This little controller was quite a nice surprise for me, as I didn’t expect a device with this kind of satisfying build quality and fully motorized motorized platters for this price. We’re going to take a little bit of a closer look on this neat piece of hardware here.
Note: Hercules also now sells Premium and White editions of the T7. The Premium Edition adds an upgraded fader module, a carrying case and extra scratching slipmats, while keeping the same basic T7 concept. Let’s begin!
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A 2-channel scratch-focused controller with 7-inch belt-driven motorized platters, full-length tempo faders, FX paddles, RGB performance pads, Stems controls, and beginner-oriented Beatmatch Guides.
- Large 7-inch motorized platters with a convincing vinyl-style feel.
- The belt-driven platters showed little to no noticeable drift in the hands-on review.
- Both balanced XLR and RCA master outputs are available.
- FX paddles work well for scratch-style performance.
- 8 RGB-backlit performance pads per deck.
- Full-size 3.9-inch / 10-cm tempo faders allow finer pitch adjustments.
- Balanced microphone input with its own level control.
- Built-in Beatmatch Guide LEDs can help beginners learn manual beatmatching.
- No dedicated booth output.
- The chassis uses a substantial amount of plastic.
- Serato DJ Pro is not included – it requires a paid upgrade.
| Mixer | 2 channels; gain, 3-band EQ, filter and channel fader per deck |
| Motorized Platters | 2 x 7-inch / 17.8-cm belt-driven metal platters with removable slipmats and replica vinyl records |
| Platter Speed | 33 1/3 RPM; 45 RPM available with Serato DJ Pro |
| Tempo Faders | 3.9-inch / 10-cm full-size faders |
| Performance Pads | 8 RGB pads per deck; modes include Hot Cue, Loop and Stems |
| FX Controls | 3 FX Select buttons and 1 paddle per deck, plus effect control and Beat +/- controls |
| Beatmatch Guides | Built-in tempo and beat-alignment light guides for DJUCED |
| Software | DJUCED and Serato DJ Lite included; Serato DJ Pro supported as a paid upgrade |
| Stems | Dedicated Stems controls supported in DJUCED and Serato |
| Audio Interface | 44.1 kHz / 24-bit |
| Master Outputs | Balanced XLR stereo pair x1 + RCA stereo pair x1 |
| Booth Output | No dedicated booth output |
| Headphone Outputs | 1/4-inch stereo x1 + 3.5 mm stereo mini jack x1 |
| Microphone | 1 x balanced 1/4-inch / 6.35-mm input with level control |
| Power / Computer | External DC power adapter + USB computer connection; computer required |
First Things First
Of course, like you probably would have guessed, the very first thing that stands out when you unpack the device is its 7-inch platters, which look pretty impressive out of the box. We will come back to these later on.
The device is reasonably sturdy, but not really heavy. At the same time it’s far from being a portable DJ controller. A large part of its chassis is hard plastic which is to be expected in this price range. It has extendable feet which allow you to run cables underneath the controller if you’d like to do that.
The pitch faders are full size, which means that they are the exact same size they would be on a “professional” turntable. This allows for more precision when doing small tempo changes, and is overall a nice thing to have, especially on a controller meant for scratch DJs.
The DJControl Inpulse T7 is powered by a 18.5 V / 2.5A power supply which comes bundled with the device. There is a microphone input on the device, with adjustable input gain, and there are two pairs of master outputs on the back: XLR and RCA.
What also stands out when you look at the device’s front panel is the dedicated Beatmatch Guide button (for a function which aims to aid beginners by helping them to match beats during transitions), and the Stem performance pad mode as well as the instrumental/vocal buttons on each of the decks – DJUCED software comes with real-time track stem separation capabilities!
The crossfader curve is adjustable, albeit not by a knob like on some older Pioneer DJ devices – there are 2 standard presets here, and a third setting which disables the crossfader completely – this should be enough for most users. As there is not much more to say here, let’s get into the details!
The Motorized Platters
I’m personally a huge fan of traditional CDJ style jog wheels. But the motorized platters on the Inpulse T7 have really impressed me right from the first touch.
