DJ decks

[bzb]

Beh. You want to wax all nostalgic and be a dinosaur, you can always hookup a TT to the S4

[subharmonic]

NI audio4dj with Xwax (FREE!) plus 1200's


besides that, vinyl till I die.


It's the perfectly imperfect medium.

Linux....yeah. I liked the free part though.

[petegt]

Definitly go midi, dont see the point at all in turning record decks into midi controllers using timecode.

I just got my new soundcard working, its a creative sound blaster surround 5.1 external usb thing. Was intended as a temporary solution until payday when i was either going to buy numark djio or NI Audio2dj.
This thing is lightning quick though so im not going to bother upgrading!

Latency running 2 or 3 stereo outs (24bit 48000hz) is 1ms

Set up:

Crappy advent 8315 laptop, core 2 duo 1.73ghz cpu, 3 gb ddr2 ram, Windows 7 64 bit

usb Sound blaster surround 5.1 running via AISO4ALL driver (highly recommended for reducing latency)

Traktor Pro 1.2.7

Numark Mixtrack + Akai LPK25 micro midi keyboard controlling hot que's and whatever else i can think to map to it.

[Monomer]

Definitly go midi, dont see the point at all in turning record decks into midi controllers using timecode.

You've never mixed all wax then.

No scratching for you.




Granted, I'm a club DJ. Part of the experience is going out and getting dusty to find records. And vinyl weeds out junk. If you have the cash to press it, it's usually a decent album/ep/single.

And no, I've never made a dime djing, and don't really feel the need to. I'd be buying half these records just to listen to anyways.

[LEVLHED]

<~~doesn't DJ with vinyl and is listening to a record right this second

[DJ Funke]

I've been a bedroom DJ for about a year now and use Traktor Pro and a Hercules Steel controller with an Audio DJ 2 on a 4g of ram 2.0Gh lappy. Even though I have a fairly powerful laptop, I have to set my processor settings to "run in background" and display to "best performance" when using a native instruments soundcard with Vista without audio dropouts.

The steel controller is the only decent two deck controller that Hercules makes, but it is an excellent controller for the money and should not be overlooked. I've beaten the crap out of mine and none of the knobs have any wiggle, the sliders are all smooth as butter, and it looks and feels like the day I bought it. My only gripes are that the jog wheels are not touch sensitive and they are not for scratching, but they are great for searching, scrolling, and advanced effects. (Mine have four separate controls mapped to them.) This controller also doesn't like tons of LEDs mapped to it as too many flashing lights cause Traktor to slow down. Other than that, quite the "steel" for $170.

I plan to get a Midifighter next to work along side the herc to help with my cue point hopping and other effects. You can add as many controllers as you have usb slots on a usb hub and program them to control any or all decks in traktor. I learned how to program my controller about a month ago and it is not as near as hard as i thought it would be. Most of my buttons now have between 2-4 different functions. Your controller mappings are then only limited to your imagination.

I'm a farm boy and so I have had no mentoring other than watching Ellaskins videos for the basics, and Ean on djtechtools for Traktor. Here's a mix I've been working on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z17ItaAUCQ

As far as speaker management, I would get the Minidsp since your using a laptop anyways. I've been talking to their devs to see if they would take one of their minidsp's in a box and add the streamer kit, bypass the dsp for an added headphone jack, and use the inputs for turntables. They said they were going to get one of Native Instruments cards for comparative testing.....

[subharmonic]

I'm a farm boy and so I have had no mentoring other than watching Ellaskins videos for the basics, and Ean on djtechtools for Traktor. Here's a mix I've been working on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z17ItaAUCQ

Cool mix. I am a fan of Dope and Deadmau5, Saw Dope a couple times live and what a show. Back in 01 saw them with Static X and Fear Factory, FF was headlining and by the time they took the stage the crowd was worn out from Dope and Static X. Hoping to see Deadmau5 sometime.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I am hoping to mix some rock and electronica if I get good enough. I am thinking the Novation SL series seem to have all I need unless I am missing something.

[Monomer]

NI audio4dj with Xwax (FREE!) plus 1200's


besides that, vinyl till I die.


It's the perfectly imperfect medium.

Linux....yeah. I liked the free part though.

Switched to it and never looked back.


My cheap little netbook does WORK.

[LelandCrooks]

<~~doesn't DJ with vinyl and is listening to a record right this second

If you put your hand on that and spun it backwards I would totally come to your house and kick your ass.

[bzb]

<~~doesn't DJ with vinyl and is listening to a record right this second

If you put your hand on that and spun it backwards I would totally come to your house and kick your ass.

I got rid of my 1200s. I kept my TTXs. They have a reverse button

[turbovolkswagen]

I rock m3ds with an ecler nuo 3, and dvs with traktor. Also use an x1. I love my setup, I don't really see the need to ever buy anything else, unless something breaks.

[DJ Funke]

Cool mix. I am a fan of Dope and Deadmau5, Saw Dope a couple times live and what a show. Back in 01 saw them with Static X and Fear Factory, FF was headlining and by the time they took the stage the crowd was worn out from Dope and Static X. Hoping to see Deadmau5 sometime.

That's crazy you mention that! Those guys put on a hell of a show at Ozzfest in St. Louis in '99

* Main Stage: Black Sabbath, Rob Zombie, Deftones, Slayer, Primus featuring Buckethead, Godsmack, System of a Down

* Second Stage: Fear Factory, Static-X, Slipknot, Hed PE, Flashpoint, Shovel, Pushmonkey, Drain STH, Apartment 26, Puya

Wish I saw Tool in '98 but I was 12 years old then.

I am thinking the Novation SL series seem to have all I need unless I am missing something.

What software are you thinking of using? If your wanting to edge more on the live production side like with Ableton Live (MUCH steeper learning curve) where your messing with clips and tracks that you have made or previously cued, then (I assume your talking about a keyboard type of controller?) then the novation would be a good route if your accustomed to playing a keyboard. If your wanting to use a program like Traktor or Serato, I would consider a controller more based on your classic style decks/mixer. (EQ's, crossfader, and jog wheels if you want to cue up a track you haven't previously beatgridded) I use the jog wheels ALL the time.

Also, I don't know how you feel about labeling all those brand new keys either permanently or with tape. You could probably get the computer keyboard button covers to remember what they are. Buttons lit by LED make for less time spent looking between your controller and the screen. Just something to think about.

Here is the list of mappings for the Midi fighter, VCI-100, and Oxygen 8 keyboard. Switching mappings is easy and takes only a few mouse clicks to delete one file and load another.
http://www.djtechtools.com/midi-map/

LEVLHED, what does that box on the left with the bulbs do? Did you make it?

[DJ Funke]

Traktor gets beatgrids right SOMETIMES, so make sure your controller setup will allow you can quickly cue wherever in the song you want to start, and be able to beatmatch by ear. Also, unless someone has mapped out that particular controller already and you can simply load that file and play, you will need to learn to map it before you can do anything.

[LEVLHED]

It is a tube amplifier, specifically a Bottlehead Crack OTL Headphone Amplifier with the Speedball upgrade.

[Drey Chennells]

<~~doesn't DJ with vinyl and is listening to a record right this second

If you put your hand on that and spun it backwards I would totally come to your house and kick your ass.

The amp looks like a nice piece, tubes are sweet.