- This is the DDJ-800.
It's a two-channel controller for
Rekordbox DJ, and it's got
built-in jog wheel displays,
on-board Beat FX and Sound Colour FX,
and also lets you connect
turntables and CDJs.
It's Pioneer DJ's latest model in
which has the full-size jog wheels,
and the entry-level DDJ-400.
So, before we dive into the DDJ-800,
And if you've been following digital
DJing for a while now, you're probably
wondering what exactly is new about them.
First, you're going to notice that the
looping controls are now found at the
top of the decks, and that they're similar
to what you'd find on a
CDJ or XDJ media player.
Second, the effects
section now consists of
the Sound Colour FX, plus, you've got the
Beat FX which sit beside the mixer.
In the past, DDJ controllers had
effects, knobs, and buttons at the top
of decks, and this lets you control
Rekordbox DJ's effects.
But now, the effects are found by the
Beat FX strip, though you can still
control Rekordbox DJ's effects by the
pan effects mode.
And we'll get into these, along with
other key features, later in this review
when I give you a quick demo.
But first, I'm going to show you some
sweet highlights of this device.
Don't forget to like this video and to
drop us a comment below after you've
watched it, and let us know what
you think about this controller.
All right, let's get stuck in.
And it's plug-and-play, so that means you
don't need to activate
a Rekordbox  DJ licence,
which is a nice touch.
And of course that means
you can use it with any laptop without
having to go online to
activate or to log in.
It's got feedback EQs, it's got trim pots,
and Sound Colour FX knobs.
Volume faders, a cross fader, plus an
input matrix that lets you switch between
any of the four virtual
decks in Rekordbox DJ,
or your line or phono input if you've got
a media player or turntable connected.
Because yes, this works with Rekordbox DVS
for all you scratch DJs, though you'll
have to purchase a Rekordbox DVS licence,
which comes separately.
The two decks of the DDJ-800 each have
a jog wheel with built-in display,
which shows you stuff like track data,
art, waveforms and cues, and we'll take
a closer look at them later.
The jog wheel also has a feeling adjust
knob for changing the tension if you
want a tighter or looser feel.
The looping controls at the top of the
unit lets you set in and out points for
your loops, as well as a 4-beat auto-loop.
Below the jog wheel
you've got the performance
pad section, which consists
of eight RGB-backlit
pads, and they've got
eight pad modes: Hot Cue,
Pad FX1 and 2, Beat
Jump, Sampler, Keyboard,
Beat Loop, and Key Shift.
To the left of the pads, you've got the
transport controls, and to the right is
a full-length tempo fader for adjusting
track tempos during tempo matching
and beat mixing.
Now, the rear has RCA
and XLR master outputs.
You've also got 1/4" booth outputs here,
two pairs of switchable
RCA phono/line inputs,
combo and 1/4" mic
inputs, a USB output for
your laptop, and a power socket.
And the front has a 1/4"
and an 1/8" headphone jack.
All right, so let's take
a closer look at the
They look similar to the DDJ-SX3, and the
jogs on the DDJ-RX,
and the main difference
here, of course, is that the jogs on the
DDJ-800 have displays in their centres.
And this is the main selling point of
the unit, because the display shows you
info like a track's waveform.
You've got album art,
time, tempo, and key.
And below the waveform, you've even got a
cue scope, which shows you which
Hot Cues and Loop Cues are coming.
And the cool thing is that you can
customise these in the
Rekordbox DJ preferences.
Say, you want to just show album art,
or you want to remove the cue scope,
let's say it's taking up too much space,
and you don't really need it.
Or you want to change the time display
from time elapsed to time remaining.
You can do that in the
Rekordbox DJ preferences.
Now the feeling adjust knob is a nice
touch and one that isn't found in either
the DDJ-RX or the DDJ-SX series,
and this lets you adjust the tension
of your jog wheel to your liking.
And while the stiffest setting isn't
as tight as I would have liked,
it's still better than nothing,
and you know, I like
adjusting jog wheel tension.
I think they're important.
for manual loops, plus it's also got a
reloop or exit button for disengaging the
loop that you just made.
And the loop in button doubles as a 4-beat
auto-loop when you hold it down.
You can double or halve the loop by
pressing the Cue/Loop
Call buttons over here.
And that means that the
loop controls are laid
out exactly, and they were exactly like,
those found on a CDJ,
and that's great news
if you already spin with CDJs in the club,
or if you want to spin with CDJs later on.
Because, personally, I've always found
CDJ looping to be confusing if I'm
coming from a DDJ controller.
And, I also find it less intuitive than
the auto-loop buttons you can find on
older DDJ controllers, like the DDJ-RZ.
