USB DJ Controllers

[munkygunn182]

Anyone in here got experience with them? I fancy me the Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol S4, but its too expensive for just starting out.

I need reccomendations! My current restrictions are:

I'm running from a laptop with Traktor Pro, i'm familiar with this software now, so i'd like to stick with it.

The club standard here is Serrato Scratch, but I can't afford the Rane hardware to go with.

As it stands, im not using any CDJ's, so don't really need the support for them (but it'd be nice to have i guess)

I'm just starting off in the wonderful world of djing, (in terms of parties, clubs etc) so not really interested in producing music.

Got my eye on the Numark Mixtrack and the Numark Stealth Control, any opinions on these?

Cheers!

[L3nny]

Not tried it myself but I have heard good reviews of the NUMARK MixTrack PRO. It comes bundled with Virtual DJ which I seem to find easier to use than Traktor but I think you can use it with both.

Get some 1210s and do it properly

[munkygunn182]

Haha, all my music's nestling away on a tiny wee hard drive instead of on tons of vinyl and cds . I think to have the mixer support for CDJ's and turntables would be nice, but its not a priority as in essence the first control is just to get me up and running and through a few gigs hopefully!

Personally, I have one of these:
ION Icue

It's basically a Newmark box underneath but without as many features, great for just starting out imo.
It comes with a "version" of VirtualDJ Light which is absolutly .... (again my opinion), it doesnt support multiple sound outputs for cue play at all.
Grab a copy of full VirtualDJ and your fine, alternately you can upgrade the version it comes with but i cant remember the pricing.

I'm not sure if Traktor Pro will detect the unit, have a check in the options for it and see if there is anything mentioned about remote crontrollers and if the icue is selectable.

The Ion Icue costs about £100 so it's nice and cheep, much cheeper than the Numark unit.
Drop down to your local maplin they normally have a few of these units all setup that you can look at and compare.

Hope that helps

[munkygunn182]

Thanks very much! I'll deffo have a look when im in range of a maplins. If i upgrade to the full version of VirtualDJ, will it the support cue play?

yeah The full version of virtualDJ does support cue play and it also includes the abulity to configure 2 soundcards. A must in my opinion

[munkygunn182]

No doubt about it, two sound cards is the only way to go! Out of interest, what sound cards do you use?

[L3nny]

The one I linked to has a second sound card built in so you just plug your headphones straight into it.

Originally Posted by munkygunn182

No doubt about it, two sound cards is the only way to go! Out of interest, what sound cards do you use?

My rig is a PC with 2 sound cards, 1 realtek HD audio (used for cue play)
The other is an old but reliable Creative Sound Blaster Live 5.1 (with all the digital sound outputs).
The pair work great together and the quality i can get is excellent.
If your using a laptop, i'd suggest using the integrated one for cue play and then get an external USB/PCExpress card as they will geive better quality for the listeners.
My headphones are an old set of Sony MDR-V300 with 3m of cable to stangle myself with. They work excellent though.
At the moment my setup is purely for Internet radio and pod casting but i've not done a lot of that recently.

[munkygunn182]

Originally Posted by L3nny

The one I linked to has a second sound card built in so you just plug your headphones straight into it.

Absolutely, something like that would be very handy!

Originally Posted by collis

My rig is a PC with 2 sound cards, 1 realtek HD audio (used for cue play)
The other is an old but reliable Creative Sound Blaster Live 5.1 (with all the digital sound outputs).
The pair work great together and the quality i can get is excellent.
If your using a laptop, i'd suggest using the integrated one for cue play and then get an external USB/PCExpress card as they will geive better quality for the listeners.
My headphones are an old set of Sony MDR-V300 with 3m of cable to stangle myself with. They work excellent though.
At the moment my setup is purely for Internet radio and pod casting but i've not done a lot of that recently.

Yeah im running off a laptop, when I used it at new year I used the internal card for the cue, and used a Behringer UCA200 for the external, but it was dire, so if i go down the line of a console with no card in it, i'll look at the sound blasters etc, but equally having a console with a card in it would be extra handy!