As a guy who started out on a CDN-88, then dabbled in the Technics movement, and finally settled on Traktor/VCI-100, I can say this problem has a simple solution: Take two laptops!
All joking aside, I’ve had almost every piece of kit in my rig fail on me at one point or another (Microphone, mixer, CD player, hell I even had to take a Numark CDmix1 apart at a gig once) i’ve learned that the only viable solution is to bring a spare of anything you didn’t already bring two of (speakers). I bring two laptops, one iPod, two SM-58s, two amps, and two hard drives to every gig I dj, unless its a 10 minute or less drive to my house. Period. This ensures that should one part of the system decide “tonight’s the night I don’t want to work anymore”, you are not SOL.
At the end of the night, I like my clients to be happy and I like to be paid; by bringing backups of everything, I ensure a successful gig every single time. It’s worth it. Trust me.
i use dvs 100% of the time, did the midi thing for alomost 5 years, and went back to my analog roots. I jump from 1200s to CDJs, but still keep dicers cause im still a midi freak.
Read the first two pages, so if this has been mentioned already let me know.
I don’t see why people assume that you HAVE to learn how to play with out a laptop. That’s like telling a piano player or guitar player when they instrument breaks for some reason that they should just pick up a completely different instrument and continue to play their music. Obviously that more than likely wouldn’t work out well.
Turntables/CDJ’s/Midi Controllers are just a means to an end, simple enough. No one said you have to learn them all to be a good DJ, and just because learned them all doesn’t make you a good DJ.
The only time this ever gets brought up or becomes an issue is when some old school cat is try trying to stroke his own ego or try to humiliate some one else infront of a group to get some “street cred”.
If you started out on a midi controller, have your ears tuned in and are putting on a good show then who cares? Don’t feel any pressure that you HAVE to learn how to play on turntables or CDJs because there is no need to. Of course, if you want to learn those trades then by all means have at it, but don’t feel obligated that you have to.
With that being said, I did start out on turntables when I was 14, moved on to CDJ’s when I was 20 and have been using midi controllers full time for the past 5 years. I have used CDJ’s at a couple of after parties a few times, and while it is fun to go back sometimes I could never see myself playing like that full time again.
And for those who say “what are you supposed to do if your laptop freezes up” or something along those lines. Well, the answer is rather simple. As a professional DJ you should have a backup plan, be it an iPod to plug in while you restart and get it up an running again, or a short pre-mixed CD you can pop in th CD player. Or, if you making a very decent living off of this, another identical back up laptop ready to go. Hell, even a juggling bear on a unicycle would do!
I’ve DJed since fall 2009. I started out on a VCI-100 with Traktor Pro, then moved to an APC40 and an X1. Back then, I couldn’t beatmatch worth a damn. This summer I purchased an S4 w/ scratch upgrade, a Tech 1200, and a Serato SL3. From manually beatmatching with the single turntable (with Serato) and manually beatmatching with the S4, I was easily able to transition to Serato using CDJ-800s and a DJM-800. Not having midi controllers and not using the waveforms on screen with Serato, I’d say this was pretty close to mixing straight from CDs, and I’m confident I could mix from CDs.
That being said, I don’t think that inability to mix on a non-laptop system comes from laziness of the DJs, I think it comes from lack of access to the gear. I wanted to try to learn to manually beatmatch on the VCI-100, but before the 1.4 FW update (and even after with those tiny pitch faders) it simply wasn’t accurate enough for me to get a spot-on mix. After I picked up the Tech 1200 and Serato, I was astounded at how easy manual beatmatching was compared to the stories I’d read on here, even with vinyl. The fact is, kit’s expensive, and looking down on someone because they don’t have experience with CDJs or TTs is, I think, ignorant and pompous. The crux here though is that if you don’t have access to the equipment, you should still want to learn how to use it. I want to be able to walk into a club and comfortably DJ off of a USB drive on CDJs. I don’t think I’ll be able to do that comfortably though until I get a pair myself to practice on. Sure, even now I could walk in and do a mix. However, that mix wouldn’t be nearly as good as what I can do on my S4.
This is one thing I think all these type threads miss. The root of the problem is not to what type of equipment you use. Mastering all skills or honing your talent (in almost anything) falls on the each and anyone of us who calls (or would like to call) themselves a DJ.
I agree. I’d like to see a venue spend as much as they would on a analogue setup on a a stellar MBP, controller/DVS digital setup. Could you imagine a traditionalist stepping into that booth?
