So to be frank, the title pretty much sums up my overall question, but let me elaborate on the details so you can better understand my situation.
The laptop I have (and will have for the foreseeable future) only has three USB ports, and one of them, when I DJ, is dedicated to my external harddrive, which holds music. So my questions to you are as follows:
If you had a Xone 3 or 4D, would you take it to a club with you? Why/not?
If you think I should get the separate mixer and controllers, I will need a USB hub for all the crap I use. What kind of USB hub would be the best for ensuring minimal lag?
I personally am leaning heavily towards getting the 3/4D (I may be able to get a cheap b-stock 3D, but if I can’t, it’ll be the 4D) because it would have everything I want in one package. External mixer, midicontroller, and soundcard with only two cables (USB and power) so I don’t have to fool around with as many audio cables. However, my ultimate goal as a DJ is to play in clubs, and I don’t want to drop a few thousand dollars on something I wouldn’t be able to use outside my house.
Any help, insight, or personal experience you guys can share is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I’ve been pondering this… The 3/4Ds are awesome, but I can’t see there being any room for them in clubs.
I’ve thought of going all Richie Hawtin, and running 2 1Ds either side of the mixer. Then you get the benefits of the 3/4D midi control, without lugging around a huge mixer, which would be really impractical in club situations. They would go really well with any club mixer, especially obviously a Xone 92 or similar, and you could fit them in a rucksack with your soundcard - and no need for a hub (hubs are the devil.. even powered ones start to show the latency..)
3/4Ds seem uber expensive for the bedroom DJ - and really good for a mobile DJ or touring festival big name or something, who sets up events themselves and isnt tied to a dedicated club mixer. I’m pretty skeptical about the whole dedicated midi controllers to be honest - if you don’t have a 3/4D with you, you can’t play…
I suppose you could get 2 1Ds and a xone 62/92, and then you have the best of both worlds, and if you want to set up exactly the same as a 3/4D, then you can take all three down with you?
Thanks Belch. The only issue is that my laptop only has three USB ports. Ideally I would love to have the two 1D, an Audio 4, and a Korg Microkontrol, but I just don’t have enough freakin ports. Especially since I need a portable harddrive as well for the actual music.
I take my 4D with me when I play out. It is a big inconvenience. The thing i like most about my 4D is that everything is in one box. No need to hook anything up and clean cables.
The problem with committing to the 4D is the versatility - I don’t know how much club work you’ve done/are doing, but in my experience, being able to chuck my laptop, 25-note midi keyboard, audio 8 DJ and pots in a rucksack is a godsend when rocking up to a venue with a dedicated setup. When I look at buying new midi kit, I contantly have to remind myself that us in the digital laptop controller world are in the minority, and most clubbies use CDJs still (something about the image…) So depending on what stage you’re at with your career, if you’re looking for gigs and want to DJ out with Traktor, then rocking up with a whole mixer and trying to connect it into the club soundsystem probably wont make you the most popular new kid on the block. However, if you are a keen bedroom DJ, then you’ve just bagged yourself the best dedicated controller setup on the market, congrats
I’ve come to the conclusion myself that these type of midi/soundcard/mixers are really good for either bedroom DJs or biiig name DJs who have an entourage of touring techies to set up for them. As I live in hope for the second scenario, I’ve binned the idea of saving up for a 4D for now, and am focussing on getting a really good portable mapping on my 25 SL. But then I guess I already have a soundcard and (shit) mixer…
I’ll leave it with you (very envious however, if you get yourself a 4D they’re the stuff of dreams)
i went through the same process and ended up with the 4d. usb ports was one consideration, but mostly it’s the setup convenience. run one RCA out of the 4d’s booth into a spare input on the house mixer, done.
if you then plan to play off time code, you can plug in devices directly to the 4d, not much re-cabling.
The argument against it is that you have to carry the whole thing, and can’t take just one midi pod with you like you could just take one 1D,and you need to find space for the 4d, not always an easy thing to do.
@Belch: Yeah, I don’t play in clubs at all (yet), and the closest I get to gigs is playing at friend’s houses and such, and if I ever do get to the point where I’m playing in a club, I think I could manage to cram all my stuff in a reasonably small area, as long as I made some creative stands.
@tubby: I don’t plan on playing off timecodes (not in a club, anyway. maybe just to fool around with) but that is an excellent point to consider.
I’d go for the 92 and the 1D’s. i’ve had a jam on a 92 and imo its the best mixer i’ve ever fiddled with. i mix externally when playing out anyway so not having to grow shiva arms during transitions would be a bonus. i think this combo works out about the same price as a 4d anyways here
Yeah, that is what I would like to do ideally, but I don’t have a soundcard, nor do I have enough USB ports for all of that. And as much as I would like another reason to justify buying a new laptop, that would just make the pricetag skyrocket.
i have blogged about this. with the current state of traktor 1.2 beta, it makes more sense to have separate physical controllers for each deck and not a single controller for multiple decks. with a separate controller you can more easily make use of the device target feature to be able to use a single mapping to handle multiple decks without having to remap everything for each deck.
Now 1.2 is obviously still in beta. I sure hope that they will do some of the enhancements I ask for in my blog post and of course they can still change everything before the final release.
Also as I noted in my blog post, the above “issue” with multi deck controllers can be handled using bome midi translator.
For me, it makes sense to have a single controller for multiple decks as I only alter one deck at a time. One thing I like about the 4D is that the cue buttons can be MIDI mapped bridging the realms of analog and digital. In my setup, if I cue up a deck in the headphones, it brings that deck into focus. This way I know what deck I am working on and can monitor the changes. If I need to do something to a different deck, I cue it up real quick and make my modifications. I also have modifiers setup so that if I cue a time code controlled deck the irrelevant controls are disabled such as Jog/Scratch.
Thanks for all your help, guys, I appreciate it. I’m going to shoot for the 4D (or a cheap 3D if the price is right) for sure. And then, should I ever be lucky enough to get a gig in a club, I’ll nigh certainly get a pair on 1Ds and a soundcard. Hopefully by then I’ll have a new laptop.
