The Reloop Beatmix is a good-looking, budget controller for Virtual DJ. But is it a Mixtrack Pro killer? We find out in today's review.
Things are hotting up at the lower end of the DJ controller market. Only last week we looked at the Hercules DJ Control Instinct, which offer amazing value for money but may be just a little bit too small and basic for all but the most casual of users.
Today we review the Reloop Beatmix, which at £160 for a bigger, better specified controller than the real bargain-basement models out there still looks like excellent value for money. At this price point, the Numark Mixtrack Pro is the controller to beat. So the question is, can the smart-looking Reloop Beatmix do it? Let’s find out…
First impressions and setting up
It looks like a shrunken Numark NS6, thanks to the indented carrying handles left and right, the silver jogs (although these are lower slung) and the general black and red colour scheme.
It is slightly more compact than the Mixtrack Pro, and feel a bit better made.
It’s made of plastic, breaking from all other Reloop controllers (which are mainly metal in construction), as befits the price point. Thus it has a lighter, more consumer feel to it, more akin to the Mixtrack Pro. However, it is slightly more compact than the Mixtrack Pro, and feel a bit better made, due to superior quality knobs, faders and its undeniably snazzy jogwheels.
Top panel
As well as those cool aluminium jogwheels, the main panel has a nice, loose crossfader, slightly stiffer pitch and line faders, hard plastic backlit buttons (again, in the case of the transport controls, a break from Reloop’s normal rubberised style, and also they’re quite dim in daylight), and basic control over looping, effects and Virtual DJ’s built-in sampler.
The top panel of the Reloop Beatmix, showing the excellent-feeling aluminium jogwheels. (Click to enlarge.)
There are prominent “shift” buttons under either deck, and due to the relatively small number of controls, to access the full power of the controller you’ll be using them a lot for double up button and knob functions.
Also under each deck are three cue buttons, and a shift button (holding shift the pressing a cue deletes the cue). This is a nice place to have cues, and it will encourage some basic cue juggling, so if you’re a budding controllerist, this ought to tick a box for you.
Front and back
On the front panel is a 1/4″ TRS microphone input with a volume control and a switch to turn it off and on (it also has a “route through software” option which doesn’t work with the supplied software), and a 1/4″ TRS headphones socket.
Round the back are an RCA master output, an RCA booth/record output (fixed level, so more accurately this should be referred to just as a “record out”), jogwheel sensitivity adjusters for each deck, a USB socket and a Kensington lock slot.
Installing the software
The controller comes, as you’d guess, with Virtual DJ software on a CD. It’s an LE version of the software, which means “lite edition” – a cut-down version. However, it has all you need to get started, and many users may never want more.
It has all you need to get started, and many users may never want more.
If you want to start altering the mappings, or incorporating better effects, or using Virtual DJ’s video capabilities, for instance, you’ll need to upgrade, at the hefty fee of US$249. (Once you’re upgraded, though, you do get free upgrades for life, but it’s a commitment for sure, doubling the cost of the controller.)
To get up and running, you install the drivers (PC only), install Virtual DJ, enter your serial number, and plug the controller in. Power comes from the computer, and there are no other adjustments necessary for the headphones, main speakers and mappings to all work as they should.
In use
The software is nicely skinned to resemble the controller, and provides a good workspace within which to DJ. It’s only two decks, so there’s room for everything to be laid out quite clearly, and the controls mirror those on the controller.
The Reloop Beatmix version of Virtual DJ LE: Clean, simple and matching the hardware.
Library and transport
Loading songs is done with the big, weighted, stepped “Trax” knob using the shift button to navigate folders, and the big A and B buttons either side of it to load your chosen song onto the deck. Pressing the Trax button turns the screen into a full music browser, and pressing again returns it to normal.
The hard transport controls are responsive, and there are no surprises in the layout or function of them.
The hard transport controls are responsive, and there are no surprises in the layout or function of them.
