Numark iDJ2 iPod Mixer with Scratch Control

by Numark

Product Features

• Large backlit, full-color display with revolutionary user interface
• Universal Dock for iPod with adjustable mount
• USB Keyboard support
• Scratching and mixing for MP3, WAV and AAC (unprotected) files
• Beatkeeper technology empowers you to beat-match visually

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 17.5 x 6.5 inches ; 8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000SM6608
• Item model number: iDJ2
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,221 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

iDJ2 is the first mixing station that enables you to play two tracks simultaneously from the same iPod. iDJ2 is a powerful DJ performance device with a dual-deck layout, a professional Numark DJ mixer, Numark's exclusive Crate music-management system on a color LCD and a dock for iPod. You can perform with nothing more than iDJ2 and an iPod!

The first mixing station that enables you to play two tracks simultaneously from the same iPod. Click to enlarge.

Features a performance-ready, two-channel mixer. Click to enlarge.

Rugged, smooth crossfader with adjustable slope. Click to enlarge.

Plenty of I/O in addition to the USB ports. Click to enlarge.

Performance Controls
You can scratch and locate specific points within the track using iDJ2's large wheels. Create and integrate seamless loops in seconds. iDJ2 has Fader Start, which enables iDJ2 to automatically start playback when you move the crossfader. Numark's advanced Keylock feature enables you to shift the track's tempo while maintaining pitch. And exclusive Beatkeeper technology empowers you to beat-match visually, by simply lining up the lights so you spend less time working in headphones.

Complete DJ Mixer With USB Connections
iDJ2 has a performance-ready, two-channel mixer. Each channel has three-band EQs, gain control, pitch and line faders, level metering, loop controls, a tap tempo button, and standard transport and cue controls. A rugged, smooth crossfader with adjustable slope completes iDJ2's mixer so you can mix between sources.

In addition to its iPod dock, iDJ2 has two sets of analog phono/line-switchable inputs with grounds so you can connect CD players, turntables, drum machines, and other analog music sources. It also has two USB ports for connecting digital devices and mixing them in.

iDJ2 has a complete cueing section with both 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch stereo jacks, independent cue level, tone, and cue-assign controls. iDJ2 also has a full-featured output section with balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA Master outputs and RCA Record outputs for recording your performance.

Crate System
Numark's Crate system is an electronic approach to managing setlists and the music library designed around the way you work with your vinyl or CDs. You can prepare setlists ahead of time, build them as your performance unfolds, or combine the two approaches. You just select a track in your library and load it into the virtual crate for either Deck A or Deck B. Quickly text-search with iDJ2's click knob using artist, track or album name. For even faster track access, you can plug in an optional USB keyboard.

The Crate system is easy to view in any lighting conditions thanks to its color LCD screen. The screen also enables you to use Track Profile view for easy visual detection of energy changes in tracks. You'll be able to locate cue points without headphones!

Media and Device Capability
You can perform with digital music files stored on iPods, USB hard drives and thumb drives thanks to iDJ2's dock and two USB inputs. You can even play two tracks from the same iPod at the same time.

You can work with a wide range of file types including stereo and mono MP3s, WAVs, AACs, and more. You can mix in AAC podcasts and even connect and play from discs in external USB CD and DVD drives. iDJ2 even supports music on data DVDs and multi-session CDs. You can rip audio-CD tracks to a writable wav library, edit the text tags on tracks and albums ripped from CD and copy tracks from one drive to another. The possibilities are virtually limitless!

iDJ2 is the powerful, professional solution for performing with the music on your iPod.

Key iDJ2 Features

• Complete performance system for iPod
• Two-channel DJ mixer with analog and USB I/O
• Exclusive Crate music-management system
• Color LCD for brilliant views of Crate and Profile View
• Integrated dock for iPod
• Scratch and locate using large wheels
• Create and integrate seamless loops on each deck
• Fader Start enables iDJ2 to automatically start playback when you move the crossfader
• Keylock enables you to shift tempo while maintaining pitch
• Beatkeeper technology empowers you to beat-match visually
• Connect CD players, turntables, drum machines, iPods, USB hard drives, and thumb drives
• Mix and scratch stereo and mono MP3s, WAVs, AACs, and more
• Balanced XLR Master, unbalanced RCA Master, and RCA Record outputs
• Cueing section with 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch stereo jacks, cue level, tone, and cue-assign controls

