Mostapha's Setup

[Steeevo]

No the xone's sound quality is a lot better if all you want is a solid built 2 channel mixer

[Conall]

Good choice moving to a TT setup, iv recently done the same. I find it interesting the phases people go through from fully digital to more of a traditionalist approach and vice versa.

[mostapha]

Would you say vmx-004 xl is a good mixer, sound and build quality-wise, compared to xone series (or specifically xone:22)?

Compared to the 22, yes. When I'm recording, I mildly prefer the sound of it to the sound of the xones because it's a bit flatter and less colored.

No the xone's sound quality is a lot better if all you want is a solid built 2 channel mixer

I disagree. The xone:22 is made in china, and A&H's quality fell off across the board when they moved production there. They fail. They're noisy. They're laid out weird. And they're overpriced.

Frankly, I think the xone:22 blows.

Vestax mixers–the ones I've used at least–have a really nasty sound when overdriven, so just don't clip. You shouldn't be clipping anyway. Run clean, they just sound clean and awesome.

Good choice moving to a TT setup, iv recently done the same. I find it interesting the phases people go through from fully digital to more of a traditionalist approach and vice versa.

I'm shopping for records again. I've literally come full circle.

Technics and a Vestax felt like coming home again.

I'd probably use all Pioneer in a club (except their shitty headphones) because that's what all of them have…and I might own that eventually if I ever "Make it" and DJ as the bulk of my income, but damn this feels better than anything I used in-between. Ableton was exciting and Traktor was–as I said a lot–the most fluid thing I used other than vinyl. When that became not good enough, I went back to vinyl and used SSL to ease the burden on cost.

Heh…I actually haven't taken my decks out of absolute mode since I got it.

I'm really starting to wonder why I ever "upgraded."

I mean…it was because my beloved PCV-180 died a horrid death after several years of faithful service. I needed a new mixer anyway and I was obsessed with Ableton because of Sasha.

Since then, I've lost so much in buying and selling equipment and software…I could have replaced my mk2s with M5Gs, upgraded to an SL3, and bought an empath…and come out about at the same place. If I hadn't sold SSL for FS2 that first time around, I could have bought an Octatrack instead of Maschine, though I honestly have no idea how that one would have turned out. If I hadn't bought the CDJs, I could have a hardware VA synth.

Seriously, everyone, be very careful chasing upgrades and new toys. Sometimes, they're necessary…but they usually scream at you when they are. Most of the time, I've just wound up spending money.

[Smaze]

Seriously, everyone, be very careful chasing upgrades and new toys. Sometimes, they're necessary…but they usually scream at you when they are. Most of the time, I've just wound up spending money.

Very good advice, thanks man.

[Garygary1]

I'd buy an ecler nuo 2.0 over a xone 22 any day

[mostapha]

So, apparently Maschine's manual tempo adjustment kinda sucks for keeping up with vinyl fluctuations. And Bridge requires beat grids or a 3rd deck. Whatever. Still having more fun DJing the old fashioned way.

Only changes lately have been to the production setup.

• Early 2011 13" MBP
  • i5 2.3
  • 4 GB Ram (soon to be 16GB)
  • 120GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD
  • 'bout to trade out my optical drive for the 320GB HDD that came with the laptop.
  • Lion 10.7.3
  • Pro Tools 10
    
  • Maschine 1.7 w/ full Maschine
    • Vintage Heat
    • Transistor Punch
    • Dark Pressure
    
    
  • Soft Synths (I'm not really happy with any of them)
    • Synapse Dune (Access Virus clone; still demoing)
    • Audio Realism ABL2 (tb-303 clone)
    • TAL-BassLine (sh-101 clone)
    • discoDSP Discovery Pro (Nord Lead clone; demo)
    • Avid's instruments pack for PT 10.
    • A virtual pile of others that I don't like.
  
  
• M-Audio Keystation 49e
• KRK RP5 Gen 1 (2)
• Focusrite 2i2 (temporary)
• M-Audio FW410 (when it works)
• Korg nanokontrol2
• Logitech Trackman Wheel
• Apple Wired Keyboard
• Stack of FW hard drives totaling ~3 TB
• 64GB FW800 SSD work drive.
• A pretty ridiculous chain of USB hubs

[DigitalQw3rty]

So, apparently Maschine's manual tempo adjustment kinda sucks for keeping up with vinyl fluctuations. And Bridge requires beat grids or a 3rd deck. Whatever. Still having more fun DJing the old fashioned way.