The pitch faders are accurate to about 1/50th of a BPM, which is more than acceptable at this price point. The deck areas also feature CDJ-style pitch bend buttons, and buttons to alter the jog mode (nudge/scratch/library browse).
There’s normally a button for keylock on DJ controller, but on the Beatmix it’s accessed by pressing shift then the play/pause button. (keylock holds the pitch steady as you change the tempo). Also down here is a fader start option, which automatically starts the track when you open the fader; this is on shift plus the cue button.
Jogwheels and mixer
More about the jogs. They’re good but despite their lovely look and feel, they’re not perfect. For most DJing they’ll be fine, but they’re not true one-to-one control, as is achieved with the best controller/software combinations.
They’re good but despite their lovely look and feel, they’re not perfect.
Therefore for serious scratching and really confident vinyl emulation, they’re lacking.
For instance, if you do a “spin forward”, the jogwheel carries on rotating when the music has stopped reacting to its movement. There is also a very slight lag overall.
As far as the mixer section goes, the EQs are very nearly full kill, and it’s nice to see a gain control which in combination with the VU meters on the screen (there are none on the unit itself) means you can manually gain-stage your tunes. However, the control over gain wasn’t smooth, jumping in pretty course steps as you put the control through its range.
FX, sampler and loops
The three knobs and three buttons at the top of each deck are where you control looping, effects and Virtual DJ’s sampler. That means they have an awful lot of controls assigned to them, so there’s a bit of a learning curve as you get used to the shift combinations, and control is overall a bit limited.
The Reloop Beatmix rear. Note the addition of a record output as well as the master out. (Click to enlarge.)
However, there are some nice touches: A permanent filter per channel (Virtual DJ’s filter sounds OK, nothing special), and one-button access to Virtual DJ’s beat mash effect both mean you can add flourishes easily to your DJing. The automatic looping is intuitive, with the option of setting a nuaual loop too.
Overall, considering the number of controls available, Reloop and Virtual DJ’s engineers have done a reaosnable job of giving you as much as possible to play with within the limitations of the hardware.
Sound quality
I couldn’t find the actual sound card spec but I guess it’s 41 or 48kHz, 16-bit. I listened to music I know well through the headphones cue output on a pair of V-Moda Crossfade LP2 headphones, and it sounded great.
Thankfully, the days or truly ropey sound from DJ controllers look to be behind us, and at this price point and from that brief test, the sound quality here is more than good enough.
Conclusion
Because it is so aggressively priced, this controller should do well, assuming Reloop can get it distributed in enough numbers to where the demand is (we often here of people, especially in the States, being unable to source Reloop gear).
For basic DJing, it has everything you need. It feels nice in use, and offers just enough control over all the expected digital DJing functions (cues, loops, samples and effects) to make it ideal to learn and perform gigs on.
It is not good if you want to learn scratching as the jogwheel control isn’t up to that. Remember too that if you want to start getting into more advanced digital DJing techniques including making your own mappings, video DJing, using four decks and so on, you’ll need to upgrade the software to pro, which has a hefty fee attached.
It’s about the software, stupid!
The choice between this and the Mixtrack Pro, which is its biggest rival, comes down to price (this is cheaper), and software: While the Mixtrack Pro nowadays comes with Serato DJ Intro, the Reloop Beatmatch is a Virtual DJ controller.
The Beatmix offers a nice feel, reasonable standard of construction, an engaging (if necessarily limited) control surface, and pretty good performance, all at a hard to beat price.
Serato DJ Intro doesn’t have as many features as Virtual DJ LE overall, but there’s not much in it. Where Serato wins is in effects and jogwheel control, the former being limited but high quality and the latter being simply the best in the business.
The main places Serato DJ Intro falls short of Virtual DJ LE is in recording your sets (you can’t) and the fact that even if you want to upgrade, curently that’s just not possible (there is simply no upgrade path from Serato DJ Intro to anything better at the time of writing).
