“Pioneer went there and it rules”

Went where exactly?

“They said it couldn’t be done, but there it is”

But what the hell is it?

It’s last thing on Friday, and after a stellar week of new shiny, Pioneer go and save what could potentially be the best till last. I’ve poured over this clip in glorious 1080p, but cannot get anything of value. So let’s tear the clip apart and together, see what we can work out.

The internet is as ever a leaky information bucket, so it’ll come as no surprise to anyone, or break any confidences or NDAs to say that we’re looking at a CDJ upgrade. The Evolution strapline rather gives that away. So at least a CDJ, but I can’t tell from the video exactly what’s happening here. Pioneer have been ultra careful to mask off, blur and generally disguise whatever ultra new shiny they’re pimping here. Even my tried and testing forensic Photoshopping has pulled out nothing. So this is more about watching the video and listening to what is being said, or at least implied.

I had toyed with the idea of an AERO pro – a balls out all in one controller to rule them all, but saw 2 power leads. So assuming that this is a CDJ-2000 MK2 or Nexus as seems to be the common belief, what can we expect from it?

Media: The CD slot still seems to be in evidence. I have hoped that Pioneer would bit the bullet in this one and ditch it. I just went for a trip to my local gadget shops, and media of any kind is becoming hard to get hold of.

Sync: Looks like there’s a “master” light on the play. So syncing between CDJs looks like a reality. I await some to be up in arms about this, as if the rest of the CDJ is somehow keeping it real.

Rekordbox and wifi: I see a rekordbox button, so it’s safe to assume that a direct link, but most probably wireless just like the recently announced DDJ-AERO. I’d expect the AERO featureset to be standard, so that means you can quote “prepare my tracks on my phone, and come to the club and instantly connect”. Screw CDs, screw USB and screw your laptop.

Better Screen: Judging from the comments, I’d also venture that a better screen is on the unit as well. Some of the waveforms in the video are a bit blurry, but they look to be very smooth and high res. I spy zoom too. Perhaps we’re into a touchscreen like the DJM-2000 too.

Feature merging: There’s a slip button on this, which suggests that the previously odd situation of things being on the CDJ-900 but not on the 2000 may well be getting fixed.

Production features: Some of the comments such as “I used to have to do this in the studio” and “on the spot decision to edit the track” leads me to think that there’s a lot more going on that just a few extra hardware controls. Could it be that rekordbox is getting an overhaul and more on the fly editing will be possible?

Even better Traktor integration: Announced last week was advanced HID integration. But with this possible better screen, can we expect those waveforms to be actual Traktor waveforms?

Effects: There is talk of delay and echo. Maybe there’s some RMX-1000 DNA in the mix too.

This could of course just be a lot of well staged PR hokum. But there does seem to be quite a lot of exciting things at least implied, even if we can’t yet see them. I could pour over this pixel by pixel, trying to read between lines, but that’s what we have comments for. So off you go – feel free to theorise as much as you like. I genuinely don’t know what it is, or indeed what they are, so I’ll happily join in the DJWORX think tank.

Thankfully, we will only have to wait a week. The last CDJ teaser was dragged out for an entire month, at the end of which nobody actually cared. So thanks Pioneer – we will still be really excited come 6th September.