Novation Twitch Review

novation twitch dj controller

It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of DJ controllers over the last 10 years.

As more and more DJs become ‘digital natives’, DJ software and DJ controllers are breaking away from the two turntable interface tradition and are exploring the possibilities of two digital audio channels.

‘The world of the DJ and controllerist are colliding,” is how Novation puts it and they’ve come up with a new DJ controller with that collision in mind.

novation twitch touchstripThe Novation Twitch, aka ‘The Touchstrip Controller’, is one of the latest examples of this trend towards controllers designed for ‘digital native’ DJing.

Instead of focusing on mixing two turntables or analog tracks, the Twitch is designed for live remixing and controllerism. And, instead of turntable-style scratch controls, the Twitch features 8 trigger pads and a touchstrip controller on each channel.

Notable Twitch Features:

  • Twin touchstrips let you ‘grab hold’ of your tracks and swipe them back and forth, like touchscreen scratching
  • Two 8-pad banks of trigger pads let you trigger cues, loops, etc.
  • Slicer Mode – lets you chop tracks into slices and rearrange them on the fly, while staying in sync
  • Built in audio interface – the Twitch has a 2 in, 4 out USB audio interface and a headphone amp.
  • Comes with Serato Itch Professional
  • 1-to-1 Control In ITCH ? Dedicated controls for all ITCH performance functions.
  • USB Bus-powered
  • MIDI Compatible ? controls any DJ software, such as Traktor or Ableton Live.

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Traktor 2.5 DJ Software Now Available – Here’s What’s New

Native Instruments has released Traktor 2.5, the latest version of their popular DJ software.

Version 2.5 introduces Remix Decks, a feature that seems to have taken a little inspiration from the Session View of Ableton Live. Remix Decks give you 64 slots, each able to hold loops, samples or entire tracks.

Details on the Traktor 2.5 below. See the NI site for pricing and upgrade info.

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