VDJ Ron
The XDJ-R1 is poorly supported by the relevant companies.
Nothing seemed to work at first. I don't know if all the changes I've made have increased its stability. For instance I removed all the Ipad Remotebox mappings from VDJ8, and re-mapped the XDJ-R1 main effect buttons, which I could not use, nor understand.
A manual to describe VDJ8 usage with the XDJ-R1 has not been written so were very much on our own.
It's my opinion that the Pioneer hardware mixer, complete with its superb Color effects should be used, as opposed to the VDJ8 software mixer.
Anyway after much head scratching, and cursing VDJ8 runs wonderfully well with the XDJ-R1.
Now to Remotebox, and Rekordbox.
I didn't have a clue!
To make matters worse I bought a faulty 64gb USB stick from Ebay. More headaches!
There is little to be said about Remotebox, it's ideal. Once a database/library is constructed in the Pioneer way song management is easy. The wifi connection is stable, and song search/control is fast/responsive.
Rekordbox appears to work in an unusual way.
At first I plugged in a USB stick full of songs , and imported them into Rekordbox, then analyzed them, and finally attempted to export them back to the USB stick. THAT DID NOT WORK. What I was using was a 32gb stick with around 25GB's of songs. Rekordbox exports the songs/data, and constructs a database structured by artist. That would have required around 50Gb's!
I did not want to let Rekordbox anywhere near my VDJ8 songs/data so I constructed a folder on my desktop, and copied those songs I wanted into that, and then imported, analyzed, and exported them to a freshly formatted (twice, this may be important, see the Pioneer forum) USB stick.
This, although a slow process, worked well.
I'm using Rekordbox 3 at the moment because it's less invasive than Rekordbox 4. There as so many apps demanding Internet access using the latter.
Rekorbox uninstalls cleanly upon request, and works well with VDJ8.
I now love Remotebox, and Recordbox.
The Pioneer hardware is what you would expect, very good.
My main compliant is the XDJ-R1's size, especially when flight cased, it's not very mobile.
I'm still using a Denon MC3000 for my small jobs.
The White Elephant might have returned to the herd triumphant.
Time will tell.
Nothing seemed to work at first. I don't know if all the changes I've made have increased its stability. For instance I removed all the Ipad Remotebox mappings from VDJ8, and re-mapped the XDJ-R1 main effect buttons, which I could not use, nor understand.
A manual to describe VDJ8 usage with the XDJ-R1 has not been written so were very much on our own.
It's my opinion that the Pioneer hardware mixer, complete with its superb Color effects should be used, as opposed to the VDJ8 software mixer.
Anyway after much head scratching, and cursing VDJ8 runs wonderfully well with the XDJ-R1.
Now to Remotebox, and Rekordbox.
I didn't have a clue!
To make matters worse I bought a faulty 64gb USB stick from Ebay. More headaches!
There is little to be said about Remotebox, it's ideal. Once a database/library is constructed in the Pioneer way song management is easy. The wifi connection is stable, and song search/control is fast/responsive.
Rekordbox appears to work in an unusual way.
At first I plugged in a USB stick full of songs , and imported them into Rekordbox, then analyzed them, and finally attempted to export them back to the USB stick. THAT DID NOT WORK. What I was using was a 32gb stick with around 25GB's of songs. Rekordbox exports the songs/data, and constructs a database structured by artist. That would have required around 50Gb's!
I did not want to let Rekordbox anywhere near my VDJ8 songs/data so I constructed a folder on my desktop, and copied those songs I wanted into that, and then imported, analyzed, and exported them to a freshly formatted (twice, this may be important, see the Pioneer forum) USB stick.
This, although a slow process, worked well.
I'm using Rekordbox 3 at the moment because it's less invasive than Rekordbox 4. There as so many apps demanding Internet access using the latter.
Rekorbox uninstalls cleanly upon request, and works well with VDJ8.
I now love Remotebox, and Recordbox.
The Pioneer hardware is what you would expect, very good.
My main compliant is the XDJ-R1's size, especially when flight cased, it's not very mobile.
I'm still using a Denon MC3000 for my small jobs.
The White Elephant might have returned to the herd triumphant.
Time will tell.
Posté Wed 09 Dec 15 @ 1:25 pm
VDJ Ron
As yet I have only used the Remotebox/Rekordbox configuration for practicing. It has been very good. I've exported a few of my VDJ8 playlists which has avoided problems related to mixing in key (I think LOL).
There are three critical issues
1) Rekordbox is not compatible with flac's, and I'm in the middle of a move to this file type.
2) Currently I only have a 32GB USB stick containing around 5000 songs prepared in Rekordbox. This situation can be improved, but I don't know the limiting USB drive capacity.
3) The Rekordbox playlist size is limited to 1000 songs, and this is a significant constraint. I have very large playlists called 60s, 70s, 80s...as well as small stuff like Deep House which only has a handful of songs. Note that folders don't seem to work that well, hence my use of playlists. There is no option for song search, however artist, and bpm searches work well. Using Remotebox my Ipad can rapidly navigate a 1000 song playlist !
