Xone 1d- whaddya think?
Xone 1d- whaddya think? Posted on: 10.10.2008 by Marcelo Alejandro Right now I have a vci-100 and it simply isn't working out for me:* crappy buttons (I know about the arcade button mod but not really interested) * some strange layout decisions (maybe they work for others but not for me) * low resolution sliders (not precise enough for perfect beatmatching. I'm starting to get really frustrated with this) Anyway, my point is, the vci-100 is not going to work for me, at least by itself (I do love the jog wheels, though). I'm curious to know why the xone 1d hasn't been talked about much around here- I'd like to know more about these little guys. I like the xones because they have a simple layout but have enough buttons/knobs/sliders to have a lot of control. The two layouts I'm considering are two xone 1ds on the sides with either a real analog mixer (I have a nice vestax pcv-275 from my vinyl days) or my vci-100 (to stay entirely digital) in the middle. If I have a vci in the middle, then I can control 4 decks with 4 jog wheels which would be nice, but I'd still have to live with low resolution pitch sliders. Time to wind down my post. My actual question is what do you believe of the xone 1d controllers? Are the jog wheels high enough resolution? Are there better alternatives? Thanks guys! | |
| gabriel bernath 17.10.2008 |
Originally Posted by mycole
1. on the panel at the top, right click and activate clock. this will be the master of the tempo, make sure you have master button selected. now, on all your decks, click the slave button just below the letter of deck. so far so good, you've set every track to the tempo of the clock. 2. now that every deck is the same tempo, you want them to start in sync whenever you bring them in. there are two ways to do this, but there is one important step....BEATGRIDS. they really help with keeping tracks playing constantly... without it, traktor would just sync every single beat, even though the beat is not neccesarily part of the 4/4 rhythm. so make sure you have mapped beatgrids for everytrack if you want the sync button to be pressed all the time, its hard to explain without pictures, but ill try my best. 3. if you want traktor to keep them in sync for as long as they are playing, then the sync trigger on your midi setup should be set to toggle. if you just want it to sync just as it starts and then turn off the sync automatically, you should set it to hold. what i do is this ._____ /........\ |........| \......../ 0 0 0 0 <==== If you can imagine these 4 circles as the 4 transport buttons below the jog wheel, i have set these to not only play the track in deck a,b,c,d respectively, but also to sync up the track, either by toggling the sync on and off, or to hold. this way i dont have to press two seperate buttons to play and sync. the jog wheel, pictured above, only scrolls through the focused deck, which i toggle through the cue and effect buttons in the middle of the vci, above the channel faders. to load a track, i use the 4 black buttons on the top left of the vci, that go vertical. i initially tried to assign it to the focus buttons, but realized it was a bad idea cause it would load the selected track into the deck when i just wanted to focus on the deck. i dont do any scratching, so i don't need to manipulate more than one deck at any time, and i dont see the point in having to manipulate 4 decks at any time, which sort of defeats the purpose of having more than one jog wheel (unless your a scratch dj) (or if you're using non-computer hardware). i mean, if you can assign one knob to control multiple effects or what have you, then why not assign it to control each deck. plus for me, having only one jog wheel really helps cause i can use the other for whatever i want, like scrolling through my playlist, or something like that. now i do a lot of looping, and i assigned the top 4 knobs above the right jog wheel as the loop length for each deck, and the 4 buttons below it as the loop on/off switch. i also assigned a sync trigger on the loop on/off buttons, because when you loop with sync on, it doesn't loop for values less than one beat. so when i'm done looping, i click the loop off, and, it resyncs the track with the master clock. i got the idea from richie hawtin, and i have to give credit where its due, but i guess the idea behind it is to try it and if you like, keep it. now for searching for tracks and stuff, i use the laptop, cause i don't want to activate the search from the vci and then go to the laptop cause it gets kinda confusing, but yea i have a bunch of keys that on my keyboard that scroll through the track lists, and when i find the track, i press the little black button that i want the track to go to, and voila, it loads, and is not in sync until i press play. so i scroll through the track, find the spot, play, and it syncs, then i carry on doing other stuff. meanwhile, i