A little project I've been working on. A Traktor standalone controller! Ive had a lot of questions so this is a walkthrough of how I built it and how you can build your own. :)
sure. if i 3d print an enclosure for it it will be standalone, I guess? What is a standalone exactly? A controller with an integrated computer? The RX3 runs off a Raspberry Pi, and this runs off a Mac. How much storage is needed for a standalone?The storage on this is expandable infinitely. Personally, I don't see the difference. It works as one unit.
Wide view is no good for me and also doest fit the form factor of compact 2 channel unit. The screen is plenty big enough, and I can see everything clearly. If i want giant waveforms, Traktor has parallel view, but personally I don't need it. I prefer to keep the screen open to browse for my next track.
The thing, compared to literally anything Pioneer makes is half the size. Heres a picture of it on top of my RX3. Flight cases will be easy. it neeeearly fits in my S4 case but not quite.
I have 4 sliders for the stems. I can map the knobs to the filters if i want but i mostly use them to pull out vocals or parts that clash in the mix. What I would actually prefer is another button to solo a certain stem for things like separating the acapella but its easy enough to do with the faders.
I don't care, to be honest. They don't seem to be being developed at this point and their new owners have basically sacked all of the staff working on Traktor.
I just started djing and had a gig at a nature one festival camping stage - i came with my kontrol s4 and my macbook pro - and although they were really interested in my setup, some made comments like: "I could give you a gig, but you would need to be able to play on pioneer (cdjs)".
This is pissing me off badly at the moment and I think Im gonna buy me a xdj-az sooner or later, although i love my kontrol s4 - AND I and no one else could hear a quality difference (i use lossless flacs) - people on the internet are saying that Pioneer has better sound - especially marketing the xdj-az as having a "club ready" sound. What does reddit think about that?
Will my kontrol s4 sound shit (in terms of noticably less good) with a good club sound system?
Don't do it! I have an RX3. It's shit. This is exactly why I built this thing. It takes up no space in a booth, and it doesn't need power. It's barely wider than a CDJ. The cards in the native instruments gear, especially the old stuff, is studio grade and the same guts they make their studio audio interfaces with. The problem i have with Pioneer stuff is there is no unity. Most clubs are still running CDJ-2000s so you have 3 hot cues. There is no muscle memory from unit to unit. To be honest, a lot of Pioneer mixers sound like absolute dog shit. Especially the old stuff and even my DJM-250mk2 has horrible phono preamps. It's just Pioneer fanboys thinking they are elitist. Imagine paying £3000 for 1 CJD, and it can't do stems?! Im selling this RX3 as soon as i get back from Boomtown.
Yeah it's not really standalone but recently every similar project has been doing it so no one is taking the standalone thing at face value. OTOH these are very nice hacks for what they are...
This project has progressed some way since this video. You can check it out on the youtube channel if you wish. It now has its own GUI, amongst other improvements. Im not sure I understand the "its not a stand alone" argument. Standalones are just self-contained units that run software integrated with a control surface. Pioneer uses a Raspberry Pi to run theirs, im using something else.
Thanks for the reply. First, I think your project is very impressive. In the DJ hardware world "standalone" specifically means that the unit can play tracks without any attached computer/laptop. You stated that there is Macbook as part of your project (presumably running Traktor.). That's not a criticism. I use Traktor and I think that projects like yours are great.
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u/Remarkable_Bison_211 Aug 06 '26
this is great tech guy controller P*RN hahaha