Pioneer DDJ-SX2 vs Reloop Terminal Mix 8

I am sure co-moderator Terry will have something to say on the Reloop (positive no doubt). I have the SX (not the SX2) for a short while now and it seems an ok controller. Still not convinced that the Denon MC6000 mk2 isn’t what I should go for, but giving the SX an honest try.

I don’t use Serato (I use Mixvibes Cross) so can’t tell you about the flip feature. From what I understand, it’s really handy if you want to do on the fly editing (mixing up where the breaks, chorusses and such happen), but you can learn more over at the blog. I believe there is an article on Flip there.

Stutter is there on the SX too. It’s there as a shift-function for the play/pause button.

As for it being a stand-alone mixer, that is helpful if you play out with your own gear a lot and you are the one responsible for the sound system. As a mobile DJ, imho, having a standalone mixing function is imperative. If your laptop crashes, you are totally out of it. I have two media-players (capable of playing CDs and USB-sticks) hooked up to my controller at all times. If something happens to the laptop, I hit play on one of the players, shout out to the crowd over the mic and THEN I’ll start fixing the laptop problem if I can. If it is so serious that I can’t fix it (HD crash comes to mind) I can still finish the night on CDs or USB-stick.

The laptop is, in my experience, the weakest link in the digital DJ chain. In the old days, you’d have problems with CD-players more than you would with an entire mixer (I have had channels quit on me, a quick replug and using another channel saved the day). And today the chance of losing a laptop is much bigger than losing the controller. But if you controller needs the laptop to function at all, you lose both units at once.

If you take it with you to a club, you can always switch over to the house system (they’ll have CDJs and a DJ mixer there) and if you don’t play out redundancy is a mute point anyway.

As for the quality of jogwheels, a new generation of controllers is gonna appear (starting with the Traktor S8) that is without jog wheels. It all depends on what you want to do with it, as you mentioned scratching is helped by good jogs with tight integration with the software of your choice. For simple nudging and searching, most jogs on good controllers are up to the task.

I personally really love the needle search – its just so easy to scan trough songs but is also in a place where you dont touch it by mistake. The rotating lights are not that important though, maybe for guys that scratch a lot. If I do I find it more precise on screen after I set two hotcues as markers. But I still really like them for the feedback they give – you directly see that the deck is playing which in some situations can be handy.

I find the Serato Flip buttons are useful to experiment editing songs without harming the original file of the song. If you do an edit and you don’t like it you can just record it again until you get what you like. I find it useful for extending intros and doing quick edit of songs. After you do a flip you have the option of turning it on or off when you load and play the song. You can also do Serato flips with the SX. If you go to the Serato’s website they have a section on Serato Flip with videos and a manual. By the way I own both the SX and SX2. I also played on a Reloop controller in the store. You can’t go wrong with either but I am very pleased with the Pioneer.

If you go to the Pioneer DJ website they have a chart at the bottom of the page where you can compare the SX/SX2 and SR. http://pioneerdj.com/english/products/controller/

The Reloop website has the TM8 product page with all the specs. http://www.reloop.com/reloop-terminal-mix-8

You have to decide which features are important to you and how much money you have in your budget. All 3 controllers are good selections based on your needs, wants and budget. If I was in the market to purchase a controller the 3 you have chosen would be my choices.

I looked at the Reloop website and their Forum seems to be very active. You can always go to the Serato DJ website and post any problems and questions you may have about your controller there.

I also have and like the Pioneer DDJ SR along with the SX and SX2. It’s a great controller for the money.

Hi,

Sorry for the late answer I was on vacation….

Well I have the TM8 and I love it.

I find the jogwheels on the TM8 especially good, since it can perform spins and other scratch functions more easily on them. I have never been very fond of Pioneer style jogs, but that is personal choice since I come from vinyl the reloop jogs feel more real to me.

The load button are the same on both controllers, you select a song with the jogdial on the controller and hit the dedicated load button for the song to load. No need to drag anything.

Now Serato Flip is tons of fun, however I found the reloop neon a much more complete tool for flip than added buttons on the SX2. Also the TM8 plus a reloop neon is still cheaper and the neon has other cool functions too (most complete sampler and sample load functions I have seen). Some functions may be redundant with the pads on the TM8 but then I use it this way:
TM8 pads for slicer/looprolls and combined functions and the neon for sampler and flip. I have not got my own neon yet (got to play with one for 3 weeks) and that worked nicely and I will get one.

Now let me add that both the TM8 and SX2 are great controllers and many things are personal choice here, but I have been very satisfied with the TM8 and had great success using it live on my gigs the past months.
Check out my forum video section (sticky top thread in this forum) there is tons of info on the TM8 in there and also a video on the performance pads.

If you have any further questions just post here and I will get back to you sooner now since I am back I will check the forum daily again.

Well learning is good on both.

Flip is a really advanced thing, so I would say 1-2 years off, so you wont miss it.

Needle Search? Actually never used the ones on my SX demo unit, I am much more comfy with pressing shift and search the track via the jogwheels, because this is how it was done back in the day of CDJs (the button was not named shift but same idea).

I do not miss the rotating LEDs, because honestly I never used them on CDJs either. For me it was just lightshow. Also looking down too much disconnects me from the audience. I rather look at the parallel waveforms of Serato for Scratching to find my scratch marker and make a hotcue there to get back instantly. Works like a charm for me.
However this is my workflow, some people love those LEDs.
But again this is prolly something you will not miss since you do not have a workflow yet, you are just developing one.