The look of the SL-DZ1200 is simply amazing! As everyone might have guessed, the player is very similar to that of the original silver SL-1200 turntable. It also has those classic start/stop buttons, power tower and strobe strip.
These players have many, many features crammed onto its top panel along with the display and slip disc surface. Despite being a relatively small machine (smaller than the Pioneer CDJ-1000Mk2, but bigger than the Denon DN-S5000), It still delivers all of the features DJ's want.
The display screen in the center of the Slip Disc surface is able to rotate 360 degrees, so you can have a variety of set-up positions to suit the DJ's individual preference. It's unlikely that anyone would actually use this feature, but if you were using these decks for scratching, you might want to rotate one of them so that both start/stop buttons are as close as possible to the mixer's crossfader.
There are two playback modes on the Technics SL-DZ1200: CD or turntable. A DJ might need to flip between the two settings in order to take full advantage of everything the SL-DZ1200 has to offer. You will use the unit's turntable-simulation feature when you want to scratch and DJ on the fly, but to operate the platter controlled effects you need to select 'CD' mode (possibly for mixing).
In turntable mode a DJ will have to adjust further settings like the brake speed (there is a back panel control knob). There is also a top panel control labelled 'instant change' near the reverse switch. The instant change button directly affects the reverse switch and start/stop functions. Meaning if the instant change button is pushed…as soon as you press the start button, the source will start instantly from its current location. If you hit the reverse switch with instant change on then you will instantly change the direction of the source sound. With the instant change button off, the SL-DZ1200 is just like a Technics SL-1200 analog deck, such that when you press the start button there is a very slight drag before the deck reaches the required speed.
The SL-DZ1200 also has seamless loop function positioned on the central panel near the display. In addition to the loop function; there is also a real-time record feature linked to the (4) cue pads and (4) sample pads. This is an excellent, easy-to-use tool, with the cue function allowing DJs to do extremely fast mixing and remixing,