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Hercules DJ Control MP3 e2

  

from: Hercules

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Batteries Included: 1
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Hercules DJ
EAN: 0663296414823
Feature: Mix 2 music tracks with DJ Control MP3 e2's controls: 2 jog wheels to navigate within tracks; cross fader and 2 volume faders to mix 2 tracks
Item Dimensions: 165419888881299
Label: Hercules
Manufacturer: Hercules
Model: 4780583
MPN: 4780583
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Hercules
Release Date: November 01, 2009
Special Features: Digital mixing for everyone! Lighter and smaller than a laptop and USB powered, No extra power supply needed. Mix 2 music tracks with Hercules' DJ Control MP3 e2's easy controls. Perfect for mobile use.
Studio: Hercules

Features:
  • Mix 2 music tracks with DJ Control MP3 e2's controls: 2 jog wheels to navigate within tracks; cross fader and 2 volume faders to mix 2 tracks

More Information about Hercules DJ Control MP3 e2



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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Digital mixing for everyone! Lighter and smaller than a laptop and USB powered; No extra power supply needed. Mix 2 music tracks with Hercules' DJ Control MP3 e2's easy controls. Perfect for mobile use.2 decks to mix 2 music tracksMix 2 mu...



Customer Reviews Hercules DJ Control MP3 e2

Average Rating:  out of 5 stars

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Perfect if you're on a tight budget, otherwise get the Hercules Steel instead
NOTE: When reading this review, keep in mind I didn't install the bundled software (Virtual DJ 3 Limited), instead I opted to go with Virtual DJ 6 Pro. It worked right out of the box without any configuration.

== Pros ==
* High-quality faders. Volume faders are solid and don't budge unless you intended them to. Crossfader moves freely, which would've been perfect for scratching if it weren't for one fatal flaw (more on that later).

* Nice, intuitive layout. Everything is where you would expect it to be, and does (mostly) what you'd expect it to. That alone is the most important thing, and Hercules delivers.

* Working 64-bit drivers for Windows 7 were actually on the bundled CD (yeah, they were out-of-date, but that's besides the point)! This has got to be the first piece of PC hardware I've ever owned that actually had working drivers on the CD. I applaud Hercules for doing what everybody else should've been doing to begin with!

== Cons ==
* Jog wheels use the same kind of that optical shutter tracking that the scroll wheel on your mouse uses. Therefore, while it's fairly accurate, it's not going to feel as good as an actual turntable or high-quality Denon/Pioneer/etc. unit. Turning down the jog sensitivity from within Virtual DJ helps with accuracy.

* Approximately after two weeks of ownership, the Pitch knob for Deck B simply stopped functioning. Thank God for Amazon's great exchange policy!

* Speaking of the Pitch knobs: the knob moves in clicks (0.5% steps if you set the pitch range to ±25%, 1% steps with it at ±50%, etc.), which is fine for changing the tempo, but makes perfect beat-matching almost impossible. This is fine since VDJ does the beat-matching for you, but if you plan on using other software, keep this in mind.

* The unit itself is downright sexy from a few feet away, but get up close and you'll see that it's ALL plastic. It looks like something I'd expect to see bundled with a Guitar Hero/Rock Band sequel. I'm always very careful with the unit because it looks like a single four-foot drop would kill it. For the price I was expecting this anyway.

* The EQ knobs for mid-range "jump" when near the the lower part of the knob (nearing the "-" part), which means I can't make my own breakdowns. I think part of the reason was because my unit was defective to begin with (broken pitch knob), so we'll see if my replacement unit doesn't have the same issue.

== Other Thoughts ==
* When in scratch mode, there is about a quarter second gap in the audio when you let go of the jog wheel. However, this appears to be a limitation of the VDJ software, and not a problem with the controller itself, so I can't dock it there (this is the "one fatal flaw" I was talking about earlier).

