I can honestly say i agree with Everything on your list .. lets hope they adress these issues

+1 all i can say

Again it is a great unit but needs a few tweeks and it will be AWESOME!!!

slicer would be great if it was more like ableton or even garage band meaning...slice a 4 or 8 beat bar from a song and then place it some where else.

+1

I also sent this to pioneer and have yet to hear back ?

I'm a mobile DJ myself, I have not used the DDJ-SX out yet. I plan on testing the mic's on the mixer later today to get a feel of how it sounds compared to my original mixer (denon x500)
Is it really that bad? I was hoping that it being a pioneer unit, the quality has to be similar to their DJM series mixers...

Did you plug in with XLR or 1/4" TRS? And what mic setup did you use? I'm sure you might know this already, but the way the mixer is set up, which is retarded, you have to use a channel for the mic inputs. If you are using a wireless mic, you have 2 gain stages, one at the receiver, and another at the "Trim" level on the channel. Then you adjust the fader for volume. Make sure you are not clipping or distorting the signal at the wireless mic receiver or at the initial input gain on the channel (Trim Knob). I'll look into it and give you an update on what I experience with it.

Also for you #1 complaint about continuous play, I never bothered with it when using SSL. I always created my background playlists in iTunes, whether for cocktail hour, dinner, etc..
I went out of my headphone out into a channel on my mixer and just let iTunes do my continuous music. SSL does not fade in or out to the next track like iTunes does. Give it a try, I use a macbook pro and I have no problems running Serato or iTunes at the same time.

+1 for #3 and #4

Pioneers Response...
1) This is something Serato would need to add.

2) See Pioneer's statement about the microphone here:
forums.pioneerdj.com
(basically, don't clip the mic channels... Turn your wireless volume level down and the trim up. For wired mic's...don't talk so loud, instead turn up trim.)

3) Again, Serato is who you should talk to about software-related issues.

4) See #3.

5) There are instructions in Serato's software manual on how to use the slicer.

6) You can add a beat grid to any song on-the-fly by using the SET button on the controller.

7) Not possible as the LED below each pad is only blue.

8) Sorry, the hardware won't change and only two of Pioneer's products have ever had pitch-bend buttons.

You where right about the mic's!

LOL! what part was I right about? I still have yet to test the mic channels. Does it work better?

See Pioneer's statement about the microphone here:
forums.pioneerdj.com

You want to adjust the gain on the receiver, talk into it as if you were MC'ing a wedding or whatever, and adjust it so the level is going about halfway. How is the audio when going out of the DDJ-SX into your speakers, using XLR Outputs? High output? Clean?

I am thinking about getting a mixer, like the Allen & Heath Zed10fx, plug the DDJ-SX and Mics into it, and out of that into my speakers. I was told from a guy at one of the local audio/dj store in town that that is going to give you the best output and quality of sound.

If you have powered speakers that have built in mixer capabilities (like the ZXA1's), you can run your mic's directly into your speakers. Downside is you gotta run mono. Configure = XLR from DDJ SX to XLR in on Speaker #1 <<then>> XLR out from Speaker #1 to XLR in on Speaker #2. Mic's can go into one or both speakers as long as they are connected in series.

I have worked solely with Pioneer gear for over 15 years...and I have been impressed with their advancements one after the other, but the one MAJOR issue this company has, is when faced with an issue, at no point do they ever step back and admit there is a problem. My CDJ2000's were a buggy mess as were many of the first string of players, and in time Pioneer fixed the issues, the entire time saying it was end user errors. It is a mic input, it is not something that you should have to jump through hoops to make work property, or to have to "train" others to use.

When every review on the web says it is a GREAT piece of equipment except the terrible mic distortion, I think the users are giving a pretty fantastic opportunity for Pioneer to fix THEIR problem, and should avoid calling its users and supporter incompetent.

I am sure Pioneer doesn't want to soak the massive cost from recalling the product for repairs, but if you want to be the best sometimes you have to lose a little money to fix a bad design.

