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 American DJ
 DCD-Pro500 Dual CD Player

By David Gedge

American DJ's rack-mountable DCD-Pro500 is their crown jewel of rack-mountable Dual CD Players, and makes a serious bid for best in the field against Denon, Gemini, and Numark.

DJ-friendly features like 10 assignable flash start buttons for fast cueing and a "Q-Start" capability, which uses the crossfader of a compatible DJ mixer as a cue trigger between two CD players, are just a couple of the DCD-Pro500's highlights. The DCD- Pro500 will store up to six 2.6 second samples for each CD tray and will store up to 40 cue points per CD, which can be triggered in real time without any sound interruption. You can also locate any point on a CD track you're playing by punching in the time a certain portion of the song will appear. (For instance, if you want to get to the second chorus in New Order's "Blue Monday," punch in 2:58 where it appears.)

LED-lighted pitch controls will vary between ranges of +/- 8%, +/- 12%, and an amazing +/- 16% to give you unprecedented ability to mix different genres of music. A BPM meter also allows you to control your mixes. The DCD-500 features a realistic-sounding back scratching effect controlled by a jog wheel. It's probably the closest approximation of a CD player sounding like a turntable being scratched in reverse.

Previous features available on other American DJ players are also here. The DCD-Pro500 also builds on the back and forth function to make it automatically play tracks from either CD. Large rubber buttons are now backlit for realtime club conditions, eliminating the need for extra Littlelites cluttering your DJ setup.

The DCD-Pro500 has already created a buzz in the fickle club and mobile DJ market. As I mentioned in my review of the Roland XV-88, the equipment has never been better for musicians and DJs. Even with the slightly higher retail price, the DCD Dual Pro 500 is worth every penny for the serious club DJ.

Main Features: 

• Forward & Reverse Sampling 
• Pitch Bend & Pitch Control on Samples 
• 80 storeable & recallable samples, loops or cue points 
• 6 "Flash Start" buttons per side – recalls cue points or samples instantly & on the fly 
• Loops & samples may be reversed with Pitch Adjustment & Pitch Bend 
• Seamless Loop 
• Fader "Q" Start (Compatible with American DJ Q-Series mixers) 
• Flip Flop button (Relay Playback) – When one entire CD or song is finished the other side will cue and start to play 
• Bop Effect 
• Back lit ergonomically designed rubber Play, Cue, & Flash Start buttons 
• Mechanical Anti-Skip Protection 
• Direct Time entry / Go to Time 
• 8x Oversampling 1 bit D/A Converter 
• Edit on the fly 
• True Instant Start / Eliminates Dead Spaces 
• +/- 16% Pitch Bend o Interactive Jog Wheel for Pitch Bend or Frame Search 
• Selectable Pitch Control (+/-8%, +/-12% or +/-16%) 
• Pitch Display • 30 Programmable Play Tracks on each side 
• 6 Different Speed Scans 
• Direct track acess buttons 
• Beat Counter • Frame Search 
• Large, Bright LCD Display for wide view angles 
• 3 in. / 8cm CD Singles Compatible • Auto Cue • Realtime Cue 
• Instant Cue Point Recall 
• Digital Ouput 
• 60 second transport protection (open tray closes after 60 sec.) 
• Reads CD Recordable (CDR) disks
• Single, continue 
• Sleep Mode (laser & motor shut down after 15 minutes of inactivity) 
• Silver, brushed aluminum face plate

Specifications: 
• Dimensions: Player unit: 19"(W) x 3 15/32" (H) x 9 55/64" (D) / 482mm (W) x 88.8mm (H) x 264mm (D) Control unit: 19"(W) x 3 15/32" (H) x 1 37/64" (D) / 482mm (W) x 132mm (H) x 74mm (D)
• Installation: 19-inch rack mountable 
• Player & Controller units: 2 separate units / Player is 2 rack spaces, Controller is 3 rack spaces 
• Weight: Player unit: 11 lbs. / 5 kg., Control unit: 4.5 lbs. / 2 kg 
• Power supply: 115/60 Hz AC or 230V/50Hz AC switchable 
• Power consumption: 25W 
• Sampling rate: 44.1 kHz at normal pitch 
• Over sampling rate: 8 times 
• D/A conversion: 16 bit 
• Frequency response: +/- 1.0dB 20Hz-20KHz, 0dB 
• Total Harmonic Distortion: 0.02%
• Signal to noise ratio: 88 dB 
• Channel separation: 80 dB 
• Output level: 2.OV +/- 1dB 
• Load impedance: 47 kohm or more 
• Variable pitch: +/-16% or more 
• Search accuracy: 1/75 sec. (1 subcode frame) 
• Memory: Last Settings

Visit their website at http://www.americandj.com/


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