Why DJs choose Midi controllers poll

[buddha131]

woah i was not calling out mostapha..

i was calling out deeppeeps who suggested that a "proper midi setup" would consist of NI kontrol s4 and midifighters..and cost over 4 thousand dollars
cmon are you not going to even see who i was calling out, or what i was saying?

also you said the "s" word. you monster.

[MrPopinjay]

Actually you're right. Sorry about that.

His post made no sense.

Buy an S4 AND traktor pro?
Buy a midifighter AND padkontrol?

Redundancy much? I don't see why you'd need more than an S4 anyway.
That and a super powerful macbook is hardly required for a bit of djing...

[DJBambii]

This is becoming interesting *gets my popcorn*

[djfil007]

I no longer "professionally" dj, after playing local raves and clubs for 5 years... I've fallen out of the scene mostly due to family and work. It's gone from club dj, to bedroom hobby (for the love of interacting with house music).

So I sold my expensive setup of CDJ 1000's and the DJM-500, and downgraded to a nice compact all-in-one setup (the Vestax TR-1) with Traktor Pro 2. I might upgrade towards the Traktor Kontrol S2... I would like full control of the sample decks and I actually do miss the jog wheels (without them I tend to rely on auto-sync, even though I easily beatmatched with vinyl and cdj's for years).

[MaxOnBass]

Portability and creativity for me. Knowing I can take one backpack to a gig if needed and being able to do virtually anything I want on my setup are two key points for me.

[Fubar]

Price and portability. To be honest, I'm not interested in putting 3000+€ in my gear that I carry along, plus the compactiveness (?) makes it easy as hell to come up with a gig.

[Justin]

portability, price, and creativity. Although id like to have a set of turntables for my home setup

[mostapha]

This is going to be long…sorry.

…and even devices like the CDJ 2,000 are taking influence from controllers ( Waveform display, BPM counters ).

Actually, those features pre-date midi controllers that didn't suck. They just got better. Quantization and beat grids used for hot cues and looping were taken from software.

…you don't need to buy many expensive things because people here or anywhere suggest it.…it gets into the minds of the naiive and before you know it, total beginners are going to drop 1000s of dollars on stuff so they can mix one song to the other. …and mixing other peoples songs, wow, art!…expensive crap…

It was actually a little joke. I've gotten PMs from mods for insulting people before, mostly because I couldn't find DJTT's ignore list.

But, frankly, your opinion disturbs me. That's fine; we're all entitled to our opinions, but yours makes all of us have a harder life. I'm kinda with you about the whole "get over yourself, you're just playing with a glorified stereo system" thing, but it doesn't have to be that way. A DJ is a collector of music first and foremost with an intense desire to share that with people. It's definitely creative and artistic and while I think that the weird cult of personality that's surrounded a certain 100 or so names is abominable, I don't think that ignoring the good DJs is exactly the answer…especially if you don't really know what you're doing. And, if nothing else, your equipment choice implies to me that you have no idea what you're doing…more on that later.

The biggest arguments against controllers in DJ booths that I've heard in real life is that promoters and venue owners don't want some scrub who has no idea what he's doing ruining the night for their customers. There's a degree of professionalism that comes with anything like that, and not displaying it makes it harder for everyone.

If every controller-based DJ that a promoter sees is using a pirated copy of VDJ and pirated songs that are noisy and low quality and cut out half way through with a controller that you can get for $100 at best buy…do you think that they're going to look at me any differently? Or anyone else? Do you think he knows or cares enough about equipment to realize that my setup cost ten times what theirs did or that I chose it because I think it's the best rig available to me? No…he's going to think that I'm using cheap crap and don't really care about what I do.

We can't all be Ritchie Hawtin and Sasha. And even then, it was a hard sale for a long time. Sasha wasn't allowed to play with Ableton in Atlanta without a book of CDs with him, and the sound guys were terrified for the whole set. They had Involver cued up on an extra CDJ that they plugged into the house mixer just in case something went wrong.

And he's effing Sasha.

Budget is a big concern, especially with the fact that a LOT of people are un/under-employed right now. But, by playing into their stereotypes, you make it harder for controllers to gain acceptance.

