I bought a pair of CDJ-900s to use at my club. Just thought I’d share how much I like using them. The HID connection with Traktor works really well. Switching over from a DJ using CDs or MP3s on a USB is completely painless. I just plug in the USB cables and I’m set. I can also quickly copy my set to a USB Flashdrive before I play to have that as a backup in case Traktor/computer crashes.
There are two downsides though. 1) Cost. 2) Few clubs have the 900s or 2000s.
Fortunately, I just was in the position where I really needed to buy a set of Pioneer CDJs, so for me as a DJ, they were free. But, the fact that so few places have the 900s or 2000s means that it’ll be a long time, if never, that I’ll just be able to walk up to a majority of my gigs, plug in a USB cable and be ready to rock.
Anyhow, using them has been a glimpse into a future of painless setup and great performance. Just thought I’d share my 2 cents.
Just took the plunge and have a pair of CDJ-900s now. Integration with Traktor is exactly as B33son says, pretty much plug and play. You connect each CDJ to your computer, configure your audio outputs, and you’re good to go. No MIDI mapping needed.
You can also hot swap between MIDI controller, USB, and CD modes without having to restart or shut anything down. Very nice to have if you’ve got one DJ spinning on Traktor and another DJ who is using CD’s or USB.
My thought is that Pioneer is still trying to be the standard control surface, regardless if you are using Traktor, CDs, or USB to play your music. So yeah, these bad boys are really expensive, but imagine 2-3 years now when they’re the standard set up at clubs, you bring your laptop, CDs, or USB stick and you can plug and play directly with the CDJ 900 or 2000. Cool stuff. Pioneer did a great job integrating this with Traktor/Serato/Mixvibes (mixvibes will happen in the near future).
The latency is pretty bad. It might be how I have configured my settings, but its def something that needs to be fixed in subsequent updates to Traktor Pro. I am not a scratch DJ, so this doesn’t affect me too much, but yes it would be pretty difficult to scratch considering the latency.
you still need midi controllers to do anything really interesting in my eyes though, the mappings only the unit can be pushed so far, theres not a whole lot of controls to work with.
Certainly! You’re still going to want some sort of other controller to get access to all the functionality in Traktor. But the concept of not having to swap audio cables, just plug in and go is really attractive.
I have noticed there are some oddities that will probably be worked out in future versions. Although, the first few times I used the 900s as my traktor soundcards, via an Aggregate Device, things worked perfectly, I have since been unable to engage the USB Control on one of my CDJ-900 units. In other words, one of my 900s fails to control Traktor when both 900s are acting as my soundcard. Until this gets fixed, I’m still using my Audio 8 DJ and the 900s as control surfaces. If anyone has experienced this let me know. I’m using Traktor 1.2.6 and CDJ-900 Firmware Version 3.
There are also other potentially disastrous issues. I’ve had one of the 900s lock up when connecting my computer. If that unit has the USB stick in it, you’re going to loose connection on the other unit and the live playing track will stop. Also, if either unit locks up when using the 900s as an aggregate sound device, Traktor is going to freeze AND you’re going to loose the live playing track.
Anyhow, I think some of these issues are going to be more apparent to Pioneer in the near future and hopefully, they’ll get fixes out soon. Until then, the 900s are still very playable and fun.
Funny that, I would have thought timecode would have more lag. Infact given the technology timecode should have more lag than HID, if HID has more lag then theres something seriously wrong with the implementation !
