Introduction
Digital technology rampages on through the DJ scene, and often has the side effect of making things a lot smaller. This is certainly true of the Hercules DJ Control MP3 e2 (henceforth know as the SEO unfriendly e2). Hercules are certainly no stranger to having small MIDI controllers and have been active in the MIDI controller sector longer than most. The e2 however aims to take the conventional VCI metaphor and squish it down into something the size of your average hardback novel.
In a Nutshell
The e2 is a tiny 2 deck USB MIDI controller that ships with a tailored version of Virtual DJ LE. It does need an audio interface (like a Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ - my favourite right now). You get 3 band EQ with kill, motion sensitive 3" jog wheels, pitch controls, loops, effects and simple track navigation controls too. As well as handling audio mixing, there is a degree of video mixing too.
First Impressions
I marvel at just how small controllers are getting. Being used to a working space of something like 4' x 2', the e2 is just 270mm x 185mm - fitting comfortably inside an A4 page. Yes - it's that small. Bizarrely it also comes with one of those long forgotten remnants of times past - a deck cover. Sorry Decksavers - you've been beaten to the post here.
The e2 is an aesthetically pleasing professional looking mixture of Black and Silver, and does at least feel like a capable device, rather than being painted with the toy brush. That said, it'll last 5 minutes if thrown into your laptop bag week in week out.
Layout wise, it does stick largely to the VCI MIDI controller design bible, albeit shoehorned into a much smaller space with resultant tiny jog wheels almost touching the line faders. Not really an issue though as the wheels are really only going to be jogged rather than pulling off turntable gymnastics.
The faders are short but sweet, and the knobs turn smoothly with good centre clicks - but they really get in the way when in use. I would have used a lower profile setup. But it's the buttons that really let this down. While the rest of the e2 pokes its head above the £99 price tag, the buttons send it plunging headlong into budgetville. Yes they work, but the hard plastic sharp cornered buttons feel pretty bad. They do however illuminate happily and there's no mistaking what they're supposed to do, as it's clearly printed on the button.
So quality wise, the e2 hits the price bracket. I'm sure I could get used to the buttons, and it is a consumer unit after all. But in all honesty, I find it good enough to learn the basics on, but just too small for prolonged use.
Installing
VDJ installed just fine and worked first time every time. There's also an option to try the full V6 pro version for 20 days, which is enabled at the click of a button. Thankfully there is also a factory reset button to return the normal mode.
Jog Wheels
One casualty of scaling down the e2 into a bite-sized controller is the jog wheel. Measuring just 3" across, the wheel is shiny plastic with a smooth rubber top and a dimple for your finger. It's motion rather than touch or pressure sensitive, and controls the audio when stopped. Sadly, it doesn't stay stopped for long so - you have to keep it moving back and forth up to hold the cue point.
Without breaking this down too far, you won't be using this for juggling or scratching to be honest. The e2 is very much for mixing.
Pitch
Another loss in the bid for miniaturisation is the pitch slider. But you do at least get a clicky pitch knob, which is perfectly good enough for high end units like Allen & Heath xones. But with a resolution 0.25%, you're going to struggle a little to hold longer mixes. You do however get pitch bend buttons to compliment the jog wheel, as well on screen nudge buttons too.
Complimenting this is master tempo. This locks the key while still adjusting the pitch. This is where the limited 12% range works - the key locking sounds great across the whole range.
Loops and Effects
There is a dedicated section for loops and effects. This works on a basic level of being able to autoloop in 1, 2, 4 and 8 beats. if however you dig into VirtualDJ LE, you'll get a much stronger feature set, that expands the looping range down into fractions of beats or all the way up to 32 beats. You can also skip beats back and forth in 1 and 4 beat segments.
Pressing shift (just once - no need to keep it engaged) enables the effects section. VDJ LE comes with a small selection of effects - Flanger, Beatgrid (which I love), FlippinDouble (1 beat virtual deck juggle) and Backspin. All these and more are available in the full version of VDJ, but for the target audience, they add a little creative flare. Just don't overdo it kids.
Virtual DJ LE
With the e2 comes the retina scorching Virtual DJ LE. It's a little bit too technicolor for my liking, but does have an awful lot of features for an LE version. If however you want the whole nine yards, you can try the full latest V6 pro version for 20 days, or just buy it outright for $299. And you get a world of features (including a heap of eye friendly skins) as well as access to DVS features and an open MIDI architecture - all full video mixing.
In terms of configuration, you get to tweak your output configuration only, so what you see in LE is pretty much what you get. But it pays to poke around the interface a little and dig under the skins a little. There's quite a lot more going on behind the little buttons on-screen.
Heads up - this isn't an instruction manual for VDJ and certainly won't be breaking down each and every feature of the software - especially for a £99 controller. So forgive me if this seems lacking in detail compared to others that I've done.
The screen is split in two - virtual gear in the top half and library in the bottom. In the LE version, you get a representation of real decks with pitch controls, time remaining/elapsed and a pitch readout . The one thing you also get which the e2 lacks is a gain control for EQs.
