Novation’s Dicer was released last year to much acclaim as a must have accessory to the digital DJ, using Serato and time coded vinyl as it gave the DJ access to cue points and looping facilities at the touch of a button.

There are plenty of YouTube videos showing various DJ’s doing their thing with it, but the Dicer isn’t just for the time code DJs or even just Serato users. The Dicer is a handy midi controller which works with any DJ software and is the perfect acompliment to those laptop DJs that prefer midi controllers to time coded vinyl and the external mixer over the programs internal mixer.

The Dicer comes in pairs and is joined together with a single USB cable and a minijack cable to attach the two together, which is ideal as its not hogging USB ports. Thankfully my laptop has three ports, one for the soundcard, external hard drive and now the Dicer.

Each Dicer features five big round rubber buttons which are numbered like dice and these are the main performance buttons. You also have three smaller ones which are used to select the various modes. Each mode lights the performance buttons a different colour, so you know what mode you are in. At the moment I’m only using two of the modes, but it’s nice knowing that I have more buttons there in case I need them in the future. This was always one of my main gripes with midi-controllers, they never seemed to have enough buttons on them, but with the Dicer, you are spoilt.

I’ve been using the Dicer in two different scenarios, but in each scenario I have the buttons assigned to do the same thing. Firstly when I’m playing out, I use a combination of a laptop and good old vinyl records, remember them, shaped like time coded vinyl, but actually had music on them?

The Dicer fits snuggly into the 45rpm adaptor slots on each turntable, so it’s out the way and gives me the freedom to play vinyl and control my laptop at the same time without midi controllers lying about and getting in the way. This set up allows me to jump between vinyl and digital music at the push of a button. Secondly I’ve been using the Dicer exclusively with my laptop when I’m guesting on The Apple Scruffs weekly radio show, every Friday night between 8-10pm on gsrs24.com All I do is unscrew the adapters from the bottom of each Dicer and apply the putty which comes in the box and stick each Dicer to the corners of my laptop.

If you’re using Serato then the Dicer comes pre-programmed with the various modes. However I am using M-Audio’s Torq and I’ve programmed the Dicer the way I want it and this how I have it set up:

Mode 1                                                                                       Mode 2

Performance Button 1: Synch                                                         Preformance Button 1: One Bar Loop

Performance Button 2: Hot Cue One                                                 Preformance Button 2: Two Bar Loop

Performance Button 3: Start/Stop                                                   Preformance Button 3: Three Bar Loop

Performance Button 4: Left Nudge                                                   Preformance Button 4: Four Bar Loop

Performance Button 5: Right Nudge                                                  Preformance Button 5: Loop In/Out

Each performance button feels solid and mega responsive to touch and after about half an hour you find yourself flicking between modes with ease and confidence and without actually looking at the numbers on the buttons as its set up the way it should be and it feels natural. My only complaint about the Dicer is when using it just with the laptop, I like to have two Dicers facing inwards toward each other, rather than having two L shapes like the photo on the back of the box. By having them face each other means that the buttons on the right had Dicer are back to front, so it would’ve been ideal if the numbers on the Dicer were actually removable so you could place them where you want, but to be honest after using the Dicers for a short time you actually don’t even use the numbers on them and you go with the flow.

I’ve had so much fun since the Dicer came into my set up and it’s made things so much easier, especially if you’re playing in a venue that has limited space for setting up a laptop and midi controller and having so much control at your fingertips is a joy.

No matter if you’re playing House, Techno, Funk, Soul, Disco, Hip Hop, I’m sure that the Dicer will fit into your set up.