Novation Twitch love? Where is it?

Before it's release, I saw forums all over the place alight with speculation and excitement, even more so when it was delayed several weeks.

Now, after release, it seems the hype has disappeared. I've found a couple of reviews online, and mostly demo videos on Youtube, but the user love for the Twitch is pretty thin on the ground. Compared to something like the Traktor S4, which is a huge talking point on DJ forums, and is the focus of many Youtube videos showing it's mixing/live perfomance abilities, the Twitch seems to have been over hyped.

I had a go today, in my local DJ store. I'm not familiar with the Itch software, but it is pretty solid, and works really nicely when mixing. The units touchstrips and mpc style pads, which the marketing team at Novation won't let us forget, are the focus of the unit, and they actually work really well, unless you're scratching (in which case you are probably using some sort of vinyl set up), then you wont miss jog wheels, and the needle drop feature is beautiful. All the pad functions are pretty sweet. Build quality is solid, all the knobs and buttons are sturdy and satisfying, yet the unit is still portable and light (surprisingly light).

Unfortunately, I did find some flaws, for the controller, that is claims to embrace the 'controllerism' movement, I have to question it's ability to truly do so. The effects itch supplied were nice, but never did I find myself incorporating them into my mix like I would in Traktor. The effects weren't of bad quality, they just were lacking something crazy and wild, and didn't make a big enough statement required from a controllerist. I had the same problem with some of the pad functions (such as silcer and loop roll), again, nice, but I didn't making the crazy, exciting improvised remixes I desired.

Maybe it's because I barely played for 15 minutes and didn't really get to understand the units ability, perhaps the Itch software is not ideal for controllerism, maybe i'm just not great of a DJ, but I found the Twitch a solid, unique platform for making a quality mix, but the excitement where Novation promised was slightly flat. I would like to have another, longer go, with my own library, to see what I can come up with. I like the Twitch, but so far, i'm not in love.

Comments? Opinions? Talking out of my Arse?

I got my twitch nearly a month ago and I'm enjoying it. I'm a complete beginner to mixing so I don't have a lot to compare it to. My friend has an S4 which I have tried and liked. I'm personally using traktor and find it to be pretty good. Theres a few things in the default mapping I intend on changing at some point but thats about it. For me it does everything I need. Not really tried itch, didn't quite enjoy the UI and it put me off.

Cheers for your input mate.

I didn't try Twitch with the Traktor mapping, but according to the demo Novation put out, it doesn't look too exciting and isn't using the hardware to it's full potential. I imagine with some deep Traktor midi mapping the Twitch could be alot of fun.