For sale: Pioneer CMX-5000 Twin CD Player

Note: This was originally posted Apr. 29th. It’s still up for grabs, so I’m moving the post to today’s date for more visibility.

Pioneer CMX-5000

Asking price: \$300.00 SOLD.

Lightly used, but in excellent condition, this unit was purchased new for \$1300 three years ago, but has sat nearly untouched in the two years since I’ve moved to Seattle and stopped DJing. I can’t say anything but good things about this piece of equipment — it’s one of the best DJ units I’ve had the pleasure to work with.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, as as I’ve hardly touched it in the two years since I’ve been in Seattle, it’s time to see if someone who can get a little more use out of it is interested. I’d prefer if someone in or around Seattle who can swing by and pick it up from me bought it (I’m in the lower First Hill area, close to Downtown), as I don’t have a car and shipping would be a major pain. I can accept cash, checks, or PayPal.

Keep reading for technical details from Pioneer’s site (I’d link directly, but they’ve gone Flash…):

Features:

[![Pioneer CMX-5000]]Auto Mix Play** Armed with an original search system, the CMX-5000 measures a track’s BPM and beat timing and then automatically changes the speed to the designated BPM, thereby realizing smooth mixing even for tracks on a single disc that have different tempos.

Three Playback Methods are Available:

  • Track Mode: Performs mixed playback alternating between tracks from discs in both decks.
  • Disc Mode: Performs mixed playback of track on a single disc in numerical order.
  • Program Mode: Performs mixed playback of tracks in any designated order.

Track Playback Time is Adjustable:

  • Short Time Change: Switches the track at a shorter time.
  • Instant Change: Switches the track at the DJ’s preferred time.

The Auto mix function is very effective in the following situations:

  • At times when there no DJ is present in stores, malls, etc., such as an weekdays nonstop background music can be played in DJ style using the establishment’s favorite selections to help creative a more active atmosphere.
  • In bars, restaurants or pubs where the staff work as DJs, the Auto Mix function results in considerable labor saving allowing the staff to devote more of their time to customer service.
  • When DJs playing at clubs, etc., need to take a short break to deal with urgent business or emergencies they can use the Auto Mix function to keep the music rolling.

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– In case of no beat music, smooth mixing cannot be performed because the BPM or beat timing of certain songs can’t be measured correctly.

**In the case of tracks on the same disc, cross fading cannot be performed.

***The CMX-5000, while revolutionary with Auto Beat Mixing capability, does have its limitations just like any electronic device. There are certain variables, that if present, will cause the Auto Beat Mixing function to not function properly. A few things must be in order for it to Auto Mix:

  • Music must be within a +/-16% ratio. If it is not within this range, not only will it not mix, but the beats will not match as well. The BPM’s will stay the same (even with the BPM sync pressed).
  • There must be a steady consistent beat in the beginning of the song. A song that starts with just vocals or off beats rhythms will not mix.
  • Any +/-16% range BPM should mix if it is has a CONSISTENT beat.
  • You must wait a few seconds for the next song to cue up, before hitting “Instant Change”. The player does have to calculate the beats of the next song. It needs just a few seconds to cue up. You will be know that it ready to go when:
    • If the next song programmed is on the other side, an orange colored “dash” going in a semicircle around the display appears.
    • If the next song programmed is on the SAME player, the autocue button quits blinking.

    The “Instant Change” button must be pressed IN TIME. If you decide to use the “instant change”, it must be done in time for it to automix.

DJ Operating Functions The CMX-5000 incorporates and upgrades the functions of Pioneer’s world-renowned DJ-use CD player — the CDJ 700S/500-II — and also boasts a number of brand new functions.

Clear Jog Dial Although the player is a rack mount component, this design results in a larger jog dial and display which together realize higher operability and easy visual confirmation of the current playback status.

Quick Start This feature permits virtually instantaneous playback with a time lag of less than 0.01 seconds from the pause condition.

Cue Functions (Cue Point/Back Cue/Auto Cue/Cue Paint Sampler) Set your own favorite playback points using the above functions. For example, with Auto Cue, you can set the start point of each track automatically.

Tempo Control The playback speed can be adjusted within three kinds of range. +/- 6/10/16%.

Master Tempo With this feature, you can change the playback speed without altering the music’s pitch.

Loop Functions (Seamless Loop/Realtime Loop/Loop-Out Adjust/Re loop) Uninterrupted sound loops can be easily arranged, and with the Re loop function you can return at any time to a previously set loop.

Playing Address The playing address allows you to check the current track’s playback situation visually in paragraph units.

BPM Counter This counter measures and visually displays the current song’s BPM (Beats Per Minute).

