Traktor DJ Studio (External Mixer)

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Posted by DJ HARN on Aug-23-2006 14:59:

Traktor DJ Studio (External Mixer)

I have posted before regarding this subject, and I'm still looking around for a suitable external mixer or midi controller for Traktor 2.5. Ideally I would like a midi controller since it means i can still see the traktor mixer and the eq's etc will change as i use the external device, perfect, because I want to use the Traktor record function. Secondly, I have noticed that the midi controllers (at least, the ones I have looked at) have 3 connections: 2 fifteen pin midi wires (one to the midi in and one to the midi out), and a usb cable. I don't have a midi in/out on my PC, only USB ports. Are there any external Midi devices that require only a USB cable? I would like something with 3 band rotary eq, x-fader, and channel faders. I was initially interested in the Hercules mk2, but I have read a lot of bad reports about this, people commonly unhappy with the drivers and the delay between using the command and the command working on screen.

Any feedback would be great,
DJ HARN.

Posted by Soundwerks on Aug-23-2006 16:12:

ECLER NUO4 is your best bet

Posted by tvmann on Aug-23-2006 16:19:

Re: Traktor DJ Studio (External Mixer)

You should go check the official Native Instruments Traktor forums, lots of info there.

About Midi control boxes, several just use a USB connection to your computer. If the box only has a Midi connection, a little Midi to USB converter unit can be used, they're about $50, M-Audio makes a couple.

Boxes using USB:
M-Audio X-Session
Kontrol-DJ
Feena
Behringer BCD-2000
(Hercules makes 2 different boxes and a few ppl have tried them but I haven't seen anyone recommending)

Box that uses Midi:
FaderFox

There are also a few mixers around that have Midi output but they're expensive. Such as Ecler mentioned above.

I use the X-Session, it does the job and is reliable, lightweight, and inexpensive, although it's a general-purpose box and not specially designed for Traktor. The other controllers are better and some are designed for Traktor, but they're more expensive, and bigger except for FaderFox. New controllers are coming out every few months and the designs get better each time, but I'm sticking with my trusty X-Session until something really good comes out.

Posted by DJ HARN on Aug-23-2006 17:32:

Thanks for the info. Do all these boxs come with software drivers? Once i install the software is it just a case of selecting the device in the audio section of Traktor and assigning the functions the same as the keyboard ones?

Posted by tvmann on Aug-23-2006 19:03:

For Windows XP the X-Session doesn't use a special driver - it is a standard USB device type and gets automatically recognized when turned on for the first time. The box is Midi and has a couple of Midi in/out ports, but it normally connects to the computer by USB. A little reading on Midi will help but almost none is required.

It does have some software included that helps you customize it for different applications, but I never needed to use that software.

In Traktor it is pretty easy to assign the box knobs to various Traktor software knobs, it's the same place you set the keyboard commands as you said. The 10 useable button switches are easily assigned too, but some may need a bit of tweaking to get the desired action (the buttons act as either momentary contact/single press or on-off/double press, depending on how you set them).

I just use the X-Session to control the EQs and filters and it works well for that without much setup work, but if you want to use it for other stuff like pitch control, loop lengths, etc it will probably require more work to get it to work the way you want.

I haven't used any other Midi knob boxes, but apparently the others are similar and easy to set up, if you're not trying to do anything too ambitious with them. If you want a box that will let you do some things that would normally still be done with the laptop keys & mouse, that is going to require a more expensive unit such as the Kontrol-DJ or Feena. The Behringer may take some extra work as it has more knobs/switches and people want to use that box for more complex stuff, there are 1 or 2 threads on the Native Instruments forums about that.

Personally I wouldn't spend too much on a Midi box at this point, I'm waiting for someone to come out with a new model that will control the 4 channels of Traktor 3. There are already a couple of general-purpose boxes such as from Bitstream and the Behringer that have the extra knobs.

Posted by AnomalyConcept on Aug-28-2006 02:36:

I agree with Soundwerks about the Ecler Nuo4 (do I get a tshirt???? =P).

I was in your position when considering a mixer; I wanted to use it with Traktor.

However, I ended up setting it up into external mixer mode, since the software mixing wasn't really cutting it. I still have the two virtual decks in Traktor hooked up to the mixer, with channels 1 and 4 hooked up to CDJs. I can still control Traktor with the MIDI functionality in the mixer, for a total of 4 decks/sources.

With any external midi device, there will be some delay. It's not terribly noticable with the Nuo4, but it's also been a while since I've used it.

Downside to the Nuo 4 is the cost, and then, it's at a pretty decent price point for what you get.

Good luck with choosing the device that suits your needs!