DJ Vintage

Oh, you are right and I have said in other threads before, that I believe there aren’t really bad controllers out there anymore. We could have a nice discussion on sound card quality, but that is also besides the point.

What I did try to say was that putting myself in the place of a venue owner (and they usually don’t know gear intimately) and I had to give up the house system, I’d probably want some control (real or imagined) over the gear that I allow into my place (not knowing what WE know about gear). The “old world” was relatively simple for venue owners. Stick in Pioneer/Technics gear and you couldn’t go wrong. If you were slightly bolder you might have Denon. And if your budget was tighter, you might have ended up with Numark, Gemini or the likes.

So I am wondering if we will see venue owners making a shortlist of brands with 3-4 main brands (in THEIR eyes and based on past experience and/or advice from their favorite DJs or techies) being allowed in. Or perhaps even just Pioneer, since that is what they always had. Or maybe they will stick a controller in there themselves, who knows.

Venues are -on average- rather conventional/traditional and tight on the wallet. And now they might have to totally change their thinking and get to the point where they offer one or more sets of 0dB inputs for controllers/external gear and a room-tuned P.A. Really wondering how they will deal with that.

Greetinx,
C.

LOL, what about me solving the actual problem? :-p

Hey Alex,
I read your original post and saw I missed something the first time around … you wrote you bought a STEREO headphone splitter, but this is not what you need and it will not work correctly (as you have noticed :))!

Stupid that I missed that originally. The other hint I missed is that you said you could not get your cue sound to come from ONLY the headphone (which means you DO have the cue signal, not just from the headphones but also from the speakers).

Here is why your current set up does not work.
You have apparently bought a stereo splitter for headphones. What this allows you to do is use two headphones on one connection (laptop, iPod, mp3-player, whatever). They are very handy if you want to listen to your favorites tunes with someone else while on a bus, train or plane. What they do however is take the stereo output (through the 3.5mm stereo mini-jack on one end) and split it (although more accurately copy it) to TWO STEREO outputs. So, the signal that comes in on the left channel of your Y-cable, goes to the left channel on both outputs of your cable and the same for the right channel. If you use them in Virtual DJ, you will hear the main sound through your right speaker and your right headphone side and your cue through your left speaker AND left headphone side (or the other way around, I am not sure in VDJ).

Now, if you use the CORRECT (DJ) splitter or Y-cable, there will be a 3.5mm stereo mini-jack on the end that goes into your computer. The other end will have two MONO !!!!! connections (with stereo plugs so you get to hear sounds from both speakers/headphone sides, see graphics). At the mono end is where you connect your speakers and headphone. If you set the laptop with y-cable setting in VDJ LE, it will send the master output in MONO to the left channel and the MONO headphone signal to the right channel (or the other way around, test it out :)). Presto! It works as advertised.

So, go out, buy yourself a DJ Splitter cable that splits 1 stereo signal to two mono signals and you should have no more problems.
Hope this helps and saves you the trouble of returning it or getting (possibly illegal) versions of other software).

This is pretty much what the cables would look like schematically (forgive me the crude graphics):

Greetinx,
C.

Hey, there is usually two sort of foam inside these cases. The harder, denser stuff glued to the sides to keep your gear in place, and the way softer stuff that is used as you describe in the lid to press down on transport.

My experience is that on well built gear that pressure is ok. Keeps stuff fixated in transport. Often those blocks are not glued to the lid, but attached with velcro, so taking them out and cutting some of the top could be done.

Just remember that the foam should press down on the actual faceplate of your gear, the only way to get that done is if the knobs are sunk into the foam.

When you close the lid, without pushing on it, how big a gap is there?

Greetinx,
C.

I guess it also depends on what exactly it is you want to do more. Personally, if I can gain a track, add some FX from time to time, speed it up, slow it down, cue it, cup it, hot cue and loop it, I am pretty much happy. Give me a mixer that let’s me EQ, perhaps filter, crossfade and add a microphone signal (preferably two) and I will be a happy camper.

It’s a little bit like iPads, sure you can type a message on them, but I’d rather have my full sized keyboard and 24″ monitor when I am doing serious work. And I have found that I like having big ole CDJ-style buttons, jogwheels and stuff. The way I use it is like using a controller only on a different hardware platform.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that you can do more with a controller. I am 100% certain I can do everything ANY controller can do with my two SC2900s and X1600 mixer (the mixer alone gives me 16 rotary and 16 press buttons for midi control of ANYTHING I like to map it too and that is on top of being able to switch all channel controls between midi and analogue.

What makes it possible to do more (than with stand-alone) is the features of the software you use. What you use to control that software, not so much in my eyes.

Greetinx,
C.

Hey Mitch,

Just my two cents worth on the subject (and as you probably know by now I empty out my piggy bank on a regular basis, so never strapped for pennies!), I don’t think it is something as simple as old vs new skool.

I have worked with a controller (MC6000) pretty much since it came out and I loved it too death. The only things that bugged me were it was a bit crowded for my big fingers and, although excellent in quality, the jogwheels are (like on many a controller) too small. A third thing was that if I only took my controller (and my customers pay a nice amount for me to bring gear) it just wouldn’t “look” right, if you know what I mean.

I alwasy carried around two old and tired American DJ CDI-500s (just CDs nothing else) as backup in case my laptop died on me, so two of those next to my MC6000 made it look a bit more impressive to the layman’s eyes again.
My CDI-500s were about ready for replacement and I figured, I’d get some CDJ style players that could also handle USB and have midi, so I could control two decks with the CDJs and still have the two decks on the MC6000.

I ended up getting two full size Denon SC2900s (same size as CDJ2000s). And when I was fooling around with those nice 7″ jogwheels with big LED rims around them I found that I really don’t want to use the MC6000 anymore. So I ended up getting a Denon X1600 (midi)mixer instead.

It gives me great flexibility, I can use it standalone (analogue style) with just CD’s, toss in USB sticks and such, use an iPad to control my Engine (Denon’s alternative to Rekordbox) database or hook up my MacBook with Traktor and have every feature I could ask for.

The good thing about big players (even if you use them as midi controller for DJ software) is that they are .. well .. big. Big buttons that are easy to hit, full length pitch faders, big hot cue and loop buttons and above all big platters.

If you go to watch one of the big names in DJ-ing, you (the crowd) kind of expects them so sit behind a big mixer with at least 4 CJD2000s, a number of Yamaha pads, a laptop and what have you. They might be able to replicate all that on a S4 controller, but let’s face it, that doesn’t really impress on that big screen :-).

Another thing obviously is that venues they go to either have or will rent Pioneer CDJs. So, they stick their flashdrives in their pocket and off they go. Walk in, plug in, play, plug out and leave. Pretty sweet deal after toting around 30 kilo recordcases for years.

Greetinx,
C.

Hey Alex,

Did you check out this review, according to Phil it works as you want it to.

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/2011/08/review-numark-dj2go-portable-dj-controller/

Greetinx,
C.