From Pioneer’s website:

CDJ-2000-W features include:

• Playback from CD, DVD, USB storage devices (flash and hard drives) and SD cards. Supports multiple media file formats, including MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF audio files.
• Large 6.1-inch full-color LCD display for enhanced operability and display of song titles.
• rekordbox™ music management software for analysis, management, and playback of music files.
• Pioneer’s PRO DJ LINK, enabling multiple digital players to be connected for sharing music files stored on a single USB device and SD card.
• High efficiency Wolfson Microelectronics digital-to-analog (D/A) converter for accurate sound reproduction.
• Suggested price: $2150

DJM-900nexus-W features include:

• Multitude of effects including three new Sound Color Effects and two new Beat Effects.
• Built-in 24-Bit / 96 kHz high performance soundcard.
• Built-in “X-Pad” for controlling multiple parameters with a touch from the user.
• Ability to connect Pioneer digital players that support the PRO DJ LINK feature for highly accurate BPM and beat location information, resulting in precise beat matching.
• Built-in high performance 32-bit digital signal processor to suppress digital and analog circuit noise, the same audio input and output circuits as Pioneer’s flagship DJM-2000.
• Suggested price: $2399

This week’s biggest increase came from Adele, which helped move her to the 5th spot, one place behind Flo Rida.

The top 40 also welcomed Drake & Rihanna’s “Take Care” to the list, coming in at number 36.

The control surface (widely but incorrectly outed elsewhere as the Kontrol X2) is a Kontrol X1-shaped and is dominated by a four-by-four multi-backlit pad surface for launching sample clips, in a similar way to Ableton Live.

The software, meanwhile, expands on Traktor Pro 2′s sample decks to make them into fully blown remix decks. There are four sample blocks per deck, each of which can contain four samples, which crucially are colour coded to match the colours on the Kontrol K2′s clip launchpad.

Each of these “remix decks” is treated by Traktor exactly the same as any other deck, meaning you can affect them globally with loops etc and also scratch and cue them just as if they were a single track.

Traktor Pro 2.5 thus brings an “Ableton Live Lite” concept right into Traktor, borrowing elements from the Serato Scratch Live / The Bridge project, but of course as it’s all in Traktor there’s no need to actually have any clip software such as Ableton.

Native Instruments’ CEO Daniel Haver told the company’s 10th US office anniversary party at its LA offices that the update has been designed to “bring the power of clip-based DJ performance with software such as Ableton right into Traktor”, and predicted that what he was calling “Traktor Remix” will radically change the way DJs perform.

Following the launch, DJ Shiftee performed a short set with the software, which had only been finished a day early by Traktor’s dev team in time for the performance.

We’re guessing the F1 will retail at US$199, and you should expect to see it in stores end of March / start of April.

Shout Out to Digital DJ Tips for the Story:

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2012/01/exclusive-kontrol-f1-hardware-traktor-pro-2-5-software/

Adele saw the largest increase in plays, beating her mark last week by over 1,600 spins. Jessie J also saw an increase of over 1,000 plays and will be poised to move into the top 5 in the following weeks.

This week’s biggest increase came from Adele, who despite an increase of over 600 spins, could only manage a 16th place finish.

If you’ve used Spotify, you’ll actually see immediate similarities with Beatport Pro. It’s basically a desktop app (unfortunately, for Mac only at the present time) that lets you surf through Beatport’s complete tune collection, organising, tagging, and of course buying at will. There are are a few other additions, but that’s basically the size of it.

So why would you need such an app? Well I don’t know about you, but I find buying music from online stores to be a singularly unsatisfying experience. It is just not in my workflow to browse around online stores, making crates and playlists, listening through them and eventually buying some tunes (or more likely, not, because I can’t find anything I like).

No, instead I tend listen to web radio – 8tracks, Hype Machine etc – then make a shortlist of tunes I like, heading across to the download stores and (as quickly as possible) buying the tunes I want and getting the hell out of there.

Alternatively, I’ll do the same thing on Spotify, having it open in the background, with a list of starred tunes – mainly albums by people I want to hear more of – playing on shuffle. When I hear stuff I like, I shortlist it, then listen back through my shortlist later, finally buying from within the Spotify interface. (It’s faster and easier that way.)

