Best controller for scratching
Best controller for scratching Posted on: 09.10.2011 by Sharan Dewerff Whatsup yal. I recently moved from San Diego from a house to a tiny apartment in Los Angeles. I love my Technics but I just don't have the room for them and I'm tired of lugging them around. My question is this:1) What is the best controller for emulating Technics? When I say emulating, I really mean, what will give me the most authentic vinyl feel for scratching? I produce hip hop instrumentals for independent artist and I like to scratch samples over my hooks. I won't be doing much mixing or performing live, this will primarily just be sitting in home studio and used to scratch over choruses. I know technology has come a long way in the last 10 years, but as a producer I do not do much in the DJ realm. Any direction/ or guidance in this area would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time. -Shaun Solo http://soundcloud.com/solo-shaun http://Shaunsolo.Blogspot.Com | |
| Albina Califano 31.01.2014 |
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| Melinda Wubben 10.05.2012 | Yeah, the answer to the OP is probably Numark all the way if you want to use controllers. NS7 or V7 first of all, and then the NS6/4Trak as the second best options. |
| Rolanda Clodfelder 10.05.2012 |
The Numark controllers suck IMO
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| Peggie Mineros 10.05.2012 | Denon Dn-S3700s are cool. My room mate had a pair. The Numark controllers suck IMO. They feel cheap. But Numark does make a CDJ that has a full sized platter called the CDX and HDX. People say it is the most "1200 feeling" motorized platter CDJ on the market. They are cheap on Ebay but they are full sized so you are back to the table space issue again. I saw one person mention the Vestax VCI 100 and 300 controllers. There are videos that show people doing some cool stuff with em, but I've used them and they are rife with sticker drift. You can fake it pretty well, but at the end of the day, technology has moved so much farther with the newer controllers on the market. I would suggest looking into the Stanton SCS.1m and SCS.1d. You only NEED one deck. You can switch between decks with the touch of a button. You can control up to 4 decks. The amount of options for mapping and control are staggering. They have native support in Traktor as well as several other apps. There were sticker drift problems on the initial release so it got a bad wrap at first, but it has since been "fixed" when it was re-released last year with a new firmware update. It now has something like 4000 "ticks" per revolution so the tracking resolution "should" be about perfect. And running via Firewire means communication is streamlined. Also, there are loads of tools to customize the controls and diagnose any latency problems. Another suggestion would be to look into the Denon Dn-hs5500. You can run external hard drives or usb flash drives or buy an internal hard drive or CD drive to install. But the best part is, like the SCS system, you can run two decks at a time. It has a large display that splits so you can run two separate tracks at once and switch back and forth. It has 2 separate pairs of RCA outs for channel one and two. It also has a midi mode which I'm not sure I would trust a whole lot. But if you are using a hard drive, cd or usb key, there is next to no sticker drift. They are discontinued, but they show up on Ebay quite a bit. |
| Danae Dumler 14.01.2012 | I played around on a Vestax Spin at CES and was frankly surprised at how nicely it scratched. It's no turntable of course but I found it really easy to scratch on it right away (the software was djay), which I can't say for my VCI-100. If the 400 is similar in terms of the jogwheel movement, I'd say that's the place to look if you can afford it. |
| Cliff Lohman 13.01.2012 | i believe the denon 3700 is probly the closest thing ull get to tt emulation. That said, its still timecode. Maybe the scs1d but ive never used it. Or wait til denon releases the 3900 or 2900 which ppl suspect will be purely midi controllers with motorized platters. |
| Jonathan Chiuchiolo 13.01.2012 | at the end of the day scratching is all about technique, if you can do the techniques you can scratch with anything, you don't need direct drive platters, itch even has a ramp up delay when you let go of the jog for a more authentic sound. |
| Julio Tewell 12.01.2012 | Numark V7 looks about like what you want And a midi/midi-capable mixer. As far as this goes youre screwed. Cheapest options are the behringer ddm 4000 or the numark x5, both of which are pricey, but your best options. If you're tight on money, you could get a torq xponent, it will do the job. Theres a way to link your traktor channels to abelton live, basically a bootleg "bridge", so this may be something you wanna look into. I am going to do similar things, and all I need to do is scratch some samples, and put them in order in a DAW. So unless you want to do it all in one take, you don't need to over believe this. |
| Velva Eppler 12.01.2012 | A turntable and serato should emulate scratching better than any controller since you actually are scratching...at least that is what I use |
| Dona Cafferky 12.01.2012 | I've been very impressed with some of the scratching done of the Vestax VCI300 and 400 controllers. This video is a great example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnBvXFDWpWo |
| Jason Kruml 10.10.2011 | without a doubt: numark NS7 & V7's. |
| Kayce Mesia 10.10.2011 | http://www.stantondj.com/stanton-con...s/system1.html The platter on the scs.1d is also motorized (and has a motorized 100mm pitch fader!). Last review I read about it spoke of a rather high resolution for the platter. |
| Faustino Stringfellow 10.10.2011 | personally i'd choose the SC-2000/MC-6000 over the NI S4 for scratching. I love both the Denon and the NI unit's, but the SC's jogs are in a different league to the NI's. Now if the S4 had the SC's jogs ... that would be the solution. Those 3700's are great to work with too, so if the 3900 is a MIDI only version ...i'd have a look at that .. |
| Bertie Metro 10.10.2011 | Nice catch ! And yeah with the way denon names its products this would be a midi controller (at least) and a big brother to the dn sc 2000. |
| Shalon Jaranilla 09.10.2011 | wait a bit it seems denon is bringing out a new midi controller denon sc3900, there some leaked pictures from a russian music fair. if it's true that will be a nice option. http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/3504/denonmc3000.jpg |
| Bertie Metro 09.10.2011 | Or maybe take a look at something like a denon dns 3700, it's a cdj, with a motor (and a good torq), plays mp3 from flash drives, and also has a "direct" control of traktor or serato. I'm just pointing you to this because i know of it's existence, but i've never used one, so youtube it, search community
it to see if it works as advertised. If you really want to go controller route, then you have to select something that has a "direct" or proprietary to the software solution, like an ni s2 or s4, only because it has the best resolution for traktor, or vci300 for itch. Else it's vinyl/control vinyl. cheers |
| Sharan Dewerff 09.10.2011 | Your right but those damn mixers are so expensive! 1200 bucks! geez.. Thanks for the input, but you basically said what I expected lol but thanks tho.. |
| Bertie Metro 09.10.2011 | Use only one of your technics because the closest thing is either a cdj or a numark v7 (which is the only controller with a motor inside ). But those are still in the same ballpark as a technics (1) plus a mixer size wise. You can pull a lot of the turntable tricks with a normal controller tho, but it will take practice and it's not as rewarding, because hey it's not vinyl ( or record control ). |
| Lawana Spratlen 09.10.2011 | Have a look at this, discontinued but i sure you could pick one up on ebay http://www.vestax.com/v/products/detail.php?cate_id=162 |
| Sharan Dewerff 09.10.2011 | Well I did see the Serato integrated mixer, all I would need is the control record and the mixer. I have considered that. But seriously, my personal opinion is Serato is not as good as Traktor, I have worked with traktor a prefer the software more. It's just that space really is an issue now, and honestly I see everything going digital now. I want to get with the times, but if I find out that controllers are still not up to par with the response of a actual table I may just go that route, but to me I feel like a controller opens way more possibilities. |
| Lawana Spratlen 09.10.2011 | Why not just use 1 deck and get a small mixer - Vestax do nice narrow ones. |
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