![]() The larger-than-necessary play and cue buttons help solidify ties to more analog-feeling hardware. It's a really nifty trick, but we can't really picture ourselves wanting to go without the keyboard to search for tracks by name. There are also two removable legs that give the unit a little boost off the table - just enough room to slide your laptop body underneath. This is one of those "duh" ideas that makes it hard to believe every modern DJ device doesn't feature it. We REALLY love the fact that there are two headphone outs - one is 1/4-inch and one is 1/8-inch, in case you left your adapter at home. There are other nice touches that pepper the DDJ-T1. When we switched back to the S4 we ended up really missing all of this subtle differentiation and contrast between sections. With so many knobs in such a small space, every little dividing line becomes helpful as you're trying to navigate the face of the controller. While it may not seem like a huge deal on paper, it's really nice to look at in person. The knobs in the transport section are all black, while their friends in FX are gray - the main FX buttons and knobs are also set within a dark gray square. The DDJ-T1's semi-reflective dark silver finish was a really nice change: for some reason it seems to provide more contrast to the text printed on the body and the knobs themselves (by the way, they're hard potentiometer-style knobs, not "infinite"). Our normal weapon of choice is the Traktor Kontrol S4 box, a definitively matte-black affair. We came to be very impressed with the visual design of the box. But we could picture this being a great way to further remove your hands from the computer, if that's what you're going for. We didn't find it particularly useful, as we're still mouse-and-keyboard addicts. ![]() The "Needle Search" touch strips lay a scale model of your songs across a five-inch strip to give you a quick and easy way to skip around. Pioneer has definitely put everything it learned from producing top-of-the-line CDJ jog wheels right into the face of the DDJ-T1: they are hands-down the best jog wheels we've ever encountered in one of these controllers. This is another nice vinyl analog (no pun intended, y'all). There seemed to be a lot more play in these wheels than in other controllers, so that when you give it a good spin it will continue to rotate for a brief period after you take your hand off. The shining five-inch jog wheels were a little more vinylesque on top than we were expecting: the slightly grooved brushed metal concoction felt just right under our fingertips. This thing needs its own tabletop for sure. But if you were thinking about sharing the booth with other equipment you might want to, you know, change your outlook pretty quickly. If you've ever brought one of these interfaces to a club, you've already learned to ignore the strange looks you get when you tell them you'll not be using their industry-standard Serato hookup, thank you very much. It's wide - just a hair under 27 inches - and slightly more than a foot deep. Right out of the box you'll notice that the DDJ-T1 is more "envelope" than "8.5 by 11" in the dimensions department. *Terminator inspiration purely conjectural Are they forward-thinking innovations or just another cultural tip of the hat to an ancient medium? Click on to reveal our deepest thoughts on the gunmetal-tinted, Terminator-inspired* DDJ-T1. Its differentiating features are distinctly vinyl-flavored: a pair of grooved, free-spinning jog-wheels with lighted time indicators and a pair of "needle search" touch strips. Another day, another digital DJ interface: hardware controllers for Traktor and other mixing software occupy an expanding market, to be sure, and Pioneer's latest entry into the upmarket side of the fold is a beefy contender.
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