DJ Vintage

If I can be so bold as to repeat myself and advise to get a slightly better controller.

Current favorites are:
* Pioneer DDJ-RB2 (or RB if you want RekordBox DJ with it)
* Numark Mixtrack Pro (all of them) or the new Mixtrack Platinum
* Denon MC2000 (the best build in the industry)
* Reloop Beatmix 2 (both mk1 and mk2)

All these controllers get you from “just playing around” through “serious practicing” to “your first live gigs” without any trouble.

Alternative software for DJuced, you might want to look at Mixvibes. Full software will cost you just short of 40 euro and you can get a time-limited trial version. The RB obviously comes with the RekordBox DJ software, so no extra expense there. Some of the others may have a LE (lite) version of Serato for example. Virtual DJ is another software to check out.

Select the tracks, right click and choose your analyze option (you can set a user profile too).
Yes, it shows a check mark next to the played track in the track list. You can set the time before it is marked as played.

I am pretty outspoken on this issue. Probably because next to being a long time DJ I am also a sound engineer. 3-band EQ on mixers (or any other gear), especially those with fixed center frequencies and bandwidth is usable primarily for fine tuning some particular things in a (mic) channel. This type of EQ is singularly unsuited for room EQ, which is the only reason a DJ should use it since you have full channel EQ for fine-tuning and effect purposes on your controller already.

What I have seen happen if you give DJs access to EQ on a PA mixer, is that things get turned up (especially) bass because it becomes even louder. The end result is never an improvement.

So my basic message is, if you don’t have the skills and/or knowledge and you don’t have the gear, don’t touch the acoustics.

With the EQ out of picture and fader riding not an issue (once you set the 0dB gain path throughout, you don’t really have to touch the PA Mixer volume level of your controller input anymore. Thus, it really doesn’t make a difference if you use the TRS (are you sure, often line inputs on lower and mid-range mixers are simple TR, so unbalanced!) inputs or the RCA.
Clearly if they are truly balanced TRS connections and you controller has balanced Jack/XLR outputs and the PA mixer is not within a few feet of your controller, then the balanced route would be best. Otherwise just hook up to the aux from your rca outputs from your controller.

I’d personally spend a bit more and get an entry level (but solid) controller. Spotify Premium only comes in handy for music discovery, but you guys do Vintage parties, I am guessing you know all the music from “your days”.

Don’t buy PA if you don’t have to, renting is easier and better. If you do have to buy PA, be aware that “you get what you pay for”. There are no shortcuts to that and there are no low-budget speakers that will sound good enough to do a paid gig with imho. Again, easier to rent professional gear than to buy professional gear.

I would start with the money-back-guarantee How To Digital DJ Fast course. It will get you from total newbie to someone that knows the basics. It also helps you to know what to practice and how to practice it properly.

Clearly you’ll need headphones as well. Read some of the reviews. There is one VERY cheap pair of headphones that are great for DJ-ing, the Sennheiser HD-201. Not the best build quality, but sound wise they are the best you can get for under 30 bucks.

No problem on the English, you are doing well!

Well, both size and budget play a role in what features you will find in a controller. Both the MB2 and the MC2000 are relatively compact controllers at a reasonably low price point. Something’s gotta give. In those cases the level meters.

The MTPlatinum WILL have meters, but is bigger. Also the meters say “master”, no clue if they double as channel meters when the cue button is pressed. Not sure how the pricing compares as I haven’t looked at that yet.

Moderator comment: Moved this to a post of it’s own.

@Joel: Why did you post this as a reply to a question about something totally unrelated??? You were not answering the matter of the original poster, nor where you adding any relevant information to the thread. The only proper way is to post your own NEW topic in the appropriate forum. Please help make our (moderator) lives easier by abiding by the posting guidelines. Thanks.

Nice setup, should work nicely!

The Denon MC2000.

All of these are not particularly suited for Traktor DJ. Since you failed to tell us what are the really important things (like what software, what kind of DJ-ing and such), we’ll just go on the assumption that you are not on the Traktor path. If you are, your choices are pretty much limited to Traktor/NI gear and in your budget bracket that would get you something like the S2.

You say entry level controller, then you say you don’t want cheap, and then you go on to say you have a budget of about 300 euro. That pretty much is the price range of (decent) entry level controllers.

The controllers you mentioned are all good choices, each has it’s own pro’s and cons. Read the controller guide and the recent reviews on some of them over on the main site.

The DDJ-RB I would only get if you are 200% sure you are going to go with RekordBox DJ software, otherwise the SB2 is a better choice from Pioneer.

As for quality and build and such. It’s an entry level controller, so don’t expect pro quality and features. That said, they are all up to the task and then some. They will most likely be used in a stationary setting for (lots of) practice. They are not gonna get hurt too bad doing that. The occasional house party is certainly possible as well. Depending on your learning curve and playing out (part of that curve), you will start to want more advanced options sooner or later. By then you will know so much about workflow that it will be much easier to pick your follow-up controller.

Hope that helps some.