Serrato - now or never.

azair · Post by **azair** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:43 am

Hi all.

Okay, I think I've come to a time of my life where I think of me being a DJ as now or never. I've spent a year thinking between "oh it's really cool and I think I'll like it" and "wait, I don't have so much money, I should spare them my future", but now I want to know if I'm going for being a DJ or not, I don't want to spent more time with these stupid considerations.

Therefore I went to a shop in town to check out all the equipment. I talked with an arrogant seller in the shop and that kinda pissed me off. He was more concerned about his skills that giving me the best advices on what to buy. He says I should go for turntables but then again, he could just say that because he wanted to sell, he mentioned Serrato but talked his way around it.

What is Serrato really? Is it good for a beginner?
Should I go for turntables or CDjs if not Serrato?

I'm not sure how much I will give, here in Denmark things are a bit more expensive (should I purchase in another country and ship instead? or is that too riski?). Probably I'll give highest around 600-700 dollars.

jsilver · Post by **jsilver** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:49 am

www.numark.com/omnicontrol

You can't afford Serato or even one CDJ. Trust me. Serato is the old school way to do digital mixing anyways... I already did the research here and the Omni Control is probably the best controller/interface out there. I can't afford one though so it's just a recommendation.

That's if you want laptop DJing ... otherwise go with Vinyl. I'm not big on Serato. Remember with CDJs you have to keep track of your entire CD collection... I've heard this can suck.

altered state · Post by **altered state** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:24 am

CDJ's suck for the above mentioned reason (keeping track of CD collections is harder than you think.)

I used serato for the first time yesturday - and coming from a vinyl background, I thought it was pretty damn amazing. All the control and flexability of wax and a mixer with the bonus of not having to lug wax around, just double click and its there.

Personally, i'd say just buy a cheap set of turntables and mixer, a few bits of wax and take it from there - with serato you still need the tables and mixer so you've got to buy those anyway.

At least that way you can check to see if it is for you before shelling out 300 odd quid for serato + the tables, mixer etc etc.

azair · Post by **azair** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:56 pm

Alright thanks.

What turntables and what mixer do you prefer?

DZA · Post by **DZA** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:59 pm

1210s the only desks youll ever need

caeraphym · Post by **caeraphym** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:10 pm

Try Traktor Skratch Pro instead mate, superior bit of software, far superior audio interface, truly amazing imo, you'll never look back honestly. You'll need a decent laptop to run it, but why would you even attempt to run something like that without ffs?

Get some 1210s off e-bay for £200~, an Ecler or Rane mixer, and Traktor, sorted. And if you find that in fact you're not cut out to be a DJ, you can always sell it on for almost what you paid for the Technics and the mixer, not sure about reselling Traktor though...

azair · Post by **azair** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:19 pm

Get some 1210s off e-bay for £200~, an Ecler or Rane mixer, and Traktor, sorted. And if you find that in fact you're not cut out to be a DJ, you can always sell it on for almost what you paid for the Technics and the mixer, not sure about reselling Traktor though...

Sure, but the thing is, here in Denmark things are much more expensive.

I found a deal with 2 Technics 1210 with 2 mixers (numark dm1050 and behringer pro mixer vmx100), 59 records, numark phones negotiable price.

Everything for 1110 dollars (6500 danish crowns).

arkay · Post by **arkay** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:02 pm

isnt denmark in europe (euros?)

drake6 · Post by **drake6** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:23 pm

My personal opinion is to go with serrato. I myself do not use it. I am on Vinyl and cdj's, however if I have a laptop I would make the switch instantly. If you already have a laptop you can get the hardware for a couple hundrend dollars and then just get some used 1200's and a mixer for pretty cheap and you are set.

chrish · Post by **chrish** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:29 pm

I'm a big fan of the digital time encoding setups. I use Torq, but get whatever flavor you feel is right for you. Although, since budget is a concern for you Torq may be best.

2 Technics 1200's / 1210's decks
1 mixer of your choice
M-Audio Torq

thinking · Post by **thinking** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:10 am

if you buy Serato, you also need everything to control it - a DJ mixer and some turntables, either vinyl or CDJ.

It's really just a clever way to manipulate digital files with turntables, and not much else. If you haven't already got into DJing, then it doesn't seem to make sense to buy all that kit. Serato is best suited to people that already have decks etc, and are just looking to add digital capability to their DJing setup.