And four grand for a high-end DJ setup is cheap. Do you have a clue what vinyl costs? You're not going to get any sympathy from me for complaining about someone telling you to buy a $900 controller for two reasons: first, I don't think the S4 is good enough to really fawn over; second, my first vinyl rig cost about that before I'd bought any records…and I was paying $12/song. You think NI's stuff is expensive…grow up. It's effing cheap.

Another angle of that professionalism is that your dedication to your art shows in what equipment you buy. We can't all afford multiple top-end CDJs and a hot mixer and nice speakers…most of us cant…I sure can't, and I'm not sure I would if I could. But, I've played with other DJs a decent bit at everything ranging from house parties to club nights, and if I'm running sound, the first thing I do is ask about their bedroom setup. If they can't describe it in detail and why they chose those pieces, I keep my iPhone plugged in the whole time just in case. There's a huge list of companies that automatically put someone on my "he's probably going to f*** up" list, and it includes basically everything that any reasonable person would call budget gear with the exception of Vestax mixers.

It's not a huge sample size because I'm not that successful and suck at marketing myself, and I feel like a horrible person every time I judge someone for picking VDJ over Traktor or buying a hurcules instead of an S4…but I haven't been wrong yet.

You want to prove me wrong. Record and post a mix. If it doesn't suck, I'll eat my words.

If you start talking CDJ's, Pioneer is pretty much THE brand (according to everyone online at least!). These run a pretty penny, so that's why [I would guess] a lot of people start on the controller side. Once you're more comfortable with what you're doing, you can make the decision as to if you want to drop $1000+ for "better" gear.

First thing, it's not Pioneer the company. Everything below the CDJ-900 is overpriced garbage…by any manufacturer. The 900 is okay and the 1000 and 2000 are actually good. I've played on most of them and felt all of them, and I honestly think my CDJ-200s were the worst music-related purchase I've ever made. I wish I'd stayed on Serato instead of buying them. IMHO, That's why controllers exist. The quality to price ratio is a lot better than any other gear, as long as you're wiling to ignore most of the market…like you have to do with CDJs and turntables and mixers and speakers and everything else.

Most gear is not made for people who take it seriously. That's fine. Not everyone needs to take it seriously. But there's no reason to dis other people because they tell a beginner to buy something that isn't garbage because of an assumption of seriousness. The reason I hated my CDJ-200s were that I assumed the Pioneer label meant that they were built to be serious…and they weren't. Then I started looking at their line more closely and realized that they only made a small handful of serious products: their top end CDJ and their top 2 mixers (the 2000 and 900 right now). Everything else is overpriced crap designed to lure unsuspecting beginners into their brand-recognition trap. (please exempt the DDJ controllers…I haven't used them, and they may be fine)

i was calling out deeppeeps who suggested that a "proper midi setup" would consist of NI kontrol s4 and midifighters..and cost over 4 thousand dollars
cmon are you not going to even see who i was calling out, or what i was saying?

I actually understood that. I was calling you out for something vaguely unrelated. His gear suggestions made no sense to me, but a lot of the setups on DJTT make no sense to me. I still can't figure out why you'd actually want to do any of the things I've seen people use midifighters for…but that's because I'm by no means a controllerist.

I think the rest of my side of the argument stands.

A super powerful macbook is hardly required for a bit of djing...

I actually disagree with that, but I'm weird. I think a super powerful macbook pro is required for life. But, well, I drank the kool aid. And I'm fine with that. It tasted great and means I don't have to dual boot with Linux just to get a system that I actually understand and enjoy using.

Portability and creativity for me. Knowing I can take one backpack to a gig if needed and being able to do virtually anything I want on my setup are two key points for me.

I still think that a USB memory key and a crossover LAN cable take up a lot less space than a controller rig. And if you're doing house parties and carrying all your own equipment, the DJ booth is the least of your worries. Yeah…turntables are a pain…but PA systems are way worse.

[oliosky]

good lord. Mostapha, do you ever think that effort you put into your ridiculously verbose prose might be better directed somewhere else?

On topic, for me, controllers were something that sort of morphed from spending a bit of time trying to dj with ableton live some years ago and became my dj tool of choice after spending a year on the road travelling. I like the customisation, and the exciting new things that are available when djing with software.

[racoon]

would made this poll multichoice.

i would check all 4 and add another points

like getting more paid and have his artistname written in doublesize on the flyer just because you use a midicontroller+ableton and call it LIVE when you make your DJ job with ableton ^^