Sounds pretty cool. What sites do you use? This is complete new territory for me
Haha, most of the time I use the website of a dj/studio gear store here in brussels, that way if I find something I like I know I can get it quick snap
It really doesn't matter, think of a large dj store and visit their website.
I've been doing some googling the last 5 mins because I remember this controller by reloop.
It's a bit more expensive, but still half the price of an x1.
Downsides: you have to lay it next to the mixer vertically like an x1 (which doesn't really seem like a problem until you have to go play at a club
with a tiny ass dj booth where the desk space is exactly enough for 2 decks and a mixer. And if you're playing at a party with other djs and have to
take over, using a DVS is already a pain in the ass, well it will even more be if you have to move shit around.
Another downside: it needs power, so apart from your macbook charger you're gonna have another charger for the controller (this is obviously again
only a downside if you're playing out).
But here's the good news:
It has buttons, faders, knobs and even a jog wheel. The sky is the fucking limit, haha!
It has buttons that let you switch between 4 banks (and it's just pressing button 1, 2, 3 or 4 on top of the controller, not like with my akai lpd8), so
you can really put a lot of functions inside this controller. It's actually made so you can mix with only the mixer and this controller (it has four outputs
on the back that you route to your mixer), that's why you've got the 4 banks, so you can select the deck you're working in: A - D and then have the entire
controller controlling one deck.
I've quickly researched if there's any buttons that don't send out midi and that's the case: the 4 buttons above the jog wheel, the 4 buttons to change banks
and the shift button. Cool thing about the 4 buttons is that - i think - you can use these to have the jog wheel control different shit: for instance that you can
map it that button one is for scrolling through your tunes, button two is to alter effect parameters or something like that, ... which would be pretty cool.
Please do note, I've quickly searched this for you, and that doesn't mean that everything I'm saying is gonna be true, so before you buy anything please
do enough research on it. I don't want you to buy it and end up regretting the purchase because some things didn't work like you thought they would.
So if anything I'm saying isn't correct: don't shoot me for it.
Anyway, once you've found a controller that you kinda like: google the shit out of it. Add 'custom midi mapping traktor' or something to your search query
or watch youtube videos and look how other people have mapped it. Since this reloop controller is already designed for traktor you're probably mostly gonna
find videos of people using it with the standard mapping though... But google it, normally you'd find some sites where you can download custom midi mappings
people made and uploaded. Most of the time they put a manual with it to explain which button/fader/knob does what: out of this you'll learn if the button/knob/fader
is custom mappable and normally you'd get some inspiration out of it as well, especially if you've never mapped a midi controller before.
I still don't know all about midi, just enough to get the two I've bought so far working. Don't worry: at first it'll all seem like chinese to you but normally all you
have to do is plug these in (sometimes install a driver, if it says traktor ready - like this reloop - that should mean that the driver is already inside traktor): it's
fairly easy, all you need to do is experiment a bit with the functions you can assign in traktor, and then it's just thinking out how you're going to use the faders/
buttons/knobs and what functions you're going to assign to what hardware.
Here's a pic of the reloop controller: Reloop Countour Interfae Edition
Damn this is half a book i've written! I'm too good for this world, actually should get some work done instead, lol