advice on buying decks

rodney.redneck

looking for some advice with regards buying decks or an equivalent for mixing music.
have a large collection of cds and would prefer to keep on buying cds if possible, rather than having to start investing in records. but open to the best option all things considered.

any recommendations?

also how did people get into the whole practice of mixing music? i have always been a big music fan but have no idea about decks and that end of things.

Ste-

You don't have to go down the vinyl road to mix but a lot of people prefer it, myself included.
Nothing beats the feel of the vinyl under your hand when cueing up a record.
The spinback if you cue it wrong or just to show off.
The crackle of an overused tune.
So many good points.
The only downer is the weight of the bloody things.

If you're buying decks go for direct drives thats about the only thing you need to look for when starting.

As for practising it's just a case of playing over and over and over again.
There is truth in the old saying "practice makes perfect."
When ever you get the chance, mix.
Try different tunes with each other what works and sounds well together.

That's about all the advice I can offer at this time and I'd say there will be no shortage of other posters offereing similar advice.

pyramid man

Pioneer CDJ 800's for cds.

Thats All iI will say.

Executive Steve

you'll find it a lot easier to learn with vinyl. its more tactile, the sound is warmer.

as for the history of mixing, the two pioneers were dj kool herc who was the first dj ever to play two copies of the same record and keep juggling back and forth between two breaks, winding back the record that wasnt playing and inventing hip hop in the process [oddly enough he used a record by the incredible bongo band - covering a cliff richard song. cliff richard is instrumental in the birth of hip hop as we know it today!] in a house music and disco context probably the first dj to really cop on to the possibilities of layering and slowly blending two different tunes together to make a continuously building miux was larry levan at the paradise garage in new york in the mid seventies during the disco era. the first ever dj to get two record players up and running so he could cue one up while the other was playing was jimmy saville, back in the 1940's. yes. THAT jimmy saville. ever notice his tracksuits and obnoxiously large bling bling gold? original selecta. of course he was playing jazz records which didnt really lend themselves to mixing [until the hip hop people like kool herc figured out how to just cut back and forth between a four bar drum breakdown that is] and it wasnt until the technology to make disco records got into the hands of people who didnt really understand musical theory that music started to bve written with the dj in mind.

buy vinyl. you will find it easier and you will be protecting jobs. never buy records from hmv - check the independently owned shops first. if they dont have it they will order it for you. and you will be supporting the guy who is trying to scrape out a living selling music he believes in rather than the guy who is trying to scrape out a living out of his shares in hmv.

Tiesto

i got a pair of numark cd axis 2 decks last week and i have no complaints so far. They are excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so if ur getting cd decks look into them.They are an ok price.

verdidnt

How much would you need to fork out for a set of those? And a decent enough mixer too.

Anyone know what shops around Dublin sell this kinda stuff??

Lenny

Stuff is exspensive in Ireland, but from UK. even though you're against the sterling its still cheaper.
www.sapphires.co.uk check that site out..

mob

For CD's I’d definitely recommend anything from Pioneer's CDJ range.
There the Technics of CD decks

G

Not worth getting turntables unless you're buying regular vinyl, although it is much better and you'll find more underground stuff easier on 12' than CD.

Pioneer's are a good rec for CD decks or if you're into mp3s you could convert your CDs, get some software like PCDJ and a decent PA.

G

Zascar

If you intend to get into it seriously, best to do it proper from the start. If you want to go down the Vinyl route - Get Technics (1200/1210s). If you buy anything else you will probably regret it later.

The Pioneer CDJ 800's are amazing and definitely the best way to go if you can't see yourslef buying yinyl all the time. You would not believe the amount of top DJ's using them. They also have some extra litle tricks that vynal doesn't. The site http://www.pioneerprodj.com has some very good demonstrations of how it works...

also how did people get into the whole practice of mixing music? i have always been a big music fan but have no idea about decks and that end of things.

Before taking the plunge you can try a bit of Virtual Mixing with MP3's. Give Atomix MP3 or Virtual DJ a go - I've been using it for years and I still love it. Its not as good as the real thing obviously, but if you don't know much about mixing etc this can help you out a lot... And if you don't take to it you won't be pissed about spending €€€ on decks you won't use. Chances of that are pretty slim though. Have fun!

Executive Steve

Originally posted by G
Not worth getting turntables unless you're buying regular vinyl, although it is much better and you'll find more underground stuff easier on 12' than CD.

G

why would you want to start djing unless you are buying tunes regularly already??? everyone i know who mixes and plays out was a serious vinyl whore before they ever started mixing...

