I’m a lucky boy and tomorrow I’m of to the shops to pick up some spanking new Pioneer CDJ2000 Nexus CDJ’s. However, within my budget of £3000, the company I’m buying from includes a couple of mixers in their CDJ packages. I already have a 4 channel MIDI capable mixer (Behringer DDM4000) but was wondering people’s thoughts on which bonus mixer to go for?
The choices are:
Pioneer DJM250 (2 channel, two filters, fader start and Pio build quality),
Numark M6USB (4 channel, USB connection to computer for recording purposes),
Numark M4 (3 channel, rotary kills).
It would really be a backup / secondary mixer as my between my DDM4000, and Audio 8 I have inputs all sorted!
Only because it’ll be worth more. I would get it and punt it personally. Get some of your cash back, and put it towards upgrading your main mixer in the future. Running £3k worth of CDJ’s on a £260 mixer wont last for long. You will be hankering for something more in line with the quality of the CDJ’s.
Thanks for all your advice… and up to 6 hours ago I was in a shop with the readies to buy one! But in a twist of fate I’ve now decided to ditch my DDM4000 and upgrade to a Denon X-1600 instead! I did consider the DJM-700 and the A&H 62 but the Denon looks like a lot of mixer for the money, and the built in, Traktor Certified soundcard means I can do away with my (slightly ropey) Audio 8!
I have the 1600’s “bigger brother” the 1700 and can say that I am super pleased with the Denon Mixer. To say that the 1700 is the bigger brother might be misleading because depending on the use, the lower price and more MIDI features in the 1600 make it the preferred mixer over the 1700 for a lot of people. If you get the 1600, I am sure you’ll enjoy it.
I didn’t really need a new mixer as (maybe controverisally) I was pretty happy with my DDM. But with my Audio 8 breaking down I thought I’d look at mixers with integrated soundcards, preferably Traktor Certified to play nice with my 1210’s. I didn’t really fancy splashing out on Pio’s top offerings, because as nice as they are, my budget is set about the £3600 mark and can’t stretch to the DJM 900/2000. I did consider the DJM 700 to keep everything in the Pio family, and some A&H’s for the build quality and “warmth” but after a good search, the Denon looks like a nice all rounder, and at £800ish isn’t too cheap and a nice step up from the DDM. I particularly like the matrix inputs and effects routing.
However, if anybody has any other similarly priced options I’d be happy to hear them!
Also, as a habit, I tend to spend more on the players then the mixers. My old residency had a Xone 92, but I used to run my own 1210’s off a Behringer DJX!
I have the DB4 mixer and it is a beast. I love it. But is about twice the price of the Denon you mentioned. The DB2 was a close contender though, and at £1k is only a couple hundred quid more than the Denon. As far as I can tell its only really missing a couple fx processors (so only 2 channels at a time, instead of one per channel), and the sampler (which I do use, so was worth it for me). Apart from that, I think they are basically the same.
Its not actually Traktor certified though, but there are apparently ways round this
Mark EG has done a series of youtube videos on both the DB2 and DB4, and these were instrumental in my decision making process. I was originally going to go for either the DJM 900 or DJM 2000 Nexus, until I saw these videos, and what you could do with the DB series mixers. I would be having a look at least anyway.
Cheers for all the advice, I had a play with the DB2 and DJM 700 in the shop today… but walked out the door with the Denon! I couldn’t walk away from the Traktor compatibility.
Although my favourite (but most painful on the wallet) purchase was 2 x CDJ 2000 Nexus players.
