Hercules DJ Control MP3

This little piece of kit really surprised me. I happened to have sixty pounds of argos vouchers to spend last year and while in the shop i made an impulse buy resulting in me owning the the hercules. the vouchers where burning a whole in my pocket and if i had thought about it longer i probably would'nt have bought it

The unit itself is one piece with only one connection ( usb). it is absoloutley tiny for the features included such as ...
..."low, mid and high" rotary knobs, the channel faders, the volume rotary's ( per channel) and you also have 3 different live looping options ( you can loop certain parts of songs on the fly while the music is playing and keeping in time) the buttons used for looping can also be used to add other effects when used under the other function.

the system is supplied with the virtual dj software which basicaly works like your top ... more

This little piece of kit really surprised me. I happened to have sixty pounds of argos vouchers to spend last year and while in the shop i made an impulse buy resulting in me owning the the hercules. the vouchers where burning a whole in my pocket and if i had thought about it longer i probably would'nt have bought it

The unit itself is one piece with only one connection ( usb). it is absoloutley tiny for the features included such as , 2 jog wheels ( play it like turntables) the "low, mid and high" rotary knobs, the channel faders, the volume rotary's ( per channel) and you also have 3 different live looping options ( you can loop certain parts of songs on the fly while the music is playing and keeping in time) the buttons used for looping can also be used to add other effects when used under the other function.

the system is supplied with the virtual dj software which basicaly works like your top end mp3 mixing softwares such as final scratch by stanton. on screen you see two turntables where you can load up a song on each, there is a virtual mixer on screen allowing you to fade between tracks like the real thing, the software can be used on its own and when you hook up the unit you get a more realistic hands on dj feel. The company claim that it can be used to perform mixing and scratching like the real thing but i personally found the jog wheels being very small and hard to keep track of what your doing and also the cross fader being very close in proximity means you are likely to knock it as you move the wheels making tight cuts very difficult although i found there to be little or no latency between the movement of the wheel and the representation of that in sound from the speakers.

although the unit itself has a built in bpm counter and will auto mix to the best of its ability its not great and it is not a good idea to rely on this feature, you will obviously need to learn to match the beats yourself otherwise your just playing songs and not djing.

matching the beats presents a slight problem, theres no headphone jack.. meaning you cannot preview or cue up your next record so you have no way of knowing its on time for sure. therefore its recommended you invest in a "muse pocket Lt" This is very small and portable external usb sound card allowing you to playback through speakers and preview the next track .

Comparing this with professional dj equipment is unfair because theres no way it can stand up, but if your looking for a way into deejaying this may be the option for you, its literaly plug and play after the install all you need is the unit itself the sound card and whatever mp3's u fancy getting down with. its small enough to keep in a cupboard when not in use and it also sits nicely in front of your monitor when you do decide to play. This was mainly bought spur of the moment after i had got rid of turntables to make room. Since buying a new set of turntables this was gathering dust in the cupboard but i have since found out this can be used as a midi controller within music production software. assigning the faders and knobs to particular controls gives you a hands on feel when producing music aswell, but i wouldn't buy this for that purpose only but its good to know if you already own one.

the unit itself online will cost between thirty five and sixty pounds
the muse pocket lt external sound card is advertised on play.com at twenty seven pounds ( although i am pretty sure i paid 15 pounds at a maplan store in glasgow)

as always if your interested in this product shop around and dont jump at the first one you see.

all in all i would say this is a great cheap entry level tool giving a not unrealistic deejay experience 

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