CDJ1000
Encyclopedia
The CDJ-1000 was a digital turntable by Pioneer Electronics in 2001 that was used to play CDs and was generally accepted as the first CD player that can accurately emulate a vinyl turntable - including the ability to scratch - and became a popular CD player used by DJs. The original mk1 was discontinued in 2003 during the introduction of mk2 into market.
The player implements a large touch-sensitive platter with a digital display in the middle that can relay information about the position in the music. Although this platter is not driven (meaning that it does not rotate by itself) like a turntable, the display in the center shows positioning information for accurate cueing. Also there is an orange Cue marker that simulates the stickers used by scratch DJs. The waveform display gives DJs the opportunity to look ahead on tracks to see forthcoming breaks.
The CDJ-1000 (and its reincarnations) has become a popular tool for dance clubs and DJs, and is currently the most widely used DJ-style CD deck to be found in the booths of world's best nightclubs. The player supports playback from CD, CD-R
and CD-RW
and implements all of the essential features for DJ CD players such as looping
and pitch changing in addition to less common features such as reverse play-back and turntable break-stop and start. It includes the master tempo-function introduced on the earlier CDJ-500
& CDJ-500S models, whereby the music changes speed while maintaining pitch.
It is generally thought to be the first CD player to be widely adopted in club use. Until this point few clubs bothered with CD machines in them, either due to their lack of DJ functionality and overall robustness, or due to the fact that DJs
still liked to use the vinyl
format as most of the upfront music they required to play was still much more prevalent on vinyl over CD media.
The other reason this machine took-off in popularity was the release of recordable CD-R
and then CD-RW
media discs and stand-alone machines which could record music onto them. Before this, DJs who wanted to test in either a club or as early promotional items to radio DJs, a new piece of music they might have made themselves in a studio, often had to rely on getting acetate disc
s pressed-up. These were both expensive to do and had inherent short lifespan; as after a few plays the disc would wear-out and thus be completely unplayable.
Unlike the earlier versions, the mk3 supports playback of MP3
s from CD-R and CD-RW -media. Other improvements to earlier versions include bigger lighter displays, a 100 dots waveform display instead of the earlier 50 dots waveform, the ability to record loops also into Hot Cue slots instead of just cue points. The mechanical resistance of the jog wheel is adjustable to suit different styles of handling by the dj. Furthermore, the mk3 uses a newer SD
media, while the earlier incarnations used MMC
as a memory card format.
, in a statement, UK sales manager Martin Dockree said:
The player implements a large touch-sensitive platter with a digital display in the middle that can relay information about the position in the music. Although this platter is not driven (meaning that it does not rotate by itself) like a turntable, the display in the center shows positioning information for accurate cueing. Also there is an orange Cue marker that simulates the stickers used by scratch DJs. The waveform display gives DJs the opportunity to look ahead on tracks to see forthcoming breaks.
The CDJ-1000 (and its reincarnations) has become a popular tool for dance clubs and DJs, and is currently the most widely used DJ-style CD deck to be found in the booths of world's best nightclubs. The player supports playback from CD, CD-R
CD-R
A CD-R is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-R is a Write Once Read Many optical medium, though the whole disk does not have to be entirely written in the same session....
and CD-RW
CD-RW
A CD-RW is a rewritable optical disc. It was introduced in 1997, and was known as "CD-Writable" during development. It was preceded by the CD-MO, which was never commercially released....
and implements all of the essential features for DJ CD players such as looping
Looping
Looping may refer to:Media and entertainment*Loop , a repeating section of sound material*Audio induction loop, an aid for the hard of hearing...
and pitch changing in addition to less common features such as reverse play-back and turntable break-stop and start. It includes the master tempo-function introduced on the earlier CDJ-500
CDJ-500
The CDJ-500 was the first model, released by Pioneer Electronics in the mid-1990's, of their popular CDJ range of CD players....
& CDJ-500S models, whereby the music changes speed while maintaining pitch.
It is generally thought to be the first CD player to be widely adopted in club use. Until this point few clubs bothered with CD machines in them, either due to their lack of DJ functionality and overall robustness, or due to the fact that DJs
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
still liked to use the vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
format as most of the upfront music they required to play was still much more prevalent on vinyl over CD media.
The other reason this machine took-off in popularity was the release of recordable CD-R
CD-R
A CD-R is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-R is a Write Once Read Many optical medium, though the whole disk does not have to be entirely written in the same session....
and then CD-RW
CD-RW
A CD-RW is a rewritable optical disc. It was introduced in 1997, and was known as "CD-Writable" during development. It was preceded by the CD-MO, which was never commercially released....
media discs and stand-alone machines which could record music onto them. Before this, DJs who wanted to test in either a club or as early promotional items to radio DJs, a new piece of music they might have made themselves in a studio, often had to rely on getting acetate disc
Acetate disc
An acetate disc, also known as a test acetate, dubplate , lacquer , transcription disc or instantaneous disc...
s pressed-up. These were both expensive to do and had inherent short lifespan; as after a few plays the disc would wear-out and thus be completely unplayable.
CDJ-1000MK2
An updated version of the CDJ-1000, the CDJ-1000 MK2 was released on July 2003 with additional features like improved jog wheel and faster response time than in the original model. The product was discontinued on 2006 when the mk3 was introduced into the market.CDJ-1000MK3
The latest version of the CDJ-1000 is the third model known as the CDJ-1000 MK3 released in March 2006.Unlike the earlier versions, the mk3 supports playback of MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
s from CD-R and CD-RW -media. Other improvements to earlier versions include bigger lighter displays, a 100 dots waveform display instead of the earlier 50 dots waveform, the ability to record loops also into Hot Cue slots instead of just cue points. The mechanical resistance of the jog wheel is adjustable to suit different styles of handling by the dj. Furthermore, the mk3 uses a newer SD
Secure Digital card
Secure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
media, while the earlier incarnations used MMC
MultiMediaCard
The MultiMediaCard is a flash memory memory card standard. Unveiled in 1997 by Siemens AG and SanDisk, it is based on Toshiba's NAND-based flash memory, and is therefore much smaller than earlier systems based on Intel NOR-based memory such as CompactFlash. MMC is about the size of a postage...
as a memory card format.
Discontinuation
Shortly after the introduction of the CDJ-1000's successor, Pioneer CDJ-2000CDJ-2000
The Pioneer CDJ-2000 is the latest addition to Pioneer Electronics's CDJ-range of digital turntables targeted for professional DJs announced simultaneously with CDJ-900 on September 17th 2009. It became available late december 2009....
, in a statement, UK sales manager Martin Dockree said:
- It is with mixed feelings that today we announce to the channel the discontinuation of the CDJ 1000MK3…….thanks to the hard work of our then newly appointed direct retailers, installers and established distribution, as well as the DJs who instantly recognised it as the first real practical DJ CD player, it very quickly became an industry standard fixture in the DJ booth.
External links
- Pioneer Official Product Info - Flash Site.
- Pioneer Pro DJ Forums.
- CDJ-1000mk3 Latest Firmware (2.20) and upgrade instructions (MK1 and MK2 cannot be updated).
- CDJ-1000MK3 at PioneerPioneer Corporationis a multinational corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products, based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The company was founded in 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair shop...
(UK) website. - Pioneer DJ History at DJResource website.