Pioneer DJ DDJ-1000 - 4-deck USB DJ Control Surface and 4-channel Mixer, with Rekordbox DJ Software, Dual USB Ports, LCD Jog Display, and 16 Multicolor Performance Pads

until the DDJ 1000's successor is released, that is.Over the years I've owned the Numark NS7 (Serato), the Traktor S4 MK2, S2 MK2, and S4 MK3 -- the Pioneer DDJ 1000 is the elder wand of DJ controllers!The only sub-satisfactory facet of this piece of equipment would be the cheap feel that the jog wheels have -- I suppose they feel like plastic bands wrapped around an LCD display because...they are plastic bands wrapped around an LCD display. I imagine if there was no display they would have a more solid feel. That being said, I quickly got used to them and this aspect doesn't at all detract from the usability of the jog wheels -- and the LCD displays are absolutely awesome.Speaking of the displays, I find they make mixing much more enjoyable as I don't have to look at my laptop unless it's to browse my library. Tracking BPM, tempo % adjustments, key, time remaining, and hot cues is easy to do, but my favorite thing about the displays are the phrase meters. When I'm mixing techno/techhouse, I can more-or-less EQ/FX adjust the tracks to accentuate or diminish the phrase changes in the tracks, but being able to see my hot cues (which I set up to mark drops/builds) in the phrase meter makes it easy to set up seamless transitions. When it comes to mixing bass, I find the phrase meter nearly essential -- I like mixing bass really aggressively/fast and the phrase meter allows me to set up the new song's build precisely and within the short few second time window I have after mixing out the last song effectively stacking drop after drop without missing a beat.All the knobs, buttons, pads, faders have a really nice feel and the unit, in general, is of solid construction and feels/looks great. The tempo sliders have a nice notch in the center so it's simple to locate and lock in a track's native BPM. Functionally, the only thing I don't like interface-wise is the need to hold shift for tap tempo -- it's a feature I use rarely enough (mainly when trying to determine a song's BPM when the analysis messed it up) so it doesn't really bother me that much, but I can see why it might bother those who use tap tempo as a performance feature for their FX usage.Segue into the FX...I looove the color and beat FX...after coming from using the S4 MK3 where the color FX had a kind of abrupt activation/deactivation point, these sound so smooth and graduated. The filter sounds fantastic and I'm finding that using FX is much easier and more utilitous than it's ever been for me before.The audio interface portion of the unit sounds great and the headphone amp is nice and loud! The S4 headphone amp was way too weak -- you forsure wouldn't be able to hear your cue in a club setting, but that won't be a problem with the DDJ 1000.One last thing about the controller that's really cool -- it has two USB B ports so you can mix b2b with a friend who also has a laptop with Rekordbox on it (or a DDJ 1000 controller mapping with Traktor/Serato/etc.). I had the chance to use this feature this past weekend and it was a blast.This is a review for the DDJ 1000, not Rekordbox, but I believe the software is a really important aspect of controllers and, if you're new to Rekordbox like I was, ignorance about what the software is like might steer you away from a controller like this. I haven't used Serato in about a decade so I can't really speak on a transition from Serato to Rekordbox, but I can honestly say Rekordbox is way better than Traktor. NI laid off a bunch of employees recently so there probably won't be any patches to fix that bug riddled piece of garbage any time soon. Traktor does have a leg up on Rekordbox when it comes to their analysis algorithm, but that's about it. Using Rekordbox gives you access to:* USB exporting for interoperability with club standard pioneer gear (yay, I can mix on my friends' gear now)* paging for hot cues (I generally only use 8 hot cues, but there are some bass tracks I mix that change tempo so many times that I need to use the extra page of cues...I plan to, for all other songs, use my second page of hot cues for finger drumming)* dynamic beat grids -- holy camoly is this useful -- again, so many of my bass tracks were previously a minefield to mix as the beat grid goes off as soon as the tempo changes or because that trickster of a producer changed the time signature or dropped out a beat -- now I can confidently use my entire library without worry!* pad FX are dopeOne caveat to the switch over was the library maintenance required...and can be a process.I used this tool to convert my Traktor library file into a rekordbox.xml file:https://github.com/digital-dj-tools/dj-data-converterIt did a pretty good job but I had to use a text editor to do a search and replace on all the track paths because they were all wrong (but at least uniformly which made the search/replace task pretty easy).Rekordbox forces you to reanalyze tracks even if you import from a properly formatted rekordbox.xml because Rekordbox stores beat grid and BPM info (and maybe some other stuff?) in .DAT files as part of its database...this reanalysis was not much of problem for my techno and techhouse tracks, but it messed up at least half of my beat grids for my bass music -- I just finished a two week phase of beat grid correction for my nearly 1000 bass tracks!Anyway, this controller is probably the best on the market and I'm super happy with it. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is intermediate level and above.

