User Manual

The Cortex HDC-500 has been designed & engineered to provide digi-
tal music playback and manipulation features demanded by professional
users. The HDC-500 is designed to liberate DJs from the issues associat-
ed with PC-based solutions, by eliminating the need for a computer dur-
ing performance. The HDC-500 also offers superior portability and
flexibility over that of a typical PC.
The Jog Wheel on the HDC-500 provides highly precise control for a
variety of functions. With the Jog Wheel, the User can search, pitch
bend or even scratch just as if it were a vinyl turntable! As well, this
can provide an extremely powerful navigation tool for searching
menus, changing parameters and selecting music on your hard drive.
High precision 60mm slide potentiometer for accurate adjustment of
speed.
• 0.05% pitch precision
In order to provide more precise pitch adjustment, the unit is able to
advance in increments of 0.05%. This aids in beat-matching between
two musical programs, with much finer pitch resolution than can be found
on most conventional professional CD players.
• Multiple pitch ranges
With pitch ranges of 4, 8, 12, and 24%, the pitch control’s minimum and
maximum values can be altered to augment or reduce the amount of
pitch adjustment to a musical program.
• Pitch ON/OFF
By pressing the PITCH + and PITCH - buttons simultaneously, this toggles
whether or not the unit will respond to changes via the PITCH CONTROL
slide. The Pitch ON/OFF feature also functions as a pitch reset, when it
is used to turn the pitch OFF.
The backlit 20 Character LCD screen shows a variety of information,
including track titles, times, pitch, setup options, waveforms, loops and
search parameters. This display allows more extensive visualization of
parameters than a conventional CD player.
The HDC-500 offers an unparalleled level of connectivity with all driver-
less USB devices. The Cortex line of products are the first to offer the
ability to manipulate music stored on USB devices such as hard drives,
flash memory, optical drives, and personal music players, regardless of
platform. Through this innovation, DJs are able to consolidate the
amount of equipment and music needed during a performance. Even
more USB devices can be connected with the use of a compatible USB
hub.
Despite the fact that a vast majority of people have access to USB stor-
age devices or portable music players, the Cortex HDC-500 supports
the playback of CD Audio discs through a compatible USB external CD-
ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, or DVD-RW drive. This is particularly useful
for DJs making a gradual migration, or for playing CDs provided by
clients.
The entire line of Cortex Digital Music Players allows for the manage-
ment of music collections via a database-driven system. Using this
method, the database can be queried based on a number of different
criteria. This allows DJs to search by artist, title, genre, album, or search
string. Using this method allows the DJ to find a specific music selection
within seconds. The database is saved to the storage device the music is
being drawn from, so that it can be used with any Cortex unit, whether
it’s in your personal rig or at a club! Cue Points that have been memo-
rized using the HDC-500 are also stored along with the database infor-
mation on the active storage device. Once a Cue Point has been stored,
DJs have the ability to recall it each time that track is loaded.
The HDC-500 supports both iPod™ and User created Playlists, which can
be created using Apple iTunes™ (in the case of an Ipod™) or our own
DB SE software. When there are iPod™ Playlists available to be
loaded, a menu option will appear in the main Search Options menu.
Otherwise, user created playlists are accessible from the Playlist menu.
Features
4
Jog Wheel
Pitch Control
Backlit LCD Display
CD Audio support
Database-Driven Music Management
Playlist Support
Cross-Platform USB Connectivity
Operational Notes