The 7-inch platters of the of the Inpulse T7 have a nice vinyl finish, and are powered by a belt-drive which can be unveiled on each deck when you lift the whole mechanism off. The motor speeds up to its full 33⅓ RPM speed relatively quickly and without trouble emulates the vinyl mixing experience pretty well. There is little to no drift present despite the motor not being direct-drive.
The controller comes with one pair of felt slipmats and two cut-to-size 7-inch “vinyls”, but if you’d ever like to replace these you can. Any standard 7-inch / 17.8-cm vinyl record will fit here. Good news for all of you who like to customize their gear.
FX Controls
This will be a pretty short description, as there is almost nothing special to talk about here, and everything works just as you would expect. There are two FX paddles on the device which can either be locked in the “on” position or temporarily held down.
There are three FX engage buttons per deck (with Serato all the buttons affect both decks, with DJUCED they are divided 3 buttons per each deck), alongside with the FX depth wet/dry knob. Simple, efficient and straight to the point. And the paddles feel great too!
Performance Pads
The performance pads on the DJControl Inpulse T7 feature customizable RGB backlight and work in 4 different basic modes. The first two modes are pretty self-explanatory, they let you control your hot-cues and loops just as on any other DJ controller.
With Serato DJ Lite however, you have to be wary of some limitations – for instance when using Serato DJ Lite instead of DJUCED software, you’ll be limited to 4 hot cues and 4 loop lengths only. You can read more about this here.
The last two performance pad modes are the stems mode – which enables you to turn 4 basic separated stems on and off, and the sampler mode – a classic sampler which you can fill with up to 8 different samples per deck.
It goes without saying that the Inpulse T7 does support all of the Serato DJ Pro performance pad modes without trouble.
The Software Compatibility
Good news! You don’t have to spend extra money on Serato DJ Pro if you don’t want to. The Hercules DJControl Inpulse T7 comes bundled with Hercules’ dedicated DJ software – DJUCED – as well as Serato DJ Lite.
This one is really interesting. While it doesn’t really feel like one of the bigger competitors in the DJ software space such as Serato, Rekordbox or Virtual DJ, it does have everything you need and more when you’re just starting out.
Truth be told, the DJUCED software has a few things that were able to surprise me – a die hard Rekordbox fan. Hercules DJ have come a long way since they entered the market quite a few years ago, also when it comes to their software.
DJ Academy training integration and Beatmatch Guides in DJUCED are both great features for beginner DJs. It’s also worth mentioning that the software supports real-time stem separation and music streaming through Beatport, SoundCloud Go+ and TIDAL.
DJControl Inpulse T7 comes with Serato DJ Lite and DJUCED software, and is compatible with the paid upgrade to Serato DJ Pro.
If you don’t know how Serato DJ Lite differs from Serato DJ Pro… let’s just say you’re in for quite a few surprises: Serato DJ Lite vs. Pro (12 Most Important Differences)
Hercules DJControl Inpulse T7 vs. Traktor Kontrol S4 Mk3
So, is the Inpulse T7 an affordable way to get motorized platters? Definitely. It’s still one of the more accessible DJ controllers built around two proper motorized platters.
The Traktor Kontrol S4 Mk3 does come somewhat close in some aspects, although after the first look it becomes apparent that these two controllers are set pretty far apart.
First, the Traktor Kontrol S4 Mk3 features much smaller motorized platters which are more geared towards club DJs who prefer moving jog wheels than anyone else. Second these have much different feel from the ones present on the DJControl Inpulse T7, not only because of the size difference, but also the difference when it comes to the motor itself.
| Hercules DJControl Inpulse T7 on Ebay: |
| Traktor Kontrol S4 Mk3 on Ebay: |
Last things last, the Traktor Kontrol series are a part of a pretty self-contained Native Instruments ecosystem, which while very advanced and great for seasoned DJ controller users, makes the onboarding experience for a potential aspiring scratch DJ a little bit harder, and is overall less rookie-friendly than the Inpulse T7 used with DJUCED or Serato DJ.
