I’m totally new to DJing and I don’t know much but I’ll eventually get there. Recently received some court money and was thinking of buying the S4 so I could get to practicing. I already bought a 15" Macbook Pro 2011 for college and don’t want to shell out another 2 g’s for some good CDJs. With the S4 I already get a 4 channel mixer built in, track Syncing, the software, etc. Also, what type of speakers should I buy so that I can practice and then start doing my own thing locally in bars, pubs and small clubs? Should I also buy a subwoofer? Anything else I might need to buy?
Hey man!
I started out with the numark mixtrack, a chep controller!
The question is, are you sure you want to be a DJ? It’s alot harder then you think. I thought it would be easy, but no no no.
I would say, but a cheaper controller, try it out in your bedroom. I started out with normal computer speakers, it takes time to learn! And if you then feel that this is what you want to do, get the S4. The s4 is great.
My setup is:
S4
X1
1 MBP 2011, 13" core i5
1 MBP 2009 15" 2,55Ghz (Only for backup, if my other let me down).
But i started small, and bought more stuff with the time!
I love it, i really do but it gets hard.
I DJ every wednesday, friday and saturday and my feet hurt haha, get some good shoes!
S4 is a fantastic piece of beginner kit if you have the money. In fact if you order right now you’ll still qualify for the scratch upgrade in case you want to add turntables down the line.
I’m completely sure I want to DJ, maybe even produce in time. I just don’t know everything I need to buy in order to have a setup for small-medium shows and people are not very helpful.
You have to start somewhere. S4 is great but it’s a big investment. You get more mileage using Traktor Pro with a cheaper MIDI CJ controller, but if you got the money S4 is worth it.
I think you just need to focus on one thing at a time, learn something properly.
You could also consider getting a TWITCH - it’s cheaper, and a great controller too. The S4 has great features, but it’s bigger and 4 channel faders are not a must imo.
As for speakers, you could get a pair of 8" monitors, which would be capable of hosting small parties. I would recommend the Yamaha HS80M, but you can also get Mackies or M-Audio or any other. Go to some local shop and ask for a demo.
u could go down the route of buying cheap 1st and seeing if you like it but that usually ends up costing you more in the long run, altho good advice i would get the S4 straight off, even if you didnt take to it you wouldnt have a problem shifting it i wouldnt have thought. The S4 is so simple to use for beginers but also does everything you would would want it to to work with tsp2.
I was gonna get a VCI 300 with twitch and when I went to the music store the S4 just blew the shit out of my brain. I bought it so fast. I grabbed a bunch of cables and just installed stuff on my macbook and used computer speakers and some headphones.
You don’t really need much more to start, trust me, you’ll trainwreck so hard and you’ll be loving it, and life.
Once I was able get beatmixing and drops down I dropped like 350 bucks on a pair of samson monitors, they are so loud, so worth the money.
The midi fighter is totally optional, the other things worth investing is a good pair of headphones and a stand (cheap on ebay).
You don’t need anything besides the s4 and a computer to start, just make sure you get a splitter cable so you can get stereo from 1/8 to left and right 1/4 inch.
I would think you could use an S4 as it is for many years without the need to get more gear, learning new tricks along the way. It’s a huge investment but in the long term it’s a good one.
Hey bro i am in the same situation as you the s4 looks so perfect like a all in one but as a beginner i don’t think i am ready for it. I think the Novation Twitch may be a good option though because it’s only $500 so not a huge investment. Right now i am thinkin of gettin the twitch with the kontrol x1 (free traktor pro 2 with it!) which comes to the less then 800 so all in all pretty good setup for a begginer i guess
the s4 looks so perfect like a all in one but as a beginner i don’t think i am ready for it. I think the Novation Twitch may be a good option though because it’s only $500 so not a huge investment. Right now i am thinkin of gettin the twitch with the kontrol x1 (free traktor pro 2 with it!) which comes to the less then 800 so all in all pretty good setup for a begginer i guess