So having them laid out this way means
that you're really building the muscle
memory and you're also getting used to
setting loops the CDJ way. It really helps
especially when you are
at the club, and you're
already faced with a CDJ and DJM setup.
you dial in stuff like Dub Echo, Noise,
Pitch, and Filter, using
the Sound Colour FX
knobs over here. And you've also got the
pad effects, which let you trigger
rekordbox dj's built-in effects using the
performance pads, and
that's something that
I actually prefer over using effects knobs
in older DJ controllers,
because they're quicker
to use in the middle of a mix.
And lastly, you've got
the Beat FX section,
which lets you access
14 time-based effects.
And these are the same
effects found on the
DJM-900NXS2 mixer. And the way they work
is they automatically sync to the BPM
of the track that you've got playing.
And when you dialled in a
Beat FX, their behaviour
is locked to that tempo, and you can alter
their behaviour using the Beat buttons
which you can find over
here in the Beat FX strip.
I'm going to show you later
on what they sound like
in the demo portion of this video.
So I really like how the Beat FX is set up
because when you're spinning at the club,
these are the effects
that you're going to have
access to. And they can
be pretty confusing to
set up and use, especially
for new DJs, beginners,
those who don't get to
spin often at venues
with a CDJ or DJM setup.
So I think that Pioneer DJ's decision
to bring Beat FX to its controllers is,
it's one of the biggest reasons to trade
up to the newer DDJ
controllers if you have
plans of being a club or festival DJ.
So now that you've got a macro view of
the highlights of this controller, let
me take you to the demo. I'm going to play
a track over here, then
we're going to take a look
at the pads, take a look at the effects,
and then after that,
we're going to get to the
conclusion, and I'll let
you know what I think
about this unit.
So let's try loading a tune over here on
the left deck. I use the browse knob,
and we go to this playlist here.
Downloads, and then I am going to load
this track over here on the left deck.
So you're going to see the left deck
populate over on the
Rekordbox DJ interface
as well as here on the jog wheel display.
You can see the album art, you can see
the tempo, you've got
the waveform over here
as well as the cue scope below that, plus
other data such as time remaining,
you've got the pitch here
as well as the tempo,
and all of these change
in real time as you
move the controls. So again, really handy
to have this jog wheel display over here,
so you don't have to
spend so much time looking
at your laptop. So let's play this.
There we are, and again, I can just add
hotkeys as I like, just
by pressing the pad
mode hotkey over here, and then pressing
the pad that I want, say, that one.
Works just like a hot cue.
No surprise there.
And I've also got other pad modes
in here, like pad effects 1, and when
I press that, you're going to find
all of the Rekordbox DJ
effects that I can trigger
over here on your screen.
So if I press this one, it activates
Spiral, so it's going to do sweep,
flanger, reverb, echo, and so on.
And you've got back spinning there.
And you can edit these just by pressing
the gear icon here, and can
change these as you like.
But basically, that's
how pad effects work in
the DDJ-800 as well as
other DDJ controllers
that have the Pad FX feature.
You've also got beat jump here, which
lets you jump in
different beat increments.
You can jump back, or jump forwards.
One beat, two beats, four beats,
or even eight beats if you like.
Like that. And you can also access the
sampler by pressing that and if you
take sampler over here in
the Rekordbox DJ screen
you can find all the samples that you've
got loaded. I've currently
got a couple in here
and I can trigger them just
by pressing these pads.
And you're probably wondering why am I not
hearing anything? Well, it's because the
sampler level over here is set all the way
at clockwise. So let's
bring in some level here
12 o'clock position,
and now we can start to hear
those samples being played back.
So, that's your sampler, and you've also
got keyboard, if you
hold down shift button,
and press the hotkey,
you've got keyboard
which lets you
pitch shift a hotkey that
you've got selected. You can pitch it up,
just like that, or can press page button
pressed page right, and
this pitches shift down.
Down, down, down, lower and lower.
So really cool if you want to do some
hot cue juggles or tone play juggles,
using performance pads.
And beside that, you've got a second set
of pad effects. This is a second bank of
pad effects and again,
you can change these
as you like just by pressing
the gear icon over here.
Currently, it's set to slip loop.
And they are momentary hold effects.
Of course you can change
these to toggle on
and off, again just by
going to the gear icon
over in the Rekordbox screen.
And beside that, you've got beat loop,
(mumbles) set, release, quick, auto-loops
in different beat increments.
Each pad basically
corresponds to a different
beat length, so currently
you've got 16 beats,
on set of 16 beat loop. You can go 32, 64,
all the way to 512.
So, that's it for Beat Loop. And again,
if you want to exit, just
press the Reloop/Exit
button over here, or you
can press this pad again.
And we're going to go
through the looping controls
later, and finally you've
got key shift, which
lets you key shift the song.
Change the musical key. And the cool thing
about having this on-screen display is
as you're changing the musical key,
you can also see it changing over in here.
