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TECH
*
Three unit, 19” rackmount
*
Support for USB hubs
*
Connect 12 devices
*
Seamless looping with
stutter-start function
*
Pitch control in 6, 12, 25 and
-100/+25%
*
Large 5” backlit screen with
brightness adjustment
*
Track profi le visualization
*
Three USB, two ports
*
Plays MP3, Wav and
unprotected AAC
*
Supports FAT, NTFS (read
only) and HFS+ drives
*
Fader start
*
Software
updates for future
enhancements
*
Audio path: 24-bi
104
www.djmag.com
DIGITAL DIAMOND
THE D
2
Director is a digital media
player. It has no storage for music itself
and instead relies on the user connecting
devices containing MP3, AAC or Wav
audio fi les.
The D
2
joins the Cortex HDC-1000 and the
Denon DN-HD2500 as the third player of
this type on review. Similarly, it will play
tunes from USB memory sticks, hard drives
and MP3 players (such as iPods and even
mobile phones) — practically anything with
a USB port or USB cable interface.
The D
2
console is overwhelmed in the centre
by its massive screen. This area is dedicated
to navigating music and controlling the
player’s functions. There’s loads of space to
permanently keep an overview of the two
decks, with track text and ID3 tag
information, plus pitch settings, a progress
bar and times.
Below is the main window. Hit the view
button to reveal full tag info for each track
(there’s no Wav Meta tag support at the
moment), and again to see an overview of
the actual audio.
The very bottom row of the screen displays
menu choices. These are selected using four
soft keys directly under the screen, and a
pair of left/right direction keys give access
to further menu options when available.
On either side of the screen are menu
buttons to access different views, utility
modes, the library and the D
2
’s unique
Crate feature. The console is designed to
keep the menu and navigation separate
from the audio player controls, so playback
is not accidentally interrupted by using the
jog wheel to scroll menus.
UPLOADING TRACKS
The D
2
comes with a 128MB USB key to get
you started. There’s not enough room to
hold more than an album, but it’s useful to
upload fi rmware updates and play fresh
content.
Tracks can be copied to any memory device
on Mac or PC. The D
2
can read most fi le
formats with only read-only limitations for
the NTFS format.
As with most media players, the D
2
needs to
build a library of the device’s contents
before all features work properly. This can
be done on the D
2
, but it’s much faster to
use a computer.
Numark provide Librarian software, which
is now PC and Mac compatible. Other than
speed, the advantage of using the Librarian
software is that is creates a Profi le View.
The D
2
is the fi rst DJ media player available
to offer an overview of the peaks and
troughs of the music. The tracks appear on
top of each other, with the different volume
levels represented by different shades and
thickness.
The DJ can then compare the play position
of the two audio fi les in the view mode on
the D
2
’s screen. It’s even possible to jump
to breakdowns and the start of sections
using the parameter dial, but this is a bit
sluggish to do regularly.
SPECS
PRICE
£449
CONTACT
01252 341400
numark.com
TECH
*
Plays practically any
USB memory device
*
USB connectors front
and rear
*
Large backlit display
*
Seamless looping,
stuttering
*
Scratch and search
*
Beatkeeper™ BPM
technology with tap
*
Track waveforms
*
Keyboard and USB
memory included
*
XML playlist support
The new media player from Numark is put through its paces
Numark’s BeatKeeper tool helps get
the beats in line for beginners
words DAVID ESERIN
USB port on the front
provides quick access
One of the biggest screens
on the market provides
unique track preview
DJ437.numarkd2 104 19/3/07 18:57:34