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The DJX is certainly worth your consideration. Though it may not appear as such, it functions as a great master keyboard or even a synthesizer in its own right. Just look beyond its tasteless plastic casing, and you can see what people are raving about with this keyboard.
When you first step up to this keyboard, you are probably going to think that this is just a kid's toy. However, if you continue to power it up and take hold of those chunky, white knobs on the front panel, you would suddenly find your former intuitions flat out wrong. While turning the cutoff and resonance knobs, you would discover that the deep filters of the DJX rival those of real, vintage analogs. You can really achieve a big, pulsing sound when you cut the mix down low with those knobs. On the flip side, you can also get those classic, screaming highs when you turn the cutoff to the other side. Other functions that the knobs can control, among others, are arpeggiator speed, envelope settings, modulation, and depth for the DSP effects. And best of all; all of those knobs transfer real-time over MIDI. One rant, though: the locking effect that the knobs have in the middle position can really hamper otherwise smooth filter sweeps until you have broken everything in.
However, another real-time controller on the DJX that works great from the start is the ribbon controller. It is a little touchy, and it is not pressure sensitive, but it does give you an enormous amount of expression. You can assign it parameters that could be otherwise controlled by the knobs, but some unique effects such as a turntable function can also be controlled.
Listing all of these features, it seems as though the DJX is more suited as a controller keyboard than anything else. Not so. The sound engine on the keyboard is great, as it is very similar to the one used in the CSX-series keyboards. Some really deep sounds are included on it, such as the infamous TR-808 and TR-909 drum kits, as well as some vintage analog sounds coming from the likes of the TB-303, Minimoog, DX7, and Arp 2600. True, the sounds are not very editable, as you can only adjust attack/release envelopes, cutoff/resonance levels, and some LFO's in the DSP settings. In the end, though, the sounds on this keyboard can certainly hold its own, even when compared to the likes of +$1,000 synthesizers.
Nevertheless, Yamaha has cut corners on the DJX. When you first use it, you might be wondering where the modulation wheel, MIDI through port, and dedicated external out jack are. Also, you may become very frustrated to learn that you cannot store user patches (instead, you must use the 4 user performance settings to save your work), the sampler holds only 3 seconds of data, the onboard sequencer functions merely as sketch pad, and sound editing is quite limited. In addition, the fact that speakers are included onboard and the DJX has a battery compartment is laughable.
But even with all of these flaws, the DJX is still a great piece of equipment. With all of the knobs and other controllers sending MIDI data real-time, this keyboard can successfully be used as a master keyboard. On the other hand, its great presets coming straight from the most famous analogs really distinguish it from other competitors in its class. So, overall, whether used as a controller or a synthesizer, the DJX certainly delivers greatly.
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