Reviews Denon DJ DN-SC2000 Single 2 Deck MIDI Controller

Denon DJ DN-SC2000 Single 2 Deck MIDI Controller Review

Product Code	B004AE5CKA
Product Rating
Price	$249.00
Where To Buy	See More Details
Customer Review	See More Reviews

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Product Details

Amazon Sales Rank: #33581 in Musical Instruments
Color: Black
Brand: Denon DJ
Model: DN-SC2000
Number of items: 5
Dimensions: 1.10" h x
6.69" w x
8.66" l,
3.00 pounds

Features

Newly designed, high resolution 105mm Touch-Sensitive Jog Wheel
Optimized for Traktor and Virtual DJ users
USB Bus powered
Solid Steel chassis construction
MAC,Windows XP/Vista/Win7,8 Compatible

Newly designed, high resolution 105mm Touch-Sensitive Jog Wheel
Optimized for Traktor and Virtual DJ users
USB Bus powered
Solid Steel chassis construction
MAC,Windows XP/Vista/Win7,8 Compatible

Product Description

The DN SC2000 Controller unit is an affordable, compact, professional grade, solid steel MIDI controller designed for the home DJ or party laptop DJ on the go; Used together with the DJ's favorite mixer and piece software of choice, the DN SC2000 offers party and bedroom DJs a compact, portable, user friendly control solution; A two layer system, the unit can control two decks at once (with visible deck color change), or be paired with another DN SC2000 unit to control four decks; The DN SC2000 includes many advanced functions, including MIDI mapable capability, jog wheel, auto loop function, a wide range of effects, rugged pitch slider, pitch lock, automatic beat sync, durable rubber button controls and much more

