Hello to everyone! Let me start by introducing myself to the DJ TECH TOOLS community my name is Enrique but you guys can call me Ricky, I’m from Puerto Rico so nice to meet you all well I have been checking out DJ TECH TOOLS channel for like a year, on YouTube and it got me really inspired to be a DJ again also have been checking out the articles on the website as well, I had a passion for electronic music since I was 8 years old back in 1993 I was the only kid at my school with a cd player, and started making mixes and stuff when I was 12 mixing it on tapes and stuff like that.
I did it till I was 21 the kit I had at that time was a pair of Denon DN-S100 decks and a DN-X100 mixer, I loved them a lot but then I got into other stuff and sold everything, I did a couple of gigs here and there parties and stuff like that also did some internet radio for a while, it was really fun I really miss being a DJ but I’m 25 now almost 26 and I was thinking getting into music production, making beats and stuff like that at the moment I’m saving up some money my budget will be like $1,000 or $1,200 something like that to get a music workstation like a Motif or a Korg M3 something in those lines, but when I saw that new controller the S4 my mind exploded and really got me into being a DJ again.
I really love the production aspect of music but also love messing with it you guys know what I mean, I also love the NI Mashine looks really nice and solid, but I want to know what you guys think or recommend me I’m open to anything, should I go back and start Djing again or give music production a go? or something else? I still love electronic music from trance to dubstep love it all, well I hope you guys can give me some input on this and see what it goes from here thank you all have a great day peace.
That’s really a question only you can answer. No reason you can’t do both though since your budget puts you pretty close to being able to get a Maschine and an S4.
Welcome Ricky,
Hey why not DJ the music you produce? XD I’m not as HARDCORE! or EXTREME! as some of you guys but I do a little DJing and music production here and there. As long as your having fun with it.
the S4 + Maschine option is a good one… s4 is awesome for DJing… and maschine… well ive used heaps of sequencers, programs, hardware/software (own logic 8, reason and protools)… and maschine is an amazing peice of kit… you can produce very descent tracks without the need of any other software and it is VERY intuitive and once you get your head around maschine… (only took me a week) youll be making full tracks in less than an hour (only thing missing is sidechaining… pleeeease NI… next update? ) And if you really wanted to… you could do a bit of both… Personally i have maschine/traktor synced on the one computer… and sometimes when DJing… i like to add in my own little bits to the song with maschine… and its totally synced with traktor… plus you can seamlessly switch between controling the maschine software, and switching to another template to control other paramaters in traktor by using the shift function… I guarantee you wont regret getting both if you do… and i can almost guarantee youll spend more time in maschine than traktor
My advice would be (as it always is): don’t jump into matters too quickly. I know it’s hard when the gearlust kicks in (been there - as I think most people on here have), but still. Really take some time and think about the options which are available. Foremost think about what exactly you want to do and how you want to achieve that.
Is an all-in-one-controller (like the S4) really the right solution for you? (For me, I think, it is not. Even though I have to admit that stuff like the S4, the Xone DX or the Denon MC6000 do look nice. So I myself decided for the modular option [I think that will have a number of advantages once I really get into playing gigs]and just ordered a Xone 42 to use with my Kontrol X1. I have been using a M-Audio UC-33e controller instead of a mixer up til now and still consider that a very nice and usable setup)
I don’t want to advice you into one direction or the other, I just think all this music stuff is way too expensive to make such a decision light-heartedly. So really, take your time, figure out what you want and then go at it and give the little gearlust-monster inside what it needs
Thanks a lot for that great advise and let me tell you, I really like mashine looks really awesome and the functionality of it is also great, as a lot of potential in the future too thanks again
Thanks a lot and you are totally right sometimes we can get sidetracked by all the great gear that’s out there, because everything looks cool and stuff like that but the functionality and the longevity of the things we have its what matters on the long run, I don’t want to waste money that’s for sure so I’ll take my time thanks again friend
also with regards to maschine… if you have ableton… even better… you can drag and drop your samples/loops you created in maschine, straight into ableton, just like as if you were dragging and dropping any other file on your desktop… and then manipulate them further in ableton… i highly reccomend watching all the NI youtube videos about maschine and the possibilities with maschine… it comes with a built in template for ableton aswel that works EXTREMELY well… Very simmilar in layout to how the APC works…
Also, another great thing about maschine is that since its based on software… they can keep updating it and adding new features… so it wont get outdated any time soon like an MPC for instance… your kind of stuck with what youve got. With maschine its not the case…
Yeah I have been checking all of the videos out, its really amazing all the things maschine can do definitely getting it soon! thanks a lot for all the great input you have gave me I appreciate it a lot.
well I have been checking out DJ TECH TOOLS channel for like a year, on YouTube and it got me really inspired to be a DJ again also have been checking out the articles on the website as well, I had a passion for electronic music since I was 8 years old back in 1993 I was the only kid at my school with a cd player, and started making mixes and stuff when I was 12 mixing it on tapes and stuff like that.