Only changes lately have been to the production setup.

• Early 2011 13" MBP
  • i5 2.3
  • 4 GB Ram (soon to be 16GB)
  • 120GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD
  • 'bout to trade out my optical drive for the 320GB HDD that came with the laptop.
  • Lion 10.7.3
  • Pro Tools 10
    
  • Maschine 1.7 w/ full Maschine
    • Vintage Heat
    • Transistor Punch
    • Dark Pressure
    
    
  • Soft Synths (I'm not really happy with any of them)
    • Synapse Dune (Access Virus clone; still demoing)
    • Audio Realism ABL2 (tb-303 clone)
    • TAL-BassLine (sh-101 clone)
    • discoDSP Discovery Pro (Nord Lead clone; demo)
    • Avid's instruments pack for PT 10.
    • A virtual pile of others that I don't like.
  
  
• M-Audio Keystation 49e
• KRK RP5 Gen 1 (2)
• Focusrite 2i2 (temporary)
• M-Audio FW410 (when it works)
• Korg nanokontrol2
• Logitech Trackman Wheel
• Apple Wired Keyboard
• Stack of FW hard drives totaling ~3 TB
• 64GB FW800 SSD work drive.
• A pretty ridiculous chain of USB hubs

I'm probably gonna do the same when i get my macbook. the same SSD and the 500gb HHD that comes with it, and the same 16gb ram upgrade

[mostapha]

I never did get around to the RAM upgrade, though I'm starting to feel it. Firefox is a freaking ridiculous RAM hog, and running VMs is taxing.

But, I'm also very close to replacing the computer with a new iMac (when they come out) and possibly a Macbook Air, because I'm getting sick of carrying this brick of a 13" laptop around. The only thing really stopping me is that I'm considering running Linux on a PC netbook/laptop instead of the Air. I probably wouldn't get enough selling my MBP for it to be worth selling, and I can use that for DJing. The only real concern is that I have no idea where to look for a PC with a max 11" screen that's high resolution, has a quad-core i7, and will take a SandForce SSD and 16GB of ram with wireless and audio that works under Linux.

I'm really just worried about fitting the iMac and the DDJ-SX on that desk. Though I suppose I could find space for it somewhere else if I had to……unfortunately, my Technics are just too big no matter what I do.

Also, I bought a DDJ-SX because I moved in with my girlfriend, and we don't have the space for my decks.

Current DJ Setup:




Production setup hasn't changed except that once I finish a coding project I'm working on, I might be upgrading to Mountain Lion, PT 10.3, and Maschine 1.8. But I might just wait for the computer buys first.

Oh, and I think I'm over 5TB of storage now. I had a 2TB drive get corrupted in the process of fixing a friend's Windows computer that had a really bad virus infection (despite using a VM that I thought was appropriately sandboxed). I got the data back, but I decided that what I had wasn't redundant enough. Also, I've discovered that Time Machine still blows, so I'm moving back to doing backups with rsync. Apparently CLI-only software from 1996 works better than Apple's awesome "all you need" backup software.

[Xonetacular]

heh never expected to see you back on a controller. it does look nice though.

[mostapha]

It's almost entirely a space issue. It cost about the same as the mixer I was wanting, and while it's not rotary…I just plain don't have room for my tables. And CDJs are fucking stupid.

I really like spinning on them. If I started playing in clubs tomorrow, I'd bring IEMs, a CD wallet, and USB keys…and leave everything else at home.

But……

I have the money. I actually thought about buying the mixer and CDJs until I realized just how many more toys I could get for the price of an Empath Rotary and 3 CDJ-2000s……like re-purchasing every single apple computer I've ever owned, including phones, with money left over. Granted, that's only since about 2006, but still.

google shopping shows the price of that package at like $7000.

If you've got the mics and the room already, you can get an entire HD Native (Thunderbolt) recording setup for that…including a well-spec'd iMac. It'd be a bit limited on inputs, but I do dance music. I don't need more than a couple mics at a time.

I don't care how popular they are, CDJ-2000Nexuses are just plain not worth that much money.

I'm sure you made similar decisions when you got into your modular synths. But, honestly, this thing…plus upgrading my sound card, getting a couple hardware synths, looking into a couple decent mics, buying a new computer and a new guitar amp seemed like a better deal. Unfortunately, none of it is going to happen until I have more space. My KRKs aren't even setup right now.