Setup advice

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Setup advice

Hola,

I am looking to start DJing using traktor, a mixer, and a midi fighter for live acts and probably just ableton to produce tracks.

Is using something like traktor, midi fighter, and a pioneer 800 feasible?

I don’t know much about cords, speakers, and hardware required so comment please.

Thanks.

PS - yes I know I’m n00b you don’t have to tell me

2

There’s gonna be a lot of mouse/keyboard action but yes, this is technically feasible, granted you had the correct sound card to connect the mixer to your computer to utilize its MIDI capabilities. The biggest caveat I see is the lack of any tactile control over either deck (pitch bending, beat matching, cueing), which would be robbing you of quite a few basic transition techniques. Besides, such a nice mixer deserves to have some buddies to sit next to.

3

cant i just hotkey the midifighter to cueing etc?

4

or would you recommend like a small controller?

5

its not just gonna be less immerse by mapping the midifighter to things, it will be a LOT harder. with jogs or touch strips *for all you twitch users) you can easily find a point in a song, stop something quickly, beatmatch, and in general control the song better. with only cue points, what happens if you dont press cue at just the right time? then you have to go to your computer and quickly skip ahead to somewhere else that works. if your on a budget id reccomend gettin an entry level controller like the numark mixtrack pro to help with this because while you CAN ues just a midifighter it really will be more difficult

6

Thanks. I’m not on too much of a budget I just didn’t think I’d new CDJs because I’m not gonna use CDs… Should I just google “controllers”?

7

What sort of music are you going to DJ and what do you see your style being. Are you just going to play tracks?

8

if you want a good solid entry level unit go for a numark mixtrack pro. theyre well built for a plastic controller, large, enough buttons for most mappings, have a lot of leds to look professional with (you’d be surprised how many people who dont know about djing think leds = quality) and it will suit your for a good while before you decide to upgrade

9

Id recommend a more beginner oriented controller. No need to spend all your money now when you haven’t really experienced what djing is all about. You want to be a dj right now, but there is still a few months to go before you will SERIOUSLY want to be a dj. And these in between months are pretty crucial. You will understand your style more, what the software is all about, and what you actually want out of a controller. For these reasons you should buy something like the mixtrack pro for an all in one package. Get the basics down, figure out what you NEED for your style and build on that. Save the money you would have spent on gear for gear a little down the road. If you want something a step up from the mix track pro you could always grab an S2, you get a free copy of traktor and have a really solid controller.

10

Lethal - obviously I don’t know much about it so I would probably fit into the category of those guys that set up at small bars or house parties and basically link other people’s remixes together and fling the color adjustment every once in a while, but that’s not the goal.

The music I’m gonna be focusing on is disco electric and maybe throwing in some groove electro like Pretty lights or whatever if i feel like getting harder.

IDEALLY - id like to learn how artists like treasure fingers remix tracks so thoroughly they sound like brand new songs (e.g. - their walking on a dream remix).

And then of course make completely proprietary songs through ableton. I’ve had some experience playing with effects while performing live on my friends pioneer 800 w/ CDJS, but I don’t wanna use CDs. So if I could find something that would give me the “mixer capabilities” and still let me control each deck without going the whole 4000 pioneer route - that would be optimal.

PS - I really appreciate the input and research everything you guys are saying so plz continue to give it.

Thanks

11

What does this even mean?

If you’re looking for the closest experience to CDJ’s without using CDs it’s going to cost you. Pioneer CDJ’s have Native HID support with Serato, but those aren’t cheap, and we haven’t talked about a mixer yet.

12

It means that alot of “djs” now a days just play a remix. And then when it’s about to end they (shakily at best) transition in another remix. And then turn the “color knob” every once in a while to make it seem like they are doing something.

I dunno if that is your experience but I just got out of college and house party djs don’t do much more than what I just described.

#2 - I’m not exactly looking for the closest thing to CDJs, I just want to be able to have a lot of control over the sounds and things - I looked at a few videos of the kontrol s2 and s4 and they should be more than enough.

Now all I gotta figure out is the cables/speakers/amp whatever situation.

Thanks for the continued input

13

I follow. Unfortunately that seems to be a lot of DJs in general :stuck_out_tongue:

Keep doing your homework. There’s a TON. Literally a ton of gear available especially now that is beginner friendly, inexpensive, yet still feature rich.

14

color knob???

15

there’s a big choice of stuff right now but here’s a few i’d say are worth at least taking a look at:

  • midi fighter (that u already mentioned) - cheap but a classic, can always be used as an addon to any other controller, pro model ads some faders and more buttons but a bit meh imho, the classic really is a classic
  • midi fighter 3d - not out yet - but looking very cool
  • novation launchpad, 9x9 (almost) grid of backlit pad goodness, u can do just about anything with one or two of these
  • mixtrack pro - cheap but a lot of people like it, quite solid
  • a&h k2 - cheap, solid 4 channel controller, plenty of buttons too
  • native instruments x1, cheap
  • native instruments f1, going to be fairly cheap, not out yet
  • novation twitch - medium price, touch strips
  • vextax vci100 - medium price 2nd hand, a bit old in the tooth but very solid with some decent features
  • native instruments s2 - medium price (or was when they had their offer on), hid jogs, well built
  • native instruments s4 - 4 deck version of s2 basically, more expensive
  • vextax vci400 - expensive but very versatile, good solid build
  • the new modular behringer controllers coming out soon (going to be very cheap but maybe good)

first thing to think about is whether u want decent jogs or not, or any at all…\

edit: not to forget the dnsc2000 for a pretty decent cdj type midi controller. the behringer pl-1 might well do the same job as that

16

eq :wink:

17

It’s on the DJM 800/850/900 etc

18

my bad, didn’t realise the djm’s actually had “colour knob” :wink: looks like a kind of wet/dry for simple eq/fx. never played out at a club so never had my grubby mits on a pio mixer.