route the audio to an external mixer, where i do the equing, and fading etc, cause i love my korg zero 4, and then bring the track in. when i started out with the vci, i was only using two decks which was fun, i enjoyed the psudo scratching and stuff, but then decided to try 4 decks, which really interested me, and so at first i decided to buy another vci 100, but thought, do i really need another one? so i tore out all the controls that i wasn't neccesarily using, and realized i took out almost everything, so i deleted the tks file, and started to build my own. i realized that while the vci was not meant for four decks, it did have a nice arrangement of 4 sets of buttons/knobs. like the transport buttons, the effect buttons above the right jog wheel, the 4 eq knobs, the black buttons, the browser buttons in a weird diamond shape etc, and so i said that it could work, for the absolute essentials and a few creative things, then i realized the midi pages, and i how i can layer controls, which i'm still building as i write this, but that's a different story. finally i decided to get a (xone 1d) type midi device, it was an akai md24, which is just beautiful for cue point juggling and stuff like that, and i can layer those, but yea i mainly use my vci 100 for transport, playing, looping, and then the md24 for cue point juggling, effects, and some other stuff that slipped my mind. im going to stop here as i'm sure this post has taken up the bandwidth of the internet. hahaha. hope this helps. ps, the xone 1d is a great tool, you would only need one of them if you wanted full control of most features in traktor, as long as you have the vci there as well. |
| Hannes Deburchgraeve 17.10.2008 |
Originally Posted by Walidism
|
| gabriel bernath 16.10.2008 |
Originally Posted by smallfry
2. i dont know what you mean by the layout, no controller is perfect. 3. i mean if you're using two decks i can see where you would feel frustrated, but if you're using 4 decks then its a different story. i never use pitch sliders with 4 decks, there are so many easier ways to beatmatch 4 decks in traktor (which is what i assume you are doing), including macro functions, master sync, and regular functions(beatsync button). if you want to control 4 decks and keep them in sync using pitch sliders, and leave out an awesome feature that traktor gives you, then thats your perogative, but i sync up all my tracks instantly using master sync cause i dont like having to worry about it so much, i just set up beat grids and then focus on effects, loops, cue point juggles, and so forth. i don't even use the pitch sliders on my vci, and i've totally remapped everything to help with 4 deck transporting and fx/looping (also with the mpd24). point is, the vci was made for two decks, to control 4 decks you have to do your own thing... but if you want to continuously monitor the bpm with the pitch sliders on 4 decks, then you might not have time for much else. if you're just going to use 2 decks then you might want to consider the vci 300 which has better buttons and knobs, and more precise pitch sliders. |
| Marcelo Alejandro 10.10.2008 | Right now I have a vci-100 and it simply isn't working out for me: * crappy buttons (I know about the arcade button mod but not really interested) * some strange layout decisions (maybe they work for others but not for me) * low resolution sliders (not precise enough for perfect beatmatching. I'm starting to get really frustrated with this) Anyway, my point is, the vci-100 is not going to work for me, at least by itself (I do love the jog wheels, though). I'm curious to know why the xone 1d hasn't been talked about much around here- I'd like to know more about these little guys. I like the xones because they have a simple layout but have enough buttons/knobs/sliders to have a lot of control. The two layouts I'm considering are two xone 1ds on the sides with either a real analog mixer (I have a nice vestax pcv-275 from my vinyl days) or my vci-100 (to stay entirely digital) in the middle. If I have a vci in the middle, then I can control 4 decks with 4 jog wheels which would be nice, but I'd still have to live with low resolution pitch sliders. Time to wind down my post. My actual question is what do you believe of the xone 1d controllers? Are the jog wheels high enough resolution? Are there better alternatives? Thanks guys! |
| gabriel bernath 17.10.2008 | @mycole: sorry thought i was directing this post at the thread starter, disregard that ps message. |
| gabriel bernath 17.10.2008 |
Originally Posted by mycole