Music
This is your music library. You can dig around at a device level and into some preset folders. But most useful is the custom folder, essentially crates by another name. Using the extensive searching and filtering, you can quickly make up custom folders in any number of ways.
Note: this version doesn't support iTunes. But at least the custom folder feature is good.
Samples
This 12 slot sample player/sampler is a cool feature and standard across the VDJ range. 6 slots are populated with some useful samples which can be looped, beatmatched, chopped and volume controlled. But you can record right into any of the 12 slots. The sample bank does however revert to default on every restart, with no saving of samples in a set.
Sync
This has the ability to turn a noob into a relative pro at the touch of a button. Based on VDJ's ability to analyse tracks properly to get the correct BPM and find the highs and lows of the beat, sync should not only match pitch based on BPMs, but also make the basses and snares match up too. On the whole it's not bad and the BPM analysing it good, this LE version of VDJ seems to struggle at times with matching the highs and lows. Still, there are enough tools inside VDJ LE to rectify it with your ear. And to be honest, you'll develop better skills doing it by ear anyway.
Remix
Most interesting is the Remix section. This is where all the creative options come together in one small area that allows you to throw together effects, loops and beat skipping for very quick remix action. While I have some misgivings about using the e2 for hands-on Hip Hop DJing, this remix section adds some new options that are suitable for any genres.
Video
The addition of video surprised me the most. I know VDJ has it, but I didn't expect to see it in this LE version. You work with video in just the same way as audio, but the crossfader only effects the audio. For video fades and effects, you need to work onscreen. And video output is limited to a 320x240 window.
This is strictly to bait you into buying the full version of VDJ of course, but I had a lot of fun mixing this and this together for 30 minutes.
A Big Moan
Despite all the extras in VDJ that you can't get to with the e2 itself, there seems to be no keyboard shortcuts. With my hatred of peering at laptop screens anymore than I have to, I really wanted to be able to at least hit the keyboard, but instead have to use the mouse or trackpad and gaze at the interface.
Keyboard mapping comes complete with the full version of VDJ.
An Alternate Use
While many buyers will be looking at this as a starter kit (which is perfect for by the way), I also see another use for it. Because of its price and size, the e2 would make a great additional controller to an existing setup. I had Scratch Live and Traktor up and running in minutes, and was firing cues, controlling effects and just about anything I want to. As I previously mentioned, the buttons are a bit hard and sharp, but for the money it'll work great to take the attention from the keyboard and back to your music.
Summing Up
Having ruled out any turntable trickery, I set about mixing up a storm with the e2. And using my trusty collection of favourites, I happily managed to put together a set I was happy with. Disengaging my seasoned 25 year DJ's hat and donning my beginner's beenie for a moment, I can see that the e2 has the essentials as well as a handful of cool creative options to whet the appetite of noobs to DJing into digging deeper into the scene and the skill. It lacks a degree of fun and polish and isn't as engaging as ION's Discover DJ, but is still really good for the money.
How small is too small? I think with the e2, Hercules have hit critical mass from a usability point of view. The buttons are small and as closely spaced as I feel comfortable with. And the line and crossfaders are literally 1mm apart at one point. Lower profile knobs, fader caps and jog wheels would have massively improved the usability, but expect that once someone has established that £99 was a good enough investment to see if they want to carry on DJing, stepping up to a bigger unit will happen pretty quickly.
Having just looked at the similarly priced ION Discover DJ, I'm sure people would like me to make a comparison. I see an easy distinction - get Discover DJ for Hip Hop and e2 for dance music. Why? Discover DJ's jog wheels frankly own the e2 in just about every way. But the e2's creativity in looping, cueing and effects is much better suited to 4 to the floor DJs who don't really depend on jog wheels for hands on action. The lack of keystroke action inside VDJ LE does hamper the creativity a little though.
And for existing DJs wanting to take control of certain elements of their setup, the e2 offers a compact and cost effective MIDI mappable alternative to Denon's HC1000 and NI's Kontrol One, albeit not as tailored or robust. But at least you'll have a few extra controls at hand that sit neatly above a 10" mixer.
Ratings
Build Quality
It reflects the price really. But at least it doesn't feel like crap.
Sound Quality
Not too shabby.More down to CDJ and your audio interface but music plays back like you'd expect.
Features and Implementation
The hardware packs a lot in (perhaps too much), and VDJ LE does quite a bit too. Sadly however, the lack of keystrokes ties much of the fun to that well known DJ controller - the mouse.
Value For Money
For £99, it's rather hard to beat, especially given that you can reuse it as a separate MIDI controller should you trade up to something bigger.
Bottom Line
The Hercules DJ Control MP3 e2 is small and cheap but fully featured, If you want to learn how to mix (but not scratch) and have a splash of video thrown in - and pay next to nothing - the e2 is well worth checking out. Provided you don't have big hands that is.
Huge thanks to James at www.djkit.co.uk for supplying the unit.
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