I been a loyal user and supporter of Techtools and Midifighters over the years.
Recently I have been having some issues with MF spectras flashing during sets. After canceling out the options of power spikes eventually it boiled down to re-installing Traktor. I was a bit worried about that step so I did some research and came across the whole discussion of Trakor vs. Serato. All the back and forth the pros and cons and especially the amount of problems that all of us laptop DJs seem to have.
Hence my simple question: WHY NOT CHANGING TO USB STICKS ON CDJS?
@Swift
So it is basically a matter of storage space for enough music and accessibility right?
Wouldn’t two USB sticks with just 4GB be enough? And couldn’t they be put into folders that you can easily access via the display in a CDJ?
Not trying to hate, just trying to really list the pros and cons…
In your case I am assuming your current setup requires much more time - laptop, power cables (plus eg powered USB hubs…), controllers - and space (especially tricky in tiny booths). Are those cons not enough to have you move over to sticks?
For a degree of simplicity, less carry, convenience (assuming the club has CDJs), yes the advantage of just using USB sticks is there. However for more complex music manipulation and such there is an advantage of Traktor (or Serato). I killed my last set with my NI controllers and a Novation Launch Control, using FX and samples…Re-edits on the fly…Lot’s of fun.
I switched to CDJs from controllers. I find it more fun, but my mixing skills have definitely taken a hit from using sync. I have to relearn how to drop tracks and whatnot since I can’t just hit play without worrying about being out of phase.
There is the loss of complexity for that reason (at my level anyways) as sometimes the phrases aren’t always 8/16 bars which makes it difficult to mix in when another song is 8/16 bars. I don’t regret the switch one bit though.
@Holiday
I perfectly understand the means of manipulating audio through FX, loops, etc. That makes sense absolutely, if you use that to the max and full capacity of various controllers I fully understand.
But simplicity? Isn’t it much simpler to use USB sticks compared to a whole setup with many more items (laptop, controllers, hubs)?
To be honest, switching to CDJs made me a better DJ. My phrasing has improved immensely, I think more when picking tunes, I let my tracks breathe, etc etc. If you don’t actually use anything specific to the software, I don’t see a reason why not to switch to CDJs. (that being said, it’s important to know what equipment to expect at clubs)
To each there own. I have a small modular set up, works for me. The idea is to allow the technology to work for you as oppose to make you lazy or less competent. If I could afford it I’d get a whole bunch of analog gear and use that too.
@SlvrDragon50
That is good to hear, I guess Sync is not to be used in any case whatsoever but I do have the impression that having less of a virtual help as per a computer screen you are obviously more challenged in your abilities as a DJ, so bigs up for taking the “risk” and not regretting it.
@DISaS73R
I perfectly understand every single bit you are saying and that is exactly the reason I want to change too. I think it makes you a better DJ. You have to know your tracks better, select more carefully what you put on your sticks (rather than having ten thousand tracks on your laptops hardrive anyways) and feel things more all together, be it a crowd or even the equipment. Using a jogwheel on a CDJ is probably still to be considered more “real” than pressing a button on our beloved Midifighters…
Thanks for your thoughts guys you are definitely encouraging me to move.
Gonna rent out a pair of CDJs and practice for a week to refreshen the different feel and then probably head back to it!
I totally get what you are saying. It is the total exact questions that I had of making the switch to USB. But I had some other serious questions pertaining to how my work flow would be interrupted. I wondered how I would keep my folders organized to the date and keeping new imported tracks at the top of each folder. The only thing that is stopping me from making a total switch is everything that is involved in the switch along with key work flow features. I simply haven’t the time to re-organize my library of music on Rekordbox and get use to another work flow. I am not big on back2back gigs and if I have to open or headline, my gear is already set up. I am not one of those eating steak samiches until 10 min til go time.. lol. However, I will use USB/CDs if it is an event where there are multiple djs and set times are short. But if I have to take em on a journey, it can’t be strictly USB.
