Hello from Belgium to the international dj community!
I’m having huge dilemmas when talking about gear, I know what kind of setup I want but I sometimes can’t afford it, have already a bunch of gear I was given by the person who introduced me to djaying but used to do it in the 90’s.
So here it is, I have numark CDN-88 (I know they suck, I began with them), a gemini pro scratch mixer with broken faders and knobs and a pair of denon dn S3700. What I do is mainly scratching and spinning hip hop for me and my rappers friends to jam.
What my dream setup would be is a mixer with an integrated soundcard and a pair of technics plus an mpc-like controller to produce music, but we all know, it’s not going to happen.
So I firstly want to buy a mixer with an onboard soundcard that doesn’t ruin me plus a nice controller with which I can produce a track from A to Z, all of this in a reasonable price range. Plus I’d like not to change this setup and buy this gear and not change it (only minor details), I want to buy it all once and have fun with it and not have to change anything when new controllers and stuff like that come out.
I keep reading reviews and watching videos about this mixer and that one and how this is crap and this one is the best but I change site and it’s the total opposite, so I hope you guys can give me some useful piece of advice.
I already thank anyone who will read this until the end and give me an answer !
Since you already own a pair of denon 3700’s, a nice addition would be the denon x600 mixer. Also check out NI Z2 and DJM-T1. Of course, if you wanna use Traktor as your software.
If serato is your choice, then you have no other options other than Rane mixers.
Thank you guys for the answers, I have checked out the djm t1, the Z2 and the denon certified mixer but I’ve heard in a store here that all those three are the worst mixers ever for hip hop dj because the faders and the knobs are not resistant. He said it because a lot of people who bought those mixers sent them back to be fixed a few weeks after buying them.
And as for rane mixers, I can’t afford that, that’s way overpriced !
heads up, you are going to get a pile of answers because we all have different ideas of what is good.
You have denons, and they are nice, so keep them. If you want a mixer/controller/certified and that you can produce on, you could go for an S4. But a maschine mikro, and a keyboard would be better for producing. So, my shopping list for you:
DJ Tech DIF-1S scratch mixer
49 key keyboard
maschine mikro.
But you have to come back to your thread or we cant help you.
Sorry about that, time difference :/. But I checked the mixer, at first I wa skeptical I must tell you because of the price and I’ve only seen this brand one, the orange turntable. Secondly I don’t think I need a keyboard since I’m not a keyboard player and thirdly I was told on this website by a guy on the online chat on the senators that the problem with the maschine mikro is that you can’t take your hands off your computer, that you’re clicking all the time and that it doesn’t happen when using the “regular” edition of maschine ? What do you think ?
And finally I wonder why you didn’t include an audio interface and a dedicate controller ?
Thanks for your help again
makar1: I’m not using any software at the moment, just burned cd’s, flash drives and hard drives. I’m aware of the hybrid midi mode that denon has and I consider both SSL and Traktor.
Driptest: sorry about that, time difference and I checked out the mixer, skeptical at the first but the review convinced me.
I don’t think I need a keyboard => can’t play, but still considering if I start learning one day and you didn’t include an audio interface and a dedicated controller for that interface in your answer ? Can advise me on this one too, thanks
I wass advised by someone on the djtechtools chat on the webstore that the “regular” edition of maschine is better than the mikro because there’s no touching of the computer at all and I can produce a whole track without touching the computer but I can’t do that with the mikro because there’s one less screen and one less range of knobs so I’ll have to touch the computer a lot.
Slayformoney: I was reading reviews that were saying that the denon two channel mixer traktor certified sucks and it has a lot of issues and what if I use the mixer Driptest advised and buy an SL2 or SL3 plus the denon controller for it (what’s the difference between those two buy the way ?)
Another question, can’t a buy a mixer traktor certified and use it in traktor and then buy an SSL interface if not happy ? It’s just a mixer after all, does the job.
