Djing Digital or CD?

PsyTox · Post by **PsyTox** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:08 pm

seems like you guys haven't seen the CDJ-2000 or the CDJ-900 yet by Pioneer? With USB support and all the ladida. But also so expensive that you could easily buy a laptop and Traktor Scratch Duo and have about 1000 dollar left to buy a serious crate on Beatport.

Still, I imagine these will be standard in a year or so. Not that I am using them, prefer the vinyl control thing and some vinyl in between, so...

tone-def · Post by **tone-def** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:11 pm

USB sticks will replace CD's. at the moment i carry around vinyl, CD's with my own tunes on and an 8GB USB stick. sometimes i might have to play somewhere with only CDJ's then i have to get burning, but it's rare.

damagedgoods · Post by **damagedgoods** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:12 pm

tone-def wrote:USB sticks will replace CD's. at the moment i carry around vinyl, CD's with my own tunes on and an 8GB USB stick. sometimes i might have to play somewhere with only CDJ's then i have to get burning, but it's rare.

Really? I've never seen anyone show up to a gig with a USB stick, but I guess it depends where you live/play. You in London?

Phase Ghost · Post by **Phase Ghost** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:48 pm

Damaged goods is pretty much spot on in regards to controllers. Here's what I have and I really like it.

Macbook
Numark 2 channel mixer (not sure on the model)
Numark Omni Control ( I paid $250 for it new. Search, there's deals out there)
Traktor LE (which came with the Omni Control for free)

Obviously, most any laptop will work ( I recommend the Macbook highly though). Midi dj control eq's and faders SUCK BALLS!! High end or not, they blow. Why? because the software is doing the eq'ing. A regular dj mixer is essential.

I really really like my setup at home. I played out with it and didn't really care for it. I mean, it was fine and worked well, but you gotta set up which is a pain. I'm going to burn cd's for playing live in the future. At home it's great and it's not to far off from the functionality of a CDJ.

MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE · Post by **MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:40 pm

damagedgoods wrote:
MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE wrote:Go with CD's / Mixer.

I find laptop DJ'ing very "dull" in that the resolution of the controls is CRAP.

Nothing beats a real mixer and good quality set of decks.
Yeah, I agree. Controlling an internal mixer on your laptop with a MIDI controller is a big bag of balls. Note this does NOT apply to Traktor/Serato scratch timecode vinyl, which feels as fast as real vinyl (or at least fast enough that you can't tell the difference) - I'm talking about using a MIDI controller for faders and EQ, etc.

I play mostly vinyl and sometimes CD, but if you can't afford turntables, one thing you could do for the time being is buy a cheap (but real) mixer and a midi controller to control the decks, plus an audio interface if you don't already have one. It's not ideal, but if you're not scratching you don't need a massively fast response from the decks themselves. The advantage is that instead of spending lots of hundreds on a pair of decks, you could spend a fewer number of hundreds on an audio interface, controller and software (traktor/equivalent). IIRC the behringer BCD3000 actually includes an audio interface and retails for about £150; whether said interface has two stereo outs (so you can use it with a mixer) i'm not sure. I wouldn't gig with it because it feels cheap and horrible but it's ok for learning if you've got a real mixer.

TJ

Scratch is fine. Absolutely wonderful to use. One thing i like about scratch & vinyl is the ability to quickly browse the track. No usb stick can do that.

tone-def · Post by **tone-def** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:37 pm

damagedgoods wrote:
tone-def wrote:USB sticks will replace CD's. at the moment i carry around vinyl, CD's with my own tunes on and an 8GB USB stick. sometimes i might have to play somewhere with only CDJ's then i have to get burning, but it's rare.
Really? I've never seen anyone show up to a gig with a USB stick, but I guess it depends where you live/play. You in London?

yeah i'm in london.

you wouldn't notice me playing off a USB stick because it would be connected to someone's laptop and i'll be using serato or trackor scratch. also it's something about the size of your thumb so it's very discrete.

i wouldn't go to a gig with just a USB stick or i'd make sure it's cool to use someone's laptop or if they have CDJ2000's.

tone-def · Post by **tone-def** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:39 pm

MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE wrote: Scratch is fine. Absolutely wonderful to use. One thing i like about scratch & vinyl is the ability to quickly browse the track. No usb stick can do that.

if you plug the USB stick into the scratch system you can

damagedgoods · Post by **damagedgoods** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:53 pm

tone-def wrote: you wouldn't notice me playing off a USB stick because it would be connected to someone's laptop and i'll be using serato or trackor scratch. also it's something about the size of your thumb so it's very discrete.

i wouldn't go to a gig with just a USB stick or i'd make sure it's cool to use someone's laptop or if they have CDJ2000's.

Ah, that's what I meant - I've never seen anyone playing tunes on CDJs off a USB stick. That's probably because I've never played in a venue with CDJ2000s.