What is the best mixer for Traktor with built in soundcard???

[keeb]

"Best" I'd say is pretty unquestionably the DJM 900. The Denon x1700 might give it a bit of competition with the two effects units, but I'm pretty sure the 900 has better sound quality.

"Best Value" would be a bit more of a discussion.

[oddworld_audio]

The DNX-1600 does the job well.

[djmilan]

The best mixer for Traktor with build in soundcard is the Allen & Heath DB4, haven't tried the Rane ones though. But DB4 = instant love and never a wrong pick!

[Kaek]

I would go with the X1600, TSP certified, 4 channels, matrix inputs, fully midi mappable, separate blank midi controls, 1K USD price list?

Pretty good for your money.

[ekwipt]

other than the pioneer there have been no mixers added to the certified list, it makes me really worried about the future of traktor, NI want you to buy a s2 or s4

[photojojo]

NI want you to buy a s2 or s4

Or an NI sound card to work with any mixer.

[BaDaZ]

yeah one of my buddies is getting the DB4 and is gonna sell me his Pioneer 909 for $600 so ill just get that along with an N.I. Audio6. I feel that would be my best bet for the money. not willing to spend over 1k on a mixer on the moment.

[manchild]

909 is a fun and legit mixer. congrats

[frequencym]

"Best" I'd say is pretty unquestionably the DJM 900.

I'd debate whether that "best" is unquestionable. The 900 nexus is a fine mixer, but if you're using TSP you've got access to far better effects than any mixer has to offer; IMO TSP makes the effects section in any mixer pretty moot. I've never used the effects in my X1600 other than for a minute when I first got it. The Denon mixers do have what appears to be a pretty good advantage in that each of the 4 channels can be midi mapped, but in practice this isn't nearly as good as it sounds. If you actually use all 4 channels for audio flipping a channel between midi and input control ends up being more aggravation than it's worth. The denon does have some dedicated midi controls but it's just 4 push encoders and 4 buttons. I went through all sorts of gyrations trying to map sample decks to those and eventually gave up; the mess of controls on so few buttons was ending up too hard to manage while actually performing.

Right now I've got my X1600 setup so that the push encoders control Traktor's filters for each channel, with the push resetting the filter to zero. I have the effects section always in midi mode and use it to load tracks into each deck (I have 3 1200's so run 3 timecode decks and one sample deck). I have an X1 that takes care of effects and loop control (sadly I haven't been able to figure out a way for a clean UI for running 4 FX banks from a single X1). When the F1 comes out I plan on adding one and replacing the sample deck (which I hardly ever use; w/o midi control it's basically useless) with a remix deck.

IMO the best certified mixers right now are the X1600, X1700, and 900 nexus (OK the 4D is probably great too but hard to justify unless you've won the lottery). It comes down to sound quality and what features you will use. Are you going to use the mixer for a lot of vinyl/CD w/o running Traktor? That will make the X1700 or 900 a lot more valuable as the effects sections come into play. Planning on using Traktor 100%? Then the X1600 saves you some money at the cost of features you'll most likely never use. Got a residency in a club (which will probably have a 800 or 900)? That makes the 900 more valuable if you want a similar interface at home.

Sound quality wise I've never heard the 900 in my system so I cannot compare; but the X1600 sounds very good run @96K, good but not amazing at 48K (which is where I run it). I'd be pretty surprised if any of these 3 mixers didn't sound pretty damn good.

EDIT: One thing you could do with the encoders on the Denon mixers is use them for set effect patterns like Ian does with a lot of his mappings. Setup one of the buttons as a shift key, and use shift + push encode to turn off effects in a bank and load them with a particular combination of effects. Then push encode can turn all effects on/off and the encoder itself can vary effect parameters. You could use it for something like Ian does with platter effects in the S4 mapping. Would be pretty slick and if you use an X1 along with the mixer it leaves the X1 set to vanilla when you want to use conventional effects. At some point when I have the hours to burn I'll probably give this a shot.

[thewootts]

"Best" I'd say is pretty unquestionably the DJM 900. The Denon x1700 might give it a bit of competition with the two effects units, but I'm pretty sure the 900 has better sound quality.

"Best Value" would be a bit more of a discussion.

Actually when i oscilloscopes tested the output on a Allen and Heath 4D, DNX1600 and pioneer DJM 900 the pioneer square waved first. The 4D came up trumps!!