Buy Ddj Sx

Developed specifically for Serato DJ Pro, the DDJ-SX controller and standalone mixer gives you excellent control over your performance. Comes with 16 velocity-sensitive performance pads to control Cue Points, Loop Rolls, Slicer, the SP-6 and the revolutionary Dual Deck mode.

buy ddj sx

Behind every good DJ software, there is a great controller. Was that not written in stone? Along with the recent release of Serato DJ, Pioneer has launched its flagship controller, the monstrously sized and devilishly fun DDJ-SX controller and audio interface. Besides just high-end, great-feeling controls, it unlocks from the software Dual Deck Control, Slip mode, Loop Roll, Slicer, and other powerful performance tools.

The Good: Awesome pad performance section. Dedicated filter per channel. High-quality, responsive jog wheels. Robust construction. Needle Search touchstrip. Slip Mode. XLR and RCA main outputs, Booth Out, level meters for each channel. Two headphone outputs; two microphone inputs. Cool light show ensues after sitting idle.

The Bad: Its sheer size can cause problems integrating it into a performance space. Have to be careful not to touch Needle Search when playing the effects section. No kill switches for the EQs.

The Bottom Line: While size and price may be detractors, the DDJ-SX uses every inch of its surface to ensure maximum effectiveness over the new Serato DJ software. With the effects sections, Slip mode, Dual Deck mode, 8 cue points and loops each per track, Loop Roll, Slicer, and a Sampler launcher, the DDJ-SX sets the stage for you to go off on a Serato controller like never before.

Although you can use the 4-channel mixer portion of the DDJ-SX to connect turntables, CD decks, and other external sources and pass through audio to the main outs without connecting to a computer, obviously the main attraction to the DDJ-SX is its integration with the new Serato DJ software. Virtually every button and other control on the Pioneer unit correspond directly with a Serato DJ function.

With Slip Mode engaged from the Slip button on either DDJ-SX deck, the track playing in Serato keeps its linear play position active while you scratch, perform hot cues or loops, and then snaps back to the linear position when you are finished (see a simple demo in this clip on YouTube). This can be really fun and sound very cool when used with accurate timing. So for example, if you have cue points set up marking distinct sounds such as a crash, kick, snare, or any good vocal drop or sound effect, in Slip Mode you can drop those sounds in rhythmically at any point during playback, and then playback continues as normal when you take your finger off the pads, or the jog wheel in the case of scratching in Slip Mode.

You can have Dual Deck Control and Slip active at the same time, and when I did, even after getting really busy with cue points and loops, the software reacted in lock step with the hardware, offering no noticeable latency. (Tested the DDJ-SX on a 2012 MacBook Pro with a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM, and OS 10.8.2 , the same machine used for the DJTT review of Serato DJ.)

The Load Prepare button beneath the encoder loads a selected track to the Prepare area of the Serato DJ browser, which can be used as a holding area for tracks or for dragging tracks into crates. With Shift, the Load Prepare button scrolls through the Serato DJ browser: Files, Browse, Prepare, and History. Using Shift with the Back button scrolls through the different Serato DJ layout views.

Each mixer channel strip starts at the top with FX assign buttons that glow red when activated. Each channel is assignable to FX1, FX2, both, or neither. The Trim (gain) and three EQ-band knobs per channel have a rubber grip, and the EQ knobs and a dedicated channel Filter knob both have center detents.

Going up the left side of the decks, there are buttons for Play/Pause, Cue, Sync, Shift, deck select (1, 3, Dual Deck or 2, 4, Dual Deck) and the Censor/Reverse button. A two-button Grid section handles commands for beat grid adjustment. If you press Grid Adjust and move the jog wheel, you adjust the beat grid interval, and pressing Grid Slide while moving the jog wheel slides the whole beat grid left or right. Shift + Grid Set sets a beat marker in the beat grid, and Shift + Grid Clear clears all beat markers.

With the Vinyl button activated (glowing red) the top of the touch-sensitive jog wheel can be used for scratching, while the outer edge works for pitch bending. Shift + turning the jog wheel utilizes Skip Mode, where the playback position skips in sync with the beat. An LED display in the center of the jog wheel shows a spinning playback position, so that skilled turntablists can use it with a similar feel to watching a vinyl record.

