Dj equipment is like smartphones. The companies are always trying to get you to buy the new thing. But do you need to? No. Especially for dj equipment. Get something and use it till it breaks.

If you constantly wait on the latest and greatest, you'll be waiting forever and you'll never pull the trigger on anything. Buy what you want now, and only upgrade if you need to.

You really broke it down here. If people keep supporting these releases they'll have you being new gear that you don't need every single year. It's ridiculous.

Pioneer is the worst. They have the entire game planned out. And every lower model substracts features that they argue you need, so ypu keep upgrading until ypu eventually give in and get the top model (nexus CDJs and mixers) that you really do not need.

I had a SX2 for two years, it worked perfectly. But i decided to switch for Denon DJ MC7000. While Denon offers more options for relatively a better price, I realize the SX2 was more stable in software quality. During 2 years I did have any issues with it. The Denon has frozen 3 times in about 6 hours of use...I'm a little skeptical, asking if im gonna keep it or not.

I highly doubt there will be a SX3 soon... Pioneer has just released a gold version of the SX2 so ...

Ain’t that the truth.

I wish Pioneer would deal up the xdj1000 mk2 for Serato DJ already

I think they announced in another thread that it wasn’t going to happen.

Yeah, they keep sayings its up to Pioneer to make the move.

Anyway, they have nothing new to add as new options in a sx3. The SR2 has more options than the Sx2 ( excluded the fact that sx2 has 4 channels). So, technically, it will be better for a DJ to invest in the announced SR2. In case you would need to upgrade later, you will add CDJ's pack connected to SR2 real mixer.

Pioneer really wants you to use rekordbox...

I would like if pioneer makes a ddj sx3 to put 2 usb ports on back just like the big brother ddj sz

That's why the DJM-S9 exist?

I wouldn't hold my breathe for 2 USBs.

Putting two USBs in the SX line would be contrary to Pioneer's style of locking out certain features to their top end line like the SZ.

Get a Denon MC7000 or Numark NS6 mk2 if you want a smaller 4-channel controller with 2 USBs

Need a stand alone sx3 like the rx2

they can call it an sz-mini for all i care, the sz/sz2 is way too big to carry around to gigs and the only reason i'm not buying it is because of the size/weight (not because of the price). It's "nice" to play with a larger controller, but it's not that important. For me portability is important and with the sz's forget it.

2 usb hub systems have been introduced WAYYY back (when we were still using sl4 boxes) but when we moved to controllers, pioneer added this to only the huge controllers.

What we need is a portable controller sized like the sx/sx2, with 2 usb ports. They can call it whatever they want and price it to the point where they think it'll sell well.

It's pioneer - since when have they cared about what their customers want? They are the top of the heap right now and know that they can polish up a literal piece of shit, put the pioneer logo on it, and people will pay a premium for it.

One of Pioneer's strategies has always been locking out features to their top end stuff - and not just the high end stuff. I'm talking small, innocuous, quality of life features that wouldn't cost much to implement in their lower end gear which is only available in their top end stuff.

Want tension adjust on the jog wheels? Sorry, only on the $2000 CDJ2000 or DDJ SZ/RZ. Want physical hot cue buttons? Only on the CDJ 2000s and up. Want independent start/stop time adjust? Only on the CDJ 2000.

Again, I wouldn't hold my breathe. 2 USBs is just something I expect to only appear on the SZ/RZ controllers and nothing else because it's the pioneer way.

MC7000 all the way, i had both DDJSX's 1 and 2 i switched to the MC7000 and i'm hooked.
at first it felt weird but as i used it more i love it.. and the sound is awesome!

i had it and returned 7 days later. audio issues at wedding, failing to connect to 3 different laptops and the overall audio quality was terrible. i used to love denon, but this new gear is ‘ok’ just isnt consistent.

other people know have brought and none of the issues i had and it’s astonishing. oh well

I have always had weird audio issues with dennon products. Is the out put louder than usual on their equipment? I owned an NS6, and I liked the overall design but hated the audio output. on the master xlr.

even with the proper gain structure in serato the output was flaky. what really upset me was how the mic input would cause the master to clip so easily and then all the audio would distort. never seen that happen on any other controller (even my cheap sb2 btw which saved the day bc the denon when crazy)

I was having the same exact issues as well. The master gain was insanely loud

that sucks to hear about that denon controller. i really like how they mirrored the layout on that with the pitch controls on the edges.

