The Devil and All His Twin-Deck Works
For me, dual CD decks have always had the whiff of fire and brimstone about them. They’re nothing more than a physical reminder of the twin-deck monstrosity that terrorised every party-going child of the eighties, a natural extension of the integrated dual turntable behind which mullet-sporting sadists would laugh maniacally as their infant charges endured yet another Black Lace party classic, a chorus of ’oohs’ and ’aahs’ betraying their parents’ complicity in the enforced ritual embarrassment of dancing in public.
In my case, whilst dressed in my mum’s silver tights, the Dusty Bin costume in which I was cocooned masking the tears that stained my face as I desperately implored an uncaring assembly of parents to Agadoo, doo, doo, push pineapple, shake a tree.
Twin-deck turntables are the reason that I do not dance, even to this day, the reason I still suffer panic attacks at the slightest mention of Superman and the reason I still can’t travel within two miles of St Ethelbert’s primary, not since I decapitated one such mulleted menace with his own copy of the Birdie Song for insisting that I shake my bum.
Twin-decks are diabolical, the tool of Satan and all his infernal minions, an act of vengeance unleashed upon a world that refuses to submit to his will. So when Pioneer’s MEP-7000 came my way I should have run to the nearest gun shop and gone postal, I should have braved the rats and hugged the nearest tube line or I should’ve simply gone at it with a rusty claw-hammer. But I did none of these things.
On assembling and booting the MEP-7000 I felt a sensation never before felt in front of a twin-deck. I felt excitement. I felt a swelling in my pants.
The Devil Plays Out
The MEP-7000 is a twin-deck Multi-Entertainment Player (hence the acronym) comprised of a 19“ rack-mountable drive unit and head unit. It plays a bewildering variety of file formats, specifically WAV, MP3, CD+G, AAC and AIFF, either from CD, DVD or USB devices such as USB pens, Hard Drives and even iPods. It can even provide MIDI control over your DJ software of choice and natively supports Pioneer’s own DJS software as well as the venerable Serato Scratch.
The MEP also features 3 jog break effects, 3 scratch effects, looping with persistent cue/loop point storage, the ability to create play lists from various media on the fly and search for tracks using various criteria. Pioneer even claim the MEP can mix tracks automatically using many different cross-fade effects or a straight cross-fade, with the beats tempo synced.
And key to managing this overwhelming level of versatility is a central 4.3” LCD screen upon which are drawn full-colour, beautifully animated graphics that could’ve been crafted by Lucifer himself, so seductively do they portray the inner machinations of the MEP.
The MEP-7000 truly is the Devil’s work, but does it, like the world’s favourite fallen angel, promise much and deliver little?
Controls
The control surfaces of the MEP-7000 will be instantly familiar to anyone that’s ever used a Pioneer CDJ, particularly the CMX3000, and anyone that hasn’t will quickly get to grips with it.
Every component is clearly labelled and the illumination used on components such as the loop and Master Tempo buttons is bright but not distracting.
More importantly, ample distance is provided between one component and another which means infuriating, set-damaging occurrences such as accidentally hitting the jog wheel when adjusting the pitch slider in a hurry, do not happen.
Cueing
As with any other Pioneer CDJ, pressing the pause button whilst a track is playing will pause it, at which point you can scrub the track backwards and forwards to find a cue point. Once you’ve found your ideal point a press of the cue button will set it.
The default cueing mode of the MEP-7000 is ‘CDJ Mode’, which means that when a track is paused the MEP repeatedly stutters a frame of the track. This affords greater accuracy when selecting a cue point although in practice it can prove irritating in the heat of a live performance or bedroom workout.
It’s like having a small child nagging you every ½ second, demanding to know if you’re there yet.
An alternative method of cueing is Scratch Mode, which lets you scrub the track backwards and forwards as if moving a stylus over wax, and even though cueing in CDJ mode is more accurate the practical advantages are so negligible you may as well use Scratch Mode.
Pitch Adjust
Once a track is in full effect and causing much dance floor devastation you’ll need to get your next track beat matched and to assist you the MEP boasts four pitch ranges: 6%, 10%, 16% and 100%, although 100% is unavailable when using formats other than CD audio. The pitch resolution is 0.02 at 6% and 0.05 for all other modes.