Personally I would say the best thing for you to do is build a small, cheap laptop strictly for this purpose, buy Traktor or some similar software, or perhaps even Ableton, and use a dedicated MIDI controller to mix the tunes. Way more flexibility and a lot less kit/hassle.

caeraphym · Post by **caeraphym** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:35 pm

Hurtdeer wrote:
arkay wrote:isnt denmark in europe (euros?)
Denmark is one of the few European countries which still hasn't adopted the euro (like the UK, Sweden, Hungary and a few other places)

fun facts yay

How about you get a friend who lives in Holland, or Germany maybe to buy the equiptment, maybe even from the UK with the exchange rates as they are, then take a road trip to pick it all up?

FSTZ1 · Post by **FSTZ1** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:37 pm

fun facts = win

road trip across europe = win

new 1200's = major win!

DZA · Post by **DZA** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 3:18 pm

FSTZ wrote:The_Dza88 = win

road trip across the moon = win

new 1210's = major win!

azair · Post by **azair** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:13 am

Personally I would say the best thing for you to do is build a small, cheap laptop strictly for this purpose, buy Traktor or some similar software, or perhaps even Ableton, and use a dedicated MIDI controller to mix the tunes. Way more flexibility and a lot less kit/hassle.

Can you elaborate?

I need to see if I understand this right.

If I have a pair of Technics and a mixer, I can connect my laptop with Serato and I can play any tunes off my iTunes library through the turntables? It will have the same "vinyl feeling"?

djshiva · Post by **djshiva** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:08 pm

Azair wrote:
Personally I would say the best thing for you to do is build a small, cheap laptop strictly for this purpose, buy Traktor or some similar software, or perhaps even Ableton, and use a dedicated MIDI controller to mix the tunes. Way more flexibility and a lot less kit/hassle.

Can you elaborate?

I need to see if I understand this right.

If I have a pair of Technics and a mixer, I can connect my laptop with Serato and I can play any tunes off my iTunes library through the turntables? It will have the same "vinyl feeling"?

you are correct, and yes, it feels just like vinyl. just rocked it last night and never felt like anything was any different than usual, other than i picked my tunes from a menu instead of getting papercuts on the cardboard sleeves.

honestly tho, if you are new to the game, i would find a friend with decks, borrow some records, and try it before you spend a shitload of money on the gear. it really is quite an investment.

the flip side is that technics as well as serato hold their value. so there ya have it.

caeraphym · Post by **caeraphym** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:10 pm

You can do that even better with NIs Traktor Scratch Pro, plus you can do it just on a pc/laptop if neccesary too. Traktor Scratch Pro has by far the better audio interface of all these type of set ups, useable as a quality standalone external soundcard. I don't know if you can tell already or not, but I wouldn't even consider anything else at the time being

Ennayess · Post by **Ennayess** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:30 pm

http://www.vestax.com/v/products/players/vci-300.html

said it before and will say it again this thing is the shit.......until you spill beer on it

azair · Post by **azair** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:53 pm

honestly tho, if you are new to the game, i would find a friend with decks, borrow some records, and try it before you spend a shitload of money on the gear. it really is quite an investment.

That's right. The thing is, I might have a cousin living in England where I could get a cheap pair of Technics and a mixer too "cheap" (still expensive for a poor student, heh). If I after a couple of weeks/months lose the interest I can sell them in Denmark for the same, maybe just a little more. I don't know about the Serato too, maybe that will lose a bit value if it's used.

But you are right, it is a big investment and that's why I've been thinking a lot about it without making a decision. Unfortunately I don't have any friends who actually own vinyl turntables, but I have a friend using CDJs, should I try it out at his place, I mean, is there the "big" difference besides "the feeling" and the personal preference?

http://www.vestax.com/v/products/players/vci-300.html

said it before and will say it again this thing is the shit.......until you spill beer on it

Thanks! Can you please elaborate on it? What's so good about it? Why should I choose these instead of Technics? How much do they cost?

You can do that even better with NIs Traktor Scratch Pro, plus you can do it just on a pc/laptop if neccesary too. Traktor Scratch Pro has by far the better audio interface of all these type of set ups, useable as a quality standalone external soundcard. I don't know if you can tell already or not, but I wouldn't even consider anything else at the time being

Awesome. I've heard about that program too, I'll check it out!

More thoughts and opinions are appreciated.

Serrato - now or never.

Serrato - now or never.

Who is online