Digital DJ Controller w/ built in Audio Interface?

[methodamericon]

Hey friends!

I'm looking to dive into the world of Digital DJing/Controllerism. For years I've been strictly in the realm of production. And I'm far and away from growing tired of it! I love it. I started on an illegal copy of FL3. Two years, later bought Maschine, then Ableton Live 8 Suite. So I proudly now own Ableton, Maschine, AxiomPro25, and the beautiful APC40.

Just recently I started to get the urge to try my hand at actually preforming live with Live. I know, what a novel and innovative idea! I've kinda dabbled with the APC40 playing whatever for my 3 year old twins live, but really only ever used it for recording automation and whatnot. So I've been trying to learn how to write with the intent of performing from session view, and recording the final 'show' into arrangement view. [as opposed to using session view as a sketchpad] I also use my beloved Maschine to fire off one shots. And now I'm thinking how fun it would be to DJ mixes of my live recordings; Produce Song -> Play Live and Record -> Mix! Best of all worlds!

I've decided that its long overdue to get an Audio Interface as I could use a decent condenser mic and studio reference monitors. [currently running from headphone jack to stereo receiver] And I'd honestly love to have a Digital DJ Controller. Now I know I can achieve my objective with literally the same setup I have now, but I wanna try something new.

SO TO THE POINT!!! I can afford to spend really not much more than $1500 on a DJ controller, an interface, and monitors. I've seen a decent amount of controllers that come with built in Audio Interfaces. Ive been looking at the Novation Twitch, A&H Xone:DX, NI S4, and a few others. So a couple questions:

- Would it be possible to plug a condenser mic into these types of controllers and just use the soundcard to record quality vocals? And if so, would your recommend it?

- Are the AIs in DJCs up to par with standalone AIs? [obviously a 'get what ya pay for' thing, but generally speaking]

- Is it possible to bypass the whole controller basically and just use its soundcard and outputs to my monitors when producing in Ableton?

- Are there any DJ controllers that play really nice with Ableton if I wanted to DJ with that rather than what the controller ships with? I know about midi mapping and templates of course, but anything thats just amazing?

- Which DJ controller would you recommend? [if one without AI, which AI would you recommend?] Monitors? Please keep in mind Im on a fairly tight $1500 budget.


Im sorry this is such a long post. But Ive been researching my ass off for weeks now and would just like to hear the opinions of those who frequent one the best forums Ive ever come across; bar none. Thank you for reading and any and all opinions, tips, recommendations, and responses are greatly appreciated and encouraged!!!!!!

[citizenchris099]

I can't recommend the Xone 2d enough
http://tinyurl.com/7wpuz2e

Its a fantastic controller/soundcard to be sure. It has the feel of a well made mixer, the sound quality is great as well. I could be crazy but it seems to do everything you need.

[beats me]

Not a fan of Live for DJing.

Traktor S4 system FTW.

[methodamericon]

@citizenchris099 I never looked at the 2d. I assumed it was just an expanded version of the 1d and some how missed the now obvious audio interface it has. It looks almost exactly what Im looking for, and with that price it would leave me a more than expected amount for monitors and maybe a mic! I see the dedicated mic input on the top right, and it talks up the AI a good deal. So it'd be logical to run a condenser mic thru it right? Sorry, this side of AIs and whatnot is just all new to me.

@beats me The S4 was my original choice. Its simply badass in so many ways. Its the price that gets me. I could afford it no issue. But its whats leftover for monitors that bothers me...

[beats me]

@beats me The S4 was my original choice. Its simply badass in so many ways. Its the price that gets me. I could afford it no issue. But its whats leftover for monitors that bothers me...

Understood.

As far as monitors I guess it depends and what size parties you are planning to rock. I have a pair of Mackie SRM450s ($600 each) that were(are?) pretty much the industry standard for DJ booth monitors and mid-sized parties that I’ve been using for about 10 years and they’re still solid. But I’ve also rocked small parties with $100 Hercules desktop speakers that did the trick fine and are more than enough to piss off apartment neighbors with bass frequencies when really cranked.

My roommate does all his mixing with no external soundcard on those $200 Harmon Kardon computer speakers that look like a jellyfish and his mixes come out sounding better than mine on my KRK speakers that cost something like $250 each (hell if I remember) , but he does all his music in Logic using Apple’s instruments and loops with no third party plugs so that might have something to do with it.