The pitch slider has a reassuring stiffness to it, although when the pitch range is set at 6% it suffers from the same infuriating problem as the CDJ1000 in that it’s difficult to select the exact pitch setting that you need first time. For example, you may want to increase the pitch to +0.28 from +0.26, but when you adjust the pitch slider with the slightest of gentle touches the pitch jumps from +0.26 to +0.30. To increment the pitch by the required amount you have to invest a protracted amount of time messing about with a temperamental slider.
If the above makes the MEP’s pitch sliders sound completely useless they aren’t, but the problem is maddening. Sure, you could accuse me of extreme anal retentiveness, but what’s the point in offering a pitch resolution of 0.02 when you can’t comfortably use it?
Momentarily speeding up or slowing down a track to keep beats in sync is effected through the jog wheel and, unusually for Pio CDJs other than the CMX3000, some pitch-bend buttons.
The jog wheel is similar in look and feel to that found on the CDJ200s. It feels worrying loose and is only too happy to engage and spin freely in either direction. Great for spinbacks (when set to Scratch Mode), but you do loose accuracy when pitch-bending.
The pitch-bend buttons are far more precise and are infinitely preferable to the jog wheel, which is fortunate given their raison d’etre.
Info Displays
At the top of each ‘deck’ is a narrow LCD screen reminiscent of that seen on the CDJ800 that displays information about the track time elapsed/remaining, the current track number, pitch setting and BPM. Sadly, the MEP-7000 doesn’t feature a wave-form view of a track, just a progress bar. Pioneer would probably argue that as the MEP is designed to be used in conjunction with software it doesn’t need an independent wave-form display for each deck, but not everyone will want to use it with software and a wave-form display would be beneficial for those customers.
If not on the info displays then on the central display.
Looping
One of the CDJ1000s greatest attributes is its hot cue/hot loop buttons, loved by many for their instant remix potential. Sadly, the MEP doesn‘t feature them, even though it’s predecessor, the CMX-3000, did. Instead, the MEP offers only one loop per track, although you can re-enter a loop at any time and commit the loop point to persistent memory. The MEP’s also limited when it comes to loop adjustment, as you can only amend the ‘out’ point of a loop and not the ‘in’.
Working with the MEP
Despite the above criticisms, all of which can be lived with, mixing with the MEP is an absolute joy, primarily because of its excellent ergonomics, pitch ranges and simple, uncluttered interface. To fit two usable, comfortable ‘decks’ in the space provided is a great achievement.
Within a few hours of playing about with the MEP your DJing ‘sixth sense’ kicks in and you can use it without looking at it.
Sound Quality
The CDJ1000MK3 always sounded pretty pedestrian for a £1000 CD player; far from terrible, but it could’ve been better given the price, so I was pleased when I booted up the MEP to find the sound quality was much improved due to the implant of some uprated DACs. The MEP-7000 is by no means audiophile either, but for club, mobile and home use it sounds far better than average and has far greater clarity and precision than the CDJ1000MK3.
The MEP also features two digital outputs so if you’re lucky enough to be using the MEP with a DJM1000 or a similar high-end mixer this discussion is pretty much academic.
I/O
The drive unit of the MEP features two stereo RCA outputs, two digital outputs and three USB outputs, two of which are on the drive unit and one of which is on the head unit. The outputs on the drive unit also double as outputs for the MEP’s two stereo channel soundcard.
Devices such as hard drives, USB pen drives, Pacemakers or iPods can be plugged into the drive unit’s USB sockets only. The head unit’s USB socket is for communicating with a laptop when you are using the head unit only, without the drive unit.
The head unit also features an auxiliary power cable that connects to a second USB socket on your laptop from which it draws power when it is not connected to the drive unit.
Despite the unit’s internal complexity the task of connecting the MEP together and to a mixer is simple and straightforward.
