New member saying hello & 1st post...some advice please.

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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New member saying hello & 1st post…some advice please.

Hello everyone, I’m very pleased to meet you all. I hope to expand my knowledge vastly over the next few weeks/months/years and meet some fellow enthusiasts.

Ok at the beginning of the year I sold all my Pioneer DJ kit which consisted of 2 CDJ2000’s, DJM800 and EFX 1000. I sold the kit as I hardly had time to use any of it due to work commitments, however I’m now wanting to get back in to the mixing (as I have really missed it).

I don’t want to go back to CD’s USB sticks etc but rather want a fully digital set up which I can use a program like Traktor or Ableton with a laptop.

I have both software and love them both in different ways. I really like the ableton way of sample triggering and effects but I also love the way traktor is so easy to use when mixing four decks.

I have used both programs only very briefly and I’m not sure what route to go down in terms of hardware to control software, and which software to really focus on and develop skills / knowledge and experience in.

I love the APC 40 for ableton use but I also like the xone 4d and its traditional mixer and midi sections covering all bases. Now the S4 has come out and made the decision even harder.

I’m inclined towards Ableton more than Tracktor because of the ability to launch so many samples (i have lots of samples from many years of collecting).

I have no equipment at the moment and approx £2000 to spend ($3150) and need to buy some speakers and a laptop within this price.

What would you guys buy and why.

I’m not a pro or aspiring to be, this is just a past time of mine, total bedroom dj here!!

Thanks for your time and responses.

MiNtaKa

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If I were dj’ing with Ableton I would get one of these:

Those things are gorgeous but the layout for mixing in Ableton is perfect:
Crossfader
Clip Trigger Buttons
Faders for channels
Loads of buttons knobs for fx

£429 ish in the Uk means you can get a good macbook as well.

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Hmmm that does look nice but how does that compare to the dedicated apc 40? Would that not be a better option? also you mentioned a mac book pro, all my software is pc
based and an equivalent spec pc laptop would be considerably cheaper I would have thought. What is the difference other than the apple branding in terms of performance?

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Didn’t realise you wanted a pc - that money will get you a top laptop though and some good monitors - don’t forget you’ll need a soundcard as well.

I just prefer the ohm to the apc - personal thing.

The apc does give more control and is better value - I’m thinking of getting a apc20 for Ableton myself.

I’ve got an S4 though and it’s awesome mate - you have 8 sample banks in there which may be enough for you?
What style of music do you play?

And whereabouts in West Yorkshire are you?

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Hi there mate, I’m in Bradford working in Halifax though. So is the S4 really that good?? I was really excited by the product NI vids on you tube, does look a good bit of kit but just doesn’t seem to have that larger scope as say ableton clip banks ( i have a lot of samples) is there a way to use both ableton and traktor together? best of both worlds…would love to see the S4 in action, do you know any DJ shops in Yorkshire that sell this stuff?

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You can run Ableton through Traktor if that’s your sort of thing…

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I got mine from here:
http://www.production-room.com/

They got a big-ish showroom with stuff on demo, but not any S4’s yet as they are flying out as soon as they get them.

There’s a load of monitors set up as well so you can have a listen to different ones.

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What about a xone 4d? I want to be able to the ability to use effects quickly and accessibly (like i could on the djm 800). I have little experience with traktor but it seems easy enough to use.

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Not a fan of the 4d personally.
It’s great if you got decks or cdj’s as well but not the best choice for midi use cos there aren’t that many buttons to map if you’re using 4 decks.

Thought you wanted ableton anyways :slight_smile:

You need to decide whether you want a more ‘traditional’ dj set up or something a bit different.

Traditional = Traktor
Different = Ableton

Or a mixture of both as Omniross says.
But you’ll need a pretty powerful laptop to do it that way I reckon.

You could always get a midifighter for firing samples in 2 of the decks in Traktor and another controller for mixing on the other 2 decks…

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Or you can be a G6 and use both. Read that one girls post about using the machine to trigger events in Artillery, a Ableton VST, as a master to Traktor.

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totally lost me :confused:

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I think the S4 and traktor will be the first purchase, I will then see how I can use my huge sample library more effectively (hence the ableton fascination). I really like the idea of using traktor s4 as my main mixing element and deck control but with the flexibility of having a whole host of samples in ableton (rather than just the 8 on the s4) and be able to trigger them in synch with the audio playing in traktor.

Would it be possible to have both traktor s4 and an apc40 running in synch? Or maybe the NI Maschine controller running ableton samples?