Full disclosure..
Like i stated before i love the MC7000 no Audio issues it actually sounds better then the pioneer to me.. i've had numerous amounts of equipment and this thing actually sounds great it have a warm sound to it where the ddj sx/sx2 have a more higher pitch sound and the recording on the ddj's are crap period.

Now coming up on 1year of owning the MC7000 i'll list my issues with the controller and denon as a whole.

1. I had to replace a crossfader under warranty
2. IOS high sierra issues which caused the MC7000 to have a static noise
I went back to an old operating system and everything is as good as it was before.

I called up the Pioneer distributor in Norway today to ask about delivery time on SX2 because all the dealers are sold out. He said that I should wait on the SX3 thas was 2 mounths away! So if he is rigth it is comming in March!! Can`t wait

Hey MortenH,
Did you get any more info regarding sx3?
Thanks

I called them again and wanted to preorder.
They then told me that they expected it to arrive in May!
But they didnt say anything else exept the size and price would be just like the SX2

No SX3 at NAMM, pioneer guys said nothing about it

Unless the sx3 was renamed the ddj 1000

Sx series is serato so nothing common with ddj1000

nothing on the SX3 at NAMM so thats probably not accurate information.

I have has an SX2 since the first month they were released. Just my 2 cents on it. The on board sound card is bad but that's no biggie. You must have a 4 channel external if you want good sound and use of headphone cue. The pitch adjusts fine control .02 .03 .04 etc. are terrible in traktor and just bad in serato. Same with the platers. both the pitch adjust and faders are pretty cheap and wobbly. A side benefit of that though was that now I sync everything all the time and it's saved me from further hearing damage in my headphone ear. I've been djing for close to 20 years. Hearing damage adds up over time. Don't let someone turn you off sync if your worried about your hearing. Your ears are far more important than someones opinion. The build quality of the SX2 is not what the $1000 price point used to get you. DJM quality mixing board and top end CDJ platters and buttons. The SZ is that now I think. The buttons are good still. The potentiometers/knobs on the mixing board are my problem. I've gone through 2 mixing boards because of them. I play a lot though. Couple hours every day at least. They wear out after a year or so. I'm going to try replacing them individually myself next time. Other than those thing it's a good device. Good and heavy, well layed out for the most part and holds it's value fairly well. Internally it's mostly metal screws into a plastic frame. The circuit boards are standard computer fair not bad or good. The pieces you interact with are well secured and pretty tough though. Think headphone jack, cdj platter, usb plug etc. Hope this helps.

I'm a Serato user since SSL with the SL1, a controller user since the SX, and have been on the SX2 since it came out.

The DDJ-1000 is a piece of hardware though that could make me seriously consider Rekordbox. It looks like the most "pro" feeling piece of hardware in a size that isn't crazy to lug around.

Thoughts here? Is it stupid to jump to Rekordbox? Anyone with experience?
Stability in my hardware and software is a must, and while I'd like to say Serato has the advantage here, Serato Pro 2.0 just crashed on me last night (went back to 1.9 and was all good). I think Pioneer has the real advantage here.

It would be a pretty difficult choice between a non-Pioneer SX3 (or something like it) vs the DJ-1000 on Rekordbox.

i use both serato and rekordbox. the software is stable. the downside of RB is the DVS, serato just sounds better to my ear. what i like about RB is the library organization tools and track rating feature and suggestion. helps when you a spell of brain freeze lol.

I've been hovering around buying an SX2 second hand for a couple of months and have thought about waiting to see if the SX3 comes out. Not because I want to buy one but because it'll push the price down on the SX2!

I've searched around the forum's, Twitter, FB etc but nothing around yet... Any update?

I am also interested to see when the predicted release date for the SX3 will be (it has to be soon right? - thats Pioneer all over)

no SX3 at NAMM so your going to probably wait another 12 months

daydjcuonglost.com

It's a ddj-sx1 on the picture, but is states arrival date 5/2018. Not sure how trustworthy a Vietnamese retailer is though ;)

I have the DDJ 1000 and honestly I want to sell it. The hardware is so good, but rekordbox is annoying to me. Ive been a Serato user for many years, and I guess I'm just used to the way it works. I salivated over the DDJ 1000 and got one super early. Now I have a piece of brand new kit I want to get rid of.

