Pioneer DDJ-WeGO review

The Pioneer DDJ-WeGO is a two-channel DJ MIDI controller with one stereo RCA output, a 6.3mm microphone input and 6.3mm and 3.5mm headphone sockets. It also has two 4.5in jog wheels, four hot-cue buttons and five effects buttons.

The DDJ-WeGO is Pioneer’s entry-level DJ controller, and its budget nature is evident in the DDJ-WeGO’s switchgear, faders and peak meters, which look and feel cheap. If it wasn’t for the Pioneer labels dotted around the DDJ-WeGO you’d assume it was a just another bargain-basement generic controller. To compensate for this, the DDJ-WeGO comes in a variety of colours, and you can even change the colour of the jog wheels to suit your mood.

Although the DDJ-WeGO only has two channel faders, it comes with a special DDJ-WeGO edition of VirtualDJ LE that lets you control two more decks and faders. It does this using software takeover, so you must move controls to match their onscreen locations before you can use them again. This is a good thing, because it stops you stripping all bass when you go from deck B to deck D, for example, or cutting sound because you’ve moved the fader for deck D and returned to deck B.

VirtualDJ LE is an obvious software choice for an entry-level controller, and the DDJ-WeGO edition uses a skin that apes the DDJ-WeGO’s physical controls brilliantly. Whether you’re looking at the DDJ-WeGO or your computer’s screen, you can easily see the state of the DDJ-WeGO’s controls.

MIXER SECTION
The DDJ-WeGO has two channel faders, a crossfader and a 3-band EQ strip on each channel. In between the channel faders is a 5-segment that appears to be present for cosmetic reasons only, as every segment is red and the sound distorts before you hit the top segment.

The faders may feel cheap in comparison to those on Pioneer’s more expensive products, but they’re fairly smooth. The crossfader is looser than the channel faders, but still has some resistance to it. The channel and crossfader areas feel cramped, making it more suited to smooth mixing than frantic scratching and beatjuggling.

Surprisingly, despite appearances, there’s plenty of space between the EQ pots, which means you can twist adjacent pots without clashing your digits too much. The 3-band EQ provides full kill on each band, which means you hear nothing at all through a channel when all three pots are turned fully left.

Sadly, the DDJ-WeGO’s doesn’t have gain controls, and they’re sorely missed. This may be a controller for those new to DJing, but we think gain controls are an important part of any all-in-one controller and should be present on the DDJ-WeGO.

DECKS
The DDJ-WeGO’s shiny 4.5in jog wheels look and feel fantastic. They have just the right amount of resistance, being loose enough to scratch and perform spinbacks but stiff enough to pitch bend accurately.

This is an entry-level controller, but you can perform some basic scratching techniques. This makes the DDJ-WeGO a decent controller if you want to learn how to scratch without spending a fortune, but be aware that the cramped crossfader area makes scratching uncomfortable.

HOT-CUES, LOOPS AND EFFECTS
Each deck has four hot-cues that are arranged below each jog wheel. Setting a hot-cue is as simple as pressing an empty hot-cue button at the point in a track at which you want to set the hot-cue. You can easily delete hot-cues by pressing the relevant hot-cue button and the DDJ-WeGO’s Shift button simultaneously.

The hot-cue buttons also double as sample triggers, and you can select the samples assigned to each button in VirtualDJ LE’s Sampler screen.

VirtualDJ LE DDJ-WeGO edition’s skin mimics the DDJ-WeGO’s physical controls incredibly well

The only loop control is an autoloop rotary selector at the top of each deck; it doesn’t have manual loop in and out buttons. VirtualDJ LE lets you set autoloops between 1/8th and 32 beats in length. All you have to do is twist the rotary selector to the desired loop length and then press it to activate a loop. This control makes it easy to control the length of a loop when you’re inside it, reducing the length until you just have the percussive stutter of a 1/8th-beat loop.

As for effects, the DDJ-WeGO has a Filter button, a Key button and three user-selectable FX buttons. To trigger an effect, you simply have to press the effect’s button and rotate the jog wheel to adjust the timing of the effect. Spinning the jog wheel is a fun way of controlling effects, but it also means you have to adjust the effect while it’s active, which can sound odd in a mix.

You select an effect by pressing an FX button and the DDJ-WeGO’s Shift key simultaneously. This a neat feature that keeps your attention and hands on the DDJ-WeGO, not your laptop.

The Filter effect lets you apply a low pass or high pass filter, the Key effect alters the ‘key’ of a track and the user-selectable effects are comprised of DJ favourites such as Phaser, Delay and Reverb. VirtualDJ LE’s effects aren’t too bad, but they’re not a patch on Traktor LE’s. The Filter is okay and has a decent amount of resonance, but the Key effect sounds silly.

CONCLUSION
We really like the Pioneer DDJ-WeGO and think it’s a great platform for learning how to mix and scratch, but it’s too expensive. For just a little more, you can buy the Budget Buy-winning Denon MC-2000, which comes with the high quality Serato DJ Intro and Traktor LE applications, has more controls and just feels much better. If we had to choose, we’d buy the Denon MC-2000.