Hey all,
I’ve been producing music with ableton live for a while now and I’m looking to buy a DJ setup so I can start to play my stuff live. (and I just straight up want to DJ). I want to use traktor as all my DJ mates use it and I’ve liked using it when I’ve played on it. Ideally the controller/mixer I buy will allow me to use both ableton and traktor.
I have about £750 to spend (about $1150) and I’m have a few questions about what I need.
What is the advantage of having a real mixer? I’m guess the EQ and sound quality is better, but by how much?
in a club environment, is it better to have a separate (audio card, mixer, controller) system or an all in one controller?
Yes, a real mixer sounds and feels worlds better. Plus if your goal is to play out live you can’t just hop into any club with an all in one controller, some won’t let you and more often many places just don’t have the space in the DJ booth to set it up. Also traktor’s metering is useless for internal mixing.
I would skip the 2D, there was a time when it was a good choice but there are better options now (X1s and the K2 when it comes out). 2D is bulky and heavy, jog is useless for anything except loading tracks, and the buttons don’t compare to the X1, hardly any LED feedback, and if there isn’t space for you to move the decks or a mixer it’s not as easy to just throw on top of a turntable like an X1 or K2 is.
Xone: 22 is a good sounding entry level mixer to have for you to practice on but I still would save for a better used 4 channel mixer, but in a club environment you would rarely bring your own mixer anyway and you will just plug your soundcard into theirs.
I would get a separate soundcard. If you ever want to use 4 decks in traktor or 2 decks and 2 sample decks (all sample decks on third channel) you want a soundcard with at least 3 stereo outs and preferable something you don’t need to haul around extra adapters for and has RCA outs to plug into a mixer.
Buy an audio 8! i got mine for $200 used a year ago. Also, look into the Behringer DDM4000 they go for about $250 used. Works great, quality is great for the price. Midi mappablitly is also a great feature.
Depending on where you are the odds are any club you play at will have a DJM-800 or DJM-900 if it’s a new club, and maybe a Xone: 92 every once in a while if you’re really lucky. If you don’t care about having exactly what they have in a club I would say used Xone 92 which can be had for a little over $700 on ebay which is a steal.
@eataskdotcom I really don’t like the idea of buying berhinger gear, for me it’s worth buying quality gear and having it last. I’ll have a look for an audio card on ebay but there is a deal at the moment where I can get traktor for free with an audio 6 card.
@Miles-D if I just wanted to play out on ableton I’d get an APC-40, I want to play out on traktor too. Also I’m not a big fan of touch screens, I like a tactile feel and I think that the ipad does way more than it needs too for just a controller and that means it costs far too much.
@Xonetacular Thanks man, your a legend, I’ll probably grab that setup and save for a four channel if I ever need it.
For what you want to do I’d consider 2 x K2’s + Xone:22 looks amazingly sweet for Ableton and lots of controls for Traktor, the link function looks freaking awesome.
I never give too much thought to what I use as my home mixer TBH as ones’ always provided in the club anyhow, depends however if you want to mix externally.
Also depends if you can hold off till they are released though :-S
I’d most likely ditch my APC40 in favor for K2’s Anyday they seem much much more flexible and portable.
i’d go as far to say that k2’s aren’t really suitable for ableton, ableton works in a very different way to other production/DJ software. Also I can’t wait until they are released