I'll prob just buy DDJ SX2

Pioneer just wants to force us serato users on to rekordbox...if pioneer does release the ddj 1000 for serato I'm sure a lot of people will buy it... I haven't even upgraded from my ddj sx2...I would like to get the sz2 but is too big for me and lately I been traveling far with my gear.

I heard rumors that some what in May pioneer might release something for serato hope is true..and I really hope is like a ddj 1000 but for serato.

That's why I went with the SX2. I didn't want to be locked out of Serato. I also have Rekordbox and its completely plug and play on the SX2.

agreed - I've been testing out the DDJ 1000 for a review and while the controller itself is awesome for the most part, Rekordbox is a pain to use and is basically a dealbreaker for me.

I'm a Serato fanboy no doubt but I've got a few friends who do tons of schools and weddings that have already made the jump to rekordbox because of the new controllers coming out.

These guys happen to be big pioneer guys tho, so that has alot to do with it as well.

I think it depends on how you dj and what features you tend to use in serato. There's a lot of tiny, innocuous, UI tweaks in serato that I sorely miss when I'm using rekordbox and a few more feature designs in rekordbox that I prefer how they do it in serato.

Biggest one that I didn't realize how much I relied on is the secondary sorting feature - especially since it's so new.

I feel like if you're the "make playlists by genre and sort via bpm" type dj, the transition is a lot easier and rekordbox has a lot of cool sorting features that serato doesn't

I've refined my system over 12 years and it doesn't play that nicely with rekordbox so it ends up pissing me off when playing on it.

What system are you utilizing? I'm looking for a change myself

I see alot of my industry people sorting by month or record pool and month

I use keywords and smart playlists by bpm range and then mainly sort by key tag and then by date added. I can type in my keyword and parse down my list by genre and then I have everything grouped by key and then have the newest stuff at the top. I'll do other things like sort by color code and also use certain other sorting criteria for specific playlists.

Camelot key integration is also something I missed in rekordbox and I had to go back to using mixed in key in a separate field which isn't as well integrated as serato's key displays.

I also use the cmd-f feature a lot to find acapellas and scratch tracks while I'm playing and it's super quick and doesn't require me clicking on other playlists when I want to get my scratch track loaded right away.

The other huge thing that pisses me off is the lack of a cmd-z undo feature for when you accidentally load a track on the wrong deck. Such a small, but useful feature.

There are also small things like how in serato, if you flip the tempo range, it doesn't change the playing track's tempo unless you move the pitch fader first whereas in rekordbox, it immediately changes the tempo to the new position, and how in serato, you can use the beatjump and jump back before he start of the track whereas in rekordbox, you can only jump to the start of the track.

Other small things like sorting doesn't take into account single or double digits so rekordbox will display 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 rather than just sorting numerically.

There's a bunch of other shit they do that pisses me off. Nothing huge and nothing that prevents me from DJing well enough, but cumulatively it all just adds up to me being angry at the software everytime I try to use it.

Can anyone point me to a video or documentation that shows it is possible to control Serato with the DDJ 1000?

There isn’t one.

I have seen someone do this on different setups. He has his DDJ 1000 and two (2) portable CD players. He placed serato control vinyl into the portable CD players and then went out of the cd players into an SL3 with an 1/8 to RCA cable into the input. serato worked, but it sucked because you couldn't adjust the pitch.

The other setup was the same but with Numark PT01's and control vinyl. Using a Rane SL# audio interface. Much better than the DDJ 1000 rekordbox trash they have.

My bad ...The DDJ SX3 is finally here:

www.pioneerdj.com

When Rekordbox has a top notch DDJ 1000, Serato brings an overused DDJ SX new version ...

I don't know what you think guys, but I'm loosing faith in Serato:
- Some many issues with SDJ Pro and High Sierra
- SDJ Pro not that Pro(fessional) , too much noise for a poorly new version
- Overpriced DJM S3
- DDJ SB3 toy for beginners
- DDJ SX3 years after DDJ RX

The only thing Serato is doing best right now is making promo videos :-(

Seems to be getting closer to the SZ/SZ2

2 USB Inputs
Effects
3 Mics

Makes me think now with the SX3, is there any point to the SZ2?

I always wanted 2 usbs when the sx2 came out I didn't want to go for a bigger ddj sz to keep it portable when I travel..however the added fx and 3 mics is pretty cool but I'm still disappointed they didn't make a sdj-1000 for us serato users..

True that maybe the sz2 still got better sound quality?

Proven wrong once again! It looks more like a controller for touring artist DJs. 3 mic inputs and dual usb. I dig it.