Jivin Turkey

Originally posted by G
Not worth getting turntables unless you're buying regular vinyl, although it is much better and you'll find more underground stuff easier on 12' than CD.
G

Have you ever heard of something called the internet? Bill Gates owns it, you can get ANY music you want there.

Lenny

Naa he's got a point Jivin,
It is hard to find actualy vinyl rips of tunes in mp3, I have loads of vinyl that are hard to get on mp3, never came accross most of them on mp3...
But the feel and look of vinyl is way better

G

Originally posted by [cm]tyranny
why would you want to start djing unless you are buying tunes regularly already??? everyone i know who mixes and plays out was a serious vinyl whore before they ever started mixing...

What sort of tit are you? Read rodney's post: he buys CDs not vinyl. He wants to stick to CDs therfore it wouldn't be a bright idea to buy decks would it? :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Jivin Turkey
Have you ever heard of something called the internet? Bill Gates owns it, you can get ANY music you want there.

Aha. Thanks for the tip Turkey

Executive Steve

Originally posted by G
What sort of tit are you? Read rodney's post: he buys CDs not vinyl. He wants to stick to CDs therfore it wouldn't be a bright idea to buy decks would it? :rolleyes:

Aha. Thanks for the tip Turkey

STFU N00B.

first of all, playing exclusively off cds makes you a cretin. second of all the whole point of the vinyl standard is because the technology works and there is genuine skill involved. you have to LEARN how to do it. it takes TIME. it takes DEDICATION. it takes as long to build up a decent record collection as it takes to LEARN how to MIX it. [all the words in capitals are useful words you might be interested in checking in a DICTIONARY].

any muppet can go and download a few mp3s burn them to cd, put them in their ****ty twin cd mixer with auto bpm synch and bpm counters and keymatch etc, effectively kicking the guy who has invested TIME LOVE and DEDICATION to LEARNING a SKILL. not to mention the PRODUCER who, while he isnt likely to be particularly well off anyway, certainly wont get paid for the mp3 of the tune he put a lot of HARD WORK into and that you just downloaded, you odious little gimp.

G

wtf are you ranting about now? I don't disagree with that and I said it's much better to use decks. My point is if he wants to keep buying CDs he should get CD decks.

Zascar

Originally posted by [cm]tyranny
first of all, playing exclusively off cds makes you a cretin. second of all the whole point of the vinyl standard is because the technology works and there is genuine skill involved. you have to LEARN how to do it. it takes TIME. it takes DEDICATION. it takes as long to build up a decent record collection as it takes to LEARN how to MIX it.

any muppet can go and download a few mp3s burn them to cd, put them in their ****ty twin cd mixer with auto bpm synch and bpm counters and keymatch etc.

I agree to a point but you are being a little hard. To really be able to call yourself a DJ I think you must be able to spin Vinvl, however technology is getting better and beter, and as I said before I have seen a lot of DJ's bang out excellent sets using only CD's (I would however limit this to using the Pioneer CDJ 800/1000's though - as they are so far above any other CD Decks).

I've been using mp3's to mix for years (mixing live, not the pre-set-up programs) and I think I can churn out better sets than many so called "DJ's". Yes, Certain programs will do the beatmatching for you - many people thinik that this is 'cheating', but beat matchnig is only a tiny part of what a DJ does. In my opinion; mixing, song selection, being creative, and reading the crowd etc, are all far more important. Most of the programs will help you beatmatch, but it needs a lot of manual adjustment to get it perfect, so even though you re gettting help form a computer, there is still a lot of skill involved. What I'm saying is that the tools you use are a personal choice, but as technology gets better we are given more choice and flexability. There has always been a snobbish attitude of Vinyl or Nothing, but I think you will find that this is changing rapidly with the introduction of the "Digital DJ" - eg Final Scratch & Virtual DJ.

Weather your MP3's are legimate or not is a topic for a different thread.