The Screen
Atop the MEP’s central screen are four buttons marked, ‘browse’, ‘mix’, ‘effect’ and ‘utility’ that when pushed offer the user a selection of functions related to the tasks they describe. Effect, for instance, allows you to select an effect and set it’s parameters with a deck’s jog wheel.
Beneath the screen are a further six push buttons that allow users to make selections from the currently selected view. On the effects screen, for example, these buttons are used to select an effect for a particular deck.
Below the six push buttons is a rotary potentiometer with a push switch. This is used to scroll through menus and make selections. To either side of this pot are two push buttons with directional markers on them that are used to move between directories and, when jog effects are enabled, maintain the effect when you let go of the jog wheel. At the side of each deck are blue-lit push buttons that are used to assign a selected track to a deck.
The screen graphics are presented in full colour and their animation is smooth and graceful, as are re-paints as you switch between screens. There is no sign of the ghosting that plagued low-end laptops up until the last four years, proof that Pioneer have not skimped on the quality of the screen, something they could so easily have done. The colours used have been well chosen for easiness on the eye and text is visible whether you’re viewing it in a dark environment or daylight.
The entire interface exudes high-quality and sophistication.
Browse Menu
Pushing the ‘browse’ button switches the screen to a directory view of attached devices and inserted CDs and you can select which device you want to browse by pressing one of the six buttons beneath the screen. The devices you can select are the two CD drives, two USB devices and a PC connection. The last button selects a play list into which you can place tracks.
Browsing through connected devices is simplicity itself thanks to the central rotary pot and when the screen’s cursor rests upon a track its details are shown on one half of the screen.
You can even search for tracks using a USB keyboard or the central rotary pot, essential when you have a large capacity drive attached, although you will have to let the MEP create a library on the device via the utility screen first.
Tracks can be added to the currently selected playlist by pressing the central rotary pot for more than a second. You can create 20 playlists and each playlist can contain 150 tracks, more than enough for anyone. By default they’re named ‘Playlist01’, ‘Playlist02’,…, ‘Playlist20’, although they can be re-titled to suit your needs using a USB keyboard or the central rotary pot.
Setting playlists can obviously be done in advance and whether you’re a mobile jock with a massive track collection who depends on categorised music or a club DJ that wants to delineate electro from funky house, playlists are an important and powerful tool.
Mix Menu
The mix menu lets you select a playlist, a crossfade type and then walk away to let the MEP get on with the task of keeping the tunes coming.
The crossfade styles you can choose from are cut-in, zip, echo and plain crossfade. The crossfade styles are described below:-
Cut-in - instantly cuts across to the next track
Zip - simulates the wind-down of a turntable and then cuts in to the next track
Echo - echoes a beat of a track and then cuts to the next track
Crossfade - Slowly fades out of the currently playing track and into the next
This screen also features a BPM Sync function for the crossfade style so that the MEP can make a hashed attempt at beat matching. The fade styles may be of limited value to club jocks but for mobile jocks playing genres other than house they can be a fun transition from one track to the next.
The mix screen provides some good tools for the mobile jock and before anyone accuses users of this screen of laziness just remember that a mobile jock still needs to read the crowd and provide banter over the mic.
The MEP just makes the night flow more smoothly.
Effects Menu
The MEP sports two different types of effect: jog break effects and scratch effects. Users can switch between the two via a rocker switch.
When the scratch effects are selected the effects screen switches to a stylised representation of a rotating platter upon which rests a blue orb that serves as a marker.
When you scrub the platter the orb moves in response to your hand movements.
It’s all too easy for the sophisticated Skratchworx reader to scoff at the idea of scratching with the diminutive static platter of the MEP and explosively discharge the entire contents of their bladder at the prospect of replicating the winning set of the latest DMC championship on it. An understandable reaction, but somewhat missing the point.
The platter is perfectly good enough to perform some basic scrubs to accompany a build-up or quickly baby scratch an acapella into a mix. The platter size does make it impossible to perform some good cuts, though, and the scratch sound itself is a pretty rudimentary approximation of the scratch sound. Nothing like that heard on the CDJ1000 or CDJ800. Don’t expect to be able to perform slow drags, for example. Or Uzis. Or even tears.
