deathy

It’s pretty hard to go wrong with the Mixtrack Pro 3 as your first controller.

Between those two controllers, the Hercules DJ Control Instinct actually has more controls (and from what it looks like, better, though that’s not saying much). I started with the Instinct and was quite happy with it until I knew I was going to continue doing it and had figured out my workflow enough to buy a better controller.

However, one truly massive thing in the Mixtrack’s favor – it comes with Serato DJ Intro. That still means you’ll need to upgrade to the full version if you really want the full featured software, but you have the option… if you get the Hercules, Serato will flat out not work with it at all.

If you knew what kind of workflow you were going to want to go with, then that would help… but it’s hard to guess that up front. Serato is one of the big boys of DJ software, so having that option available to you is pretty awesome, but if you don’t end up wanting to use Serato, then the Edge looks inferior in terms of the actual controls.

Hrm… though, the Hercules does let you buy into Virtual DJ for only $50, which gives you something similar, only from a different perspective. VDJ lays claim to “most popular,” in terms of install base, but seems to be consider a distant third when compared to Serato and Traktor (though the new 8.1 release is supposed to fix a lot of why people feel that way).

If you’re an old school tracker (Protracker on Amiga, Screamtracker/Fastracker on Windows, etc.), then Traktor is the software for you, hands down, but that’s about the only relative certainty I can offer you – and neither of those controllers are good choices in the long term with Traktor (as Native Instruments is moving away from caring about controllers from other manufacturers).

Obviously, I am not you, so I can’t really make the decision for you, but I hope I’ve given you some things to think about. I have no use for Serato, but I am in a pretty unique position with regard to software (none of the existing packages worked quite the way I wanted, so I wrote my own), so that doesn’t help you.

It blows my mind how terrible their coders had to be for this to be a problem, yet they need to be good enough to crunch some serious math.

Listenin’ to it now… not bad for your first mix.

The biggest things I’d say for it – some of your transition crossfades are perhaps a little bit slow for Hip Hop. Hip Hop tends to go for the extremely fast cuts, chops are the core of DJing the style the traditional way. However, the amount of each track you’re playin’ is spot on for the expectations of the style, a minute or so of each track and move on.

Actually, it occurs to me as I listen and write… your crossfader seems to be set to smooth… most Hip Hop DJs are going to have their crossfade set to a fast cut. You might want to start practicing with this. Of course, the reason for it is for scratching purposes, but even without scratching, your audience is probably going to be expecting the chops.

Later on, though, you seem to get more confident and crossfade faster.

Don’t take the amount I’ve written as discouragement… you got a solid basis here to build from for the style you’re working in. Honestly, biggest reason I’m writing so much is because it’s rare here for me to know enough about the expectations of the genre being mixed to be able to say much more than “nice mix, brah.”

Keep it up, you got the feel for it.

Howdy, Alexand, welcome!

In particular, I’ve been hearing it about one of the Xones… there’s a big thread about it over at DJTT, with a lot of “Yeah, I have that problem too”s.

The 43C… Here’s the thread over there:

http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=87963

Important to strongly note – I don’t own one, so do your own research. I am not an authority on this.

Also, I started on a DJ Control Instinct, I consider it a good very cheap first controller.

Hi, Rudy, welcome!

On the one hand, yeah, the software coming with the controller very strongly influences you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still use VirtualDJ.

However, if you’ve already bought the hardware and have the license of Serato, then I can understand not wanting to pay full price for VDJ on top of all you’ve already paid – especially with how expensive it can be if you don’t get the discount for buying a “participating” controller.

Serato’s a great piece of software, though, so I wouldn’t stress too much about it. However, if you find that the workflow doesn’t work for you, you might give a quick glance at Mixxx – it’s Free/Open Source Software, so it will cost you nothing to give it a go, and it has finally gotten to where it’s ready to play with the big boys. There are also a lot of other pieces of software that are a lot cheaper than full VDJ.

That said, though, I think you shouldn’t have too bad a time going from VDJ to Serato – I found the workflows to be kinda similar, more similar than, say, Traktor vs. Serato.

I also started DJing late in life, so you are not alone in that regard… all you need is a love of music. A desire to share that love is a bonus, but honestly, there’s nothing wrong with someone who’s into it just for their own enjoyment either.

Have a great one!