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  1. #21
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    He does have an S4, maybe he should invest in some turntables.

    Unfortunately a lot of new people who jump in and just learn in the digital age, don't have the joy and frustration that comes with true old school djing, and beat matching. Nothing ever stayed locked for long, it's always a constant battle making sure everything was always staying in time.

    I think a sync button just takes the fun away from learning true Djing, yes tons of people use it, and I'm sure for some stuff it's nice to have especially if you use remix decks or are midi clocking with a program like Ableton.

    The S4 is probably a great tool, heck I'm getting one for Xmas, but as many of the other people posting head the advice, try not focusing on whats going on with the software, learn not to start out using tons of Effects back then it was how you Eqed, volume and crossfader cut your tracks, all those things that really made your set stand out.

    Learn to count beats that was the first thing I did I can count a beat to any song, I may not know the tempo, but I always know the beat and programed my brain to learn when all the changes happened.

  2. #22
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    I don't believe you can really blame the controller as much a you can blame the person using it. I may not be a salty dj who has been going strong for decades, hell I don't refer to myself as a dj at all. But I've been mixing for the last 9 months on just an s4 and I've only beatmatched on it. I can count on on hand how many times I've used sync. Personally it makes it much more boring. Beat matching keeps me on my toes and just makes it feel like I'm always working and actually manipulating the music.
    I still aspire to get some cdjs or 1200s but being in the military and moving all the time limits my options. In the end the person just has to have the self dicipline to push through and learn to beatmatch.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by JDFunk View Post
    He does have an S4, maybe he should invest in some turntables.

    Unfortunately a lot of new people who jump in and just learn in the digital age, don't have the joy and frustration that comes with true old school djing, and beat matching. Nothing ever stayed locked for long, it's always a constant battle making sure everything was always staying in time.

    I think a sync button just takes the fun away from learning true Djing, yes tons of people use it, and I'm sure for some stuff it's nice to have especially if you use remix decks or are midi clocking with a program like Ableton.

    The S4 is probably a great tool, heck I'm getting one for Xmas, but as many of the other people posting head the advice, try not focusing on whats going on with the software, learn not to start out using tons of Effects back then it was how you Eqed, volume and crossfader cut your tracks, all those things that really made your set stand out.

    Learn to count beats that was the first thing I did I can count a beat to any song, I may not know the tempo, but I always know the beat and programed my brain to learn when all the changes happened.
    This is kinda what one of the previous posters was talking about tho. You mentioned" back then it was all about......." i respect your history and what not but its not really about "back then" anymore and i think a lot of dj's with that mentality are getting left behind by refusing to open up to new technology. the fact is that things can and do stay in time for long periods of a track now and fairly easily for that matter. personally i use the sync button because i can and i dont like having to constantly nudge tracks and adjust bpm's when i can spend that time searching for the next track or working on effects combo's.There are some veteran DJ's in my area(scottsdale AZ) who constantly bash traktor, sync, and anything other than cdjs/vinyl. the funny thing is that when cdj's came out it was the same argument from vinyl dj's hating on the new cdj players. The bottom line is that sync or no sync, no one can get up in front of a crowd with no practice and rock the joint, it just would never happen that way. with that said, if you get to a point where you will start playing clubs and big events then by all means make sure you can beatmatch well enough to lay down a set just in case your setup has technical difficulties and you'd need to fall back on using cdj's. but if your just playing house party's and small events then sync up and have some fun. I wouldnt worry about beatmatching until you actually need to use it and theres a good chance you'll never need to manually beatmatch(especially with sync now available on new cdj's). theres no point wasting time mastering it if your just gonna play out using sync. spend that time mastering fx transitions and phrase matching. phrase matching is WAY more important than beat matching and its also something the computer cant do for you. I would take someone anyday that cant beatmatch but is awesome at phrase matching as opposed to someone who can manually beat match but is rusty with phrasing. Beat matching is easy anyways. the first time i tried it i thought " thats it?" and I enjoyed playing out a set so much more once i started throwing sync on and could mash out on traktor's other features(cue points, FX, EQing) without having to worry about the boring and tedious beatmatching stuff. Thats just my take tho, if someone truly enjoys the process of beatmatching then they should definitely keep doing it manually. Its all about what makes you have more fun when djing, for me personally its fx and cue juggling but that doesnt mean that's the case for everyone else. it also doesnt make me right or wrong in using sync because i cant help the fact that my brain thinks beatmatching isnt fun

  4. #24
    Tech Guru antifmradio's Avatar
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    why not just do a short, skip-scratch on the wheels?