Gizmo: I do feel the need to offer a different opinion here. While my overall experience of the MEP was limited to a few hours play where I pretty much align myself with Andrew's opinion, I couldn't resist busting a few scratches on the mini platter. A few scratches turned into 30 minutes, and I have to say that they put many bigger jog wheels to shame - indeed even some that claim to be scratchable. Andrew has erred on the side of caution as not to paint the MEP as a scratch friendly unit. The fact remains that the MEP is not for turntablists or even Hip Hop DJs. But I for one would dearly love to see this platter and a crossfader in a small USB equipped unit - I still hold out hope of a real personal scratch unit. Back to the review...
The MEP boasts three different scratch effects - the standard scratch sound, transformer scratch and bubble scratch. Of the three the one that’s most usable is the standard scratch, although the transformer scratch can be fun. Sadly, you can’t change the timing of the transformer scratch. The bubble effect makes a noise reminiscent of the ‘knuckle sandwich’ scratch and to my ears it sounds abysmal.
When using the Jet and Wah jog effects the screen switches to an oscilloscope view onto which is drawn a wave that alters in response to the direction of platter travel. When set to Roll, the screen switches to a circular graph on which a yellow orb spirals up or down.
Ordinarily, when you raise your hand from the platter the effect stops but if you engage the ‘hold’ switch you can maintain the effect indefinitely. The Jet effect is your typical flanger effect, the Wah a filter, and the Roll a sampler that takes one beat of sound then increases it in pitch and tempo, either up or down.
The Jog effects are pretty good, particularly Jet, and the Roll can be a good means of quickly segueing between two tracks in a hurry. If you’ve had your eye off the ball, for instance, and don’t have time to beat match two tracks together you can give a quick spin of the ’Roll’ platter and then give a sharp cut of the cross fader.
Whether it’s the screen, the platter movement, or a combination of the two I have no idea, but the use of the Jog break effects is addictive. No matter how silly or ill-placed the effect the urge to play with them is too great to resist.
Utility Menu
The MEP can be customised in a number of ways through the utility menu. Whether you want to change the brightness of the screen, alter the sensitivity of the autocue function, or change the language, you can do it all through the utility menu.
HID DJS
One of the biggest selling points of the MEP-7000 is that it comes with its own sub-DVS, DJS, but any excitement at being able to work natively with it is quashed on playing with it, despite the alluringly crude, neon-esque graphics and high-end feature set.
For anyone that hasn’t used Pioneer’s DJS before, the interface mimics two CDJ1000s and a 2 channel effects mixer. Track selection is supported through a pretty decent track database that can be expanded and contracted, but sadly not resized. In fact, nothing can be resized, although you if you really must use all of DJS’s functionality you can have floating dialogs dancing around the screen, obscuring everything else.
In the abstract DJS sounds like a blindingly fantastic, killer application, but in reality it’s buggy and flawed. Worse still, Pioneer have never made any attempt to improve it.
The scratch sound, for instance, isn’t so much an attempt to mimic stylus abuse as a perfect rendering of the last, dying moments of a Sinclair Z80 being passed through the digestive system of a cholera-ridden hippo. The digital artefacting is so bad it renders the Scratch Mode useless, even for cueing. Audio drop-outs, stutters and even cessation of sound is common when playing tracks and there can be brief stutters when using the hotcues, which puts you off using them at all.
On a purely functional level, the HID integration between the MEP and DJS is brilliantly implemented and works exceptionally well. Pressing a button on the MEP instantly affects DJS with none of the occasional lag that you sometimes experience when using traditional MIDI.
The MEP interacts with DJS differently depending on whether you use it with just the head unit or with the MEP as a whole. When using just the head unit you have greater control over DJS and can manipulate DJS’s effects and even the crossfader through the screen and its controls. The downside is that you lose the MEP’s soundcard and must rely on another.
When using the MEP as a whole you have control over the decks and can select tracks in DJS’s library using the MEP’s screen, but you lose the ability to control effects and the crossfader. Audio can be routed through the MEP to an external mixer or through another soundcard to a mixer.
