I want to make a Hybrid set mixing Elektron gear with Cdj, Can I control Elektron machines via MIDI etc? please help!
Maybe. Do you have a particular CDJ that you want to use?
cdj 1000 nxs 
Is that the correct model number? I couldn’t find documentation on the Pioneer support page:
https://www.pioneerdj.com/en-us/support/support-archive/#documents
The CDJ-2000NXS, for example, sends a bunch of MIDI messages over USB to a computer. Are you running a particular piece of software with the CDJ? That might be able to output MIDI messages to Electron or other instruments.
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Oh sorry the club where I will play has these maybe I am wrong, my idea is to not use a computer, I want to use just the Cdj to control the machines, can I do that? or it is not possible?, if that the case what can I do, of course I could use a macbook… running live etc, but I don’t know.
Thanks for replying!!
there are many parameters controlable so yes, but maybe it will be a lot of changing and re re changing programation. Or maybe if you know which parameter can be interesting to control you can try. It’s about “midi CC messages”
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Thank you!
I just want to send the clock so I can be in-sync with the Cdj so my partner can play our music and I can play with the machines at the same time! I think nothing more.
i know nothing of cdjs but unless you can practice the routing of all this stuff before hand i would caution against this. i have found its very difficult to trouble shoot this kind of thing if you don’t have the time.
good luck anyhow!
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Short answer: No. The CDJs do not have a MIDI DIN interface you can connect to, and they also don’t send MIDI-clock over USB.
It can be done with a computer and some third party software, but it would require some preparation and testing before you step into The booth.
Simplest solution would be to have the DJ beat-matching the CDJs to your Elektrons.
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Most Elektron boxes are pretty easy to sync up by ear and to keep in sync with whatever you’re playing. Just search for “tap tempo” and “nudge” in the manual of the unit(s) you’re playing.
You obviously want to practice this.
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Yeah, just set the CDJ BPM to the same value as your elektron’s BPM (assuming your crates are gridded) and use trad. beat matching techniques for the rest, you’ll be fine. Elektrons all have tempo nudge too so you can adjust their timing against the decks too. Easy peasy!
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Thank you guys!!
I am just waking up.
Ok I think thats the way to go!
I will do some practice before.
Hi — I’m learning beat matching with the goal of combining in my elektron gear with cdj decks. Everyone says the nudge function on OT is very useful for beat matching or manual syncing, including the manual. But the manual says the nudge is a fixed 10%. Can an experienced dj explain how this 10% temporary nudge that requires holding the button down assists beat matching? Thank you!
I’m not a dj but it’s not too difficult to explain, and digitakt can do it too using the arrow keys.
Imagine that you’re running around a circle track with your friend who runs at the same speed that you do. He started running while you were tying your shoes and now you’re both running at the same speed so you will never be running next to each other unless you speed up to catch him, or slow down so that he catches up to you.
If you speed up and don’t slow down when you catch him, you’ll only pass him up. Same happens if you slow down to let him catch you and don’t go back to your normal pace when he catches up.
Your friend in this analogy is the unsynced tempo of a record or a cdj, and you are the elektron device. By speeding the tempo up, when you catch up to your friend who you are now running 10% faster than, you release and go back to running at the same speed. You are now tempo matched.
This applies to unsynced equipment, and I suspect that with some sort of midi clock involved would have less relevance, but the principle of pushing the tempo to synchronize the two pieces of unsynced gear, both playing at the same tempo is the same as described above.
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The reason it’s beneficial is that it’s easier to get the tempo locked by doing this than just relying on pressing start and then stop and start and stop until you’re convinced that the two are running in sync together, because with the +/- 10% you can make slight adjustments to the running tempo and hear them synchronize rather than just hoping you’ve pressed start at the exact right moment this time.
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thank you for the visual, im actually having my mind blown imagining the sequencer as a tape that im basically sticking my finger on to drag it into time with the platter. in my mind it was always just a sequence of buttons with values and a “track” or playhead running down them. however, what im getting from your posts is:
CDJ has song bpm displayed on screen so all you need to do is mix in a deck, cue OT (im going to have one track cue’d at all times with a click) then you’re manually setting OT bpm to that displayed on CDJ then using nudge listening to click, finally mix in OT.
goal here is to basically be able to use OT bag of tricks + sampling in place of the usual duties absorbed by pioneer DJM+RMX. so i can use other options for the main dj mixer and keep my electronic timekeeping entirely on the sequencer side – cdjs shouldnt use sync but rather thoughtful metadata management + manual beatmatching, otherwise why use em, i would jsut dj in abelton/OT.
OT’s A/B will be fed by a tx-6 bussing all desktop sequencers slaved to OT. C/D will get an aux from the main mixer. idea is to do things like
- mix in platter A, send to aux > C/D, C/D is running to a thru>neighbor chain with crossfader scenes + delay controls, now we’re dualweilding crossfaders to mix in a chopped and screwed version of platter A’s playback
- while mixing platters A/B, capture a one-touch quantized sample into a pre-chopped OT track; then have this available for mixing in down the road. can cover elaborate transitions/programming on the CDJs and project/pattern changes on the sequencers this way.
one of the inputs to TX will an OPXY. its aux out will be running a click to cue on the mixer, so that at any time i can hear the tempo of the last leg in the sequencer chain.
so now nudging OT is basically sticking my finger on the tape representing the sequencer for the whole chain, as you’d use your finger to slow down the cdj platter. it’s just basically like a tape deck you’re trying to beat match with the cdjs, only less tactile.
Yeah I mean I’m not that good at multi-tasking so I’d probably bite my tongue and stub my toe if I tried to field all of that hardware juggling at once in a live context so I tend to focus more on condensing the workflow down into a couple of focal points rather than trying to spread myself too thin.
The only people really impressed with complex workflows are ourselves and other musicians, most people just want to hear music and have it sound good but you do you.
I think if you prefer to think about it as dragging a tape reel then the visualization is less important than the concept, which it seems that you have now.
I’ve seen people do some pretty impressive stuff with a single cdj accompanied by a laptop and while it wasn’t very interesting to watch it would have sounded about the same as a more complex workflow if I had my eyes closed, mainly because a fluid workflow with nice transitions and a well thought out performance with good musicality is the same stuff that had me bumping cassette tapes back in the day until they literally broke.
I guess the reason I started working more with 1 or 2 pieces of gear at a time is because the more gear I tried to combine, the less I actually accomplished.
If you flourish in that environment, then the sky is the limit and I’ll look forward to hearing what you come up with when you’re ready to share 
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ive long been obsessed with merging recordbox and elektron workflows, im going underground for the last time to finally close a circle opened more than a decade ago in my mind. you’re right about the intensity of juggling, the heat of the moment, the likelihood of catastrophic failure, sadly for my case that is the aspect of this pursuit im most addicted to. i need my desk to feel as close as possible to a fighter jet’s cockpit.
edit: maybe not a jet, more like a mecha
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Keep in mind, that Elektron sequencer itself doesn’t have BPM divisible enough to keep clock-less sync with external BPM long enough. So you will have to match the BPM on Elektron close enough and then do the final 0.01 BPM adjustments on the CDJ in order to keep them in sync long enough. Or you can keep nudging Elektron repeatedly manually and don’t touch the CDJ. Other option that came out recently is Nome 2, that can do the 0.01 tempo adjustment and nudging, so you would use Nome as clock source and slave Elektron to it.
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No, and without a computer in between you won’t be able to sync the Elektron to the cdj either.
I’ve been doing it with Traktor a bit, it’s more friendly to external gear but you still need a laptop.