Numark NDX 800 personal review and thoughts
searched around the forum and I couldnt find a good discussion on NDX 800's so I'm just gonna make one :D
atm my setup consists of two NDX 800's, a m6 mixer, and a audio 6 dj. I stopped using my laptop a while back as I prefer to use CDJ's now. I've been messing with these cdj's for quite sometime and I'm lovin what these babies have to offer. Well to get to the point, here are my main thoughts on the 800's.
http://www.numark.com/ndx800
http://images.guitarcenter.com/produ...0062937304.jpg
Looping and Cuing
loop and hot cue functions are solid. altough unlike its pioneer counterparts, ndx 800's dont have a beatmatching feature with its loops or cueing so your gonna have to have perfect timing when setting these features. You can set up to three hot cues and unless your remixing an entire track into something else, three serves their purpose well.
Theres a loop size flicker too. great for loop rolls or extending the loop.
Effects
there is a total of 6 effects: chop, flanger, filter, phaser, pan, and echo. Theres a on and off switch for these effects, although you can only use one effect at a time. the dry and wet fader is pretty cool but I seeing how I can just press the FX button instead to bring the effect in and out, I dont see much use for it.
Chop: not as great as the gater effect on traktor. this effect makes your track sounds like its cutting in and out... in a bad way.
phaser and flanger: great little twinks these are. prlly my most used effects.
pan: makes the sound bounce around on your left and right speakers. still trying to find some good tracks to use this effect in.
echo: can someone say echo freeze? build ups perhaps.
the parameter knob works wonders with these. if you hold the parameter knob while turning it, it puts in values for the effects via 1/4, 1/8, 1/16. kinda like cutting in a loop.
other effects
start/stop fade knobs. unless your going for a dramatic intro or outro... or your insanely creative with golden beatmatching skills, I dont think you will find much use with these. great vinyl representation.
bleep/reverse switches: nice to use here and there. creates a sudden change.
Pitch fader/button
this CDJ has a key lock feature. if its turned on you can pretty much change the speed of the track without changing the key. you can also set the increments of the pitch fader.... from 6% to 100% giving you a good range for bpm rides.
Jog Wheel
the jog wheel is large and feels great. although obviously not as close as vinyl, it does offer a similar feeling. I would love to say more on this but i'm still learning how to scratch.
CDJ capabilities:
the NDX 800 cd insert feature goes fast. it only takes a few seconds to insert a cd then have the next song playing. unlike midi mode, the platter lights up which personally is very big deal breaker for me.
the lcd screen is ok. bpm counter is like a mad scientist. you can trust what he can do but not what he is capable of. it takes a few bars to read so patience is key. however on some parts of a track that has an irregular beat, the bpm counter's value jumps around. its sort of a real time counter if anything. it reads correct most of the time though.
the song time/elapse feature is great with a bar that fills up/empties to show you your time in a track. however, what I do envy about the pioneer counterparts is the visual wave form which the ndx 800 unfortunately does not have... but I dont mind.
Midi capabilities:
works great. all but a couple of buttons are midi mappable. the lcd screen can be mapped to show how far you are in a song but thats it. the lcd mapping posibilities are limited due to the fact that the number values that can be used is capped at 140 something. so setting the pitch, bpm, time, tempo counter is almost impossible to achieve. the platter ring does not light up too and I have spent hours trying to find a way to get it to but to no avail. However, being a solid deck with buttons, knobs, and faders, the ndx 800 as a controller can pull of more than what you need it to do especially with traktor's midi friendly program.
Afterthoughts
One thing I cant figure out is the "store/recall" button. I read that it allows you to store cue points in a cd and is accessible even after you took it out and inserted it back in. kind of like the redbox feature of a cdj-900. Its really time consuming searching through a track to find a spot to place your cue and having to do it again everytime you come back to that track. If any of you guys know how to use this feature please let me know. would love to
know if this is true or not.
so far, i love these things. bought each deck for 300$ each. compared to its features, its price is a steal and definitely worth it. I've done a couple of gigs with these and personally, I think ndx 800's are the workhorse of the cdj family. although not as powerful as a pioneer one, its got the swag to get the job done. :)
