Kontrol D2 use case with regular tracks.

[Ryan Ruel]

Dang, I did NOT know about this price drop. Sadly I purchased mine a few months before hand and paid $499 (US) each for them. At $299, these are a steal.

Over the years my setup has morphed quite a bit, I've always had a pair of 1200's (I'm never getting rid of those), but until recently I've been playing off CDJ-2000 Nexus decks. At home (where I play exclusively these days), I also was using Traktor, so a big chunk of the CDJ-2000 Nexus functionality was sitting unused. I also had a pair of X1's for effects and such. Over the years, I tried out an F1 on two separate occasions, and couldn't fit it into my workflow.

I decided to sell off my CDJ-2000's and picked up the D2's, and I have to say these are great! I figured that if I could make the D2's work, then great, if not, I could always pick up the new CDJ-2000 Nexus 2's (which are SO expensive). I'm finding I don't feel the need, at all.

First, I would say do NOT underestimate the power of that display on there. It doesn't seem that exciting, you can just look at your laptop, right? But in practice, they are great, particularly for effects. You can finally change an effect, and know exactly what each knob maps to without second guessing yourself, having to look at the laptop, etc.

The screens are also great for everything else, loops, beat jumps, browsing for tracks, fixing beat grids even... you really do find yourself needing to use the laptop much less than before.

Having a pair is nice... it's quick and easy to jump around between the two decks (A and C) on the left D2, and B and D on the right one.

I still have my 1200's when I want to beatmatch by ear, and I can do everything I did with my CDJ's (and more) with these D2's. Quite pleased with them.

Couple all of that with my Rane MP-2015, and I have the best techno/tech-house mixing setup I've used yet.

Dang... I feel kind of screwed out of $400 now. $299 is a GREAT value here.

And oh yeah, stems are super fun! I hope more and more content comes out for them. It's kind of like "remix decks-lite".

[goodbytes]

Yeah the displays are amazing, these are definitely the best controllers money can buy for use with Traktor, especially if you're over the whole beat matching thing.

However, i've decided to sell mine... I just felt like I wasn't using them to their full potential and they were just glorified screens, I also picked up a pair of Denon SC-2000 extremely cheap and had them running along side the D2s, they're amazing controllers as well the entire setup was amazing, but i've now again my original plan to have a small modular setup...unpacking 4 controllers and mixer is a pain so I ended up just using the Denons when I wanted a quick mix.

I thought the S5 would be a good compromise, i'd be getting the screens and dedicated pads with mixer to use with the Denons. Just as I was about to purchase I came across the Denon MCX8000 and the rest was history