Originally Posted by
Sambo
Ok, two points of view here, that of a hobbyist DJ and that of a working DJ.
Techs are a vanity item when it comes to being a working DJ. I started out using DVJ X1's in a club and practised on a Behringer BCD-3000 at home, before I progressed to a Traktor S4, and when I finally came to mixing with vinyl, I had it down within seconds of getting the "feel" of pitch bending on a 1210, so before anyone gives you that plop about "ermahgerd start on vinyl is best start", it's not true. Once you the beatmatch, you'll do it with any controller. I currently do it with touch strips on my X1 and have no issues at all.
Weirdly, you didn't even mention learning to beatmatch, so I'm not even sure why that came up. And, you specifically asked for a 2 deck controller!
If you're playing out, there's 3 main considerations:
- Portability
- Durability
- Reliability
Now the XDJ-R1 loses on portability. Whilst it's smaller height/width ways, so easier to fit in a booth, it's nearly twice as fat as the SX2, so harder to fit in a bag. It also weighs an extra 3 lbs due to it's CD decks. You could argue the upside of this is you don't need to have a laptop, because it takes USB, but it all depends how comfortable you are in using USB and not having a Laptop.
From what I gather, both units are very durable, however there are far more things to go wrong with a multi-media device (R1) than a simple controller.
Reliability... Well, it's pioneer, I've never seen them cause issues with software like NI and Novation gear. However, R1 wins because it also has standalone features, so even if your Laptop decides to eat **** mid gig you can just slap in a USB.
However, you're after a 2 deck controller, and it is essentially a "stop gap" whilst you save up for what I assume is a DJM-900 and a pair of CDJ/XDJs, right?
So why not go for a Pioneer DDJ-SR? This will save a chunk of your budget to allow you to get that end game set up that bit faster. It's more portable and just as durable/reliable as the SX2, and again you're familiar with the layout/feel.
Always play the long game when it comes to the dream set up!
Regarding the Serato vs VDJ debate, in terms of user friendliness it has to be Serato. Serato is known for it's "jump right in and go" approach to DJing, it's the one thing it's always has that makes it so attractive to working/old school DJs over the "Flight Deck" of Traktor and the absolutely horrendous default VDJ skin. Coupled with VDJs tendency to never work 100% how you want it to out of the box, Serato is a definite winner on the user friendly front.
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