Old Dj WIth Old Gear, want to go from Vinyl to DVS
Good Evening Everyone, I have an old system that I used in the 80’s and 90’s. I have 2 Technic 1200’s with a Vestex pcm-005mk2 mixer and a Akai APC40 which was a Christmas present in 2014.
I have a Dell desktop XPS Studio computer core i7 running win7 64bit sp1 with 24gbs of Ram. I also have a Dell laptop with win7 pro 64bit core i3 8gbs of ram.
I would like to start it up again after 15 yrs. of being out the game raising my kids. I would like to do a DVS system that incorporates all the above equipment. What system should I buy that I can use all my present hardware?
Right now I’m trying to decide between Traktor scratch A6 and Pioneer Rekordbox dj.
The differences between Traktor Scratch and Rekordbox+DVS (especially with a 2-channel mixer focusing on DVS) aren’t huge.
Traktor can do more if you like the idea of remix or stems decks. Rekordbox is slightly more likely to be inadvertantly supported if you play in clubs (since a lot of their club install mixers work as rekordbox DVS interfaces but not traktor scratch interfaces).
They both have good included effects, but both require a controller to really take advantage of them.
There are also demos available for each piece of software (without DVS functionality, I think). That’s probably how I’d decide if I were you…see which software package you like and assume the DVS for each is going to work.
I hate to say it because I’ve been using Traktor for years but if I were making this decision today I’d go with rekordbox. As mostapha said, you’re likely to see more compatible hardware in the wild, and that will be even more true as time goes on. I haven’t played on rekordbox at all but it looks simpler to learn than Traktor as well. And yeah either one you get you’re going to want a controller, if only for the basic play commands. A Novation Dicer might be just the thing you need as it’s simple and unobtrusive and it seems like you want to stick to the basics.
The thought has crossed my mind to switch. But, I’m not going to do it yet.
Rekordbox DJ 5 works better than Serato DJ ever did with my DDJ-SX, and there really isn’t much missing compared to traktor…just some trade-offs that aren’t relevant to very many people (sampler vs. remix and stems decks and different effects in each).
The big thing, IMHO, for gigging DJs is that if you wanted to spin with controllers but have an easy backup, it’s just a matter of exporting the playlists you’re going to use to USB sticks…assuming the club has a NXS/NXS2 setup. If your main system is Traktor, you have to either rely on a conversion utility or prep the tracks twice (and potentially manage them twice if you’re not using iTunes/beaTunes/whatever).
It’s still the X1s and D2s that keep me on Traktor.
I like the remix aspect of Traktor. It seems to give the remixer tons of control, I’m just trying to figure out how I can use my Akai APC40 as a controller for it.
The Stems decks are kind of cool for that, but it depends on what they pick (and what you want to do). Apart from some decent adoption of that format, it’s still lacking behind what Ableton Live could do ten years ago. They do keep trying. And it’s gotten better. But…I’m still not impressed.
Then again, I’m weird. When I started DJing, that’s all I wanted to do. Now that it’s basically possible, I like Traktor because it’s so good at being simple and straightforward.
The remix decks only really shine when you take the time to create your own pack. 808 and 909 one-shots along with some hand made loops goes down a treat. What I really wish it had was a way of quickly recording itself back into an empty pad.
…which is why I think that Maschine or Live is better for that…all the features people ask for is already there. Syncing them has never been especially difficult, but it’s getting easier all the time. And it’s been near-trivial with Serato+Live for a while (you just have to set beat grids or put Live on a deck).
It’s actually been kind of funny to me that NI has managed to sell this stuff to so many people on that idea (of a hybrid between DJing and performance) when Serato+Live has been easier to do that with for a long time…it’s just more expensive. Or, live is perfectly capable of playing full tracks, it’s just a different workflow.
I haven’t looked into it (because that’s not what I want to do), but…can you “break apart” the tracks in a stems filess (since they’re just MP4 video files without a video track) and get the individual audio tracks in Live? It seems like you should be able to do it at least with video-editing software and then re-render.
We just had a jame session last week. We used Link to connect one computer running ableton+serato, my computer running maschine+serato, and another computer running maschine. Theres really no reason for DJ software to go into the production realm anymore. You can just connect everything with the click of a button now.
As mentions by Erik, stem file hacking has been around for a while now (I use stems within mashine’s audio plugin now )
I’ve had a very quick go at using Link for Live and Traktor (gob smacked at how easy it was, actually), but honestly, I LOVE Remix Decks & the F1. The F1 is the first proprietary hardware I’ve ever used - and for use as a phrase sampler it it bloody great!
You do have to build your own Remix Sets (easy), but you’ll also want to leave a couple of pages empty for sampling from playing Decks.
That side of it is pretty cool. I’ve used it for that before. But, IDK if it’s just me or what, but I kind of prefer just using track decks and saving loops. There’s nothign saying you can’t load a track onto multiple decks. For me, I like those constraints. But, to each his own.
I still stand by the fact that Live is more powerful.
But, this is all really far past the original topic…which is to say that I think almost anything will do what the OP wants…which is a bit of a double edged sword but actually a really cool situation.
Live is infinitely more powerful - and I agree, that is definitely a double edged sword… Live is fucking VAST. The mind boggles at what is possible. Link is awesome. What we REALLY need, is the ability to route audio out of Traktor Decks and into Live Channels with the ease of Link. Something like Jack over a network…
This would change the game on more than just deejaying. Once we no longer need cables for audio (and wireless latency finally drops below the 10ms threshold), the studio will become a completely new environment.
Thing is, most people won’t be able to afford to buy Machine/Push ON TOP of their existing setup. Especially not if they don’t plan on doing any production and just need some samples.
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