Reloop Terminal Mix 4 TECH
manages to get their hands on this controller. Another aspect worth picking up on is the crossfader, which glides across with the gentlest of force applied and is absolutely perfect for scratching up a storm.
MIXER In the middle of the Terminal Mix 4’s control surface, right bang in the centre of all of the action, lies a fully functional four channel mixer complete with all of the faders, knobs and buttons one would expect from a high-end DJ mixer. Each channel has a three-band EQ, gain control knob, a filter control knob, headphone cue button, the obligatory channel up- fader, and a button to load a track into that channel. The master section sits in the centre of the mixer in line with the gain and EQ knobs with additional knobs to control master volume, booth volume, headphone level and the cue mix.
Below the master section sits a nice big silver encoder dial to take care of track browsing and selection. This is complimented by buttons for crates, view, back and prep along with a knob to control the volume of samples. The quality and layout of these knobs and buttons are excellent. Everything looks and feels great, and despite the slightly unusual master section layout, this mixer is very easy to use and feels just great in the mix.
PLATTER Each of the platters is surrounded by a nice selection of controls to take care of effects, loops and samples as well as lovely long pitch-control faders. Transport controls are found at the bottom of the platters, along with buttons to toggle control between decks 1/3 and 2/4 when using the Terminal Mix 4 to control four decks. At the top of the platter control section are three FX control knobs, each with a backlit button to engage the effect and a beats knob to select the beat timing of effects, with a tap button to set the BPM manually sat neatly below. Hot cues have four dedicated backlit buttons: these sit above another bank of four buttons for triggering samples. Loop control length and loop moving are taken care of by two knobs and two buttons in an arrangement that works well, without being too fussy.
CONTROL While the Terminal Mix 4 is being marketed heavily as a Serato controller, it will in fact happily take control of Virtual DJ or Traktor — in fact, any DDJ software. However, because the Terminal Mix 4 is being marketed as a Serato controller, it will stand or fall on how well it works with Serato’s software. This is where the problems really start for the Terminal Mix 4, because it doesn’t perform particularly well with Serato DJ Into. For starters, there is
only two-deck control available with Serato DJ Intro, which means that despite vague promises of updates to come from Serato, at this present time DJs are limited to just two-deck control if using Terminal Mix 4 with Intro. A bit of a bizarre combination that makes the four-deck control useless and effectively puts it in direct competition with Vestax’s proven VCI-300, which is a truly excellent controller and arooubd $200 cheaper! Okay, this is not a problem if using a version of Serato’s Itch which has four-deck control, but it’s a bit weird shipping the product with a cut-down version of the software that doesn’t utilise all the great features the controller has to offer.
Overall, the Terminal Mix 4 is a decent enough controller with a few annoying quirks based around the fact that it is shipped with Serato DJ Intro, and not Itch. Forgetting about Serato for a moment, as a Traktor Pro controller it works quite nicely; the design of the control surface works well, complimented by the high-quality components used in the buttons, faders and knobs. However, there are better equipped controllers for less money for Serato DJ Intro and there are some truly outstanding controllers for Itch providing full four-channel control available for a similar amount of money as the Terminal Mix 4.
VERDICT BUILD QUALITY
EASE OF USE FEATURES
HYPE Full-sized four channel
7.0 8.0 7.0
VALUE FOR MONEY 6.5 SOUND QUALITY
7.5
controller for Serato with high quality components and lovely jog wheels that just beg to be scratched.
GRIPE There is only two channel
support with Serato Intro, and some of the buttons on the control surface do not work with this version of the software.
A controller that manages to be almost great, but is limited by the choice of pairing it with Serato DJ Intro and not Itch as standard.
7.0/10
PRICE $599
CONTACT
reloopdj.com
www.djmag.com 075
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