Zilchie's Setup (changes over the years)

[DJZILCH]

I posted this on my blog as well (can be found HERE) but im gonna write more details here

I started DJing in 2002 - I started off more as a vinyl collector when I realized a lot of the stuff I heard at the club was not available to buy in CD shops (back then when CDs were still cool and people still rocked discman's around)

I was a huge trainspotter, when I am in the club i would directly ask the djs playing on what vinyls they are playing, song title etc, back then internet on mobile phones were unlike they are today, so finding out what that song you heard in the club was a lot harder back then and it was a lot easier to go to the dj booth and ask away - i would keep these list of songs that i really like and attempt to hunt them down, later on realizing that only record stores have them - which was when i decided to get some turntables

Anyway my first setup in 2002 was a shitty numark direct drive turntables - I did enough research not to buy belt driven decks but had not enough money to buy technics, but this taught me a lot to mix on shitty vinyl decks that dont hold pitch well, as well as shitty mixers that bleed instantly and had no pfl leds

I would then experiment with other gear and el cheapo mixers (numark dxm 06 , some shitty behringer mixers, numark axis 9 cd players etc) i had no pictures of these particularly because i experimented with too many cheap stuff and finally told myself to buy proper stuff that will last longer

When I started playing in clubs i slowly built up my first proper setup until I finally had these in 2005 (if i remember correctly haha, pretty hazy back then):



This setup was from 2005: 2xCDJ 800MK1 / DJM 600 / 2x Super OEM Decks (HTD45) / 2x Shure M447's / Pioneer HDJ1000s

One of the biggest regret in my life is selling my pair of technics to buy the SUPER OEM decks - at the time all the extra torque was tempting, but thinking back i should have just kept the technics, nothing wrong with super oem decks though, they are rock solid, but the technics holds the pitch a little bit better, while super oem's are easier to manipulate / baby sit because of the extra torq, the technics can get a bit touchy if you get too used to the super oem decks with 4.7kgcf of power

the DJM600 mixer sounded terrible, it had a lot of noise and cross interferences between the channels, or maybe i was just unlucky, it was bearable because at the time the mixer was sort of an industry standard and was pretty much everywhere - getting used to them didnt hurt

Pio HDJ-1000 headphones? they are absolutely rubbish, they sounded okay but they broke very quickly (the hinges snapped!), i would then replace this with the Sennheiser HD25 which I still use until today - Now that's quality!

I would later keep this setup for quite some time except for the CDJS which I upgraded to CDJ800MK2s when they came out

I also had lots and lots and lots of vinyls (til today i currently have just a bit less than 1000 pieces of vinyl) as I loved the whole vinyl feel and the crate digging experience







When I relocated from Sydney to Singapore in 2008 I sold most of my stuff, transporting only my vinyls because they have so much sentimental value

I would later decide to study audio engineering in SAE Institute Singapore

After moving to singapore i purchased the Pioneer 400 set (2xCDJ400s and DJM400) and no turntables as i had no space to put them on my new home



When the 900s came out i wanted to experiment with rekordbox, so i picked up one of the 900s - i could only afford one cdj900 (or the wife would have killed me) and i found that pairing the 400 with the 900 is not so fun because the 400 does not support the rekordbox and it does not make good use of the 900's LINK function (sharing one usb) I also experimented with Traktor and Serato for quite some time , before deciding to stick with Traktor



Realizing that library management is more fun in Traktor than in Rekordbox / CDJs (god i hate burning CDs) - and i did not have much desk space for turntables, I decided to get into the digital side of djing more



This is my funky one deck TRaktor setup - oh and i got a new mixer too as the DJM400 was not coping with my lengthy skratch practice sessions

The setup works by routing both timecode inputs in traktor to one source, Traktor will alternate between Deck A and Deck B essentially allowing you to control both deck A/B (one at a time) thru timecode, the NI Kontrol X1 controls cue points and fx and also sets the decks in absolute/relative mode (the trigger to switch decks if using one timecode to control 2 decks)

This setup worked pretty great - saved some desk space, the cdj900 had really great jogwheels - but the layering / single deck setup can be a bit annoying sometimes, so when they released the S4:



