Controller AND CDJ's

I do this…

I have a Traktor S8 which I use for the most part to control Decks A and B in tractor. I then have the CDJs hooked up to control deck C and deck D. I use timecode for this and use it as a DVS on these two tracks. The mixer on the S8 can also be used as a standalone, so if you really wanted, you could just have 4 CDJ’s running through it and use the CDJ’s just as CDJ’s without the need for time code.

You can switch the S8 to standalone mode for whatever deck you select, but to do this mid-set would be a bit cumbersome. I’ve found that I hardly ever play using “traditional” CD’s now as my entire library is digital. Seems a bit pointless to keep switching around when I have everything in one place.

Its not a cheap way to do things however, I think the going rate for an S8 at the moment is £800.00 (I got mine when it first came out and they were doing a killer deal on them so I paid around £500.

The going rate on eBay for a CDJ 1000 MK3 at the moment is around 300/player, so I reckon you’d be looking at around £500-600 a pair.

Find out which method of mixing you want to start with (CD players or Controller), and learn to mix like that first, then look at adding more bits to your setup, otherwise you could end up spending money unnecessarily!

Shopping for new gear is fun though!

What Vintage said, why people think CDJs are still relavant is beyond me…

The amount of awesome music you can buy, the courses you can take (on here of course) and still have cash left over!

Actually I refused a pair of NXS 😛 and I would have gotten them for free. I simply do not limit myself by gear and outdated gear is limiting your creative freedom ON PURPOSE. Which is a concept I cannot wrap my head around. But then I started on vinyl over 20 years ago and it is unbeleavable how the landscape has changed and what I can pull of live now compared to then…

Hi…would someone help me out. I have a s8 and I want to conect another laptop running a apc or novation synth with a external sound card. Is syncing both s8 and Ableton together thro midi from s8 to sound card of Ableton is the best way?

Todd I have about 12-13k CDs. You bring them (with a huge truck) to a conversion company, they charge you a fee, which is reasonable and you have it digital on a HD. Or you convert them yourself on demand. It is too many songs anyways, 99% of those CDs I will never play again as there is too much new music and the few I play I can convert easily before the gig rather than carry a CD case to the gig, which I am glad I will never EVER have to do again.

A core collection of between 500-1500 tracks should get you through the world easily.

Converting 1500 tracks will take you 6 months if you take it really easy. If you commit, you can convert 4 CDs an hour on a 1-drive computer, approximately 80 tracks an hour. Let’s say you do 2 hours a night for 160 tracks total. Do that for 2 weeks on weekday nights and you are done. So I am siding with Terry in that having a lot of CDs in and of itself is no real reason to stick with CDJs and analogue mixers. The pay-off from digital systems in the vastly improved feature set and creative possibilities is such that “old” technology loses quickly.

I can see why someone would want DVS, vinyl is an acquired taste and while I and many others have just moved beyond vinyl, there are still folks that just want that vinyl feel. No controller offers that (maybe the NS7 and SC3700/3900s) so DVS is your only option. CDJs however are no different from controllers (the actual jogs on the SZ/RZ are the exact same as on a CDJ2000, the ones on the SX/RX like the 900s). So really the ONLY thing they offer that controllers don’t have is the option to play CDs, for which you offer up a lot of functionality. The USB option is not very interesting imho for use with your own gear (not talking about taking just a USB stick to a gig, although I’ll just as easily take my laptop in a backpack with a stand) as the display/browse options on CDJs are nowhere near as good as those in DJ software.

Again, I have two NDX500s, but the only two reasons I have them is a) during mobile gigs people still do show up with CDs (older folks at weddings mostly, the others just shove their iPhone or Samsung in your face and tell you “it’s on here”) or hand you a USB stick, which fortunately I can also put in the NDX, rather than risk sticking an unknown USB stick in my laptop (don’t do that ever guys!). The other reason, b), is as backup, plain and simple. I don’t really use them as controller although I could, because I don’t need to control 4 decks. I got through (DJ) life with 2 decks just fine so far.

By the way, I don’t think anybody is giving anybody flack about anything. Personally I think this site is one of the friendliest on the net and we (Terry and I) sure try hard to keep it that way. We do express our ideas, feelings, philosophies and such of course. But always as our opinion and not as a matter of fact, or so we hope.
Everything I wrote in this reply is how “I” view things. If someone wants to think differently and act accordingly then more power to them. At the end of the day it’s what works for you.

Having said all that, we ARE a site (and subsequent forums) aimed at (beginning and advanced) DIGITAL DJ’s. So it’s no real wonder that when you come here to talk about or even herald all the merits of CDJs that you will find some opposing opinions, complete with argumentation.

We do understand it’s hard to pick software/gear and stuff if you come from “old skool”, not in the least because like many of you Terry and I came up the same path. We hope we provide a platform for other people to chime in and we give our own advise based on reading every message on this forum for the last couple of years and our own personal experience and immersion in the DJ-world. With the sole purpose of helping everybody come to a conclusion/decision based on as much information as is needed.

This concludes the votes of the Dutch jury. 😀