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which is wisest for a beginner?

(its not strictly production, but it is productive!!!!)

any help greatly appreciated

if u wanna DJ use wax... (u'll learn dj skills and get the id of dj'ing)
if u wanna have an easy way to make mixes use mp3's in software with warping technology ... (no skills needed but no fun imo)

enjoy

wax??

wizard wrote:wax??

records.

dustrickx wrote:if u wanna have an easy way to make mixes use mp3's in software with warping technology ... (no skills needed but no fun imo)

roni size has been using final scratch for dj'ing and got a lot of abuse in the d'n'b world
plus theres a whole heap of ableton live djs

i've tried the computer and cd options but prefer vinyl

However, computer/mp3 mixing with some of the osftware (im particularly thinking of ableton live here) does allow complete madness

you can mix as many tracks/bits of tracks as your computer can handle...
you can add live fx and automate as you play out....

not fun in the conventional way but definitely fun in a new hi-tech way

im not really looking to be some completely mental well respected dj
just have some fun dj some house parties.
obviously i wanna learn to beat match etc, but im sure you can do that manually? then add in all other mad things that you can do on comps?

its just finding otu what i wnat to buy, decks, laptops or cd decks

if u wanna have dj skills it's best to dj with records imo...
u can learn beat mathcing, juggling, scratching, ... ina 'normal' (analog) way
ofcourse u might aswell get final scratch or whatever but then u loose the fun of holding, collecting, sorting, ... real vinyls...

it's all a matter of personal taste
I never understood why any dj would wanna play cd's or mp3's but there's a lot of people that think otherwise...

i'd say laptop.

vinyl djing is alot more fun than traktor or cd decks, but there's the little problem of paying £5 upwards for each and every slab of vinyl.
good needles are expensive, techs start at about £600 new, some tracks are only released digitally, record bags are heavy, etc etc.

i think most people would agree that cd decks are the least fun to mix on.
traktor is great for mixing and you can do alot more on a laptop than you can on anything else really.

only bad thing about laptop djing is that you're putting all of your eggs in one basket. if someone taxes your record bag its not the end of the world, but if they tax your laptop then its a whole different story.

i'd say try them all before you buy some shit you don't want.

the only thing why i still use my mp3's is that i play grime where vinyls are pretty dying out now

its a problem to find a vinyl to spend cash on,because so many big tunes that dont get a release!

in dubstep,its a bigger problem to find the cash to afford all the sickness coming on wax regularly.

50% of my sets are grime,it would be impossible to keep it 50% if i was using vinyls.

other than the grime thing,vinyls all the way

dustrickx wrote:if u wanna have dj skills it's best to dj with records imo...
u can learn beat mathcing, juggling, scratching, ... ina 'normal' (analog) way
ofcourse u might aswell get final scratch or whatever but then u loose the fun of holding, collecting, sorting, ... real vinyls...

it's all a matter of personal taste
I never understood why any dj would wanna play cd's or mp3's but there's a lot of people that think otherwise...

i was thinking djing mp3s as its easier to transport, cheaper and i wanna produce as well, so ill be using the laptop for both.
but the main reason is i also play guitar for a band and need to buy amps, pedals n leads for that. djing is something ive wanted to try out for a long time.
ill take the advice of trying everything out first, i got virtual dj on my comp now to piss about on its quite a lot of fun : - )
ill ahev to ask to try my mates decks

sapphic_beats wrote:

wizard wrote:wax??

records.

http://hardwax.com/ ??

Vinyl is the most fun to mix and if you are feeling the tunes that are getting a release and wanna entertain mates then wax is the biz.....

If you are playing all exclusive dubs you are sent then vinyl isn't an option as you will find yourself spending £100 a week on dubplates....

CD decks are generally shit but the pioneer CDJ 1000s are the bizniz and play a close second to vinyl. Just as easy to beat match but slightly harder to rescue a mix which is turning into a train crash.....however I am happy playing out on CDJs and it means you can burn whatever you want quickly and can test out tunes before they are finished (if you are producing).

As for laptop mixing, I do this on my Sub FM show as I get so much material sent through however I connect traktor to my normal DJ mixer so it fels the same as vinyl largely...still got the interaction with a proper mixer and can fiddle with EQs etc....this was my biggest put off for MP3 mixing before...However you will need a nice soundcard with multiple inputs and outputs.

There is no point in being stuck in the dark ages especially as the more you get into it the more you will be looking for exclusive tracks/dubs which aren't out on vinyl.

Vinyl, CD and MP3 all take skill to use (with traktor you can write the BPM onto a file but this does mean working it out the hard way a lot of the time as the automatic bpm counter doesn't like dubstep/breakbeats.... it does make a set slightly easier once this is done........)

So out i play a mixture of CD and vinyl and on radio I use traktor and very ocassionally vinyl.

Vinyl is most fun but most limiting in what you can do but i would suggest it is the easiest to learn on and use generally.....

