gear upgrade, maybe for scratching

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

gear upgrade, maybe for scratching

Hi,
I dj’d house and techno for years and lately have been playing with traktor and deckadance. I fool around with my m-audio uc-33 and emu xboard25 for midi control. They’re ok for mixing functions, but I miss something for nudging tracks, setting loops, browsing for tracks.

I’m interested in getting either a NI kontrol x1, or maybe a digital dj console. I think the x1 is a good way to go, I can combine it with the uc-33 for mixing or with my A&H xone32.

However, I also have a couple of young kids and I was thinking that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a system that is suitable for scratching and hip hop, in case they get interested in that in a year or two from now.

Would a X1 make sense for my current gear if I don’t plan on scratching? I’m also intrigued by the xone 1D, but it’s kind of expensive.

If I want something that can incorporate scratching, what is the next logical step? I don’t really want to use a dvs with my 1200s. I’d rather sell the 1200s. They take up a lot of room and I’m enjoying having tracks auto sync instead of having to concentrate on riding the slider. At this stage in the game for me, it’s more fun to just play and not worry about sync. I haven’t bought any software yet, so I don’t have any sunk costs in that yet.

thanks!

2

How do you like deckadance vs. traktor? One of my friends recently started running it and was saying good things…just curious

3

There are some pro and cons.
Sometimes the deckadance gets wacky beat timings, but with some practice that can be fixed quickly. Deckadance allows you to use your own vst fx, so that is pretty sweet. Traktor, on the other hand, has better loop controls and better sync. I use these programs mainly for mixing - I don’t do a lot of sampling or stuff like that. The loop function sort of acts like a sampler anyways. That’s one thing I really like about this kind of software: finding a cool loop for intros and outros.