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Top notch unit
By C. Johnson
As soon as I pulled this out of the box I could tell the build quality was excellent. It's really sturdy, not something that's going to warp or move around on you. The size is about that of a small textbook, minus the pots and platter. It feels real solid and has a good weight, but overall it's still pretty light. The nice rubber feet underneath means it won't move around just because you're getting energetic with it.I plugged it in, and the lights came on, very nice. Definitely good for a dark club, everything is real visible and even the lights around the pots look great. Everything is color coded for easily distinguishing which deck/fx unit is active. The light in front of the platter lights up red/blue to show you if a track is loaded.The rubber buttons are really clicky and honestly I think I like these more than normal plastic buttons. The problem with most rubber buttons is they're springy and it's easy to miss-hit them, but I haven't found that problem with these. Plus being rubber, they're a little more comfortable. The pots are clicky (meaning they aren't just free spinning) and sturdy, and you can press them in as buttons to enable/disable things.Out of the box, it worked in VDJ 7. I didn't have to set anything up, it just worked. The FX units are mapped to deck 1/2 effects by default (since VDJ doesn't have a standalone FX unit, it's specific to each deck), and everything else performs just how you'd expect it to. The only thing that I noticed doesn't seem to work is the light under the platter doesn't light up in VDJ. I suspect I could get this to work by tweaking the mapping (all the notes for the LEDs are included in the instruction sheet, for mapping with arbitrary software). *Edit* it turns out I just wasn't reading. The SC2000 actually has toggles for bend/vinyl mode built right in, using the shift button, which in VDJ is displayed with this LED, so when I switch it into vinyl mode it lights up :)For traktor (TP2) I had to download the tsi from denon's website (look under manuals...no idea why they didn't label it "downloads" or something). Once I imported it though, it worked great. The FX units behave like you'd expect (defaulting to the two standalone FX units that can be applied to decks individually using the fx 1/2 buttons). The platter light works in traktor.The platter is great, it doesn't have any "travel" (movement up and down) but still very touch sensitive. I'm having trouble getting traktor to behave exactly how I want in conjunction with my hercules RMX jog wheels (scratch mode is inconsistent with both plugged in) but I mapped my hercules by hand so it could be something I did. The scratching works perfectly when the hercules isn't active.The track search / browser controls are awesome as well. Shift + spin the dial to select the artist in your left pane, then release shift and spin it to select the track, and finally press it down to load the deck (make sure the deck you want to load to is the active selected deck on your SC2000 (in a single instance setup)).Overall very great buy, I bought one just to add to my simple 2-deck jog controller, but I'm already pretty sure I'll be getting a second one. With 2, you can control 4 decks easy (2 each deck). The download comes with 2 tsi files (one for left/right, one for top/bottom) so you can choose a single or double configuration for your SC2000(s).Only downside (if you can even call it that) is that obviously being digital/MIDI you can't use this with a normal mixer without extra work. That isn't my setup, though, since I use a software mixer, and doesn't impact me negatively.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Its unique..
By DetroitJake
I bought two of these. One at Guitar Center. One on Amazon. Same review for both places:BACKGROUND: HOW WHY I BOUGHT THISWell, it's a long story, but I'll try to keep it short.I'm a huge fan of Traktor and I'm a huge fan of Pioneer mixers (especially for a studio environment, they just sound way better than any other mixer I've every heard. That includes Rane Empath, Vestax, Denon DNX1600, Traktor Kontrol S2, Technics SHMZ1200)I'm currently running a DJM900. Due to this sound quality concern, it rules out just buying a cheap all in one controller like the Kontrol S2, Kontrol S4, or others.But if you are not super tweak about sound quality, I would just get an all in one Kontrol S4 or S2.But if you already have a mixer, or are geek about a big expensive mixer you end up where I'm at.The next piece of the puzzle is a track player / controller.My problem is I can't justify the cost of a CDJ. They are too expensive for what seems to me to be an inferior controller compared to a turntable. Of course looping queing functions that come on a CDJ are built into the Traktor software, so you don't need this function in a CDJ when using Traktor software.I have a pair of Technics SL1210M5G. I love them, but the Tech's are big and take up a lot of space in my currently limited mix environment. Also, I'm mainly a minimal techno guy, so I don't often need a 12" jog surface, because I basically never scratch.So, I wanted a small controller that works well with Traktor and gives me a pitch slider and a jog wheel for the times when I do have to manually beat match (like working some mashup tracks with a live drummer that just don't grid very well in Traktor).That's what this controller does and there isn't much else out there like this.You only need one to control two decks, but two looks way cooler and you can control all 4 decks that way.So if you want a cheap small controller for playing tracks in Traktor and you really want a pitch slider and jog wheel, for manual mixing, this is about the only option.COMPARED TO THE KONTROL X1CONSNow you may ask, how does it compare to a Kontrol X1? Here's my feeling. Not very well. I wouldn't toss my Kontrol X1's. (I have a pair of those too) The rotary encoders are endless type and have a very coarse and clicky feel. So for example when I rotate an encoder to bring in an effect, the affect jumps about every 6%. This is too coarse. You can hear it in the mix too. It sounds like the effect is coming up in small steps, rather than a nice smooth continuous dry / wet adjustment. The Kontrol X1 works on the order of 1% adjustments, and the rotary encoders are fixed stop and feel very smooth. Also you have to rotate the encoder too far on the SC2000, maybe 1.5x as far as the Kontrol X1. This means you can't snap the affect on and off with one wrist motion. You may have to grab the knob twice to make a full adjustment from full on to full off. This really kinda sucks.EQUALSThe SC2000 is equal to the Kontrol X1 in terms of the quality of the buttons. The layout is very effective for the package (a small controller).PROSThe plus side of this controller is the fact it has a pitch slider and a jog wheel. Of course the Kontrol X1 doesn't have these. The SC2000 has a really solid feel and weight as it has a steel chassis all around. Its surprisingly solid for the price.HOW WELL DOES THE JOG WHEEL WORKIf you think you are going to be the next battle mix master on a 4" jog wheel, I might have some land on Mars to sell you. I'm sure you'd want at least a 7" jog wheel if you really want to scratch. All pros that I'm aware of still use a turntable and possibly DVS software like Traktor or Serato. So the jog wheel is not great, but roughly comparable to a S2 or S4 controller. I'm no scratch guy, so it's fine enough for me for most stuff. You can use it to pull / push the track or scratch, which is a nice feature.WHO SHOULD BUY THIS.If you already have an audio mixer and really want a Traktor controller with a pitch slider or jog wheel.WHO SHOULD GET THE KONTROL X1Everybody else that either will never use a pitch slider (such as only mixing with auto sync) or is using another player controller like a CDJ DNS or Turntable.WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEEHow about a Traktor controller with a 7" jog wheel and the same build quality as a DNS or CDJ priced around $400ish. Encoders, the same style as the Kontrol X1. Pioneer, Denon, can you feel it? : ) Thanks!