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Drifting with latest firmware

I updated my CDJ2000's last night and gave them a spin today

 

Tracks ive used previously and mixed with the confidence in pitch accuracy now appear to drift slightly. I usually mix over approx. 2 minutes of the tune on average and within this time it requires a few manual alterations.

 

This is not using MT.

Is it just my ears or does anyone else have this issue?

Simon Abberley

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Depends on the tracks being played, and on which precision level you are using for the tempo range.  (i.e. -  I always mix on 6% range)

Like you, I tend to ride my mixes for a long time.  2 minutes or more, sometimes.  I have always found that mixing on CDJ players requires more adjustment than vinyl.  And the reason for this is simple....  it's digital vs. analog pitch control.  A digital pitch control (like on all CD players) can only give you a limited amount of precision.  In the case of Pioneer, the smallest degree of precision is  0.02% when using the 6% pitch range setting.  This is pretty good, but it's not always going to be perfect, especially for a longer mix.  You may find yourself in a situation where, for example, a pitch setting of +0.32% on the player requires adjustments and so you go to the next closest position available, let's say 0.30% in this case.... yet now you must adjust the other direction.  It would be nice if there was an adjustment available for 0.31% in this case, but alas the player's tempo does not allow adjustments of this degree of precision.  So we must make manual adjustments in these cases.  It's just a minor limitation of the equipment.

I remember when I was still using vinyl, that most of the time I could get the beats matched well enough to ride a mix for a very long time with very minimal adjustments.  Then again, some records were better than others.  But the nice thing about an analog pitch control was, theoretically you could get a more precise adjustment.

The scenario described above is true for all CD players, not just the CDJ-2000.  I had to deal with it when I had my CDJ-1000 MK2 players many years ago.  When playing CDs I knew that I was just going to have to make more manual corrections than with vinyl.  That's just how it was.

 

Another factor which I come across sometimes is digital download tracks which do not have a perfectly stable tempo throughout the entire duration of the track.  When I come across tracks like these, what I notice is that when I load them into Rekordbox and analyze with Normal mode.... the beat grid might require adjustments over the duration of the track in order to keep the grid perfectly aligned to the beats.  What I have begun doing when I come across tracks with unstable tempo is I load them into Ableton Live and warp them, and then render a new file.  This way the new file has a stable tempo which will make the analyze on Normal mode work better in Rekordbox.  I then don't have to make as many adjustments to the beat grid, and of course the song tempo is more stable which means mixing should be easier.

It's important to remember that Rekordbox and the CDJ-2000 do not do any kind of "warping" like Ableton Live can do.  The beat grid adjustments we make in Rekordbox are only adjusting the grid, and not the actual tempo of the song.  So if you have a track with an unstable tempo and you make a bunch of grid adjustments to it, the song will still playback with the tempo variations.  The only thing that will change is the readout of the BPM on the CDJ-2000 screen, since the BPM is based on the grid.  If you try mixing tracks like that, then you will obviously need to make more adjustments.

John Kiser 0 Stimmen
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@Simon > You will, absolutely, have to make adjustments over the course of 2mins - this is not the CDJs drifting - you will have to rely on your ears.

Gavin 0 Stimmen
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Yeah, it's driftig a lot. Like in my last post written, which for what reason ever Gavin deleted, it drifts and the sound quality, espacially with melodic stuff, is terrible! It hacks and sounds "digitally destroyed"!
And when I take the same record and mix it with the same speed without Master Tempo, it will stay the whole song in time, no matter at what pitch. If I do the same with Master Tempo, it drops. It sounds, like the tracks have different swings and after max 10 seconds it drifts totally away.

I'm sorry, but the FW is not an improvement! I think Pioneer has to fix it again, because in this state, it is worthless.

Xador 0 Stimmen
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