DDJ-800 / DDJ-1000 wobbly sound when scratching

Thanks for the answer, Pulse. Appreciate it.

Did you use a PC or Mac? As you can see on the screenshots I took of the ddj 800/1000 preferences I am not able to change buffer size. How can this be?

I need to get closer to why my PC with Win 10 is acting up when scratching using ddj 800/1000, but sounds fine with ddj 400. I have seen youtube videos of people (Pro Yon Joni) showcasing scratching with a ddj 800 and a Mac which sounds absolutely smooth. I need to get there with my PC. It can't be that I would need a Mac to get the full experience from ddj 800/1000.

Let me know! Thanks!

Here's a video of Pri Yon Joni (youtuber) who has very smooth sound with his Mac + DDJ-800 during scratching. There is not any information about what his buffer size is: https://youtu.be/fwJJtvJxGnk?list=WL&t=668

Here's a video of another guy using the DDJ-1000 (can't see what type of computer), but his scratching sounds very choppy/warbly like the samples I recorded myself through rekordbox: https://youtu.be/xYoPVhIWc5o?list=PL2TuOiD7IJtVNf1GT_q24WHQH1VsaIJJI&t=11

Still, if it's the buffer size I need to set larger, I first need to know why it is greyed out for me and why I can't adjust it?

Hi, I am having the exact same issue. I just purchased the DDJ 1000. I use windows 10, and I am getting the same wobbly sound when scratching that you mentioned. My latency buffer rate slider is also greyed out.

Last night, I was able to adjust the buffer size slider, and fixed the annoying wobbly scratch sound. This morning, I've opened Rekordbox, and discovered that wobbly sound is back. When I went into settings to check the latency, the buffer size slider was back in its original position, and greyed out. Why would it suddenly grey out when I was able to adjust it only yesterday? 

I noticed the same issue when I first got my DDJ-1000… scratch samples sounded choppy and distorted, especially when doing slow scratches. I found that turning off ‘PC MASTER OUT’ in the top right corner resolved the issue.

The question is: why is this setting causing sound distortions whilst scratching?

I wish I knew because I currently can’t scratch on a live stream because of this issue. I’m hoping somebody can shed some light on this...

 I just got my DDJ-1000 (brand new) and it's doing the exact same thing. Using the DDJ-1000 ASIO driver, which should be used. DVS is absolutely fine.. no wobble / warble / etc.

I disabled the computer audio output, as suggested. It did nothing different.

I tried ASIO4ALL and other drivers... the main DDJ-1000 driver should be rock-solid. I don't know what's up. I tried ALL buffer settings. All of them.

This is driving me NUTS. I want to use the jogwheels to scratch in addition to scratching on DVS. DVS is flawless. The jogwheels are terrible.... they sound exactly like the original poster's audio examples.

Windows 7, 64-bit. Don't know why this is happening. Latest firmware installed, and the 1.10 driver, as well.

There is DEFINITELY something wrong with the DRIVER for these devices....

Here is audio proof from tonight:

DDJ-SX, Rekordbox 5.8
http://oustedproductions.net/audioexamples/DDJ-SX.mp3

DDJ-800, Rekordbox 5.8
http://oustedproductions.net/audioexamples/DDJ-800.mp3

DDJ-1000, Rekordbox 5.8 (this sounds the worst, sadly)
http://oustedproductions.net/audioexamples/DDJ-1000.mp3

DDJ-1000 DVS mode, Rekordbox 5.8 (Rekordbox timecode vinyl)
http://oustedproductions.net/audioexamples/DDJ-1000DVS.mp3

Notice how the SX and DVS are perfect.

Hey Chris. Great recordings you have made.

I agree with you that DDJ-800/DDJ-1000 sound pretty bad and wobbly. Definitely some audible artifacts as a result of the audio processing through the ASIO sound card driver. DDJ-SX sounds much better, but DDJ-1000 DVS is completely flawless - and in my opinion, this is how all controllers should sound (I know that there is a limitation in the digital encoding in the jog-wheel, but this is not related to this issue).

Anybody who would argue that DDJ-400/DDJ-SX scratching sounds similar to DDJ-800/DDJ-1000 on Windows have clearly not heard these samples! There is no issue on the Mac OS (I have tried). This is only a problem on Windows. Should you have to buy a specific operating system to get this to work? I would think not.

I think that Pioneer DJ should really fix this issue because DDJ-800 and DDJ-1000 are high-end products. DDJ-1000 is even marketed for scratching with its high quality fader.

@Pulse, if you are still reading this, please listen to the above recordings and try out the equipment again. It doesn't matter how you put the settings in Rekordbox - the wobbling audio artifact when scratching remains.