+1000

I'll use my NS6 for weddings and mobiles (40 + per year) and the ddj sx for club events (24 + a year) but I wish I could use for both. 😠

Hey guys, I've replied to some of the feature suggestions below :)


Couldn't agree more, we will be providing a continuous play option in an update.



We will be continuing to improve and add functionality to the effects, we are aiming to meet all use-cases with with them. Stay tuned ;)


Not a bad feature suggestion, this is almost where the Sample Player and Slicer can overlap in the future. We are always discussing developing and improving the Slicer but to be honest there are a few other things we will be getting to first (i.e some of your other suggestions) before we get there.


In offline mode make sure 'set beatgrids' and 'set BPM' are ticked and either drag-and-drop the files onto 'Analyze Files' or simply Command + Click to Force Reanalyze your entire library. Make sure Smart Sync is selected in the Setup screen. If you still have problems let our support team know via a help thread.


You're referring to Pitch Bend which the DDJ-SX doesn't have on the hardware. You can achieve this by pressing T and Y (for the left deck) and G and H (for the right deck). We'd like to make this MIDI mappable in the future.

the dark blue color for selecting autoloop beats it's very dark!!! I can't even see it during a gig without moving my attention to that portion of the screen!! Can you make it lighter like electric blue or maybe white ( with black fonts).
I noticed a little GUI bug in 1.1 release: whe you click in the column name and than click again to sort playlist descending (a-z z-a) you can clearly see that the song field under the bar become editable...
I can reproduce it every time with my mousepad on my macbook and mountain lion on the "artist" field.

Some more interesting meat behind this "not a problem" mic problem is Pros Sounds and Stage Lighting had several reviews on their site when I ordered my unit. Now not only are all the reviews gone, but they have removed the ability to write reviews. I was also told by the rep there that they had several complaints. So, if Pioneer is sticking to its "only 4 people have reported an issue" line they are deceiving their customers.

I have gone the path of forums for answers, and that only gave a bunch of work arounds, and I refuse to spend money on a piece of gear I have to play McGyver with to make work. So, I'll give Pioneer support a phone call and see what line they string me, and pass on what I hear.

glitch in their web site..the reviews are still there..I added one of my own.

WELL..... if I had a company which made a perfectly acceptable device which was being misunderstood by people without a solid professional understanding of basic gain staging and impedance, and those same people were making my piece of professional gear look stupid by posting comments blaming the gear for problems which are actually based on their ignorance, WELL... I would be very concerned too. It seems like some conspiracy theory about how they 'removed peoples complaints' as if its some deep dark X-file plot is yet another example of ignorant people blaming someone else.

It is TRUE that Pioneer MAY have made a mistake by assuming the people using this device know what they are doing and it MAY have also been a mistake to not understand the configuration choices commonly made by their customers, and it MAY have also been a mistake to not publish clear guidelines for the use of the mic...

HOWEVER - only an ignorant and spoiled baby would expect that they can just plug anything into anything and it 'should work' because they paid a lot of money and their other device doesn't have this problem and THEY WANT IT TO JUST WORK.

NEWS FLASH: audio professionals deal with things like this EVERY DAY, it is part of the job. You need to learn your gear and learn about gain structure and impedance and KNOW how to make things work - THAT IS YOUR JOB.

This is the only piece of information you need:

The standard input level/ input impedance of the mic input of DDJ-SX is -52dBu/10kΩ.

Check the specification of the mic you are using and have a basic understanding of what these numbers mean and how the specifications of the microphones output relate to the specifications for the DDJ-SX input and YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY PROBLEMS. If you do then the ONE OF YOUR devices really is at fault and if it IS the DDJ-SX your complaints will be well founded and there will probably be WAY MORE OF THEM all over the internet.

