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

Not bad... but will it multitrack?

[tinrobot]

A six channel, 24 bit USB audio interface for under $250 is not bad at all... Forget the pads, it might actually make a nice audio interface for home musicians. I wonder how well it works with the popular multitrack software such as Cakewalk, Cubase, etc...

Not even close

[nystul555]

This isn't even close to being what a DJ (pro or amature) would want. It's really more of a toy. Only now are we seeing CD tables - like the Pioneer DJM-1000 that are high enough quality to be considered worthy of using. 90% of DJs are still into vinyl. And before anyone says anything about how they are living in the past or whatever - there are several reasons for that. You still have greater control over vinyl - you can touch it and move it exactly how you want, other systems have to simulate that. Also, ALMOST ALL GOOD DANCE MUSIC COMES OUT ON VINYL ONLY!! Go to www.dancerecords.com or www.satelliterecords.com, and see exactly how many tracks are available on anything other than vinyl. Yeah, if you are spinning Top 40 right off the cd you got at BestBuy, or in this case the MP3 you downloaded from iTunes or wherever, and you aren't trying to do anything advanced, then maybe something like this could be a fun diversion. But if you are trying to mix interesting, unique music you are still going to use vinyl. But again, this just doesnt have anywhere NEAR the functionality that a DJ would want. They would be better off to buy two cheap tables and a cheap mixer off of ebay than to try to use this thing. And yes, even amatures usually have 2 1200s and a stack of vinyl.

Not to sound stupid, but

[Gregoyle]

They don't do Mac?!?!?

They really aren't going to be taken seriously in the DJ world until the release a product that is compatible with Macintosh laptops. I don't know a single DJ who uses a laptop running anything besides MacOS.

I know Mac OS X has trouble with 5.1 sound, but I would think you could get it without too much work by bypassing the normal soundcard. Hell, if it worked well enough DJs would use it instead of their soundcard for digital output. Plus if they had a Mac version they could do away with USB and the audio compression that is necessary to use that transfer method and go straight to firewire.

Latency? WTF?

[Awptimus Prime]

"To keep things honest, and unbiased, the DJ Console does have one minor flaw, there is a bit of latency between button push, and software response. Though, this is somewhat expected due to the Consoles USB 1.1 connection to the computer. The resident HH DJ (yours truly), was having a few issues timing his beat matching/scratch/etc due to being accustom to the instantaneous response of actual DJ Equipment and traditional turn-table. All in all, we did learn to compensate for the delay in response and we were back to having fun with the equipment in short time. One question can only be raised here however, as to why a USB 2.0 interface was not implemented during the design process of this console.

Heh, a musical instrument with a latency issue. Oh yes, sure, Pros are going to stock up on these things. Not bloody likely.

Anyway, how's this news? There's like a hundred gimmicy little audio things you can hook up to your PC. Is tomorrow's headline going to be about one of those electronic midi guitars with the plastic strings? I can see the headline now "Yamaha introduces new electronic guitar, Jimmy Page surrenders".. Wait a sec, that's a Fark headline! It's a trap! NSFW!

USB 1.1 on that thing reduces it from a toy to trash, IMO.

"Boo" to the guy who wrote the article, as well. There were no performance benchmarks to demonstrate whether the card impacts frame rates when compared to other audio solutions. That's what I looked at when I bought my last card, I didn't want to go to the trouble of over-clocking my system just to have the wrong accessories eat up whatever FPS gains I picked up.

Final thought on this review:

Moving on to the next series of tests we listened to a various mixture of high bitrate Mp3's ( > 192kps) and audio CD's that spanned various spectrums of musical styles. Initial we tossed in Crystal Method's Tweekend CD due to its great sound range.

WTF? Crystal Method's music has no sound staging or real depth to it. It's just a bunch of clicks and whistles for the raver kids. How about getting out something with real instruments and natural sounds next time, foo. Samples of resampled bits of music with a punchy bass sound ain't depth unless you are 14 and dream about having a car with a big stereo so you can be like the guys in The Fast and the Furious.. And get that glowstick pacifier thingy out of your mouth, dumbass.

Peace out

Re:Yeah right

[kidlinux]

Wtf makes you think a DJ using Technics is the target audience? Obviously no one is gonna bail on their 1200s, but this might be an interesting toy for a skilled DJ. I remember hearing a story from my buddy about a DJ who was mixin up a storm with a fisher price record player and some 45s. Like anything else, it's all about what you can do with a given tool.

Anyway, I think they're targeting somone like myself, who's very interested in mixing, but has neither the time nor the money to get a full blown system and stacks of vinyl.

This product looks very interesting, and I have some friends who I know would be interested in it too, for the same reasons I am. That is, money, time, and skill level (which doesn't warrant a set of Technics.)

I think it's pretty cool, because my buddies and I could mix some mp3s on our computers, and share 'em with each other. Sounds like a lot of fun to me, and the price is right.

stupid stupid stupid and silly too

[seabasstin]

Maybe it's just me but; isn't this product all wrong.

Problem #1 PC only.
At a time when Mac OSX and Linux have some of the lowest audio Latencies in the industry; and when there is so much more exitement on those platforms what is this company thinking making standard based hardware not platform independent?

Problem #2
Why USB and No Firewire (ieee1394).
Newsflasch Hercules, the industry trend for MP3 music is.... iPod and iTunes, mac or pc.
You can't make a new DJ product that can't control an iPod.
That is just suicide.
All it would take for this product to be forgotten, is someone else to intro a firewire based controler that can connect to one or 2 iPods.
This would be the true killer application.
You have to ride on market successes.
Nothing like this works in a Vacuum.
I saw this on slashdot and I was so excited until I realized what it was. so so oh hum.

Problem #3.
DJ software What *%@#$!!!
Why does it need to connect to DJ software.
It should manage on it's own.
This needs to be able to access and control MP3s and manipulate them the way that a mixer controls sound out of turntables.
Have 2 or more sound sources (MP3s) cue them, play/pause them, pitch shift them, beat match, etc, From the console.
use a simple interface to load all MP3s from whatever platform or external drive, and allow the console to do it's work internally. not in the host cpu.
(this would enable it to control iPods and a bunch of other sound sources.)

hugh....

More poor planing and design.
Typical of Vacuum designed products.
Get with it.