ICON iDJ First Impressions

**zestoi** · 08-01-2011, 07:04 AM

i picked up one of these as i wanted a small, cheap controller with touch sensitive jogs. posting this info as i couldnt find too much on this controller on the interweb. it's slightly bigger than a nano or lpd8 but not by much as you can see from the photo below. the overall build quality seems much better tho - *feels* nice and solid. quite heavy for what it is - i even expected there to be some extra weight added inside but couldnt find anything when i pulled it apart

not much extra space in there at all.

the pads dont seem to light up via incoming midi messages - i tried firing notes on for all notes and midi channels but nothing happened. no biggie tho as they do light up when u press them and the 'scratch on' button does stay lit up when activated.

faders seem fairly smooth (except for my right hand pitch one that doesnt work too well) but nothing special. cross fader is pretty light and should do the job ok.

plenty of pots to midi map. personally i think using the center 6 for eq's seems better than where they are labelled. it's a pretty cramped controller but i expected that - so the pots themselves are quite small - but not too small. the only bugger one is the ones right above the jogs - way too easy to nudge the jog by accident when using those ones.

with basically 8 pads, 7 pots, 2 faders per deck + 8 pads in the center and cross fader i think it should be quite fun to map.

the jogs seem very responsive and have a nice midi implementation, but from what i can tell not very traktor-friendly. i'm using it in raw mode tho and i *think* it came with some software that i don't have handy right now.

nudging using the rubberised outside edge sends a different noteon when it starts moving and a noteoff when it stops - so doesnt matter how fast you move it - but seems to work ok.

the scratch on/off toggle doesn't actually send out any midi itself, it just changes the jog wheel behaviour.

in non-scratch mode it sends out a cc with value of 65 for every increment forwards and a value of 63 for every increment backwards.

in scratch mode it sends two noteon's as soon as you touch the touch sensitive top, then behaves as for non scratch mode, but also sends out a noteoff as soon as you let go and another after the jog wheel also has stopped moving.

all in all it seems like they put some thought into it. i'm just not quite sure how it can be effectively used in traktor without some software sitting between the two. i did try a few different options in traktor but couldn't make it work as i wanted. i do *think* tho that it came with some software to sit in the middle if needed tho - if i can find that - not that i'll be using it as i'll use my own.

all in all a solid little controller with a lot of possibilites for 100quid i reckon anyway

edit: i stuck the coloured stickers on the pots - they're grey by default

**zimfella** · 08-01-2011, 07:22 AM

hi.nice review. a bit ot but have you managed to get the led‘s on djtech djm101 mixer working. if so please let me know how. thanks

**zestoi** · 08-01-2011, 07:44 AM

Originally Posted by zimfella

hi.nice review. a bit ot but have you managed to get the led‘s on djtech djm101 mixer working. if so please let me know how. thanks

haven't really tried to use it yet - only turned up today and i really only bought it as it cost me 20quid on ebay

it's quite cool tho - i was mostly still using my hercules for the traditional 2 deck layout of eq's + levels etc which this does ofc.

i just fired up traktor and imported the tsi for it and the led's seem fine. tsi i used is this one i think http://djtechpro.com/uploads/files/101_mapping.zip just from their website...

**zimfella** · 08-01-2011, 10:39 AM

Thanks, got it working, it's not bad for what it does, got mine for £30 bargain.
Got fed up with mixing externally, super portable and easier to record now in traktor.

**zestoi** · 08-01-2011, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by zimfella

Thanks, got it working, it's not bad for what it does, got mine for £30 bargain.
Got fed up with mixing externally, super portable and easier to record now in traktor.

yep i think it's quite cool and the xfader seems nice and loose and smooth. i suspect i'll somehow keep using my hercules for decks c+d or something tho

i wouldn't have minded an extra couple of buttons on the djm101 or maybe a rotary or two - but for what it is it's pretty cool.

no clue why either of these two (idj and djm101) are hardly mentioned on these forums...

**oneapemob** · 08-01-2011, 11:09 AM

Very cool to see that "live" on techtools, and much thanks for the infos!
Zestoi if you happen to open it up again please take some nice pictures of the inside !
To see what modd value this controller has.
And keep us updated for the jog control in traktor, maybe even a youtube video ( i know im pushing it ! ) with you moving the jogs (fast and slow, etc...)

**zimfella** · 08-01-2011, 11:11 AM

yeah not much love for them here. 2 channel midi mixer suits my needs perfectly, i don't use the crossfader to mix so will assign that to something else. I do like the curve adjustment switch, gives some cool effects when using it as dry wet on effects.

**zestoi** · 08-01-2011, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by oneapemob

Very cool to see that "live" on techtools, and much thanks for the infos!
Zestoi if you happen to open it up again please take some nice pictures of the inside !
To see what modd value this controller has.
And keep us updated for the jog control in traktor, maybe even a youtube video ( i know im pushing it ! ) with you moving the jogs (fast and slow, etc...)

cheers

there's not much to see inside really - but i'll take it out of the main case again later. next set of screws are glued in so i probably won't remove those.

so far i'm only using it with my midimasher software - so not much to see except the raw midi data and decodes etc

but there's definately no delay whatsoever (well ok - has to be a tiny bit) between me touching/moving the jogs and my processing the data to send out.

i'll code some lua for my midimasher app soon to use the jogs in traktor then will try to make a vid or something - maybe

never uploaded to youtube etc before.

i should really make one showing my midimasher emulating 4 midifighters on my launchpad coming to think about it... tho i prefer to emulate just one in 4banks mode and then use the remaining buttons on the LP for custom stuff.

edit: i dont see any technical reasons why traktor wouldnt be able to process the data fast enough to scratch with - if u can live with '2 finger scratching' and all

without wanting to get into a 'hid verses midi' thing - midi over usb is pretty quick ofc... its midi, but not as we know it...

**zestoi** · 08-11-2011, 11:48 PM

well i am completely underwhelmed by the lack of interest in this controller and i think it's quite cool... (the controller not the lack of interest ofc

)

not pulled it apart yet for any photos but i've been busy using/mapping it.

the only other controller i have with jogs is my hercules mk2, whos jogs i actually don't mind but they are quite laggy. the jogs on the idj are way more responsive do work fine with traktor - guess i was just being stupid before. i can't really tell any delay between me moving them and traktor responding when scratching etc - plus love all the mapping possibilities of all the messages they send out.