Paz75
Has anyone used the Allen & Heath Xone:3D with VDJ? I'm interested in picking one up because I love A&H mixers and am very familiar with the 3D's little brother, the 92.
I have never tried using midi controllers with VDJ until a friend asked me to check out his Behrigner BCD3000 to see if his laptop or BCD was broken. I have to say I was extremely dissapointed in the responsiveness of the BCD3000. His laptop was mashed, but it worked on mine. I didnt like it because the response was slow.
So Im wondering if midi controlled mixing is just 'slow', full stop.
Ecler has just released their Evo 5 which also looks very sexy. So I'm hoping some pro djs can comment on how usable it is and maybe tell me that the BCD3000 is a piece of garbage and the Xone:3D doesnt respond in the same way .....?
I have never tried using midi controllers with VDJ until a friend asked me to check out his Behrigner BCD3000 to see if his laptop or BCD was broken. I have to say I was extremely dissapointed in the responsiveness of the BCD3000. His laptop was mashed, but it worked on mine. I didnt like it because the response was slow.
So Im wondering if midi controlled mixing is just 'slow', full stop.
Ecler has just released their Evo 5 which also looks very sexy. So I'm hoping some pro djs can comment on how usable it is and maybe tell me that the BCD3000 is a piece of garbage and the Xone:3D doesnt respond in the same way .....?
Posted Tue 13 Nov 07 @ 3:49 am
Steve Lynch
the bcd must not have been set up properly.. it's actually a great little unit.. midi isn't slow at all. the dmc-2, dac3, total control and all that are midi... it's all in having the proper drivers and proper settings..
I too am wondering about the xone 3d..
I too am wondering about the xone 3d..
Posted Tue 13 Nov 07 @ 4:52 am
ShyneGTA
you know i played around with a 3d for a few hours, but i was having so much fun with it i didnt want to tinker around with vdj and a million setup options. ( i still insist 2 decks and a mixer is all you need ) but by itself its an awesome piece of equipment, simply awesome! im also interested in buying one, it would be nice if it was compatible with vdj.
Posted Tue 13 Nov 07 @ 6:29 am
Paz75
@rasza: it is configurable, but it would be nice if someone who owns one would post a midimap to the forum for others to download. who knows, it might be buried here already. the 3D, AFAIK comes with both a Traktor and Ableton Live template that sits over the left and right midi buttons. Probably the VDJ one would be very similar to Traktor.
@mr lynch: it was setup correctly, I spent some time reviewing the mappings. the job was messy but I wasnt really interested in that. It did work fine, but not fine enough as my style of mixing requires alot of very quick cuts. if there are any turntablists in the house, they can probably corrobarate.
Ive asked my friend back home to go find an Ecler Evo5 for me and test it out. It's looking very sweet and much more configurable than that 3D. Only question is, does it stand up to the famous A&H sound quality with it's Penny & Gilles faders.....?
@mr lynch: it was setup correctly, I spent some time reviewing the mappings. the job was messy but I wasnt really interested in that. It did work fine, but not fine enough as my style of mixing requires alot of very quick cuts. if there are any turntablists in the house, they can probably corrobarate.
Ive asked my friend back home to go find an Ecler Evo5 for me and test it out. It's looking very sweet and much more configurable than that 3D. Only question is, does it stand up to the famous A&H sound quality with it's Penny & Gilles faders.....?
Posted Tue 13 Nov 07 @ 12:34 pm
Paz75
just wanted to update this thread for the benefit of others. i bought my xone 3D a few days ago and im totally in love with it.
was seriously considering buying the ecler evo 5 as its a newer model. however i liked the fact that the xone:3d had all the midi controller knobs.
ive been spending the last few days playing around with the midi-map settings and im well impressed. some buggy behaviours still which i;ll report back on later, but im 'way impressed'.
the soundcard of xone:3d is pretty crappy but it works well. only have to plug in a usb cable. would much rather prefer it was firewire 900 (9-pin) for better latency. also the way the ins and outs are configured is a bit strange as well.
ive used the xone 92 a long time and dissapointed to have less outputs on the 3d, no booth and no way to set the monitor on mono. also there is only 3-band eq unlike the 92's 4-band. never really used 4 bands when gigging so no big loss.
the lfo is a bit easier to use and never really needed independant lfo per channel (there is 2 on the 92, only one on the 3d. however both have 2 lfo triggers whereas the 42 has only one which is a real pain).
the lfo on the 3d is assignable by midi sync which is cool, but silly as you cannot factor the speed without using the tap (why would you oscillate on the bpm value, its not that nice sounding).
i will still be buying an RME Hammerfal card so i dont have to use the crappy onboard usb. it still works nicely and i'll definitley make use of the onboard DAC for recording.
i didnt pay a huge price so the xone 3d was well worth it. A&H's sound is equalled by none in my opinion of dj mixers. hopefully they will release a newer gen of it soon , and i'll probably buy that one too...
was seriously considering buying the ecler evo 5 as its a newer model. however i liked the fact that the xone:3d had all the midi controller knobs.
ive been spending the last few days playing around with the midi-map settings and im well impressed. some buggy behaviours still which i;ll report back on later, but im 'way impressed'.
the soundcard of xone:3d is pretty crappy but it works well. only have to plug in a usb cable. would much rather prefer it was firewire 900 (9-pin) for better latency. also the way the ins and outs are configured is a bit strange as well.
ive used the xone 92 a long time and dissapointed to have less outputs on the 3d, no booth and no way to set the monitor on mono. also there is only 3-band eq unlike the 92's 4-band. never really used 4 bands when gigging so no big loss.
the lfo is a bit easier to use and never really needed independant lfo per channel (there is 2 on the 92, only one on the 3d. however both have 2 lfo triggers whereas the 42 has only one which is a real pain).
the lfo on the 3d is assignable by midi sync which is cool, but silly as you cannot factor the speed without using the tap (why would you oscillate on the bpm value, its not that nice sounding).
i will still be buying an RME Hammerfal card so i dont have to use the crappy onboard usb. it still works nicely and i'll definitley make use of the onboard DAC for recording.
i didnt pay a huge price so the xone 3d was well worth it. A&H's sound is equalled by none in my opinion of dj mixers. hopefully they will release a newer gen of it soon , and i'll probably buy that one too...
Posted Wed 26 Dec 07 @ 5:10 am
Charlie Wilson
I just bought one a week ago but have not had chance to use it yet i'll get back to you in a couple of days.
Posted Wed 26 Dec 07 @ 12:09 pm
DJ von Smoothousen
Hello pioneers of the Xone 3D .... ;-)
Most reviews are really positive about the quality of the embedded usb sound card.
Still, some on the VDJ forum describe it as 'crappy'.
So what is true?
Could you let me know, how good is its usb sound card?
Sound quality?
Sound card performance (using 3 ins all at the same time) ?
Skips, plops, noise?
Stability, combined with Windows Vista + VDJ?
etc. ?
Any input would be much appreciated.
Thank you !
Most reviews are really positive about the quality of the embedded usb sound card.
Still, some on the VDJ forum describe it as 'crappy'.
So what is true?
Could you let me know, how good is its usb sound card?
Sound quality?
Sound card performance (using 3 ins all at the same time) ?
Skips, plops, noise?
Stability, combined with Windows Vista + VDJ?
etc. ?
Any input would be much appreciated.
Thank you !
Posted Mon 03 Mar 08 @ 3:42 pm