Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 Review – Is It Still Worth It?

The Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 is still a capable 4-channel DJ controller for beginners and hobby DJs, especially if you want full-size jog wheels, Rekordbox and Serato DJ Pro support, and 4-deck control without moving into a much more expensive controller.

Today, however, I would mainly consider the original DDJ-FLX6 if you can find it at a good used or clearance price. Pioneer released an updated version of the controller, the DDJ-FLX6-GT in 2022, and newer controllers such as the AlphaTheta DDJ-GRV6 are now available in the same general part of the market. The FLX6 itself still has a useful feature set, so here’s what it does well and where its limitations start to show up.

You might also like: Pioneer DDJ-FLX6-GT – Is It Any Different From The FLX6?

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Mixer section

One of the nice things about the Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 is that it gives you 4 software mixer channels in a relatively accessible controller. Keep in mind, however, that the mixer does not operate as a standalone hardware mixer, so the only external audio input is the microphone input.

This also means that you won’t be able to plug in additional audio sources such as CD players or turntables and route them through the device’s mixer.

The mixer layout is roughly based on the standard Pioneer DJM design, with the audio FX section on the right and the library controls at the top, as on many DDJ controllers.

You are presented with a standard full 3 band EQ, filter knobs, gain control knobs (trim controls), track load and cue buttons for each channel.

An important thing to note here is that the channel volume faders are a bit shorter than your standard DDJ volume faders you may see for example on the DDJ-1000. It’s not really that big of a deal, but it’s good to be aware of that as it’s less visible on the photos than in person.

The LED volume level indicators are also noticeably short and despite the overall good build quality of this device it seems to be hard to hide all the cost cutting that had to be done in terms of design and parts to stay within the original price point including for instance smaller knobs, faders and pads, cut down FX section and overall plasticky feel of the device.

On the top part of the mixer section near the music library controls you can also find a switch that enables you to choose between the main audio input and sampler input on deck 4. This makes it easy to route the software sampler through your mixer channel.

Jog wheels & decks

The first things that are noticeable in the deck sections are the full-size 8 inch jog wheels with simple LED needle position indicators.

The jog wheels are exactly 8.11″ / 20.6 cm in diameter. Despite looking somewhat close to the classic CDJ jog wheel design at least in terms of size it’s important to note that these are not mechanical jog wheels that you may find in Pioneer CDJ players, rather these are regular touch sensitive jog wheels working in the same manner as the jog wheels you’d find on a controller like DDJ-SX/SZ do.

The original DDJ-FLX6 introduced this jog-wheel styling, while the later DDJ-FLX6-GT kept the same overall control layout but changed the jog-wheel finish and outer-ring feel.

The overall deck layout is pretty standard and in a sense similar to the DDJ-400 control scheme.

As with the smaller mixer faders mentioned earlier, the play and cue buttons and the performance pads are also smaller than your standard DDJ controls.

The DDJ-FLX6 also doesn’t feature a full sized pitch fader and frankly that’s a great shame. I could certainly see the unit being a little wider to fit a regular pitch fader on the left side of each jog wheel. It just feels like a missed opportunity.

Besides the loop controls, deck selection buttons, shift button and tempo sync controls each deck also features the Jog Cutter button and the Merge FX knob which we will cover in a short while.

Audio FX section

On the right side of the mixer there is a Beat FX section that is loosely modeled on the standard FX sections from Pioneer flagship mixers like DJM-900NXS2 and more advanced higher end controllers like the DDJ-1000 or XDJ-XZ.

Despite all that, those FX controls are just a really cut down version of the classic DJM Beat FX section.

One major downside here is that there is no FX selection knob here. You have to select particular FX by repeatedly hitting the FX Select button, which makes the FX number increment so for example if you’d like to choose the third FX in the second bank and you are currently at the first FX in the first bank you’d have to hit the button 5 times. Not an optimal solution.

The other effect controls present in the audio FX section are active channel selection button (CH Select) (which functions in the same way as the FX Select button), the FX beat division selection button (Beat) and the FX On/Off button alongside with the Level/Depth knob that you can use to control the intensity of the chosen effect.

It is also important to note that the FX section on the DDJ-FLX6 is just a part of the MIDI controller – a set of buttons designated to control the software FX. The unit doesn’t feature any in-built audio FX on board, and relies solely on the FX you’ve got available in your DJ software.

Besides that we have the feature exclusive to the Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 (and the GT) – the Merge FX.

Merge FX

The idea of Merge FX is simple: you are supposed to use this one-knob solution to easily mix between two songs that would otherwise be impossible or extremely hard to manage in terms of a smooth transition. This can work nicely for tracks greatly varying in tempo, or from vastly different musical genres.

In Rekordbox you can choose from 8 Merge FX patterns, while Serato DJ Pro provides 4. Rekordbox also lets you customize the effects and samples used by Merge FX and save your own patterns.

The jog wheels, the pitch faders and track load buttons will be locked up when Merge FX is turned on, so you won’t be able to use them during a Merge FX transition.

It’s a neat little macro knob to have, and depending on the DJ software you use, you can remap it to serve any other function.

The main issue that many DJs have with the Merge FX function is that the build-ups made using this tool can sound very generic, there is little to no variation between the consecutive uses of one Merge FX mode and therefore overusing this feature can easily be noticed and come off as unprofessional.

