Browsing articles from "June, 2011"

Numark DJ2GO Review

Jun 22, 2011 // by DJ Meltdown // Blog, DJ Gear // No Comments

Nine years ago I moved from being a complete vinyl DJ to taking somewhat of a digital leap and moved to Stanton’s Final Scratch. It was far from perfect, it took me 6 months to get it up and running to a point where I could count on it for a gig, it ran Linux, and still required you to lug around turntables to gigs. More importantly, what it meant for me, was that I didn’t have to carry crates of vinyl anymore.

Fast forward 7 years and I decided that while Final Scratch seemed to meet a bit of my needs, i still hated carrying turntables, buying needles & control vinyl every so often…I needed a better solution and technology was finally (rapidly) catching up. I needed a solution that kept the traditional vinyl feel as I never learned to DJ with CDJ’s (nor did i like the feel), i tried the Stanton SCS.3D and we all know how that went, so I purchased the Numark NS7. While i got rid of having to buy control vinyl & needles, I would soon find out that the NS7 still had one little flaw, it doesn’t travel well due to it’s weight. With a flight case the NS7 clocks in at about 75lbs, making air travel with it quite pricey. I needed a small, lightweight, compact solution that I could travel with, enter the Numark DJ2GO.

I recently found myself traveling and asked to do a couple gigs when I didn’t have any equipment on me except for an Akai LPD8. I busted out Traktor and tried every which way to map the minimum controls I needed to the LPD8, but it just didnt feel natural or right, and there were too many “mode” buttons to push to get to the controls I needed (similar to the problem with the SCS.3D). I ventured online to look at other small Midi controllers, still fearful of things that didnt have a full vinyl control platter. The faderfox series of controllers looked great, were small, and had great reviews, but were a bit more than I wanted to spend for a secondary travel controller considering they don’t have a built in sound card. I then looked at the Hercules DJ Console Mk4, a backpack size Midi controller that comes with a built in soundcard, and a cover for travel, all for a low price of $169. I then found the Numark DJ2GO, a small essentials only controller with the same profile & footprint of my Akai LPD8 (in face, they’re so similar, i wouldn’t be suprised if Akai was in on the engineering). For only $50 at Guitar Center, I figured I didn’t have anything to lose. Along with the LPD8 I would have my transport controls, and either Looping & EQ or FX Controls.

The controller was remarkably easy to setup and I had it mapped to Traktor in less than 15 minutes. There are still some controls that escape me, such as navigating back & forth between playlists and other navigation issues, this is probably due to my lack of experience with Traktor, not anything with the controller. I was able to pop the controller into my backpack with my laptop and easily take public transportation to all 3 of my gigs this past weekend.

Everything works just as you would expect, the transport controls are smooth, the jog wheel isn’t touch sensitive, but it gets the job done for setting cue points and pitch bending ( you can also use the built in pitch bend buttons). I haven’t tried to scratch with them yet, but if you’re intent on scratching i’d say this controller isn’t for you. Everything else works as labeled, from volume faders to pitch bend controls, to headphone assigments. The only thing that I can remotely complain about is that I wish the tempo faders were a bit longer (seems a bit tough to dial in the correct BPM).

Now I hear alot of people on the boards and review sites snickering at this unit because of it’s simplicity and price. They call it “entry level”, “a toy”, “fisher price DJ gear”. Call it what you will, but the Numark DJ2GO is rather handy, solidly manufactured (well, at least as solid as the Akai LPD8), and easy to use & setup. Midi controllers are just buttons & faders, so the difference in midi controllers is really personal preference, some buttons are more expensive than others. The Numark DJ2GO fit my needs and my budget, I see no reason to go out and drop $1000 on a Traktor Kontrol S4, while it’s a nice piece of equipment, it was overkill for what I needed.

Overall, kudos to Numark for filling a niche in the controller market, portability, affordability & reliability are probably the top 3 things any DJ looks for in a controller and the DJ2GO nails it.

I have forgone my version of the .tsi in favor of the official Numark TSI which you can download here