bob6397
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bob6397
ParticipantI’m going to guess here that you only need 2 channels, that you don’t really mind about specific functionality (at this budget!) so here are a few recommendations:
1) A used Allen & Heath Xone:22 mixer – possible in budget, high quality. Has allen and heath filters
2) Numark M101- basic. Just a mixer, but will work.
3) Pioneer DJM-250 (the 350 is out of budget I think) – decent budget mixer, has filters unlike the numark.
4) Reloop RMX20 (or RMX30 if in budget) – another decent alternative. if you can get the RMX30, it adds features like channel VU meters and a proper mic channel over the RMX20..Erm.. that’s all I could find that would be decent at this budget – Stay away from Behringer gear though – it looks great on paper but they have reliability issues…
bob6397
ParticipantWhat’s your budget? And what speakers are you after? Are you after 2 tops alone? Or 2 tops with 1 sub? Or 2 tops with 2 subs? Depends on your audience/music style/room size.
bob6397
ParticipantThe only downside to the HD’s being that I doubt you can find a set under $3000..?
And I have never liked the sound of RCF speakers – the ones I have heard have always sounded a bit harsh and piercing (even when run full-range!) – and they weren’t the cheap ones either – my Thump’s sound better than they did and they are about a 3rd of the price!!
bob6397
ParticipantWhoops.. forgot EV!! I couldn’t find any US pricing for any kit (I’m in the UK and websites are too clever by half auto-detecting my location and sending me to the UK store..) but they decent bits of kit. The EV ZXA5 Tops are meant to be pretty much the best you can get at the minute though – maybe consider getting a pair of them (they are around $1699 each just for the tops!) and getting a sub later when you can afford it? (They will be fine without for a while – they are really powerful!)
bob6397
ParticipantI would second running C-Cleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner) – run the cleaner (check all the tick boxes as what you want ticked is quite personal – you won’t want all of them), run the registry cleaner (make a backup – it asks you if you want to!), then go to Tools -> Startup and disable anything you don’t want (do not disable anything where the publisher is Intel or Microsoft though! – Do disable all the auto-updaters for various bits of software you may have installed.)
Then I would uninstall anything you don’t currently use (and then re-run CCleaner).
Restart, then run CCleaner yet again.
Restart and your computer should be noticably faster…
HOWVEVER – the only real solution is to rebuild your laptop. If you play out, I would seriously not install Win 10 Preview (It is designed for geeky people to install so they can report bugs to microsoft) and it will stop working (without a license key) on July 29th. It will just stop as after that point, Microsoft would like you to pay (though you can upgrade your current license..)
bob6397
ParticipantFor that budget, you can get proper, pro level kit. (Are we talking USD here? I’m never sure when people just use a $ sign – this is a multinational forum… 🙂 )
I would recommend (whatever you get) getting subs and tops from the same brand though – often they are all designed to work together. You are right that 2 12″ tops and an 18″ sub will probably be your best bet.
Possible options:
Mackie SRM 550/1850 setup. Rough cost: $2100 USD
QSC KW122/KW181 Setup. Rough cost: $3600 USD (A little over budget..)
QSC K12/KW181 Setup Rough cost: $3000 USD
Yamaha DSR112/DSR118W Setup. Rough cost: $2800 USD
JBL PRX712/PRX718XLF Setup. Rough cost: $2900Any of these will sound decent – I recommend you go to a decent shop and have a listen to as many alternatives as you can. Sound is a very personal thing though – some people prefer the way that JBL sound, some people prefer QSC. It’s entirely subjective and I recommend you listen to them properly in person.
bob6397
ParticipantI haven’t managed to get rid of them (and I’ve been sort of looking for 6 months now) but they don’t bother me too much – before I go out to play, I use the Virtual folders to create set-lists for that individual event and then work from those during the vent.. I avoid using the iTunes integration when DJing due to all the clutter (and because you can’t edit the playlists in VDJ)
bob6397
ParticipantYou’re not missing something.. that was the main reason I didn’t pick Serato (I don’t use a controller at all so I needed it to work with my soundcard).
Larger jogs are normally considered handier for scratching, but it is possible to scratch on pretty much any jogs. The denon in this bunch has the smallest jogs, I think. Any size of jog, however, will be fine for you for just navigating the tracks..
In terms of build quality, the Denon will be near as makes no difference indestructible, the Pioneer not far behind (although it is plastic..) and the Numark just behind that, tying with the Reloop. None of them are flimsy however.. I sense that you are tending towards the Pioneer as the best one for you – so (I am reading it right) then go for it – you will figure out with your first controller (and they aren’t that different really) what you really want form a controller and you can use that knowledge for buying your next one in a year’s time.. 🙂
bob6397
ParticipantOuch.. sounds like a case of computer hate.. have you upset it recently??
Joking aside, It sounds like the drivers for the controller and the webcam are interfering with each other. It is possible to plug the webcam into a different USB socket (powered off different drivers)??