What's in the Box
iDJ2 main unit, Power supply, Software CD, Quick start guide

Product Description

The Numark iDJ2 is the only iPod mixing console that provides full control of your music with real-time scratching (via two jog wheels), a stunning color screen, and Numark's exclusive crate management. Keylock insures that DJs can easily change tempo without affecting pitch. The iDJ2 features a fresh and innovative new iPod docking system that allows users to play and mix two songs simultaneously from a single iPod without the need of a computer. Users can also hook up multiple mass storage devices including additional iPods, thumb drives, and external USB hard drives through rear panel USB ports. In addition to USB connectivity, the iDJ2 comes complete with line inputs for audio sources including a microphone, CD players and turntables. This is an extraordinary mixing console and portable DJ system with professional DJ features like balanced outputs, pitch control, key lock, seamless looping, and full cueing. DJs can easily manage their music library using the iDJ2's highly intuitive graphic interface and the full-color LCD screen offers crystal-clear visual track-profiling. iPod Direct Mode turns iDJ2 into the ultimate iPod player.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars iDJ2: Take The Good With The Bad, October 28, 2007

By 

Wil Petraska - See all my reviews

This review is from: Numark iDJ2 iPod Mixer with Scratch Control (Electronics)

The Numark iDJ2. The setup everyone has been waiting for. What do I think? It's a mixed bag really but let's start at the good stuff.

The unit is very clearly laid out and easy to use, especially for the beginner. The screen is absolutely amazing and Numark's "Crate" idea is absolutely brilliant. Profile views of the songs are also really cool if you choose to be that hi-tech with it. All the info you need is right on the screen such as BPM, pitch, and time. The unit itself looks great, especially in the dark with all the lights. XLR outputs are great too.

Now for the bad. The interface is slow, especially with both songs playing. The countdown timer is even very rough. Pitch adjusts are delayed a little bit as well, since in essence, the unit is nothing more than a computer and the unit itself is just a midi controller for that computer inside the unit. The BPM was often wrong and although you can override it with TAP, the BPM still seems to drift everywhere. The unit feels cheap since most of it is plastic and it's very light. Numark's Librarian takes a while to sort your songs too but once you're done with the initial scan, it gets easy.

As far as digital setups go, this is the most impressive but it comes with it's quirks so be prepared. In the end, I got rid of mine because I felt like I was using a toy, the exact opposite of what Numark was trying to do.

I would recommend this unit to beginners but advanced DJs should look elsewhere.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost there, but not quite, September 1, 2008

By 

Scott Woods (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Numark iDJ2 iPod Mixer with Scratch Control (Electronics)

What it does right, it does well. But where the ball drops, it falls pretty hard.

The unit is fine as advertised, and generally performs admirably: it mixes from a single iPod, or you can add an assortment of devices (USB-based drives, thumb drives, etc.). You need not only use the iPod. It plays various formats (WAV, MP3, etc.). It has a strong visual screen and plenty of outputs (XLR, RCA). Support is fair to middling. it has a very nice "crate" feature which let's you pull out songs from your general pile and set them aside for quick access.

However:

- It may not read all of your songs.
ITunes isn't on board with this piece, so you may have to still burn songs to CD and re-install them to iTunes (or some other drive/device) to use them. It reads what it can, but I found the Library software that comes with it somewhat useless.
- It's lightweight.
Mostly plastic here. Invest in a case.
- The fade is too abrupt.
- A headphone cue knob (! Buttons, please) on the face of the device instead of the top?!
- The touted turntable action is cute, but not realistic. Going forward is kind of cool, but at the end of pulling back generates a pause. Between this and the suspect fader, not a lot of trick work happening here. Also, no dead-stop like real turntables.
- Some freezing there during 2 song play on occassion.
- HUGE load times if your iPod is loading more than about 8 GB. I use an iPod that has about 20 GBs on it and it takes about two hours to upload the changes. I don't even want to think about how long it would take if I put my full 80 GBs on it.
- Costs just a little too much for an item with so many downsides.

