From Traktor to CDJ setup.

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

From Traktor to CDJ setup.

I have an Numark OmniControl but i want to spin in clubs so i bought a pair of CDJ-350s and a Behringer DDM4000. I was totally shocked on how hard DJing is again, i trainwreck almost all my mixes! Mostly because i can’t see any waveforms… Beatmatchings goes wel, gaining pretty oke, but phasematching is a pain in the ass with top40 (remixes), i really have to know my music bar per bar. Do you have any advice on how to speed up my learning curve?

Thanks!

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Other than knowing your music, you are correct, it is extremely hard. I have no experience with the 350s, but if it has a memory, you can go ahead and save a load point into your tunes. With that, it is useful to do the phrasing there, so all you have to worry about is the outro point of your current track. If you follow me. I probably could have said that simpler somehow haha

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You can use rekordbox to organize your sets, but to get better you really just need to practice a lot.

Btw, how are those cdj-350’s? I’m kinda getting tired of my Numark cd players and want to upgrade lol.

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350s aren’t bad, but I really don’t like the jog wheels. I have 400s and really like them. But if I could do it again I’d just bump up to 850, or 900s…

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Practice, practice, practice!

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For me on CDJ’s I play a much more conservative and I keep two thumb drives with tracks I know very well. As far as phrasing goes you gotta count man. Count your beats and know what songs have intro’s. I think you can use rekordbox with 350’s, do they also have quantized loops and cues. I would set up my music as much as possible with that first. If you set up a strict play list and configure it in rekordbox the more you play that playlist next time around you’ll know which songs have intro’s and which ones don’t and you can mix it up a bit. Try to limit your playlist at first so you get to know what you’re working with.

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Thanks for all the tips! The 350s are nice to start with but they don’t have much functions, for example: no hotcues, no quantized loops. I think sticking to playlist is a good tip, doing that right now!

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with top 40 it can be difficult. You have to have good anticipation on tracks. On typical house, trance, electro, whatever you should be able to hear a phase changing either building or dropping enough to anticipate when to cue/play your track then beatmatch it in. Without waves you gotta know your tracks a lot more, and also work on your timing to cue things in.