* Not enough buttons! Thankfully this was easily fixed by remapping some less-than-useful buttons to more functional things. Pitch bend becomes key change, REW/FF are now Hot Cue 2&3, Automix turns into the Hamster switch, etc. Unfortunately I mapped things in a way that I can no longer pick songs without a mouse, but it works for me so whatever. Note that if you use the bundled software then you're stuck with the default mappings.

* The lights on it are orange, not red like in the picture. Also unlike the picture, they only light up when the button is active, not all at once.

* Using my sound card's own ASIO drivers I was able to get latency down to 8ms, even with CPU-eating features enabled, such as Advanced Master Tempo (highly recommended that you enable this option & using the highest complexity/spatialization settings your PC can handle, otherwise music will sound "robotic" when you adjust the BPM). You should try to avoid using latency higher than 20ms for accurate mixing/scratching.

== My Specs ==
* Core 2 Duo @ 3.6GHz
* 4GB DDR2 RAM
* 1GB ATI HD 5770
* ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Sound card
* Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

Having a low-spec machine is ok, but expect it to take at least 10-20 seconds for a song to "load" when you drag it onto a deck (on my PC it takes about 3 seconds). For highest sound-quality (which my PC can't even do) and the smoothest experience, I would suggest a fairly modern CPU. Think Core i5/i7.

== Conclusion ==
I've only been DJing for six months now as a hobby and the occasional family party, and for the price this product has everything I need. Recommended for casual and bedroom DJs, but full-time pros will want to look for something more solid.

Bottom line is that I love my MP3 e2 to death for what it is, however, if I had the extra $100, I probably would've gone with the Hercules DJ Console Steel instead. It looks a lot less fragile.



Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Decent module for beginner/intermediate DJs
The EQ settings are nice and so are the jog/scratchwheels. One thing I did not find out until I opened the box is that there are no motors in the jogwheels. The loop and Fx functions add some variation but they could do with a little more customization. Unless you have no idea on how to DJ I would definitely recommend not buying this and instead look towards a more authentic set up such as a Vestax, Pioneer or Numark. I like the portability factor and the fact that it fits in a backpack or suitcase perfectly. This is good for freelance DJs traveling light, and although it needs a laptop or desktop to run, it can make any music software that much more synchronized and easy to control. However, I would recommend purchasing the software first, as the CD contained in the box is only a trial/ basic version. Thanks for reading! Good luck DJs!!



Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - good
i like it. help u a lot to mix! but you can not use the dj sofware with out the dj control.. but is a good price



Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Not a toy but not good either
First I want to say that I'm no Pro DJ and if I were a Pro I'd go with something else, I'm a beginner but I know some things about DJing.

Why am I saying this?
Because some other reviews say that it's great for beginners , not really maybe only to play around and learn some stuff. When it comes to mixing it just fails. First and main problem that I encountered is that when you have a track playing on Deck A and try to load new track to Deck B to monitor with your headphones it stops the playback or it just switches to new track!!! Now if you have two tracks already loaded on both Decks it works fine but let's say you feel like you want to try to browse through other tracks, you can't do it. Another problem is recording while it has that option the recording comes out just an empty track. Just hiss. Another downside there is not sound card on this thing so you have to buy additional sound card to monitor with your headphones. All of this ( except sound card problem) may be caused by poor software. But if you want to use more advanced software you have to buy it and for that extra money you just might as well buy more advanced unit and get that software in addition.

Built quality is pretty good and solid. Knobs have nice feel to it, Jog wheels are good also. Although scratching maybe a bit not comfortable due to small size of Wheels. Has a very low latency.

All in all it's not bad unit, but not a great one too. I'd scale it 7 out of 10. Gave it 3 stars because of Poor software not the unit itself ! Instead of paying extra $100 I better of buy myself something higher end than this that comes already with good software ! But If you already have Pro software this is ok but If you don't have it I wouldn't recommend it !




Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Great for Amateur/Mid Experienced DJs
i got this and bought a usb sound card for monitoring my tracks, i was very suprised with the features of this little controller i recommend it for anyone who wants to give MIDI Controlling a spin, i'm using it with Traktor Pro 1.2.4 and it's flawless. Excellent product from Hercules



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