Groovepunk

The only thing I would add to this that if you do beatmatch in your headphones, make sure you take them off as you do the transition. This seems obvious but I’ve witnessed someone keep their headphones on and they didn’t realise they were gradually mixing into the wrong channel, which happened to be silence!

I would also say that once you’re happy beatmatching in you headphones, practice occasionally with speakers as I recently used a bar mixer that didn’t have cue mix and had to use the booth monitors only 🙂

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

I’m not surprised you’re a little confused – it’s a real minefield these days! Well done for checking out the DigitalDjTips 2014 controller guide as it’s a great place to start.

I wouldn’t get too stressed about picking software. In the last year or so, Serato and Traktor have become far more alike and largely provide the same functionality (I fully expected to incur the wrath of the forum so such a sweeping statement!). It really comes down to personal preference. It sounds like you’ve had some exposure to Traktor, is there a store near you where you could try Serato? It’s not essential but you may get a feel for one or the other.

As many of the experienced DJs on this forum will tell you, it almost doesn’t matter what you start our with. A lot of guys (including me) will have started with a couple of belt-drive turntables and basic mixer. These days just about any $200+ controller will give you enough functionality to start out and learn the basics thanks to the controller market finally getting mature and many features becoming standard. The resale value of most stuff tends to be good too.

As I’ve posted previously, I’m a big fan of starting small/basic and working up. This ensures you don’t get distracted from learning the basics first and you haven’t spent too much cash on the off-chance that you decide DJing isn’t for you.

I hope that helps!

GP

That’s some fantastic advice from Terry.

I followed a similar pattern (Vinyl -> CDJs -> USB -> Controllers) and have always been glad that I learned the basics first.

I do worry when I see posts from beginners thinking about sinking hundreds on a Semi-pro/Pro setup before they’ve even mixed one track. Not only could you get distracted by all the complex functionality and be tempted not to learn core skills, you may also be put off altogether if you can’t make the most of everything straight away.

I’d recommend going basic. By all means pick a software or rough path but start simple and work up. If Serato and Pioneer are your thing, consider the DDJ-SB and then upgrade when you absolutely can’t do any more with it. Most kit has a decent resale value, so you’d get most of it back when you upgrade anyway.

GP

Unless you’re testing the water to see if you like DJing with software, I’d recommend avoiding a laptop-only setup if possible. You really can’t replace the tactile feel of controlling the music with a physical piece of kit (controller/CD decks/turntables – whatever your poison), it’s awesome!

Also (as much as I wish this wasn’t the case), a laptop-only setup tends to give people the impression that it’s somehow easier or you’re not professional. This is utter nonsense obviously as it can be harder to DJ only on a laptop (as you’re probably finding no doubt).

Having said that, if the laptop is literally your only option, you can get keyboard overlays (little stickers for your keys) which provide a colour-coded, more visual way of controlling the software for most major programs (Serato/Traktor etc).

I hope that helps!

GP

Some great advice from the guys above.

I agree that these days you can practically ignore the file type and size. I’ve heard some great 192kps MP3’s and some shockingly bad AIFF/WAV files. A lot of this (in my experience at least) seems to be down to a fairly recent trend of over-compressing and/or excessive boosting of the track volume*.

*This is based on my observations – am more than happy for someone more technical to correct me!

The result of this is a very ‘loud’ but muddy sound that can be quite hard to deal with. Obviously listening to the track is your first port of call, but I’ve also found that when buying online, you can examine the waveform of the track preview. If the waveform has very few peaks/troughs (is more like a square than a bunch of lines), it’s often an indicator that the file may sound awful regardless of what quality you buy (genre dependent obviously).

As I say, this has been my experience but hopefully this may help you avoid buying poorly mastered tracks.

GP

Thanks for the heads up. The one about UK garage in the 90’s should be an interesting blast from the past!

GP