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Pioneer DJM-909 Mixer




Out of the box and this thing is a beast. It's built to last (or cause a hernia) - you genuinely feel like this mixer will last for ever. It comes in marginally bigger than the usual 10" mixer but there is a lot under the hood on this one. Thankfully, the paint job is way better than it's younger sibling the 707. It would look perfect sat in amongst any DJ gear.

The layout of the 2 channel scratch mixer is pretty much cast in stone - bar a few odds and ends the crossfader, upfaders and transform switches are all in the same layout as the rest of the market. The 909 throws up no surprises in this area with everything more or less where you might expect them. The only things in the fader area are fader start buttons, transformer switches and a master level button. LEDs to indicate channel or crossfader starts and channel reverses are neatly recessed so they don't get in the way.

Pretty much everything else you might expect is on the front. Fader reverses are on the left, fader start on the right and curves in the middle. Interestingly, you can independently adjust the left and right curve of the crossfader as well as full curve control on the channel faders. In addition, you can also adjust the crossfader cut-in time via a knob sat between the crossfader curve adjust knobs. Adjustability is between 1 and 6mm - more than enough for anyone.

An interesting addition on the front is a foot pedal jack but what's it for? Well you can now turn the effects on and off with a foot pedal. So what you now have is the ability to keep scratching as normal with both hands and still drop the effects in when you want. And it's switchable between channel 1 and 2.



The top half of the mixer is jam packed with the rest of the controls. Quite obviously the mixer is dominated by the first touch screen on a scratch mixer (should that be any mixer?). This screen is mainly used as an interface to configure the effects but also has a crossfader curve section as well. More of that later. EQ knobs sit either side of this screen with mic channel controls on the left and the usual cue controls on the right. Essentially a very standard mixer in it's layout.

A minor gripe - while the transform switches are configurable at 45° angles, I felt (as do many others) that these switches are a little too close to the channel faders. I understand they can be removed but wasn't up for butchering a demo mixer