Yet Another First Gig With CDJ's Topic...

[YoshiExcel]

I know, shame on me for not being able to find a single one of the topics that covers first time using CDJ's at a gig.

I have been using DDJ SX for well over a year but have used other controllers before that time. I recently got an opportunity to open up for a respected/well known drum & bass dj at a drum & bass monthly event. I have been to these events for a long while so getting to finally play at this event is a big deal to me.

Problem, of course,.. I have never touched a CDJ 2000nxs before. Can't afford it, don't have anyone near me that has them. The setup is 2x CDJ 2000nexus + DJM 900nxs. I was told I could bring a controller, but i dont want to be that guy, these are old school DJs and im sure I have to impress if I want to get invited back. I have been doing alot of research on youtube videos to find out where buttons are and what everything does.

I have a folder with about 80 tracks im going to be mixing from, I ran them through Rekordbox and have beatgridded everything perfect and made sure all tracks have correct bpm. I would like to put these on 2 different USB sticks in case they dont have the CDJ's linked. so now for a stack of questions that hopefully some of you could answer for me:

1. Is there something I need to know/do that is important or easy to miss when exporting my tunes to the usb sticks?

2. I can beatmatch pretty good on my DDJ SX, but I hear the pitch resolution is different on a CDJ. DDJ SX is 10% or something like that, and the CDJ is less...or something like that. Will that affect anything?

3. If the beatmatching gets difficult due to that difference, does the CDJ show the "current" BPM as you change the tempo/pitch? for example its 174 originally, but when you increase it to 176 will it show on the screen?

4. Can you tell which tracks you've already played?

5. For cue'ing/monotoring on headphones, can you balance the master/cue like on the DDJ SX?

Any other tips or important things to know would really help! Thanks and sorry for yet another topic on this subject.

[DJ SB]

1. Not really. You might as well set your CDJ settings in rekordbox and load them to the USB so they can be loaded to the CDJ when you go on.

2. See 1. This is one of the CDJ settings. I mix with them at 10% (as do most people I see).

3. Yes.

4. Yes, they will be grayed out. The players will probably be linked too which is even better because you can see this on both.

5. Yes.

[dsquareddan]

1. look into this

2. you can change the pitch setting from +/- 6%, 10%, 16% or WIDE (100%). the button for that is above the pitch fader. also be sure to note the "tempo reset" button is off (if you turn it on the light on beside pitch fader goes yello). have seen a few DJ's confused when this is turned on and they can't increase or decrease the bpm

3. CDJ shows the BPM as you adjust the pitch yes. you also have the option to use Sync on the CDJnexus players

4. yes it shows which tracks you've played by making them darker in the track selection window, and with a checkmark beside them

5. yes the cue system is the same. you just have to press cue on the master channel, and then on the channel you are planning to mix in and turn the knob on the DJM900nexus that says "MIXING" from cue to master


I'd suggest looking over the high resolution images of both the CDJ2000nexus & DJM900nexus so you know where all the buttons are and what they do
CDJ - http://pioneerdj.com/english/templat...0nexus_1_l.jpg
DJM - http://www.pioneer.com.au/images/eur...-nexus-top.jpg


If you are coming from a DDJSX you will have no problem with this man. it's pretty much 95% the same system. relax, you got this!

[despo]

2. See 1. This is one of the CDJ settings. I mix with them at 10% (as do most people I see).

sorry, not wanting to derail the thread but this is true, but why do people do this when you can have 6%? I find 6% much more accurate to get the beatmatch bang on when I'm mixing on my CDJ900s at home

[antifmradio]

sorry, not wanting to derail the thread but this is true, but why do people do this when you can have 6%? I find 6% much more accurate to get the beatmatch bang on when I'm mixing on my CDJ900s at home

keep in mind the acurracy is also relative to the controller you are using.
i use an S4 at 8%
i even use it at 12 for hip hop

but if i use say one of my Denon CD players, i can set it to 12+ % and still get accurate enough to match.

[YoshiExcel]

Thanks for the replies everyone! definitely learned a few things here and now I feel a little more comfortable about it. I will try to go in a bit early to get a feel for the setup and sound as well. If anyone has anymore tips or whatever to add regarding the hardware coming from a controller, please let me know.

[DJ SB]

sorry, not wanting to derail the thread but this is true, but why do people do this when you can have 6%? I find 6% much more accurate to get the beatmatch bang on when I'm mixing on my CDJ900s at home

Sometimes I mix tracks that are over 6% apart and 10% offers me enough precision to create accurate mixes. Also, I'm used to technics where very small adjustments to the pitch fader have a pretty big effect.

[dsquareddan]

try arriving to the club early before doors and ask if you can test out your usb and such on the cdj's. might help take some of the nerves off from getting to decks when the room is crowded for the first time

I switched to SD cards from USB sticks after i've had more than once a DJ pull my USB stick out mid song during a DJ transition period.

The Master Tempo button on the CDJ2000's has improved a lot, and if you are not pitching songs beyond 5% it's not noticeable, use it.

Since you ran all your tracks thru Rekordbox, so long as the CDJ's are also linked into the DJM900 properly (the LED ring around the platter turns red if you put the channel fader up) you can then press the blue quantize button the FX section of DJM to have the FX read the BPM directly from the Rekordbox grid as opposed to analyzing the audio on the fly and guessing what the BPM is. Also, sometimes people aren't aware that you need to properly set the CDJ # to the channel on the DJM you want to use. if you have the audio cables plugged into 2 & 3, but the CDJ numbers are 1 & 2. the LED ring will turn Red when you move the wrong channel fader. This is easily solved by unplugging the link cable on the CDJ, going into settings (hold down menu) and changing the CDJ number before plugging link back in. Don't unplug the ethernet cable while music is playing thru the CDJ or you will lose the link if the other player is reading the music from a USB on the other CDJ.

Good move on bringing 2 USB sticks. the CDJ2000's we have at the club I work at, the link ports have begun to get loose after 5 years of plugging and unplugging in the ethernet cable. have had some DJ's lose the connection mid song from a cable being wiggled accidentally. we've sent 2 cdj's off for repair cause of this and apparently its becoming a more and more common thing, tho I think they improved the cable housing on the new nexus players

one last thing, talk to the in house sound engineer before you go on. Make a personal connection. Ask him what level he wants you to send him from the mixer. DO EXACTLY AS HE SAYS. remember, he has control over how loud the dancefloor will be, YOU have control over how loud your booth monitors can be.

[YoshiExcel]

^^ extremely helpful post, thanks alot for that info.

[YoshiExcel]

lol, well that was a disaster haha.... first off, one of the cdj's was a cdj 2000 and the other was a 2000 nexus so no quantize., whatever... the biggest issue i had and ruined my entire set and made me look like a fuckin idiot on stage was that something went wrong with the hotcues... i started with a track, i thought i made sure that the hotcue section was "green". anyways anytime i would load up a new track and i would press a hot cue, it would go back to the first track i was playing... what....the.....hell?! so when i finally figured out that that was happening, i just gave up and played normal with no hotcues (this was on the cdj 2000, not the nxs.) this was a real pain in the ass becuse i had those hotcues set up for mashups and so on. anyways i played without a booth monitor for about 75% of my set and it was HARD as hell beatmatching on my headphones. finally one of the sound guys ran up there quickly to turn it on when i trainwrecked the shit out of some tracks. After my monitor got turned on, everything went pretty smooth.

Not a great first experience and i looked like a total noob up there. hopefully i get invited back, but who knows at this point.