Many Pioneer users find it ridiculous to have the pads above the Jog and would prefer to have it below. The risks of touching the jog with the arm are very high with the pads above the jog during a performance game. The layout chosen by Pioneer for the pads on the CDJ 3000 is far from being a consensus, even in their own camp.
And I agree with them Gaian, and agree with you. I was just addressing the anomaly in the confusing comments above.
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I have that on Rane Four. Itās a great idea but I tend to never look at it. Itās better to have everything collected on the main screen.
So how about the Lighting buttons?
I have the RANE Four, and I love the STEMS mode on the potentiometers and prefer it over the pads. Especially for blending the vocal and drums with different levels. But sometimes you need to EQ as well, and I found it unwieldy to switch between the modes while mixing.
Yes, I agree, stem separation is no.1 priority.
I do love the lighting feature of P4+. And hope more DJs would starts using this feature. I sometimes find myself wanting to see the waveform of the current track while playing with the lights. So that could be good enough to add a miniature of the master waveform to the lighting UI.
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I have used the 3000s in openformat quick mixing
I didnāt encounter any issues with the location of the pads.
Top, bottom, left as long as there are pads, I am happy as Larry.
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I use the stems with VDJ, not with a Rane Four but with a Z2 whose operation for the stems is quite similar. There are several types of configuration possible such as modern EQ and EZ remix which are modes that allow you to assign the stems to the EQ buttons.
And I prefer to have the stems on the Z2 pads precisely because it allows you to both keep the classic EQ function and to be able to activate or deactivate the stems as you wish with the pads.
On VDJ you can even script your pads so that an echo out or another effect of your choice is engaged when you cut a stem. I scripted my vocal stems pad so that when I cut the vocal it cuts with a quantized echo out on 1 beat with feedback from the echo on 8 beats.
So associating the stems on the pads and keeping the EQ to refine the frequencies of the mix is āāthe best combo for me.
And since I have the LC6000s next to me for the decks, the pads on these units remain in hotcue mode. That gives me a total of 24 pads between the z2 and the 2 LC6000s. But itās true that on the rane four you only have 8 pads per deck, so you have to switch between pad modes to access the hotcues.
You havenāt had any problems, but in absolute terms having the pads on the bottom further eliminates the risk of accidentally touching the jog.
Iād have a difficult task disagreeing with anyone who thought that this entire thread was the equivalent of BurgerKing advertising on a billboard just outside the towns McDonaldās; merely picking out a few of alphathetas meagre features and signposting them to any readers who havenāt yet discovered that āindustry standardā could simply mean "10 years behind Denon DJ Prime series.
Pioneer (and I suspect the same of AlphaTheta) launch a ānewā model every 18 months but itās just the same as the model from 18 months ago, with a few of the buttons moved around, and a bit of a paint job
Since Iām posting about a fantasy unit, I really liked the idea of having dedicated buttons on each side to switch mode. Iāve thought about this and I imagine it would be nice if the encoders were 360 digital ones like them on the FX section on P4+, with value +/-10 on the screen (Haptic feedback would be nice). Single push on the knob or load a new track would reset it to 0. This would also make the mixer look cleaner.
Hey, Gaian.
Iāve made an update with your feedback. I really like the new mixer layout with the browser knob on the right side just under the screen. And deck-selection over each channel level meter. I didnāt do anything with the mic mixer part or the main out since they are great already. I killed a lot of darlings that I think can be adjusted on the screen instead. Pitch Range buttons is missing, and maybe thatās something a lot of DJās use, but that can also be changed the same way as Key-shift on screen.
Itās almost reversed to the size of P4+, so itās lighter but with 6K Jogwheels and dedicated STEMS switches. Itās still a little bigger screen, which I like.
The loop sections are in the wrong place ā not intuitive placement. Headphones control alsoā¦ Reverse / censor is in wrong place and has too small button - it is a performance feature - should have bigger button. Next / previous track buttons are missing. It is good to use them when doing fast mixing and you have the list sorted - then no need to go to playlist ā just hit the NEXT track button to load next track.
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I think brake time and quantization need a hardware button
Hi, NoiseRiser.
