mr stifffy

Arbite, post: 9273 wrote: I don’t agree with this. CDJ’s are very expensive for a beginner DJ, not only that but they are much harder to DJ on if you’re just starting out. They don’t have the sync button, you can’t see the waveforms on top of eachother, it’s harder to select music (requiring pre burned CD’s), and theres no sync button.

I would think that most beginner DJ’s who’ve done their research would go for a controller + computer combo.

Thats exactly what I mean, the djs that go for cdjs these days starting out seem to do it for image rather then ease of use of functionality or transportability….

DJ Hessler, post: 9107 wrote: Firs of all you can do a lot of things on CDJ/DJM that you can not do on digital setups.

There is a really good handle of the efx unit and you have a very good control over the music on bigger joggs.
You can run the CDJs from CD, USB direct, USB with recordbox, or MIDI with for examle Traktor.

There is not very much that can compete with that set for digital setups.

There is one other set that can compete and that is the Denon S3700 x1600/1700 setup.

CD, USB, MIDI with spinning platter for half the price of CDJ’s and X1600/1700 are Traktor certified
(DJM 2000/900 are also Traktor certified)

Try this on a Mixtrak Pro _
http://www.youtube.com/user/denondjtv#p/u/4/cEmqKSsAkVU

firstly im pretty sure the dj in that video would be capable of a somewhat representation of that on a mixtrack…… secondly not many dj’s could replicate that (there is a reason he is on that video…..) its a selling point so im pretty sure many that buy that product shit them selves when they find out they cant do that :(.
then you gotta take into consideration the price of cdj’s, mixer, fx-unit (if built into mixer costs a lot more) then the media we choose to use… usb sticks still cost money.

then you can add transportation. if your playing a gig that you need to bring your own gear and just plug into a speaker there is no hoping on a train or walking a few miles with 2 cdj’s a mixer and a few usb sticks and cables (at minimum). but a bag with a laptop and controller is possible.

I can see this turning into a cdj v laptop dj thread but on a “Digital dj” site most will stick up for their own medium and offer the plus sides. Im not bashing cdj’s as ive used them for years and still do the odd time. Just think its not a good idea to splash out a good few thousand on 2000’s as a starter setup (even restarting). they are way too expensive.

Firstly this is a “digital dj” site so most of us will recommend laptop based setups…. I’d recommend tractor s4, and a brand new MacBook pro along with a could thousand songs of your choice… This is the pioneer equiv to digital and you can do everything and more with this setup…

Plus if you need to play anywhere that doesn’t have a dj setup it’s a lot easier to plug in and be up and running.

And the community on here can help with it a lot.

Digitall DJ, post: 8821 wrote: I noticed yesterday that Ean Golden over at the excellent DJTechTools has posted a video ripping into the Twitch for it’s low audio output (apparently due to being USB powered only).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixv46DxhKd0&feature=feedu

This rings some alarm bells as I play a couple of venues where I go straight to the PA – no mixer gains to tweak.

However the cynic in me points to Mr Golden’s close relationship with NI and the fact a Twitch could replace a Midi-fighter or two! A quick search doesn’t result in a flood of complaints either, so maybe it’s not that big an issue.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitch 2 comes along next year with sample deck functionality and optional AC power to beef up the output. Inevitably it’ll be announced the day after I buy one!!

Low audio output just means up the master on the pa a little, every sound card outputs a slightly diff volume so that’s not a biggy Ean gets paid a lot by N I to make there videos and make them money and also his own product. Just like I’m pretty sure vestax used to pay a lot in the vci100 days, it was advert gold for them….

I love beatunes, I run it in the backround and when im stuck for a song I go in and find the song im playing and then organise my bpm and key and usually find one in the genre im playing, this is handy to find stuff you dont play often then usually gives me a bridge to find another song 🙂

I use headphones when I produce as I do a lot outside of the studio but thats just me… windows v mac is all down to you… Ive used macs but prefare my windows now the windows 7 is a lot more stable and a lot more plug and play friendly. if you are one of these people thatd download loads of shit and go on bad sites (porn, torrent sites) I recommend mac since they are a bit better at handling this (viruses are getting more common on macs though). if you are sensible with what you do though (basic web use and mainly music) I recommend windows since for half the price you can pick up something twice as powerfull as the basic mac model. Im running a samsung rv511 at the moment which was half the price of the crapist mac model and came standard with 6gb ram, 640gb hd, I5, windows 7, real good sound and video card and a few other nice treats ;).

for software its all down to preference… for edm I recommend fl studio for anything else ableton seems to be the go to software but has a steep learning curve and price curve.