Advice for a Beginner
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  1. #1
    Tech Wizard
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    Default Advice for a Beginner

    So I'm looking at picking up some gear in the next couple of weeks and starting to have a crack a DJing. I live and Breathe EDM and has always been something i wanted to do. In the past I have had a bit of a play a round with mates' CDJ's just simple stuff: beat matching; transitions and stuff, but nothing serious. I was wondering if my best option would be to pick up a controller like the Traktor S4 to learn on. As initially this seems like the cheapest route if I find out that I don't have the time for it, and then expanding to CDJ's and a mixer if it turns out well. Or am I better off just springing for CDJ's and a mixer off the bat. My logic being I can pick up the basics on the S4 of both traktor and Djing and then as i get better picking up the CDJ's to get comfortable with them as they are in every venue. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

  2. #2
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    a serious controller like the S4, then expand later? sounds like a GREAT idea. personally i'm coming from 10+ years of djing (vinyl, cdj, dvs) and condensing DOWN to a S4 and I love it.

    I think its a great piece of kit and is a great intro, yet also has serious power. sounds like a good plan man!
    Kontrol S4 | Novation Remote 25SL Mk.I | Macbook Pro | Shure SRH750DJ
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  3. #3
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    and honestly, if you can beatmatch and understand phrasing of songs and structure (ie - dont mix into the breakdown like a twat)... youre already doing better than 99% of "djs" out there! good luck!
    Kontrol S4 | Novation Remote 25SL Mk.I | Macbook Pro | Shure SRH750DJ
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  4. #4
    Tech Guru dope's Avatar
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    I understand money can be an issue but if you want to learn, you'll learn way more on CDJs than a S4. The lack of waveforms etc will train you to really listen to what's going on.

    Don't get me wrong, the S4 is a fantastic piece of hardware, it has plenty of features. I dont like it cause it's too small for me, but it's really a good controller, solid and nicely built.
    Still, (and i can see it with a friend who bought a S4 as his first dj gear) with the S4 you will have "bad habbits" : staring at the screen, not able to beatmatch if Traktor makes a mistake etc. Controllers are very poweful tools, but learning on them, i don't think it's a good idea.

    And the end, money will decide, but that's my opinion

  5. #5
    Tech Wizard
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    yeah I can definitely see those issues arising. although I was going to start with sync off so i could manually beatmatch and i suppose not watching the waveforms would be a discipline thing.

    I Think at the end of the day money will be the decider. if I can pick up CDJ's off one of my mates for a good price I'll go with that. If not the sensible side of me says to go the S4.

    I was just worried about the skills being transferable from the S4. Am i right in assuming that if i can be disciplined enough to avoid the aforementioned bad habits that most skills would be transferable?

    decisions, decisions.

  6. #6
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    You might wanna check this thread out:

    http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/sho...cdj+controller

  7. #7
    Tech Wizard
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    there definitely appears to be a lot of pro CDJ chat. I just have to balance out versatility of CDJ but spending 6k on gear for something that could turn out to be a pipe dream and the fact that my mates who play clubs and festivals just take laptops and use the CDJ's as glorified midi controllers anyway. excellent food for thought.

  8. #8

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    Forget about the CDJ's.

    CDJ's are the slowest adopters of technology out of any industry. Any other industry that uses technology are quick adopters. LED TV's, Smartphones, etc. And yet some DJ's still us CD's...People who listen to music don't even use CD's.

    Forget about CDJ's and get a controller like the S2 or S4 with Traktor 2. You can do so much with it. And this is coming from a DJ that started spinning with vinyl. Traktor 2 has a built in sampler, which is AMAZING. Sampling doesn't even exist with CDJ's. Neither does synced looping. If you want to set a loop you better have perfect timing.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by tokenasianguy View Post
    Forget about the CDJ's.

    CDJ's are the slowest adopters of technology out of any industry. Any other industry that uses technology are quick adopters. LED TV's, Smartphones, etc. And yet some DJ's still us CD's...People who listen to music don't even use CD's.

    Forget about CDJ's and get a controller like the S2 or S4 with Traktor 2. You can do so much with it. And this is coming from a DJ that started spinning with vinyl. Traktor 2 has a built in sampler, which is AMAZING. Sampling doesn't even exist with CDJ's. Neither does synced looping. If you want to set a loop you better have perfect timing.
    the cds are for you and your burning them its the same thing as copying things to a thumbdrive, i perfer cds because those 30 mp3 narrows it down from when i downloaded the music and in the end of the day its easier to keep track of your music.
    I Don't Wan To Go The Ocean ... Thers King Fish Out Derr Man

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by JoseIglesMusic View Post
    the cds are for you and your burning them its the same thing as copying things to a thumbdrive, i perfer cds because those 30 mp3 narrows it down from when i downloaded the music and in the end of the day its easier to keep track of your music.
    How can burning CD's be easier to keep track of than using Traktor and having all the music in your hard drive?

    With CD's, you have to keep some sort of organized filing system. What you end up with is a bunch of random singles burned onto a bunch of CD-R's, with sleeves that correspond to them showing which tracks are on them...And if you're a mobile DJ or you take requests then you have to keep a separate list which needs to be updated every time you burn the aforementioned CD, just to keep as an alphabetical reference to all your music.

    With Traktor you would never have to burn a CD, just load your MP3 into itunes, and you're done. Not to mention you can search for it by track name, artist, genre, arrange them all by BPM, etc. etc.

    There's no comparison.

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