DJ Equipment

[Darius Boone]

Does anyone on this forum have any recomendations for a nice cd-turntable(s) and mixer? I'm interested in getting a start in the DJ world but not sure what equipment to buy. What i'm looking for is 2 decks and a mixer that are under $1,000. The reason for cd-turntables instead of using vinyl is that it's so much cheaper to burn a cd than press a vinyl. Any suggestions?


D-Boone

 

[SPINSTERWUN]

......nice cd-turntable(s) and mixer ...[for] under $1,000.....

Good luck.

spin

 

[Flo' Dolo]

On the table-top side of things, if you want a "turntable-style" setup, it ain't gonna happen. At least not for the more serious gear. If you stay on the low end of things, you can find something in your budget, but I can't really speak on performance or features except to say I never even looked at any of that stuff until after I got some legit cd decks, and that was just so I could know firsthand how they felt.

If you don't mind the rackmount style (many of which you can use a tabletop all-in-one), or don't care about scratching, then you've got some better performance options, provided you skimp on the mixer. You can also get a little more performance bang for your buck here on the lower end of things, I think.

If you're hellbent on having a turntable-style setup, or gotta have decent scratch capabilities, like Spin wrote, "Good luck. "
Nah, seriously, you'll have to buy as you can afford, as tabletops with acceptable performance start out around $650 bucks or so.

Once you decide which style of setup will serve your purpose, then you'll know which type of units to look at.

djfd

 

[nimo3600]

I recommend spending most of your budget on a mixer and some monitors. The rest should be spent on 1 turntable and one CD player. You get the best of both worlds and the decks are a lot of less expensive to upgrade then the other two.

Good luck---

 

[SquattingRadish]

I just got into DJing about 9 months ago and had a similar dilema. my music collection is all on CD and i didnt want to buy a large portion of my collection again in vinyl, so I looked at CD players.
my advice is to get 2 tabletop CD players for a start, not the dual CD player and mixer all in one setups you find. I have 2 Numark Axis 8's and they are easy to use. they come with 2 programmable loops, a sctratch function(its not great) and 8 effects. i think they are about $300, although you should look at the Axis 9's if you have the money (just $80 more i think) www.numark.com.

The current "inductry standard" are the Pioneer CDJ1000 ( www.pioneer.com )but you wont find any for under $500 so that probably rules out those, although they are the best, and are probably the most true to mixing with vinyl, they are overkill for people just starting out with DJing.

As for a mixer. go either for a Pioneer, Vestax, Rane (or Numark if u dont have much left over after buying the CD players). I would just go for something with 2 channels to start with. get a better mixer when u have ur skills down and you know what genre of music and what techniques you are gonna use. Hip-Hop DJs will have a veeery different mixer and technique to progressive trance DJs, so you need to discover that yourself and then make an informed choice about what features, (how many channels, effects, sampler, kill switches, punch buttons) you want on your mixer. also if you find this DJ thing aint for you, you havnt spent $600 on a wicked mixer.

SquattingRadish

 

[Flo' Dolo]

...The current "inductry standard" are the Pioneer CDJ1000 ( www.pioneer.com )but you wont find any for under $500 so that probably rules out those, although they are the best, and are probably the most true to mixing with vinyl, they are overkill for people just starting out with DJing.

plenty of other decent tabletops available for less than 1000s, but still out of your budget. No such thing as overkill if you wanna scratch, gotta get joints that'll perform properly off tops.

Hip-Hop DJs will have a veeery different mixer and technique to progressive trance DJs, ...

This doesn't at all have to be true. The only difference between the mixers I own & those I run up on in some clubs is that they have rotary knobs instead linear faders. My battle mixers are 2 or 3 channel, got decent EQ & kill switches, yada, yada, yada. I don't change jackshit about how I mix, whatever the genre. Don't let people "fool" you into thinking that they can mix trance (house,dnb, etc), but can't mix r&b & hip-hop. If they tell you that, it means they can't really mix. Beatmatching techniques apply equally to any records being blended, not just any particular genre.