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by mmullen68 View Post
    This is kinda what one of the previous posters was talking about tho. You mentioned" back then it was all about......." i respect your history and what not but its not really about "back then" anymore and i think a lot of dj's with that mentality are getting left behind by refusing to open up to new technology. the fact is that things can and do stay in time for long periods of a track now and fairly easily for that matter. personally i use the sync button because i can and i dont like having to constantly nudge tracks and adjust bpm's when i can spend that time searching for the next track or working on effects combo's.There are some veteran DJ's in my area(scottsdale AZ) who constantly bash traktor, sync, and anything other than cdjs/vinyl. the funny thing is that when cdj's came out it was the same argument from vinyl dj's hating on the new cdj players. The bottom line is that sync or no sync, no one can get up in front of a crowd with no practice and rock the joint, it just would never happen that way. with that said, if you get to a point where you will start playing clubs and big events then by all means make sure you can beatmatch well enough to lay down a set just in case your setup has technical difficulties and you'd need to fall back on using cdj's. but if your just playing house party's and small events then sync up and have some fun. I wouldnt worry about beatmatching until you actually need to use it and theres a good chance you'll never need to manually beatmatch(especially with sync now available on new cdj's). theres no point wasting time mastering it if your just gonna play out using sync. spend that time mastering fx transitions and phrase matching. phrase matching is WAY more important than beat matching and its also something the computer cant do for you. I would take someone anyday that cant beatmatch but is awesome at phrase matching as opposed to someone who can manually beat match but is rusty with phrasing. Beat matching is easy anyways. the first time i tried it i thought " thats it?" and I enjoyed playing out a set so much more once i started throwing sync on and could mash out on traktor's other features(cue points, FX, EQing) without having to worry about the boring and tedious beatmatching stuff. Thats just my take tho, if someone truly enjoys the process of beatmatching then they should definitely keep doing it manually. Its all about what makes you have more fun when djing, for me personally its fx and cue juggling but that doesnt mean that's the case for everyone else. it also doesnt make me right or wrong in using sync because i cant help the fact that my brain thinks beatmatching isnt fun

    First off I wasn't hating, personally I think cdj's suck always have always will. Yes it's so much more convenient to carry a load of cds through the airport then Records, trust me I've carried 3 cases of records with no wheels across the country.

    Seriously?!?! pressing sync gives you more time to search for tracks? Doesn't Traktor like have a 100 ways to easily find tracks? I'm sorry Your brain doesn't like beat matching, But really a true Dj could easily have a track beat matched and spend all the same amount of time doing FX, Cue point cuts, Volume/Cross Fade Cuts ect ect. I could easily have mixes go for 1:00 to 2:00 minutes, or fast mix a track and still do all the same things that traktor could do, minus all the fancy effects that most people get bored of.

    I'm not hating on the digital age or anything else hell I'm going to get an S4 myself to play with, the fact is the guy asked about what to do I was just reiterating tips and tricks to techniques for him to try, and explaining to him how I felt that was done before the so called "digital age" He was asking for advice on it yes someone else said stuff, but it's never a bad idea to get more than one opinion.

    Also no offense but you explaining how it's done in AZ, is all fine and dandy, but lets be real here for a minute if you are talking about playing massive shows and stuff, this is one thing that has killed the industry for a lot of people, because promoters and club organizers don't want to pay like they use to because they all have this same mentality that you mentioned, that really most dj's don't even really know how to Dj anymore they just bring in whatever gear they have and that's it. OR if they are throwing a huge show, then the book people from UK who are really nothing but glorified producers who everyone knows, that is cashing in on being a so called "DJ" Also i understand people be hating, I'm not hating on anyone or anything, but really it's easy to hit a button and sync something and call your self a DJ these days, again tons of producers do it, and a lot of promoters don't care if someone rocks a joint they usually want who ever will do it for cheap or free on the local level, at least that's how it is here in Seattle, and most places these days.

    With that said its never about what age we are in or what tools we have, it's how we use them to make music or create something, I think anyone who can should get tables and buy records, but then again I'm a vinyl junkie and that's just how it is.

  6. #26
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    I think you have a good idea funk. I'm going to ask my buddy if I can borrow his technics to try out and I can always add it to a channel. Ive been practising a lot and I'm getting better with matching the beat, but not close to have it perfectly matched.

    One more question guys I'm thinking about getting a macbook pro I7 because I just use my sisters mbp and she doesnt want me to use hers anymore. So the new mbp has 3.0 usb and I've been reading that the s4 doesn't work properly because its designed for 2.0. Does anyone have any experience or tried using the s4 with the new mackbook?

    Mullen were from Az are you? I live in Gilbert

    Thanks for all the advice so far this forum is helping a lot. Happy thanksgiving!

  7. #27
    Tech Guru antifmradio's Avatar
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    i would imagine MBP would allow you to run the 3.0 USB ports built into it as if they were 2.0
    You might want to google on something like that in preperation
    THis way you can see if you even NEED to get that level mbp

    if it wont work
    then check with a mac store and see if they can ship you a previous version that has 2.0 ports

    That would also save you some Mulah

  8. #28
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    Just wanted everyone to know that the S4 works fine with the new macbooks that have usb 3.0. i didnt face any problems. I went and bought a furman power conditioner today its the m8dx but i still get humming noise from my mackie active speakers. Should i return it and try a live wire or monster for the same price?

  9. #29
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    Guys, when I put my songs into track collection so I can have the bpm to the song the bpm doesn't show up the number is zero. When I find the song by going into the side menu it does the same thing. So I click the folder and analyze and all the songs don't show the bpm unless I click analize to every single song seperatly.

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