synthet1c

they all sound completely different… although they all are generally around the 140bpm mark their structure and the sounds that make them are different.

techno – is a very rhythmical drum focused and loop based style of music, the elements of bass and melody are present but generally dont deviate from the syncopated drum rhythms.

• for funky italian techno check out – wehbba, pedro delgardo, Boriqua Tribez, reaky, dynasty (he’s my mate so i have to plug him 🙂 )

dubstep – is half time drums which are generally very sparse, this genre started being completely minimal and bass driven so your insides would shake, since “brostep” has taken over though the mid range gets all the attention so the speakers scream in your ear, with the sub underneith in sync so you still feel the music.

• for the sub bass style check out – breakage, burial, skream, benga, triage, kromestar
• for brostep check out – chase and status, doctor p, flux pavillian, borgore, reso, excission, skrillex

trance – is a solid 4/4 beat with a push and pull “between the kick and the bass”, but the main focus on this type of genre is the arpregiated synth riffs and lots drum rolls and white noise

• check out – scot project, kamui, jochen miller, sander van doorn, richard durand, tiesto

I love the choons from the guys in red[COLOR=#000000], every track they have ever made is an anthem in it’s own right[/COLOR]

I’m a self confessed fanboy of vdj as I can make it do anything I can think of and the potential is far greater than traktor, but it is potential you need to understand to unlock, although it’s not that hard… It’s really your choice… In regard to the controller it really depends on what type of mixing you want to do, make no mistake the S2 is a toy with a shelf life of about a year as well, if you don’t want to scratch your better off with a denon mc 6000/3000. but wait and see what is released after NAMM which starts tomorrow 🙂

in regard to the samples you hae two options, first there is the standard sampler, this also has recording, looping, beatlock, pitch matching. But if you want to get a bit more indepth vdj has 99 decks available with skins that allow you to use those 99 decks, with this function you can do anything that a deck can do, so scratching, effects, video samples, looping, beatlock, pitch matching, pitch changing etc… The one shortcoming in this area is that you can’t loop an entire track with one button, however this should be fixed in the next version.

for the normal samples there is a plugin that can load and save as many sample banks as you require, you can also load with mapping “sample 1 load “filepath/to/sample.mp3”.you can also load all 12 banks with one button by linking them together with “&” eg

“sample 1 load “filepath/to/sample.mp3” & sample 2 load “filepath/to/sample.mp3 & etc…”

If however you want to use the the extra decks there is the verbs “load_deck_set” and “save_deck_set” this will save all the the tracks loaded on all the decks.

Something in relation to the sampler which is great in traktor that cant be done properly in vdj is the loop recorder, that looks like fun.

One shortcoming in mapping that traktor has is you can’t program a knob/slider to do something at a specific value, so if you want to do something in traktor you need to use modifiers that always work. however in vdj you can do different things in defferent sections of the knob with modifiers set as well. eg

param_greater 50% ? param_add -50% & param_multiply 200% & effect ‘flanjet’ active on & effect ‘flanjet’ slider 1 : param_invert & param_add -50% & param_multiply 200% & effect ‘crusher’ slider 1 : effect ‘qb_filter’ active on & effect ‘qb_filter’ slider 2 70% & effect ‘qb_filter’ slider 3

this is a pretty simple mapping compared to some I have come up with but essentially it will be a lp/hp filter on one setting but for the second in the first half of the knob it will be a bit crusher for the second half it will be a flanger. That you cant do in traktor LOL.

For encoders, unless you set variables that the encoder changes you can only use modifiers to do things like change effect parameters, so exactly the same as traktor

I was the first to say that vdj’s standard effects are terrible, and they are, however the user provided ones in combination with vst’s are incredibly powerful, the only short coming that I have found in that area is the beatmashers and rolls use the buffer to make the effects, this means you can’t chain realtime effects and buffer effects, but every realtime effect can be chained as far as you want to push it.

You also get video mixing, video effects and transitions, support for anything that sends midi, native HID so no third party applications changing messages. endless audio routing options, timecode, key detetion, great browser, rewire, and now there is dmx integration with freestyler for a real beatsynced light show that was just released.

there is more indepth things you can do in relation to video, browser, skins etc…

The biggest advantage of VDJ though is that mapping is done with script that you can type up and paste into the mapper, there is no limitations in relation to variables, and you can fit about 50 lines in word pad of script for each button/slider/knob/led I hit the limit once LOL. Almost forgot that in vdj you can do two things at once with mapping… cant do that is traktor 😉

If you go with VDJ LE unfortunately you wouldn’t be able to use your computer speakers as this software only uses the soundcard on the controller, that is not a problem with vdj pro as it has very flexible routing options, although that will cost between $150 – $300 depending on the upgrade.

If you want to test out the pro features you can activate the pro trial for 21 days that will unlock all the software options including the soundcard setup.

for a controller your best bet after the mc3000 would be either the N4 or mixtrack pro, but they are plastic so will probably have issues within a year of owning, I highly recommend you save a little more for the denon as this will last a very long time, and have a good resale value, compared to the numark offerings.

Also forgot about the reloop [COLOR=inherit][FONT=inherit]Terminal 4 Mix, this will come with vdj, and would definately be better than either of the numark controllers, not sure of the RRP though or the release date, it should be announced at NAMM.[/FONT][/COLOR]

VDJ Pro,

It is the most customisable complete software out there, and I have an obsession making it do things it’s not supposed to do LOL. not much else really needs to be said because nothing else compares to the freedom it gives you to set it up exactly the way you want it.

Although, when i play out I don’t really use effects, samples etc… I just play choons, but it’s fun using creative thought to make it all work.

I’d get either a numark ns6 or a vestax VCI-400 as the other two are plastic, but would lean more towards the vestax as it is made with the same durability as their mixers from a few years ago, and it has a great layout for mashing choons together, one set back is that the pitch fader is a little short so more suited for sync mixing.

I have a digital jockey 2 which has all the same controls just more of them, only advice is don’t rape the transport buttons, they aren’t that strong and will break if abused, everything else is decent quality, especially since the mixage doesn’t have the push to kill eq’s which are a blessing and a curse,It’s great to have the extra controlls but the knobs are wobbly and don’t feel good to mix with.

it will be much better than a mixtrack, and you won’t need to worry it will break from general use.