Spoiled for choice

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Mixtrack line, but I seem to go against the majority on that one.

I can give a positive review of the SB2. One of the bars I work at installed one a few months ago and I’ve been surprised by it. It feels a little more solid than a lot of entry controllers (pads and buttons). Knobs and faders feel decidedly entry, but hey, for the price there has to be some compromise somewhere! Also, to answer your question, yes – the SB2 does have centre click on the pitch faders.

Have fun shopping!

I don’t know if they have a center indent (click) in the middle. We had a discussion on this particular feature over at the Denon forums a while back and the opinion seems to be split about 50/50 between wanting and not wanting the click. Effectively you see a few versions on gear:
1) Only indent. Potential problem = less accuracy around the center as the fader might “fall” into the click right at the point you are trying to control.
2) Indent plus LED. Adds visual indication to tactile (click) feedback
3) Nothing. This is the cheapest option, with no tactile or visual indication
4) Only LED. Just a light that goes on when you are in the middle. Unfortunately this solution often has a bit of a wide “sweet spot” where it comes on, but isn’t quite there yet.

It all boils down to personal preference I guess. I personally don’t really care where the 0 sits, as I rarely mix around the 0 point and two tracks are hardly ever the exact same speed even if they are both labeled 128 bpm for example. In addition to that, with sync usage, your fader might sit at 0 where the actual speed is +/- something.

As for price and such, I agree with you that there are other options, but what makes the Mixon different from just about everything else on the market is it Laptop/Tablet hybrid operation. It even supports the iPad Pro. As such it makes for a nice small package for mobile work. Drop the controller (on top) somehwere, slot the tablet in. No laptop stand, no extra space needed for the laptop. And at home you can hook up your laptop or desktop as you like and use just about any software out there (except Traktor and RekordBox I’d say) to experiment to your hearts content.

All other controllers in it’s price range will need a computer/laptop to function properly, although some software will allow you (through the use of things like the Camera Connection Kit) to hook USB controllers up to it. But the choice is a lot narrower than using tablet-centric controllers.

Not an easy choice, I will be the first to admit.

As for the length of the faders, for me it depends on how often you use the fader (or if you use Sync a lot of the time) and what BPM range you use. Most software with the possible exception of Serato with Pitch’N’Time plugin doesn’t do to well with larger (+10%) bpm changes. So if you stick to 4-6% range, you actually have a pretty high resolution. Compare it to having a larger fader set to 10% and only using the first 40-60% of it’s length.

Also don’t forget the Mixon 4 comes with a full version of Serato included (not Intro!) as compared to some of the other controllers out there. And things like separate volume control for your sample bank.

So, best thing is to get your hands on one, bring your own laptop/tablet and have a go at it.