If you post again, D Boone, and answer some of the questions I asked, or provide more info about your needs & wants as you see them, maybe you can get some more specific help.

djfd
flo' dolo

 

[Darius Boone]

First I would like to thank everyone who replied to my original post. Perhaps i'm a little confused about some of the aspects of DJing. What are the advantages of using vinyl in this day in age over cd players? I've been a drummer for eight years so I have a really good feel for rhythm and tempo. I can whip up a drumbeat in a standard 16-step sampler in no time. With a cd-burner attached to my computer I would always have my own material to mix -- This was my reason for wanting cd-players. Pressing vinyl just isn't practical on my budget. Also, cd-turntables have attractive features like looping control, stutter points, and master tempo control. This is what lured me to cd-turntables in the first place. How would you loop something on vinyl? Would you use a sampler? Also, are most mixes just 2 songs beat-matched and remixed with a crossfader?
My main musical interests are Hip-Hop, Trance and Drum n Bass and if I were to get into DJing these would be the musical genres I would be spinning.

I'm sure some will find this post amusing and I apologize for the sporadic organization. Like I said, I think I misunderstand exactely what it is DJ's do.

- Darius Boone

 

[Flo' Dolo]

How would you loop something on vinyl?
- Darius Boone

By hand. 2 copies of the same record on two turntables.

If I were in your situation, especially given your budget, performance needs, and format flexibility, I'd by this stuff:

1 solid performance turntable - $200.00-$350.00 (doesn't have to be a 1200 or TTX1 or st-150 or any other top-of-the-line for acceptable scratch stability & torque)

1 performance ready CD turntable - $400-$650.00

Any ol' bullshit dj mixer from a pawn shop - $50.00

1 good needle - $85.00
or
1 decent pair of needles - $65.00

This can come to a bit under or just a bit over your $1000.00 budget.

As for exactly which pieces of gear, that'll depend on a more specific look at your possible needs.

The reason I'm suggesting a 1 vinyl turntable & 1 cd turntable is so you can play wax & CDs. If both units aren't the same size (small table top cd unit + turntable), then just switch them around so you develop solid skills with both hands on either unit. If you get to play somewhere that has 2 turntables, you'll be fine.

I like these 2 to play with:
turntable: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.ACCT106601/sc.2/category.44/it.A/id.2190/.f
---> I know these can take the weight because a kid I know has a pair and I play on them when we hook up. They really work quite fine. Just make sure you got something under the slipmats to reduce friction (for speedier backcueing and less pressure on the platter when you're scratching). You can certainly upgrade this model, but it's still decent, in my opinion.

Next time i'm out I can check some other less expensive tables out and tell you which ones I like, but I already know I like the one above.

CD turntable: Numark CDX - $650.00
http://numark.com/

I like this because:

1.it's the same size as a turntable,

2.has a real piece of wax on top so it feels just like spinning a record,

3.will keep your manual dexterity development in order and encourage ambidexterity, even though you'd be spinning with two different formats - way cool. You can switch the units from one side of your setup to the other if in the beginning one hand seems to be "stronger" or offers you more control than the other. That way you can still get loose with whichever format you need to, and it's way doper to use both hands to rip shit up than to cross them over unless it's for a trick or something. One-handed djs suck.

As you get more experience, you can decide if you'd rather spin with dual cd units or dual turntables. Pick one, and then you'll have a pair of those, plus 1 of the other format for your "third hand." You'll also have lots of options regarding midi in/out (to communicate with other gear, like a drum machine, seqeuncing software, or sampler) AND you're still multi-format.

If you go this route, you'll be able to apply the same "experience check" to decide on the kind of dj mixer you actually want to have. How many inputs, how many bands of eq, built-in fx/sampler or not, crossfader technology/feature set, and other shit like that.

Anyway, that's what i might do in your position.

Since you're hella new to djing, take a look at this. I don't necessarily agree with all I saw, but it's a good enough primer to help you out, i think.
http://www.dj-tips-and-tricks.com/