You’re actually completely right…there’s no question. The CDJs are the right way to go.
</me being an asshole>
I’d take the CDJs, but…well…I hate the all-in-one thing, so as good as it is, there are a lot of things I’d choose over an S4.
What can the CDJs do that the S4 can’t, in terms of physically djing?
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be repaired in your city if something happens to them.
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compatible with every dj software on the planet, including serato
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plays cd’s
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wont lose their resale value in 12 months
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you can probably sell these right now for more than you are buying them for
You don’t have to carry around a laptop, a fuck off huge controller and a load of cables.
It’s more reliable.
More suited for beat-matching.
More suited for scratching.
Analogue loop size selection unlike the series of steps traktor features.
thats right, pioneer looprolls are the best looprolls on the planet
Yeah, it didn’t answer my question… re"physical djing".
In all honesty I’m no expert on either… but i still think CDJs are just outdated.
It’s like minidisc, it just got outdated… and soon CDs themselves. We are not going to be in the world of physical media for much longer…
I wouldn’t fork out my hard earned cash for a soon to be outdated technology…
Especially when I can buy something that has all the same physical capabilities but can do a lot more…
CDJs won’t disappear any time soon. There’s too much money invested in them at the moment, there’s loads of interest in them and there’s still too many problems with controllers.
It’s nothing like minidisc. Minidics never took off while CDs are dominating the market and have done for a substantial period of time.
CDJs are just more practical and easy. People like that, not everyone wants to be fucking about with computers and having to troubleshoot their equipment ever tie they set up.
In addition how are those points not related to physically DJing?
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I’m not suggesting you take your S4 everywhere… learn to beat match on it and play on CDJs in a club, owning an S4 isn’t going to stop that. I don’t own CDJs but that’s what I do sometimes… Perfectly happy using CDJs if that’s what the club has. You don’t need to own CDJs to be able to use them?
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Are they really more reliable? I’ve heard CDJs sketch out and stutter in clubs before and it’s wack! I haven’t got an S4 but my VCI set up is rock solid. Plug in controller, plug in soundcard. Boom
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Marginally, but you can beat match on an S4 so can’t really accept that point wholeheartedly
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Again, marginally because you can scratch on an S4. If scratching is important then get turntables / DVS.
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S4 does have this loop feature.
They will disappear though, no doubt about it.
Again, I never have to fuck about with my computer or trouble shoot my equipment every time i set up. it works every time.
You really think that’s what it’s like now with controllers? What is your set up btw? It’s not in your signature…
If i don’t want to take my equipment somewhere that has CDjs, i burn a few CDs and don’t bother, but I never have to trouble shoot my set up when I take it.
What I have at home and what I can use by choice in a club are different. If I have an S4 i have the choice to take it and use it. If I have CDJs at home, then that’s where they stay, at home.
Heres the thing about learning on the s4. its going to make him a terrible dj in the long run.
something with a sync button is guaranteed to create nothing but bad habits. lets say he gets an s4 as an example.
he’ll use sync, from day one, on EVERY mix. i know youd like the argument to be vaild that he wont, but he will. you and i both know it.
lets say he makes a bunch of mixtapes in 6-8 months. they start to get really good, he deletes the bad ones, gets a website, shitload of friends on facebook. and he actually books himself a gig at a decnent nightclub for a first try.
he gets there with his s4 and the manager goes “nobody plugs anything into our pa. we have cdj’s and turntables, play with those”
he’ll pee his pants cause he wont have ANY idea how to play whatsoever. it will literally be like hes never dj’ed in his life.
also, you cant even compare loop rolls on the s4 to pioneer loop rolls with slip mode. theyre like 100x more expressive and more musical and you know it. you simply cannot in any way shape or form learn a davey dave looproll routine on anything but a pioneer.
if he learns on cdj’s, he’ll be able to play on ANYTHING. all the best did. hawtin, cox, sasha, digweed. every major dj badass on the planet uses or learned on tables or cdj’s.
^ Agree with this post 100%, i’ve seen it happen.
Personally i skip out CDJs altogether, i learned on vinyl, moved to controllers, now i’m moving back to vinyl (+DVS when new traktor is out) - i’ve never liked using CDJs, can’t really explain why i just don’t get any fun out of it.
That’s a lot of ifs. He wants to learn to beatmatch, he wants to learn… and he can on an S4, or he can get CDJs, use them with traktor and still hit sync.
Seriously that is a pointless argument.
Dunno about davey dave loop roll routines but in terms of being expressive are you seriously suggesting an S4 is a less expressive a tool to use for manipulating music?
Can you do this on CDJs?
or this?
so does any traktor/controller combo if you map this using set loop in and out functions.
(i know you’ll know this max, but thought i’d add it for those that might not)
I didn’t say CDJs are better or that they can do all the crazy new things that controllers can, I just said they have their advantages. There’s a time and a place for everything.
I spin vinyl since you asked. TSP purely as DVS with some beat jumping.
You can beat match on the S4 but the pitch fader on CDJs are much nicer. I said more suited, not that you can’t on the S4.
More reliable as you only have one thing to worry about- having good CDs free from scratches. While it’s perfectly manageable you have a fuck load of things that can break when using controllers.
You have to perform little checks when using controllers, ensuring you’ve set them up and it’s all behaving as it should be before you play. With CDJs you just stick in and go.
Again, I prefer controllers to CDJs generally, just saying that there is a time and a place for everything and you can’t really say one is completely better than the other, at least not with the equipment currently on the market.
why do CD DJs act so “oldschool” when they had to go through the same discussion with turntablists not so long ago (or they picked it up when it was accepted)? Yeah, CD players were considered cheating before and weren’t really respected till they finally nail it with CDJs. Looks like a deja vu to me.
People just don’t like change.
OH no they like to change, they’re just affraid to do the move BEFORE the others 
i’m always on the defence side of the arguement… used to it. difference is back in my cdj days argueing with TT guys (having not long left TT) i would side with the few software guys that were kicking about
jackpot
I own CDJ-800s, and a S4. If you don’t have a mixer, I would get the S4. Yeah can manually learn how to beat match on the S4. just dont use the sync button and turn off the phase meter. Also if you get the S4 and the TSP upgrade option is given I would jump on it, just in case you play at a club that requires you to play on DVS.