What would I lose by switching to all USB? I would lose my current work flow and that is: visual comprehension on a larger screen, I would lose being able to type in the name of an artist and have all the collection display. I am not sure but I believe I will lose the feature where I can on the fly click and display the tracks by bpm or the stars in that folder- this helps especially when I am playing a subgenre that I am not too familiar with but need the go to tracks within that subgenre. I have over 20 descriptive sub-genres and don’t play all of them at every gig so I have identifiers. Also, I may lose FX, Looping capabilities but it isn’t that much of a big deal. 900 nexus and 2000s are seamless. I loop almost every in/out going track.
So for me, until there is an actual key pad on the CDJs (I don’t put it past it) I will stick to traktor only because I am very detailed an have so many sub-genres and describtive folders that I need to get to quickly. CDjs will not allow that yet.
However, I never use a controller so I always use the CDJs and so my skills have never dimished. I still have to adjust pitch manually.
At the end of the day, it comes down to work flow. The idea of becoming a better dj is always subjective because again, it comes down to (individual) work flow. If i have all my tracks carefully organized to include tags, having to carefully insert only “certain” tracks will not make me more of a dj. In actually, it will hinder me as I may not have those older tracks that I need when playing 6-8 hour sets. And not to mention all the ins and out of music will cause wear and tear on the USB and I have many crash and burn on me.
This is interesting. I believe it comes back to individual work flow. I don’t play 1-3 hour specialized sets too often because I hate it. Meaning, I don’t just play tech house or 1 style of progressive or 1 style of funky, or deep, or techno the entire night. In the beginning, I will play deep soul, deep tech, and move on to harder sounds as the night progresses and eventually end up with hard hitting progressive/tribal.
Putting only certain tracks will leave me feeling naked. Why? because if I see a particular group that may be from Africa one night that wasn’t there last weekend, I may want to play some afro-tribal to better relate emotionally to that group. If i sit and pick “carefully” I may miss out and regret it. I can’t take that risk. Having my music at all times and the ability to connect emotionally with a russion group, latin group, romanian group, german group, is what makes me a better dj especially in big cities like Miami/NY and DC where I am now.
I think JO meant that when you select tunes, you only pick the ones you actually like, the ones which you know well enough to play. I don’t think he was talking about limiting the genres in your collection.
Guys, I am really enjoying all your input and thoughts on the matter. I am really thinking very intensely about the change at the moment. It would be a rather big thing exactly like most of you say. Workflow is the keyword.
Currently with my MF Spectras and laptop I loop a lot, have tags for beginning and end of lyrics, beginning and end of melody etc etc. I rely on that heavily. Also I understand that you have thousands of tracks at your fingertips at any given time. Also the track key is much easier to follow in terms of harmonic mixing, key lock dont exist on CDJs does it?
And yet I really do feel and witness that on myself that when I listen to a track I just put it in my library because I can. No space issues limiting me. MAYBE I will play it some time. This happens so much that when I look at my over-all library probably 40% of tracks are now average tunes, that I know somewhat but that I do not play with full passion.
When I am limited by two USB sticks of say each 16GB (which is already pretty large anyways) I aint got no space for rubbish or average. My collection will narrow down and I have had this discussion in another thread here, where the general consent was “KNOW YOUR LIBRARY BETTER RATHER THAN THINKING ABOUT HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR PLAYLISTS AND WORRYING ABOUT WHERE TO FIND THE TRACK” I think that is what it boils down to.
That said I still see myself using a laptop for private events. But when I play a club set and I am as per definition of a DJ allowed to set the mood I do that and play the set I want to play rather than making sure that I have every possible corner covered and have a lot of average tracks that I know people want to hear. If you only follow what people want to hear, I feel that you lose your identity and purpose as a DJ and become a groovebox. Throw me a coin…
Going waaaaaaay off from our original topic, but I guess to finish it off and connect the dots, you are much more limited with USB sticks and need to keep your library cleaner.
Good point! Actually that is a great point. Going off the back of my own post, since I carefully organize my folders, I have my folders set the same in iTunes, both external hard drives and my iPod. Therefore at any given time I have my music with me organized in how I would play out and so I don’t really have much crappy tunes. And if I did, the switch over wouldn’t be worth it for me. But it could be for others.
This is just me talking about my own work flow to get your own mind thinking but having your playlist detailed and structured is ideal especially for programming sets. Playing in East LA will not be the same set you pay in North Jersey and so a well structured playlist can allow for you to know where your tunes are. Would merely switching to USB make a difference for you in that regard?
