contributed by: Andre Cato
Manufacturer: Pioneer

My history with CD Players

DJ CD players have been around for many years now but there are still only two brands on the market worth buying, Denon and Pioneer.

Over my first 3-4 years as a mobile dj I used the Denon mk1 and mkII before moving on to the 2500, which has many more functions. Other CD players on the market simply did not match the speed of the denon’s quick start feature that allowed you to start a track the instant you pressed the play button (within 100th of a second), instead of having a delayed start time of varying time length.

When pioneer released its first range of cd players (CDJ500mk1), I was impressed at the speed of the response time, but the system was a large black box and looked ugly so I really did not even consider changing over.


Since it’s the cheapest why do I think it’s the best?

The CDJ 100 is in my opinion the best suited CD player for DJ’s in both a mobile and club enviroment.

The Unit has a slot at the front for the cd to go into the unit. This means no door hence no brakage of door! This slot in method takes about 4 seconds to load the cd and track, which is faster than any other unit on the market.

The cd unit has some sort of memory so even if it jumps or skips, the music will not! I have dropped one of these off a dj shelf and had it fall 2 feet and hit another bench and it still did not jump! You can even play them upside-down as an extra party trick!

The Pioneer, unlike the Denon also comes with a jog dial that is the big rubber pad on top of the unit. By moving this pad you can control not only the tempo but effects too. The effects contained in this unit are :

Jet

Sound wave is created by adding SHORT DELAY. This is similar to FLANGER which DJs make by using 2 analog turntables

Zip

The pitch of reproduced sounds can be changed without changing the tempo. Lowering of the pitch by the JOG DIAL produces the sounds resembling those made by slowing an analog turntable (Braking effect).

Wah

The audio level of a certain frequency can be made strong or weak by the turn of a dial.

Now the more expensive units on the market seem to be there because of design and the few extra effects they hold. The Door construction seems to be complictated which I am sure adds to the cost and they also contain effects such as looping and sampling…

Other Functions

HOLD Function

With the button on, the present JOG DIAL state can be maintained even while taking your hand off the JOG DIAL. With the button off, it returns gradually to the original state.

Body
Measuring just 8-9/16" x 3-3/4" x 12-1/4" (217.7 x 94.5 x 310.7mm), the CDJ-100S is packed with all the features you'd expect of a professional CD player, all of which makes this machine ideal for mobile DJ'ing.

Tempo Control

The tempo or pitch controller as it is also know can be set at either -16% +10% or +/-10% +10%, and the percentage will always be displayed on the right of the screen.
Master Tempo
Master Tempo control locks in the music's pitch even when the tempo changes
Playing Address
A light bar provides an at-a-glance graphic indication of elapsed playing.

CUE POINT SAMPLER Function: The sound from the memorized cue point for as long as 1 minute can be reproduced by one touch, which can be used as the start point check and the sampler. In addition, real time cue point input makes it easy to set and change the cue point.

Fader Start & Back Cue Play
When the CDJ-100S is used with DJM-500, DJM-300, or DJM-300-S mixer, You can start the music with a fader or cross fader, or use them to return to the cue point.

These units are awesome and are starting to pop up in nightclubs as well as on the mobile market. Bring it on Pioneer!

Where to buy?

DMC
211 Commercial Rd Sth Yarra ph 98241211

Sanity
All Stores, but watch out, they are really, really expensive!