You can control track pitch with a generous 100mm Tempo fader with center detent on both decks. A Key Lock/Tempo Reset button above it toggles Key Lock for the deck, and with Shift, it selects a tempo range for the deck from the limited ranges of 8, 16 or 50%.

Above the jog wheels, each deck has a long horizontal touch strip called the Needle Search. This lets you skip very quickly to any point in the song by sliding your finger across it. The touch strip is responsive, and this feature provides an advantage; the only problem is that you have to be careful to not inadvertently touch the Needle Search while playing with the FX units, which are situated just above it.

Both the FX1 and FX2 units consist of four encoders and four buttons with Shift functions. These eight controls let you operate the entire FX Unit within the Serato DJ software. The buttons generally control FX on/off, Tap tempo, and two other effect-specific parameters that have stepped values. The knobs generally control the Level or Mix ratio of the effect, the timing of the beat syncing from 30 values (16th note triplet up to 32nd note dotted), and two other effects-specific parameters.

Again, the DDJ-SX effects sections and Panel Select buttons let you open the FX Units, select their effect from a list of 10, and then operate the FX Unit completely and ergonomically without ever touching the computer. They are an important performance element to the DDJ-SX. (See our Serato DJ review for more on the specific effects offered in the software.)

Within the compact but powerful Loop section, you can set the chosen length of loops, set and cancel auto loops, manually choose loop In and Out points, move the position of loops forward and backward in a track, choose the location out of 8 slots for a loop to be stored, and Reloop a cancelled loop.

Saving the best for last, we arrive at the eight rubber performance pads at the bottom of each deck. These pads are of dedicated drum controller quality, and feel very firm and sturdy across their entire area, even out to the corners. You can play them with one or two fingers in rapid-fire succession.

The Roll button enters the Loop Roll pad mode, which is a ton of fun. First you can use the Parameter1 arrow buttons to select the loop length ranges for the pads, which will show up in the deck display of the software. I like to use the lower loop lengths, because the way Loop Roll works is that the track plays back continuously, but when you hold down a pad, it triggers a loop for as long as you hold it down, and after which the track playback continues (as if you were in the Slip Mode mentioned earlier). This is a really fun way to add some expressive riffing to your DJing without much consequence for mistakes. If you do have a timing error in your Loop Roll triggering, the playback will continue afterward unaffected, so the damage is minimal.

Things get even more insane in Slicer mode. This mode slices a section of the playing track into 8 equal parts assigned to the pads. By using Shift + the Parameter buttons, you can choose the length of the section to be divided from 2 to 32 beats. Now when you hit the pads, the slices will play in looped fashion until you release the pad and playback resumes. With the Parameter keys, you can choose if the pads loop the entire sliced section, or if they loop only 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 of the sliced section. The shorter the slices and the shorter the portion of the slices that loop, the buzzier the loop sounds will be.

By far my biggest problem is just how much has been shoehorned into the case. There has to be a point at which an all in one struggles to remain portable, but still has everything you need. And as neatly laid out as everything is, this is at the break point of usability for me.

These jog wheels also feature slip mode. Setting the DJ world on fire when it first appeared, slip allows you to manipulate the jog wheel while keeping hold of it, leaving the original audio playing underneath ready to pick up as soon as you let go of the jog wheel. I love it and it makes for some very cool techniques.

Back in the day (ironically less than 10 years ago), looping was quite manual and depended on the accuracy of the DJ to hit the loop bang on beat. Those days are long gone, and all software is quite capable of accurately analysing the BPM and now add a beat grid to the track.

Roll: Instant temporary loops are engaged for as long as the button is pressed. The track continues to play underneath just like slip mode. The parameter 1 buttons control the roll presets lengths. Again, simple and effective.

Much of the on-screen functionality is on the hardware. Obviously, you need the screen for the library, waveforms and numerical readouts, and in this respect Serato DJ gives you many options. The deck displays give you all the numerical feedback you require, as do the assorted strips i.e. FX, SP-6 etc. So for my purposes, Serato DJ does a great job of offering important screen feedback.

Now that the dust has settled and our WOOT hysteria has passed, is the Pioneer DDJ-SX the ultimate DJ controller? If you absolutely crave the very latest of everything ever and must be seen with the newest shiny on the planet, then the answer is yes. It is without doubt an epic controller, and given the Pioneer logo silkscreened onto it, is actually likely to be seen in clubs. If the booth techs can find a big enough space that is. 041b061a72