Terry_42
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Terry_42
KeymasterThat is not true Maja. Just because you can see them in the interface you still need the faders. Yes you can midi map some stuff now into the S4 but it will still be a pain in the ass to operate. So getting a stem controller is still the way to go.
KeymasterThe thing is simple:
First placement should be that the small speakers (high frequencies) of the speaker pair is about ear level or slightly above ear level when you operate them. You do not need to buy fance stands, just put stuff under them (boxes, books, upside down plant boxes,… whatever works). The speakers should be about arm length up to double arm length away from your head and optimal would be to have an angle of 45° from the wall behind them (so yes they are not flat against the wall, they angle towards you) so that 45+45=90° between the speakers.
Now best is to isolate the speakers with speaker pads. Those are small sound foam pads that you put under your speakers (see raised them already). You can get those in any music store like guitar center etc. for about 10 bucks.Now the 65s are OK with feflections, so just make sure your room is not totally empty and booming by itself. It is for example good to have curtains in front of any windows and close them when using the speakers as glass can be tricky. With the rest you should be fine.
KeymasterSorry even if it is a track title, it is bad language and is against the rules here.
Apart from that: Yes it can be very frustrating in the beginning. Loads of things that can go wrong. Best thing is to focus on having fun a bit and then go for it again.
KeymasterYou are most welcome my friend.
As far as stems go, they do not work that way. They work more like layers in the song and they are mostly limited to a 4-track system (I know they can do more, but that is all the stems I have seen and bought). Now that will give you for example a song the complete song + vocal track + bass track + drum track + melody track. Now you can up and down those with the respective faders. So that is not re-arranging the track like you proposed and I actually found that it is way easier for me to buy the single from a good service and many will come with not stems but the main song, the acapella version and the instrumental version. Now even without stems I can easily put that in respective tracks and play with it OR what I like even more take a classic songs acapella version (for example Vanilla Ice, Ice Ice Baby) and put that over a matching deep house background and just cut the right vocal parts in by using hotcues. I think that makes people go “AH” more than using stems. If you spice that up with more samples and the like I find I can be hugely creative here 🙂 and Serato aids me in that.
Now what you want to do (re-arrange a track) you can do in several forms. First would be to use the slicer and flip in Serato. They are made exactly for the purpose of slicing the song up and re-arranging or even skipping parts of it. Pair that with the use of hotcues and you are up and running. Now of course this method has some limits, but they are far stretched, for me it is sufficient to totally re-do a song the way I like it.
Now in rare cases I “re-package” a song. This means I go into a completely other application (in my case Ableton Suite) cut the song apart in there and totally re-arrange it. However this is a lot of knowledge you need to do this, so I would first master the Serato Slicer and Flip before going that route. (It is what you suggest as editing before play and yes it is commonly used.)Now for the controllers: Yes Pioneer controllers of the DDJ line are very good and well built. Honestly the Denon MCX is better built. Denon has a reputation with DJs that they are not always the most innovative, but all their products are built like tanks. So if build quality is your thing then Denon is the best thing you can get. Not saying that Pioneers are bad, but they have some plastic parts and you cannot drive your truck over them 😉
Now why the controllers I recommended: Simply because they give the best control with the most flexibility, which the XDJ lacks in its setup. Now I recommended the MCX because in case of a fault of your laptop work standalone with a prepared USB stick, so you do not need anything else. This is not the mode of operation I would use it in all the time, as I would prefer Serato with it, as in standalone mode some functions are of course not working, but it is nice as backup.
I really do not care about DVS as it is way expensive and I do not mean the first investment. You have high upkeep costs associated with DVS, as you need timecode vinyl (they will get damaged over time), needles, heads, slipmats… so you can calculate about 50-100 bucks a month upkeep for a good DVS system.As far as what I use it is tailored to my workflow:
I use a reloop Terminal Mix 8 as my main controller. Mainly because of the jogwheels. I come from a vinyl past so the flat jogs with no break are very suited for me and the pads are in the right location for me. I have a reloop Neon addon controller added to this setup, as the Neon is better for operating flip for me (again this is my personal workflow). Now in a mobile setting (corporate events mostly, as I rarely do weddings) I add a small Yamaha MG PA mixer for microphones and connect an mp3 player to one of the channels for emergency backup.I think Vintage has fun, I called him yesterday and he seems having a good time.
I am also really into deep house and belearic. I encourage you to use F/X and samples and as you said: rarely and subtle. This is where Serato shines, the basic F/X packs have studio quality F/X, but they are hard to “overdo” and you can add very subtle reverbs and echos to spice up your song or parts of a song. Which is nice to have at your disposal.
As for samples, in that setting I also would use very subtle samples that you can use to fill-in, transition samples etc. But you can add this later to spice things up, when you mastered the rest of the controller. I often use very basic things like a little white noise, build ups and similar samples.KeymasterNope the post is gone sorry and it was bogus anyways 🙂
Serato does have a sampler, it just does not work the way the recording sampler in Rekordbox works.
If you are starting out (which I suppose you are asking these questions) after my 20+ years of DJing I can tell you the following:
argument 1: as close to a Nexus as can be
is the most wrong argument you can go for. The nexus setup is a dying breed. After the 2000 Mk IIs that just came out to milk the dead cow ones more from the few club owners that still buy into it, I doubt there will be many new releases. About 30% of the clubs (at least here in Europe) now do no longer offer a Nexus setup. They have some older CDJs meant as backup, but they actually expect you to bring a controller (these are the smaller clubs, which is your main target).
