“Why does it got to be so damn tough?”
This may
be the hardest review I have ever had to write. Thing is,
we were all excited for this to come out, and when it finally
did the cries of let down were heard quite loudly. Not only
that, but given how late in the game this review is, one
almost has to wonder if anything can be said that has not
been already. Finally Technics has ignored our requests for
a review unit for over a year and a half, making it so I
had to borrow one from work to even be able to complete this!
That said I feel that the DZ has got some bad press that
is not deserved, as well as some bad press that has been
missed. And so, on with the show.
“Shiny Objects”
First thing of note-out of the
box the DZ may be one of the sexiest machines ever to hit
the DJ world. With an almost laser disc-like shine to it’s
platter and a an equally beautiful screen, one can’t
help but be in awe of how many things the designers got right.
Surrounding
the 10-inch platter (of note because of the fact that it
is the same size as it’s Pioneer and Denon
competitors which only have 7-inch platters) are the usual
start/cue buttons, pitch fader, and 2 banks of cue/sample
buttons, split into 4 button banks. All track rewind/advance
controls, display orientation, etc are around the center
display and in the top left corner sit the effect controls,
split into “vinyl emulation” and “platter
effect” banks. Rounding out the controls, a stop time
dial sits on the rear and the eject button sits on the front
panel next to the disc slot.
“In use/abuse”
When one first starts the DZ,
it really can’t help
but be noticed how strong the motor is compared to some of
it’s moving platter competitors. Sharing the same motor
as the sl-1200, on first impression one would think that
things couldn’t go wrong based on this fact alone.
While on the SL-1200 the 1.6kg motor may not seem like much
compared to it’s more modern competition, keep in mind
that on a 10-inch platter it simply feels like more. That
said though, any advantage seen by the use of such a strong
motor is soon taken away by the simply bizarre platter assembly.
The outer ring of the platter is actually in no way connected
to the inner platter-the “record” actually sits
on a separately spinning platform that feels quite laggy
when compared to the platter. The “record” itself
isn’t even needed, as it is held to the real control
platter by 2 pins, and really only seems to serve an ascetic
purpose, much like a fake maple veneer on a cheap Les Paul
knockoff. Remove it and except for looks and a couple small
holes in the platter, you really lose nothing.
On forward and backward
movements, there is a noticeable “click” of
dead space, where it seems like the platter isn’t even
responding to your movements. Doing uzi’s almost confirms
this-what should sound like short bursts instead sounds like
a garbled mess. Stabs/drumming fare little better, as the
platter has a noticeable drrrraaagg when getting back up
to speed. The only cuts that really do not seem to be effected
by the laggy platter action are tears and other cuts where
your hand does not leave the platter much. Speaking of cuts,
while the platter size is 10 inch, due to the screen position
the usable platter space may actually be less than it’s
7 inch competition!!
While the platter does have a visual indicator
for cueing, one has to be careful not to completely rely
on this small black line, as the engineers seem to have thrown
a stopgap in to compensate for the laggy platter response,
called “instant
response”. When engaged, there is no drag up upon start,
and the formerly useless reverse feature (about as far from
instant as one can get) become instant, and at first the
response to the play/pause buttons feels noticeably zippier.
That said though, while the audio response to your button
presses is instant, the platter response is not! Cue points
are lost, making any benefit from the instant response button
a wash with what your lose.
As for how it sounds, well……fast
cuts sound just fine, I will say that. On closer inspection of
slow speed movements though, I noticed digital artifacts that
were almost as bad as some first generation scratchable CD
players, almost reminding me of how Final Scratch 1.0 sounded.
Also, while it has been beat into the ground, I have to mention
the oft-complained about key correct/scratch flaw. When you
scratch with the key correct turned on, it sounds like digital
garbage, pure and simple, making using it when doing scratch/trick
mixing a nono.
Well, we have established it’s flaws when scratching,
but what about all the mix DJ’s who always wanted a
digital 1200? Does it far any better? Well, the answer is “sort
of”. One thing I have to mention is that the cue system
may be the best ever to appear on a DJ CD player, bar none.
Instead of setting the cue point through a shared loop button
or through an odd system of pausing/starting, the cue points
are set simply with a “record” button. Really,
it blows my mind that no one thought of this before as it
really is amazing how easy it can make life. The record button
is also shared with the hot start/sampler section, making
recording samples/hot cues super intuitive. Sample volume
and length can be controlled from the main menu, and any
record movements can be recorded in real time. Samples and
cue points can even be saved on an SD card for travel, which
is notable in that currently only the CDJ1000 offers this
same facility. If we were basing this review on the cue section,
the DZ would receive a 8, no question. It would receive a
10, but somehow they forgot to include the ability to edit
seamless loops from within the loop, which has been a staple
since the first introduction of seamless looping!!
The effects section
is an interesting beast, as many reviews I have read state
that the effects cannot be edited which is simply not the
case. They can be edited and sound quite good, though to
edit them you need to actually turn the CD player over from
vinyl to CDJ mode, which makes the platter function only
as an effect jog (pitch bending is not available, unlike
other players with “CDJ” modes). It is
also best to plan pre-song if you will use the effects or
not, as once within a song if you switch the song will suddenly
stop! How they made this oversight is beyond me, as it makes
DJ’s choose effects over scratching. While some of
the effects, such as the pan (self explanatory) and the air
hammer (transform) effect are kind of lame, the TT WAH is
a decent enough filter, and the One Way effect is similar
to the Denon “forward scratch” mode. As for the “Vinyl
Simulation” modes, really these are eq curves based
on various sounds such as playing your music through a telephone,
or a bass boost mode which is somehow labeled “1200”.
While I am sure some DJ out there will find these effects
to be the bee’s knees, really I have a hard time finding
any use.
“You could have been a contenda”
I really wanted to write this review and tell you that everyone
was wrong, that the DZ1200 is amazing and that it is the
player that Technics should have made years ago. That said
it in some ways feels like a group of engineers got together
in a room with a couple pages of notes on what they heard
DJ’s want and then went about their business without
actually getting anyone involved in the actual design process.
Built like a tank, if I were a touring DJ I would totally
consider one, but for studio use it would not do the trick.
Technics-now we know why you never sent us a unit. Sorry
I couldn’t ease your fears.
Ratings
Looks - 9
Build-8
Feel-5
Sound-8 (6 for scratching)
Overall-6.5
