DJ Darren, post: 19913, member: 699 wrote: I want to get the Traktor F1 at the end of May to use with my laptop and 2 pioneer cdj 1000s & pioneer djm 500 mixer in the club where I am resident DJ (for over 8 years). I have never DJ’ed with a laptop before. Firstly can this be done, will it work? and do I need a soundcard or audio interface if thats what its called? and I need a laptop stand, plus DJ bag any recommendations? My budget is small less £300 any advice is appreciated.
Well to start you’ll need to ditch the 1000’s as they cannot control Traktor (unless your going to upgrade to Traktor Scratch Pro, and use timecode CDs, but that is a different ballgame as far as setting up is concerned and you would need an external soundcard).
Pioneer 350’s, 400s, 850,s, 2000s will act as a controller for a single deck in Traktor (these have inbuilt soundcards so no need for an external one) – So in essence the way you’ve suggested, for a set up you’ll need 2 x CDJs (for decks A & B), and 2 x Kontrol F1s (for full use of remix decks C&D) – The DJM 500 has four seperate channels so no need to change that in essence – You definitely don’t need a traktor certified mixer.
Of course the other way of doing it is to use a dedicated controller, again you would need a controller with an inbuilt sound card which is where your budget limits you. The ideal controller would be the Kontrol S4 or S2 as you wouldn’t need to worry about mapping (always a bomus for a newbie digital DJ). You don’t always need a laptop stand or riser, but this is dependant on how you work and how much space is in the DJ console/booth.
There are plenty of more varients on set-ups, but what I’ve suggested above is a direct reply to your question, hope it helps a little!
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