Lighting Gobos / Prism / Frost etc

It's coming up to 3 years since the DMX1 product launched and still no control for other than the most basic functions.

Whenever I talk to other DJs about Rekordbox lighting, the conversation always goes, well I'd love to use it but it cannot do even half of what I need it to do.

I enjoy the Pioneer ecosystem of products, but bt is getting to the point where I am thinking, do I continue with Rekordbox or invest in Serato or VDJ to get Soundswitch, because I need my lightshow to sync with my music properly and I need to be able to program gobos / frost / prism etc otherwise it will look boring. I am not happy with just being able to trigger them with direct control, I want to be able to program them in each macro like a strobe channel. I need to be able to access manual scenes. I want to be able to control DMX for laser units as well.

Why did you launch this product in a state that no professional would want to use it?

Why is it taking 3 years to add control of all channels?

Is there going to be a major update in the near future?

Currently I could be enjoying programming shows whilst DJs are still in lockdown. I hope Pioneer get a bit of a wake up call during this pandemic and start to sort out the product features we really need.

Mervin Hatten October 13, 2020 08:05 Answered

Official comment

Hey Mervin,

I hear you - many of these comments are the same ones we made to the lighting team back before it launched. Unfortunately it's a small team working on the lighting aspect and some of the things we'd like to see incorporated take a back seat to fixes and other changes.

Yes, there are additional updates coming - we just had a big one to add the Pro DJ Link mode lighting to allow rekordbox to manage the lighting show when a DJ is playing from CDJs. I understand this isn't the update you were looking for, but please understand that many updates and features are scheduled into the timeline well in advance.

If you want to take advantage of those additional features which aren't currently supported within your fixture control, consider adding a custom DMX override; rekordbox now has the ability to add 3 banks for 16 controls for that purpose.

My personal opinion of rekordbox lighting is it's great for the one-man-show mobile DJ who wants to have a light show synchronized with their performance. It's not intended to be the professional touring-grade light desk replacement, which is one of the reasons we integrate with TC Supply's Show Kontrol protocol.

Pulse October 13, 2020 18:29

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Date Votes

4 comments

I am a +1 on adding Gobos, Frost and other features to Rekordbox lighting.

I would love to completely switch out from Serato/Soundswitch to Rekordbox ecosystem.

But the lighting part isn't up to par yet. I understand why Pioneer (alphabeta) wouldn't invest a-lot of time, money and manpower on lighting. But if thats the case just make it compatible with SoundSwitch which is a much better system.

Michael Melice October 14, 2020 17:50 0 votes

SoundSwitch is now owned by Denon, unlikely that Pioneer will play nice with them giving their assult on CDJ with the new Denon offerings. I agree sound switch is much more refined and capable than Rekordbox Lighting. I was one of those who also pre-ordered a RB-DMX1 on day 1 and have felt abandoned by the software.

DJ Chase October 16, 2020 02:48 0 votes

Pulse, firstly thankyou for responding so fast. Unfortunately I am having to work very difficult hours delivery driving since there are no gigs, so I may take a little while to respond.

Personally in my opinion, and I mean no disrespect, I feel having a 'small team' is a weak excuse since manual control of all channels is available on every single other DMX controller solution and it's not particularly hard to introduce, nor is it a feature one would only expect on high end lighting desks. All Pioneer really had to do was pick up one of the existing 100's of DMX softwares out there, and let Rekordbox users sync their songs to it.

I also felt a little bit disrespected to (maybe) imply a one-man mobile DJ show should be somehow any less *professional* than a touring-grade lighting solution. We already have professional lighting solutions for one-man shows, we just want them to sync to our songs as we mix! Mobile DJs still try to put on as close to a festival style experience as possible and we are a large portion of the DJ market. Changing gobos /frost / prism is not some kind of function reserved for elite lighting desks.

Mobile DJs are likely to be out of work for some time but I would hope Pioneer helps us with the right products to get us creating the best shows.

As a mobile DJ, we really need Pioneer to be offering a compact, lightweight, 4 channel XDJ style standalone mixing console ideally with DMX1 built in, and with some IP rating protection from spills. And import the DMX programs as well as song database onto the USB stick. Basically an all-in-one, portable solution. We'd be happy to pay a good price for such a product. The best solution we have at the moment is a Serato laptop controller with Soundswitch.

The recent model launches since after the XDJ-RX2 seem to be all about making as small, incremental improvements as possible to keep products selling, but leave out a feature or two we really need. I feel Pioneer are deliberately omit certain simple features to ensure users are forced to upgrade in the future. This is disappointing when until recently Pioneer was considered the market forerunner. Over the last couple of years, we have started to get used to competitors trying to innovate ahead of Pioneer.

The introduction of a subscription based service for Rekordbox for features many of us already paid for in Rekordbox 5 is also disappointing. Paying a monthly subscription just to use the Record feature is just disrespectful and a really petty way to try to get. Any professional ought to already have method of recording their audio output, so why charge people extra just for the convenience of using the Record feature within Rekordbox. This should be as standard as cue and play buttons.

If Pioneer are going to charge subscriptions, it should only be for online services, and those services need to be really good. You are risking alienating a lot of your customer base.

I am hoping Rekordbox will gain AI stem separation a la Virtual DJ in the near future as it is an open-source technology and extremely useful.

There seems to be a shift going on with Pioneer producing an ever more premium products line alongside an ever more restricted consumer line. We need more practical solutions for DJs on the move in the middle.

Thanks for listening to my concerns and suggestions, I know Pioneer does listen to customers even if it takes a while for products to materialise. I hope you relay some feedback to the design and marketing departments. TIA

Mervin Hatten October 17, 2020 22:18 0 votes