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Yes, it's me - I left a review here as a 16 year old claiming that this device can "do Waldorf shit". I'm not totally sure anymore what that was supposed to mean but I believe it was a reference to the expensive-sounding Nine Inch Nails synths I was so interested in at the time. Well, now I'm getting my first Waldorf, a Micro Q. A fiscally responsible if somewhat mediocre choice. I'm trading for another piece of Yamaha kit, an A5000. My, how things have changed. Yet I've maintained this expensive hobby for 9 years.
Anyway, what to say about the DJX that I can remember? It's a fun toy. The sound built in sampler is sooty and greasy, lo-fi in an ugly way like an SU10. The internal sounds are pretty obnoxious but I do remember the drum kits being quite good on this.
The achilles heels? -Upon power up, if you forget to switch it off, you are punished with an embarrassingly bad "dance" pattern. -Same goes for the reverb, and you have to adjust the reverb, chorus, and effects settings for every patch change. -Awful sequencer. -Very poor MIDI spec. Eschewing program change for MSB/LSB was a very poor choice.
If you are willing to forgive these, this will at the very least serve you as a cheap, decent sized controller with 4 non-assignable (but who cares with software MIDI learn) and a limited arpeggiator. You get the added bonus of some nice drum sounds and a couple "bread and butter" type ROMples, slightly better than the usual Yamaha General MIDI fare.
For a beginner, well frankly I think you'd be best off learning how to use software, specifically trackers. But if you want to use hardware, bless you, and get an old workstation, preferably sampling, and preferably an Ensoniq. ESQ-1, SQ80, EPS, ASR, it matters not. I haven't used the W-30 but I imagine that would be fine too. I wish I would've gone that route but hindsight is 20/20.
The DJX and I had some good times. But like high school girlfriends, the first time around is rarely true love. Even if it feels like it at the time. I ended up giving mine to my roommate junior year of college. Apparently it was stolen from the backseat of his Grand Am. It probably got pawned for drugs. So it goes.
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