Mobile Beat Magazine, November 1999, Words: Steve "Island Jake" Jacob
...The American DJ DCD-PRO400 looks like a typical dual drawer CD player except that it has exquisite brushed aluminum faceplates on the remote unit and the changer section. Black accents abound on the legends, the oblong framing of the LCD display, the pitch control sliders, the drawers, the power button, and the outside fast forward/reverse control rings on the jog wheels.
The industry standard use of red for the cue buttons, green for the play/pause buttons, and blue for drawer activation, which appear on both the remote as well as the changer section, provide instant recognition and ease of operation. The cue and play/pause controls are further supported by red and green LEDs, respectively.
The cue point in/out buttons, reloop, time, jog wheel, pitch bend, pitch activation, and counter buttons are all dark gray, while the memory, recall, track skip, memory bank, program, repeat, BPM, and single/continue buttons are all a light gray.
The backlit green LED provides a wealth of legible information from just about all angles. The overall fit and finish of the product is first rate and ergonomically designed. Everything is right where you expect it ti be. Now let's sink our teeth into its operation.
ADJ's DCD-PRO400 cuts a path of consistency through just about any "vibrating vampire" that you might encounter. This is made possible by its soft touch buttons, with their reassuring and verifying click, the instant start, the super fast cue/play/re-cue/replay stutter effect using just the cue and play buttons, and the tactile feel. But the consistency doesn't stop there.
The anti-shock circuitry (with what I believe to be about 6 seconds per side or 12 seconds total-the manual didn't specify) will let you play with inspiration instead of perspiration on wavy dancefloors. You can now look into the eyes of the "vibrating vampire" and smile back with an air of confidence in his inability to accost you again. (It's likely that there are more total seconds in the buffer, but some of that may be directed to the seamless looping effect.)
The anti-shock circuitry worked so well that I was able to turn the changer 90 degrees and it still played flawlessly. I did however find that when I dropped it or gave it a good hit, I was able to disrupt it. But in both cases, I far exceeded actual working conditions to find out how quickly it would recover. I am happy to report the unit re-cued in about 1-1.5 seconds.
The memory also stores up to10 + 10 different cue points, offers true seamless looping, 10 direct-to-track location cueing, 30 + 30 programmable tracks, fader start/stop with ADJ mixers, relay playback, selectable ñ 8, 12 or 16 percent pitch adjustments, stutter or "bop" effect, 15-minute sleep mode, and cue point memory, even if you lose power...
c1999 Mobile Beat Magazine, LA Communications Inc., P.O. Box 309, East Rochester, NY 14445 - www.mobilebeat.com - Tel: 716.385.9920
