Hey guys, I’m looking for a good setup to practice DJing for clubs. I currently have an S4 (which I’ve been using for about 2 years) and am very comfortable using it, including disabling snap/quantization/sync/etc. to more accurately simulate the difficult situations I might see in a club (beatgrid off on CDJs, etc.). I’ve started to get familiar with CDJs just because I know that’s what will be in the clubs (have a DJ friend who has a few 900NXs he lets me play around with and have been working with Rekordbox, which has a similar layout).
Here’s my question: if I wanted to get a setup to best simulate what I’ll see in clubs, what would you suggest? Right now I’m considering:
(1) - 2 CDJ 900 Nexus’s. Very likely what I’d see in a club (I assume a club would probably have 900 Nexus or 2000 Nexus, no?), but a bit pricey.
(2) - 2 XDJ 1000s. Similar form factor and layout to the Nexuses and perhaps with a layout more like what CDJs will eventually have (touchscreen). Also cheaper than 900 Nexus. BUT a bit different than what I’d see in a club.
(3) - 1 XDJ RX. Similar form factor and layout to the Nexuses, but not quite the same. But the cheapest of the three options.
Get used to using a CDJ. Preferably the 900,2000,Nexus…the features change slightly, but overall they all have the same feel. I believe the saying that…“if you can mix on technics, you can mix on anything”…therefore, you may not always have an option in clubs unless you bring your own gear, which totally defeats the purpose of answering your question. If you know what the club/venue has, this would be the biggest help to you. Otherwise, you might as well learn how to mix and anything and everything. If you have only used an S4, you might be ok transitioning to a CDJ overall. Best bet is to just pick up a pair of used CDJs (900/850/2000 etc) and practice on them. Or a used pair of techs as it is always good to know how to use a pair as a “DJ.”
Personally I’d go with the XDJ-RX, the layout and features are pretty much exactly what you"ll see in a club (mixer in a club will probably have a few more channels) and you"ll be using the same software to prepare your sets which will be also be compatible with any CDJ’s used in the majority of clubs.
If you already have a DJ mixer I’d consider going with the XDJ-1000’s which apart from the touch screen are even more in line with a traditional CDJ (and what will be the next run of CDJ/XDJ)
The used 850/900 market is IMHO unrealistically high for “old” technology.
I’ve only seen Techs being used by 2 dj’s in the last 4 years and even at that was just for show at an old skool night.
I grew up on vinyl and love vinyl, but its not a necessary skill anymore to use it or even know how to turntables it as a DJ. Its 99.99999999% certain that you aren’t going to be thrown into a DJ box and told “well, we just have these”, you are more likely to be told that they have a DDJ-SX and to just bring a laptop and even that isn’t likely to happen.
First question … do you want to use Traktor or Rekordbox in clubs?
With NI opening up the CDJ900NXS and XDJ1000’s for use with HID control in Traktor why not stick with Traktor as your first option, with a Rekordbox USB stick there as backup or between change-overs if needed?
If this is the case then I’d look at the XDJ1000’s as your option in HID mode for the most part, and you can even plug them in while using your S4 as the mixer at home, choosing them as decks C&D for some 4 deck fun! The majority of the HID functionality is the same on CDJ2000/NXS & CDJ900/NXS, it’s just not on a touch screen. And if you get really keen you can change the functionality of buttons in the mappings to suit your way of playing anyhow, like I use the “Reverse” button or toggle as a modifier to get to hot-cues 4-8.
The other thing I’d look at doing instead of shifting your whole collection to Rekordbox is to export some playlists or the tracks from the last few gigs from Traktor into a few folders then import them into separate Rekordbox Playlists so that you have some familiar tracks and lists to work with in case you need it. For myself, I only have about 80GB of music on my MacBook Air for when I use Traktor, and I carry around a half-filled 32GB USB stick as my backup.
Thread Hijack: Anyone know the cost to rent a pair of CDJ-2000NXS and a DJM-900NXS for a week from Guitar Center? I’m controllerist but I want to have the CDJ skills under my belt for when I need them so I don’t want to buy.
I don’t know the mixer rental price, but at the Guitar Center by me it’s $100/day to rent 1 CDJ-2000NXS. I’m not sure if they do a special weekly rate.
Just found out it’d be $900 a week for 2 CDJ-2000NXS and 1 DJM-900NXS. Forget that, I’m halfway to owning that mixer at that point which I’d rather do.
Pretty much the CDj 2000 Nexus with a Djm 900 mixer is going to be the standard in any club. Maybe start seeing the XDJ 1000’s crop up as they will be cheaper and less and less Dj’s are carrying cd’s. Safe would be the former.
At this point, I’d set up my computer to run with the CDJ 2000’s by renting them or playng somewhere on them, and I would only buy the XDJ-1000’s for home. I already own the 2000’s soooo…