Until then it is really OK to LEARN and BE SMART about what you are doing, TAKING RESPONSIBILITY for REALLY being a professional who possesses ALL THE SKILLS needed for their craft

Crobolicmot, my issue isn't ignorance or a lack of knowledge...my issue is the fact that pioneer has made some of the best dj mixers out there and those units seem to operate fine and there isn't a problem with the mic output. Sounds like you know your stuff so my question to you is why do you think pioneer choose to change the mic input level / input impedance (DJM800 is -52 dBu/3k♎ vs DDJ SX -52dBu/10k♎) ? If I was in charge of the pioneer dj division and knew we marketed electronic DJ devices to folks who, for the most part, are not very knowledgable and want a basic plug and play device...I'd probably make it a little more user friendly.

I agree and disagree.

Your issue with the changing something which people were accustomed to without providing adequate guidance as to how people needed to address the specification of the DDJ-SX is well founded and this I agree with. ABSOLUTELY.

AGREE: Pioneer made a major blunder not understanding who their market are, what these people expect or how they use their devices. This has caused WAY TOO MANY problems. Nice people who just want to plug in a mic and yell "Yo Yo What up PEOPLE" instead are yelling WTF? at Pioneer. People want a plug-and-play device just as you said and I ABSOLUTELY AGREE THAT THIS WAS A BLUNDER ON PIONEER'S PART. The instructions should take this into account and tell people how the circuit is different than the previous one and what people need to do have it function correctly.

DISAGREE: It is up to all of us to LEARN and UNDERSTAND everything we need to know to get the job done. Just because device #1 works with mic A is no guarantee of anything. Look at it as a positive - you are forced to step up and become better and more knowledgeable and this will put distance between you and any 'competition' who are too dumb or lazy to do the work / learning. They will look like a fool at their gig, will get discouraged, give up, not be able to rock the coolest new DJ controller because they don't solve this, maybe they'll sell it to you cheap because 'the mic input sucks' meanwhile you will get that gig, sound great, and do all the cool things the DDJ-SX can do because you have no mic problem...

Why did they change? Well obviously I can only guess but here is what is happening: High quality microphones are of LOW impedance and are generally thought of as the quality microphones which would be used in any professional application. There are many technical reasons for this but in a nutshell it is about sound quality. High impedance microphones are very susceptible to loss of highs as well as loss of signal overall at alarmingly SHORT cable lengths. They are OK for some applications but are ALWAYS used with some sort of preamp/pad/trim/gain structure component such as a channel strip on a mixer so that one has control of the GAIN STAGING. Gain staging is the idea that if you have (for instance) 2 volume controls in series on a single audio line - you have to adjust each one to the optimum level so that none of them is doing too much or too little. If the signal coming out of #1 is too HOT it will distort the input of #2 no matter how low you turn #2. If #1 is too low then #2 will be getting too LOW a signal and turning it up will create too much noise. Guitar amps are a classic example of this - there are multiple volume controls so guitarists can fine tune how much the first amplification circuit drives the next one to get the right amount of that distortion we all like. With a microphone this is no good in most cases (unless you are doing THAT kind of music :) and this is what is happening with the DDJ-SX.

With all this in mind, my guess is that Pioneer wanted to make the DDJ-SX a 'high quality' nice sounding professional device which was geared towards high impedance microphones, professional sound men and professional applications. Such a device will work nicely with a SINGER using the mic. For this reason (I believe) they geared the specifications of the microphone circuit to high impedance inputs. If you use a microphone with a 600ohm or lower impedance (higher number) with an XLR cable it should not only WORK but will also sound much better / more professional than you are used to. I bet it has something to with karaoke actually. Pioneer / Japan / Karaoke.....? It would also be my guess that older DJ devices such as the one you mentioned were not designed with the idea that the microphone might be used by a singer but rather just for the DJ doing shout outs etc thus the choice of what type of mic the gain structure is geared to.

I do not want to sound like a know-it-all - there are plenty of things I do not know. I don't want to say that anyone is stupid. I don't work for Pioneer. I am however a professional and really care about good sound and doing things right and I hate to see:
#1 people having a hard time, sounding bad, getting frustrated etc
#2 people blaming something they don't understand instead of GROWING and LEARNING and taking care of business.

