Reloop Digital Jockey 2 So far so bad. Build quality +Support Problems,come to a head

[RD444]

Reloop - Why not to buy a Digital Jockey 2 from them

I checked out a few controllers and decided the Reloop Digital Jockey 2 seemed really good.

I liked the feel of it, so I bought one

That’s when the trouble started

I bought the interface edition with a built in audiocard and touch sensitive jogs.

Straight out of the box I got a really weedy power supply with a euro connection and no adaptor. The wire was tiny and thin. Like that of a phone charger. Not something you would rely on on the road. (I’m not sure how this compares to other manufacturers)

And I noticed the built in audio card had a faint but annoying enough buzzzzzzzz in the background. My friend described it as
“…So….. not PRO Audio then….” And I had to agree

Also I noticed (while ‘worst case’ testing) If I pulled out the power it made a deafening PA popping screech, different every time.

I was trying demos of a few software’s to DJ to make my mind up.

Firstly the controller had problems with Virtual DJ. When triggering samples though the Reloop ‘buzzy’ audio card, there were ridiculous volume spikes . Plus the overall volume of the headphone socket was unusable. The first few ‘mm’ went from OFF to loud on my Dennon headphones

So I looked back at the manual (only 5 pages!!)

Found nothing so I went to the forum. Basically the Reloop forum is a ghost town of unanswered support questions. Or one sentence answers. Average posts per person are about 5 to 20 before people just give up. There are no discussions.

The controller had no MIDI Implementation chart and no explanation of the buttons. (The shift buttons are hard coded modifiers, the middle buttons are coded in traktor, and there is no shift for the touch sensitive wheel.) That kind of thing

I was like blood from a stone, I even wrote to support 5 days to get a response a few sentences of garble.

By this time I couldn’t return the item, as I had had it too long. I had even put this in my support questions urging them for solutions so I could have the option to take it back.

Anyway

What followed was weeks of nonsense answers form them. I asked where I could get a replacement PSU they said ask your dealer. Sapphires UK said I needed to ask them. ??

Lots of people on the forum had the buzzing audiocard problems. And were getting no answers. New firmware… new ASIO…. All that jazz. So I decided to SUCK IT UP, and bought an external card even though I had one built in. I couldn’t risk rubbish Reloop audio card in a live setup. So I got a NI Audio 2 DJ (which functioned correctly)

Then I tried a few Reloop Traktor mappings on their forum. I am learning about maps but there seemed to be inconsistencies in their mapping for Traktor . And also they couldn’t even be bothered to include a picture or explanation of the mapping.
I voiced these opinions on their forum, which I believe to be correct. And even suggested to some other people who had the hedphone buzzing sound, that they should get another audio interface.

Some guy even took a picture of the frequency of the buzzing, and he tried 4 different ones on a Macbook, before he eventually gave up and returned the controller.

After a while I noticed that I was being constantly edited, so all my posts were being out of context. Any suggestion of audiocard buzzing or poor support was edited out of my posts.

And for
trying to bring the truth to light,
and asking for support,
and recommending Reloop users to get another Audio card if they had tried everything.

I got banned from the Reloop forum.
(I have never been banned from a forum in 20 years of using the internet.)
I was more annoyed than gutted. And conveniently they have removed any posts that suggest there is any problem with their audio card or product support.

I like the controller but:

I probably wouldn't recommend Reloop products to a friend after buying Reloop Digital Jockey 2.
*Poor customer support (and I mean poor)
*5 page manual
*Digital Jockey 2 Headphone buzz
*Power supply is cheap with a thin wire


I'm just saying beware if your buying from Reloop. I’m not the only one. It’s a nice controller (I hope) but not a nice company.

[DJMilk3y]

i have the same problem soon ive decided im gunna sell it on ebay for 400-500 au and buy a vci and an audio 2 just for the customer support and the helpful community. The reloop is good but maybe just for home/bedroom use.

[RD444]

I feel I've got round some of the problems by buying a separate audio card. It means I have audio without the buzz and I can run it all on USB rather than the weedy power supply.

The worst thing is that the company don't really have to be like this.

I really like the feel of the controller.
If they had:
a really chunky manual (with a MIDI chart)
some very good mapping downloads with explanations.
or a lively forum
you'd probably excuse the lack of support.

But they don't have any of this.

i don't really know how this compares to other controller companies.

i really like the feel of the Reloop Digital Jockey 2, but the stress of having squeeze tiny bits of information from the company is totally annoying.


I'm hoping the controller is sturdy, a few people have said after a while the buttons start miss firing. I think that would be the "final piece of the biscuit" as they say.

[DJMilk3y]

very true im thinking of picking up an audio 4 and then seeing how the reloop goes i'de rather sell it before it starts having sed problems ive have some knobs miss fire here and there which im not to happy about. Out of interest are you using a custom mapping or the default?

[RD444]

I'm still trying out a few mappings

I'm probably going to build my own mapping based on either the reloop one or the Native Instruments one.

