Best MIDI Controller on market for 'DJing' with Ableton Live

[GillyDJ]

I'm looking for the best MIDI controller on the market today that will be best suited to DJing with Ableton Live with at least a 4-'deck' (4-tracks) set-up.

Doesn't have to be flash but at least:

assignable low cut filters for each channel,
vol faders,
a couple of sends,
assignable buttons to switch from device to clip view,
zooming in/out without using laptop trackpad if possible,
moving around the scenes without using trackpad

APC40?
APC20?
Others?

Suggestions/opinions please - thanks

[102455]

Only you can decide what's best for the way you work.

Other DJs could suggest something - but that is because it suits them. You might hate it.

As for the controller having "low cut filters, volume faders, sends, zoom"........a controller is just a dumb box of knobs and buttons. You assign those knobs and buttons to the specific tasks you want to perform in Live. As long as the controller has a suitable amount of controls for the tasks you're planning on using it for, that's it.

What's your budget?

[yur2die4]

Your Novation 25sl mkii isn't cutting it?? That alone has the capability to do most of what you mention.

[stoersignal]

i would go for apc40 + mapEase from nativekontrol. its the most advanced and flexible solution i know

[Szuumm]

What everyone else said about horses for courses.

The Allen & Heath Xone K2 looks like a pretty good solution for me...

[Punky921]

It all depends on your workflow. More than any other DJ application, your workflow will define your MIDI needs. The APC40, for how awesome it is, fails for me for some of the live performance stuff I used to do. The UC-33e, much cheaper and shittier, worked better.

[Alfonso Muchacho]

Small = Allen & Heath Xone:K2
Big = Akai APC40

Neither of these will break in a hurry.

[mothergarage]

spam

wow, you guys must be desperate...

[wascal]

I'm looking for the best MIDI controller on the market today that will be best suited to DJing with Ableton Live with at least a 4-'deck' (4-tracks) set-up.

Doesn't have to be flash but at least:

assignable low cut filters for each channel,
vol faders,
a couple of sends,
assignable buttons to switch from device to clip view,
zooming in/out without using laptop trackpad if possible,
moving around the scenes without using trackpad

APC40?
APC20?
Others?

Suggestions/opinions please - thanks

I swear by my Vestax VCM600. 12 channels (6 accessable at once), automap funtionality, completely mappable etc + does all the things you've listed above (although I havent tried zooming as I'm on live 7). It doesn't play nicely with Launchpad out of the box as both controllers try to take over scene launching, but there are workarounds out there.

I was fortunate enough to find one second hand for about £225. I don't think I'd have paid the original £600+ asking price for one, but if you can get your hands on one for cheap then I'd go for it, very useful bit of kit.

[GillyDJ]

Thanks for all the responses.

Yes, I have an 25SL MKII but not enough of a 'launch pad' on it and the 25 honking keys get in the way!

The Xone K2 looks really good for a small option and it has it's own sound card too with 4 outputs; headphone L + R and master L & R, so I guess you wouldn't need an audio interface like an Apogee for a live set-up?

Does the APC have a soundcard??? Doesn't look like it but I have an Apogee Duet that should solve the headphones/master out DJ requirement.

Also, from reading the APC40 section of the Live 8 Manual, it appears that you can only adjust rack device knobs for one track at a time. If I wanted to adjust EQ on two different tracks, how could I possibly do that??? Is there any clever workarounds???

[S4racen]

If I wanted to adjust EQ on two different tracks, how could I possibly do that??? Is there any clever workarounds???

The APC40 runs from a remote script, there have been some amzing developments of it by the likes of Hanz Petrov and Will Marshall...

It's also ripe for hacking to pieces with Max4Live, my only advice would be to start out with a clear idea of what you want to achieve otherwise you could be a year down the rabbit hole and not have played a single beat!!

Cheers
D

[102455]

Keep your eyes open for the new controllers (the CMD range) on the way from Behringer "coming soon".

There's a whole bunch of them, which you can mix and match to meet your needs.

Major button fest on some of them (similar footprint to the A&H K2 / Traktor F1) and they won't worry your wallet too much.

I'm looking forward to them myself...

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Category/US ... spx?s=O500

[XPM]

How about the new faderfox dj console:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/07/t ... more-24750

[inakiesarte]

The best controller is the one fitting your Ableton Live dj template best...
For me the best midi controller setup is my Novation nocturn and my UC 33.

[subterFUSE]

Thanks for all the responses.

The Xone K2 looks really good for a small option and it has it's own sound card too with 4 outputs; headphone L + R and master L & R, so I guess you wouldn't need an audio interface like an Apogee for a live set-up?

I have the Xone K2 along with a Xone DB4 mixer. You are correct that the K2 has 2 stereo outputs. One pair is RCA and the second output is headphones. So if you want to mix "in-the'box" with Live, the K2 will allow you to do so.

I don't really DJ with Ableton Live anymore (switched to CDJ-2000s a few years ago), but I do use Ableton for studio mixes sometimes. But I prefer not to mix in Live, but instead route the audio from tracks to the Xone DB4 and mix on the hardware. So my K2 just gets used as a controller in my case.