We’ve managed to obtain much more information about Pioneer’s new DJ controller, due to be officially announced at the BPM Show on 29 September. Watch the unoffical video above for the full leak (it’s a German post but the commentary is in English).
The controller will, according to the company itself, cost “considerably less” than Pioneer’s current two digital controllers, and will ship with a custom-skinned version of Virtual DJ. It’s aimed at beginners, although it still has some pretty good pro features, such as balanced TRS outputs, a microphone input and one external source input.
The unit also offers dedicated sample triggering and a filter knob for each channel. While it is set up and sold as a two deck controller, it can control four decks at the touch of a button.
A controller for “non-DJs”
Pioneer says it has tried to make it “fun and intuitive for non-DJs”, and one of the features demonstrated in the video along these lines is flashing LEDs within the jogwheels that indicate visually whether the two tunes being played are in sync or not. There is also visual representation of filtering in the jogwheel lighting.
There’s no name or price yet, but some of our questions have been answered: It is a consumer-aimed product, yet it appears to offer better value that the DDJ-S1 and DDJ-T1 controllers, packing a number of pro features in (balanced outputs, external input, hardware sample control, dedicated filters) at a considerably lower price.
All this means that mean if the price is indeed competitive, we think it could well find a niche – not least because it is a good-looking controller (if rather garish at first glance with all those flashing LEDs in the jogs). More when we get it…
What do you think? Do you approve of companies directly aiming controllers at “non-DJs”? Would you be tempted to buy this having seen the video? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Phil Morse