Thank you for your feedback!
Why is the Loop placement not intuitive on the right side? On units where the looping is on screen I always use the right hand so why is this different? This will save a lot of space.
Headphones part and CUE is just a creative placement so itās far from the STEMS buttons and to keep it on one line. I thought it was quite clever. Why donāt you like it?
If you blindly know whatās next on your playlist, then yes a small N-button could be implemented over the CUE button. But with the wider screen you can have a browser up all the time with fast finger swipes or the P4 browser knobs, isnāt that more useful?
Love this discussion.
Hi! How often do you change Stop Time?
Quantize is always there on the screen, isnāt that good enough? But a button or a shortcut on the desktop app is super needed.
Iām also thinking about ditching the Vinyl button as well to make room for a bigger REV button. How often do you change that if youāre a non vinyl mode player?
Looping is on most stand alone players in upper left side of the jog wheel - Reloop, Denon, Pioneer, American Audio. That makes the muscle memory to naturally reach there to use loops.
For the next button - same situation - muscle memory and speed. When you are having Your hand over the play/cue area to stop the track to load another one, you expect next and previous track buttons above the cue button.
Above that reverse button - again muscle memory - you try to reach there with minimum glance and You know already what to expect.
As @Dreher80 said - another 2 important things missing. Quantize mode button - would be better to have a hardware button.
Headphones jack in front panel would be better located - less stress for the cables.
Donāt ditch the vinyl button - it needs to be on hand.
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i do about 4/5 times per set, i use the slow down method to end a track by filtering and echoing out then scratching it to create a spacey kind of breakdown sound, before playing the next track, it works well when a track starts with an interlude as it sort of melds into each other.
Edit: a digital version of the old turn the 1210 off to let the record slow down technique.
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Interesting evolutions here but I will improve the following points
Just keep the decks of your previous model and combine it with the mixer of this model
The part concerning the headphone connectors could in my opinion be moved to the front plate with a crossfader curve adjustment like on the Z2
This frees up space on the upper part to put a general On/off effect activation button like on SC live 4 and add just above a Dry/wet potentiometer to manage the intensity of the sweep FX effect.
You can slightly raise the Mix & Level buttons of the āPhoneā part because there is a lot of empty space above.
Enlarge the depth of the parts on each side of the screen so that it is flush with the depth of the back of the screen, move everything up and insert in the newly created empty space a Needle Drop touch strip from the LC6000 (because it is always good to have it physically rather than on the screen).
Combine all this and you would be very close to the Ideal unit for me
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With the Prime 2, the braking time hardweare button has been reinstalled because it works better. And if you have activated quantization, try pressing the hot cue buttons quickly. If you want to change quickly, thereās no way around buttons.
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I personally prefer needle drop on the waveform on the screen. This is far from nice but Iāve updated the righthand side with the bigger players and moved the browsing section. (That part needs more work)
Iāve also added a STEMS (ā°) switch button for each channel under the level meter. I really like the idea of having both Master EQ potentiometers and a Master FX function. Iāve also added a Master Sweep FX potentiometer.
Well, hereās an update.
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Nice improvement, especially on the mixer part.
The layout of the right deck is much better and is much more in line with the āclub standardā layout in the placement of the buttons.
The upper left part where you have the microphone section seems much narrower than the upper right section that you widened to fit the navigation wheel and the track loading buttons.
Now widen the upper left section so that it is the same size as the right one, even if it means filling the empty space with an EngineOS logo, if you canāt find a function to fill this space.
This will allow you to copy the layout of the right deck onto the left deck and have a coherent whole with a perfectly symmetrical layout between the two decks. But these two decks themselves do not necessarily need to have a mirror layout. Just imagine two LC6000s, with the top section containing the needle drop and navigation button removed, separated by your mixer.
You will get a slightly larger unit but thatās okay because you will get a more coherent whole
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Thereās a lot to like about this, but as @Gaian says the lack of symmetry is a bit jarring. In particular the different placement of things like beat jump and quantise would drive me absolutely mental 
Love the idea of a widescreen panel though, and the master FX. Still feel like the current FX1/FX2 model is a bit fiddly.
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