CDJ
A CDJ is a specialized digital music player for DJing. Originally designed to play music from compact discs, many CDJs can play digital music files stored on USB flash drives or SD cards. In typical use, at least two CDJs are plugged into a DJ mixer. CDJs have jog wheels and pitch faders that allow manipulation of the digital music similar to a vinyl record on a DJ turntable. Many have additional features that are not present on turntables, such as looping, beat analysis, and adjusting tempo independently of pitch. Additionally, some can function as DJ controllers to control the playback of digital files in DJ software such as VirtualDJ and Serato.
Many pro audio companies such as Gemini, Denon DJ, Numark, Stanton, and Vestax produced DJ quality CD players. In 1993 Denon DJ was the first to implement a 2-piece rack-mounted dual-deck variable-pitch CD player with a jog wheel and instant cue button for DJs. It quickly became the industry standard and was widely adopted in most clubs and mobile DJs throughout the 90s up until 2004 when Pioneer made an impact with the CDJ-1000. Pioneer DJ CDJs have since become widely regarded as the industry standard.
The Pioneer CDJ-400, CDJ-800, CDJ-850K, CDJ-1000, CDJ-900, CDJ-2000, CDJ-3000, and CDJ-3000X have a vinyl emulation mode that allows the operator to manipulate music on a CD as if it were on a turntable. Models released prior to the CDJ-1000 lacked this feature. Pioneer CDJs released after the CDJ-400 can play from USB sticks as well as CDs. Pioneer integrated its software rekordbox with the CDJs to prepare music with cue points, accurate BPM, and search/playlist functions.
1990s
CDJ-500
The CDJ-500 was recognized by Pioneer DJ as their first CDJ CD player, released in 1994. However, there was a Pioneer CDJ-300 that was released in 1994 as a budget model for the CDJ-500.The CDJ-500 was the first Pioneer DJ player to have a Jog Dial,, allowing for cueing of the CD unlike rack-mounted CD players that were common at the time. It included a loop function, as well as loop-out adjust, and other facilities associated with looping samples from the track being played. The pitch control was +/- 10% only, and Master Tempo allowed the pitch to be locked despite tempo changes being made.
All models of the CDJ-500 had top-opening CD loading, which is opposite to all the later ranges of CDJs which have since had front slot-loading of discs.
CDJ-500II
Pioneer later released the CDJ-500II, with the only changes being slightly faster performance, Loop Out adjustable and the maximum loop length was increased to 10 minutes.CDJ-500S
The CDJ-500S released in 1997, was a smaller version of the CDJ-500. It marked the first inclusion of an anti-skip system.CDJ-100S
The CDJ-100S was a CDJ model that was released in early 1998. The CDJ-100S was a basic CD player with a pitch controller and three sound effect options.2000s
CMX-5000
The CMX-5000, released in March 2000, was Pioneer's first attempt to enter the 19" rack mountable dual CD player-market that had previously been dominated by Denon.The CMX-5000 consisted of a 2U section with a pair of slot-loading CD drives and a 3U 'controller' section with a pair of jog wheels and control buttons for the CD drive below.
CDJ-1000
The CDJ-1000 was introduced in 2001. Featuring "Vinyl Mode" which dramatically improved jog wheel performance, the CDJ-1000 was generally accepted as the first CD player that could accurately emulate a vinyl turntable - including the ability to scratch - soon established the CDJ-1000 as an industry standard for DJs.The player implemented a large touch-sensitive platter with a digital display in the middle that could relay information about the position in the music. Although this platter was not driven like a turntable, the display in the center showed positioning information for accurate cueing. Also there was an orange cue marker that simulates the stickers used by scratch DJs. The waveform display gave DJs the opportunity to look ahead on tracks to see forthcoming breaks.
The CDJ-1000 became a popular tool for dance clubs and DJs, and is currently the most widely used DJ-style CD deck in nightclubs. The player supported playback from CD, CD-R and CD-RW and implemented 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 included the master tempo-function introduced on the earlier CDJ-500 & CDJ-500S models, whereby the music changed speed while maintaining pitch.