I bought this controller to upgrade from my DDJ-400, and I couldn't be happier with this purchase. Rekordbox is a great software and I have no complaints with it, it's what I learned to DJ on with my 400. I love that Pioneer makes it very easy to jump from the DDJ-400 to the DDJ-800 or the DDJ-1000, and even from the DDJ-1000 to a full CDJ-DJM900 professional setup. This controller has essentially all the features of a professional CDJ-DJM900 setup (which is $7,000 or more) all on one board for only $1200. I love the large jog wheels that came straight from the CDJs and the screens on the jog wheels tell me all of the track info I need, so I find myself looking at my laptop far less. The customizability of the pads is mind-blowing. Coming from the DDJ-400, all the extra buttons and features of the 1000 seemed a little overwhelming at first, but Pioneer makes everything very intuitive and I felt comfortable after only playing around with it for a few minutes. What I love about this controller is that unless its successor gets released, I won't need to upgrade anytime soon as this controller has everything I'll ever need and more. I'd recommend this controller for anyone with a DDJ-400 looking to upgrade. I considered getting the XDJ-XZ but it's almost twice the price and significantly larger than the 1000. The size of the 1000 is perfect, it's large and the layout is spacious so you don't feel cramped when mixing but it's still very transportable. I will be hanging on to my DDJ-400 to use as my "portable" DJ controller for small get togethers and private parties with friends because it still has everything I personally need except for the extra two channels that the 1000 has. My 1000 gets used daily for all my bedroom DJing and I will use it for more serious parties and larger gatherings. I purchased the all black Odyssey flight case for this controller (I had the same case for my DDJ-400), and although the case is f****** enormous it's very durable and will protect against pretty much anything during transportation. But because my flight case is so large and heavy I am looking at purchasing the Gator bag for 27inch controllers as a more convenient carrying option for when I don't need my full flight case setup.Overall, this controller is amazing and I don't have a single complaint about it. I've used it nearly daily for around a month now without any issues, it really has made mixing much more fun. I like that you can plug two laptops so you can transition smoothly between two DJs or play B2B with a friend. If you have the DDJ-400 and you want to upgrade, this is a no brainer. Now, if you know that you won't be utilizing the 4 channels and/or you want something a bit more portable, I'd definitely consider the DDJ-800, which has all the same features packed into a smaller, slightly cheaper 2-channel controller.

Great piece. Got it for my sister, she became a real DJ for sure so, it works.

I bought because of the full size jog wheels, and closeness of the unit to the actual component gear. Everything functions just as expected. The sound is incredible. The build quality is top notch - very solid. If you're familiar with 1200s and/or CDJs, this transition will be a breeze. As a traktor user, and new to pioneer, I did not miss much. For $1200 or less, this unit is probably the best DJ controller you can buy. New Traktor S4 looked very appealing, but in the end, in order to get gear that is this close to club pro audio, this was the choice for me.

Definitely an upgrade from the DDJ-RR which is more simplistic. The amount of features available on this control should make it flexible for a long, long time. This is top of the line as far as controllers are concerned, the next level from this is a USB controller, which is a whole other price point. I looked at the DDJ 800 but it’s touch capacitive jog wheels vs mechanical on the DDJ 1000 and it’s lever layout is 2 decks vs 4 decks. I am happy with the upgrade, it’s portable still compared to the DDJ-RR and it fits my goals as a dj.

Hands down the best controller on the market. Bout time Pioneer Dj put out a controller without the touch sensitive platters. My only grape is it don't work for Serato. If this ever get mapped for Serato this will be the king of the controller. Good luck getting one. this things are hard to find. On back order everywhere. Full review coming soon. I did a live stream of unit on my Facebook page Deejay Bishop look me up. The size compersion is its a bit bigger the DDJ SX and a lot smaller than DDJ SZ. Perfect size.