Thinking in Beats
I’ve recently invested in the Cortex dmix-600. The unit comes with 2 decks and a mixer in the middle. You pretty much just need speakers and a set of headphones and you are good. Absolutely perfect for house parties or just sitting on the bed and mixing at home. I’ve been watching the Numark Idj2 for quite a while now and when i finally made up my mind to get it, I just had to come across this. The Idj2 looks like a toy when you look at it side by side with the dmix-600 and with the lack of features, Cortex seems like a safer bet.
Been playing around with it for about a week now and I must say, it does a decent job, but there are lots of areas which can and should be improved. To get the most out of your mixer, a lot of time is spent organizing your music (it took me 2 days to get the basics done). I was a little disappointed at the fact the unit is not as user friendly as I hoped. Was expecting it to be more Plug and Play, where a buddy can pass you his iPod and you can start mixing his requests on the fly. I think you can, if he doesn’t have much songs on him, but with my 4000+ tracks on me, I had to sieve through the whole list. Making it impossible to find my track before the Live track ends.
The idea method is to use the database manager (you can download it from their website) they provide so that the system can read the ID3 tags of the mp3s. I had to brave the buggy and frequently crashing software (maybe its more stable for the PC, I’m using a mac) as its the only way the unit can read my player properly. Also, it doesn’t calculate BPM automatically and it has to be added to the ID3 tag before you can pitch using the BPM. In my opinion, it feels more like a digital media mixer which also plays the iPod rather than an iPod mixer which also plays other digital media
Other than that, it feels really solid. From the build to the knobs and sliders, the whole package feels really tight. Everything is where they should be. Anyone who is familiar with CDJs should be able to get on it and start mixing. Although it may seem like a bandwagon product, aimed at anyone with iPods who just want to be DJs, I think its a really good starting platform for anyone who is really into music and just want to enjoy mixing at home. With a price point of about S$1200 for 2 decks and a mixer, there is really nothing to lose.