I could now do an event using Pioneer software/hardware, but it lacks the refinement, and power of VDJ (7 & 8).
It is interesting that in my search for songs I need an online laptop to buy from the Internet stores such as HMV, and Amazonmp3, as well as using Atomix's own CU subscription service. Hence Pioneers efforts to eradicate the laptop are doomed to failure. Corporations will seek to sell songs to "live" DJ's, and I believe we want them to provide this service.
I don't like the alternative which is pirated downloads from countries like Russia.
There are three critical issues
1) Rekordbox is not compatible with flac's, and I'm in the middle of a move to this file type.
2) Currently I only have a 32GB USB stick containing around 5000 songs prepared in Rekordbox. This situation can be improved, but I don't know the limiting USB drive capacity.
3) The Rekordbox playlist size is limited to 1000 songs, and this is a significant constraint. I have very large playlists called 60s, 70s, 80s...as well as small stuff like Deep House which only has a handful of songs. Note that folders don't seem to work that well, hence my use of playlists. There is no option for song search, however artist, and bpm searches work well. Using Remotebox my Ipad can rapidly navigate a 1000 song playlist !
I could now do an event using Pioneer software/hardware, but it lacks the refinement, and power of VDJ (7 & 8).
It is interesting that in my search for songs I need an online laptop to buy from the Internet stores such as HMV, and Amazonmp3, as well as using Atomix's own CU subscription service. Hence Pioneers efforts to eradicate the laptop are doomed to failure. Corporations will seek to sell songs to "live" DJ's, and I believe we want them to provide this service.
I don't like the alternative which is pirated downloads from countries like Russia.
Posté Thu 10 Dec 15 @ 11:36 pm
VDJ Ron
Here's a good review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR6Hf_OgoCc
I don't have the track search bar which DJ Cotts uses in his video, however I do have a TRACK window with the alphabet down the right hand side so I can select say F and the TRACK window centers on the songs beginning with F. I said earlier that there was no track search feature, that is not quite true.
My old 320Gb IDE hdd in a USB case with a 5v power supply is working. I originally used the accompanying old cable, accidentally nudged it, and my XDJ R1 froze. I now have a good quality cable, have been gently poking it, and all is well ! It looks like the XDJ R1 might be able to handle my main music collection, minus the karaoke.
The three hot cues work well, but look a bit feeble in comparison to the 8 I may on occasion use in VDJ ( well maybe 5 ! ).
I have been able to set a loop to activate at a specific point in a song, but as yet cannot store it to memory like the hot cues.
With every day that goes by this unit seems to get better.
I got this one quite cheaply (£340) on Ebay . It has one fault, a hot cue led does not work. I'll fix that in due course.
A Swan flight case makes it look even more professional. There quite cheap at the moment, less than a £100.
I'd recommend this unit to those who are persistent, and tend to make things work.
Well I've used up my three consecutive posts so I can't add any more comments to this thread without upsetting our moderators.
I hope these posts help a few people.
Hell, I've just found something else about song searching. Just using the little XDJ R1 displays is an effective search method. Select ALL in the display, then rotate the control knob and it brings up the alphabet, select the first letter of the song, and the XDJ-R1 all by itself can find songs quite well !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR6Hf_OgoCc
I don't have the track search bar which DJ Cotts uses in his video, however I do have a TRACK window with the alphabet down the right hand side so I can select say F and the TRACK window centers on the songs beginning with F. I said earlier that there was no track search feature, that is not quite true.
My old 320Gb IDE hdd in a USB case with a 5v power supply is working. I originally used the accompanying old cable, accidentally nudged it, and my XDJ R1 froze. I now have a good quality cable, have been gently poking it, and all is well ! It looks like the XDJ R1 might be able to handle my main music collection, minus the karaoke.
The three hot cues work well, but look a bit feeble in comparison to the 8 I may on occasion use in VDJ ( well maybe 5 ! ).
I have been able to set a loop to activate at a specific point in a song, but as yet cannot store it to memory like the hot cues.
With every day that goes by this unit seems to get better.
I got this one quite cheaply (£340) on Ebay . It has one fault, a hot cue led does not work. I'll fix that in due course.
A Swan flight case makes it look even more professional. There quite cheap at the moment, less than a £100.
I'd recommend this unit to those who are persistent, and tend to make things work.
Well I've used up my three consecutive posts so I can't add any more comments to this thread without upsetting our moderators.
I hope these posts help a few people.
Hell, I've just found something else about song searching. Just using the little XDJ R1 displays is an effective search method. Select ALL in the display, then rotate the control knob and it brings up the alphabet, select the first letter of the song, and the XDJ-R1 all by itself can find songs quite well !
Posté Sat 12 Dec 15 @ 1:51 am