Do you think we would have ever heard of Public Enemy if the first time the bomb squad plugged a 1200 into an MPC60 and it didn't sound good they blamed Akai? No - these people learned about phono preamps and figured out how to make it sound good and went on to master their tools and make great music and get famous.

I think there should be a lot of good information on the net about this - search: microphone impedance and gain staging.

Here's an easy solution to this whole mic thing:

- use a good quality mic (I only use Shure SM58's)
- learn how to adjust your gain properly
- learn how to eq your mic properly
- learn how to balance your master volume in relation to the mic volume to cut down on the amount of hiss and distortion
- sometimes you need to turn up the gain on your speakers to boost your mic volume

I have yet to take a DDJ-SX for a test drive but it's made by Pioneer so I doubt the mic pots are as horrific as they're being made out to be. Also, 3 DJ friends of mine own the DDJ-SX and I've asked all of them how they like it and they've all said they love it, and not one of them has made mention of the mic inputs being a problem.

Props to crobolicmot, he knows his stuff. But any experienced DJ doesn't have to have crobolicmot's technical knowledge to make a mic sound good. I'm no audio engineer by any stretch of the imagination, all I know is I tweak all my volume levels and gains until the mic sounds nice. During my sound check I play music first and adjust my levels so I'm not clipping, then if my mic doesn't sound loud enough I'll usually turn up the master volume a bit and turn down the channel gains down accordingly so the music still sounds about the same but the mic has a little more "umph".

It is good that you are taking the time to give the proper attention to making things work well. It is great that the DDJ-SX and your mic are giving you acceptable results.

In the spirit of continuing the discussion so people have a good resource from which to learn: I disagree that an SM58 is a good quality mic. SM58 = $100 / dynamic / general purpose. It is ACCEPTABLE but if I were a singer (I am not) and I showed up at a gig (without my own mic) and someone handed me one of those I'd think "Oh great - on of THOSE kinda gigs" - The impedance of a 58 is 300Ω - low enough that it won't sound like POO going directly into the DDJ-SX but you probably CAN make it sound pretty bad if you overload it with loud singing or an aggressive rapper - like I said, I wouldn't want to sing through one. The 10:1 impedance rule is another good thing to google.

If I was spending $1000 on a DDJ-SX and wanted a sweet vocal sound and a mic that I would never be ashamed of handing to any singer, I would choose:
Shure 87a - $250 a very sweet and solid live / handheld condenser - reasonable price - 150Ω
Neumann KMS-105 $700 - pro choice - 50Ω (this is what my singer is packing at every gig)
both require phantom power
There are also plenty of good (other) choices, in all cases you get what you pay for...
I also like the Sennheiser E935 though it is a dynamic mic and not very tolerant of inconsistent voices.

If had a friend with this need and didn't have time to help I would say "Call Sweetwater and tell them what you need, what your budget is, and what your requirements are (input is -52dBu/10kΩ) those guys are very cool knowledgeable and helpful. not just trying to sell you something but trying to make sure you get the right thing".

or

I (if $$$ is big issue) I would continue to use the mic I had and would add a very inexpensive preamp (less than $50 will give you another gain stage) and would have a really sweet vocal sound for my shoutouts, or any singer or rapper that happened to come along.

Hope this helps someone.

Who said anything about singing? The SM58 is for making announcements, shout-outs etc., not for singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. I respect your knowledge but now your starting to sound like a mic snob lol.

Just to add to the last post... who in their right mind would patch a singer or rapper's mic directly into the DJ mixer???!! If there is going to be a singer or a rapper they should be going through a proper sound board run by a sound technician and using proper mics designed for singing. The reason DJ mixers have mic inputs is for THE DJ to use, not Whitney Houston. So I still stand by my SM58 as many professional DJs do.

You are all very welcome to the valuable information I have shared in an attempt to assist you in understanding the gear you are using and getting a good sound. Unfortunately I am no longer able to participate in this discussion - good luck!

