I've been involved in the promotion and technical aspects of running a club night, and some of my best friends are DJ's. Still, I never got into collecting vinyl and the whole DJ thing very deeply, mainly because I wanted to spend my money on studio stuff related to production, not so much to DJ'ing.

But now that MP3's have gotten more and more accepted as a DJ medium, I've gotten interested in playing far more than before. Modern MP3 mixing tools offer far more flexibility to a DJ set than mere vinyl, or even CD decks. There is a difference in sound to playing in digital vs. analog, but that discussion is better left for another time. After weighing the options, I went and got myself the Hercules DJ Console RMX. It is very cheap compared to Serato with turntables, and still cheap compared to the popular Vestax VCI-300 for example. So it's a very low-end, low-budget model, but I chose it because I merely wanted to learn mixing properly and get some insight into what DJ'ing is at its core.

The console is basically a midi controller that has an audio interface built in, and it connects with a USB cable, which will also provide power for the unit. You have your 2 jogwheels, 2 sets of EQs, pitch controls, crossfader, channel faders, master etc. Just what you would expect in a basic DJ mixer. There are 2 stereo inputs in RCA format with a phono switch and ground connection for turntables, and 2 stereo outs, both having RCA and 1/4" plug option. For some reason the RCA outputs were very noisy and emitted a distinctive digital 'slush' to the signal, so I ended up using the 1/4" outputs in my setup. As a cherry on top, there's a 1/4" mic input available as well! All in all there's a huge amount of buttons and knobs that transmit midi data, so basically the unit can be used to control anything that can receive midi.  The DJ software that comes with the console is called 'Virtual DJ' - it seems a little limited and looks horrible, but I haven't used it apart from a mere test run, because I already own Traktor. The second pair of outputs carry the CUE signal, so you could in practice connect a booth output into those.

Hooking the unit up to Traktor was easy as well. Hercules provide a control template for Traktor on their website - setting up the buttons, knobs and faders one by one would be a huge chore because almost everything on the console just sends midi data - meaning that the unit only sends a midi message to the host software when you turn the eq knob or flip the crossfader, so it's not a proper mixer, and will not work as a standalone unit. The only controls that are built into the console itself are the headphone output level, the microphone level, and I think the buttons that switch the incoming signal between internal and the external inputs.

The console integrates to Traktor quite nicely. Of course not all the buttons correspond to similiar controls, simply because they are named differently in VirtualDJ, but the template I used provided a helpful diagram that I could print out and keep handy when learning to use the device. After a while of playing and mixing with the console I tried my hands on modifying the controls a bit to suit my own mixing style better, like easier cue point creating, looping, switching FX on/off etc. With the RMX console manual in hand it was easy - provided you already know how Traktor works and have a basic understanding of midi. One huge plus are the directional buttons built into the center of the unit that you can use to browse your track library in the DJ software. In Traktor the template has a faster up/down too when you press a button in the centre and scroll either one of the jogwheels. This is useful for quick navigating if you have a big library.

The closest I've been to what this unit feels like is when mixing with CDJ-100's. On the CDJ's the jogwheels are a bit larger and feel more natural, but this thing comes close to it. The jogwheel resistance is adjustable, but I haven't felt a need to change it. The pitch accuracy is 0.1% at the smallest pitch scale of Traktor, which is not very good when you try to beatmatch at +170 bpm. It will lead off beat very quickly and if you don't want to use Traktor's synchronization button, you will constantly have to make up for the pitch inaccuracy. Mind you, this is just as much my own inexperience as a DJ as it is the fault of the pitch. After all, even a CDJ-800 is supposedly on 0.05% pitch at best.

Apart from the pitch, the main problem this unit has is the sound quality. I had the piece hooked up a to a decent 'pub' soundsystem and played a slot before a guy who uses vinyl and CD's, and at least in the booth the difference in sound was audible. It's not bad, but somehow sounds justa little thin and even compressed. The unit is so cheap that I suspect Hercules must have cut corners somewhere and I believe it to be the audio interface - after all it only supports working at 16bits.  It is possible to use the piece just as a midi controller though, coupled with a 'real' audio interface, but I haven't explored that route yet. That would also defeat the purpose, since there are similiar units that only deliver the midi controller side, and they come cheaper than the RMX, plus you couldn't of course be able to use the inputs.

The sound aside, build quality is something that the RMX shines at. The case is a heavy and rugged with a good looking brushed metal surface, and although the faders and knobs are plastic and a little shoddy, they haven't failed me yet, and show no sign of wear and tear after 10 months of use. The buttons work like they should, and some of them can be lit up by sending midi messages back to the RMX. This is useful when mixing in the dark when you can see what's going on with some of the features with a single glance. All in all I wouldn't expect this thing to last 10 years in active use, but it can certainly take a lot of misuse. The size is big enough (pretty much like 2 small scale DJ mixers side by side) so that the controls aren't crowded - you'd have to have pretty massive digits to run into problems with the size. One problem with the size is of course desk/table estate. In DJ booths there is rarely any extra space available, and you also need a laptop with the unit, so finding space for the controller can be a problem. It does fit neatly on top of the cover of a Technics for example, and I've successfully (and very carefully) placed it on top of the club mixer as well.

I can get the latency down to 15ms without pops with the ASIO tool that comes with the driver (My computer is an Intel E8400 @ 3GHz). For serious scrathworking I doubt 15ms would be enough, but since real scratch connoisseurs work with vinyl anyway, that's not a big deal.

In conclusion I've been pretty happy with the unit considering the price I paid for it, and the phono inputs are useful in expanding the setup with proper turntables or even CD decks. In general these controller/interface machines are a real contender to Serato and the likes, because with those you need a laptop and an interface anyway. There are undoubtedly controllers with better 'feel' and a more accurate pitch, but in the end the Hercules RMX has a very competetive price, and definately delivers a lot of options for that money. For someone looking for a cost-effective way to get mixing it's ideal and the extra inputs make this a useful tool for anyone looking to incorporate a laptop into their turntable or CD deck setup.

STOP THE PRESS! Apparently I was a bit hasty in writing about the audio interface side: The machine works with 24bits as well but in that case you will lose the second input pair. I guess it is a restriction set by USB transfer speeds. This does affect the sound quality perhaps a bit, but it still has a peculiar quality to it.