If you are a great fan of DJ mix and want to become one, this article is for you. There are few things you need to know first:
- Controller or connector board USB?
You could either mix with a computer and thus a software or without any of those and use a connector board. If you decide to go with a computer, you will need a “controller” which obviously means that it controls the software on the other side, connector boards do not need controllers, they work “on their own”. Or like DJ Snake, you could have connector boards with MIDI functions, and it will act as a controller.
- How to choose?
You have different brands of controllers such as: Pioneer, Numark, Native Instruments, Roland which come with different software: Serato, Traktor or Rekordbox. So, as you can guess, the software is the most important part, this is what you have to get information about before buying anything. They more or less have the same functions, but we must say that Rekorbox, is the one that has the best advantage “Plug & Play” directly linked to a control set which allows you to come back and forth from the set to the software.
The price will of course differ from the different controllers, it will be between 100€ to 300€, for starters, according to the brand, the size and the use.
Pioneer, Denon ou Numark are the brands the most trustworthy and durable we know, thus we recommend you to go towards their products. Pioneer being the leader of the market.
- Our choice: Pioneer DDJ 400
This is the best price/quality choice. The controller is sold with the software (Rekorbox) and is about 250€ according to who you get it from. The screening is almost the same as professional ones, then by starting with Pioneer DDJ 400 you will be able to work on a traditional one.
However, this the product we recommend, the other brands are not to put aside, on the contrary such as Pioneer SB3 DDJ. You have to take into account the performance, and that a bad DJ can be bad on a professional platform. As a matter of fact, Zedd played several years on a controller before getting himself a connector board.
We hope this article will have helped, and don’t forget that Kygo launched his mixing masterclass, which could be a plus for you.