As far as bigger clubs are concerned (and I mean the biggest clubs in the world) that I played in: They will have a technician ring you up or tell you to phone them or have an on location rehearsal to setup your gear. While they have a Nexus setup they actually encourage you to bring your own gear (usually the top DJs have more than one controller) and you talk the technician how you want them set up. Before the gig you will hand your gear to the tech and he will set it up for you in the booth. Most festivals I DJed on are pretty much the same, even smaller ones with 1k-5k people.argument 1.5: because I want to know how to DJ on a Nexus setup
If you master a DDJ-SX or the MCX (or anything similar for that matter) it will be a total no brainer for you to DJ on a Nexus setup, as long as you prepare your USB stick for it (which you can do for free and without any CDJs at home). There is not magic behind a Nexus setup, it works pretty much the same as any DJ thing, it even has sync buttons if that is your thing. You will need 5minutes to find all the buttons, so play 2 tunes that you just beatmatch at the beginning or just show up early and tell the venue owner you want to check out the gear and how it is setup.
I actually charge extra if someone wants to make me use their Nexus gear, because it can hurt my reputation as a Nexus setup will limit my creativity as it actually can do A LOT LESS than my laptop/controller setup.
So it is like pretty much like you will learn driving on a Porsche and when you get into a Smart you can still drive right? The only fun thing in DJing is that the Porsche is actually cheaper than the Smart, because the Smart has such a legacy. That makes it still a more crappy car.argument 2: laptop free operation
Is often from a false sense of security. In big cases you will have backup (a standby CDJ or similar. In case of the DDJ for example you will still have the option to use it as a standalone mixer, so you can hookup mp3 players for easy backup (what I do). In case of the MXC8000 it can go completely without a laptop, all you need is a USB stick with music.
However I do digital since, hmm donno. I had a MacBook from 2008 and it retired in January (still working perfectly) and I actually never used my backup to date. (Actually I used it once, but that was because of a fault on my part…) So never did I have to use my backup because my laptop died. Which makes my point: Invest in a good laptop. If you put any of the controllers I mentioned in a case or a backpack (I use backpack mainly, except for flights of course) then putting a lightweight laptop (MacBook, MacBook Air, even MacBook pro or a Surface or HP EliteBook Folio) the laptop is so light you wont even notice it. So mobile friendly is bogus argument. If you truely do mobile gigs, you will have so many cables, PA etc. that you will not care if you have to take 3 laptops additionally. If you mean for going to a club, then just throw that laptop into the controller bag and take a cab/taxi to the front door.
In my huge experience lugging a laptop is not a problem at all (of course I also was DJing back in the days where I had to carry crates full of vinyl, so a laptop and a controller is a huge relief hehe).That is my experience. Like I said if you do not know me, I DJ for 20+ years, I tour a lot, I DJed all over the world in front of thousands of people and I come here to give back to the community (and because Phil is such a great friend). So take it with that in mind, of course the final decision is with you and if you are more happy with something else go for it.
KeymasterWell:
The Beatpad is not a Traktor controller, the midi mapping offered by reloop is meant as a “starting point” for you to map out the rest. So to find all the anwers you need I would carefully read the Traktor Bible and then map the unit accordingly. In there it also tells you the huge number of steps you need to do to make the unit recognize and not conflict with other Windows drivers.As far as cables… I would try any shop that offers cables 🙂
And as for simple… there is no such thing as simple with Traktor.
KeymasterRemoved post that had nothing to do with original question… please do not post stuff because it might work for you with things you made up or have no experience with 🙂
Actually the way midi works is pretty similar in both Rekordbox and Serato. And the programs are pretty close to what they can do, even the look and feel is pretty close. Now Serato has Flip and still more plug-ins.
Now the plug-in gap will be closed shortly by Rekordbox, but it will stay with the “instant-sampler” compared to flip.
So the question is which suits you more. The Sequencer/Sampler of Rekordbox is defnitely more beginner friendly, while Flip is harder to learn, but in the end can do a little more.
The newest thing of course Serato has going for it is pulselocker if you are into such a thing.Now as for controller I would also advise against your choice.
If you go Rekordbox take a DDJ-RX or similar, if you go Serato… well one of the good Serato controllers.
If you really want standalone, the MCX8000 is hard to beat. (and would work with Serato)KeymasterGet a used 13” MacBook Air for 300 bucks.
KeymasterI usually easily fit in any booth with my controller.
If you ask nicely they usually let you move 1 CDJ out of the way and then there is this usualy spot where CDJ DJs used to place their CD case(s). This usually is enough for a Terminal Mix 8 up to a DDJ-SX2. Of course the NS-7 for example is a beast and not really mobile in my book. But I guess in 90% you can squeeze it in.
And no I will not use the Nexus setup, why would I limit my creativity by using outdated gear, just because it is there?
Actually I charge extra if they make me use CDJs. But then I am pretty arrogant in that way 😛 (and can afford to be)April 4, 2016 at 9:02 am in reply to: Looking to do my first club night promotion in a new country #2378821KeymasterSorry not near Canada at the moment either, but best luck on your endevours.
Keymastertest
KeymasterHey and welcome! Nice to have you with us.
KeymasterNope no Bridge and honestly with all the features in SDJ I never used it again. I have flip, SP, pitch and slice. Adding Ableton would be way to complicated and a bit too much for most parts.
KeymasterSorry we cannot debug this. I would open a ticket with Serato Support.
KeymasterAlso what broke? You can replace ANY part of the HD 25 with relatively cheap spares. So prolly 20 bucks and you are back in business.
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