Thanks!

THANK YOU ruben for replying. I knew I wasn't crazy. It is obviously absolutely terrible. And yeah, from what I've seen on Mac, this isn't present. Hello guys, perhaps a driver update?

I tried ASIO4all, and everything else under the sun and the problem STILL remains.

This issue is not present using the DDJ-1000 or DDJ-800 with Mixxx, or Traktor (tried and tested. The audio is perfect). The only issue is how the 800 or 1000 communicates with Rekordbox.

I KNEW I wasn't alone, here. Thank you! Let's keep this thread as active as possible. WE NEED A DRIVER UPDATE. Thank you, Pulse and everyone at Pioneer DJ.

Interesting that you have tested with Mixxx and Traktor to find that the DDJ-800/1000 are not behaving similarly. This means that it's a Rekordbox issue on Windows only.

I'd be very interested in what Pioneer DJ's response is to this. I think it will be important to update the software so people will not regard Rekordbox as a lower quality piece of software.

Hi ruben and @Pulse (if you ever see this).... I tested the 800 and 1000 on my girlfriend's Mac (not latest OS just released), but the most current and stable. SAME. ISSUE. This is NOT just a Mac thing. No way. It is a DDJ-1000 / DDJ-800 thing.

I am returning both to the online retailers I got them from. Hanging onto my friend's DDJ-SX (I've borrowed so long, it's basically mine anyway). The DDJ-SX is rock-solid with the scratching (no wobbling/bubbling/ "phlegm"). The DDJ-SX also works wonderfully alongside my regular tables for DVS, when I use my Motu M4 as my input/output for my audio. No issues whatsoever. I get the benefits of the DDJ-SX (pad FX, scratching jogwheels, three FX per channel, plus brake fx)... and using an external mixer (DJ Tech DIF-2S MKII) for the DVS ins/outs and for the crossfader (the wonderfully perfect Innofader Mini Pro). Flawless. Cheap, easy solution for scratching and hip-hop mixing.

Bought a DDJ-400 just for the hell of it, to experiment the same way. I know the 400 can't touch the SX as far as features go, but I'm interested to check it out and see how the workflow is but most importantly... interested in checking to see if the scratches wobble/bubble/phlegm. Hopefully not.

Just a heads-up about that Windows/Mac thing.... I did record audio of it on the Mac, but it's basically just as bad as the mp3 clips above, so there's no point to sharing it at least until we hear from Pulse or ANYONE over at Pioneer / Alpha Theta.

Thanks guys... PLEASE. FIX. THE. 800. AND. 1000. WITH A DRIVER AND/OR FIRMWARE UPDATE. Unreal how useless they are for scratching, considering the price.

Have you checked that this isn't as a result of the CPU entering a turbo state? I'd recommend loading up the Intel Power Gadget and watch for the pink line for the requested CPU clock speed, and then try and match the incidents of warble to the CPU.

Thanks, Pulse. Took me forever to get logged in. Even though I'm logged in, the little comment window does not appear. Something is sincerely wrong with Pioneer's site. Had to refresh a bunch of times. I deleted the cookies, logged out, logged in. I tried the latest Chrome, Firefox, Brave... nothing worked. Firefox finally did.

I did exactly as you requested. I'm not experiencing any turbo boost stuff or any evidence showing anything when using Rekordbox. It's stable and solid (I know a good deal about computer optimization). There is nothing out of the ordinary being shown, here, on Mac or Windows.

Did you listen to the audio I posted? It's pretty telling and obviously, something is wrong. And ruben and I can't be the only ones out there experiencing that behavior.

Hope you guys can figure out the issue. In the meantime, I returned the 800 and 1000 back to Zzounds and AMS, respectively. My DDJ-SX is rocking things perfectly, with no issues at all.

@Pulse

Thanks for the reply! Nice to know that we are not completely overlooked.

It seems weird that you would need to limit your computer's performance to make this work. 

Anyway, have you tried to see if you can reproduce the problem that we are facing? Why does it happen? I mean, can you also get the sound to be 'warbly' and do you have and exact reason for this happening?

Chris's recordings are sublime, and it is exactly these 'warbly' sounds that have kept me from buying a DDJ800/1000, although, I really want to!

I tested with my PC (high end Dell XPS 15, 3 years old) and all settings in rekordbox, incl. buffer size, did not change the sound - not sure about cpu turbo. Also tested with older Macbook Air which didn't have the same sound, although it was way inferior hardware spec-wise; the sound was absolutely clean. But maybe this Macbook Air didn't have turbo at all? Difficult to test again, since the local DJ shop closed down permanently due to Corona :(

@Chris, if you ever get your hands on the DDJ-400, let me know how it works out for you. The 400 uses WASAPI sound driver, whereas 800/1000 uses ASIO - I'm pretty sure that the ASIO is somehow causing the issue, but it's difficult to get clear answers. 