[methodamericon]

Understood.

As far as monitors I guess it depends and what size parties you are planning to rock. I have a pair of Mackie SRM450s ($600 each) that were(are?) pretty much the industry standard for DJ booth monitors and mid-sized parties that I’ve been using for about 10 years and they’re still solid. But I’ve also rocked small parties with $100 Hercules desktop speakers that did the trick fine and are more than enough to piss off apartment neighbors with bass frequencies when really cranked.

My roommate does all his mixing with no external soundcard on those $200 Harmon Kardon computer speakers that look like a jellyfish and his mixes come out sounding better than mine on my KRK speakers that cost something like $250 each (hell if I remember) , but he does all his music in Logic using Apple’s instruments and loops with no third party plugs so that might have something to do with it.

.....Harmon Kardon FTW?

Haha. Im not lookin for anything as big as Mackie SRM450s just yet. [yet being the operative word there, with me becoming quite the gearslut as of late] I was thinking more of something with enough juice to be able to rock a little house party, but also something that I can still get a good flat full spectrum of sound out of for my production side of it all too. I was looking into the Yamaha HS80Ms. Seem pretty much what Im looking for. Anything to say regarding those? Either way, I really do appreciate your input. I have approx. 0 friends that are into production, performing, or DJing. This makes it rather hard to discuss thoughts about this stuff with people for me. Its rather depressing actually.


Also, any more input on Digital DJ Controllers [w/ and w/o AIs], Monitors, and AIs would still be more than welcome and gratefully appreciated.

[stansharpe]

I've got a vestax vci300 mk2 myself. Absolutely love it. Unlike the s4 it will fit in a backpack so you can easily carry it with a laptop. The pioneer controllers and the s4 are just too big to realistically lug round to gigs easily. More like carrying a snowboard. Haven't seen the traktor s2 in the flesh yet but I'd say that is an equally good choice. Went to a shop demo on the notation twitch and that looks a really fun way to dj, not that conventional but definitely looks really fun. Literally everything is midi mappable as well scan be used for Ableton as well

[Khazul]

I think you are going to have to make a choice between useful audio interface specifically for DJing (i.e. potentially combined with a controller) and an audio interface useful for vocal recording. You are not going to get both combined. Mic input on the controllers are basically for voice over/MC etc (i.e. so the DJ can be an irritating) - not even sure that just because a mic input is there means you can actually record it (i.e. output mix only, not actually an audio input to computer).

A decent studio condenser mic will need 48V power - I don't know of any of these DJ audio interfaces/controllers that support that and certainly not any that will give you a decent power source rather than an approximate hack.

If you want a DJ rig - focus on a DJ rig - if you want a studio rig - focus on a studio rig - trying to combine them usually means a horrible compromise you will regret later. I have several audio interfaces these days - two specifically for permanent and mobile studio type use (RME UFX and NI Audio Kontrol 1), and two specifically for DJ use (NI Audio 10 DJ and Ausio 2 DJ). The NI DJ audio interfaces are probably identical quality and driver wise to those in the S2 and S4 controllers, so I would trust those controllers for audio quality and driver reliability over a lot of other crap out there. I quite like Traktor 2 as well.

(I don't have either S2 or S4 for traktor as I use a Traktor Scratch timecode system along with the X1 controller), however for a more self contained rig - they would be my first choice.

[methodamericon]

@khazul THANK YOU! thats exactly the advise Im looking for. Im really leaning towards a xone 2d. its pretty much perfect. then i can get the yamaha HS80Ms and have a controller for djing in ableton, an AI, and monitors. im thinking maybe in a few months ill look into a focusrite saphire and a good mic for that aspect. thank you for all the help guys. ill be damned if this forum isnt the best out there.

[23kon]

Djing is a bit pants if youve created the tracks yourself
Check out Tom Cosm's tutorials about the way he transforms studio work into live 'playable' sets.

The way he does it is still a kind of djing but he still has control over how tracks are built and how they play.

You can add a little more to this by having extra midi channels that are (for example) the same instruments that you have within the song. But these channels are left as midi and tweakable. So when it comes to the big build-up you can knobtweak that 303!