1. on the panel at the top, right click and activate clock. this will be the master of the tempo, make sure you have master button selected. now, on all your decks, click the slave button just below the letter of deck. so far so good, you've set every track to the tempo of the clock. 2. now that every deck is the same tempo, you want them to start in sync whenever you bring them in. there are two ways to do this, but there is one important step....BEATGRIDS. they really help with keeping tracks playing constantly... without it, traktor would just sync every single beat, even though the beat is not neccesarily part of the 4/4 rhythm. so make sure you have mapped beatgrids for everytrack if you want the sync button to be pressed all the time, its hard to explain without pictures, but ill try my best. 3. if you want traktor to keep them in sync for as long as they are playing, then the sync trigger on your midi setup should be set to toggle. if you just want it to sync just as it starts and then turn off the sync automatically, you should set it to hold. what i do is this ._____ /........\ |........| \......../ 0 0 0 0 <==== If you can imagine these 4 circles as the 4 transport buttons below the jog wheel, i have set these to not only play the track in deck a,b,c,d respectively, but also to sync up the track, either by toggling the sync on and off, or to hold. this way i dont have to press two seperate buttons to play and sync. the jog wheel, pictured above, only scrolls through the focused deck, which i toggle through the cue and effect buttons in the middle of the vci, above the channel faders. to load a track, i use the 4 black buttons on the top left of the vci, that go vertical. i initially tried to assign it to the focus buttons, but realized it was a bad idea cause it would load the selected track into the deck when i just wanted to focus on the deck. i dont do any scratching, so i don't need to manipulate more than one deck at any time, and i dont see the point in having to manipulate 4 decks at any time, which sort of defeats the purpose of having more than one jog wheel (unless your a scratch dj) (or if you're using non-computer hardware). i mean, if you can assign one knob to control multiple effects or what have you, then why not assign it to control each deck. plus for me, having only one jog wheel really helps cause i can use the other for whatever i want, like scrolling through my playlist, or something like that. now i do a lot of looping, and i assigned the top 4 knobs above the right jog wheel as the loop length for each deck, and the 4 buttons below it as the loop on/off switch. i also assigned a sync trigger on the loop on/off buttons, because when you loop with sync on, it doesn't loop for values less than one beat. so when i'm done looping, i click the loop off, and, it resyncs the track with the master clock. i got the idea from richie hawtin, and i have to give credit where its due, but i guess the idea behind it is to try it and if you like, keep it. now for searching for tracks and stuff, i use the laptop, cause i don't want to activate the search from the vci and then go to the laptop cause it gets kinda confusing, but yea i have a bunch of keys that on my keyboard that scroll through the track lists, and when i find the track, i press the little black button that i want the track to go to, and voila, it loads, and is not in sync until i press play. so i scroll through the track, find the spot, play, and it syncs, then i carry on doing other stuff. meanwhile, i route the audio to an external mixer, where i do the equing, and fading etc, cause i love my korg zero 4, and then bring the track in. when i started out with the vci, i was only using two decks which was fun, i enjoyed the psudo scratching and stuff, but then decided to try 4 decks, which really interested me, and so at first i decided to buy another vci 100, but thought, do i really need another one? so i tore out all the controls that i wasn't neccesarily using, and realized i took out almost everything, so i deleted the tks file, and started to build my own. i realized that while the vci was not meant for four decks, it did have a nice arrangement of 4 sets of buttons/knobs. like the transport buttons, the effect buttons above the right jog wheel, the 4 eq knobs, the black buttons, the browser buttons in a weird diamond shape etc, and so i said that it could work, for the absolute essentials and a few creative things, then i realized the midi pages, and i how i can layer controls, which i'm still building as i write this, but that's a different story. finally i decided to get a (xone 1d) type midi device, it was an akai md24, which is just beautiful for cue point juggling and stuff like that, and i can layer those, but yea i mainly use my vci 100 for transport, playing, looping, and then the md24 for cue point juggling, effects, and some other stuff that slipped my mind. im going to stop here as i'm sure this post has taken up the bandwidth of the internet. hahaha. hope this helps. ps, the xone 1d is a great tool, you would only need one of them if you wanted full control of most features in traktor, as long as you have the vci there as well. |