That's where I'm getting it. It not being bigger than the SZ2, but having all the bells and whistles. That's a major plus. I feel like the only advantage now with the SZ is the Marvel fader.

I highly doubt that. I'm sure they all have the same quality soundcard.

Sz/sz2 sounds better than the sx2 for sure.

The audio routing is different on the sz models in that they don't mix within the software like the sx2 and use the hardware mixer to mix the audio and the DACs and circuitry are based of cdj 2000 lines and the 900nxs (maybe using the internals of the nxs2 for the sz2).

Ah ok, damn, good to know. Do you think it's the same for the SX3?

Let's hope , i think it will be a slight improvement in sound quality but i don't think it would be up to par with the SZ-series in sound :(

I am kinda interested as to how the routing has changed. The SX was pretty much JUST a controller. The SX2 offered the DVS ability and now with the mic tweaks the SX3 can almost function as a reasonable, stand alone mixer in some cases.

that's my main concern but knowing pioneer they gonna half step and put in the same shitty soundcard the sx2 uses

wow great, another Pioneer controller that looks exactly the same and does the same ish as their entry level units for the most part. Hooray!

considering the SR2 wasn't a huge improvement over the original shit sound of the SR, I wouldn't be surprised if there's very little change in sound quality for the SX3.

sz2 has the same sound card as all ddi series controllers do. so while things like the mic input may sound better, the actually songs will sound the same if played at the right gain structure.

Sorry but your are wrong. The SZ2 sounds way better than the other controllers in the DDJ series. The internals are different as well.

No this is not true, they are all different with the sx2 having the best of the bunch

lol put its the same sound card its all in the spec sheet. the reason it may appear to sound better is in the mixer itself something you benefit from when using external inputs. otherwise while playing serato it will sound identical. i own the sb3, owned a sx2 and own a sz2. no difference what so ever unless we are talking about the mic input.

matter of fact just ask pioneer

made a mistake here I meant the sz2 being the best of the bunch

Again if you didn't understand THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT SOUND CARDS...no way in hell the sb3 has the same soundcard as the sz2...you need your ears cleaned if you think they sound alike..

Riddim since your making the argument that they are not the same can you provide some technical proof?

Somebody posted the part numbers for the Sound cards in a different discussion. They were all different. Just

Please post a link to the spec sheets that list the part numbers of the sound cards.

are they going to come out with the ddi sz3

lol i own a sb3, sz2 and previously a sx2 and yes they all sound the same. the only exception being the sb3 having less clean signal due to the unbalanced connection. once again same sound specs on the sound card across the models.

Your statements are logical, but in reality that's not always the case. With regards to specs, you can't tell how something sounds by looking at a spec sheet. Its just not possible. Its not at all uncommon to have components with similar, or even the same specs, sound completely different from each other. And there's many reasons for that. 2 things to keep in mind are, you can't measure everything you hear, and not everyone measures equipment the same way. There's no standard that the industry goes by for measurements.

Then there's the issue of balancing. The industry turned that concept into an absolute disaster. Balancing does not guarantee you a cleaner signal. The 3 controllers you list, SB3, SX2 and the SZ2, are all unbalanced. None of them are fully differential. What happens with the SX2 and the SZ2, is the signal is converted to balanced right at the output stage. Doing that adds extra circuitry that the signal must pass through. The only benefit you'll gain doing it this way, is that on long runs of cable (25ft+), you may get less roll off in the upper frequencies, and possible better noise rejection. For shorter runs, you'll most likely get better sound quality gong single ended, and not balanced. I have an SX2 myself, and I only use the balanced outputs if I'm going into a component that is fully differential. Otherwise, I use the RCA jacks. The differences you heard on your SB3 were almost certainly due to some other factor, and not because its not a balanced component.

If they all sound the same to you then you must have a crappy sound system or something is wrong with your ears.

Ya I have a Rane 72 and have friends with these chintzy "all in one" Pioneer controllers. When they come over to my house for a mix session, I ensure they leave that garbage in the vehicle in which they came in. It's modular or go home.

Guess I have a crappy sound system, my ears are bad blah blah blah lol y’all truly are funny.

When I plug in my Mixars Duo or Pioneer S9 I do hear an audible difference. Playing on the controllers not at all. Same files, same cables and same connection (except on the SB3 rcas to 1/4). Either way way you try to spin it they all get the job done for the given situation and that’s all I care about.