Introducing the Pioneer DJ DJM-S7: Ultimate Generation of Battle Mixers (Transcript)

The DJM-S7 is the latest two-channel mixer from Pioneer DJ, which aims to sit in the middle of the battle mixer market. It inherits many great features from Pioneer’s flagship battle mixer, the DJM-S11, including all 22 of its beat FX, its Serato-specific features like Combo Pad Mode, Scratch Bank, Gate Cue, and its 16 large performance pads. Effects can be engaged on the fly using the onboard paddles, and it includes a high-quality Magvel Crossfader for durable scratch performance. And with a clean, intuitive layout, scratch DJs will certainly feel right at home. It enables free use of Serato DJ Pro and rekordbox performance features, including DVS control of both, and even includes Serato’s Pitch ‘n Time plugin for key-shifting features.

DJM-S7 Features & First Impressions

The DJM-S7 introduces two brand-new features to the DJM mixer line., one of them is Bluetooth connectivity, which lets you wirelessly play audio directly from your smartphone, loops that you want to scratch over, route them straight to the master output, or either of the channels to hear them with any other sound playing on that deck.

The other is a new feature called loop MIDI, which allows you to use these effects levers to send MIDI messages to Serato DJ Pro and rekordbox in a rhythm that synchronized to your music BPM. It has a sort of a mirrored layout where you can find a browse knob at the top (very nice and tall), a large knob, and also the load button type that they haven’t increased size over the old ones that to you know and you can use it to browse your tracks.

You can set your EQ in the middle of the Mixer section, and one thing that’s different about this as compared to the DJM-S11 (which is longer) the filter and the trim are, instead of in line with your EQ, located on the side, this is something that’s really easy to get used to you just adjust the gain on your track, do your low pass and high pass depending on which way you turn it.

DJM-S7 Curves & Adjustments

Coming to the front of the mixer you can find the Curves & Adjustments knobs of faders, this is one of the few parts of the mixer where you can really feel where some of the cost savings went. These faders feel fine, but not great, they’re just kind of lightweight, still, functional.

The Macksville Fader Pro is amazing. I really like how you have tension adjust right on the front, it is a no-contact crossfader and basically about the best you can get and it’s going to be really up to the rigors of intense scratch and juggle DJs. ready access to as a battle DJ is right here. You know, that doesn’t have directly anything to do with performance.

You can also find the Bluetooth pairing mode upfront, and this is a brand new feature of the DJMS7 features. A lot of times when pioneer comes out with a new mixer, even if it’s not a top-line flagship mixer, they’ll introduce new features to the line and see how it works, its going to be a lag with this connection, meaning that you’re not going to use it in live being DJing context and the sense of scratching gigs, but it’s good for say that if you wanted to pair your phone to it real quick and start playing a beat that you want to scratch over, or if you want to take a request from a friend and it’s on their phone, you can just pair it real quick, whatever you want to do, you can control that right upfront.

You’ve also got your auxiliary control and all of your curve adjustments right next to your large and small headphone jacks. You also got your crossfader adjustment, you can switch it to reverse mode with the flip o a little switch.

Finally, it has a curve adjustment here so you can adjust it to a sharp cut such for turntablism purposes and get easy cuts and scratches. One thing that I really like about this mixer even at this price point, you get a really high end, magvel crossfader, and you get the external tension adjustment, meaning that you can set it up really freely, or if you move it to the heavy setting, it would behave more steady, less bouncy as it is in the light side.

The Competition: Pioneer DJM-S9/S11, Rane Seventy & Reloop Elite

Comparing the DJM-S7 with other battle mixers that are currently on the market, compared with the replaced DJM-S9, it gets a few updates that were introduced with the more expensive Pioneer DJ DJM-S11, because it gets the independent pad controls for each deck and an improved Macksville Fader Pro Crossfader. And here’s how it compares to his more expensive sibling, the DJM-S11: most obviously, the S11 has a screen in the middle that is used for showing waveforms and for interacting with software via touch, including the ability to have some controls over decks three and four in the software, whereas the DJM-S7 is a strictly two-channel affair and the DJMS7 is a little longer in the filter and game controls lineup with the EQs in a more traditional manner. It has twice as many effects select buttons, however, it does have all the same 22 beat effects. The DJM-S11 costs $600 More than the DJM-S7 but of course, the S7 does have those two new features: loot MIDI and Bluetooth.

The most direct competitor of the s seven at the making of this video is the Rane Seventy. Now, these two mixers are almost functionally identical but they do have a few differences.

Firstly, the DJM-S7 is a little bit cheaper than the Rane which costs $1,499. The most notable upgrade for me in this area is probably those effects paddles because, on the Rane, you’d have these heavy diecast aluminum paddles that feel like they had steps when you flip them, whereas the sevens feel just a little bit less satisfying to me, however, the Rane has significantly fewer onboard effects, for a total of 6 vs 22 that the DJM-S7 has, and once again, you miss out on those Bluetooth and loot MIDI features.

And finally, there’s the Reloop Elite, which is currently also selling for $1,499, making the DJM-S7 the cheapest mixer in its class. The Elite is notably larger and less cramped, It has two larger OLED screens instead of that one tiny one in the middle, and overall, it includes most of the features that we’ve talked about in these other mixers, including dual soundcard and built-in USB hub. This one has an innovator instead of a Maxwell Fader Pro, still up to the task of some heavy scratching, however, the elite has no effects pedals, opting instead for button engagement which is admittedly a little less satisfying. Now the hardware effects aren’t as good and now that the DJM-S7 is on the market for even cheaper, that’s going to be an easy choice for many DJs.

Our Conclusions

I really liked this Mixer, the only complaint that I might have is, like I said, I think that the paddles could be a little bit more sturdy. I like the aluminum and heavy-duty ones rather than the plasticky ones, but that really is a minor complaint because It’s a really solid mixer.

It’s got good built-in effects, it’s got good features, it’s got a perfect crossfader, great for scratching, great adjustability (including the tension), and it’s got a built-in hub on the back, which I know is kind of expected at this point because that’s pretty common now but for a long time, it was really kind of a pain for mixers like this where you had to kind of incorporate USB hub too, add on things like CDJs or any other gear you wanted to use them as controllers. If you have something like Rane Twelve or something that you want to plug into this mixer, you can just plug them straight in. It’s got a dual USB connection so it’s great for those handovers of those b2b sets.

Generally speaking, it really compares well to the more expensive DJM-S11 If you don’t mind going without the screens or you don’t care about having all that information right there in the center because either you don’t need to see it or you don’t mind looking at the screen on your laptop, then you can save a lot of money and get this which is a great tool to add to your scratch mix arsenal.

I like to see that Pioneer is embracing Serato again and this mixer sort of lives in that dual ecosystem of rekordbox and Serato, so it really helps bridge that gap if you either live in both ecosystems or you’re not really sure, this kind of gear makes it so that you don’t have to make that choice. So all in all, I think this is a great option at $1,400 for the scratch DJ who really wants kind of a professional tool for doing their scratch mixing and you don’t necessarily need the highest-end thing with the flashiest buttons and screens on it, but you want a modern workflow, modern scratch workflow, you want it to work with Serato and or rekordbox and you need that just lovely buttery magvel crossfader. This is a great option and I hope that you will consider it and head on over to the www.thedjhookup.com and order yours today.

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