I think that if you understand music you should be fine on any equipment really. I use Traktor and controllers. I was offered a set at a big venue locally to finish off the night for some full time touring DJ’s. I felt I was ready to play for a big crowd so I said yes. The venue had the standard newish Pioneer gear. The guy that offered me the gig heard me DJ before but didnt really understand the fact that people DJ with different stuff. He just liked the style of music I played. So I didnt mention to him that I have hardly any experience on Pioneer gear, I just figured I could wing it. I planned my 1 hour set and burnt some CD’s. When I rocked up I saw that they were CDJ 2000’s and I instantly relaxed as they have acurate BPM counters and visual display. I asked one of the DJ’s which knob was the headphone cue, mentioning that I hadnt used this model of mixer before, he showed me and was cool about it. The Dj’s gave me a good build up to drop my first track and the dancefloor kept rocking all the way to the end of the night. What I learned from this is: if necessary adapt to different gear and dont stress to much cause if you know your tracks and can read the crowd you will be fine. After I finished the sound guy told me I did well and I still didnt mention anything about my lack of experience on CDJ’s. He said he would recomend me to the manager for work over the busy summer period starting in a month or two. I then went home and downloaded Rekordbox (free from Pioneer) which is software that sort of does what Traktor does to analyse the tracks and you can set cue points and loop points etc. When I get a call up to DJ there again I can prepare my tracks in Rekordbox and save them to a USB stick and plug straight in. Then I can do some fancier mixing just like I would in Traktor. The crowd, management and other DJ’s would never know I am a rookie on that gear. The lesson learnt is modern gear is heading towards the same direction and as someone else mentioned, the controls in Traktor are very similiar to newer CDJ’s. In the end it’s all about playing the right music at the right time rather than being the master of any particular gear.
Cheers, Maxy.
nope. If you can mix 2 records together using actual records, TTs and a basic mixer (without any effects and a bpm counter) you can pretty much mix anything.
The problem is that there’s not really any “standard” there with so much diversity… Some clubs have an SL box in house and that’s about as far as they can go reasonably. Unless a club happens to have 5 different DJs bringing in the same gear like an X1 or something in particular, there’s not a lot you can do there.
My first “gig” was a high school summer workshop party; I had a belt drive turntable and a cassette deck and a radio shack mixer. The U.S. president was a guy named Ray Gun, the only hip-hop song I knew had product placement for something called Kaopectate, and beatmatching was not even in my vocabulary. I don’t think CD players even existed for home stereos at the time much less for DJs… It certainly wouldn’t be my choice of equipment today but if it’s all I had (and of course if I had music with me on vinyl and cassette) I’d do my best to rock the party because as several people have already noted, that’s what it’s really all about.
For the past 6-7 years I’ve played on DVS and midi controllers using Traktor and Serato but I still play vinyl now and then to keep my skills in shape; I’d actually be thrilled to do an all-vinyl gig if it came up. All-CD would be less interesting to me but I do have an old CDJ-1000 I could practice on and I’ve certainly played a number of gigs on CD players including wedding gigs with those annoying dual-CD units that you can’t really cue or scratch on.
But I don’t think that makes me a better DJ than anyone else who can’t play on vinyl or CDs; I agree with those who say that these are all just tools to get the party going. Sure your computer might crash and you’d be screwed if you can’t mix on vinyl but guess what - if your computer crashes and you didn’t bring any vinyl, being able to mix on it isn’t going to help you much anyway. Best thing you can do is be as flexible as possible of course but if things really go wrong it may be time to figure out a Plan B whether it’s an iPod or a Victrola and your collection of old jazz 78s…
Hey I never said my idea was feasible, i’d just like to see it… lol. From someone who is on the outside looking in, it just seems there is a big gap in progression that venues don’t care about, traditionalist hate, controllerist get sold short on. I guess that just leads (at least myself) to my first response… Master your trade, back to practicing .
no problems here - tho i’m probably a little rusty on vinyl and my only experience of a cdj type setup is trying to emulate it via controllers and traktor.
definately the biggest issue (as has already been said) with so many people recently getting into dj’ing is not having access to traditional turntables or cdj’s anyway. not that they wouldn’t try to use them if they had them. it’s a price thing…
the other issue is probably the “instant gratification” type mentality but anyone could/should try to use their controller setup in as much manual mode as possible so they could also rock out on a pair of cdj’s etc if needed…
i think it’s all good personally - and would like to master any kind of dj input device as possible
In other news, I played only on vinyl before Pioneer was a club standard mixer (let alone CDJ’s even existing), and was doing three record mixes back then as well. DVS shortcuts have made me extremely rusty, but two records now? Not nearly as clean as before, but not even close to a problem.
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