Hercules DJ Console MKII Review
By Muxx - November 15th, 2009 - Reviews - View CommentsI picked up the Hercules DJ Console MKII a few summers ago to hold me over until I found a great deal on some proper Technics 1200’s. Within that time, I played around a lot with the DJ Console and found it to be a pretty interesting piece of hardware. For those that want to begin DJing now, the Hercules DJ Console MKII is a pretty inexpensive mp3 controller to get you started DJing without the major investment in a pair of turntables.
What is the Hercules DJ Console MKII
The DJ Console MKII, by Hercules, is an all-in-one mp3 controller which allows you to use the hardware and bundled software to mix your mp3s and begin DJing. Instead of using your mouse and keyboard to DJ on your computer, you’re able to use the DJ Console to replicate some of the feel of spinning the records.
Now, to be directly honest, the DJ Console has nothing on an actual pair of turntables, this is a completely different thing all together, but one of my initial reasons for buying it was so I could throw my laptop and the MKII into a backpack and go wherever I want, without having to lug around a huge DJ coffin with my Technics.
What makes the MKII so great is that all you have is the console, a quick instillation of Virtual DJ and connect it with a USB cable (no power cords!) , then you’re set. It literally takes about 5 minutes to set up and begin DJing.
So, let’s go ahead and look at some of the features of the Hercules DJ Console MKII.
The Overall Design
The MKII is about the size of a netbook and weighs about the same as well. The first thing you’ll notice is the two giant jog wheels, a few knobs, and a host of various buttons, which I will explain in a bit. On the front side is the connection for your headphones as well as port to use a microphone, the volume of these connections are also controlled here. Finally, flipping it around to the back is the audio input/outputs.
The Hercules DJ Console MKII allows you to hook up quite a few additional pieces of gear. It uses two 1/8’ mini jacks for something such as your computer speakers. Additionally, you can output sound in RCA as well as directly hook up a pair of turntables through the inputs. There is, of course, the USB and optional power port in the back as well.
The overall design is fairly sleek, it looks a bit cramped but for basic mixing it gets the job done. The newer models of the DJ Console’s are a bit more spaced out and streamlined but I’m not going to weight it against them. It can easily fit in a backpack for mobile DJing or any other time you get the urge to start mixing some tracks.
The Main MKII Interface
As mentioned before, the main thing you’ll notice when looking at the DJ Console MKII is the 2 jog wheels. These jog wheels act like the turntables. You’re able to rock the jog wheels back and forth to queue up a song, and then release them to start it up. Its fun to be able to control your mp3s in this fashion compared to just clicking play within Virtual DJ.
Overall, the jog wheels are the main feature of the MKII; however, because they are relatively small, you don’t have much room for your hands.
Of course what set of turntables would be complete with any sort of mixer. With the MKII, the mixer is built right into the controller. You’re able to control much of the same things you can with a traditional mixer including the levels, cross fader and additional effects.
Without a crossfader, you wouldn’t be mixing. The crossfader is placed between the two jog wheels and it does its job well. Mix the two songs back and forth using the crossfader or you could always use the volume controls to mix the two tracks.
Additionally, much like a mixer, you’re able to control the low (bass), mids and highs (treble). Without these, you wouldn’t be able to do a few tricks like dropping the bass or panning some of the sounds around. These knobs are exactly like you’d find on a mixer, not much to explain there.
There is also a mouse knob which you can use in place of a mouse to select your songs. Overall it’s not all that useful because if you’re using a computer, you’ll be using a mouse anyways. I’ve played around with it a bit but it just don’t compare to the accuracy and speed of a mouse.
Okay, to cover a few others things, there are also a various mix of other controls such as pitch bend which allows you to slow down and speed up a track. There are also the play and queue buttons which, like their name, allows you to start a track or queue it to a specific point. There are also a few buttons on here to do effects within Virtual DJ such as a stutter, remove the vocals and much more.
Now, here are the only three downsides to the MKII – the autobeat and beatlock buttons and the pitch knobs.
Like their names, the autobeat and beatlock is basically cheating, which doesn’t help at all in the long run. Say you’re queuing up the next song, of course you want to start it at the right point, but with the beatmatch button, even if you don’t start it right on point, and you can press it to automatically sync the two tracks.
Why is this such an issue for DJing? Well, to learn how to beatmatch and mix, you really need to be able to do this yourself, not let a program and buttons do it for you. If you use the beatlock button, you may as well just be playing songs through your iPod. My advice is to teach yourself never to touch these buttons; it will hurt you by abusing them in the long run because you’ll never really learn how to properly mix.
Also, with a regular set of turntables, you have a pitch slider to control the speed of the record. With the MKII, you’re stuck with knobs and although this isn’t the biggest trouble of the MKII, it’s often annoying trying to match the bpm of the two tracks using it because the changes in turning the knob are so minute and seem out of place.
With the autobeat, beatmatch and pitch knobs aside, the overall interface is very intuitive and easy to get used to within a few minutes. The ease of the MKII will allow you to start learning how to DJ immediately, but you should look towards upgrading your setup to a proper set of turntables.
Virtual DJ
Next up is the software that comes bundled with the Hercules DJ Console MKII- Virtual DJ. Although not nearly as powerful as other interfaces such as Traktor, the fact that it comes free with the MKII is a very nice feature.
Virtual DJ can be customized with various skins and effects to add a bit more options in comparison to DJing with vinyl alone. That’s not to say that you can’t learn most of these tricks with Vinyl but they’re fun to occasionally play around with without doing back flips to make it happen. Again, you should always try to learn these techniques using a proper set of turntables, but in the spirit of talking about mp3 controllers, we can let this one slide for now.
Anyway, Virtual DJ gives you a very easy to navigate interface. Displayed within the program are two turntables, a mixer, effect buttons and a browser to find your music. Queuing up a song is very simple as well, all you need to do is drag and drop the track onto the selected turntable and that’s it, it’s ready to be spun.
What’s great about the MKII is that when you use the controller, Virtual DJ also shows what you’re doing on screen. If you are tweaking a knob, the on screen knob also is turned – a nice little visual aspect of the two working together.
Without going into every minute detail about Virtual DJ, it’s a very decent software interface to use with the MKII. It only takes a few minutes to understand what each button and feature does, which will have you up and running in minutes.
In Conclusion
Overall, I rather enjoy my DJ Console MKII. I don’t take it too seriously but it does offer a lot of features and power to start learning how to DJ. It’s always nice to be able to plug it in and start spinning at your computer while you’re working on other things or if you want to be focused on it.
The design is sleek and intuitive – very easy to get a hold of and understand right out of the box. Virtual DJ is a great mix with the console, the combination of them compliments each other well as an entry level mp3 controller.
Additionally, the price of MKII has dropped considerably. You can now find them online for under $200 or cheaper depending on where you find them. It’s a decent price to get started if you don’t have room for turntables or can’t afford a high end set just yet.
I say, overall, they’re a fun piece to play with and worth the money I spent.
Overall: 7/10
Buy the Hercules DJ Console MKII
So, what do you think of the review? Add your own comments and review, tell me what you think.
Also, Subscribe to BeginnerDJ!
You may also like these posts...
-
Psychofrakulator
-
Muxxex