The way I see it: DDJ-800/1000 should be just as good sounding, or better, than the DDJ-400/DDJ-SX given their step-up in price-tag and professionalism. That also goes for scratching!

Sorry for the ranting, but I just can't believe that this is actually an issue when you're spending that much money. 

@Dylan > Your issue was when you had the PC MASTER enabled; that likely occurred because rekordbox had problems passing the audio to your other audio interface. If it works fine otherwise, then that certainly indicates the problem is not the DDJ.

@Chris > Because we use an SSO for login, you need to allow cross-site cookies to be enabled for:

pioneerdj.com
rekordbox.com
zendesk.com
gigya.com

Just clearing the cookies doesn't do it all.

The DDJ-1000 and 800 are more demanding units thanks to their displays, and thus more susceptible to fluctuations in the computer system affecting the audio.

Yes, I listened to the audio, but without context or correlation to other factors, it's meaningless to hear it but not know what else is happening at the time. You're not the only one complaining about this problem, but the vast majority of owners are not having any similar issues.

@ruben > Per above; finding the cause is tricky, and yes - the Air may have been cleaner because it was without a turbo function on the CPU. Without having more information about what else is running on your computer at the time, we can't specifically diagnose the cause.

The 1000 and 800 certainly are better sounding than the 400 and SX; these issues are computer-related, not the DDJ hardware.

Pulse... appreciate your reply.

You're right. It's not the hardware. Both units were brand-new.

What it more than likely is, though... is interaction between the hardware and the computer when using the jogwheels and/or the ASIO side of things. It isn't "my computer" as so many companies are quick to respond with. I know that isn't what you're saying, but I'm just pointing out... as mentioned above, I optimize my computers perfectly as I run a business through my home, and home studio. 20+ years of research, tweaking, rebuilding, etc. It isn't my computer. Especially if the DDJ-SX is working perfectly with it. I also tested an SX2, borrowed from a friend. No issues. Had a DDJ-RB and a DDJ-RX a while ago before selling.... no issues.

Please, listen and try to understand. If I'm not the only one experiencing this, and neither is ruben, or the handful of people when I posted about the problem at Reddit.... then it is something that needs to be investigated by you guys. Especially if it is happening with both Macs and PCs.

I don't know what else to test. The wi-fi is never on, with that computer. I don't use wi-fi while using audio programs, because I know how it can interfere with performance. There is no wi-fi, no "startup" programs running, no extra anything. It's bare-bones, and it works flawlessly with every single other program on it, and with the DDJ-SX and the DVS with Rekordbox. Which leads me to believe there is some type of 800/1000 jogwheel / audio weirdness happening. It has to be a driver issue, and probably only that.

If you have any other ideas on what it could be, I'm open to trying anything out. I tested on multiple computers and computer configs-- Mac, Windows 7, Windows 10, Intel, AMD, etc. I have 8 different computers in my home studio, all of which are optimized. And the problem is present on every single one.

Thanks again for your response. I'd love to get to the bottom of all of this as I would love to own a DDJ-1000 again.

Hi guys.

Just to inform that i have the same issue with wobbly sound when scratching, or "move" the sound very slow on the platter.

I thought it was due to my old laptop, but i recently changed for a Lenovo Legion 5 core i7, 16GB ram, 1TB SSD, GTX1660Ti, with all drivers up to date, , CPU throttling setting to 100%.

The only way to decrease this wobbly sound was to set the latency to 2.9ms (128 buffer memory in DDJ setup tool installed with driver DDJ 1000) but sometimes it creates drops out when playing 2 tracks.

I had the DDJ-400 working fine with my old laptop (256 buffer memory), no wobbly sound when slow jog moves or scratch. 

Hope this is a driver or ASIO issue and will be fixed soon.

Just bought DDJ1000 and came to this thread as I have exactly the same issue

PC master out is off

Latency is greyed out

No CPU issues

Pioneer needs to look into this seriously

For PC you'll need to go Windows - Pioneer - DDJ 1000 settings utility- ASIO. You'll be able to adjust the latency there. This resolved the issue for me. I believe it's only in the Mac OS that you can adjust the latency within the RB software.

Good luck!

I found that but it was still not great, did improve it a bit though

You may have other things in your system causing the issue - you can file an inquiry ticket here and our support team will gather some additional information to assist you in resolving this issue.