Having giving up hope of a DDJ TX ever coming out, this unit is peaking my interest. However it ships with a “DDJ-T1 edition” of Traktor that upgrades to edition 2 which is basically the current Traktor, but some reviews I have seen lead me to believe that this is a demo version. However, I have the full version of Traktor Pro thanks to my F1, so I’m right in thinking I can just slap the T1 into my laptop and it will work straight away? (give or take a driver installation)
If so, this looks like a definite buy for me, I love the feel of Pioneer gear (even though it is mad overpriced) and I heard this is HID integration, which is another boner raising quality. Has anyone got one or played with one?
It’s either this or the Twitch, but I really want some decent jog wheels for the remix decks, as well as a decent 4 channel mixer that has both fade AND filter knobs.
Yep, the T1 can run with your current addition, its just another controller. However If you do get the unit I would advice that you make individual exports of your controller mappings before setting it up. Just in case it requires you to run the setup wizard (I ended uyp installing it that way, but to be honest did not spend any time trying to do it manually). But there are no worries on it working with your current Traktor.
THe mixer if very good (using traktors intenal mixer of course) and the unit is nice and big so your not rubbing up against other buttons or knobs ( that sounds dodgy ) Not quite sure what you mean by HID integration, but the unit is really pioneers version of an S4, but better ergonomically and really designed for 4 standard deck control (which it is brilliant for) , wont be able to do much with remix decks. Jog wheels to me are excellent, but I cant comment on them too much as Im not big into scratching etc (reviews generally have them better than the S4)
THe filter is a per deck filter not a per channel filter so its slightly inhibiting as you need to have the deck selected to use the filter, but its not that big a deal.
Overall I think its a great bit of kit, it may be missing some of the S4 features such as loop recorder control etc but the build quality is great and its very quick to learn and use. I have some other controllers I use for assiging loop recorder control etc to, the stuff that is more detailed and under the bonnet.
Price wise I have seen it cheaper than the S4 recently, it certainly has dropped in price.
Nearly fogot, the only other thinsg that people moan about are that it does not have kill buttons for the eq’s, although the knobs can do a full kill, but kill buttons are not universal on controllers or even top end mixers anyway. And it does have full controller of only the first 2 effects racks(You can switch betwwen group or advanced mode). Generally plenty but something to bear in mind if you use more than 2 effects racks. (I have assigned them to another controller
Thanks for the detailed response! I have done some deeper research into the controller and found that it is indeed NOT HID. Apparently, the S4 jogs are more accurate because it goes with NI’s own protocol instead of MIDI, so no other jog can be as good. When this controller came out at around £800 I immediately went ‘no way’, but seeing it now at around £500 makes me think twice. Weirdly, none of the promo material, reviews or videos that I’ve seen have mentioned that you can completely re map the deck, which surely if its Traktor you can do, right? For example, there won’t be any flux mode mapped, but I was thinking of mapping shift+deck select button to turn flux on or off.
Scratch wise I only plan on doing a few babies and tears, just to drop songs with a bit of flavour. I’m not big on the scratch odysseys.
Kill button shmill button, I prefer the quick twisty action. And I never find that I need more 2 fx units ever. Remix deck control is fine since I have the F1 and plan on getting another or a maschine.
Looking really tempting… I just want decent jogs and a 4 channel mixer, what alternatives are there? VCI 400, S4, NS6… But they all cost more. This is the first time I’ve seen a Pioneer product that seems fairly priced!
Well going by what your saying, and you have a simlar setup to mine(F1, btw get Tekkens mapping for it in the MIDIMAPS section, its great, just make sure you backup any controller settings first) then it sounds like it will do the job nicely. I did discover that you could not map some of the deck type controls such as Jog wheels, tempo slider, but everything else is available. The needle search also has 5 mappable regions per deck, I have these mapped to the pitch control for each deck so i can move up and down semitones to harmonically mix a wider range of tracks.
I often have 3 or 4 tracks running and aside from the odd time when I forget to change deck focus it works brilliantly for it.
You know why that is? Because they’re HID! That guy was right… My god, definite purchase, and good idea on the pitch shift, I was thinking of possible uses for that touch strip.
Haven’t tried any alternate midi maps for the F1 yet, too busy in normal remix mode. Had a brief dabble with the midi mode but it wasn’t nothing my set up can’t already do! Cheers for the info.
be aware that you can’t take the jogs out of vinyl mode so you have to always nudge with the side of the jog.. When I used them at a mates the jogs were terrible! although because they are consistently terrible you can sort of get used to using them, but they won’t translate well if you practice/learn on these and use cdj’s in a club. Best advice is keep saving for the ddj-sx.
