Steve Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 It arrived. I haven't set it up yet (I'm gonna do it tomorrow), but it's better built than I expected it to be. The crossfader feels great, but the line faders are far too stiff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 you gheys really need to man up about the upfaders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 Perhaps you like getting your hands on a stiff one, but I don't. Fnar! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 i tried them on sunday, they were alot less stiff (tee hee) than i thought they'd be.like you can move them up and down quick for a juggle routine or something, probly cant cut with them, but hey ho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubba Dutchdj Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 I haven't set it up yet (I'm gonna do it tomorrow) Hang on there a second, you've gotta new mixer and you can wait 24 hours before you can play with it? madness! Being a self confessed Traktor bum bandit, I should own one already, if I was regularly playing out it would be a no brainer, but I'm not.So for now the Z2 aint for me, I'd loose one to many features from my current setup. Fx on real vinyl and post fade sampling are my top two reasons for preferring Traktor over SSL, once these features are added to Traktors internal mixing mode I may cave in. But ultimately once Traktor and Maschine merge there will probably be some killer feature that you can only get at via a Traktor mixer, then I'll definitely cave in. The metal lump-ness of the thing gives off a good feel but for me jury's still out on the build quality side of things, it's to cheap to think otherwise, can't expect to much for 630. But that all said, in terms of layout and well spaced out powerful features it's pretty untouchable, it's a joy to get bizzy with, everything is very accessible and well thought out, it would be pretty easy to do a banging set with just one deck and a Z2. I'd be interested to know what the feel of the different pot indents are like on your Z2 Steve? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 I've had a stressful couple of days with very little sleep man. I wasn't in the mood for setting it up. But things are all good now though, so I'll be sorting it out tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 My up faders did loosen a bit with use... enough to make you think perhaps I could do simple cuts with them - but then you try and realise you were kidding yourself. It's so frustrating because the mini-innofaders really are surprisingly good little faders and if it wasn't for this stiffness, they'd be perfect for me and would probably outlast the rest of the mixer. Your right Paul about not being able to expect too much these days for 630 - it's crazy because it's the most expensive mixer I've ever bought, but when the Traktor A10 package costs 475, how much mixer are they really gonna give you for the extra 155 quid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 If it's any consolation the upfaders on the 62 have a shit curve at tightest setting, you can't do clean upfader transforms without reversing the fader and having zero curve on it. I'm hoping they can change this with an update though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubba Dutchdj Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 but when the Traktor A10 package costs 475, how much mixer are they really gonna give you for the extra 155 quid? When ya put it like that.......Jesus! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 Is it true that the Rane 62 has plastic pots as well? That's what some guy on another site is saying (who claims to own both mixers). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Some genius on the Z2 section of the NI forums has noticed the chief major flaw with this mixer which have all missed so far... He keeps hitting the traktor mode button by accident when he's scratching on the line/phono switches! Nobody's had the heart to point out the cross fader which appears lower down on the very same same mixer yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubba Dutchdj Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 (edited) I've also read that the 62 has plastic pots but thought the plastic could just be an extender kinda like whats on the very 1st TTM 56 He keeps hitting the traktor mode button by accident when he's scratching on the line/phono switches! That man is a legend Edited November 10, 2012 by Dubba Dutchdj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 I've got mine set up now. I love it! I completely uninstalled Traktor and all left over files/folders and did a fresh installation. I'm getting way better performance out of this thing than I got out of my Traktor Audio 6. I'm able to use these settings with no glitches or drop-outs: - CPU load is at about a third with those settings. If I use the same buffer settings I was using with the Audio 6, the CPU load meter barely even moves. Ignoring the things I knew about before purchasing it (lack of curve on the lines, plastic pots and what have you), here's my pros and cons: - Positives: - The build quality is really good, especially considering the priceIt's an all-in-one mixer, sound card and controller solution that saves you money and spaceIt's dead easy to switch between time code and real vinyl just by pushing a button on the mixerTraktor runs better with this than it did when I had a Traktor Audio 6 packageThe crossfader is great - light, smooth and quiet and the cut in is just fine for me (and I like a sharp cut in)The Traktor controls on the mixer are great - I can control pretty much everything direct from the mixer now Negatives: - Stiff line faders - they suck! And I'd say there's 2 negatives of the Traktor software too: - Scratching with