USB Controller

DJ Gear & Hardware Hardware: Controllers, Mods and Gear
1

USB Controller

HI all, are there any USB controllers that i can plus into my mixer that are stand alone, ie, dont need traktor and such.

ive seen there are a few rack mounted but i was wondering if there were any decent small stand alone examples.

Im going to be running it into the aux’s on my bozak.

cheers

2

USB controllers always talk to a computer as far as I know. They’re just button boxes.
What is it that you want to achieve?

3

Do you mean something that can play media off USB keys? If so, look at any halfway recent Pioneer CDJ.

If you mean an all-in-one DJ thing that reads off USB but doesn’t need a computer, I’m only aware of the Stanton SCS.4dj and the Pioneer XDJ-R1. But I’m not sure why you’d want to mix with one of those if you own a Bozak unless you want something differnet or more portable.

4

basically i want to be able to play my digital tracks alongside my records via my bozak.

i do have two cdj 900’s. they live in the flights till its time t gig. in my home i also have 2 x 1200 and a bozak. i want a stand alone ‘player’ that i can play my digital tracks into the bozak.

i know there are a number of items that exist that are rackable (Denon DN-HC5000 for example) but i want a unit that is stand alone - abit like a cdj but without the cd element, that isnt rackable. Ive just had a rack made before i decided i wanted another item…stupid i knw but there you are.

ive seen something called a usolo from djtech (http://www.musicalstore2005.com/dj-tech-coppia-usolo-mkii-media-player-per-dj-qm-p-16312.html) but frankly it looks like its designed by more 5 year old.

yes i could run the tracks through the cdj’s but there aint enough space in my lounge for some 900’s and my mixer and my 1200’s and the 1200’s aint going no where.

5

That’s what CDJs are. The CD slots are vestigial.

The HC-5000 requires a laptop to run Itch/SDJ. It doesn’t play music on its own.

So, with that in mind…there are 2 good ways I can think of to go.

  1. Numark V7. It runs SDJ. It can control 2 decks (on layers, not at once). It’s about the size of a single CDJ. It includes the sound card. So, you plug its 2 output pairs into the auxes of our bozak, plug in your laptop, and control your digital tracks like that.

  2. Go DVS and use your 1200s to control Traktor Scratch or Serato DJ. Split the outputs from your tunrtables between the sound card and the bozak inputs, and you’ll have the setup you want…more or less limited to 2 decks at a time, though.

There are a handful of other controllers that work to control software well, but that all depends on what you want. Denon used to make the SC-2000 (also requires software) that basically is the HC5000 (which was also discontinued), just in a tabletop format. NI makes the X1mk2, which I really like. But mixing b/t it and turntables isn’t the most straightforward thing, since it has neither a pitch fader nor platters (the controls are there, just different)…I’ve done it, and it works. But it’s not ideal.

But none of this is standalone. As far as I know, there aren’t any standalone media players without CD drives except that DJTech thing, which will only play mp3s and seems far from “good”.

If you already own CDJ-900s, they’re the most straightforward way to do what I think you want to do.

6

But as I understand it the HC5000 can use a USB drive as its source as much as it can use a laptops hard drive as its source. I can cue and pitch control the tracks much like as a cdj, no?