Plz convince me NOT to sell DB4 for Rane MP2015!!!
I have lost sleep!!! I feel like a 14 yr old kid!
Its not the responsible thing to do!
I bought a Made in UK mint DB4 at a GREAT price!
My main reason was sound and portability…DB4/XONE K2 X-Link/MBP—ONE USB CABLE!!!
The Rane prob sounds better, looks gorgeous, but i’ll lose that portability factor and if i add a Maschine or Push, i’ll be back on the dreaded USB hub.
Plus, even if i sell my DB4 at the awesome price i bought it for, i’d still have to pay $700 above…just for those gorgeous knobs, that isolator, that sub channel, those filters on every channel etc etc…
Please help. At least convince me to hold this off for a few months!!
This would be a great time to tell me GREAT things about the DB4!!
Dude your gonna lowball yourself right out of your DB4, just because you gotta have the newest piece of gear. We have all done it and we all know better now.
Here’s what you do, put up the DB4 for sale for a fair and average price. Don’t go low just to get rid of it.
If you do actually sell it, then yes go ahead and get the Rane, but in the meantime hopefully it will teach you some patience. Because I’m sure you’re not even fully probably fully proficient on the DB4, take some more time with it, discover some hidden features, cool efx combos, and maybe some efx feedback looping.
Idk, but it just seems like your willing to take a loss on a piece of gear that you have not fully enjoyed yet
Also please do not make multiple posts about the same topic…that is VERY important.
I apologise for the double post. Indeed they are extremely similar topics!
Mods, please delete this after 12hrs, curious to see what people have to say.
Ok now…I DONT EVEN HAVE THE DB4 yet! I live in Pakistan. It was bought in the US and shipped to London to my friends, who will carry it for me in early Feb! So, far from exploring its features, i haven’t even received it.
Also, not intending to incur a loss. Selling for exactly how much i bought it for. But the deal was great, so i can pass on that great price to a buyer if it comes to that.
So my friend flies out on Feb 7th. If the DB sells before then, cool. If not, i shall treasure and enjoy it!
if you can afford to drop 2k+ on a mixer , you shouldnt be all up in arms about this. the db4 is a AWESOME mixer, so im guessing will the rane be. either way youre going to have the nicest mixer within 100 miles, so why fret. youre so worried about it at this point youre going to give yourself regrets no matter which one you get. just rock the db4 , youll love it. it sounds like getting the mixer to you physically is a big thing so.. use the db4 for a year or so, if you still lust for the rane, just sell it then, take the hit financially that it sounds like youll take anyway if you try to sell the db4 at this point. then buy the rane and start wishing you had kept the db4. sell the rane and buy the NEW OMG pioneer- allen and heath collaborative jet pack all in one dj kitchen blender that will likely be out by then.
wash rinse repeat.
haha. As desperate as i sound, i’m actually in this dilemma because i keep gear for a very long time! Had my Xone 92 Rotary for 7 yrs.
Upgrading for the Soundcard and X-Link connection.
The Rane just looks way too classy so i figured if i am getting a mixer for another 5 yrs, might as well get the Rane!
btw Deejaesnafu, how is OSX YOSEMITE working with Traktor, Live 9, Komplete 10 etc ?
May be getting a new iMac so wondering if DAWS and Plug-ins have caught up!
I can not make a decision for you, but I’ve owned a DB4 recently (actually still contemplating if I should get back to one ) so might give some helpful input.
You need to get the DB4 for one reason only I think, and that’s the effects. They are insane compared to any other mixer in the field. So nice, so much control to make subtle use of it, so many choices, it’s awesome. Filter quality is somewhere between DJM-2000 and Xone 92.
Now the bad news with the DB4 is that:
although the sound quality is better than a DJM it is far from a Xone 92 (my sole reason to return it after two weeks as I was not sure if I could get used to it).
although it supposes to have a sound-card build in it is far from stable. As soon as I would hook it up to my (windows) machine the computer would crash (never happend with DJM-900). On mac books there is a know workaround to use a hub to make it (more) stable.
So - should you get the insanely sexy Rane instead of a DB4 some considerations could be:
forget about the one cable/no hub situation. Most likely it won’t fly and if you are planning on carrying around a mixer and controllers why care about a hub. USB hubs tend to be small so it should not be a big deal. If you want to travel light as a DJ, go for the Pioneer Nexus route and carry along two USB sticks (i just love the pioneer nexus players for this feature)
think about how you (want to) play music, it’s weird you do not mention this in your question as these are completely different machines! Do you care about usage of effects, cause you will have 0 with the rane (you could hook up one external but probably will never work as smooth as the DB4 built in stuff) and > 50 with the Xone, a huge differentiation between the two. Or are you happy with a filter and an isolator? And could you live with a rotary mixer? (cool thing actually is that you can configure the DB4 to act as a rotary mixer, to try this out).
The way I look at it right now, the rane is more a mixer if you want to give a lot of ‘room’ for the original tracks, with subtle, long running mix sections giving a lot of room and attention to the original sounds. The DB4 is more a mixer for a dj style that would allow for a faster, more effects laden way of dj-ing, so lot’s of loops and effects and using the input matrix (should come with every mixer btw) to be ultimately creative.
I play Techno, Tech House and Minimal. I do very long transitions and do use FX from Traktor. Am sure the FX on the DB4 are incredible, but for me the sound quality and USB connectivity is the most important aspect.
The Audio issues seem to be with USB 3.0 macs, i think. I called A&H and they said it would work fine. Lets see.
The audio quality being inferior to the 92 is not a good sign! I am coming from a Xone 92 Rotary myself.
I love Rotary mixers, they are my preference. And the ability to use the DB4 as a Rotary is a good option too.
May seem premature, but i think Rane put a lot into getting the sound right. I am rightfully intrigued.
Good point about the USB hub too. I can live with that!
This! I tried to sell my DJM 900 NXS when the Kontrol S8 came out. Luckily i had extra cash at the time so I bought the S8 before I sold my 900 and I realized within 30 minutes of using the S8 that it was a huge mistake.
Thankfully I just returned the S8 within 24 hours and kept the 900, that would’ve been a catastrophic mistake
traktor seems stable, ableton itself is also stable , i am having an issue with ableton crashing when i try to load certain instruments via the komplete kontrol vst. its very annoying but i cant tell if i should blame ableton or NI.. i have found work arounds so i can technically route any instrument i need one way or another, but it would be nice to iron it out. in the end i see little difference between OS versions.
Just internally switch the line faders to drty wet sliders and vice versa then you have a rotary mixer with awesome effects then all you are losing out on is the Isolator on the Rane however get the Rane and you lose out way more.
I love both mixers and if i had the cash would own both just been down the same road on buying a mixer got the Xone
I don’t think matrix inputs makes sense on a four channel mixer with separate top digital/line selector switches like on the DB4. There’s no point to it, except for maybe duplicating inputs for effects. The Rane needed more inputs or putting digital/analog selectors on the top where you could reach them, and a three channel matrix version with, say, 6 inputs on the rear would have been preferable. Three line (switchable to phono on the rear) and three digital inputs. Again, with three mixing channels. You can’t really get three CDJs and three TTs on it at the same time without having to mess with the back switches right now.
The samplers alone are worth having the matrix inputs. I used them constantly to create buildups, re-edit tracks on the fly, and creating a re-send to layer fx. I used the matrix inputs a couple times during that all vinyl set when Gritzen came out to keep part of a tune looped in the sampler while mixing the intro of that same track in on another channel.
