DJs! We are so use to doing and having things a certain way: battle or club style turntable setup, Pioneer or Denon CDJ’s, Numark NS6 or Pioneer DDJ-T1 controller. One thing’s for certain, we have always had something round to play with when DJing, but not any more. Novation changed that with the release of Twitch – The Touchstrip Controller. What! No platters? Nope, that’s why it’s called The Touchstrip Controller.
Touchstrip replaces the platters, making this baby a compact, well built, and really DJ-friendly controller. It’s small and light enough to throw in a backpack when gigging and is USB powered with LED backlit buttons. It’s bundled with Serato Itch, which is the perfect marriage. You can also use Twitch with Traktor and Ableton, but we weren’t wowed with the Traktor setup. Although it is slick, when using it with Traktor once you get use to where everything is located. Novation helps by providing a Traktor Overlay (skin), so that you know exactly where everything is located. But all that functionality jammed into a 2 channel controller just seems like overkill. We also experience some latency issues when using it with Traktor. Although in Traktor mode, having its own Filter control knob is nice. There are some quirks to deal with when using in Traktor mode, but just having the ability to rock this baby with Traktor is great. And I’m sure all the gear nutz will figure out how to make it rock solid with Traktor.
But Twitch was hands down made for Serato Itch.
Twitch with Traktor Overlay
Novation did a great job making it official with Serato Live. Everything is where it suppose to be and works flawlessly, like 2 decks in Serato Live mode. Controllers should be 2 decks (2 channels) or 4 decks (4 channels), period, not 4 decks on a 2 deck (2 channels) mixer (stop cramming). The soundcard is pretty nice as well. We had it connected to a pair of passive full range double 18’s, using the balanced TRS outs, which kept us knocking all night. And it has a DJ booth connection, making this a high quality, professional additions to any nightclub, lounge or bedroom DJ.
The Touchstrip is exactly that: a touch strip. The Swipe feature is used to slow down or speed up a track for perfect beatmatching. When using it in Itch mode, you can touch the swipe button twice, once blinking, the swipe feature can now be used for scratching. And if you’re into live remixing, the hotcues will not disappoint, with 8 large trigger pads.
Twitch Touchstrip
There are so many tight features on this baby. Novation created a game changer when it dropped Twitch – The Touchstrip Controller on the market with a retail price of only $499 USD. Wow! It’s going to be interesting to see if Novation will release a true 4 deck version of Twitch.
Novation Twitch Key Features:
TWITCH can put your music in time, leaving you free to get creative
– Serato ITCH software can beat match tracks so you can focus on performing
– TWITCH gives you hands-on control of some powerful performance tools
Touchstrips for navigating tracks
– Swipe tracks backwards and forwards as if you were touching the screen
– You can instantly ‘Drop’ into a tune at any point in the track
‘Slicer’ Performance Mode
– Slicer allows you to chop-up beats in time and re-arrange them on the fly
– 2 x 8 large Triggerpads let you to play eight rolling beat slices in any order
Tough and compact with a 2 in 4 out high-quality audio interface
– Designed for gigging: Compact casing, bus powered with LED buttons
– Balanced outputs, ultra-reliable audio/MIDI drivers and microphone input
Master FX and ‘Fader FX Mode’
– Add different effects to either or both channels with TWITCH’s FX section
– Use both channel faders for super-fast FX moves and tricks
Trigger Hot Cue Points and 2 different Loop Modes
– 8 large Triggerpads can fire off 8 cue-points anywhere in your track
– Trigger 8 different loop lengths and save them with your performance
