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Pioneer’s DDJ-REV1 is a battle-style DJ controller for budding scratch masters

To the uninitiated, a battle mixer sounds like something Mary Berry would bring out for a bake-off showdown. But for experienced disc jockeys it means one thing: a ticket to the scratch city.

Want that wicky-wa-wa when you put it down? Pioneer has introduced a range of digital decks to help you scratch like DJ Lethal whipping up a mega mix with the Limp Bizkit back catalogue.

Inspired by the classic battle-style setup used by scratch DJs to avoid their turntable’s tonearm thumping deep in the mix, the DDJ-REV1 digital packs no pickups—but it adopts a setup that still never seen before on a Pioneer DJ Controller: Tempo sliders are swapped horizontally and moved up.

At 60mm, these sliders should provide finer timing control, while repositioned performance pads mean you can easily trigger samples and tweak effects alongside the Level FX paddles. A roomy layout also leaves plenty of room to include your elbows, and larger jog wheels make scratching a breeze.

Are you just starting out? Tracking Scratch automatically returns the track to the selected cue point when you release the jog wheel, without the guesswork. Plug in a mic and the DDJ-REV1 can also mix your vocals straight into the master output – great for MCs who like to hype their stage name every 20 seconds.

Connected to a PC or Mac, the DDJ-REV1 is designed to work seamlessly with Serato’s free DJ Lite software, including options for selecting effects for the levers, loading scratch samples from four assigned banks, and for Stream audio to your preferred platform. You can also pay to upgrade to the Pro version.

The Pioneer DDJ-REV1 is available this month and will cost you £259/$259, including a three-month Tidal HiFi subscription for superior source material.

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