rafiq's setup

[Scott Michael]

That is an insane amount of nice gear. I always enjoy seing set-ups like this.. Not just because it's a pile of expensive gear but because someone worked hard and can afford nice gear. Welcome to DJTT, you'll have to share some of your mixes with the community. I'll be curious to see what comes from all this wonderful gear.

[MyUsername]

Like a space shuttle cockpit...

Are you sure placing MFs on your records isn't bad for them ?

[Emery]

beautiful lights

So you switched from Serato to Traktor. What persuaded you to make the jump, are you content with the switch even though many say Serato is still the best for "scratch" DJ's? Did you ever look back?

Im curious because I was thinking about getting an SSL rig for my turntables, but Ive been a traktor guy from the get-go

[rafiq]

That is an insane amount of nice gear. I always enjoy seing set-ups like this.. Not just because it's a pile of expensive gear but because someone worked hard and can afford nice gear. Welcome to DJTT, you'll have to share some of your mixes with the community. I'll be curious to see what comes from all this wonderful gear.

Thanks for the kind words, I don't get nearly as much time to play with it as I'd like to with my work schedule. At the moment I'm trying to streamline and make the workflow as efficient as possible..remapping some redundant features between gear, make use of the midi on the DB4, and a few other things. The DB4 is a mind blowing mixer; I was hesitant at first and almost got a DJM-2000 initially, though I'm super happy I didn't. I wasn't able to wrap my head around how good the filters and effects are on this thing until I actually got to play with them. There's nothing quite like being able to throw effects on tracks you're familiar with and have them sound like they were part of the original production. I routed the 4 decks into Ableton and set up some sidechain compression between the decks to glue things together better. I set up Maschine to bus back into channel 4 along with the second remix deck for live drumming and stuff. At the moment I'm making a Lemur template so I can tweak the compressors while I'm playing and control some VST effects in ableton. What I'm envisioning to to do is set up a bunch of midi clips on each track in ableton that will trigger effects sequences. For instance, I could name one clip "16 beat ___ build" which will trigger a ___ effect that automatically rises itself over 16 beat, progressively halves it's own LFO rate, and/or other parameters. This would free hands up for other stuff

It's unfortunate they haven't Traktor certified the DB4 yet. The way I wanted to have things set up is to to play my main tracks through the CDJ's while having the timecode play samples on the remix decks so I can have, say a bank of scratch samples on the remix decks and shuffle through those on the vinyl.
This seems possible through..."backdoor" methods, but even then, it's impossible to do that while simultaneously routing everything into Ableton

Are you sure placing MFs on your records isn't bad for them ?

The MF3D has rubber bottoms which don't seem like they do much damage. In any case, I have them sitting on control vinyl...would probably be more cautious with my real vinyl.

beautiful lights

So you switched from Serato to Traktor. What persuaded you to make the jump, are you content with the switch even though many say Serato is still the best for "scratch" DJ's? Did you ever look back?

Im curious because I was thinking about getting an SSL rig for my turntables, but Ive been a traktor guy from the get-go

I was reluctant to do it at first, but I haven't looked back since switching. Traktor offers so much more flexibility, better effects, better mapping capabilities, and a much prettier layout, imo. There's really nothing I can think of that I miss from Serato. Some nice things Serato had were the ability to label cue points and loops, and the ability to have parallel waveforms...but those are really negligible differences to me. Serato USED to be the premier scratch software, though that had little to do with Serato itself and more to do with the amazing faders on the Rane mixers (innofaders are just as good now). In any case, a lot of big names have since switched to Traktor (qbert, craze, a-trak to name a few). I remember watching a video by qbert comparing the timecode "responsiveness" of the two, to which he concluded there is no real difference. I can't see any realistic reason for you to spend a few hundred on adding SSL if you already have Traktor unless there's some pressing urgent reason. If you're worried about being familiar with both interfaces, there's virtually no learning curve transitioning from Traktor to Serato...using Serato is completely self explanatory and even simpler to use than Traktor.

[rafiq]

Rearranged some stuff, took a couple more pics, tried my hand at some HDR goodness

[Emery]

^Absolutely beautiful! Im using one of these as my desktop background if you dont mind.

Anyway thanks for the info. I always assumed Serato was the standard for scratch but you convinced me to stick with traktor. I hate to be such a fanboy but that Z2 would be a nice addition to my setup, and would save me from buying a new soundcard/box.

On another note, what about the name Dr. Rafiq lol

[defmd]

Great setup and looks stunning, very nice.

[RockingClub]

A warm welcome to the DJTT community
These pics are super cool! Keep them coming!
Very nice setup. What would I give to have that combination of view and equipment for maybe a day...

[Jayvee]

Super sexy!

[rafiq]

Anyway thanks for the info. I always assumed Serato was the standard for scratch but you convinced me to stick with traktor. I hate to be such a fanboy but that Z2 would be a nice addition to my setup, and would save me from buying a new soundcard/box.

I wouldn't even think twice about the Z2 if a scratch mixer is what you're looking for. It's the best of it's kind, second only to a Rane 62 which is more than double the price. I had a go with one and comparing it to the industry standard Rane mixers which are tanks, it easily holds it's own and felt just as rugged and solid. It's by far the most well built piece of hardware NI has put out, and for the price it's well worth it. The crossfader is *almost* as buttery as the Rane. I love the cue/sample buttons down the side. The ones on the 62 are too small and feel like toys in comparison, albeit are easier to drum on, whereas the Z2 buttons have better tactility/give and are much more fun to use. I only had two gripes with the Z2, the round plastic option buttons spread out along the mixer feel very cheap; sometimes you're not even sure if you've pressed them properly because the travel/click on them is inconsistent. Second, the line faders are way too stiff. If it was a 4 channel mixer I'd see past it, but on a scratch mixer it's inexcusable.