Allen & Heath Xone:DX + Serato Itch 1.6 - Review

In October 2009 Allen & Heath, the leader in production of mixers for live bands and for DJs, presented Xone:DX, its first all-in-one controller for DiJs, which has been on sale together with mixing software Serato Itch 1.6 for several months now. We’ve had an opportunity to test it, and here we bring to your attention results of our tests together with 3 demonstration videos.

The controller looks very solid, the metal framework and the weight make impression of robustness, the dimensions are a happy medium between ample space and compactness, and while using it you never feel that the commands are too close to each other. There are plastic protective parts on 4 angles of the controller in order to avoid impacts. The upper part is characteristic for a controller with 4 mixer channels equipped with EQ controls and gain and buttons for activation of 2 control panels of Itch effects. Each channel has a preview button, a switch to assign a channel to a crossfader and 4 LED meters for volume control of tracks.
In the centre, between 2 couples of mixer channels, there are headphones volume control with split-cue button, browsing controls necessary to choose a track which you want to download, volume controls of Master and Booth outputs and vu-meters of master output.

On the sides there are deck controls which have duplicate functions in order to use 2 decks on one side. When you press the button Layer, the back illumination of decks area changes from red (for a default deck) to green, so that you can control the second deck. Working in this way it is very difficult to make a mistake. Meanwhile when pressing button Shift we can see that each control has an additional function, thus there are a lot of functions available.
Below we can see 4 buttons for recalling of hotcues, cue and play-pause buttons, jog wheel which is not touch-sensitive, Layer and Load buttons and endlessly rotating encoder for pitch control. Cue and play-pause buttons are metal, and their quality is the same as that of top CDJ players on sale. The jog wheel is similar to those present in models Xone 3D and 4D, of high quality, but not touch-sensitive, which is a right choice, in my opinion, as it is too small to have strange ambitions of scratcher. Pitch encoder has 2 functions: when it is rotated normally and when it is rotated while being pressed: perhaps, choosing an encoder for pitch function may not be appreciated, but further we will see that the result of the test turned out to be surprising.

Above we find buttons for other additional functions such as activation of master tempo or sync, loop controls and effects section equipped with 4 push encoders which have other 4 buttons – a layout intended for Serato Itch, which is perfect for application with Traktor Pro (and not accidentally, in my opinion).

The quality of cursors, buttons and knobs is the same as of Allen & Heath mixers for DJs, thus touching this controller is really pleasant, you feel as if you were touching an absolutely professional product which has everything that all other mixers and CDJ players on sale have.
On the rear there are all audio connections (Xone:DX has a soundcard with 4 stereo inputs and 4 stereo outputs).

On the left we can find an XLR balanced master output and an RCA unbalanced output near it, as well as outputs of the rest 3 output channels. There are inscriptions of functions which 4 outputs have in Serato Itch, but obviously we can assign other functions to them when other types of software are used.
In the input section there is a mini-jack port for direct input which can be useful in case of software crash. Here we can connect an audio source (for example, a CDJ player or an MP3/ CD player) which goes directly to master output. This input doesn’t have any volume or EQ control, thus volume is regulated directly by the player used, otherwise there could be obvious differences between the volume of player and that of mixing software. The lack of a simple volume control for this input is an obvious marketing choice (aimed to distinctly separate Xone:DX from Xone 4D), however I don’t feel like supporting this decision: one more knob wouldn’t add much to the difference between these two products, however it would facilitate significantly the work of DiJs with  Xone:DX.
Four inputs of the soundcard have different functions, there are one Mic-Line channel, two Phono-Line channels (with a USB port for turntables) and one Line channel. In order to use external audio sources in Serato Itch you just need to choose the necessary channel on the controller and press Shift+Cue. The LED of Cue button will become orange, and the waveform window of the software will become grey.
On the right we can see power supply port, digital In-Out, traditional MIDI connections, USB port for connection to a computer. On the front there are a headphones connection (6,3 mm jack and a mini-jack) and a microphone port (XLR only) with volume  controls and high and low frequencies controls.
We do not have official information on internal components of the soundcard, but after several tests made with powerful amplifiers I can say that the sound quality both of XLR and of RCA outputs is really remarkable, and Xone:DX can be used for big dance floors without any doubts.  

Video - Allen Heath Xone:DX – design characteristics
(in Italian language)

Installation and application with Serato Itch 1.6
Installation of drivers and of  Serato Itch went without problems. We used for our tests a computer with 64-bit Windows Seven Home Premium installed on it, which required installation of specific drivers that can be downloaded here: http://www.xone.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3483&PN=1. The mixing software installed is Serato Itch 1.6, a version developed specially for Xone:DX, the only one which allows application of 4 decks.
This version of Serato Itch is not very different from version 1.5. At the bottom there are 4 waveforms, in the centre there’s either brief or detailed information about decks which is displayed automatically, depending on which deck from each couple you are using on the controller (1 or 2, 3 or 4), a little higher there is an effects section, and at the top there is a browser. In this sense the use of Itch is similar to the version for NS7 + NSFX, for Vestax VCI-300 + VFX1 or for Numark V7, but with 4 decks instead of two.

