Hercules USB DJ Console Reviewed

SpinnerBait writes "Professional DJs and House-Party Beat Masters alike, will certainly be interested in a new product that the folks at Hercules Audio are bringing to market shortly. Although you may remember Hercules for being one of the first in PC Graphics, HotHardware has a review and showcase up that takes a look at the new Hercules USB DJ Console. This little deck comes with dual mixing pads, for blending and scratching of your favorite MP3s etc. It also takes over as your main PC sound system, with full Dolby 5.1 capabilities, when plugged into any PC via USB."

Comments

Yeah right

[O]

So you're trying to tell me that professional DJs are going to ditch their pair of 1200s and huge collection of vinyl for some shitty little piece of plastic with a USB connector on it?

Sure thing.

Re:Yeah right

[Steve Cowan]

Nope. The real DJs will use Final Scratch.

(If you don't know about it, seriously check it out -- it works very, very well)

Re:Yeah right

[drinkypoo]

New technology doesn't have to replace old technology. We still use steam power today, the heat's just usually not generated by wood fire (still plenty of coal though, sadly.) The invention of the plane didn't replace the automobile. And this thing isn't intended to replace vinyl, just to make it easier to use the digital audio files that people are already using.

DJs are going to augment their pair of 1200s and huge collection of vinyl with some shitty little piece of plastic with a USB connector on it. With an investment in some firewire drives and a mid-grade laptop, they can multiply their music collection many times for free by downloading from USENET. Sure it's illegal, but why am I even mentioning that? Just to prove I'm not a total jackass probably. You think the average DJ gives a shake if it's not a legal method of getting music? They will then have a searchable archive of music that they could not possibly give one fuck about, but which will sometimes make other people happy, which is part of the job, and they will have a decent interface to go with it. It also provides 24 bit audio, which for any purpose involving computers is nice; It's connected via USB, so much of the noise inherent in building your sound output hardware into a laptop which does not have much room for filtering hardware will be removed, and it also provides a 5.1 output so if you are lucky enough to have digital inputs into the sound system where you're playing, you can use them. It's got both coax and optical digital input and output, too, which is just nice to have around. It also has RCAs and a mini-plug; you can plug in basically anywhere with this without even bringing cables.

(I admit that it might be nice to have quarter inch jacks, with one stereo and one mono (usable as two mono, but I think it's reasonable to pigtail for that. Certainly if I were building a serious professional device I would want those outputs, and to put this thing in a better package. I would consider offering it in a rackmount, so you can put it and a PC in one of those boxes where a device goes in the top of it and can be tilted up.)

Increasing numbers of DJs are including a computer of some sort in their sound system so that they can use it to play loops, and to play compressed audio files, which need not be lossy, and in any event which need not be as lossy as an mp3 to have useful levels of compression... and as a sampler.

This device apparently provides some decent audio with an intuitive interface for control of the music, namely, the turntables. At $250 it might remain a toy for a few and fade from existence, but if they drop the price a bit I suspect they'll sell a bunch of them. (Also, the toy factor will probably sell a bunch of them to geeks and kids with too much money who visit their local supermarket of electronics, such as fry's.)

Re:Yeah right

[ewwhite]

Final Scratch or a Denon or Pioneer DJ-oriented CD deck would be much better additions to a traditional setup than this toy. Again, this particular product is an example of how corporations are capitalizing on the popularity of DJ culture. It's a shame because it's flooding the market with less-talented, less-experienced DJs.....

The real stuff....

Re:Yeah right

[dr.badass]

Professional DJs don't buy music.
Never have.
They get promos from Record Pools.

Shitty DJs don't buy music. If you're only playing promos, you're a fucking tool.

Nope

[msgmonkey]

They are n't going to do that, but a hell of a lot of DJ Wannabes' would and that's a much larger market than professional DJ's.

Re:Not bad... but will it multitrack?

[Steve Cowan]

Well you'd think that 6 channels at 24 bit sounds good for under $250, but think about it -- a cheezy old SoundBlaster and a previous-generation multi-thousand dollar Apogee or ProTools rig are all based on 16-bit technology... but merely because this is so does not mean they will sound the same.

You get what you pay for. Be very careful when trying to define sound quality with bits and sampling rates alone. There are a lot more variables than that when it comes to digital audio hardware, many of them purely subjective.

Huh ?

[phoxix]

When did americans become obsessed with this idea that a DJ's sole job is to scratch records ? No wonder our DJ's are pretty much crap.

Most of the big name DJ's I've seen rarely if ever bother to scratch. These DJ's are not concerned with such, instead they are concerned with creating a smooth flowing stream of music by engaging in the arts such as beat mixing, volume matching, etc.

I suggest looking on kazaa/usenet/etc for videos of any of the following DJ's in action, and one will easily see they are nothing like the american stereotype DJ. (Paul Oakenfold, Sasha, Timo Mass, Paul Van Dyk, etc)

Sunny Dubey

PS: I'm not saying all american DJ's are crap. We've got some good ones like Sandra Collins, Mark Farina, Danny Tenaglia, and such.

Re:Missing an important feature

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets see... just becuase a cool peice of hardware don't run on linux we should ignore it?

Sounds like a smart move to me...

Any DJs actually comment yet?

[patrick24601]

I am curious... anybody that has said "90% of all DJs" and "No DJ will..". How many of you are actually paid worknig mobile disc jockeys? I am. The group I work has 6 shows. And all 6 of them are CD ONLY - No Vinyl. Every DJ I know went to CD and got away from Vinyl as soon as possible. The weight alone is the major benefit, not to mention countless others. Scratching? I don't know of any PAID DJ that still does it, and I have never had a client that said "please scratch" at any paying gig. I am sure that there are some parties that might want it. But not from a mainstream mobile disc jockey show. FYI... I am the first DJ in our group to take the entire CD setup and RIP it to MP3. I am now experimenting with PC DJ and DSS to see how good I can get beat mixing with MP3s only. I have found I can do it with just a basic PC and soundcard, and the sound quality is great. Remember: Most paying clients don't want scratching or the highest quality sounds. They want their requests to be played and the DJ to show up on time and keep the crowd entertained. Most of them don't even care if you beat mix or not.