| Hannes Deburchgraeve 17.10.2008 | It's not just the sync feature... you need to beat grid your tracks. That's the key! You'll love it. |
| Marcelo Alejandro 17.10.2008 | @Walidism: Thanks. I suppose you're right; I'm too used to beatmatching [with vinyl] that I often forget about the sync feature. This next week I'll try not to even touch the pitch slider and see how that goes. |
| Hannes Deburchgraeve 17.10.2008 |
Originally Posted by Walidism
|
| gabriel bernath 16.10.2008 |
Originally Posted by smallfry
2. i dont know what you mean by the layout, no controller is perfect. 3. i mean if you're using two decks i can see where you would feel frustrated, but if you're using 4 decks then its a different story. i never use pitch sliders with 4 decks, there are so many easier ways to beatmatch 4 decks in traktor (which is what i assume you are doing), including macro functions, master sync, and regular functions(beatsync button). if you want to control 4 decks and keep them in sync using pitch sliders, and leave out an awesome feature that traktor gives you, then thats your perogative, but i sync up all my tracks instantly using master sync cause i dont like having to worry about it so much, i just set up beat grids and then focus on effects, loops, cue point juggles, and so forth. i don't even use the pitch sliders on my vci, and i've totally remapped everything to help with 4 deck transporting and fx/looping (also with the mpd24). point is, the vci was made for two decks, to control 4 decks you have to do your own thing... but if you want to continuously monitor the bpm with the pitch sliders on 4 decks, then you might not have time for much else. if you're just going to use 2 decks then you might want to consider the vci 300 which has better buttons and knobs, and more precise pitch sliders. |
| Hannes Deburchgraeve 16.10.2008 | If you're having trouble beat matching with the VCI-100 then you probably don't have the best configuration. You can beat match perfectly against another digital track using beat grids.... And with the right configuration (say tempo bend on the jog wheel rim), you can beat match perfectly against aux sources (CDJs,etc). Don't get discouraged. I will say tho, the 1d has lots more buttons, knobs and sliders. Whether it's worth the price... I don't know. |
| gabriel bernath 16.10.2008 | i was considering a while back the xone 1d with my vci100 and korg zero 4, but decided to buy a pad controller instead. i use the 16 velocity pads for either loops or effects, and the pitch sliders and knobs for various things. |
| Mrinal Desai 10.10.2008 | i own a vci 100 and frankly it works out quite well for me))) i mix mostly using beatgrids and don't bother about the pitch faders, sometimes i reassign them to loop length function. all in all vci 100 is a good device, only that mainly it controls only 2 decks, and as i play minimal i'm looking forward to control 4 decks. thta's why i intend to buy another midi, and i'm pretty sure i'll go with the cheap x-session pro, enough to control 2 more decks and effects. the xone 1D is pretty much amazing if you get it assigned to effects, the 4 faders and 3 more knobs each row is perfect to control 4 mostly used effects in traktor. |
| Random X 10.10.2008 | @2left2right Well, people said the same about the Xone:3d, and we all know what an overrated hype that was. So I am a little bit sceptical, to say the least, about the 4d. I still believe you'll be better off (and even cheaper off) by opting for a Xone:92 and 1 or 2 Xone:1d-s. To come back to smallfry's question, the 1D might be a nice solution if you're going to mix using beatgrids. Or, if you are as strangesided as me, opt for either a Korg Zero8, Ecler Evo5 or an Ecler Nuo4 (not 4.0!). The last one you could also add 1 or 2 Xone:1d-s to. To get back to smallfry's question, The 1D is a nice solid mixing solution, when using beatgrids. |
| Anushka jayamaha 09.10.2008 | a 1D with most any mixer is much more realistic setup if you plan on playing out often . |
| Ryan Morales 09.10.2008 | The Xone4D is the ultimate if you can afford it... 2 Xone1Ds and a standard mixer could be quite a nice combo tho and significantly cheaper. Another interesting option which is entirely digital could be 2 Xone 1Ds and a VCM100, which has nice long pitch faders and as well as 2 nice chunky rotary encoders, it also has a decent built in soundcard (maya)... |
| Pedro Ber 09.10.2008 | Get the xone 4d and you're set for life. At least that's what i believe. If i had 3000 dollars to spend. I'd get that. Having said that, maybe you don't have 3000 dollars.. so i'd say the 1d are solid enough. |
| Random X 09.10.2008 | Xone1d looks nice, but I am missing some rotaries and a crossfader. Mechanical build is, as I have heared, flawless. I also heared people that bought it, have not ever looked back. But than again it all depends what kind of mixing you would like to do. |
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