Recommend Dedicated Stems/FX Controller?

[Michael_Wisniewski]

Any recommendations for a small-compact 2nd controller for stems & FX?

[djjoejoe]

Hey Michael, you already got the DDJ-FLX4, right? How much smaller are you thinking? There‘s the Reloop Buddy and Ready which are still somehow fully-featured controllers with the Reloop Buddy even having some Stems integration. After that, you get into Hercules Starlight and Numark DJ2GO2 Touch territory that you would need to map yourself for them to be compatible with Neural Mix.

[Slak_Jaw]

@Michael_Wisniewski I recommend the DJ TechTools Midi Fighter Twister. It has 16 endless push button encoders and supports 4 banks of controls via the 6 side buttons. It works great for STEMS, FX and Looper control.

Midi Fighter Twister

Here’s a link to the thread with my custom mapping:

DJ TechTools Midi Fighter Twister - Mixer / Looper Mapping

This MF Twister mapping for Djay is designed to be used with a headphone splitter cable or external sound card and where you still want hardware control of Djay’s mixer functions. The mapping files are stored on DJ TechTools mapping site: DJ TechTools - MidiFighter Twister-Djay-Mixer I use it in combination with my MF Spectra (DJ TechTools - MidiFighter Spectra-Djay-Neural Mix) or MF 3D (DJ TechTools - MidiFighter 3D-Djay-Neural Mix) mappings and a headphone splitter cable for a portable setup…

[Michael_Wisniewski]

Yes, the MIDI Fighter and MIDI Twister look really good as a 2nd controller to the FLX4.

[Slak_Jaw]

Hahaaa! I beat you to it @Michael_Wisniewski. Look above.

[Michael_Wisniewski]

@Slak_Jaw

Hahaaa! I beat you to it @Michael_Wisniewski. Look above.

Quick draw! Its like you had it mapped or something I will check out that custom mapping.

[Michael_Wisniewski]

Any tried the RMX-1000?

[Michael_Wisniewski]

The Xone K2 also looks good and it can serve as a backup sound card. Its older though and not sure about iOS compatibility.

[Michael_Wisniewski]

An old favorite, the Traktor X1. Just not sure if the touch strip can be mapped.

[Slak_Jaw]

I haven’t tried either the RMX-1000 or the Xone K2. Of the 2, I’d probably lean towards the K2 for the more flexible layout and way lower cost. I’d love to have a crack at mapping something for the RMX though. I didn’t realize it was MIDI mappable.

[Slak_Jaw]

The Reloop Neon could be an interesting option. I prefer controlling STEMs with knobs instead of buttons though. Unfortunately, it only has 2 knobs.

[Michael_Wisniewski]

Novation Launchpad Pro looks good. But I like the build of the MIDI Fighter / Twister better for live performance. Still the Launchpad looks legit.

[Michael_Wisniewski]

True I’d prefer more knobs, but I do like the pad/button design. Would love to test this one out to see what it can do really do.

@Slak_Jaw

The Reloop Neon could be an interesting option. I prefer controlling STEMs with knobs instead of buttons though. Unfortunately, it only has 2 knobs.

[Myalteredsoul]

Xone K2, Kontrol F1, Kontrol X1 MK2 are all great controllers for stems control.

[Michael_Wisniewski]

I’m leaning towards a MIDI Fighter + MIDI Twister combo. I really like the feature set, build quality and integration with Ableton.

But the Pioneer DDJ-XP2 gives the MIDI Fighter combo a run for its money. A lot of nice DJ features, plus it’s compatible with both Serato and Rekordbox!

[Myalteredsoul]

The XP2 is what I use.