Pioneer DDJ-WeGO review

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.