So I’ve had the Numark Scratch DJ mixer for a while now. It was the first DJ mixer I’d upgraded to. I’ve since moved up to a Reloop Elite, but before I was using a Pioneer DDJ-SX2 with my turntables. This mixer is a budget mixer and is a great value for the money. The only problem I had with it, and that I’ve seen others complain about, is that the mic amp in the mixer is shoddy. You have to turn your speaker gain way up, then leave the channel gains lower, in order to hear your voice on the mic over or with the music. I have a DJ repair shop near me that says they can replace that mic channel electronics and fix that issue. When I have the money I’ll let them give it a shot. I wish I had the electronic skills to do it myself, but my soldering skills are not the best. I can do wires but not very small electronic chipsets and so forth. The Scratch mixer is fairly well built and feels sturdy. The Innofader in it is decent, and gets the job done. I had some trouble calibrating it, but that is because I was trying to use the calibration directions for the Innofader PLUS which is a different fader from the one that comes with the Scratch mixer. Check out the instructions here to try and get a tighter cut on the mini Innofader in the Scratch: http://www.innofader.com/installations.php?id=42&pid=15
The knows and faders on the mixer feel good, and it has very good sound on it. I am working on a video now for Youtube that will let you hear the difference in sound quality between the Elite and the Scratch on analog vinyl, and to be honest the difference is moot. Don’t get me wrong, the Elite is a much better mixer. It has more pads, more effects, the sound is slightly better, and the sound in your headphones is definitely better, but if you’re a DJ that only wants to spend the money for the Scratch, you won’t be disappointed. I wish the Scratch had 8 pads on each channel instead of only 4 on each. RGB pads would have been nice also, but even 8 red LED pads on each side would have been nice.
The mixer has 6 effects that it comes with that you can use with DVS. The only “effect” you can use with analog vinyl is High Pass and Low Pass Filter knobs on each deck. The effects that you can use with Serato DVS are decent and are all you’d need to be fairly creative. The mixer has XLR master outputs and RCA booth outputs as well. Having a booth output on a mixer this cheap is pretty amazing. Numark really outdid themselves with this mixer and you can put in some decent work with this mixer. By all means, if you can afford one of the higher grade mixers, go for those, but if you don’t want to or can’t spend more money, the Numark Scratch will suit you just fine.