Big six-inch low-slung jogwheels give the new Reloop Terminal Mix 4 a professional look.
As covered here last week, European pro audio manufacturer Reloop has just announced its latest controller, the Terminal Mix 4, which it is displaying here at NAMM 2012.
It’s the first controller the company has made to work with Serato software, although it is currently only supplied with Serato DJ Intro, which means you can only currently use two of its four channels (as Intro is a two-channel package).
The Numark N4 offers full four-deck control and a host of pro features at a low price.
Numark’s N4 is following in well-trodden footsteps. The company’s Mixtrack and Mixtrack Pro models proved to be the biggest budget controllers of last year, and continue to be a bestsellers.
Unashamedly plastic-built, they nonetheless were great fun to use, with excellent jogwheels and just the right basic features to keep the vast majority of beginner DJs happy. Many a pro bit their tongue and admitted they was fine for “real” gigging too.
It's an imposing controller and it's certainly got the 'wow' factor, but does it have enough to compete at the upper end of the controller market?
Pioneer came late to the digital DJing party, at least as far as controller DJing goes. But earlier this year it launched the DDJ-S1 and the DDJ-T1. We’ve already reviewed the DDJ-S1 here, but we’ve yet to take a close look at the DDJ-T1.
One of the main differences between the two controllers is that the DDJ-S1 is for Serato ITCH software, and the DDJ-T1 is for Traktor. When Traktor Pro 2 came out, Pioneer followed up with a Traktor 2 version of the software for the DDJ-T1, and we wanted to review the unit with this software in place, as this is what new buyers will be using it with out of the box.
The DJTech 4Mix packs many of the functions of much more expensive controllers into a consumer-focused device.
No everyone can afford to buy an S4 or a Xone:DX; many bedroom or beginner DJs want to play with all the functionality of a four-deck controller with lots of modern features without frankly spending a fortune on it – especially as it’s hard to justify big DJ spending if you’re not actually making any back from playing out.
Enter DJ-Tech 4Mix, a new DJ unashamedly budget controller being previewed here at Musikmesse as a prototype. With the same kind of build quality of most consumer gear nowadays – that is to say, perfectly fine for DJing on at home and the odd party – this unit packs in a lot of the functions of more expensive controllers at an expected street price of around €300.
The Pioneer DDJ-T1 is typical of the new wave of four-channel DJ controllers.
DJs have always loved extra decks and channels. Back in the dark ages when every DJ box had Technics record decks and standard mixer, to find a DJ box with three or even four Technics in it was something special. Today, with all major DJ software now coming with four decks as a minimum, the controllers are catching up. So far 2011 has seen a rake of new four channel hardware hit the market, joining the small number of four-deck controllers that had already become available over the past year or so.
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