I can't recommend it as a primary unit for DJs who spin on the regular. It's a nice piece for casual DJs who mostly do blends or for regular DJs who want a side piece that helps cut down on the amount of gear they need to carry around. I use this piece about twice a week live and with that little use, it holds up okay, but I never know when it's going to to spoil...I just know that, with all these hang-ups, it will.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very practical alternative to Vinyl, April 16, 2008

By 

DJ Feedback (Brookyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Numark iDJ2 iPod Mixer with Scratch Control (Electronics)

Functionality:
The IDJ2 comes with all the features you need to be able to DJ in a bedroom or a club, you can connect a large number of devices and use the IDJ2 as the central mixing desk for your CD or Vinyl turntables as well. It has a Mic. input and both large and small type output sockets for your headphone monitors so you don't have to worry about lost adapters! There are two USB connections on the back so you can connect external storage drives (imagine replacing your record box with a thumb drive you can fit on a key ring!). There is a decent EQ for either channel to adjust the bass, mids and tops plus each channel has LED level monitors, gain controls and volume sliders. The pitch adjusters make this device a serious DJ tool as opposed to lesser devices such as the original IDJ, they allow the beats to be matched accurately and have a nice stiff feel to them. The pitch adjustment can be varied from +-6% to +-100% making just about any mix possible. The multipurpose jog wheels have three main functions, pitch bend, track search and scratch. The scratch mode is a pseudo vinyl scratch feature which works quite well. To cue a track you have buttons to Play, Pause or Cue - I found the cueing method to find and set the 'b' of the 'beat' a little counter intuitive when compared to other devices like my trusty old Pioneer CDJ 500's which I was able to use immediately - it took me a couple of hours to really get the hang of cueing method on the IDJ2. There is a built in BPM counter with tap buttons to set the rate manually and lights which help keep the pace in between the volume faders. The BPM counter is a nice add on but rarely seems that useful when the BPM are over 140 and the beats are manic breaks as opposed to simple bass drums. There isn't much missing here although a removable universal crossfader would have been nice (the standard cross fader can however be replaced) and perhaps a button to return to the beginning of the track instantly (although I just found out you can do this by holding pause for a couple of seconds) or buttons to change the headphone channel over quickly instead of the rotatable pot (that might just be my preference though as I imagine it would suit those who like to hear both channels in their cans).

When it comes to track selection it pays to have your music collection well organised with tracks being tagged up correctly for Genre, Artist, Playlist etc. there is a search function, although for this to work really quickly a USB keyboard would be a worthy accessory. The method for loading tracks is nice and easy thanks to the large colour screen and navigational rotate+click knob. A really nice feature is the "Crate" which allows you to easily create a playlist for your set.

Performance:
OK first off out of the box the unit is practically ready to use - however if you are connecting an iPod you first need to sync your music library (mine took over an hour for over 30 Gigs of music files) you can either build the library on the IDJ2 or you can build it on a PC or Mac (using a computer to build the library enables a more advanced library to be created which has certain benefits such as Seek Tables). I'd also strongly recommend to ensure that you have the most recent firmware upgrade since Numark are continuing to add fixes and improvements and the last upgrade included some really nice enhancements! I cannot understand why people would find a cause for complaint about firmware upgrades since they are entirely optional and allow your device to be improved after the time you purchased it (imagine your car dealership calling you 2 months after you bought a car from them offering you the chance to add a free satellite navigation system - would you turn that down? worse still would you complain about it?).

Once the library has been built the only other notable delays moving forward are for the creation of seek tables from the iPod into the IDJ2. If you built your library on the device then it might not have created the "Seek Tables" which will mean you have to create one on-demand each time you select a new track to mix with (the Seek Table is technically something that the IDJ2 requires to be able to perform pitch adjustment on a track). This will mean having to wait before you can begin to play each track and the time will depend on the file size/quality (average time is approx 20-30 seconds from my iPod). It's not a long time but it does mean you lose valuable time that could be spent cueing up and beat matching the next track but it's comparable to the amount of time it would take to load a record or CD from a sleeve and case. Note: Seek Table creation times from solid state iPods or USB drives are much better and you can easily avoid these delays by building the "Seek Tables" into the library on a computer instead of on the IDJ2 directly.

Build Quality:
The unit feels fairly sturdy for a digital device although by comparison to a decent turntable it feels pretty lightweight. There are some excellent flight cases on the market so if you are planning to transport it about I'd recommend investing in one. My main criticism would be that some of the knobs and sliders look and feel a little plasticky but overall the unit is very hard to fault.

Practicality:
I'm currently working in the US and so had to leave my entire vinyl collection in the UK where I have a large room dedicated to storing and mixing my records. The Numark IDJ2 allows me to recreate that entire setup with something that takes up a small table surface. The benefits for the mobile DJ are simply huge!

Verdict
Just Superb, buy two! : )