Switching from controller to club gear. HELP!!!

This topic has 21 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 6 months ago by DJ Vintage.

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September 10, 2014 at 5:39 pm #2054791

DJ Vintage
Moderator

I would not spend money to get gear just to practice club gear, especially not an all-in-one! My advice is toeither find a club that will let you practice on their gear before hours or just rent a set for a midweek (usually pretty cheap as it sits in the rntal companies warehouse on weekdays collecting dust.

I promise you, if you are comfortable using a controller, two to three hours on a set of CDJs and a regular mixer and you’ll wonder why you ever dreaded using that gear.

September 10, 2014 at 7:05 pm #2054871

Marco Solo
Participant

I’ve had only a few goes at playing with CDJ’s (and I mean a few songs, not a few nights) and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, really. If you can beatmatch that’s already more than you need. A club will have a CDJ900 or better, normally. This means it has decent waveforms, bpm display up to 1 decimal point and plenty of options in terms of playlists. All of which you already use in your software. And the new nexus line even has sync.

September 10, 2014 at 7:10 pm #2054901

DJ Vintage
Moderator

And the Rekordbox compatible players are – obviously – compatible with … TATA … Rekordbox LOL

September 10, 2014 at 7:13 pm #2054931

Marco Solo
Participant

NO! You don’t say! You’re a genius, Vintage! 😛

September 10, 2014 at 9:13 pm #2054951

DJ Vintage
Moderator

I know, but I remain modest!

September 12, 2014 at 2:18 pm #2056341

Annakyn
Participant

Really gets to me this no controller! But you can run a laptop with CDJ’S. If you are using a laptop for media storage why can’t you use a controller. The controller is designed for the software CDJ’S are not!

Just a rant to all blindsided club owners.

September 12, 2014 at 2:26 pm #2056372

deathy
Participant

“We spent an arm and a leg for this gear, and dangit, I expect you to use it!“

September 14, 2014 at 12:59 pm #2057082

Terry_42
Keymaster

I then LOL and go on to show them what I can do on CDJs and what I can do on my controller.
Nobody ever asks me again then if I could use their CDJs…

September 14, 2014 at 11:02 pm #2057261

gullum
Participant

If your controller has 2 jog wheels and 2 pitch faders and you know how to beatmatch there really should be no stopping you from using any club setup.

September 20, 2014 at 12:14 am #2060332

Isaiah Furrow
Participant

I somewhat agree with the above statement about beat matching and using club gear not being that far off of what you have at home. The question I have about this topic is this: When using my gear at home I have developed a workflow and use features that aren’t on CDJs and DJM mixers. Such as hot cues. Why anyone would spend the amount that a pair of CDJs cost, and buy a product without cues is beyond me. So, how does one go about practicing their set the way they will have to play it on a CDJ/DJM setup? Do you just practice mixing the tracks and leave out the rest of your performance for a gig like that? To me, this doesn’t seem like a good plan, and having to go in and compromise your performance to use their “industry standard” gear is just BS in my book. I don’t live in an area where there are many “clubs” or venues that have their own gear, so I don’t see that being an issue personally. Eventually I’d like to get some gigs at “clubs” in nearby cities, but I will likely NOT take on a gig if the venue won’t permit me to perform as usual. Just thoughts…. I’ll check back later to see what others have to say to the OP. Keep shining and keep us posted….

September 21, 2014 at 12:32 pm #2060711

neonfever@hotmail.com
Participant

I would recommend downloading rekordbox and learning it, building a library on USB, and testing it with whatever CDJ you can find. Once you know how rekordbox works, you won’t learn anything else… provided you already know how to beatmatch/mix.

September 21, 2014 at 5:47 pm #2060732

LittleHuman
Participant

UPDATE: I dj’d a house party last night. Cops came and the home owners ran because there were minors there. I was told I could leave by the police but because I wasn’t drunk but I couldn’t get my gear because I wasn’t the home owner nor did I know where he was. Needless to say when I swung back by an hour later to get my stuff everything was missing. Laptop, controller, speakers, headphones and external hard drive. The police department said that the officers would have no reason to take the speakers and controller and probably wouldn’t take the laptop. (I called to see if they grabbed it for “evidence”)

So basically I NEED to buy new gear now. I have an old laptop but there is no way I could use it for DJ’ing. (it’s from 2004) I’m going to go through ZZSounds and their payment plan but what would be better: Mixdeck Quad or CDMP-7000?

September 21, 2014 at 9:35 pm #2060742

Isaiah Furrow
Participant

Oh man, wow…. So sorry to hear that… I’ll be pulling for you to get some more good paying gigs soon to recoup. Did the police make a report of the missing stuff? Do you know any of the people from the party or the homeowner? Hope you can track it down, and recover it, plus interest…. that’s just wrong.
I guess we can all take a lesson from this, DON’T ever leave your gear at a house party, in a situation like that I would have to insist to the cops that I’m not leaving, not without my gear. I don’t think they could really MAKE you leave, nor keep you from taking your gear. Maybe they’d take down your license info and such in case the homeowner came back and tried to say you stole “his” dj equipment or something. I would have just hung around, or if I left it would be cause the cops forced me to via handcuffs and cruiser, or let me load out my gear. Maybe a buiseness card and other “evidence” that you really are the DJ and it’s really your gear may have helped in that case. Things such as contracts, other portfolio type stuff, your business license, showing them your speaker covers and other bits in your vehicle/trailer. I’m considering magnetic logo for my vehicle. Explain to the cop that this is your business and livelihood. Also, another reason to look into insurance, something I’m hoping to be able to get done soon.
Again, so sorry to hear of your loss. Wishing you the best.

September 22, 2014 at 2:18 pm #2060831

tashan.kaan@hotmail.com
Participant

I feel really sorry for you.

I’d go crazy if my laptop was stolen or lost. Years and thousands of hours of work would be simply away. Fuck. I don’t even want to imagine that case.

September 22, 2014 at 2:36 pm #2060861

DJ Vintage
Moderator

@ NeonFever: “downloading rekordbox and learning it, building a library on USB, and testing it with whatever CDJ”. Be aware that only a relative small number of CDJs actually support USB AND RekordBox! So hardly “whatever” CDJ. More like “one of the few RekordBox-enabled CDJs”.

@ LittleHuman: Yes, that totally S*CKS big time! Quad or CDMP-7000 is quite a spread financially. That is the regular quad. If you mean the Express, it’s also a spread, just the other way.Is Pioneer’s offering an option (R1 comes to mind)? If you don’t need the CD-option, suddenly the world is your oyster in the 600-950 euro range.

@ Santa Creek: You sure you ever dealt with American (angry) cops? In my (granted modest and limited) experience they are not the most congenial types to enter into a discussion with in the mids of a raid.

@ Leguan: It’s why we can’t stress the need of PROPER BACKUP enough 😛 .
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