It
has been a while since we at Hot Hardware have taken
a look at a Hercules product. You may remember back
in early December of 2002, we looked at the
Digifire 7.1 Digital soundcard. Sporting some
very impressive specifications and achieving a high
level of performance, the Digifire was a very
welcomed edition to their sound card product line.
Recently, Hercules underwent some fairly major
internal changes, that resulted in unfortunate
downsizing of the company. However, it seems
that Guillemot, Hercules' proprietor, have turned
their company around and reinvented themselves a
bit, like so many high tech companies have this
year.
Initially you may wonder what H.H. is doing with a
DJ Console. Well, it just so happens that this deck
is more than meets the eye. One should able to
throw down some "mad beats" with this deck. However,
once you are done with the wheels of steel, you can
kick back with your favorite DVD/Game and enjoy the
24bit, 5.1 surround sound. In turn, not only
is the Console a tool that the aspiring DJ may
benefit from, but it also happens to be an important
differentiating product in the Hercules line of
audio output devices.
With this in mind,
we
proceeded to carefully inspect the whole of the
product for workmanship and quality. Details that
will be discussed in depth later aside, our initial
impression of the overall build quality of the
Console was that it was a sturdy unit, ready to hit
the road with you and perform. Before we move on too
much further we would like to note that this is a
pre-production model we are working with. This
typically means a few changes to final aesthetics
and construction may be applied before the retail
sales package run is produced. As a result,
the performance of this product may not be a 100%
accurate demonstration of the final product,
nevertheless it should be very close.
Dimensions of unit without cover: H:20 x
W:23.5 x D:6.5 cm (H:7.9? x W:9.25? x
D:2.5?)
100% USB
bus-powered: no external power supply
needed
Long USB
cable: 2m (78.74?) for less noise
interference from computer fans
Package
Contents
Minimum System
Requirements
DJ
CONSOLE unit
Detachable cover and non-slip footing
USB
cable
Shoulder
strap for easy transportation
Installation CD-ROM with full software
bundle & 800 music samples
Printed
installation guide
Desktop/laptop PC with Intel® Pentium II
400mHz (700mHz recommended) or higher or
compatible
64MB RAM
(128MB recommended)
Windows
98SE, Me, 2000 & XP?
Available USB port (dedicated USB root
hub for DJ console recommended)
Headphones or amplified speakers
CD or
DVD-ROM drive (CDDA support recommended)
16-bit,
800 x 600 video resolution or higher
Microphone, Internet connection + 100MB
free hard disk space for some
applications
Click Images for Full View
Front of Box
Back
of Box
Contents
Console with Cover on
Console with cover off
Front of Console
Back
of Console
Bottom of Console
The accessory
package that comes with the DJ Console is nothing
too extravagant. In the pre-production carton
Hercules presented us with, we found the DJ Console,
User Manual, USB Cable, Shoulder Strap and one
Software CD inside the box. Upon inspection of
the unit itself, we found all of the buttons and
knobs are either made of, or coated in, a soft
pliable rubber that give this unit a very tactile
feel, to even the most beastly of hands (the HH crew
is comprised of large gentlemen... big hands, feet
and... hardware). Located on the top of the console
the 2 "vinyl-style" jog wheels, for spinning and
scratching, are very evident. Each of these wheels
is textured with "finger grips" that aid in the
overall control of the unit during rapid song
searching, speed adjustment or scratching. Between
the two job wheels is the cross-fader that is used
to fade the volume between the two "half's" of the
deck during mixing. Along each side of the unit
there are 6 potentiometers and bass/medium/treble
controls for fast adjustment of audio levels. Moving
towards the center of the deck the 2 rotary encoders
and 2 sliders for tweaking volume or speed of the
music (pitch/master temp) during live mixing are
found. Sticking out of the middle of the unit is the
"mini-stick", which emulates a mouse or allows for
"DJ FX" control (scratching) during the use of
various software. The rest of the white buttons (all
backlit with LED's), 28 in total, are used to
play/pause songs, speed music up or down (pitch
bend), add effects, cue points (song positions),
loop parts of the track, skip backwards and forwards
through tracks, rewind or fast forwards and a few
other features that are software specific. Located
on the bottom of the deck are five red rubber feet
that stop the deck from sliding around during use.
We should also note that once you remove the cover
from the top of the deck, one can attach it to the
underside of the unit to add a bit of extra height
to the Console.
Click Images for Full View
The
DJ Console is fairly customizable to the user?s
preferences and to each specific software
application that is implemented. Beyond that, the
actual specs of the Console, noted above, are pretty
self explanatory. So, let?s move on and see what
this deck can do...
