Hey guys,
I’ll be traveling overseas for a few months in 2020. I’ll already have my Macbook Pro with me (as I work remotely), my external ssd. I use Traktor, and bought an A&H K2 controller. The K2 has a built-in 4 channel sound card, and I bought it thinking I could just use that to DJ in smaller venues.
After using it a little bit with Traktor, I really like the feel of it, but I feel like I need one more piece of hardware to help me navigate Traktor so I don’t have to use the mouse to click around and/or go between layers in my traktor mapping (my current mapping requires me to toggle layers to get to the hot cues) I was also thinking it’d be good to bring a small 2 channel mixer to increase gain levels. Do you guys have a similar setup that works for you that you can recommend? I’m thinking about selling the K2 and getting the NI S2 or the new S3, but I’m trying to stay as portable/minimal as possible. Any thoughts on how I can have a solid Traktor setup while keeping the load as small as possible would be of great help.
I took laptop, X1, Audio 6, cables and cans to australia. Leave the rest at home mate. UDG Traktor bag as carryon and “just” under the weight limit.
Truth: Mate, You gotta be aware that most djs these days are cdj or rekordbox*, so if you run something different you have to be flexible, and if possible set up way early. Be prepared for not much space for much more than a laptop at the venue. You have to be ready to go at your slot, no one will put up with you setting up for 5+ minutes.
*cdjs/rekordbox.. no different than traktor, but takes more effort to pretend you beatmatching
Some of the best designed little controllers for Traktor Pro 2 are the Faderfox range of which the Faderfox DJ3 would seem a good choice; the mappings are ingenious and you’ll find you can do pretty much all you want to with one of those. You may also want to consider the Traktor Kontrol Z1, which unlike the Faderfox controllers has a built-in sound card (meaning you don’t have to purchase one separately – here are some ideas – or use a DJ splitter cable for headphones monitoring). However, the Kontrol Z1 is only the “mixer” bit of the controller equation, so you’ll be using keyboard shortcuts for deck controls (not such a bad thing in a minimal set-up). If you feel up to a bit of mapping, you could use something like the Allen & Heath Xone:K2, which again has a sound card to save you needing a separate one.