As always, our advice for anyone buying any DJ controller is: Pick your software and then your hardware. If you’ve already decided Virtual DJ is the software for you, the Beatmix offers a nice feel, reasonable standard of construction, an engaging (if necessarily limited) control surface, and pretty good performance – and all at a hard to beat price.
Video
Summary
We like:
- You get a lot for your money
- Nice looking controller for this price point
- Dedicated filters for each deck
We don’t like:
- Software upgrade is expensive
- Jogwheel performance a little disappointing
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Product details:
Size & weight: 16.5 x 10.7 x 1.6″ (420 x 274 x 41mm), 4.1lb (1.9kg)
Price: US$279 / £164 / €204
Buy from: Amazon (US), Juno (UK), Juno (rest of Europe & world)
What do you think?
Do you think this is a true competitor to Numark’s all-conquering Mixtrack, at last? Are you a Virtual DJ user pleased to finally see controller being specifically made for your chosen software? Do you own this controller? What do you think of it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Now go to:
Review & Video: Reloop Terminal Mix 2 Serato DJ Controller
Review & Video: Stanton DJC.4 Virtual DJ Controller
Review & Video: Hercules DJ Control Instinct With DJUCED Software
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Tags: Beatmix, reloop, reloop beatmix, Virtual DJ, virtual dj controllers
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
disappointing, i thought it would be a good replacement for the mixage. it seems that the mixage is a year older, but still better. the only thing i like about that beatmix over the mixage is those rubber transport buttons.
[ link ]can you do a traktor review with the official mapping
[ link ]We only review what’s in the box, so as it doesn’t come with Traktor, we haven’t reviewed it as such.
[ link ]thnx for the reply you are right, it is the same as the jogwheel issue can be solved in vdj pro but you don’t get that out of the box
[ link ]Very nice review Phil (as always),Can u go more in depth comparing this unit to the Mixtrack pro? Yes we know that the Beatmix is less expensive, but like myself in need of a controller and using Virtuall DJ what would be the better overall choice?Evaluating construction,sound quality,& functionality.. What would be your rockbottom choice between the Mixtrack pro and this Unit?
[ link ]I would base my choice on what software you’d prefer. Serato? Mixtrack Pro. VDJ? This.
[ link ]Thanks Phil, Eventhough they offer the Mixtrack Pro with VDJ-Le (also) this is the better option huh?
[ link ]Ok great! Eventhough the Mixtrack Pro is also available with the VDJ LE.This is the better option huh? Well said!
[ link ]Not necessarily, I’d recommend comparing feature-to-feature to see which is better for you. It’s close. Also, the MTP isn’t available with VDJ in all territories.
[ link ]I have the Mixtrack Pro running with VDJ LE, would the beatmix be a better choice? I kind of want another controller but have a $300 budget. I also live in the states so would that even be available here? Thanks
[ link ]If you only have $300 to spend, you should upgrade the mixtracks serial to VDJ Pro for $150, sell the mixtrack pro for $150 and get the reloop. you will have still spent the same amount and then you can begin to tweek VDJ to your preferences, and will get VDJ8 upon release.
The biggest concern Phil brought up is the jogwheel feel when scratching which is easily fixable in VDJ Pro with the Registry Tool.
[ link ]I suspect VDJ8 will fix this further, and it’d be a free upgrade once you have VDJ7 Pro.
[ link ]I really wish manufacturers would keep the Master volume and the Headphone volume knobs well away from each other. I am forever tweaking the headphone volume (particularly when previewing tracks) and every now and then (usually when I’m rushed) my finger strays and the main output jumps, or even worse it goes very quiet…I know I can be klutzy, but at least try and design out these things.
That said this looks like a pretty decent piece of kit for the price.
[ link ]I was seriously thinking about getting this one.
[ link ]But I currently own the Hercules DJ Air and I already have outgrown it with 6 months. I’m just going to upgrade to the Jockey III right away at this point.
it is a huge step the jockey 3 is a really serious controller rivalling the s4(as the tm4 which in my opinion is a bit better with the traktor mapping) get a vms 4.1 or something less expensive.
