CDJ or USB?

[glitchfuck]

I'm looking at buying some equipment so as I can start doing a bit of Djing, getting the feel for it more than anything. I know with a bigger budget you'd probably be better off with CDJ's but my budget is relatively low at about £250-£300 so I'd basically be getting either quite a nice USB mixer or a low to mid range CDJ setup.
Here's a couple of options I've been looking at:

http://www.decks.co.uk/package/Numark_N ... M101_69551

http://www.theaudioworksuk.com/numark-m ... dcard.html

Also I know i may be able to save a bit of money by purchasing off eBay, but have a bit of an issue buying electrical goods as its hard to judge whether they'll work or not. Anyway all advice welcome!!

Cheers!

[Attila]

Learn how to use a cdj, then buy a midi controller. You'll save a bunch of money and it works pretty much exactly the same, besides irrelevant, pretentious DJs talking down about not beatmatching.

I've heard good things about the mixtrack for what it is, but id recommend at least going for a Traktor S2.

[JTMMusicuk]

You'l loose alot of opportunities if you dont use CDJs, that is if you want to play out

[outbound]

Yeah I vote CDJ at that budget.

Thing is if you go CDJ and you get gigs you know your probably gonna be on some sweet pioneers. If you turn up with a mixtrack it aint a great look. (I used to turn up with an S4 which is a little on the higher end scale of controllers and even then I had to work my ass of to get any credit using a controller. In the end I decided to move to using traktor scratch)

[Attila]

Lets be honest, if youre not producing and being booked as an artist, youre not really going to have many opportunities to play out these days anyway. I guess he has to decide whether a handful of extra free gigs is worth dropping the extra money on for equipment.

[JTMMusicuk]

You far more likely to get paid from the off using CDJs tbh, if you get a controller you'l have to put alot of effort in to get anyone to take you seriously enough to pay you

[atlascesar]

the compact D option is cheaper in the longest run. and it is so much the more convenient option to carry around. and what happens if a dirty website window is popping up on the portable computer while you are playing in the dance club? no dirty websites in the compact D

[drake89]

i'd go with the ndx400 if you can. they're just cheap enough that I don't care when something goes a bit wrong with them, especially the one i got used from guitar center for $99. I imagine the 200 would probably fall apart, especially since they're like at least 3 or 4 years old. Don't get me wrong they work great 99% of the time, it's just little stuff like the platters are ever so slightly off center. You get what you pay for especially since they were assembled by a 15 year old malaysian or something.

[InternetSlaveMaster]

Can someone explain to me the difference between using a MIDI controller and timecode vinyl?

Aren't they essentially the same thing?

[Smiles]

If your just djing, get cdjs. If you are going to produce and dj get a controller like the traktor s2, denon mc3000, or even pioneer ddj ergo if you want something flashy.

[skimpi]

Can someone explain to me the difference between using a MIDI controller and timecode vinyl?

Aren't they essentially the same thing?

Well, kinda, but with timecoded vinyl, you can still play like you are using vinyl. With a controller then its more like a CDJ in how you would control the tracks. With timecoded vinyl it goes through the high end club mixer, but with a midi controller, you just use the shitty mixer on the controller. Its alot easier to sync with a controller Id say too

[drake89]

you need more pieces of hardware- turntables, mixer with timecode. you also need a computer. you also might have to get an external soundcard with your midicontroller if you want to cue in headphones. That's if it's not one of the new higher end; read $500-$2000 ones.

however, you can obviously still play vinyl with a timecode setup.

[InternetSlaveMaster]

So basically timecode is a hell of a lot more expensive, heavier, and harder to maintain, but you're essentially doing the same thing as midi, except it looks a little bit cooler.

Nice!

But yeah @OP, I've got a Numark Mixtrack Pro (comes with built in soundcard) that I use with Virtual DJ, as well as my Launchpad for looping and stuff, gets the job done and everyone likes the pretty lights, so I can't complain for a set up under $350, especially since I just DJ for fun.

Also with CDJs, you're gonna have to burn everything to CD... so be prepared to buy a lot of blanks.

Only downside of MIDI DJing is you'll have to have a decent computer (preferably laptop), but if your laptop is nice then you've got no worries really.

[wormcode]

Generally sounds better too, like you if you plan to scratch, plus you can mix in vinyl any time you want. Why would you think it's heavier or harder maintain though? If you have to drag in your own decks maybe. Higher end HID type controllers can scratch decently, but I wouldn't really want to have to do it on the plastic ones.

It's also a lot to do with if you're coming from vinyl or not. There's almost no difference other than not having to dig through record bags. For his situation though my vote would go to CD decks. Once you learn how to mix with CDs, you can use pretty much any CD deck a place might have set up. When the last CDJ2000 came out, I just skimmed the manual beforehand and the learning curve in person was about 5 minutes. Not talking about advanced features though. That's a really portable setup, you can just show up with a book of CDs (or even just 1 or 2 if it's MP3s). More places are popping up with a laptop setup with Serato or Traktor too, and let you just plug your flash drive in and start loading tracks. Be careful not to copy/leave them on their computer though.

[InternetSlaveMaster]

Generally sounds better too, like you if you plan to scratch, plus you can mix in vinyl any time you want. Why would you think it's heavier or harder maintain though? If you have to drag in your own decks maybe. Higher end HID type controllers can scratch decently, but I wouldn't really want to have to do it on the plastic ones.

Well scratching is obviously ideal on Vinyl, but personally I don't scratch (and most dubstep DJs don't either), and yeah you can mix in Vinyl but chances are if you're not coming from vinyl previously (in which case you'd have most this stuff in the first place), you don't own any vinyl to begin with so that's not much of a perk.

By harder to maintain I mean having to worry about needles breaking/keeping them clean/setting the entire rig up/etc. I know it's not much harder, but there is a bit more work to it, and that can be a deciding factor to someone.

Again, all down to choice really. If you can afford it, CDJs are a good route, but MIDI controllers are getting better every day and offer a lot of possibilities that CDJs don't.

All down to personal preference really.

[wormcode]

Yeah I agree with that. If someone wants to get into vinyl at any point, or comes from it, it's a good choice.
And true the HID/MIDI controllers are getting better all the time, but there's some real crap ones around! Make sure you research them heavily. I've used that Mixtrack pro and it will get the mixing job done, yeah.

As far as worrying about needles breaking or being dirty, I think it's about the same risk as worrying about your laptop crashing, or becoming slow. Most people stay on top of it though. One thing is if you plan to do any live performance type stuff, then a controller definitely wins. It's always nice to have the option to use effect plugins over the usually cheesy effects built into CD decks or mixers.

[InternetSlaveMaster]

As far as worrying about needles breaking or being dirty, I think it's about the same risk as worrying about your laptop crashing, or becoming slow. Most people stay on top of it though. One thing is if you plan to do any live performance type stuff, then a controller definitely wins. It's always nice to have the option to use effect plugins over the usually cheesy effects built into CD decks or mixers.

Haha yeah man, agreed on both points

[anthonyniel19]

I think you should have knowledge about the cdj because without knowledge about your expense will going to high. So first learn how to use a cdj then buy a midi controller. So that you can save bunch of money and work very pretty.