Stazbumpa

A lot of “big name” DJs don’t actually do any DJing. Their entire set is premixed and it’s usually their own stuff anyway and they often have personal edits of tracks.
Don’t pay any attention to what they’re doing, most of them are producers first and foremost and their DJ skills are below par. Your transitions are something you should practise and be happy with yourself, besides longer mixes enable you to fart about with effects, kill a bassline and replace it with the one from the incoming record and before you know it your doing something of a live remix.

Much more fun 🙂

Not had a mac crash because I don’t use them, I know one or two guys who have had issues with macs though. My old laptop crashed once but that was because I couldn’t be arsed to clean it and my new laptop switched off one time but that was because I forgot to plug it in. Other than that my Windows machines have been pretty flawless. That said, the one time you don’t have a decent back up plan is the one time it all goes wrong.
I went a step further and have 2 back up plans.

As for DJ booths, it never ceases to amaze me how many clubs have tiny DJ booths. Even those that hark back to the days of yore have the table for vinyl behind the DJ and so having 2 setups is still impractical. Also, in my experience, my kit is often better than the stuff installed in the club. Dodgy line faders, a completely knackered crossfader, missing knobs and buttons and a dire need of a good clean are unfortunate but common problems.

One more thing, loops and effects are handy but in no way critical. All DJing involves is playing one record after another in an order that pleases the crowd. That’s it, but it’s still surprising how many jocks haven’t got that bit right yet. Effects, loops etc, are all icing on the DJ cake. Good use of the whistles and bells of DJing can enhance a set, but without the simple skills it will still sound crap or bore people to death.

Just my 2p on the subject.

For me it’s about covering bases. Laptops famously do not like pints of beer in them. They also crash, irrespective of any fruit logo on the lid. In these situations you need options, and cdj’s give you these options by way of mp3 CD and usb stick interfaces.
That why I got my Denon 3900’s for my pro gigging setup, if one music medium dies I can use another while fixing the problem.

I’ll echo what djrizki has already said, drop some commercial(ish) dnb remixes because commercial doesn’t automatically mean its crap. Also do some research and grab some old skool jungle and early dnb tracks, since its a 5 hour stint the least you could do is sprinkle the night with some dnb history.

Staz recommends: Project Q – Champion Sound 🙂

In theory I think you can but you might need to load a new mapping on the Z2 to get the buttons to do the stuff you would use your decks for.
Also you would be sync button mixing, no pitch fader on the Z2.

Traktor + sc3900’s guy here.

You mentioned the Traktor sound card, so I’m taking it you’re running scratch pro 2, right? If so grab the Traktor mapping off the Denon webby for the sc3900, its really useful.

^ wot Vintage said.

They could be good for you but as already mentioned they’re firewire only, not usb.

For my money it would be the Denons or the Numark NS7 II. I went for the Denons in the end, even though they’re more expensive for 2 decks than the NS7, because they also play cd’s/mp3 cd’s and will take a usb stick directly.
I don’t trust any brand of laptop to run 100% of the time so I wanted options for continuing the music in case of a dead laptop.

Traktor Pro doesn’t, but Scratch Pro does.