Hercules DJ Console review - Page 4 - Photo's #1

Well, not to hard to figure out, this is it, the Hercules DJ Console. Quite a small device actually 235x200x650mm including a cover.

When we take a photo of the top of the device you'll start seeing the DJ essentials. You should look at the console as a left and right side. Each has a channel for mixing music. You are looking at 8 knobs, 3 sliders, 28 soft phosphorescent programmable buttons, 1 ministick to navigate through software and 2 vinyl-style decks to easily cue or alter BPM (beats per minute) slightly.

This is one of the vinyl-style decks. You will use it to CUE a beat precisely on a certain point in the record or even do some scratching. On your left the CUE and play/pause buttons. To your right you'll see a cross fader to mix the song. Notice that auto beat button a little higher. Really handy. First off, BPM is measured by software and quite precise I might add (not perfect though). Let's say song 1 is 120 BPM and song 2 is 124 BPM. Simply press the Auto Beat button and your song will be slowed down or get faster to a beat that equals the opposing song. Really handy as you can easily equal the beat of both songs within one push of the button. Often you need to correct it slightly though. I'll show you that later.

When we move upwards a little bit we'll notice on the left 3 knobs that control bass, medium and treble sound. A DJ's must. The upper knob can be used to adjust volume or pitch (whatever you want). The slider you are looking at is configured as master volume for the song for the more serious mixers among us. The Pitch bend buttons when programmed will up or lower the beat with .1 accuracy. Thus if your song is doing 120 BPM then you can use these buttons to set it at 120.1 or whatever beat you choose for it. BTW notice that little headphone sign ? By pressing it you can choose to monitor song 1 or 2.