Moreover the default Merge FX presets styles in both Rekordbox and Serato seem to be geared more towards festival EDM genres such as Big Room House, Electro House and so on, then toward, say, Hip-Hop, Chill-out or Lounge Music. Doesn’t hurt to try it out on different genres though!

I think this is a useful additional tool to have, but you should remember not to rely on it solely during your transitions.

Jog Cutter

The Jog Cutter function on the DDJ-FLX6 is essentially an auto-scratch tool.

When the Jog Cutter mode is engaged on a deck, a track is playing, and you move the jog wheel platter forwards or backwards, you will hear a scratch sound that would normally require you to use both the jog wheel and the crossfader in a specific manner (just as a real scratch DJ would do).

The types of the scratches that you will be presented with while moving the platter with the Jog Cutter engaged depend on the current needle position (which is shown by the moving LED needle indicator light on top of the jog wheel). Different needle positions will result in different scratch sounds.

There are two main things to be said about the Jog Cutter functionality:

First of all, the scratches made using the Jog Cutter sound very mechanical and there is no real time variation or randomness factor that would be present if you were scratching manually.

Second of all at times it can be hard to synchronize the Jog Cutter with the tempo of the song you are trying to scratch over as was proven already in numerous online reviews.

Additionally when you’re using the jog cutter (while moving the platter when Jog Cutter mode is engaged) the crossfader locks up, because it is overridden by the Jog Cutter algorithm. This means that you can’t use the crossfader at all during that time so keep that in mind.

This feature is mostly a gimmick and to be honest a pretty minor one. If you want to, you can certainly try to for example mix the Jog Cutter scratches with audio FX the filter for some creative effects. I wouldn’t advise relying on it for fake scratching as it may sound really artificial and out of place at times.

On the DDJ-FLX6 the Jog Cutter button doubles as a Vinyl Mode toggle switch when pressed together with the Shift button. The Vinyl Mode button allows you to switch between the scratching mode and the pitch bend mode on the jog wheel.

Performance pads

There are 8 performance pads on each deck of the DDJ-FLX6. When using Rekordbox, the pad-mode controls provide access to 8 different pad modes. The pads are slightly smaller than those on controllers such as the DDJ-SX3 or DDJ-1000 and use blue backlighting.

All the performance pad mode buttons are labeled with their corresponding Rekordbox functions, and so despite the fact that the DDJ-FLX6 is Serato compatible, the function descriptions will be off when using the FLX6 with the Serato software.

These performance pads are responsive and accurate and the only downside could be their small size.

When using Rekordbox, the pad modes begin with the standard Hot-Cue mode, go through standard Rekordbox Pad FX, Beat Jump and Sampler and then through Keyboard and Keyshift modes allowing you to control the pitch of the currently playing song in a creative way. The last two modes are the standard Beat Loop and Sample Scratch.

The Sample Scratch feature enables you to quickly load scratch samples onto a deck, scratch using those and then unload them and instantly come back to the previous track.

Inputs and outputs

This device features only a simple master RCA output and RCA booth output.

There are two headphone outputs – one 1/4-inch jack and one 1/8-inch jack.

As said before this device’s mixer doesn’t operate in standalone mode and so, this unit does not feature any additional audio inputs besides the microphone input.

The only audio input on the DDJ-FLX6 is the 1/4-inch TS microphone input on the back of the device (featuring a little attenuation control knob right next to it – it allows you to cut down on the initial microphone gain).

There is also a Kensington Lock slot present on the controller, right next to the USB cable input.

In front of the device there are three knobs: one for controlling the headphone output level, the second one for setting the cue/master balance and the third one for microphone gain control (working independently from the mic attenuation knob on the back).

There is no crossfader curve setting knob on the unit, so you have to adjust this setting in the software you’re using.

Software compatibility

By default the Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 is marketed as official Rekordbox and Serato DJ Pro compatible controller. The device works with both software without a problem but it’s important to note that it has much better compatibility with Rekordbox in terms of functions, controls and overall software integration.

The Merge FX are a lot better in the Rekordbox software and offer free efficient customization, and the FX controls are much better suited for Rekordbox than for Serato FX bank control scheme.

The DDJ-FLX6 can also work with Virtual DJ software, however it needs an additional Pro Infinity, Pro Subscription or a DDJ-FLX6 Plus license to operate for more than 10 minutes.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Originally a pretty low price for an entry-level 4-channel controller.
• Full-sized 8″ touch sensitive jog wheels
• Interesting and overall useful Merge FX functionality
• Very efficient control layout despite some design and material cost-cutting
• CDJ styled loop section

Cons:

• Inefficient audio FX controls (no FX/Channel selection knob – just single buttons)
• Small Play and Cue buttons, smaller sized faders, short pitch fader
• There is no XLR output on the device
• The booth output is just an RCA output instead of a 1/4 inch jack one
• Would be nice to see at least one 1/8 jack audio input for external audio devices.

So, is it still a worthwhile pick?

The Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 is a good quality beginner friendly 4-channel entry level controller, and it’s still quite on the budget side of things.

It’s a great choice for beginners, bedroom DJs and can certainly be used at more professional gigs when the right time comes.

Overall if you’re a beginner it’s a good choice overall, but I would also advise you to look at the much cheaper but great alternative from Pioneer – the DDJ-400 (now discontinued). If you want something more than this for a higher price I would then advise to go straight for the older but still relevant DDJ-1000.

To sum it all up despite a few gimmicks and minor shortcomings the Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 is a great device that can be used both by beginners and passionate hobbyists.