Planning a headlong dive into controllerism, any tips?
So, I've been djing now for a rough half a year now with a pair of cdj 100s and a denon mixer, got a few parties small and bigger under my belt. I feel like I've got the basic beatmatching (+ correcting with jog) and mixing skills now in place and lately i've been wishing for the ability to juggle with cue point and loops and play around with effects to enchance my mix and just generally use my creative whims while djing. As true quality DJ hardware is pricy as fuck (and i mean investing ~3k just to get cue juggling, loops and efx is a bit questionable), I've decided to embrace the path of the digital DJ. Also I hate dragging some heavy ass CDJ's around to parties when I could just bring a laptop, mixer and a controller.
My MAC arrived today (IC2D 2.0ghz, 2GB RAM, 120GB HD) and my traktor pro will follow quite soon i hope. The only thing i haven't purchased yet for my set is the controller. I have examined the selection on the market quite extensively and have come up with a two really strong options:
OPTION A: The EKS OTUS
I'm a native finn, so embracing my inner patriot would be a sane choice with the economic downturn and all that and this controller looks rad as hell! A few questions for owners of this controller, or people who have actually used it enough to answer:
1) Is the 2 deck system actually practical? Some people have called it shite, others praised it to high heavens, you're controllerists, you know best.
2) Asking this because I couldn't get clarity anywhere. When using external mode (=i have my OTUS hooked up to a hardware mixer), are the EQ and gain controls still mapped to the OTUS(too), or are they replaced as efx controls?
3) Is the touch sensitive pitch slider any good? My own hunch is that it really doesn't matter as i can check on the bpm in the software as i do the adjustments on the slider.
4) Is this bugger really worth the whopping 600€ I might be about to dish out on it?
OPTION B: The VCI-100
The VCI-100 idea really grew on me when i stumbled upon this website. The controller's vastly more affordable than the OTUS, but for some reason I dislike the idea of controlling my EQs and line levels (+cross fader albeit i don't use it much) in a crammed up controller.
1) Is there a way I could get my mixer hooked up to the traktor pro thus controlling the EQ and volumes with my mixer and the music with my controller? What kind of an audio interface will I need?
2) So you can get the VCI-100SE mapping and layout for the absolute friggin normal VCI-100, right? RIGHT? What kind of steps does it require to get it all working (you can start with "buy a VCI-100")?
3) Is the VCI-100SE easy on the demi-beginner? I am no pro, so are the basic functions still easily accessible and not sacrificed at the altar of controllerism?
4) Will you ship them VCI-100SE overlays to Finland?
I did this topic AFTER making serious internet researchwork, but didn't come up with satisfactory answers to all my questions, so decided to ask. The best help would be if I can gather from your answers a good selections of PROS/CONS for both options so I can make a decision that is right for me. Using nearly half a K of dough on a piece of midi controlling equipment and finding it to be non-satisfactory would be enraging.