Finally, if I find a new producer I like, I’ll stream all their stuff (again in the background) from SoundCloud.

So for me, my buying involves background listening (I think we judge tunes more truthfully when we’re not concentrating on them, which is why I struggle to actively browse around online stores), then shortlisting/buying those tunes. Happily, this is the one area where Beatport Pro particularly shines. However, it has many more features too. Let’s take a closer look.

How does it work?

You basically download the app (it’s beta at the moment, there’s a link at the end of this post), install it, and open it, adding your Beatport login details. It syncs with any carts (plus your “My Beatport”), and you’re presented with an interface that looks like a dark iTunes.

Down the left are Beatport’s top downloads and featured tunes in all the genres (you can hide genres you’re not interested in), new releases/charts, your My Beatport (where you can follow labels/artists, grouping at will), plus sections for your downloads and carts. Across the top are a waveform display and transport controls for the player. There’s a search box top right, to search the whole of Beatport.

Frankly the whole thing feels pretty close to a streaming music service like Spotify – you can playlist stuff, and listen at will, adding to your cart and buying as you see fit (you can have multiple carts), the only limitation being two-minute previews rather than the ability to listen to the whole tune.

It’s basically Beatport on steroids, and is of course nicer to use than the web version of the site. But where it becomes really attractive for me is the fact that you can assign hotkeys (including one to hide/show the whole app), so you can trawl through a playlist in the background while you carry on doing something else.

That means you can stack up a day’s worth of cratedigging, and easily fast forward, rewind, play/pause and add to cart with a few keystrokes as you’re doing something else – great for cratedigging while at work, for instance. This suits the way I search for music down to the ground.

You can listen through whole sections, charts etc (and sort them easily enough too by track name, genre, label, even key), or just spend 10 minutes blasting through charts, new releases and so on, adding a pile of stuff to your playlist, then letting that play on its own in the background.

The way I tend to use it is to do just that, then hit my keyboard shortcut for “add to cart” when I hear something that catches my attention. Then later on, go and listen through the cart to properly audition the tunes. You can have multiple carts, so it’s easy enough to treat a cart like a shortlist (that’s how I do it in Spotify too, by the way – I star tracks, then shortlist them, then listen again before committing to buy).

There are literally stacks of other featured to discover: You can click around on the waveforms to move quickly around in the track samples; you can right-click to bring up “BeatBot” Genius-style suggestions for any track; if you press and hold the “buy” button on any tune it gives you the option to add it to one of your many carts. The fact that it’s a desktop app means such power-features are much easier for the developers to add.

Indeed, there are features here I didn’t even explore because they’re way past what I want from such a program; for instance, you can configure the filenames Beatport uses when it downloads your MP3s, so they are named exactly how you wish!

One other little bonus is an Artwork Tagging feature, that will tag your existing tune collection with artwork from Beatport should you have gaps. A nice, albeit secondary, addition to the primary function of the program, and if you have lot of un-arted-up dance music, a reason in itself to grab this app.

For the Full Story click here

Shout out to Phil Morse at DigitalDJTips.com

CDJ-850-K features include:

• New solid black color option matches Pioneer’s family of DJM series mixers
• Compressed and uncompressed audio playback including MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF
• Advanced Auto Beat Loop
• USB MIDI/HID controls capability
• Built-in sound card
• rekordbox™ music management software included
• Suggested price: $999.00

CDJ-350-S features include:

• New metallic silver color for additional choice from the available black and white models
• Compressed and uncompressed audio playback including MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF
• Auto BPM LOCK easily matches the tempo of songs by simply adjusting the speed to the Master BPM on each player USB MIDI/HID controls capability
• Built-in sound card
• rekordbox™ music management software included
• Suggested price: $800.00

Lady Gaga’s new single “Marry the Night” had the greatest increase with a boost of over 1,000 plays, but could only muster an 18th place finish.

Taio Cruz was the best newcomer on the list, as he saw his single “Hangover” claim the 37th spot.

Rihanna jumped from the 6th spot to number 3 with an increase of over 1,200 plays. She also led with the greatest audience, beating out both Guetta and the Gym Class Heroes.

This week’s biggest increase came from Lady Gaga, who debuted her single “Marry The Night” in the 24th spot.

Check in on every Monday to see who’s dominating the Radio charts.