The Reloop Terminal Mix 4: New controller, with new Serato too? (Click to enlarge.)
Reloop has today officially announced the Terminal Mix 4, a controller for Serato. It represents the European company’s first foray into Serato controllers, and pretty much gives the game away as to where Serato is going with its software at the same time.
The unit seems very similar in build and appearance to the company’s Jockey 3 controller for Traktor, but in packing in a full four-channel mixer and lots of extra buttons, shares a little in common with the Vestax VCI-400 too.
Features summary
It has a high-end feature set, which includes “intelligent kills” (any kills are good in our book); per-channel filters; crossfader curve and assign; six-inch aluminium jogs; fader start; simultaneous control of four cues and four sample decks per side; and the promise of performance modes (a slicer like Twitch is mentioned in a forthcoming “software update”. More on this in a sec…).
A slicer like Twitch is mentioned in a forthcoming ‘software update’.
Looping benefits from having a ecent number of controls assigned to it, meaning easy loop readjust and movement while performing a loop, and the effects sections have the standard four knobs and four buttons. You can adjust software views from the hardware unlike most Serato controllers too. There are 14-bit hi-res pitch controls.
We don’t know how many external inputs the unit can handle, or how many microphone channels it has, but we can see from the picture that it has both booth and master outs.
New Serato?
As we noted with the overlay that comes with the Numark N4, manufacturers are stopping putting “Serato Intro” on their products and just writing “Serato”. this Reloop controller confirms this trend.
Notice it says "'Serato', not 'Serato Intro' or 'Serato ITCH'? Expect changes in the way Serato delivers its controller software to be announced very soon.
As we know, Serato Intro is up until now two-deck control only, and so we have to assume that Serato is about to offer either a four-deck upgrade path for Intro; rebrand Intro and Itch as LE and Pro, just like the other manufacturers; or have some other mechanism for controllers like this to have true four-deck support.
Reloop are staying tight-lipped about this saying only that “Terminal Mix is a four-deck controller including Serato DJ Intro” when I questioned them, but I just can’t see Reloop launching a high-end style controller with software that can only utilise two of its four channels – and leaving “Intro” and “ITCH” out of the press release and off of the unit is the giveaway.
We look forward to a proper demo at NAMM when we’ll ask the pertinent questions about the software – if all hasn’t already been revealed by then, that is.
Are you excited about a Serato controller from Reloop? What do you think is going on with the Serato Intro / ITCH matter? Do you think this controller is going to offer any serious competition to other controllers at the mid/top end of the market? Let us know in the comments!
Now go to:
Review & Video: Vestax VCI-400 DJ Midi & Audio Controller
New Serato DJ Intro Software Set To Shake Up Entry-Level DJing
Review & Video: The Novation Twitch DJ Controller
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Tags: 4 channel controllers, 4 deck controllers, dj controllers, reloop, serato, terminal mix 4
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The way I see it, Serato is planning to give Intro users an option to upgrade to ITCH soon on certain controllers.. which is good in my book
[ link ]I really wish the Denon and 6 inch platters… I don’t own Serato but i’ve been thinking of owning it… this may be my avenue to it.
[ link ]Can’t Wait, to get my hands on it.
[ link ]the fact that the ‘cup’ button is now a ‘tea’ button makes me consider switching to serato
[ link ]We need a “beer” button!
[ link ]I second the motion. beer button is a must!
[ link ]and that beer button should be synched to the bartender. So we don’t have to leave the Booth
[ link ]and that beer button should be synched to the bartender. So we don’t have to leave the Booth
[ link ]anyone can estimate how much will cost this?
[ link ]Not got word yet, I am guessing US$500-600.
[ link ]If this is under 600$, im prefer this than Numark N4, what do you think ?
[ link ]Looks sharp, don’t it
[ link ]Looks like the controller will be able to control Traktor,especially Traktor Pro due to 4-deck mixer… just hope that Reloop will release a Traktor mapping
[ link ]Looks like the Numark NS6 and the Traktor S4 combined into one unit
[ link ]I’ve had a lot of experiences with the Digital Jockey 2, and I’m a bit critical if it’s up to reloop’s controllers. The good things of them are that they’re easy to use and they’re good for learning on them. Also, you can press the High, Mid and Low knobs like buttons to kill it instantly, whcih can give cool effects especially with the low button/knob.
The bad things are that they don’t last very long, and they often have (manufactural) problems and bugs. Sometimes buttons won’t work or the feedback lights don’t work. They’re also not very good to scratch on.
I hope Reloop has learned from previous mistakes and brings an even more decent controller on the market. The jogs look bigger than usual, which I think it might have to do with Serato, so I hope that scratching will be better now.
It looks a lot like the VCI 400, almost like a cheaper version of it, so I hope they’ll keep the price below 500€/600$ otherwise they’ll won’t have much popularity because of other controllers like the real deal VCI400 and Traktor S2 who give real competition. I still see it as a beginners controller.
[ link ]I’ll second that on the reloop buttons failing to early for my liking, especially the transports.
I hope that this flaw has been addressed on these new controllers, if so it looks like a real contender
[ link ]wow this might b the one for me, cant wait.
[ link ]Looks like a winner but hopefully they have learned from the Jockey 3 review of the jog wheel issues. Very promising otherwise.
[ link ]There’s nothing at all wrong with the Jockey 3 jogwheels, there was a real fuss over nothing about those. We never had a single problem after Traktor updated to 2.1.1, and even before then Reloop’s engineers did some pretty neat stuff in mapping 1:1 with the software.
[ link ]I love the look and feel of reloop stuff! The jogs on this look amazing. If price point right this could be big seller.
[ link ]It looks OK. The overall built and layout looks good, the joggs look really nice almost a la Vestax, hopefully they perform well. I just don’t dig the color (red everywhere) and the buttons. Buttons seem like the cheap ones on the Hercules controllers, which I hated on the RMX a few years back.
If under the hood this controller performs well with ITCH (or Intro, or new name…) it will win a lot of people over.
I wonder what Serato has up their sleeves… Having an LE and PRO version of their software that any “SERATO” controller can use would be nice. As long as they don’t start charging for “PRO” features for the “PRO/ITCH” controllers.
[ link ]This controller looks nice like it can be a contender for the S4…
[ link ]Will it be midi mapable so you can use Video SL-1? If not it just get thrown into the pile with the rest of the controllers.
[ link ]Being a Reloop user for 2 years now (I own the RDJ2 Interface Edition), I have to agree with some of the comments above: their gear has some definite fauls and it has not reached pro user equipment status yet.
[ link ]I can see that they still use the same transport buttons that the RDJ2 models (no good, they will stop working at some point), the LED buttons in the FX section are not great either and their tech support is appalling (3 months to fix my unit).
Not all of it is bad for the price though (decent faders, alright soundcard, EQ kills, sturdy, etc.) Nontheless, I will be switching to Denon or the new Livid controller(depending on the price) very soon.