Well I do use CDJs in the club I work in, and I always use them in vinyl mode. Is it really that hard to use? I know a music shop near me has a DJ controller section where they are set up and you can have a bash on them, I’m planning on going tomorrow to see if they have one of these set up and see what else is on the table. I just can’t see Pioneer releasing something with bad jogs, it’s the only thing they have worth paying for.
fair enough if you are used to using vinyl mode, I only use vinyl mode when I scratch so the show doesn’t stop prematurely when I’m mixing.
The jogs when I used them with traktor 2 had an issue where they would not register until you hit a certain velocity, it was annoying me so I switched them to midi tested them and sure enough they did the same thing as in HID. IMO you are better off getting a pair of cdj-400’s and a mixer, but then again you are in ddj-sx territory price wise.
I think that’s a resolution issue isn’t it? How many “ticks” the jog sends per rotation. If you move it very slightly it doesn’t send a tick so it doesn’t register any movement. TBH as long as I can do backspins and the occasional baby I’ve got all I need, anything else is a bonus.
no I ran it through midi-ox and it actually doesn’t send anything until you get to a certain speed. as I said though because there is consistency you can get used to them.
My jogs are pretty sensitive, the slightst movement seems to register for me and I often use it for honing in on a cue point. I suppose it depends on what your doing with them I rarely use them and could probably live without them as I unashamedly use sync, But one of the reasons I got the unit was because of the good unbiased reviews, (the jogs always seemed to come out better than the S4,) and primarily becaues I wanted to learn to beatmatch as well. They work perfectly fine for that, I can beathmatch as well as most, spin back is short lived but its not an effect I like so that dosent bother me. Any time I have tentatively scratched its been fine so Im not sure where all this talk of it not being sensitive etc is coming from, maybe people have a different level of sensitive to me
As for using CDJ’s and a mixer, you do get two systems for the price of one, controllers and stand alone, but they are not designed specificaly with traktor in mind and are kinda jury rigged to work with it, so if your a purely traktor person it may not suit your style or workflow.
Best thing if you unsure is try and have a go off one, or just check out one of the many online reviews, Any reviews I checked before I bought were generally very good on the jogs.
Well, braved the snow storms today (North West England) to get down to the music store and give it a try, I back to backed it with an S4 and honestly, I fell in love with the DDJ. I got talking to the guy at the music shop and it turns out they have been discontinued, and the unit they have in the shop is the last one they have company-wide. Apparently, there is no DDJ-TX because NI won’t license something that will have a negative impact on the sale of the S4. Wether or not it’s just extrapolated bullshit, which I think it probably is, it’s not a totally insane theory.
Anyhows, I didn’t find any fault with the jogs except the back spin was a bit short lived, because the jog has quite a high tension (CDJ 2000 at about 2-3 o’clock) but that’s easily remedied by just manually back spinning it a bit further. Loved the feel of everything, would remap those fader start switches straight away, probably to flux mode. So tax rebate on Thursday, I now what I,m treating myself to!
P.S. The S4 felt like a Hercules controller on steroids. Those buttons felt… Odd. Not horrible, but not like they were made for music either. Also had a crack on a maschine. Need one of those!
Aha, Great weather for March, Im just across the irish sea and it was a nice sunny evening here in Cork. All i can say is that I got mine about 8 months ago and absolutly love it, honestly cant understand why its gets some bad press, most of it I believe is an anti-pioneer bias. Could see why there may be licencing issues affecting a new version as I feel that its a more serious piece of kit than the S4, may not have some of the functions but what it does have is really solid and makes you want to play good music.
Hopefully youll find it as inspiring as I do.
Mo
BTW, thats a good idea on the Fader start switchs, i have flux mode mapped on another controller but its a little akward and it would be an easy visual on flux mode as well.
Well I was looking at the Maschine and I’m thinking of getting one of them instead of another F1, and I’m positive that Maschine-Traktor integration is just around the corner, and then I was looking at the X1 which was set up next to where the pioneer was set up. When I first played with one I thought they were the most pointless controller ever, but now it looks like a great idea for controlling all of Traktor’s nitty gritty bits like the loop recorder and master clock.
Goddamn, ridiculous set up. I don’t even have room for it a work, but feck it. It can go on top of the DJM-1000. Who seriously needs 6 channels? In all the time I’ve been there, I’ve seen three used!
) Not quite sure what you mean by HID integration, but the unit is really pioneers version of an S4, but better ergonomically and really designed for 4 standard deck control (which it is brilliant for) , wont be able to do much with remix decks. Jog wheels to me are excellent, but I cant comment on them too much as Im not big into scratching etc (reviews generally have them better than the S4)