ablahblah's setup

[ablahblah]

I don't think I've uploaded a full setup before, so forgive me, I only have photos of my current (now modular!) rig

Past rigs were a solo Mixtrack, a NS6, and then a NV. I started out with just VirtualDJ, made a keyboard mapping with it that I thought was pretty cool. Moved onto the Mixtrack (not even the Pro actually), got my hands on Traktor and made a large rework of it that's still on the site. Soon as I realized I'd outgrown the controller with all the mapping complexities, I swapped up to the NS6, a flight case, and ITCH/SDJ for a bit, which was a ton of fun, in many ways more intuitive than Traktor. NS6 got old and I wanted something a little more portable...I did a gig for a radio station on the Urbana-Champaign campus area for a bit, and the flight case was a bit tiresome, so I swapped out to the NV and a gig bag. That was unreal with screens in front...just still felt a little bulky, if only Numark made a single deck version like NI did with the D2.

That brings me to today's setup! I'm pretty darn happy with it so far.



This is four Behringer CMD PL-1s, a single Behringer CMD MM-1, a LPD8, and a Focusrite Saffire 6. Carrying is done with a Shure record bag with 1" and 1/2" foam cut to support the controllers; I bring a separate backpack for laptop, headphones, and the Saffire 6.



Absolutely love how these things look in the dark

The entire idea was for the thing to be completely modular, and easier to lug around than the NV or anything I've had in the past. That and to have four actual decks in front of me, instead of having to press a deck switch button. I think it kind of embraces the whole controller paradigm; there's a lot of pure control surface going around to interact with Traktor, and the audio interface is distinct from the entire setup.



I created a custom mapping for all four PL-1s and the MM-1, which you can find here. Flux, Freeze, Loop Roll, Needle Drop, Beatgrid editing are all enabled to name a few functions. The mapping is also in All Channel mode, so I can actually rip PL-1s in and out of the setup at will (without changing configuration settings). For some smaller gigs I'm just going to bring a MM-1 and a PL-1, more depending on what I want to do. Due to the way the PL-1s are designed, I only put in access to FX banks 1 and 2 across the PL-1s; however, I recently had an idea to map my LPD8 do initiate instant gratification effects on FX banks 3 and 4 (which actually happens to harmonize well with my current mapping). Looking forward to thinking that through the next few weeks.

So far, definitely happy with this though. I feel overwhelmed with the amount of control enabled now, which is a great thing; I felt like I may have outgrew the NV a bit before (was a little discouraged to use all four decks due to that deck switch button), looking forward to improving in the future!

[calgarc]

nice and clean, although I am not a fan of the spaghetti behind the controllers