Finally i can put speakers and my laptop on my desk! I am currently staying with my parents while im finishing my studies (SAE Institute) but as soon as I graduate and get my degree im getting my own place with my wife - which allows me to purchase a much much larger desk than this

The Rane mixer is kept (as it was way too good to be sold) and i am planning to return to my vinyl roots soon - technics arent cheap these days but i am intending to pick up a pair of brand new m5g's one of these days - that would be my planned setup - CDJS on timecode made no sense to me i decided if i wanted to go timecode i'd use vinyl! so i am in the process of completing my setup of Rane TTM56s + 2x Technics + Audio 6 + TSP2

oh and recently i sold the S4 and bought the S2 - just for portability sake , its always good to have a controller to rock out but i am not ready to make the S2 my main setup - i'd still feel more at home with the analog mixer + timecode

Oh and other than these I also have an iMac 21 inch, with Ableton suite 8 , logic 9, Cubase 6, Yamaha HS50m, and NI Komplete 7 which i primarily use for my audio engineering stuff

[dope]

staying with my parents while im finishing my studies (SAE Institute)

OT :
A friend of mine is at SAE Institute, and his goal is to become an EDM artist.
IMHO i think he totally misunderstood what is this school about, and I don't want him to end up pluging and unpluging cables at events you know.

Are you satisfied with SAE ? And if you don't mind, what's your goal (as job) after you're done with studies ?

Thanks.

[DJZILCH]

OT :
A friend of mine is at SAE Institute, and his goal is to become an EDM artist.
IMHO i think he totally misunderstood what is this school about, and I don't want him to end up pluging and unpluging cables at events you know.

Are you satisfied with SAE ? And if you don't mind, what's your goal (as job) after you're done with studies ?

Thanks.

Yes i am pretty much satisfied with what was taught at SAE, i finished the diploma of audio engineering course already (now doing the degree) and I really learnt pretty much all the basics and more, from understanding analog consoles, the science behind audio, signals flows , cables, microphones, speakers, mastering, and more, they do have a module called "EMP - electronic music production" where you are required to come out with an original music production track - but thats just one module

but if someone goes in there thinking that you are gonna come out as the next deadmau5 instantly they are wrong, they will be equipped with the knowledge to be able to pretty much do it but the execution is all up to themselves, only a small portion of the audio engineering course is about electronic music production a lot more will be understanding the art and science behind sound and applying them

actually im more like aiming to do audio post-production for movies/Tv/video game companies

Now that i have a family its not really wise to have big rockstar dreams while there are other interesting audio related field that i can get into and have more stable jobs, I'd rather work 9 to 5 for an audio production company and then do music stuff as a hobby, i just feel a lot more secure as i do have a lot of responsibilities now (married and one baby daughter haha)

[AndrewFuse]

These 2 (Shivers & Air For Life) are my favourite records Always wanted them as Vinyl not Digital...

P.S: Great Story of your setup, hope you will get your goal

[samjl]

An interesting read, you've definitely experimented with gear

I'm looking at going back to college and doing a music theory course (the same as you've done just worded differently) Done electrical engineering for 4 years and pretty much hated it, figured I might as well try something I know I'll enjoy

How many years studying have you done to get where you are now?

[DJZILCH]

An interesting read, you've definitely experimented with gear

I'm looking at going back to college and doing a music theory course (the same as you've done just worded differently) Done electrical engineering for 4 years and pretty much hated it, figured I might as well try something I know I'll enjoy

How many years studying have you done to get where you are now?

the diploma itself is only one year but if you want to do the degree (Bachelor of Arts - Audio Production) it will take + 2 years

I did computer science back when i was a lot younger and i hated it - i hated programming firmwares / drivers so during the 2nd year of uni (i went to University of Western Australia in perth) i "postponed" the computer science degree (and never returned lol! picked up djing instead hahaha)

lesson : if people want to study something they better make sure they can at least somewhat enjoy - it will make life more enjoyable

[DJZILCH]

These 2 (Shivers & Air For Life) are my favourite records Always wanted them as Vinyl not Digital...

P.S: Great Story of your setup, hope you will get your goal

thanks!

yeah i love those records too, especially air for life - so many good memories of those tracks haha

[vaibhav.gupta]

holla from singapore!

and nice setup!!