Legato Link Conversion for High Quality Sound Equipped with Pioneer’s original wide-range technology Legato Link Conversion the CMX-5000 is capable of reproducing sound frequencies above 20kHz which are lost during normal CD format playback.

Vibration-Proof Memory and Construction The CMX-5000 boasts excellent vibration-resistant characteristics and prevents sound jumps with the double protection afforded by a maximum 8-second vibration proof memory and a special vibration proof construction.

Slot In Thanks to this system, swapping discs is smooth and rapid, and you can say good-bye to worries about damaging the disc tray.

Mix Out The CMX-5000 incorporates a Mix Out terminal that allows use even in cases where there is only one input system, the setup is restricted to a single amplifier, or there is no mixer input margin.

Multi-Read This function plays back not only CD’s and CD-R’s but also CD-RW discs that are impossible to play on a conventional CD player.

Headphone Monitor This handy monitor function enables versatile sound monitoring.

Digital Output The CMX-5000 is equipped with a digital output terminal.

Fader Start Play/Back Cue Play Using the CMX-5000 together with a Pioneer DJ mixer, you can use the mixer’s fade, to control playback operations such as track start and return to cue point.

[Pioneer CMX-5000]: https://michaelhans.com/eclecticism/2003/04/graphics/cmx5000-2-thumb.jpg {width=”150″ height=”107″}

You're an ex-DJ?

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ:

OGRE: A doorman.
MICHAEL, a.k.a. WOODY or DJWUDI: A clubgoer.
JOHN: Another clubgoer.
DAN: Another clubgoer (Actually, I have no idea what his name was…just go with it.)

SCENE: Outside of THE VOGUE, a goth/industrial dance club, during a Sunday night “Fetish night“. OGRE and MICHAEL are talking outside the front door of the club. Pounding industrial music can be heard in the background.

Enter JOHN, stage left.

OGRE: Oh, hey John. John, this is Woody.

MICHAEL and JOHN shake hands.

JOHN: Good to meet you.

MICHAEL: You too.

OGRE: He’s ‘DJ Wooooodi…’

MICHAEL (laughing): Ex-DJ.

OGRE laughs.

OGRE: I meant ‘djwudi’ on LiveJournal, but yeah. Ex.

JOHN (bemused): Ex?

MICHAEL: Yup.

Enter DAN through the front door of THE VOGUE.

JOHN: I don’t think I’ve ever met an ex-DJ. They’re always just “between clubs” or something.

ALL laugh.

MICHAEL: Well, glad to be the first!

DAN: Hey, I’m an ex-DJ! I used to be one of the top three DJs in Cincinatti. Now I’m working coat check at the Mercury. How sad is that? I started out doing coat check twelve years ago.

MICHAEL: I could say I used to be one of the top DJs in Anchorage, but I’m not quite sure how much that really means…

ALL laugh.

OGRE: No kidding — ‘Dude, I’m the top DJ in Albequerque!’

JOHN: I’m the top DJ in my apartment!

OGRE: Yeah, boy — ‘party over here!’

JOHN: I rock the house. Hell, I rock the passenger seat!

DAN: As long as the passenger isn’t there —

JOHN: No shit — ‘Hey, get your hands off my stereo!’

ALL laugh.

EXIT all through the front door of THE VOGUE.

END SCENE.

Oh, go ahead and point, it's okay

Much as I enjoy the Vogue, it does have one definite downside — there is very little ventilation in the club, so it gets incredibly hot on summer nights. Thankfully, the Vogue has a fairly relaxed dress code, so it’s not at all uncommon for people to lose articles of clothing as the night goes on (so maybe it’s not that much of a downside after all…). When this happens, it’s not at all uncommon to get some odd looks from the “straights” (non-regulars) that are at the club, as in many normal clubs, you’d get kicked out for doffing your shirt midway through the night, so getting the occasional surprised look or getting pointed at is something that I’m fairly used to.

Tonight, I’d taken my shirt off during one of the songs, and once the song was done went outside to get a breath of air. As I walked out, I noticed a couple girls out of the corner of my eye, one of whom was doing a fairly obvious “oh-there-he-is-look-wait-don’t-make-it-obvious” motion to her friend. Being used to this, and rather amused that I’d caught her, I turned around with a grin and told them, “Oh, go ahead and point, it’s okay.”

What I wasn’t expecting was to have the girl laugh, then say, “No, no, wait — you’re from Alaska, right?”

“Um…yeah…”

“You’re DJ Woody, aren’t you? From Gig’s? And that little place up above Chuck-E-Cheese?”

“Holy shit! Yes!”

“I knew it! I told you it was him! We used to go see you spin at Gig’s when we were 14 and 15!”

