I’ve been a user of a Native Instruments Z1 (love the quality of that thing!) with Traktor for iOS for quite some time. I’d like to switch to djay for iOS, mostly for Neural Mix, as it seems to give me for freedom when creating mixes.
As I’m looking into new hardware as well, I’m wondering if you have recommendations for a DJ Controller that has - besides the knobs for high / mid / low EQ - additional knobs that can be mapped for Neural Mix (for controlling beats / instrumental / voice).
Currently, an obvious but quite costly choice to me seems the Reloop Mixon 4 (though I don’t know if I trust this company regarding build-quality). The Mixars Primo seems to be satisfying these requirements as well.
I don’t need more than two decks, though, so I wonder if I can use any compatible 4-Deck controller (e.g. a Native Instruments S3) and map e.g. the EQ knobs for channel 3 as Neural Mix knobs for channel 1 (and accordingly do the same for deck 4 and 2)? Is anyone using this / is it possible?
The two that I have are both on the opposite end of the price scale which work well when mapped…
On the cheaper side there is the Reloop Buddy.
A good little portable controller that has the functions that you are looking for right out of the box. It can be used both with Serato and Djay Pro using an iPad, however it needs to be a later model ipad with the Bionic chip in order for the Neural Mix function to work(It can also be used with an iPhone but the same thing, it needs to be a newer model)
My only gripe with that mixer that it doesn’t have a 3 band eq but it does have the ability to use the Neural function when shift is used using the Eq knobs…
The other on the higher side of the price range is the Rane One.
A great controller which is also Serato and DJay Pro compatible but requires midi mapping to in order to allow for Neural Mix to work…
I have mine mapped with the High, MId, Low Eq knobs controlling the Vocal, Harmony and Drums function when Shift is being pressed.
I also have Cue buttons 5,6,7 to kill Vocals, Harmony and Drums…
I don’t really need 8 cue points in my tracks and 5 are sufficient however with the latest version of Djay Pro, there is a double function in the Saved Loops button that has this already mapped…
I’m sure others will chime in with their controllers of choice.
I do exactly this with my DDJ SX2, channels 3 & 4 EQs have been remapped to the NM controls on channels 1 & 2 so I have both EQ and NM controls available at the same time - also by flicking an on screen switch they also double up as the NMEQ knobs as well, which is great if you need to give the track a vocal or drum boost.
It all works a treat, also the SX2 has the 3 dedicated Serato Flip buttons which I have mapped to the 3 stems for kill / solo NM.
I’ve also mapped the extra knobs on 3&4 as the NM crossfaders for the 3 stems too.
So yeah, if like me you only intend to use 2 decks with a 4 deck controller, the spare knobs and buttons come in really useful for remapping the NM controls to.
I’ve remapped a while host of the touch pads in various modes to things I’d use rather than the default set-up.
Deffo have a look around and find a 4 deck controller you like, then remap to your hearts content….it puts so much more control at your fingertips it’s well worth it in mho.
Yes, if you use a powered usb hub rather than one of the Apple ‘solutions’, you can connect more than one usb device at a time.
I’ve put information on this in a few other threads if you want some ideas of how this all works.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading on several controllers and more or less boiled it down to a (1) Reloop Mixon 4 at around € 635, (2) Denon MC 7000 at around € 700, and (3) a NI Traktor S3 at around € 435.
I believe Denon’s build quality is best, the price seems to be good, and it seems to be super versatile in terms of software - just as the Reloop; I just don’t know if their build quality has improved or is on par with the Denon. The S3 seems to be more limited in Software support and has received less favorable reviews; though I always loved my Z1 and if the S3 supports all of Djay’s features, it would seem to be sufficient.
I don’t have any experience with any of those particular controllers but I do have a Reloop Buddy and a Denon DN X1500S and the Denon controller is absolutely bulletproof…
i’m using a DDJ-SP1 on my cdj + mixer setup, i would like to “toggle” all the FX knobs in to “Neural mix knobs”… but unlike traktor i cant assign a button to act like a modifier and i have to hold shift in order to use the “Neural mix layer” on the FX knobs… not so friendly…
The reason that you cannot set a button as a modifier is that on most controllers the button is controlled by the controller itself… i.e. when shift and another button is pressed the controller sends the relevant midi signal to the software.
This means that the shift button can’t be mapped to ‘toggle on’ permanently.
Afaik, some controllers do act differently and allow what you want but most don’t.
The support team might have more of an idea of which model controllers allow what you’re after but the Pioneers don’t!
I’ve tried….
I mapped the FX knobs on a Denon MC2000 controller to be the Neural Mix (Vocals/Harmonics/Drums) knobs. There’s no toggle though so you lose any FX functions they had (which is fine for me, I didn’t use them anyway, I rather use effects directly from the iPad touch screen as there are more options than 3 knobs could control).
