Most of the spaces I DJ in are pretty dark, either there’s a dim light bulb above (which doesn’t help much because my laptop sits over my controller) or there’s only the light from my laptop to illuminate things (and it’s only slightly better when I wear white t-shirts). I was thinking why haven’t DJ controller companies addressed this? I know I could go back to using a flashlight (like I did when I was crate digging… back in the days), but with so many buttons being LED lit-up, why don’t Controller manufacturers make knobs that either light up, or at least have an LED ring around them (to help the DJ see which knob they’re touching)? I’m seriously considering buying a whole mess of glow-in-the-dark knob and slider controls (from DJTT’s shop) in the interim, but they’re typically very “plasticy” (Is it bitch to say “I like the hard, rubbery feel of my knobs?”), and they’re only available in green. Glove flash lights typically mount the light on the top of the hand, and that’s pretty useless to me… maybe someone will make electro-luminescent gloves that light up in the whole palm area? Meh, first-world DJ problems.
These come to mind and there are a few more but none combining the two if i recall right Iluminated knobs
M-Audio Xponent
American Audio VMS4
Akai APC40
Livid Ohm (quite a few Livid controllers actually)
Iluminated faders
Pioneer DDj Ergo
M-Audio UC33
Personally I have dropped jogwheels quite some time ago and my kind of mixing doesn’t really benefit from faders over knob based mixing so i turned a Twister into a 4 deck mixer and fx unit. Might not be the best for everyone but i find this to be a compact yet powerful solution and pitch black booths are no longer an issue.
Worst case scenario you can grab one of these and use it relatively close to your gear so only the controller/mixer is lighted, similar to what the VCM600 did with it’s two side mounted LED strips that only light up the unit’s faceplate.
The Livid Instruments controllers seem to be the only “full controllers” with everything lit up … Vestax VCM600 also has a pretty elegant lighting system built into the casing.
TBH the OP has a good point though, is there any reason in this day and age we should still need to start bringing flashlights to gigs to see the knobs ?
Considering the price of an FTIR sheet and a few LEDS - $2 or less, which could in most cases be sandwiched between the top-plate of most mixers and controllers its yet another simple issue we honestly should not still have in 2015 that already has a solution not implemented !