key lock on is still poor and sounds "digital"It does a crap job of BPMing and gridding music unless you're spinning "umm.....tss.....umm.....tss.....umm.....tss....." EDM Overall though, as of now it's a big 2 thumbs up from me! As long as it keeps functioning as it is now, then I'm extremely pleased with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 makes that pioneer attempt look pretty shite eh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Glad you like it Steve! I've been using mine a bit more now with traktor and I have to agree with your sentiment... I too love it. Everything is so well spaced/laid out, giving me just enough controls straight to hand - as I said before, it's made traktor a much friendlier place. A lot of what I'm really loving is all the mundane stuff, particularly as if never had any kind of DVS mixer before... The track browsing/loading/duplicating, dedicated hardware FX controls, the USB hub, the traktor/vinyl switch, the shift + loop encoder for scanning through tracks, those hot cue buttons, no more wires to contend with, etc. Ultimately hardware made to work with dedicated software is just the approach I prefer - it was just the same for me when maschine came out. Also, it's worth remembering that in traktor mode the Z2 is just controller - which apart from hurting my tiny mind just thinking about it, means that it will be very easy for NI to keep upgrading and improving things. To compare it again to maschine - when I bought maschine on version 1.0 it was amazing for what it could do but was missing many major features, then over the last three years everything it was missing and more features i never would have even hoped it would have, were rolled out via free updates. Like you, I'm perfectly happy with what I've got now... but something tells me there is more to come too. Can't help with the pitch lock scratching or gridding, I'm afraid... But for many years I would have said the same about post fader FX in internal mode, so let's hope! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacken Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 DId someone compare innofader mini with regular inno? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 i have an innofader in my 06. i'd say the mini one feels just as good, the x-fader one anyway. having said that, you can make the normal one even looser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 I've got an Innofader Pro here, although I haven't connected it to a mixer so I can't compare lag/cut in. In terms of tension, the mini Innofader is as loose as the Pro version on its loosest setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 well there you go then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 I have a couple of n00b questions about this mixer that you can maybe help me with, Rock Well: - 1. You can set cue points just by tapping a pad as the track is playing, but how do you clear a cue point via the mixer itself? 2. When you're using the post-fader echo effect, how do you set the frequency of the echo? When I borrowed a 909, you could tap in time with the beat to sync up the echo, so I assume you can do that with this, but which button do you tap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Shift + the cue button you want to clear. Shift plus the bank button will give you acces to the other 4 cues for that track, the bank button will pulse to let you know it's on cues 5-8 instead of 1-4 aswell. The delay is set to the master tempo by default and the time divisions 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc are on the FX rotary that is not the wet/dry. There is a tap tempo (via shift + flux button, I think), but straight out the box the two flux buttons were just changing the time of each individual deck for me. Pretty much every way of working seems to be in there somewhere but I'm no traktor expert and I'm still just fumbling my way around the mixer at the minute. Paul is the man for traktor knowledge though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 Cheers man. That's answered my questions. The echo was off most of the time because I haven't bothered correcting the grids on most of my tracks, as I've never needed to use them for anything before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 With grids, in my limited experience, I've found the one thing that confuses auto-gridding most is when it doesn't know where the first down beat of the track is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 yeah for real, the absolute most important thing about gridding is getting the first downbeat right. gridding is one of those things that you don't really use if you're a dvs user because we do everything the classic way by ear, but when you start adding effects and certain quantised things like beat jumps into the mix it suddenly becomes important even if you're still mixing manually. Generally I think there's a lot of setup that as hip hop DJs we've ignored, and it's worth doing some prep of things like your tracks' beat grids, your effect lists, and so on. This is the first mixer I've ever used that feels like it's truly operating in tandem with the software though, negating the need to set up things like cue point buttons, effects knobs, etc, in an ergonomic way. Only a matter of time before embedded software in the mixer now (a DIY project I'd love to tackle) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 This is the first mixer I've ever used that feels like it's truly operating in tandem with the software though, negating the need to set up things like cue point buttons, effects knobs, etc, in an ergonomic way. Totally agree. Finally I'm getting the kind of experience from DVS that I've always wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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