Auto Sync/Beatmatching on CDJ 2000's?

The original CDJ-2000 players do not have Sync.  The beat grid feature in Rekordbox was initially developed only to give quantized loops and quantized FX with compatible mixers (i.e. DJM-2000, DJM-900 Nexus) and the RMX-1000.  The automatic analysis in Rekordbox does not always get the beat grids perfectly aligned every time, so that's why there are some buttons for moving the blue grid markers and stretching/shrinking the space between the markers.  You will need to take a few moments when you load new tracks into Rekordbox to check the beat grids and make some minor grid adjustments.

The new CDJ-2000 Nexus players do have a Sync feature, however.   So if you are looking for auto beat sync then you'll need to buy the latest players which were just released this month.

i am just curious why you ask this?

if you have been dj'ing for 16 years and with the decimal point on the bpm then mixing should be tight anyway?

do you thing you will save that much more time?

syncing or not you are still going to have to listen to the cue and as long as both bpm's match then the job is pretty much done.

@Fuse Promote, many thanks for your feedback

@iconyx > As Fuse has already pointed out, its not possible to sync one CDJ2000 to another - that feature has only recently been added to the CDJ2000nexus (causing much controversy, which we won't get in to!). Currently, your options are to keep doing so manually or, buy the new players or choose a DVS (software) option.

Thanks for your response Gavin, I've been mulling over getting Traktor along with the X1 Kontroller for some time now, so I think I'm just gonna go ahead and bite the bullet.. It looks like fun :)

WONG Gavin and Fuse. IT IS possible to use sync with cdj's 2000 and do all the crappy tricks they shown on release videos that you slow down or speed up one track and the others just follow the "master one". All Iconyx need is a reasonable laptop and connect his cdjs to it while running Traktor. From what I heard Traktor 2.5.1 supports advanced HID so you will get all functions of your CDJ working 100% through it now (older versions didnt work with advanced HID). And if you look at a folder that helps with traktor setup (folder released by Pioneer itself - I will try to find the link to you) then you can even have a shortcut to sync WORKING JUST LIKE A SYNC BUTTON (press hold rec/call + press TEMPO +-6 -+10...) and do everything you want without having to spend cash on a new unit man. All you need is to set up Traktor correctly. I can pass you the exact setups too but its all there on the folder I mentioned. I'll be back to post it here to you.

here it is Iconyx

http://pioneer.jp/support/connect/pdf/dj/CDJ-900_2000_TRAKTOR_EN.pdf

on pages 6 and 7 you will find all the shortcuts and functions you will get from your cdj 2000 and PLUS: all the functions that didn't work on older versions of Traktor like the reverse button and so on are working because of the advanced HID support. Dont forget to turn that option on through configurations on menu button (press and hold)

On Traktor's Preferences > Controller Manager don't forget to set device as CDJ 2000 so it can auto set all those standards correspondences and shortcuts to you.

@ Pionix - I also don't see the point mate... just trying to help the guy since it's a nonsense changing the units just to get that damn sync feature.

but to be honest... buying cdjs 2000 to link to a laptop is another nonsense to me... what I like about them is the fact of being able to plug a ssd and forget my laptop at home. Everything is there, tracks, loops, hot cues, cue points and bla bla bla.... small and without moving parts like a regular internal hd...

... but the forum is for helping right? so there it is 

Guys, thank you all for taking the time out to help me. It is truly appreciated.

I've been doing my research and decided that Traktor is definitely the way forward for me. The latest version of the software supports advanced HID, so using Traktor doesn't render my CDJs redundant, I can have the best of both worlds. I'm also going to purchase the X1 Kontroller, which will also make playing gigs relatively simple with the added in benefit of its effects.

One last question... I obviously understand that Traktor analyses my tracks when adding my music library into the Traktor software, but with RekordBox i always took time to manually check over the beat grid each time I added music & found thanks that it was always 100% perfect therefore had to manually align the beats.. will I need to do this again for every track or do you know if there is there a way to transfer the beats already gridded from RekordBox?

*found that it wasn't always 100% perfect

It is another software mate so it probably will analize all your tracks again. I posted something here on Rekordbox forum saying that a lot of times it analizes tracks and behaves like this: lets suppose a track is 128 BPM. then you see grid isnt tight and then you start moving it to the left (tightening the beats) just at the very end of the track. To my surprise bpm all of a sudden jumps to 127.99 which is a weird thing since tighten beats should make the bpm raise and not low the number. I keep clicking and tightening the beats and It jumps back to 128 after some time. That shows how much serious improvement Rekordbox needs on track analisis. Unfortunatelly Traktor is way ahead on that matter and is much more tighter than Rekordbox. When Pioneer released last version I upgraded mine hoping something had upgraded on that matter too just to find out I had to fix the grid of 1000 tracks again and find the same behaviour on bpm counting....  :(   I hope someday they turn their eyes to that problem also

Ok, so im not alone in experiencing probs with RekordBox. I know it's a real pain, more often than not doesn't grid correctly so you have to spend time manually doing it anyway, really frustrating and time consuming. Hopefully Traktor performs more admirably in that department :)

I did some tests with a friend of mine that also has 2000's mk1 and even breakbeats were fine with grid alignment on Traktor... bad for me that use only rekordbox for getting my tracks ready for my SSD... :(((

It would be awesome if you could export tracks that have been assigned cue p

Whoops... What I was trying to say is that it would be nice if you could export tracks that had been assigned cue points and grids within Traktor out to rekordbox

Any software program is going to require some manual adjustment to beat grids, warp markers, etc...   Traktor, Ableton Live, Rekordbox... they all need adjustments.  It obviously depends a lot on the individual track iteself, too.

@ DJNR - Rekordbox is not good even on exporting database to another computer with same version of Rekordbox and OS. A lil bit of a pain and still you get problems with track arts (if the image is not inside track data). So I wouldnt expect that sort of interaction with Traktor since neither a propper button to automatically create a recoverable backup of your database exists. Maybe one day when they quit releasing products every 3 minutes :P

Guys, pardon my ignorance but i'm after one final piece of advice. 

As you've probably guessed by now, i am going to be new to software digital mixing so this is probably going to sound like a ridiculous question to you pro's but.. as i have already mentioned, I am going to purchase Traktor. The NOX606 mixer http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/NOX606.aspx i have only has MIDI on one channel, does this affect the ability to aggregate my CDJ 2000s in the software settings. In layman's terms, i want to still have the CDJs running through their own channels through my mixer via Traktor... am i likely to encounter any issues given that i only own a crappy Behringer as a stop gap and don't own a DJM (yet)?

Cheers again.

no matter what you use you will config as CDJs 2000 with external mixer. I dont know much about that mixer but it seems to have midi and stuff. will do it.

Ok thank you. Yes it has midi but only in 1 channel. It's 2 in 2 out. Which has me wondering if I can still configure 2 CDJs to separate channels on the mixer

<SNIP> Nope.

You've been warned.

Bye, Felicia!