Huge news from Pioneer DJ – the company today announced the brand new CDJ-3000, an evolved flagship multi player and replacement for the CDJ-2000NXS2. On the outside, the CDJ-3000 may look very similar to its predecessor, but the improvements are plentiful and impressive. Keep reading for more.

Since the 1994 debut of the CDJ-500 – the world’s first flat-top CD DJ player – each new flagship CDJ model has continued to evolve over the years. The CDJ has become a staple to many of the most respected DJs around the globe. Released in 2016, the CDJ-2000NXS2 became the top choice for clubs, festivals, and DJs all over the world, thanks to its improved feature set and sound quality.

Pioneer DJ says the CDJ-3000 is the most advanced player they’ve made to date. Features that set this multi player apart are a redesigned jog wheel, 9-inch touch screen, Eight Hot Cue buttons – twice as many as the CDJ-2000NXS2 – plus new functions such as Touch Preview, Touch Cue, Stacked Waveform, and 3Band Waveform. You can also create a wider range of loops with the new 8-Beat Loop button, which comes in addition to the classic 4-Beat control.

There are so many new features and enhancements, we’re going to give you all the details straight from the source:

Advanced MPU

With the new MPU, we’ve not only revolutionized the way the CDJ is driven but also made it work in a smoother, more stable way than any of its predecessors. The MPU’s processing power has enabled us to bring exciting new functions that weren’t possible before and gives us scope to introduce more features via future updates.

Pro DJ Link with Gigabit Ethernet

Thanks to the Gigabit Ethernet connection for Pro DJ Link, you can share and play audio files from USB devices and SD cards on up to six CDJ-3000 units when you combine them with the 6-channel mixer such as the DJM-V10.

Better screen visibility

The maximum screen brightness has been improved by more than 150% compared to that on the CDJ-2000NXS2, so you can crank it up depending on the environment you’re playing in and improve visibility. 

Tougher components

The high-quality aluminum top plate and redesigned play, cue, and Hot Cue buttons are stronger than ever and the lockable V-Lock power cable*1 guards against accidental disconnections that could interrupt your show. The unit also comes with a high-quality digital cable that’s easy to handle and perfect for use in clubs and professional setups.

Enhanced audio design

The CDJ-3000 unifies internal audio calculation processing to 96 kHz/32-bit floating in all playable audio formats. As a result, the unit can capture the subtleties of the original sound source, including its depth and ambience, and even the slight changes in the timbre of the low range. Advanced audio processing technology such as variable speed playback, master tempo, and the new Key Shift function all help to create a more realistic representation of the spatial sound and a more musical bass sound than any other Pioneer DJ multi player has produced.

To get the maximum performance from the DAC (digital-to-analog converter), we’ve carefully reviewed each part of the circuit that outputs analog audio and made various improvements. We’ve also tuned the digital audio to achieve optimum sound quality in the player as a whole by testing numerous different components to find the best possible design for key parts. As a result, we’ve drastically reduced digital noise to create a natural sound that the crowd will want to listen to for long sets – even at high volume.

9-inch, high-resolution touch screen 

Find all the information you need at a glance. With a touch screen that’s bigger and clearer than the one on the CDJ-2000NXS2, we’ve been able to add extra information, shortcuts, and buttons for frequently used categories and functions, such as Playlist and Search, so you can access them directly at any time. The GUI (graphic user interface) will feel familiar if you’ve used the CDJ-2000NXS2 before, plus you can customize the information you want to see and set preferences for aspects such as text size. You can now swipe on the screen to navigate and use the sort function to rearrange the track list by touching the display. All this makes for an improved workflow and helps you to browse tracks more instinctively. And a number of new features help you to choose the perfect track and the right moment to drop it into your mix:

Touch Preview

Listen to any part of a track you want to preview by simply touching its waveform in the relevant place in the browse section. If you have multiple CDJ-3000 players connected with the DJM-V10 or DJM-900NXS2 mixer via Pro DJ Link, you can even preview tracks from another player thanks to Link Cue.

Touch Cue

Listen to another part of the track that’s currently playing by touching the waveform – the crowd won’t hear what you’re doing. This comes in handy when you need to familiarize yourself with the progression of a track to identify a mix point, especially during DJ handovers and back-to-back sets. Link Cue (see above) even enables you to listen to different parts of the track that another DJ is playing on a separate player.

Stacked Waveform

Keep an eye on the enlarged waveform of the track on the master player and the one you want to cue up, all on one screen. Identify mix points and visually check the beatgrids are perfectly lined up at a glance.

Support for 3Band Waveform

Understand how a track sounds without even listening to it. 3Band Waveform uses different colors to indicate the volume of each frequency band in files analyzed by rekordbox so you can see the composition of the music just by looking at the waveform. 3Band Waveform comes in addition to the previous RGB and Blue options.

Key Sync and Key Shift

Mix in perfect harmony. Hit the Key Sync button and the CDJ-3000 will automatically adjust the key of the incoming track to match the one playing on the master deck, helping you craft a smooth and harmonic mix. With Key Shift on the touch screen, you can manually shift the key of a track up or down.

Our smoothest-ever jog wheel

Feel the difference. Effortlessly scratch and smoothly bend the pitch of tracks. We’ve redesigned the mechanism inside the jog wheel so it feels slicker than any unit we’ve ever made. The LCD screen in the center indicates playhead position and displays artwork for a quick visual reminder of which tracks are loaded on each deck.

Rebuilt range-leading performance interface

Get hands-on with the redesigned controls and new features of the CDJ-3000 – all arranged in a way that lets you play the CDJ like it’s a musical instrument.

Eight Hot Cue buttons

Intuitively trigger Hot Cues via the eight buttons that run from left to right underneath the waveform display. The linear positioning makes it feel more natural to select cue points according to their position in the track.

Dedicated Beat Jump buttons

Jump forward or backward from the current playback position in the track by pressing the dedicated Beat Jump buttons. You can set the quantized number of beats to a value of 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 beats.

Advanced Auto Beat Loop section

As well as the popular 4-Beat Loop control from the CDJ-2000NXS2, the CDJ-3000 includes an 8-Beat Loop button for further creative possibilities. Want to make polyrhythmic loops? Use the expanded options for odd-numbered loops to remix sounds on the fly.

Flexible performance options

Play rekordbox-analyzed music from USB drives via Export mode or connect your laptop with USB-HID control to use Link Export or Performance mode. Because the CDJ-3000 is a Hardware Unlock device, you can use Performance mode for free – there’s no need for a paid rekordbox subscription plan – so you can play all the tracks in your rekordbox library, including any from Beatport/Beatsource LINK and SoundCloud Go+ (subscriptions required for streaming services).

You can even connect your iPhone to the CDJ-3000 via a USB cable*2 and mix music directly from the latest iOS version of rekordbox, which supports lossless file types including WAV, FLAC, ALAC, and AIFF as well as MP3 and AAC.

An upcoming release of Serato DJ Pro will introduce official support for the CDJ-3000, so watch out for news on that.

Pro DJ Link with enhanced lighting support

Take your show to the next level. Sync your sounds with lights thanks to compatibility with the new Pro DJ Link Lighting feature. The CDJ-3000 sends phrase analysis information to rekordbox (PC/Mac) so you can control lighting effects via the RB-DMX1 (available separately) and take your show to the next level.

The CDJ-3000 and CDJ-3000-W in a brilliant white finish are available now for $2,299. To learn more, watch the full intro video above and visit Pioneer DJ’s website.