The DDM4k is not a bad mixer at all. It feels cheap, but the sound is decent and they’ve been known to take a beating. And you can find one used in the $300 or less range. The effects are not so great, and they are a pain in the butt to use, but if you’re using Traktor you have better effects available to you anyway. MIDI is kind of a pain too but if you can get a midi-to-USB cord (like $20) you can use midi control as well. My favorite thing about this mixer is you can set the EQ cutoff frequencies as you like them, so you can really fine tune your EQ-ing. I’d go that route before messing with that Numark.
I got a 2nd hand djm600 im considering letting go for £200. Pm me if you’re interested. I live in London too so could do cash.
Obviously a decent enough club mixer
How about you use dumb sum-er and go full MIDI?
In a 12" format, the Vestax 004xl is a great value. You actually get what you pay for (or maybe a little more). I had a pair of these, but sold them for a 19" format that fit into my road rack better.
In a 19" format, the Denon X500 is also a good value.
Both of these mixers are better than OK. Obviously there is more quality to be had at higher price points. For gear you are leaving out in the open, I would really hesitate to spend more.
I have used a lot of the entry level Numark mixers, and they are OK at best. Most can not be turned up past about 7 or 8 without the noise level getting too high to tolerate. Great if you are renting you gear out, not good enough for me to use myself.
Sound quality isn’t what you worry about. Most mixers sound acceptable. Maybe a weird coloring, maybe a higher noise floor than you’d like…but it’s hard for a modern mixer to really suck at sound quality.
Longevity is another issue, and most cheap mixers suck at that.
I still don’t believe it.
Absolutely. No question. They make the best cheap mixers on the planet. A vmc-004xl or pmc-280 would do you very well, last however long you want it to, sound fine (like everything else that’s not abject crap), and be a pleasure to work with.
The crossfaders aren’t good enough for scratching, but very few are unless they’re dedicated battle mixers.
And the 004xl at least has basically no features. That’s not a problem because it’s really well built and lets you do a lot, but it doesn’t have an effects loop (or onboard effects, though the fxu version does have some that suck) or any complicated routing.
Still…it’s a good mixer. Way better than anything else in the price range. When I bought my xone, I was actually trying to find one of those. I’m not completely convinced I wouldn’t have been happier with the vestax, mostly because I just like the way vestax mixers feel.
I’m in this exact scenario.
Unfortunately I don’t have a place to demo a PMC-280. It sure seems like a hell of a lot of quality mixer for the money.
@ Mostapha, thanks for the reply, I’ve been looking at both those Vestax models you mentioned. The PMC 280 looks good but I read a couple of reviews that weren’t too kind on its construction. Not to say it isn’t tough, but apparently they’re not very well finished, with some parts not properly aligned in the faceplate and a bit wobbly. Maybe not enough to put me off, but seemed odd.
The 004XL looks good. Spec’ed exactly to what I need actually. But the one thing that puts me off is the cue selector dial, it looks as though you can only select one channel at a time to cue?! That is enough to make me look else where, a pretty retarded design flaw imo.
I’ll keep looking round ebay and see what I can find. I’m starting to think that even a pretty budget model will be enough, as long as its got the right ins/outs and a sensible layout.
The Skratchworx review had some unfavorable elements in it, but in the conclusion of it, Gizmo actually thinks quite a lot of it.
A place I play at has the Numark as the house mixer. I bring my DJM-800 each time I play there. That thing feels pretty damn cheap ---- but I will say, it’s been there for at least a year and other guys play on it, so it’s lasted.
If I were in your shoes, I’d still ask the house to make the investment and help out with the mixer. If not, my choice would be the PMC 280. The DDM4000 I’ve read is work horse, but it just looks like it has too many things on there that could one day fail me mid set.
In the end, I think you could play your set with no problems on the M6. How long it would last is another question…but again, you ARE looking for a cheap mixer.
There are some finishing flaws on the 280, but they’re no worse than the finishing flaws on the Empaths I’ve touched. Biggest issue I remember was the tiny switches for CF assignment, which isn’t a big deal for me because I don’t use crossfaders.
As for the 004xl’s selector knob. Yeah. It depends on how you’re going to use it, but I wouldn’t call it retarded. It has a cue/pgm pot for the HP signal, so I think it does enough for me to just not worry about it. But I don’t care about cuing that many channels at once. I could see some people not liking it, but it really depends on how you actually cue things.