Really?

Dizzyrocks2001 wrote "I have yet to take a DDJ-SX for a test drive but it's made by Pioneer so I doubt the mic pots are as horrific as they're being made out to be" SMH? You'll see!

I find it odd that you're the only one who's had a problem with the mic inputs.

Dude, did you even read this thread ? Did you try googling the issue? Did you go to the Pioneer forums? Where you aware that Pioneer acknowledge the issue with an official statement? I'm hardly the only one. Now your just trolling topics to pick fights. SMH!

Pioneer's statement...

"The MIC inputs on the DDJ-SX are designed to output a clear and crisp sound if it is used under the correct conditions. However, depending on the usage of microphones distortion can occur. Such distortion is caused when the MIC input level is so high that it exceeds the tolerance level of the MIC amp circuit. If this happens, no matter how you adjust the TRIM knob on DDJ-SX, distortion will not disappear. If the gain level can be adjusted on a wireless microphone, it is recommended to lower the gain level until any distortion disappears. When distortion occurs even though you are using a wired microphone, it is recommended to set the TRIM knob higher to avoid excessive input levels. When excessive input is prevented, optimal sound quality without distortion can be output."

Plugging in your mic... you're doing it wrong.

I've had the same issue with the microphone. Turning up the gain and lowering the input signal is a pretty poor solution, and is just an invitation for feedback. From a practicality standpoint, its pretty difficult to regulate your input level when you can't use the meters on the SX as a reference (it starts to distort before hitting the yellow/red). I spoke to a pioneer rep last week, and all he told me was that they are aware of the issue, that the engineering team is on it, and that I should see a press release about it on pioneer's site "very soon." He made it sound like there would be a fix, saying that they're shooting for a firmware update, but that this would also be something covered by a warranty.

Glad to have an answer to #6, and +1 to your FX gripe. I'd love a simpler/quicker interface. Everything else about the unit allows you to get off of your computer except for the FX. I'd think for as much real estate as they take up, there would be some simpler functionality. It's because of this I've avoided the FX entirely so far.

i seen a lot post about this MIC THING... just a thought for all...start mic level @ 0 start unit @ 0 . turning levels UP SLOWLY .. 1 UNIT 2 MIC until you get the desired effect you need for that performance . you hit your mark every time

this unit does not hook wit trakor that good

Hmmm, that sounds like its a very serious & obvious glitch and Serato seems to have missed it & dropped the ball bigtime in letting it escape beta and into 1.1.1. Pfft Losers..
I wonder if you try it on the BPM, Artist or Comments field if they are affected by it aswell? I only have a PC & a mouse & Windows 7 & can't seem to replicate it on my equipment :( I suck.. anyway, can you please try those fields on your Mac dude?
Oh wait - I just remembered. There's this function in Serato Dj where you can protect the library or choose not to & it allows you to edit straight from the browser! Wowzers! So you can even change the BPM values or input then when Seratos BPM engine fails to detect it and also so you can enter commenst on the fly. As it says in the manual, which is a good read. I recommend it.

Glitch.. jesus christ

Im having a issue withmy DDj-SX when the volume is getting to loud it automactily turns it down like there is a governer in the board and its hurting my gigs i do clubs and i work a lot here in Houston....PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!!

there is a limiter on our uint.. red is over yellow is border line.. if u can turn the house mains up a lil as the night get later u should be ok

#7. PLEASE make each different pad l.e.d. (hot cue, roll, slicer, sampler) a DIFFERENT colors. So just looking down at the unit I can tell wether I am On roll or sample or hot cue. They are all blue?
hey fellow DJ's i was thinking along the same lines with the color idea i was thinking have each cue spot the color cue on the screen

Unless u want to open your sx and change the lights in it this can never happen. It's a big slip up by numark they didnt do this on the Ns72

Why do you say this? The pads on the NS7 II *do* turn different colours according to mode.

Yes. But the colours of the individual hot cue pads don't match the colours in sdj