Collecting records is fun, and expensive, and fucking heavy when you are lugging your bag around on the train(!)

lmao, yeh i was thinking about getting a macbook (700 quid one) buying a midi controller upgrading the RAM n stuff and probs put a new soundcard in

vinyl - large spinning discs you can touch.

CD - Smaller spinning disk you cant touch

Laptop - really fast spinning disk you cant touch that can store thousands of the other discs.



the choice is yours.

i am gonna buy come decks soon , ive always really wanted to get into djing so i thort why not. seeing as its my first time, im not gona spend a fortune, i found a pair ot stanton t60's with catridges and a decent mixer for around £260, what do you guys think? is this a good starting point, or is it worth saving more for better gear?

also depends on what style of tunes and type of mixing you want to do

if you quite fancy a good scratch and beat juggle then vinyl is the only way forward

if its literally beat match and goodbye then the laptop options will basically do it for you

a workaround option is (budget) decks and a usb mixer gizmo which can act as an audio interface for the Traktor/virtual dj program on the mac

best of both worlds.......

imo - forget cd decks, just import onto laptop and play the tunes off the mac

£10 Bag wrote:i'd say laptop.

vinyl djing is alot more fun than traktor or cd decks, but there's the little problem of paying £5 upwards for each and every slab of vinyl.
good needles are expensive, techs start at about £600 new, some tracks are only released digitally, record bags are heavy, etc etc.

i think most people would agree that cd decks are the least fun to mix on.
traktor is great for mixing and you can do alot more on a laptop than you can on anything else really.

only bad thing about laptop djing is that you're putting all of your eggs in one basket. if someone taxes your record bag its not the end of the world, but if they tax your laptop then its a whole different story.

i'd say try them all before you buy some shit you don't want.

I'd happily throw my laptop in a river before i let someone pinch even a handfull of my records! Are you mad?

Also for the records i much prefer playing on CDs than a laptop (though obviously neither comes close to the real thing i.e. vinyl)

Something so wrong about looking at a computer screen while you mix!

Wil Blaze wrote:

£10 Bag wrote:i'd say laptop.

vinyl djing is alot more fun than traktor or cd decks, but there's the little problem of paying £5 upwards for each and every slab of vinyl.
good needles are expensive, techs start at about £600 new, some tracks are only released digitally, record bags are heavy, etc etc.

i think most people would agree that cd decks are the least fun to mix on.
traktor is great for mixing and you can do alot more on a laptop than you can on anything else really.

only bad thing about laptop djing is that you're putting all of your eggs in one basket. if someone taxes your record bag its not the end of the world, but if they tax your laptop then its a whole different story.

i'd say try them all before you buy some shit you don't want.

I'd happily throw my laptop in a river before i let someone pinch even a handfull of my records! Are you mad?

Haha totally second that!

I don't know squat about DJ'ing, but the missus spins. And she would probably tell you to get the cheapest, shittest belt drives you can get, and once you're good on them, you can do anything. No one learns to fly on a jumbo jet.

I, however, would tell you to get Ableton (under 300 i think these days, new version soon though) and a midi controller with a crossfader, like the M-Audio X-Session (well under 100 notes), because if you don't DJ already, there really is no reason for you not to. You can do regular DJ sets without even having to beatmatch, and once you're samurai at it, you can do mad loop-based Hawtin-esque shit, well beyond what two turntables are capable of. Plus you can produce on it too.

Auan wrote:I don't know squat about DJ'ing, but the missus spins. And she would probably tell you to get the cheapest, shittest belt drives you can get, and once you're good on them, you can do anything. No one learns to fly on a jumbo jet.

I, however, would tell you to get Ableton (under 300 i think these days, new version soon though) and a midi controller with a crossfader, like the M-Audio X-Session (well under 100 notes), because if you don't DJ already, there really is no reason for you not to. You can do regular DJ sets without even having to beatmatch, and once you're samurai at it, you can do mad loop-based Hawtin-esque shit, well beyond what two turntables are capable of. Plus you can produce on it too.

agreed

like i said before what dj's are doing with live goes legions beyond beatmatching and into the realm of on-the-fly remixing

imagine.... the house is jumping off to tune 1, tune 2 starts creeping in with a chopped loop, then mc hammer tells you not to hurt em before a big bass drop. cant do that with the ol two decks and a mixer (not that you'd necessarily want to! )

also, cheap belt drives have limits - i started that way and i dare you to get into scratching without your needle trying out for the olympic triple jump team

Wil Blaze wrote:
I'd happily throw my laptop in a river before i let someone pinch even a handfull of my records! Are you mad?

Also for the records i much prefer playing on CDs than a laptop (though obviously neither comes close to the real thing i.e. vinyl)

Something so wrong about looking at a computer screen while you mix!

£150 worth of vinyl or £450 worth of laptop with all your productions on it....they can have the feckin vinyl! personally i dont just have tunes for djing on my laptop, if it got robbed i'd have to start collecting samples all over again, re-install my games and progs and vsts, set up windows properly, blah blah fookin blah. i think you are the mad one sir!