Digital DJ Controller

I been playing with virtual dj pro - theres a control on amazxon for £80 but is it going to be shit?

I wouldn't mind being able to scratch using a usb input

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002HH9TO2/ref=s9_simh_gw_p267_d0_g267_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=002D1AZKJ8YFJFZA59PP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294

Hercules DJ Control MP3 E2 PC/Mac Virtual DJ 4780583

i use the v7s with serato there mint 4 scratching

Spring another 50 quid or so for the Behringer CMD Studio 4A, more solid built and will be worth it. No doubt we'll be seeing loads of different contributing custom mappings from the mobile dj community once it hits the shelves this summer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJTENhjhCq8

Behringer already stung me for £150 for a djx700 that turned out to be shit and unfit for purpose, so I would never touch another behringer product again

Now I have never used one but could you be a bit more specific that 'its shit and unfit for purpose'.It's just surely if you bought a mixer to mix with then it should certainly be fit for that purpose.Like I said just curious as I always thought that said mixer looked ok and was sure that you would at least be able to mix with it

honestly I had been mixing for 4 years using a gemini ps626 pro 2 and I thought I would treat myself to a mixer upgrade, alway nice to have a few more buttons and features, and for the cost and features the djx looked a good option, the fact it looked liked the pioneer djm600 but £450 cheaper should have set the alarm bells ringing.

Anyway I found the sound muddy and was unable to work out which tune was which, there was a variation to the sound when activating the fx unit, I was using tunes I was very familar with as well and I could definately mix before i brought the mixer.

The bpm counter would give false readings (not that I needed it but always nice to know, but any idiot can tell acid techno doesn't do 78 bpm.

selecting your cue channels was a knightmare as the sound seemed to shift and again wasn't crisp at all.

I used it three times in total and then put it back in the box and went back to the old ps626 picked out 2 tunes and mixed them perfectly in about 10 seconds.

What made it worse was as the box was damaged in transit the shop who sold me it refused to refund on the basis they wouldn't be able to resell it.

Its still in my attic boxed with manual and a sticker - yours for £100 if your interested, lol.

surely everyone knows that is one of the most gash mixers going, a got mine for a quid...

I just sold my cdj's and djm 600 and brought a MacBook pro and traktor s2 and I'm well happy with it!!

I do now, too late found out by paying for it, but thats why I go out of my way to tell others how unbelievably shit this mixer is.  Funny thing is if you read the instruction manual behringer actually belive you have just brought the greatest bit of kit invented

tbf mines doing the job atm, works alot better if u mix with the eq and dont use the faders

Fair play lee.I have a pioneer djm500, have owned it for about 10 years and have never needed to upgrade.The gemini 626 is/was the 1st mixer that I learnt to mix with, tis a solid little mixer.

I got one of these just before christmas and got to say Im well happy with it. £160-170. 

 

Got to say after using vinyl and CD's for so many years its a breath of fresh air just having all my tunes in one place on a hard drive and able to browse through them so easily.

 

Its a bit light and plasticy, but If your on a budget I reccomend one of these;

 

mate had that mix track pro. ok 4 the house aint they (do look a bit bab tho must say). quite responsive 4 scratching aswell which i totally didnt expect being so cheap i thought there would be loads of lag.

Yeah thats it man, their fine if your just gonna use them for messing around at home.

 

Got plenty of decent of reviews, most said it was suprising how much functionality there was considering the cheapness

 

The copy of Traktor that came with it wont run on PC (only 1gb of RAM and it needs 2), so installed an older version of Traktor (scratch pro 2) and had to manually map everything myself, so I havent actually got the scratch side of it working, everything else works fine now though including LED's, and I dont scratch so no bother really.... I can mix on it and thats all that matters....

 

If I had more money I would have picked something else, it was a toss up between this and a Numark Omni Control on the budget I had, have used one of those and they are good too, but these just had a few more features.

 

Digital DJing is the way forward if you ask me.

Well my circumstances have changed, so I won't be making a purchase for at least a couple of months now. Which just leaves me more time to stew about which controller to go for.

I think (for now at least!) I've narrowed it down to either the Traktor S4 or the Vestax VCI 400.

I'm running Traktor Pro 2 on a MacBook Pro, so the S4 appeals due to the fact that it's made by Traktor. But the VCI 400 is metal rather than plastic and is supposed to have the best jog wheels in the business. I'm not too fussed about custom mapping, so it maybe a bit over kill for me? But then as it's cheaper than the S4 should I be worrying about the fact it has additional features?

I'm also thinking about ditching my current mixer, but I'd like to keep my CDJ's. Can anyone tell me about the options for using as a mixer for external CD players? Would I have to run them through Traktor Pro 2 on the MacBook as additional channels on both the S2 and the VCI 400?

I just read that there is a firmware update coming out for the VCI-400 this month which will enable it as a stand alone mixer.

If this is true I'll DEFINITELY go for the Vestax.

Anyone know anything about this?

Yeah, you can direct external sources through the controller, but they are still operated by the software. Apparently this firmware update over rides that, so you can ditch the laptop and use it like a normal mixer - eg: mixer + 2 x CDJ's/1210's and that's it.

I emailed Vestax and they replied:

Hi Stephen we're currently testing the beta version. The new firmware will enable the 2 line inputs to be sent to deck C & D with trim, EQ and filter control.
We're looking at releasing it at the end of this month.

Happy days! 

Will do Craig.

I'll be ordering as soon as I have confirmation that the update is out.