Direct drive Vs belt drive
I haven’t made a thread in a while. I know there is countless amount of argument, but i’m not looking for which ones better. I Want to know which one do you guys use and which ones do you enjoy.
Direct drive will give you faster response and a more consistent BPM over time.
IMHO, for dj purposes…direct drive is the ONLY option.
Technics or superOEM
^agreed. There is no comparison. Direct drives or go home!
There is no reason to go for belt drive TT’s.
I sold my technics a few years ago and replaced them with American Audio SuperOEM’s… I prefer the torque of the AA’s for turntable tricknology, but the firm but gentile torque of techs for mixing. If you go for SuperOEM’s the stanton is the best then reloop as they have a phono preamp built in so no static ever.
the only reason belt drive turntables were ever made for djing is because technics had a patent on direct drive motors, when that expired they should have gone out of production, so any belt drive turntables should be fairly old and considering their failure rate you should avoid them…
^this
I started with belt drive, stepped up to 1200’s direct drive… all was much easier with direct drive
yeah if you’re doing any touching of the record you really want direct drive. But there’s less noise on a belt drive. I have a Thorens TD125 belt drive which I love, but no way I’m gonna be back cueing on that thing.
Unless you’re a hi-fi asshole, there’s no reason for belt drive turntables.
The fact that they make belt-drive TTs that are marketed to DJs means that someone doesn’t have any respect for what DJs do. It’s like answering someone who wants to play electric guitar with “well…here’s a shoebox with some rubber bands around it”.
Damn straight!
LOL
Hey, that was my first guitar. Serious
Direct drive for sure. If you have no money, and all you can afford, and you HAVE to be a DJ, belt drive. If you don’t want to struggle learning, direct drive.
Direct drive or stub your toe.
Don’t even record or rip vinyls with a belt drive TT, Beatgridding can be a huge pain afterwards! Belt drives tend to drift real hard. Although me and most of my friends started out on belt drives, most of us managed to mix pretty tight on them.
But in the early nineties there were no good affordable direct drives like today. So it was playing on JB systems TT and saving up for Technics. But now, If you gonna put any time and money into turntables, buy some (used) Technics SL1200’s or the much cheaper Akiyama Acura’s, don’t waste any money elsewhere. There are many other fine OEM turntables out there, but Turntable dj’s will be confident when they happen to find a pair of those in the DJ booth..
I’m pretty sure this is not a problem for decent belt drive tables. Of course if you buy a cheap one, you get what you pay for - same with direct drive.
I got a set of stanton T60’s second hand cheaper than a pair of belt drive TT’s. No there not the best but I can still mix and scratch.
I know you said you’re not looking for which is better, but there is no good reason to use belt drives for DJing.
DJ decks need to have a reasonable level of torque and IMO, that level should be at least that of a Technics 1200. When you drop a track into the mix, you want the record to play at its desired speed instantly. With belt drives (and some cheap direct drives) the torque is so low that there’s a slur as the record takes a little bit of time to get up to speed. If you practice on belt drives for long enough, you will get used to giving the record a push as you release it, but this will then become a habit that will screw you up when you mix on direct drive turntables. The torque issue is even worse if you want to scratch.
Also, as belt drives are inherently worse for DJing then direct drives, there’s no such thing as a “high end belt drive DJ deck”, so the overall quality of the product is worse as well.
When I first started practicing scratching back in the 80s, I used to use a BSR direct drive turntable where the platter was driven by cogs. It was impossible to stop the platter from spinning. When I first used Technics 1200s I couldn’t believe how weak they were in terms of torque because of what I was used to, haha.
HAHAHAHA…Awesome!
So you burnt through a few slipmats I am guessing!
LOL, can just imagine GREASING the wheel before putting your slipmat down.
I used to go to the local market where there was a stall that sold material. They sold felt on a roll, so I’d buy some of that and then cut circles out of it. The only downside was that the hole in the centre soon got massive and then the felt would shift around and stick out of one side under the record, so I’d go through them pretty quickly.
To start the turntable, you pulled a lever down from off to 33, then you could pull it down another notch to 45 (and again to 78 on some of them). It was all mechanical, so the lever was actually connected to the mechanism that changed the gears, like changing gear in a manual car. 
The styli were wicked though. They were double sized, so when you wore out one side, you pulled a little arm on the side of the stylus round and it would turn over, revealing the fresh needle on the other side. Hardly ever skipped either.
In fact, they were probably the best decks I’ve ever used for scratching, hahaha! I posted a file of me scratching back in the 80s using one of them in the “who scratches here?” thread.
WHATT?
That was done on that old thing?
WELL FUCKIN DONE
I checked it out and it was Gangsta for sure!