An important innovation regards management of active decks and of preview which goes on in a completely automatic way. It is possible to preview from one to four decks at the same time, you just need to press 4 cue buttons simultaneously. If you press one button at a time, the deck control on the side will activate automatically at the same time on the deck chosen for preview. When all cue buttons are disabled, master output is previewed automatically in the headphones. This is a very simple and convenient way to handle the preview, and during the tests it proved to work perfectly well.
Another function introduced to Serato Itch 1.6, which is very convenient for mixing with 4 decks, is beatgrids function with auto tempo. Repeating a similar function of other types of software, it allows to set markers in order to define the beginning of musical beats divided into 4 sections. This allows not only to synchronize tracks, but also to observe musical metrics of tracks when they are played. These beatgrids can be created, modified, moved and deleted. Besides, thanks to auto tempo function it is possible to set predefined tempo of your mixset, and all the tracks which you will use will match the tempo defined before.
Even though Serato has little experience with functions of such type (Serato Scratch Live has never had and doesn’t have sync function), it works undoubtedly well, even though every now and then you need to make slight corrections in order to beatmatch the tracks again.
What you notice at once using Serato Itch with Xone:DX is that there is no scratch, and I approve 100% of this decision. In order to scratch with mixing software it is absolutely necessary to have high-quality touch-sensitive jog wheels, otherwise it will be only a poor imitation. In this case Allen & Heath and Serato have put quality first, without adding a function which wouldn’t work at the same level as other functions of the controller.

Now let’s talk about the rotary encoder used for pitch instead of a traditional fader. This choice was made in order to maintain compact dimensions of the controller, and certainly DJs – traditionalists will not like it. But actually after several tests I was astonished by how well this encoder works. Working with Serato Itch, when you rotate it pressing it at the same time, you get rough regulation of pitch, but when you rotate it not pressing it, you get gradual pitch regulation in hundredths of BPM. In this way it is possible to reach manual beatmatching of high precision.  I personally made some tests of manual beatmatching with 4 decks, and the precision of the system is really surprising. Even though I would consider using Serato Itch with 4 decks for manual beatmatching a bit strange, I can say that you can do it with Xone:DX after some practice without any particular problems.
Loops and effects (the same as those in Serato Itch 1.5 and in Serato Scratch Live 2.0) are controlled via Xone:DX without any difficulties, everything is clear and simple, indications on the controller allow not to check the software too soon when using them.

Video – testing of Allen & Heath Xone:DX with Serato Itch 1.6
(in Italian language)

Allen & Heath Xone:DX and Traktor Pro
Of course, we decided to carry out a compatibility test of the controller with another important 4-deck mixing software, Traktor Pro, using one of configuration files .tsi available at the official Native Instruments forum. Both soundcard and MIDI mapping configuration went smoothly without any problems, and LEDs and vu-meters function correctly. As we have already said, Xone:DX layout fits Traktor Pro perfectly well, thus its application with 4 decks is very simple and convenient. Obviously, not all functions of Itch and Traktor Pro are identical, thus not all indications on the controller coincide with Traktor Pro functions, but 90% of them are the same. Besides, mappings which you can find in Internet give a perfect basis to customize the controller to your mixing style.

All in all, Xone:DX proved to be an excellent 4-deck controller for Traktor Pro, certainly the best on the market at present time.

Video – testing of Allen & Heath Xone:DX with Traktor Pro 1.2.6
(in Italian language)

Conclusions
Before writing conclusions on this product, I would like to ponder on a thought. When we talk about such products as this one, the common question is the following: is it worth spending so much money on a controller with an integrated soundcard? There can be one answer only: it depends on what you expect from these products. We have to repeat this over and over again: this is a controller and nothing else. If you want something different, Allen & Heath has Xone 4D. As long as such questions are made, which are senseless, in my opinion, it will not be possible to evaluate correctly the quality of these products.
Anyway, I was very curious too to see if such an expensive product could show a reasonable price-quality relationship. In my personal opinion, Xone:DX is a product of highest quality which at present doesn’t have counterparts on the market, considering that Numark NS7 and V7 are conceptually different controllers. But if you want to have an ultimate controller to mix with 4 decks, Xone:DX is the only correct choice present on the market at present. The product developed by Allen & Heath is very impressive from every point of view; the quality of all the components is first-class, and such 4-deck software with double effects section as Serato Itch in bundle allows to create mixsets of quality above average. We should also remember that Serato Itch will be supported by The Bridge which will allow to mix with Ableton Live Suite 8. The only real shortcoming is the lack of volume regulation for external audio input, but this is a marketing choice, and discussing such choices is often difficult.

We would like to thank for this review Grisby Music (http://www.grisbymusic.it) and its president Lorenzo Benigna, who was very patient responding to my e-mails every time during these several months, and Debby Maxted from Allen & Heath UK (http://www.allen-heath.co.uk/UK/) who allowed this review to come true.

Review by CyberMix
(Translated and edited by Taissia Zubova)