Executive Steve

i agree with you up to a point, loads of people i know play off cds when theyre playing unreleased material that theyve been sent by a producer or whatever, and i have a few people who swear by final scratch, but they are all travelling the world playing music and dont want the hassle of carrying their extremely valuable and heavy and bulky record bags with the; this is fair enough, it becomes an occupational health issue, roni size plays mainly off cds when he does gigs because he put his back out carrying his vinyl around the world, ritchie hawtin uses final scratch because he's using it as a creative tool and is chopping and re-editing on the fly. these are all people who have paid their dues. i am just worried that the proliferation of "digital djs" who can just download any tune they want to play will make it impossible for any new music to be released unless its been done by some geezer who's knocking out tunes on reason between shifts at burger king. look either way, theres probably noone on this board who shares my taste in music, drum and bass is a small [albeit very global] scene, and its small tight knit nature ensures that any ill effects caused by the move from the vinyl standard will show up there first. i do know a few record labels who are selling made to order personalised compilations of their back catalogue for a nominal fee of a pound sterling a tune, and i also know of a good few producers who have taken to making full 320kps mp3s up for free public download to promote themselves or to ensure at least a limited exposure for a tune they couldnt clear the samples for. and yes, at the end of the day vinyl will disappear, the environmental argument being the most potent imo, but still the main economical structure of the dance scene is based on the use production and sale of 12" vinyl. you are absolutely right in saying that the beat matching is only a very small part of the djs work [or it is when youre using software or cds] but the whole point of a dj is that he is an educator, a teacher who has hunted far and wide for fresh vinyl. can you imagine the feeling of searching for a really really rare mispressed white label, being certain theres only like 2000 ever pressed, wanting it for years and finally having it, finding it in a bargain bin in a charity shop? knowing that youre the only dj in your town to have it and to be able to play it out? versus just going *click* to download???????? how much of a kick in the nuts do you think that is? i was a collector before i was a dj, i mix just to have something to do with my records, and it seems to me that apart from the convenience and weight arguments, ok and the environmental one [records = vinyl = oil after all] there is absolutley no advantage to anyone by moving away fom vinyl.

record labels depend on vinyl because it cant be reproduced for less money than it costs to buy the product in the first place. the record labels pay the producers to make the tunes, so hopefully the producer can afford to sit at home making better tunes rather than making them after a hard days work at a sh1tty call centre. the dj then goes out and buys the records enabling the label owner and the producer to have a nice sandwich for lunch that day. are you telling me that every single digital dj ever is always going to pay to download every single tune???? in an industry this small a few hundred sales can mean the difference between success and failure, between the producer getting to buy a nice new synth, or the producer going down to the job centre.

what about the mastering house people? the people who take the tune from the producer and master it to vinyl, settig out how far apart the grooves are etc and making sure alll the frequencies are accurately transcribed? what about the guy who works the vinyl lathe?

tman

Originally posted by [cm]tyranny
record labels depend on vinyl because it cant be reproduced for less money than it costs to buy the product in the first place. the record labels pay the producers to make the tunes, so hopefully the producer can afford to sit at home making better tunes rather than making them after a hard days work at a sh1tty call centre.

nah. unless you get a tune signed to a major label, you'll hardly make any dosh.
royalties from mix cd's are where the majority of a producers profit would come from.

absolutely spot on post though, tyranny:)

Helix

yeh just like tman says, theres basically no money to be made from production

Executive Steve

yeah but production is a passport to status which is a passport to djng work around the world. and mix cd licensing isnt that much either... Alpha Omega told me that he got anywhere between £500 to £700 quid every time he had a tune licensed to a cd compilation, presumably whatever label the tune was on would have got a share too, but its still not much... the figures for selling a modest run of tunes, maybe 7000 worldwide would be more than that anyway, sure there are tunes that get licensed to loads of dido fan chill out compilations and ads etc but they are very much exceptions rather than rules.

heres a very interesting thread on this very subject from dogsonacid.com... a few big name heads give their two cents in it and it shows most sides of the argument pretty well i think:

http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?threadid=199064&cache=86

copythat

Anybody tried the new PCDJ Version 7. I am having problems installing DirectX 9. Hepl Apreciated.

dirtyharry1971

Aint tried it yet have you used traktor DJ Studio 2.0
Tis F*cking Class did some nice mixes with it (and I am a total amateur)

tman

[rainman]AHHHHHHH! OLD POST OLD POST[/rainman]
definitely bad, yeah.

copythat: some more infor would be handy. if you're having trouble installing directx9, you'd be better off making a post in the windows forum.

dirtyharry: yeah, traktor 2.0 rocks my world:)
shame i can't seem to get it working properly with my dual soundcard setup

BloodBath

I was a vinyl supporter but I'm making the move to cd soon. My main reason is that I'm a student and when I first started mixing my vinyl would only cost about 4 or 5 quid a tune. That's only about 4 years ago.

It now costs 10 euro+ a tune. I find these prices are BS and unless you are getting regular sets it's a real wallet drain even getting 3 or 4 new records a week. I don't mind paying for my music and I'm more than happy to pay a reasonable sum to download music online.

Cd decks are assosiated with crap dj's. I always thought so but in the right hands they are excellent. They allow for a much wider variety of tricks and mixing possibilities than vinyl ever could. It's not piss easy. I have had my eye on the high end Pioneers for a long time now.

I still intend on buying some vinyl here and there and copying it to cd for those rare tracks that I can't find. I'll always love the vinyl but it's time to move on.


BloodBath