Currently, the default is G minor.
If I press this one, brings it up one
semi-tone, now it's A-flat minor.
Now it's A minor, B-flat minor, and so on.
And just like in keyboard mode, I press
page right button, these pads will now
shift the entire track down.
Lower and lower and lower and lower.
So if you're into keymixing, this is
something you're going to
find very, very interesting.
Okay, cool. So that's it
for the performance pads.
Just jump back to hotkeys again.
And let's take a look now
at the looping controls
over here on the top. As I mentioned,
these are the controls
similar to what you'd find
on a CDJ or XDJ media
player. Great if you have
club or festival DJ aspirations.
So let's see how they
work. Going to hit play.
I'm going to set a loop.
That in there.
And now I'm going to set the out point.
Okay, so I've set the loop now, but I
don't think it sounds too good. I think
I was a little bit late in
pressing the out button.
Yeah, you've got that
nasty little (stutters)
part toward the end, so I am just going to
press the out button once again, and now
this lets me adjust the out
point using the jog wheel.
So very, very nice. So let's
go have a closer look.
Yeah, I think that sounds pretty good.
Once I'm happy with that,
I just press out again,
And now I've got the loop going,
and now it sounds great.
Awesome! I can do the same thing with
the input, with the start of the loop,
just by pressing the in button.
But I think it sounds fine, so I don't
need to move that.
If I want to exit the loop, I just
press the Reloop/Exit button over here.
There we are.
Now I can also set an auto-loop,
which consists of four
beats, just by holding
down the In button for a few seconds.
Just like that, now I've got a
four-beat loop going.
And cool thing is, I can halve or double
that loop, so I just press the left
Cue/Loop Call button
if I want to halve it.
Great for making build-ups.
Just like that, and I can double it just
by pressing the 2x button over here.
And again, if I want to exit the loop,
I just press the Reloop/Exit button.
Pretty easy.
Cool. Now, let's take a look at the
jog adjust. This lets
you adjust the tension
of the jog wheel. The
default is 12 o'clock.
That's fine, but I want it a little bit
stiffer, so I can move this
to the right, clockwise.
And now I've got a stiffer jog wheel.
Now, I would have preferred to have
this a little bit stiffer still.
It's just not that tight enough for me.
But I think it's fine.
I'm just really particular
when it comes to that. Again, it's better
than not having a jog wheel adjust or
feeling adjust knob, so I'm happy
that this is onboard this controller.
And move it all the way anti-clockwise,
can have a really light jog wheel,
great for doing spin backs like that.
So, pretty cool.
All right. Okay, so we've taken a look at
the jog wheels and the display.
We've also taken a look at the looping
controls, and we've gone
through the performance
pads. Now let's take a look at the effects
on the DDJ-800. And as I mentioned there
were three. We've already touched on the
first one, Pad FX. Now, we've also
got Sound Colour FX, which you can access
via this matrix over here, and through
the Sound Colour knobs.
And also the Beat FX
strip over here.
So let's take a look at
the Sound Colour FX first.
Let's hear how they sound.
Going to press Dub Echo.
Gives us a nice echo effect here.
Great for techno.
You've got pitch.
A pitch shifter.
Cool. You've got noise. A noise generator.
And you've got filter.
Yeah, useful.
So currently, you've got these four
Sound Colour effects, right?
Let's say you don't want to use noise,
you're not really fond of using pitch,
are you stuck with these
two effects forever?
Well, no, because that's
what's really cool
about mixing with Rekordbox DJ.
All you need to do is to go over here to
the effects section and click on User,
and now this lets you change
the Sound Colour effects
that you're using over here.
So let's say you want to change Pitch.
Just press Pitch, and
then you can change this
to any other effect that you like.
You've got Jet, you've got Crush, and
you've got Space, and you've to Sweep.
Let's say you want to change it to Sweep.
So go ahead and click
Sweep, now every time
you press play,
and you've got the Pitch button enabled,
it'll now give you the sweep effect.
So we've modified the
effects that we're able
to activate through this matrix over here.
So let's try that again for Noise.
Let's change this, let's say we want
to use Jet. So now whenever I press Noise,
I get the Jet effect.
And the cool thing is that these changes
get saved over here in
your Rekordbox DJ software
so whenever you plug
in, or you restart your
computer, you don't have
to do that configuration
again for the Sound Colour effects.
They stay as-is, so it's pretty awesome.
Little tip for you there.
Okay, so now that we're done with
the Sound Colour effects,
and we've already
touched on the Pad effects, let's finally
take a look at the Beat FX section,
which is something that is taken
straight from the DJM-900NXS2 mixer.
So this is what you're going to find in
clubs and festivals, if they've got a
CDJ or DJM setup, more often than not,
they're going to be using the DJM-900NXS2
and the effects over here on the DDJ-800
come straight from the DJM-900NXS2, as
well as the controls here, which I will
explain right now.