If you don’t know which are which here are a couple of clues to figure it out. USB 3 ports will all be off the same chip , USB 2 ports will be off a different chip to USB 3 ports and any USB ports that are also something else (EG I have an eSata port that doubles as a USB port) then that will also be off another chip.. On a different note, if you have ports on one side of your laptop and more ports on the other then more than likely there will be a chip for each side.. 🙂
If they are plugged in on different USB interfaces then it has a lower chance of interference… If they already powered off different interfaces then I don’t know – sorry..
bob6397
ParticipantFirst make a backup of anything you want to keep on the stick, then follow these instructions on how to format it properly (If you haven’t already – you said you weren’t sure)
– On windows 8, right click on the start button (or click Start + X on the keyboard)
– Click on “Disk Management”
– You should have a list of drives in an old-fashioned looking interface.
– Right click on the partition for the USB stick. Select “Delete Volume”. Click “Yes” on any boxes that flash up.
– Right Click on the space that now says “Unallocated”. Click “Create Simple Volume”.
– Hit Next 3 Times (default settings are fine)
– Then make sure that “FAT32” is selected, Allocation Unit Size should be “default”, and Label your drive. Tick the “Perform a quick format” box.
– Click next, then finish.It should now work.. If it doesn’t then I don’t know how to solve it.. 🙂
bob6397
ParticipantFabrizio: I would have first said that you should check if there is a firmware update for the mixer. Then make sure that you have updated the drivers etc. and Traktor as well.
Once you have done that, are you in a hot room? Is your laptop overheating and/or maxing out it’s CPU? Are the drivers causing Traktor to crash if they are a bit buggy?
bob6397
strictyt – did you ever find a solution? Just noticed that the thread is over 2 years old now..
ParticipantI doubt that it is your hardware. Do you fade with the channel faders or with the crossfader? Bear in mind that even though 2 tracks have their gain set correctly, that does not mean that the breakdown in one is at the same volume as it would be in another – and the end of a track tends to be louder than the intro in most cases…
If you are using the crossfader, try using the volume faders.. If you are already using the channel faders, part of the skill of the DJ is allowing for those differences.. Listen for them and correct them – Running everything at 75% as normal allows for some extra boost at the start of a track if required as well.. 🙂
bob6397
ParticipantFirstly, choose your software. The software is the most important of your workflow and the hardest to change if you get it wrong – you will have to re-create all your cue points in your new software if you decide the old one isn’t for you.
Secondly, (you may not be able to do this yet) decide on what features you want from a controller – IE large jogs? Sample pads? Output format (by which I mean RCA vs Jack vs XLR)?
Here on the forum, the most recommended beginner controllers are:
Numark Mixtrack Pro (2 or 3 – 3 just has a pretty frock on..)
Reloop Beatmix 2
Denon MC2000
Pioneer DDJ-SBAll are good beginner controllers (we do not recommend the Hercules/Gemini controllers you mentioned as these are far superior in build quality for the same sort of price) and all should let you mould your craft.. 🙂
Also, all of them are designed to work with Serato (and I think they all come with Serato Intro), but there are mappings available for VDJ which will work as well. Definitely decide on software first though… 🙂
Hope that helps… 🙂
ParticipantYeah.. it’s the only issue with Digital DJing… Everything does work really well once you have it sorted though – an idea might be to import it all as is – iTunes will then let you edit the tags on multiple tracks at a time (for instance if a whole album is the same genre) – and don’t put the BPM’s in yourself – this will do it for most tracks for you (run it before importing into iTunes) – saves loads of time..
Genre is always the hardest one – it is nearly always wrong in iTunes and I have corrected everyone manually.. But, again, figuring out ways of doing it multiple tracks at a time will be easier (for example, create a plyslist manually for each genre, just dumping all the tracks in as you go. Then, once you are done, highlight all the tracks and change the genre field for all of them at once – don’t change anything else though!)
I will say again though – make sure you have a backup 🙂
Hope that helps..
bob6397
ParticipantBig Chile: I’d make a topic for this.. You don’t need to have every song in existence on your hard drive (that would be pretty much impossible and rather expensive). I have just under 4000 tracks in total in my library. Of those, I probably play 400. NOw, I only started my regular gig back in September and so I am still setting up my collection, but even DJs who do pretty much the same as me but who have been doing it for years only have a core collection of around 600 tracks – even though the rest of their collection in the tens of thousands in order to deal with all the (very varied) requests that you can get.
Using iTunes for your music is something that you have to do from the start, when you first build your collection – if you don’t, it’s going to take you a very long time to rebuild everything using iTunes afterwards when you realise that you want to use it..
iTunes manages everything for you – where the songs are stores, the metadata to a certain extent and (most importantly) it has the ability for smart playlists. These let iTunes create lists of tracks according to their year/genre/artist/bpm etc. This is so useful.. 🙂
bob6397
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