Upgrade Ideas

[Clilley13]

Hey everybody,

Lately I have been wondering when the time comes if I should upgrade to CDJs or turntables. Currently I have an S2, F1 and akai lpd8. I have played a few gigs and I am currently about to start getting more and starting to try and put up posters and do events like parties, Stag and does, maybe weddings.Hopefully I will eventually play clubs but for now just events.

Right now I am in a partnership with a neighbour that has been DJing since the 70's and I am suppose to take over for him eventually. He hasn't really kept up with the different gear and primarily been using just a laptop for sometime, so gear is my department. I like my S2 and its worked fairly well but I'm worried about if it starts malfunctioning or if I play somewhere with different gear and won't be able to use my own I won't know how to use it. So I decided to ask my fellow DJTT'ers. What would be a good idea to upgrade to? I've seen a lot of people use CDJ. I like the idea that with CDJ's that you can use CD's a usb stick or a SD card to have music.

[makar1]

The main thing to learn is how to manually beatmatch by ear. If you can do that, most gear transitions will be easy.

[Sam Hulley]

Turn all the visual aids off in Traktor, and then use the S2 as if it were a couple of CDJ's and a mixer

[Clilley13]

Ok I've gotten beat matching down pretty good. I also play drums, so what I learned playing drums has helped me a lot out in starting to DJ. I'm mainly looking for something that is pretty reliable. I've noticed that my S2 audio cuts out sometimes when I'm practicing at home and I have to turn the S2 off and on to get it back which could turn out bad if I was in the middle of a Gig!

[Sam Hulley]

Hmm dunno why that is. Never had any issues gigging with my S2.

How much you looking to spend?

[makar1]

Getting a hardware mixer would be a good place to start. You can easily route something like an Ipod though a mixer if anything goes wrong with the computer setup.

[Clilley13]

I'm thinking possibly 400-600. Depends if I will keep or sell my S2 cause I personally like the controller.

[Clilley13]

Good idea with the mixer. My neighbour has a mixer not sure what kind it is but maybe I'll just keep with that for now and playing gigs if anything happens I'll throw my Ipod on till I get things rolling again.

[SwedeDreams]

I know Behringer was never really known for "quality" , but I have to say , the DDM4000 offers A LOT of good features for its price at 350-400$

4 Channels, 2 mic inputs, 2 freely assignable and BPM-synchronized, high-quality FX engines (Bitcrusher, Resonator, Reverb, Flanger, etc.),Digital crossfader with flexible curve adjustment, reverse button and automatic, BPM-synchronized crossfading

Not bad eh?

[SwedeDreams]

heres the link , sorry haha !

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/DDM4000.aspx