PIONEER DDJ-FLX6

Product Information

The USB power function means that you might find that you don’t get as much volume as you could get elsewhere, but this isn’t too much of a problem for most hobbyists. With Rekordbox, your pads will give you access to musical samples in a keyboard fashion, allowing you to merge and trigger multiple experiences at the same time.

The jog-wheels on the FLX6 are the same size as those on the CDJ-3000 multi-player. Scratching and pitch bending feels natural, and the inclusion of on jog display ensures vital information can be seen at a glance. Sample Scratch - the all-new pad mode

The truth is that what you can do with pretty much any DJ controller nowadays is amazing, and this is no exception. And when it comes to the advanced functions, in recent years it has been all about the pads. The performance pads It has also been announced as working with Virtual DJ– This is good news, but then, it always did work with Virtual DJ in its previous DDJ-FLX6 incarnation. Maybe this is just exactly the same mapping made official and announced by Pioneer DJ, or maybe there are improvements (we’ll no doubt find out soon enough) Jog Cutter allows you to jump between one of six sections on your wheel to trigger different scratching experiences. According to Pioneer, there are around 10 different scratch jog cutter patterns to explore by moving your play head position, as shown on your on-wheel display. Indeed, with the DDJ-1000, even though the software (Rekordbox) still had effects built in as I just described, the hardware didn’t control them at all. In that unit, they were actually hardware effects. Later, with the Rekordbox DDJ-400, Pioneer DJ maintained the “club-style” effects control, only this time, you were controlling the software effects, as it had no hardware effects of its own. It was limited, but they managed to make it work.

It feels a bit like a controller of mismatches. It is too big and expensive a controller to get away with consumer build quality. The jogs are brilliant, but the crossfader lets them down. The controls don’t really control very well what the software can do, especially with Serato, where for me it is a dealbreaker. As a Rekordbox controller, the Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX6 fills a gap for a reasonably priced, four-channel model. And on the surface, it looks nice – great jogs, decent size, lots of lights. It is going to look good on livestreams and it is going to look good on social media videos. It can instantly sound impressive too, as some of the noises you can make with the Merge FX do indeed sound epic. Pioneer DJ dominates the DJ landscape as one of the best-known and most popular companies in the industry. Pioneer systems are versatile, effective, and often pretty great to look at too. It is fiendishly hard to get your head around, even harder to get anything decent to come out of the speakers, and if a DJ of 30 years cannot understand it (albeit one who is not a scratch DJ, but still…) I guarantee few others will.

Rekordbox and Serato DJ Pro compatibility

Budget has been spent on the “standard” Pioneer DJ looping controls (which to my mind has never been as good as the “single encoder” loop control that has become standard elsewhere), and the memory cue buttons, both functions that are presumably there because Pioneer DJ wants continuity across its range for aspirational DJs – yet this controller is clearly not for aspirational DJs. It is for hobby DJs who have outgrown the DDJ-200 and DDJ-400 – yet in “pro” tech spec, it doesn’t step any closer to the DDJ-800 or DDJ-1000. Now, it may just be that people will come up with cool and clever things to do with the DDJ-FLX6 – but anyone getting serious about their DJing will soon miss more obvious things, like proper control of the software effects, external inputs, and a bit more durability. Why not a DDJ-600? From a control perspective, this certainly isn’t the most advanced option on the market. There are a few things missing, such as key shift hardware or sync buttons. Take away the Merge FX and the Jog Cutter and this is a completely standard software controller – think Reloop Mixon 4, Denon DJ MC7000, Numark NS6II (although generally those are higher specced, better units than this one). It has four software channels, three-band EQ, Color FX knobs (they’re filter only when using Serato), eight performance pads, looping controls. I do hope someone proves me wrong and we see some great uses of this, but while this was maybe a fun feature when triggered via the pads (the infamous “Jazzy Jeff” scratch mode on the Pioneer DJ DDJ-SB3), I just don’t get this at all, and feel it is best rapidly forgotten. Beat FX

To me, it’s a “confuse the hell out of your audience so you can play anything you want next” feature. Fun and innovative, but ultimately, you wouldn’t want to use it often. The controls on the DDJ-FLX6-GT are set up the same way as on its predecessor, which is a club-standard CDJ + DJM setup. This makes it easy to perform. But the new matte grey body and graphite jog wheels give it a more elegant look. Virtual DJ Support It is also undeniably popular, if nothing else for its excellent jogs – plus we do applaud Pioneer’s direction towards making the DDJ-FLX6 work with all software. We look forward to more controllers that “work with everything” moving forward, so how about officially announcing the DDJ-FLX4 for Traktor, Pioneer DJ? Depending how you view this kind of DJing, this is going to be potentially great fun to you, or anathema – an exciting way of adding to your sets, or an “echo-out on steroids” for people without the ability to properly programme music or figure out how to transition between their music. I feel a bit sorry for Pioneer DJ here. They took a lot of flak for not making their DDJ-1000 controller for Rekordbox work with Serato (they eventually released a Serato variant, the DDJ-1000SRT). Now they’ve released a controller that works with both, and they are still going to get flak for it.The Jog Wheel’s dimensions might be full-sized, but they’re not made of metal. These 7-inch capacitive jog wheels are tactile and weighted, despite being largely made of plastic. You’ll also find VU meters in all four of the channels here, but there’s no master VU meter available. The meters are a little dim, however, so make sure you’re equipped to see them properly if you’re DJing in outdoor festivals with a lot of sunshine. D DJ FLX6 : The Verdict This is a software-only DJ controller, so you can’t plug in extra equipment, even if you bought your CDJ or turntable directly from Pioneer themselves. Pitch bending and scratching feel natural on the DDJ-FLX6 thanks to the large jog wheels, which are the same size as those on the flagship CDJ-3000 multi player. Each one features an On Jog Display too, so you can keep an eye on the playhead position.