Normally, at this point I'd say, "Then, everything changed," but not much really did after that.
In 2009, Pioneer made a series of videos (with famous DJ's like Roger Sanchez, Laidback Luke, James Zabiela and The Swedish House Mafia) outlining some new, mysterious project aimed at making easier the immense hassle of modern digital DJing, paying the aforementioned DJ's to slander pretty much every existing method of performing except in terms of whatever Pioneer was building up to reveal. They discredited Digital Vinyl Systems, the use of CDs, and pretty much everything besides laptop mixing, which Daft Punk claimed rather flawlessly throughout all of this. Soon, the new products were revealed: the CDJ2000 and the CDJ900. They both had raised screens (which was apparently incredible), improved file navigation, and had plenty of LED's, particularly on the 2000, which had an LED ring of light around the jog wheel (which appeared at the beginning of each "Dawn of a New Species" video, backed by eerie synths to make it evermore horrifying).
The 900, as said before, turned out to be accordingly less expensive than the 1000, and the 2000 happened to be just as much as its name suggests. For a while, the two new products underwent an era of slight ridicule, until they actually fell into the hands of consumers, who soon found that the new family members were actually rather delicious. In time, CDJ2000 prices began to drop, as the CDJ1000 is presently experiencing a slow de-shelfing period, only to be replaced by its new younger brothers. As well, Pioneer soon after announced "replacements" for the CDJ400 and CDJ800: the CDJ350 (which even came with another companion mixer, the DJM350, also a replacement for the DJM400) and the CDJ850. The CDJ350 is discussed in another article on this blog; the 850, however, bears some reckoning.
CDJ850
CDJ350
It is, sensibly, a CDJ900, only it's silver, it has a flat screen, and it doesn't have Slip Mode. Evidently, the 850 was designed to not only replace the 800, but also to accommodate people who thought the 900 was far too annoying for them. However, the 900 has its own place in the market, and operates by its own right; it seems to be designed for people who want a cool, good ol' fashioned Pioneer CDJ, but at a relatively convenient price. The quality is upheld, and everyone is happy. And again, deceivingly, the 850 is not $50 more than the 800; it's a hundred. That means a CDJ400 or 350 is seven weeks of work at my minimum wage after-school job, the 800 is eight, and the 850 is nine. Are they screwing with me?
Although the transition into this New Species felt just a little bit forced, it's happening none the less, and the new products actually have some quality to them. They even come with their own commonplace software, Rekordbox, and can link into each other for easier file sharing. Jeez, after ten years of this, one must feel like an old man. In a decade, we went from big, black, fragile, plastic discs spinning on metal circles to concerts in our backpacks and mothership bridge control assets. Just recently, Pioneer released the DJM2000, which has already seen a live Pete Tong mix and will be quick to find its way into the basements of all manners of maniacal gear monkeys.
It's come a long way, but the CDJ1000 is about to be tucked away for safekeeping in the popular world. There are still clubs boasting MK2's, and there are plenty of people who will keep their 1000's for ages to come, but technology rules out with time. I've only known about this stuff for a few years, and even now I feel like an old man, having recalled all of this in the two hours I spent writing it. But alas, this world into which we are thrust is brave and new, and not in the bad way. There are adventures to come and upgrades to be made, someday. I believe that in the next ten years, DJing will equalize into a single master-machine, perhaps synthesized by Ableton, Serato (and/or) Traktor, and Pioneer. Maybe it will be a super-turntable that's automatically compatible with a DVS as well as vinyl. One can only dream. But sometimes you have to stop dreaming and move forward. Yeah, I couldn't think up a better way to end this.
PS: Sorry, Denon. Pioneer has you in checkmate for now. But thanks for the DVS controllers.
