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MixVibes Cross Pack Hands-On Review

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Cross Pack from MixVibes. Basically, this pack includes the new Cross software from MixVibes, their U46MKII usb interface, all the necessary wires, two vinyl control records, and two CD’s. I hooked everything up and gave it a test drive over the course of the week.

My first impressions of the packaging were good, it looked nice out the outside, and when I opened the box, everything was right where it was supposed to be. The U46MKII is really the heart of the Cross system, and it is quite an impressive little usb box. I has 2 inputs on the front of the box (1/4″) and each one is switchable. Input one can be mic, line, or phono and number 2 can be Hi-Z, line, or phono. The front also has an headphone output, which has its own volume control (as do all the inputs.) The back of the U46MKII features the power jack (the box is not usb powered, there is a power adapter included,) usb jack, 4 RCA outputs, and 2 RCA inputs.

Since I spin vinyl, I skipped right over the control CD’s (which were actually pretty cool looking – one was completely red, the other orange) and went straight to the wax. The first thing I noticed was that it was much thinner than my Serato control vinyl, which would make it a little better for scratching. Another feature of the vinyl that I liked was the little white line printed on to the label. Instead of having to worry about marking your records yourself (for beat juggling, scratching, etc.,) Mixvibes already took care of this for you.

I unhooked my Serato SL-1 in my coffin and proceeded to hook up the U46MKII. Hook-up was pretty straightforward, and it was nice that all the connections were in the back for all the RCA’s – most other DVS systems have them on both sides of the box, which doesn’t make much sense to me. I did not notice a way to hook up the box so there is a “thru” mode like in Serato. Maybe MixVibes will add that feature to the Cross software in the near future, but for now, that’s a turnoff for me since I occasionally spin real vinyl at my gigs.

I had to consult the manual during the initial setup, something that I never do for ANYTHING. It was a little more complicated than Serato – which is pretty much plug and play, but once I figured it out, I was all set. On the upside, one of the reasons it was a little complicated is because of all the different configurations the U46MKII is capable of. This is a very versatile USB soundcard! In fact, I had to record some audio at my day job the other day. I didn’t want to bring my mixer and a bunch of cords to capture the audio, so I just brought the U46MKII, a mic, and my laptop. I plugged in the U46MKII via usb, selected “mic” on one of the front input switches, and plugged in my mic. I pulled up Audacity (recording program) and it automatically recognized the U46MKII as an input source. I hit “record” and had no trouble capturing the audio.

On to performance. I played around with the latency setting until I found one that was as low as I could go without audio glitches. In all honesty, I can say that Mixvibes Cross along with the U46MKII will give you latency as low as Serato (maybe even lower with computer tweaks.) I usually run my Serato buffer at 2, and the feel with Cross was almost identical. (I was using my MacBook Pro with a 2.4 Intel Core Duo and 2 gigs of ram.)

When I DJ, I need three things from my DJ software: looping, cue points, and a good library management tool. So, these are the things I tested with Mixvibes Cross. The looping function is very intuitive, I was able to set perfect loops with very little effort. I was also very impressed with the cue points. When you set a cue point with Mixvibes Cross, you can either click the button to set it, or just hit whatever button you assign the cue feature to on your keyboard. It operates like a “hot cue” – for example, if you assign the one of the cue point features to “1″ on your keyboard, you can press “1″ to set the cue point, and “1″ again to go back to the cue point. The cue points were VERY tight, with Serato I feel kind of a slight delay when triggering cue points (very very slight), with Cross it was instant. The music library tool was great as well. It did take some getting used to, but once I figured everything out, it did exactly what I needed it to do. DJs that organize their music in iTunes will love Mixvibes Cross. When you open up your iTunes in the Cross music library, it looks EXACTLY like iTunes. Picture a screenshot of iTunes in your DJ progam – that’s what it looks like.

I mixed and scratched with Mixvibes Cross and the vinyl control records for a few hours. No glitches or freezes, just nice and smooth mixing. Scratching sounded good as well, although I did notice a little bit of “sticker drift” when juggling two identical tracks. Meaning that after going back and forth from deck A to Deck B many times, the beginning of the sample was in a slightly different area of the record. This was really the only flaw I found when giving MixVibes Cross a thorough mix session. I could not figure out how to play in an “internal mode” and could not find anything about this in the manual either. I don’t DJ with internal mode very often with Serato, but occasionally switch over to it after mixing a track if there is a bouncy floor or a drunken guest banging into my turntables. It would be nice to see this added to the Mixvibes Cross software.

Overall I was very impressed with Mixvibes Cross. Being a loyal Serato user, I was expecting it to totally suck, but this wasn’t the case at all. I could easily see myself rocking a 7-8 hour gig with this software. I still love my Serato and will continue to use it when I DJ, but Mixvibes Cross is a great option for a DJ looking to buy they’re first DVS system. The Mixvibes Cross Pack sells for $349 (vs $539 for the Serato SL1 and $699 for the Serato SL3).

It’s definitely a solid product at a solid price.