Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

I purchased two of these units for DJing. I have also purchased 2 of the HDC-1000s a couple years ago. Cortex did not design this unit to be "user friendly," as far as setup and updates. The procedures for downloading software, creating databases, extracting zip files, and trying to copy them into the Cortex unit is not only frustrating, but time-consuming. Additionally, Cortex is very picky on what kind of hard-drives it likes to communicate with. Cortex recommends using "IDE" drives, which are not easy to find, and is also obsolete technology. Any new DJ controller designed to run off USB external drives, should all be "SATA" friendly, because that is 99% of the hard drives out there today! It seems to work fine with iPods. Jump drives are "iffy," and everything else has lots of stipulations...FAT32 IDE, Does not recognize many music formats, and the software download and update should be way easier! I gave Cortex 2-stars because I feel these units have great potential once they redesign the software and language requirements.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

If I had read your reviews in 2009 - before I bought my HDC-3000 I would not buy it at all. But I think it is not that bad. (In my case the latest firmware was already loaded in.)

1. This unit is intended for USB FLASH drives. It worked with every FLASH memories I have ever attached to it - including memory cards in readers. It does not power up small external "one wire" HDDs. It worked well with WD 80GB IDE drive on IDE/SATA to USB2 adaptor. But you really do not want to use those anymore.

2. When you install it, you need to use all insulator stripes and washers. Otherwise you could experience freezing on start ups of the unit.

3. I do not like to use VBR files because they take a long time for the unit to extract them before opening. Once I accidentally chose a long VBR file - tried to cancel extracting and the whole unit rebooted. Not much fun in front of 2000 people. I am not sure using library would make this faster. Anyway CBRs are instant players.

4. Unit LOOKS GREAT but I would prefer classic LCD displays with black letters and dimmable blue backlight. These are quite slow responding and too bright in dark conditions.

5. I expected more from JOG wheels. The Search mode is nice but the Scratch is not too vinyl-like. That is why I would not recommend this unit to someone who wants to do some serious scratch jobs. On the other hand playback speed regulations are done quite well.

6. I miss a unit mode for playing all available files by just hitting the Play button without necessity to choose any specific file first.

My overall impression is still rather good considering much higher prices of other more vinyl-like players and the fact that I have not notice poor sound quality others may have mentioned.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

Freezes alot, and has many bugs. Did not buy it from PSSL, but the company I did buy it from dose not let you do product reviews. I must say, for [$], your really wasting your money. Great features and effects, but the software sucks. Quick in getting music in, but don't trust it. It loves to shut off during the middle of performance, so carry back-up. Best to go with the Numark DDS, or my personal choice, and Denon DN-HD2500.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

Unit does not reliably detect connected media. I was told by Cortex to make sure whatever hard drive you use is IDE FAT32 and powered (after I tried numerous drives)- problem is many drives sold these days use SATA and are no longer offered as IDE unless they are internal drives. I'm dissapointed that this fact is not on the manufacturer's website or PSSL. I could only get my unit to work with one 4gb flash drive and the manufacturer would not step up to the plate and suggest a good larger drive that would work with this machine. I really wanted to like this unit and I thought by now these machines may have evolved a little bit since their introduction, but after a week's worth of headache, I've learned my lesson.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

I purchase this Control just as it came out, I used for a bout a 2 weeks and return cause the scrating Fx wouldnt sound righ, i was very surprice about the display, it shows wave of mp3, and best of all easy to read in dark and well lightted areas. not like lcd, i was olso very surprice how quickly it load the songs.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

Okay, I figure that I have to set the record straight on this peice of equipment. With other reviews ranging from excellent to poor; I can bring some mediation. I first purchased both a HDC-1000 and HDC-3000 when they first came out almost a year and a half ago. At first, It was hell, you couldn't depend on either unit. Both units would shut off and do other odd things. After dealing with Cortex and updating the units about five different times they started working a little better. I'll tell you the truth, I wouldnt purchase the HDC-1000; We still have problems with this unit. Some nights the HDC-1000 will be 100% fine and then other nights it will shut off on two or three different occasions. But, The HDC-3000 has been nothing but golden since we have gotten all the initial bugs fixed with help from Cortex. The unit is a breeze to work and it is easy to update the database for the unit once you learn how to work the database well. Since then we have purchased three more HDC-3000 units and have had no issue with any of them. If you have an issue with yours, it may need to be updated which is also very easy. The Cortex support website always has new updates for the units and they are always adding new features to thier units. I will say this much to someone that would like to switch thier CD collection over to Hard-drive. DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT UNLESS YOU ARE PREPAIRD TO DO THE INITIAL WORK IT TAKES TO SWITCH OVER TO THIS SYSTEM. But, I had to rip over 500 CDs and then name every single song on the computer, trust me, it was worth it.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

This WOULD be a good unit if it was reliable. We've owned the HDC since January and it cuts songs off in the middle and must be rebooted frequently. Contrary to the advertising that it is "more stable than a PC," it is definitely not and claims that it works well with a variety of storage media are not true. A very touchy, buggy machine. Wouldn't recommend it.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

Rock solid. Easy to use. I have used it at several nite club gigs and my Cortex worked to perfection.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

This will be a great product, once they get all the bugs out of the firmware and database software. Right now, it's not usable for a professional event, because it randomly locks up every 20 to 30 minutes. The company acknowledges that this is a known problem. The good thing is that the unit's firmware can be updated, but they are slow to release the fixes. Also, the database software that you need to run on your PC in order to update and maintain their database is light on performance and functionality. I've been told by their support staff that a rewrite is underway, but a release date is unknown.

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

So far I've had a mixed experience with this unit. It is definitely a very capable unit but its initial release may have been slightly premature. However, they recently released their first firmware update that adds a BPM search function, the ability to tap out BPMs, better searching ability and other fixes. You have to be a little tech savvy to prep your drive for database searching which requires the Cortex database software. Some legacy CD player DJs will also be miffed at the fact that you have to go through menus to enable looping or hot starts as opposed to those functions having their own buttons.One serious gripe I have is the LCD displays that are used. They're very slow to refresh which is not cool when using the waveforms during playback. All in all, I think this is a powerful device that has great potential, but make sure your MP3s are immaculate and you play with it a lot before using it in the field. At the very least, [...].

Comments about Cortex HDC-3000 Digital Music Controller:

I run a mobile DJ service in So.FL i own the cortex hdc 1000 it had many bugs in the units firmware that would make unit sometimes stop playback in the middle of a song, would not load the song that was selected, and other headaches in that time since cortex has made significant improvements to the hdc 1000 with firmware updates. i bought the hdc 3000 and though i got a lemon on first use ( was so bad had pssl do a exchange firmware is buggy ) the hdc 3000 seems to suffer form the same problems as the hdc 1000 did in the beginning i would recommend
checking to see if updates are available for the hdc 3000 before thinking about buying this unit i now own the denon dn-hd2500 works better and features are more accessible but lacks the file handling capability of the cortext units