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If you DJ 'in the box', the Kontrol X1 might not be for you.

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You'd be forgiving for thinking that NI's first attempt at a controller for their über-popular Traktor DJing software would be along the lines of Akai's APC40 - replicating the software's GUI and strongest features in hardware, making the visual feedback recognisable and the layout logical.

But you'd be far off the mark - NI has, for better or for worse, squarely aimed its product at one sector of its market - timecoded vinyl and CD users. While this makes sense as a business choice - NI needs to associate itself with currently installed professional club systems and equipment if it's to truly become a standard - it is odd to completely remove the ability, or at least make it very difficult, to use the X1 away from these scenarios.

That being said, NI has admitted that this isn't the last controller we'll see from it, so let's assess the X1 in the context it was designed for.

In detail

Anyone who is familiar with NI's excellent groovebox Maschine will instantly recognise the look and feel of the X1 - its black metal sheen and rubberised buttons have a satisfying and reassuring feel and it definitely feels like it will take a beating on the road and in the club. Once the unit is plugged in, like Maschine, it glows an array of colours from its backlit buttons and instantly works with the new version of Traktor - not a MIDI map in sight.

The X1's size and shape are designed to sit alongside a standard hardware mixer - not unlike Allen & Heath's Xone:1D. Unlike the 1D though, the X1 squeezes complete control of two decks into a tiny footprint, and does so quite remarkably.

The X1 is laid out fairly logically, with the effects and transport sections being of main interest. The effects section is comprehensive to say the least with a total of 28 controls for what is essentially a fairly simple element of Traktor. Along with the standard effects on/off buttons and amount knobs, NI has included a Dry/Wet knob, a global on/off button on each effects channel as well as Shift functions to cycle through effects.

"The X1 is laid out fairly logically, with the effects and transport sections being of main interest."

NI has also taken the questionable decision to label each of the on/off buttons and knobs with three of the most popular DJ effects: Delay, Reverb and Filter. It's up to you how much of an annoyance this could be – initially, we found it confusing, but after some reshuffling, we got used to it and it does make sense.

Conveniently, hitting Shift and FX On will make these labelled effects active on that channel, so if you have gone crazy with effects selection you can reset it to the defaults with one click and start again.