Just incredible. Shannon and (oh, lord, I hate being brainless…Jen?) had been club kids back in Anchorage when I was working at Gig’s, and then later at the Eclipse. They’d seen me dancing and thought they recognized me, but since I’ve shaved my head since they’d seen me last, they weren’t sure. It wasn’t until I went outside without my shirt and they saw my tattoo that they were fairly sure, and Jen tried to point me out to Shannon. Apparently they’re both fairly recent escapees (Jen’s been here for about five months, Shannon for about one), and are living down in Tacoma.

Too freaking cool. We spent a good amount of time talking outside the club and catching up, I met their friends Kate and (again…Beth?), and then once the club closed, they headed off for breakfast and I came home. They said they should be back at the Vogue at some point, though, so I should get a chance to run into them again. All sorts of cool.

I love it when stuff like this happens.

Streaming update

Just a quick note that I’ve updated my ‘About DJ Wüdi’ page to replace the download links for my mixes with streaming audio links instead. Everything’s still there, just less chance of running afoul of rabid copyright lawyers (on the exceedingly rare chance that they should decide to pay any attention to my little corner of the ‘net).

Reminder – DJ Wüdi mixes

Just a quick reminder for those of you who may be new to my site, and might not have bounced around some of the rest of what I have up here. Over on my DJ Wüdi propaganda page, I have eleven mix sessions available for download as .mp3 files.

I recorded each of the mixes myself, by running my Pioneer CMX-5000 into my mixboard, and then directly into my computer, allowing me to record directly to .mp3 format. All of the music in each mix comes from the original source CD’s, and these are presented for promotional purposes only, so hopefully I’m not running afoul of copyright here. Tracklistings for each mix can be seen by hovering over the title of the mix (though at present, this will only work in IE or Safari).

None of the mixes are entirely perfect, but I think they’re at least worth posting, and “Where Time Becomes a Loop” and “Eclecticism” are my personal favorites of what I have up. They range from 22 minutes to an hour and seventeen minutes in length, and from 26 Mb to 88 Mb in file size, so you’ll probably want to have a broadband connection (or a lot of patience) to download them.

If anyone does take a gander at them, I’d love to get some feedback! I’m currently debating with myself whether to keep playing with DJ’ing from time to time if opportunities come up (which, to be honest, is looking exceedingly unlikely at the moment), or whether it might be time to sell off my equipment and stick with the fond memories of the eight years I spent doing it — knowing if people like (or don’t like) what I’ve come up with might help influence the decision. Ya never know…

Faster than a speeding bullet

Major benefit to having my own DSL connection: because it’s up 24/7, I can run this website out of my own house, off of an iMac I have here.

Major downside to my DSL connection: at the level I can afford to pay for, while my incoming speed is great (1.5Mbps, equivalent to a T1 line), my outgoing speed bites (128kb/s, about twice the maximum theoretical speed of a 56k dialup modem).

This has been bugging me for a while — while my outgoing speed is great for the majority of my site (text and graphics are small enough to transfer quickly), the .mp3 mixes I have available for download on my dj propaganda page take forever to download whenever someone decides to grab one. I was whining to Casey about this yesterday, and he pointed me over to a friend of his.

So, at this point, I’d like to give major thanks to Karim, who graciously let me use some space on dragonshed.org to host my .mp3 files. As dragonshed sits on top of an OC3 connection (155.52 Mbps — insanely huge pipe), anyone who wants my .mp3s will now be able to download them at the maximum possible speed of what ever line they are using to connect to the ‘net with.

So, I’m in the process of uploading all my mixes to dragonshed now. I should have them all transfered over to the new server by the end of the weekend. Thanks again, Karim!

(Update @ 12:48 am Saturday — they’re all transfered over now — woohoo!)

New mixes online

It took a while, but I finally got two new mixes encoded and available from download. I actually made these a few months ago, before I moved out of my old apartment, but just now found them and got around to posting them. I’m pretty happy with they way they came out, too. Both of them can be found on my dj propaganda page in my DJing category archives — here’s the track listings:

Eclecticism Where Time Becomes a Loop
Dario G Carnival de Paris Goodmen Give it Up Chemical Brothers It Doesn’t Matter Fatboy Slim Song for Shelter Lionrock Are You Ready to Testify? A3 Woke Up This Morning Psykosonik Unlearn Everything But the Girl Wrong Annie Lennox Little Bird Clivilles & Cole A Deeper Love Sagat Fuk Dat Lemon Interrupt Big Mouth Technoclassix In the Hall of the Techno King

Orbital Time Becomes DJ Geek Travelling Erasure Run to the Sun BT Remember Blue Amazon The Javelin ReleveleR Sourpuss Sarah McLachlan I Love You ATB Don’t Stop Aqua Dr. Jones Orbital Time Becomes

Download and enjoy!