I'm concerned about the quality of the Reloop one, after i found multiple entries for the jog wheel?? i took a print screen, but I'm on another computer.

Even though the NI is less appropriate, i feel it may be a better starting point. I'll probably find out the Reloop one is shoddy about half way through changing it.

I've downloaded some of the 4 deck mapping from the Reloop forum, but they've banned me now, so i can't see if there are any new ones at a later date.

I think once I've mapped the controller, I'll probably stick with the mapping.

I'm deciding how I want to use the controller.

The reloop controller can be confusing because the shift buttons physically change the MIDI CC numbers it sends out (rather than traktor using modifiers to do it). Which makes it easier than configuring Traktor at this stage of my learning. But can get confusing because the Traktor mapping in the options page of Traktor is a pokey window.

Of course none of this is covered in the Reloop 5 page manual

[DJMilk3y]

i didnt even read the manuel i thought it was just some advertising at first glance i love the shift button ive made numerous mappings trying to find the one that works for my 4 deck 2 deck 4 deck with a foot pedal as a modifier changing the fx section for selection and doing fx on my midi keyboard trying to find one that i can work with comfortable :P wish i had the cash for an analogue setup seems so much simpler its "actually" plug and play sort of :P no mapping errors etc atleast

[RD444]

I just had a look at the Reloop Forum using through a proxy server. they have edited whole sentences out of my posts

basically anything less than perfect in my text.

I didn't swear or anything bad. Just stuff like "I am beginning to loose faith in Reloop Technical support" that kind of stuff

If you read there forum, you'd think i was a fanboy rather than an unhappy customer.

I might send them a copy of the book 1984

i didnt even read the manuel i thought it was just some advertising at first glance

that made my chuckle

I thought the manual was a bit thin, then realised it was in loads of languages!! its terrible

[MeAngry]

I have the exact same experiences as the topic starter, except that I've owned a Digital Jockey 2 Controller Edition. You know what? That thing is even worse!

It's unusable on Macs, it can't even light op two or more LED's at the same time. It always just lights up just one of the LED's randomly. This is with every program, with every single Mac. And the stupid thing is that in Windows (Boot Camped for example) there's not a problem at all.

So I placed an inquiry on the Reloop forum after getting an exchange from my shop (which were very helpful and friendly) with the same problems, and got not a single answer. Up until the point where I threatened them to post this information everywhere I could think of.

I suddenly got mails back, but none of them really helped me, and I was already a month away in getting totally frustrated by the device.

So what I did was return it, and I've bought a second hand black VCI-100, bought the SE kit here on DJTT, and an Audio 2 DJ, and I couldn't have been happier!

[DJZILCH]

i had a friend who was gonna buy a pair of cdj900s but wanted to save sum cash and bought some "high end" (really?) reloop cdjs instead , labelled "the pioneer killer" , 24 hours after buying them he ended up selling the reloop cdjs on the local forums and nobody wanted to buy them. he ended up selling them 2 weeks later really cheap coz nobody had any interest in them

poor guy

[Flash101uk]

I too own a reloop digital jockey 2 interface edition, and i must say Ive had a few problems. But nothing thats turned me off it.

in response to OP, you dont need a power supply to keep the thing going, even when sending audio out. I used mine breifly with the PSU and it made not one bit of difference.
Also, why did you choose to use virtual DJ? I understand that people have their preferences, but this controller is specifically labelled as traktor ready. I also understand any midi controller should be cross compatible with any dj software but did you not check out the forums before hand to see if there was any VD mappings? This of course does not excuse the audio problems you had in VD. Which I have not experienced with traktor. I get no buzzing, but I do get the odd pop and crackle, which is irritating & obvious enough that I probably wouldnt gig with it, and I seem to be one of the lucky ones. As you rightly state, reloop support SUCKS. Luckily I have not dealt with them, and I dont think I'll bother. If it needs fixing, I'll do it myself.

Ive also had a couple of sticky buttons. Its gone from the loop button to the play button on deck A now. I find if I give them a good jab they work ok and eventually fix themselves . . . . which is odd.

The mappings reloop supply, while basic, are adequate enough to control the majority of traktor. Reloop also supply video tutorials for the mappings in traktor pro directly from their site, which will give any noob a good overview on how it all works.

But having said that, the mappings are un-intuitive and clunky. I managed to get round to totally remapping the controller (based on the one from reloop) to include some of the fader FX functions from the VCI and automating some of the tedious multiple button presses into single button process's. The whole mapping from reloop is a bit of a mess and many modifiers are wasted, leaving no mods to play with if you want to add your own stuff. You literally need to remap the entire jogwheel modifier functionality. Which is a complete mind bender.

I want to post it up on these forums, but I simply havent had the time or inclination to fully document it. Maybe this'll give me the incentive to do so, because the reloop community is dead in the water & needs support from someone.

Its a damn shame that reloop cant/wont support their product, there is no excuse for how they treated you. I think theyre probably in too deep and as with many companies (AKAI, F**K YOU!) *cough* dont have the resources or knowledge to fix the problems they create.