The really disappointing thing is that so much potential is wasted. DJS could be an application worthy of the credibility the Pioneer logo bestows upon it, but it isn’t. Yes, you can also use the MEP natively with Serato, but the whole point of DJS is to have a decent application to use out of the box. If you’re using the head unit in isolation with DJS you’ll have a far better experience than using DJS with the MEP as a whole, although you will have to outlay extra capital for a soundcard.
MIDI Control
All of the essential transport, platter and looping controls of the head unit are MIDI mappable and it’s possible to configure the controls for use with Traktor within ten minutes, although an extra five minutes will be needed to fine tune it.
Even though Traktor isn’t controlled natively by the MEP, which means appalling platter control, it’s a far more pleasurable experience than using the bundled DJS software.
A big bonus is that you can use the soundcard of the MEP to output the resultant audio directly to your mixer.
Karaoke
As the MEP is an all-in-one, mobile wonder deck it supports CD+G for those moments when only a drunken sing-song will do. Video is output via a composite connector and the output quality is as crusty as any other karaoke deck thanks to the low resolution of the CD+G standard.
I can’t ignore the lack of an additional VGA, DVI or HDMI connector as most TVs out in pub-land or in the possession of a mobile jock sport at least one of these connections, but the composite connector does guarantee compatibility with a wider range of screens.
When not in CD+G mode, the MEP can output the contents of the central display to an external monitor at a reasonably high resolution. Handy for myopic jocks.
The Satanist?
So have I been coerced to the dark side of DJing? Having succumbed to the seductive charms of the MEP do I now find myself pining for a ginger mullet and Mike Read diction? Do I now model myself on Pat Sharpe and mark new gigs on a Sam Fox filo-fax?
Of course not, but in this age of digital interoperability and true multi-media I do understand the need for the MEP and the sheer versatility it offers the mobile disc jockey.
In fact, the MEP is of equal value to the club DJ that wants the power and convenience of the MEP but has no need of hot cues or a scratchable platter. For less than the price of two CDJ1000s you can have an MEP-7000, an A&H S2 mixer and a flight case, an absolute bargain if you’re a laptop DJ that wants to maintain compatibility with traditional formats, retain traditional control surfaces and you don’t mind losing out on a more precise platter.
In Pioneer terms the MEP-7000 is a bargain purchase and although you can get units from other manufacturers, most notably Denon and Numark, for far less none of them possess the level sophistication, versatility or desirability offered by the MEP.
You could argue that the bells and whistles that adorn the MEP are simply style over substance but that isn’t the case. It’s style augmenting substance, the extra flair and panache that Pioneer have brought to the MEP make it a more comfortable and pleasurable unit to work with.
You could try and cut costs by purchasing the head unit separately (as the SEP-C1), but to do so would be absolute madness. The control and functionality the SEP provides isn’t worth the price it commands. If you need a 19” controller you can find them cheaper from other manufacturers. If you’re using a laptop and can live without a seductive screen you can get the excellent Xone:2D for far less and that even comes with a multi-channel soundcard built-in.
So would I dance with the devil? If he played the tune with an MEP I probably would, as long as it wasn’t the birdie song.
Ratings
Build Quality
Solid construction from durable materials.The build quality of the MEP-7000 matches its price and during the test period it played for many hours, day after day, without incident.
Sound Quality
Better than the club standard CDJ1000 thanks to uprated DACs, but if you play poor quality MP3s you’re going to get poor quality sound.
Features and Implementation
The MEP-7000 packs more features than an out-of-town megaplex and all can be accessed quickly. Adjusting pitch at 6% is infuriating and the scratch effects leave a lot to be desired, but all things considered the MEP can back up its claims.
Value For Money
Bargain purchase in Pioneer terms but you are paying an extra premium for the logo it sports.
Bottom Line
The modern mobile DJ in need of a nirvana twin-deck need look no further than the MEP-7000, as long they’re prepared to pay the Pioneer ‘cool’ duty.
Massive thanks to Gemma Cook and Rik Parkinson of Pioneer GB for the loan of the MEP-7000 and their prompt answers to my questions.
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