First controller..Do I really need jog wheels?

[androoskie]

I thought I would need jog wheels, but I'm finding that you can easily pitch bend with buttons and whatnot.

The jog wheels aren't really for scratching anyways. I can recommend Denon MC-3000. You can get it for ~270 new from eBay.

Feels solid, and the faders feel AMAZING.

yeah, i have been pitchbending with buttons now too, but honestly i cant say its as fun forsure.
thinking about switchign to some sort of dvs setup...

[loverocket]

I vote for the Denon MC 3000.

Inexpensive high quality feature packed controller that's Traktor ready.

>

[bsudz]

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions.
As for knowing exactly what I want or don't want with the jog wheels..I'm not exactly sure of their full capabilities since I'm new to all of this.

At the 7:00 min mark of Ean's video here is the kind of mixing I'm interested in learning.


I know he uses his jog wheel a good amount but I think he's got it remapped as an fx fader if I'm not mistaken? Given my budget of around $300ish, which controller would be easiest for me to learn and perform this style of mixing?
Would the Twitch offer any advantages or ease of learning with its layout over a standard controller with jog wheels? or vice versa?

[cpetticrew]

I picked up a Novation Twitch as my first ever controller. I sounded exactly like you did when I was first getting into mixing. I cant speak for any of the other controllers but with my hours upon hours of use with the Twitch I am still to this day learning new tricks on it (had it for over a year). I would say I play on a pretty consistent basis if not every day then every other and it has yet to let me down. Although now that I understand a lot more when it comes to the art of mixing I am now wanting to upgrade from my Twitch. As a beginners tool to what I would consider myself as an amatuer the Twitch has been there for me from day one and I wouldnt have chose a different controller to start out on.

[cpetticrew]

If you have any questions regarding the Twitch man feel free to to ask away!

[bsudz]

If you have any questions regarding the Twitch man feel free to to ask away!

Thanks for the feedback! Have you ever thought that having jog wheels would make things easier for on the fly or do the slide pads work well enough?
Now that you understand more about mixing, what do you feel limited with on the Twitch?

[SlvrDragon50]

If 300 bucks is your budget, Denon MC3000! It's the best controller w/ jog wheels IMO. Next closest thing will be the Traktor S2, but that's over the budget, and it doesn't have filter knobs and it's plastic.

[cpetticrew]

In some instances I def. feel that the jog wheels would make things easier for on the fly such as beatmatching. Although with the touchstrip i'm able to use the drop function which allows you to move directly to the section of the song you would like to be at. For instance if you want to go to the middle of the track you hit the drop button and then touch directly in the middle of the touchstrip and it will take you to the middle of the track. Although you may not touch exactly dead center where you would want to be. If your a little before you can either use the touchstrip to slide to the exact point or play that track in your headphones and pause it once you get to that point.

Limitation wise one being four deck control. In Traktor you are able to use four decks but I would really like to have EQ's for each deck without having to share them amongst 2 decks. I also picked up a Midi fighter Spectra to help with this limitation but I really hated the effects only being able to be used via one knob or the fader. I would have liked it more if the Twitch had the ability to add another banking to use the buttons for FX as well. Hence why I got the Spectra (got the Spectra for more then just that but thats a whole nother story)

These two limitations arent deal breakers by any means and theres other little things I can nit pick about like the sound output (which isnt horrible but not awesome) I'm still able to rock a house party or my studio via my KRK's without having the output set to max

[loverocket]

In some instances I def. feel that the jog wheels would make things easier for on the fly such as beatmatching. Although with the touchstrip i'm able to use the drop function which allows you to move directly to the section of the song you would like to be at. For instance if you want to go to the middle of the track you hit the drop button and then touch directly in the middle of the touchstrip and it will take you to the middle of the track. Although you may not touch exactly dead center where you would want to be. If your a little before you can either use the touchstrip to slide to the exact point or play that track in your headphones and pause it once you get to that point.

Limitation wise one being four deck control. In Traktor you are able to use four decks but I would really like to have EQ's for each deck without having to share them amongst 2 decks. I also picked up a Midi fighter Spectra to help with this limitation but I really hated the effects only being able to be used via one knob or the fader. I would have liked it more if the Twitch had the ability to add another banking to use the buttons for FX as well. Hence why I got the Spectra (got the Spectra for more then just that but thats a whole nother story)

These two limitations arent deal breakers by any means and theres other little things I can nit pick about like the sound output (which isnt horrible but not awesome) I'm still able to rock a house party or my studio via my KRK's without having the output set to max

I have questions about the Twitch. I assume you're using Traktor.

Where did you map the filter knob?

Can you use the touchstrip to pitch bend accurately?

I assume the Tempo knob controls the pitch slider.
Do you like the tempo knob vs a true pitch slider?

>

[octostout]

Thanks for all the responses and suggestions.
As for knowing exactly what I want or don't want with the jog wheels..I'm not exactly sure of their full capabilities since I'm new to all of this.

At the 7:00 min mark of Ean's video here is the kind of mixing I'm interested in learning.

I know he uses his jog wheel a good amount but I think he's got it remapped as an fx fader if I'm not mistaken? Given my budget of around $300ish, which controller would be easiest for me to learn and perform this style of mixing?
Would the Twitch offer any advantages or ease of learning with its layout over a standard controller with jog wheels? or vice versa?

These videos are exactly what inspired me to start DJing. Here's something I wish someone had told me when I first started: You will never get booked to do that kind of thing, and nobody will ever realyl care about it outside of youtube. It's great for youtube videos etc. but unless you get famous as a producer and do it nobody will ever care about you doing it in a live setting. (do NOT fucking bring up Madeon again, I swear to god)

Performance stuff like that is something you do mostly for yourself. If your dream is to learn to do that stuff to play for yourself in your house, then buy whatever controller you like, and do awesome performance DJing. If you want to learn to play for people, you need to learn the traditional side of DJing, mixing tracks into a set for people to dance to. For this you do need jogwheels. Not because you need them for a practical reason, but because nobody will ever book you for any meaningful gig if you're not capable of claiming that you're beatmatching. It sucks, but that's how it is.