DJ Vintage

nick greek, post: 39829, member: 2957 wrote: i am not looking for monitors,i prefer spending more money on cdjs controllers etc. i just want some cheap loud pa speakers for house gatherings thnks for the info

You are welcome … but … uhm … were are we talking about monitors in any of this. I don’t think I used the word. My entire answer was based on their worth as PA speakers.

You asked if the showtecs were value for money and I think you got a decent answer. NO.

They ARE however CHEAP loud PA speakers (although I am guessing the 400W rating is peak or music power, meaning RMS is probably 2 x 100W, still loud enough for a living room party). And if you don’t care for sound quality, then by all means, go buy a set and crank them up to their distorted maximum power!

Greetinx,
C.

I don’t. Don’t have a DV2 and don’t use MixVibes :-).

Having said that, I think it is good plan to make one yourself if you haven’t done that sort of thing before. Making a mapping yourself will give you so much insight in how midi actually works on a much deeper level. It will go a long way in the future if you ever want to tweak standard mappings or fix problems.

Greetinx and good luck. Let us now if you managed it,
C.

I would like to try Serato DJ at some point (probably when they finally toss that Apple-ish “we’ll be the judge of what controller is good for you”-attitude and just go midi-mappable), but the elastic gridding wasn’t enough to convince me NOT to get the Denon. I do lots of weddings, company events (good pay :-)) and such. So most stuff I play pretty much follows the regular boom-clap of older dance music. I only play Latin and other-wordly musix occasionally (although I love Salsa dancing myself!).

Being rather Old Skool I think the sync button is a nice addition and I use it regularly, but I can live without it easily enough. At the time I bought the 6000 there was nothing in the Serato supported range (before DJ/DJ LE!) that ticked so many checkboxes on my wishlist. So going Traktor (could have chosen VDJ as easily) was a “sacrifice” I gladly made.

Greetinx,
C.

I recently got 2 Denon SC2900s (reasonably cheap) with a Denon X1600 mixer. I’d call this a rather high end set and ended up paying about 3,500 dollar for it. This is new of course and not including the Sennheiser (and if you bought HD25-IIs, that can run up the tab quite a bit by itself). Obviously high end from Pioneer (which doesn’t really have all that many more features than what I have and I personally tend to think build quality is even a bit less than the Denons) would run you up upwards of 5,750 dollar. Just to show you that CDJ/DJM setups are not as “cheap” as controller solutions, even if you would take the laptop you need into consideration.

You have good quality stuff and it will definitely get you “loose” on CDJ workflow. Depending a little on the state they are in and the hours (and amount of people) the have on them, I’d say you are somewhere between money’s worth and decent deal.

Greetinx,
C.

I am taking the scratch course and although I haven’t practiced too much due to family circumstances, I can say you can scratch with it too. The Denon jogwheels are attached directly to the electronics. So no delay and wear/tear from sprockets and such that need to transfer the movement. Very direct.

The unit is 100% roadworthy. As Simply stated, it is a highly personal choice. I never regretted mine for a minute. I have recently switched over to a Denon SC2900/X1600 setup, but the only reason being I like the big platters and the fact that with the money I charge, customers do expect to see some substantial gear and an iDJ Pro just won’t cut it (although I am gonna get one of those as backup and for smaller house and beach parties and stuff).

Good luck with your decision!

Greetinx,
C.

If you are a mobile jock, as I am too, one of my main concerns would be redundancy. Although the S4 has a switch on the back to set channel 4 to thru (so you can have a fallback iPod or something) that goes through the master volume and into the outputs, it is NOT a standalone mixer. If your laptop freezes and you need to reboot, the thru-option is feasible. Play one song from the iPod while you reboot, open Traktor and get cranking again. But what if you laptop dies? You are stuck with playing your iPod the rest of the night, no mic opportunity or anything.

At the time I decided on the Denon MC6000. Two mic inputs (one combo, one Jack) with 3-band EQ, matrix input (so pretty much any input can be routed to any channel (it has come in handy on many an occassion :-)), great sound and fully standalone, so works just as good with as without laptop. I had two simple CD players sitting next to it. Something goes wrong with Traktor (and it has) just flick the input switch for the channel to CD, press play and off I go. Even if the PC damage is permanent, I carry enough CDs (about 20 MP3 CD’s in twofold for a total of 40) to get me through the night.
And I have two mics I can continue using.

I know many on here think it is not gonna happen or not a big issues if it happens, just reboot and be done with it. I have been a DJ and into PCs for too long to know that Murphy is alive and kicking. And if you do weddings and stuff, you just can’t afford any serious hickups and not be prepared for it. I for one would never stake my reputation on a sound system which key ingredient is a laptop/PC.

Greetinx,
C.

I have no clue what “these” are, but looking at your profile picture, I am guessing “these” are the American DJ stands. I have two of those as well, both 6 ft, but one shortened to a size convenient for me.

I personally have never used the T-Bar thingie. It looks absolutely toy-ish. Another thing I don’t want is to be able to see through the bottom part. It is usually a (cable and cases) mess behind the DJ stand and I don’t want my audience to see that. It is one of the main reasons I hate using regular tables of any kind. You always need to put a skirt of some kind around it. More stuff to carry, more time to setup and it usually looks like an afterthought, not very professional.

You can only put flightcases on there as there is no tabletop. I have solved that by putting in boards, which means even more stuff to carry. I have solved the see-thru thing by making a custom “skirt” that goes over the top (to cover the ugly boards) and across the front and sides. It works, but not as professional looking as I would like it.

Although they set up relatively easy, they effectively consist of 4 bars and two side parts (and two board if you use those), for a total of 6-8 ungainly components. If you stick them in a flightcase, you are kinda defeating the purpose of small and portable in my opinion and I haven’t found a 6 ft bag that could hold both the long bars and the side things. So I end up taping the long bars together and the two side parts also for transport.

The ProDJUser stand I now use primarily (I do use the ADJ ones for live sound sometime) has two butterfly locks, open them, fold both sides out, lift up the bottom shelf, drop it back so it locks in the two slots, lift the top lid, unclick the two hinges that hold the top lid, drop the top lid to sit on the hinges and ready. I can actually do it faster than I can type how to do it. I bought a 24″ by 24″ RGB Led panel with remote control which I attach to the front to give a bit of a DJ look, but that is optional.

http://www.bax-shop.nl/dj-meubilair/prodjuser-dj-stand-dj-meubel/product-details.html

I have looked at and used a lot of tables and stands in my 35 year career, but I can safely say this is the best one I have found. It can take a beating on the road, sets up in 30 seconds (literally!), contains no lose parts, offers lots of room for gear (top) and miscellaneous stuff (lower shelf). The working height is just right (if you are really tall you can use the top of your flightcase upside down under your gear to raise it another 3-4 inches, but I never bother. I am 6’3″ or so and it is a very comfortable height for me. The one bad about it are the feet. Because there is so little material to attach them too (if you get one, you’ll see what I mean), that after a few gigs I started to lose one in transport. After sticking it back in a few times and promptly losing it in the car again, I decide to take all feet out and use it without. On all but the most unflat surfaces it works just fine so I never even notice anymore. In case a real problem with stability arises, a couple of beer coasters will solve the issue :).

Greetinx,
C.