The CDJ-1000 is generally regarded as the first CD player to be widely adopted in club use. Before its introduction, few clubs adopted CD decks, either due to their lack of DJ functionality and overall robustness, or due to the fact that DJs still preferred the vinyl format, as most of the music they played was still far more prevalent on vinyl than CD media. The introduction of recordable CD-R and then CD-RW media discs and stand-alone recorders able to record music onto them facilitated widespread adoption of the CDJ-1000. Before this, DJs who wanted to test a new piece of music they might have made themselves in a studio, in either a club or as early promotional items to radio DJs, often had to rely on getting acetate discs produced. These were both expensive to produce and had inherent short lifespan; as after a few plays the disc would wear-out and thus be completely unplayable.
CDJ-800
The CDJ-800 released in 2002 used a different mechanism for the jog wheel than the 1000 - it could perform "quick return" if the top surface of the wheel was pressed, then released. The general design purpose of the CDJ-800 was to offer DJs the facilities they have in the club on CDJ-1000s at home for a lower price. While the CDJ-1000 had a button to override the pitch slider, the CDJ-800 slider had a center detent, which was "easy to center." The CDJ-800 did not have the CDJ-1000's "hot cue" feature, and had only "one cue, and one loop" at a time, though these could be saved for up to 500 CDs. The CDJ-800 could alter loop "out-points" while playing, but could not alter in-points; loops had to be re-captured. Though the CDJ-1000 would relay in both vinyl and CDJ jog modes, the CDJ-800 would only relay in CDJ jog mode. The CDJ-800 also had an "auto-beat" function that the 1000 does not.The CDJ-800 was introduced in November 2002 and discontinued in February 2006 in favor of the updated second-generation version, called CDJ-800-MK2.
Dan Morrell, wrote of liking the CDJ-800 due its excellent sound and low price.
DMP-555
The DMP-555 was a single deck tabletop CD-player in Pioneer's range for DJs that was introduced in April 2002 and discontinued during 2004. The DMP-555 featured several innovative features, such as playback from SD card, and MP3 playback from either memory card or optical media. It also included the ability to cue from one media source and playback from another all on the same unit, allowing one to DJ two tracks from a single DMP-555 alone. The product was hobbled by a lack of support and updates, a 2GB limit on SD card capacity, and the inability to write MP3 files directly to the SD card. A special Pioneer-branded writer was required, and transfers had to be encrypted through custom Pioneer software because of music label concerns over copyright infringement.CMX-3000
The CMX-3000 was Pioneer's second attempt to enter the market of rack-mountable dual deck CD-players. Released in 2003, in the wake of the CDJ-1000, the player was - and still is - often mistakenly advertised as a 19" inch rack mountable equivalent of dual CDJ-1000s even though the intended target audiences for the products, as well as their comparative pricing, were entirely in different leagues. The misconception is possibly caused by the fact that while Pioneer's earlier dual deck CD-player, the CMX-5000, only had a jog wheel comparable to earlier single deck CD-players for doing pitch bending, the CMX-3000 also allowed distinct jog mode that enabled the user to use the jog wheel for scratching, a feature that thus far was only available on the top-of-the line CDJ-1000. The jog wheel however relied upon the movement of the wheel itself and was not touch sensitive as opposed to the CDJ-1000, CDJ-800 and CDJ-400. Therefore, the scratch was intended as an effect or for cueing a track, and was not appropriate for stopping the track by touch unlike other CDJ models.Mainly due to the product's comparative pricing the CMX-3000s found their way to the setups of many mobile DJ's as well as into the booths of many world's best nightclubs as a backup player in case the industry standard CDJ-1000s fail for some reason during a night.
CDJ-1000MK2
An updated version of the CDJ-1000, the CDJ-1000 MK2 was released in July 2003 with additional features like an improved jog wheel and faster response time than in the original model. The product was discontinued in 2006 when the MK3 was introduced into the market.CDJ-200
The CDJ-200 was the discontinued budget model CDJ CD player released in 2004. It was similar in size to the CDJ-100S, however features such as MP3 playback capabilities and loop functions were added or improved. Both the CDJ-100S and the CDJ-200 had similar options to manipulate the CD, however they lacked the vinyl modes of other models.DVJ-X1
The DVJ-X1 was a DVD quasi-turntable that allowed VJ's to scratch and mix video like a vinyl record. Released in 2004 and designed for professional use in clubs, it featured real-time digital video scratching, looping and instant hot cueing. It had capability to sync video and audio streams even when being pitched or reversed. It also played CDs with features similar to the regular CDJ-1000 CD turntable.In 2006, Pioneer introduced a successor unit, the DVJ-1000.