I will say that for me, Rekordbox does not allow that if I need a few “miguel Migs” type tracks when playing in LA to connect emotionally to the crowd, I can simply recall it by typing it in via traktor- even if I never ever play those tracks. With Rekordbox, I would have to create a separate folder and dump them all into that. Now is it worth it for me to keep making all these separate folders every time I play at a different location where I can easily type it in traktor and bam, its all there on one screen? No, not for me but that is MY OWN WORK FLOW being interrupted. It may not be for others.
I understand the idea of not having so much music in order to limit the amount of mediocre tunes. I get that.
Now here is a question for you- this is not me interfering with your decision but only asking some questions that you may not have asked yourself:
Is the functionality of your library the only thing holding you back? And if so, would you undermine your entire and incredible signature performance where you can do much more with a DVS only to save space and get rid of “mediocre tunes”? If that is the case, you can create a separate Top folder with sub-folders for mediocre tunes and their descriptive genres in your DVS. And also ditch the controller and us the CDJs.
Again, just asking some questions you may not have asked yourself as the “choosing tracks wisely” seems to big point.
Now, if you are a dj that doesn’t need what the DVS system offers and can do with using the CDJs, then I say why not. But again, let’s ask ourselves, why would they create extensive features on DVS systems that we can use on CDJs? Just some questions to keep you up at night!
You are making very good sense. And obviously sets are different wherever you play. But the programming of the set can also be done playing from USB sticks. It might be a bit more difficult, but I guess it is simply a matter of preparing each set with a bit more attention to detail, because obviously you are a less flexible having limited music than having everything at your fingertip. Workflow would change in that regard that I needed to put more effort into set prep.
I do understand the accessibility of tunes suffers. Again though set prep becomes more essential to overcome this difficulty. It can still be done I guess.
The main reason for me thinking about changing are the difficulties that I am currently experiencing. I only ever had one Traktor crash during a set (still one too much!) but many many issues with MFs flashing and restarting during sets. It messes with my mind. Once they flash they are gone for the set, even unplugging and plugging them back does not solve it. I have been in touch with NI Support, Techtools support and all kinds of Mapping experts. Nobody seems to know what it is, from power spikes over to faulty units and Traktor install (which I have just done). All of this is causing nerves to be wracked. I do not feel comfortable when stepping into the booth because I need to worry shit goes wrong. I am tired of all these potential sources of technical difficulties. Your laptop can die, your controllers can fuck out, and on top of all of that the setups are a bit of a pain. At least more of a pain than just walking in like a baws, plugging your USBs in and start playing.
I know your tune accessibility suffers, your visual support etc etc. it takes more skill to play off USBs Id say. More prep too. But also gives you a lot of benefits as above, no set ups, fewer potential points of technical problems and the list goes on. Maybe I am looking at it too one sided, but I am really tired of technical issues.
The highlighted are really huge performances issues. Those are biggies. I will tell you the truth! Something I think will make you feel better- this is the reason why I still have traktor scratch pro 1.2.7. I am scared to death to switch over to scratch pro 2 because of the failures and restarts I experienced in the beginning which caused me to miss sets or have them delayed. So, yeah brother, the idea of throwing up prayers during yours sets is not a stable working environment, trust me! I suggest start the transition right away and so at least you have the option in the event your prayers don’t get answered by the NI gods…
I hear you and I would have loved to stick with Traktor 1. It is so much better and I am up to the day not a fan of Traktor 2. In fact I even preferred the Midifighter Classics. BUT the Spectras came out and all of a sudden the mappings were “not supported with this version of Traktor” anymore. So the .tsi file would just not import. Booom! What a fuck up. And eventually the whole change was unevitable… Not ideal, even by Techtools…
I’ve never had any problem with Traktor, but I’m not playing in clubs so Traktor is running on my powerhouse computer. I could see problems arising with weaker computers.
That said, I still encourage you to take the leap over to CDJs if you’ve got the cash! I don’t regret it one bit. If you buy used, they won’t lose much value either so you can recoup most if not all of your money if you don’t like CDJs.
