IMHO, all of those are surmountable or a non-issue.
Nope. It's too short to be precise and have a wide range, but it can do one or the other just fine.
I got bored and mapped some random faders on my VCM-600 to pitch faders in Traktor the other night. The first transition was scary, and then it all came back.
As for accuracy…when I glanced at the screen after one of the transitions, I noticed the BPMs on the 2 decks were 125.04 and 125.05. So I made a habit of looking at the BPMs after each mix.
The farthest they were off from each other was like .06 BPM. And I was riding the pitch the whole time instead of using pitch bend buttons…it worked just fine, even if it felt like a toy compared to an m5g or CDJ-1000/2000 and kinda jumped when my dusty-ass fader let go. I should really squirt some fader lube in there or something.
I also had the decks set to have a +/- 3% pitch fader, I think. That helped. But for house tempos, that gives you like 3-4 BPM of wiggle room. It's a bit restrictive, but it works just fine in a pinch.
Who cares? Ride the pitch fader. I'm also not convinced it's true. Some records are lighter than others, and if you've ever spun on vinyl…you kinda just get used to it. At least they're consistent from song to song.
IMHO, it can't be different than switching b/t 2000s and 900s at different gigs. Those platters feel completely different to me, and it still takes like a second to get used to them.
Meh. Don't use a stand that puts it right in front of your face and put up some posters or pictures or something in front of you (crowd pictures from a festival work well).
I sometimes forget that I have a computer connected for minutes at a time. I've actually gone for my X1's browse knobs and been confused that there wasn't a track display on the hardware before. But I also use a real mixer, so I don't have to rely on the screen for things like the (tiny and almost useless) master meter.
Switching to the Small deck view also helps. If I used an S4 or something else that had LEDs showing me the loop length I had selected, I'd probably just leave Traktor in browse mode all the time. IMHO, The UI doesn't add anything most of the time. At least it doesn't get in the way like SSL/Itch's gigantic waveforms and cue tape displays. And you've still got access to nice, big waveforms that are a dream compared to burned out target lights for when you want to see how much you've got 'till that next break.
And CDJs display accurate BPMs now too, so the point is moot anyway. Traktor gives you BPM to +/-.01 instead of +/-1. Big deal.
I've done it before, and I don't really do controllerist style mixng…but I'm very confident that I could show up somewhere with a Recordbox-prep'd USB stick and just spin, despite not owning a real pitch fader for about 2 years.
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