[ link ]Hi Phil
I’ve always respected your reviews and what you do for this Digital Dj Culture.
I just want to add that I got mixtrack pro running with Dj Intro and Yes u cannot record your sets but u can do it using Audacity and Y cable. I think u helped me with that in one of your advices or reviews.
Still believe the Mixtrack Pro has no competition in its category.
Bless!
[ link ]One thing I think is a big miss on the Numark Mixtrack Pro is gain. I like the basic layout and the design of the Numark, but the build quality and the feel of the faders and knobs of the Reloops are superior over Numark’s.
[ link ]Dear Phil
Excellent video, I must admit that your blog is one of the best in style, lots of information and very good details, Congratulations!
I’m beginning to integrate into the world of “DJ’s” and as you mentioned you, and have chosen my software VIRTUAL-DJ and this Gear (Beatmix) is the one that best suits my pretensions, but I still have doubts enter which driver to choose. Vestax had in mind, but VERY toy, and my question is Mixage or Beatmix, the truth is that my style of music is Rock/Pop, hence I want something with good sound as far as possible between these two options.
Can you help Me? And why?
From already thank you very much and a big greetings from Chilean Patagonia!
Punta Arenas!
My Apologies for my bad english!
[ link ]Thanks for your kind words. Please come and ask questions over on the Digital DJ Tips Forum (http://www.digitaldjtips.com/forum); the whole community can help you there as well as me.
[ link ]Hi Phil, i already wrote and asking question on the Terminal 2 review.
Like i said, i’m looking for a controller for mixing.
I ask you about Terimnal Mix 2 and Ergo, but i’m wondering about this little Beatmix.
Is it a huge difference compare to the two other ones ?
Or is the Beatmix is suffisant for mixing and specially without using the AUTO-SYNC. Is the jogweels accurate enough for mixing manually ? (compare to let’s say cdj200 or 800)
Coz’ i read (upper in the review) people complaining about that. Or is the problem occur only when scratching ?
Coz if this one work good enough for mixing from A to B manualy, it’s a benefit of 200€ compare to the terminal mix 2 and Ergo.
Thank’s again and sorry for the long two posts !
See you and good job again, your website is really awesome !
[ link ]At first i will have to say that the above comments about the comparison between the Beatmix and the Mixtrack pro were very helpful.
My concern now is which one of those two is more reliable for a public DJ performance? (Any user experience is welcome).
Cheers!
[ link ]Hey.
[ link ]quick question.
…as you can now get the digital jockey 2 for around £200 + traktor pro for £64
and the beatmix for £160 + VDJ pro upgrade for £100…
which would is the best to go for…???
many thanks.
Thanks Phil for a very helpful review.
which I did right away. Main advantages in pro for me besides video mixing are the side list (wait list) and the autoplay function.
[ link ]Initially I planned to buy a mixtrack pro. However in the netherlands it comes with serato. As I am already used to numark cue with my numark dmc-2 controller I purchased the Reloop Beatmix with virtual dj LE.
Main advantage over the mixtrack is the gain per deck.
Furthermore I like to inform you that you can upgrade to virtual dj full for half price
The controller works very intuitive so I used it only a couple days after purchase at a gig.
When using virtual dj which has native support for the beatmix since 7.3 I think the beatmix is the best option with an upgrade option to vdj pro fulltime for halfprice.
Thanks again for your helpful reviews and superb information in the website
Thanks for the review. I have vinyl decks and wanted to try MP3 mixing last year, so went for a numark DJ2Go mixer as an intro. Nice tool but limited, as you mentioned in your review of that.
I want to upgrade to a sub £200 controller / software and wondered what your advise would be – Reloop, Mixtrack Pro 2 or other. I’d quite like some effects and ideally the opportunity to record sets but would like something that has a closer feel to vinyl mixing, particularly in respect of pitch control (I prefer using pitch bend on dj2go). I also like this idea of extending a beat section and having some effects like flange etc. What would you advise?
[ link ]