So, let's play this track again.
And let's choose an effect.
Currently it's set to low-cut echo.
Got your OLED display over here.
And this knob basically
lets you assign which
channel is going to be affected by the
Beat effects. So I can move this
all the way to one,
because this is deck one.
So that means whenever we activate the
effect by pressing this one and moving
the Level/Depth knob, it's
going to affect deck one.
Now I can also choose
Master, so that means
everything coming out
of the master channel
gets affected by the Beat effects.
And that's useful, say,
if you've got another
track playing, and let's say you want
to do a little mix here.
Let me just do something
really quick and dirty.
Something like that.
Cue it.
Now let's say you want
to add some effects.
So now deck one and deck
two are being affected.
So that's one way to
assign your Beat effects.
And now, let's have a listen to what the
Beat FX sound like.
So, done with low-cut echo. Move on to the
next one, just echo.
Level/Depth knob lets you specify how
much of the effect gets added.
Like that, and the Beat button here lets
you change the beat length. Currently,
it's set to one beat.
Can do 3/4 of a beat,
half beat, quarter beat.
Again, you're getting
different sounds here.
Of course, you can make them larger
with the right arrow.
Just like that. Very, very cool.
So yeah, Beat FX basically they allow
you to have a little bit more hands-on,
allow you to get a
little bit more hands-on
when it comes to
parameters of your effects.
Let's have a listen to the others. Delay.
Psychodelic. Spiral.
I love these spacey effects.
Got a reverb, can change
the size of the reverb.
Transformer, is how fast the gate sounds,
or the transformer chopping sounds are.
Enigma Jet.
Flanger.
Phaser.
Got a pitch shifter here, too.
Yeah, so lots of really funky effects
that can really heighten your mix,
add tension and just
keep the crowd go crazy.
Of course, when using them sparingly,
and in the right places.
That's why it's really
important to practise.
Awesome, the last one Mobius Triangle.
It's a shepherd tone. Sounds like it's
going up forever.
But yeah, super cool, so
that's the DDJ-800 for you.
Let's try mixing out of this track
and into this other one.
Again, just like a really nice controller,
lets you do so much in
such a tiny package.
And you get so many
features. Stuff that you'd
find on the DDJ-1000
like jog wheels, screens,
the effects, but in like a smaller,
more compact package.
If you do like a lot
of bar gigs, pub gigs,
not necessarily playing bigger clubs
or not playing a lot of those huge
marquee events or functions, maybe
something like this is something that's
more suited for your style of DJing.
Maybe you don't want to take around a huge
controller, like I mentioned the DDJ-1000,
or even the DDJ-RZ. So
this kind of bridges
the gap between the DDJ-400, which is the
entry-level, really tiny controller,
and a DDJ-1000, which
is the current flagship,
this sits right in the
middle, and just gives
you the best of both worlds, I think.
Lots of power, lots of functionality,
lots of features, and
those beautiful screens
again, at a more compact and smaller
form-factor that, if
your venue doesn't have
a really large DJ table or large DJ booth,
this is going to fit
the bill pretty nicely.
Or a space that's going
to be a lot smaller
compared to trying to fit in an entire
DDJ-1000 in a tiny little booth.
It comes in at under 900 bucks,
and you get most of the features of the
DDJ-1000, stuff like
the jog wheel displays
and Beat FX, but in a
more portable form factor.
It's small, but it still
looks professional.
And while it's not cheap,
it's still 200 bucks
cheaper than the DDJ-1000.
And that's not much
of a jump, and there will
be DJs who would rather
spend an extra $200 to
get full-sized jogs and
four channels, but for DJs
who want something small,
and who gig a lot in smaller venues
like clubs and bars, the DDJ-800 might be
the better option. Now, if you are torn
between the 1000 and the 800, ultimately
your choice will depend on two things.
One, do you need four channels? And two,
do you even need a big controller with
full-sized jogs wheels? If your answer
to both is no, then the
800 is the better option.
If you've still got a
last-generation controller
like the DDJ-RR or the DDJ-RZ, and you're
not interested in jog wheel displays
or you don't plan on spinning with a CDJ
or DJM club setup any time soon,
you really aren't missing
much if you decide
to skip on upgrading,
and the reason is because
there really isn't much
innovation on the DDJ-800
as there is evolution.
It's like it's a sign of how mature DJ
controllers have become,
and it's kind of similar
to how smartphones just keep iterating
instead of actually innovating.
So I hope you like this in-depth review.
Let me know what your
favourite thing about
the DDJ-800 is in the comments below,
or even what you don't like about it.
And of course, don't forget to like,
share, and subscribe.
Now get good, get out
there, and make the moments.
