Native Instruments Kontrol X1

Native Instruments X1 | Reviews
103
most popular DJ effects: Delay, Reverb
and Filter. It’s up to you how much of
an annoyance this could be – personally
I found it initially confusing but after
some reshuffling, I got used to it and it
does make sense.
Conveniently, hitting Shift and
FX On will make these labelled effects
active on that channel so if you have
gone crazy with effects selection you
can reset it to the defaults with one
click and start again.
On rotation
There are four endless stepped rotaries
on the X1, with the first two controlling
browser selection and loading with a
click while it’s Shift-functions provide
track-seeking and view-changing i.e.
making the browser temporarily
fullscreen. Scrolling through the browser
works perfectly and loading is swift but
the track-seeking resolution could be a
little less extreme. The other two
rotaries control looping in a very
intuitive manner – turning the knob
controls loop length and clicking it
down controls loop on/off. This is
nothing revolutionary but is a genius
move by NI to give intuitive and fairly
comprehensive control over looping,
with a single knob. The X1’s transport
controls finish off the unit, with a total
of 16 buttons that double-up as cue
triggers when the Hotcue button is
active as well as having multiple
Shift-functions.
At this point I must admit that Shift
functions have always been the bane of
controllers – not only does it require
multiple mappings and, sometimes, a
photographic memory, the jumping in
and out of different ‘pages’ does
nothing for your flow and focus when
performing. This is obviously something
NI are very aware of and they’ve worked
hard to label the X1 where appropriate
while still maintaining a clear layout.
This is the case for everything but
the Hotcue function – I repeatedly
found myself panicking when a track
won’t play only to discover that I was in
Hotcue mode attempting to launch an
unassigned cue. The only visual
reference for this mode is a slight
change in shades of blue depending on
your cues and an illuminated Hotcue
button. It would have been nice to see a
change of colour to avoid confusion
– double-mapping buttons such as Play,
Stop and Cue needs to be treated with
clarity to avoid errors and I don’t feel
like the X1 makes it obvious enough.
Focus right
If you’re an in-the-box DJ, it’s more than
likely you will find the X1 to be lacking,
with no velocity or pitch controls and no
crossfader, making
it’s 199 Euros
price tag a lot less
appealing for what
is essentially a
small part of your
potential setup.
That being said,
touring DJs who
are looking for a hardware addition to
their current timecode-based Traktor
setup will fall in love with the X1. What
it really excels in is intuitive control:
everything does what it feels like it
should and it only takes a few minutes
before you become very comfortable
– something I found myself saying when
reviewing Traktor Pro last year. In it’s
context, the X1 delivers maximum
performance and is one of the most
instinctive controllers I’ve ever used.
In-the-box DJs will need to hold out
(X2?) but anyone craving a slim solution
to sit alongside club installs need to
check it out. It just makes sense.
sPECs
Windows: XP (SP2, 32-bit),
Vista (SP1, 32-bit, 64-bit),
Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit),
Pentium IV or Athlon 1.4GHz
(SSE1), 1GB RAM
Mac: OS X 10.5, Mac OS X
10.6, G4 1,4 GHz or Intel
Core Duo 1.66 GHz,
1GB RAM
Controls: Four endless,
clickable rotaries, eight
270º knobs, 30 back-lit
assignable buttons.
Dimensions:
120 x 52 x 294mm
Weight:
691g
The launch of NI’s
Maschine saw the
introduction of Control
Editor – a comprehensive
editing software for all of
NI hardware controllers.
For the X1, the options
are straightforward but
thorough – each button’s
CC number can be
changed, it’s type selected
(i.e. CC, Note, Pitchbend
etc etc), channel number,
mode (i.e. toggle, trigger,
gate or inc), it’s value
between 0 and 127
changed and when the
action of the button
occurs decided (i.e. on
pressing or on releasing).
Similar options are
available for the rotaries,
which makes Controller
Editor incredibly useful
and stretches the cost of
the X1 quite a bit, if you
take the time to map it for
other jobs.
Controller Editor
VERDiCT
BUILD
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VALUE
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EASE OF USE
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VERSATILITY
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RESULTS
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A highly impressive controller that
makes up for it’s shortcomings with
genius intuition.
ALTERnATiVEs
Allen & Heath
Xone:1D
£199
Similarly-priced with a
single jog wheel and faders
but nowhere near the visual
feedback offered from the
X1. Worth a look if you’re
dedicated to
in-the-box DJing.
xone.co.uk
Vestax VFX-1
£199
Two channels of effects
control, designed for Serato
and for use alongside the
VCI-300, the VFX-1 is
lacking for the price when
compared to the X1.
Suitable if you’re a Serato
user, though.
vestax.com
This is a genius move by NI to give
intuitive and comprehensive control
over looping, with a single knob
FMU223.rev_x1 103 11/1/10 12:33:22 pm