Suggestions for best minimal, travel-friendly DJ setup.

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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Suggestions for best minimal, travel-friendly DJ setup.

Wondering what you all suggest for an optimal minimal but powerful DJ setup. What I’m thinking:

Traktor S2 w/ software
Laptop
iPad (eventually, to use with Traktor)
External HD with all music
Headphones
Carrying case for the S2
Cables
Speakers maybe, if I can find solid small-form speakers.

I’m an enthusiast, not a pro. I play for fun, but I’m decent and have played out back in the day when I spun vinyl on two 1200s and a Vestax mixer. I work in the humanitarian field and while I’m staying put for a bit here in NYC for now, it is likely I’ll be bouncing from deployment to deployment again within the next few years ago I wanted to get at up with a system I can bring with and requires minimal effort / extra stuff to get rolling. Trust me, if anyone could benefit from unwinding to a decent DJ set after a long day, it is aid workers. I’d like to be able to offer that, both for them and for myself.

Thanks.

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Novation Twitch

/thread

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No jog wheels :cry:

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There’s no need for jogs on a portable set up unless you want to scratch, and if you want to scratch then why use anything apart from turntables

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Skip the iPad and external drive, and go with a large capacity internal drive if you want a more portable setup.

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Yep I can see why, I just like the look of them as it’s kind of a signature to the whole DJing thing

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I had a S2 MK2 for 30 days before I gave it back to the dealer, because it crashed too often. I wouldn’t recommend that unit for some reasons:

  1. Crashes! The S2 got stuck several times still playing music, but doing nothing else until restarted. When I gave it back the man at the music store said it could be due to OS X Mavericks, but I can’t test it anymore.
  2. iPad-compability is a joke so far. Problems with iOS7, dropbox-sync etc. Sad this probably is an apple-related issue, not NI, but that doesnt help the customer.

I would go with the Z1+X1 MK2 or S2 MK1. Both options are cheaper and more reliable from my experience.

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lol
+1

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Check out the Xone 2D, it’s small, has a soundcard, jogwheel, crossfader, 16 buttons, 4 sliders, 12 knobs. It’s a solid piece but it’s not in production anymore. Check out an online site though, they’re about $500 or so.

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In terms of “minimal”…that’s about as good as you can do. I would look at a couple pairs of “good” earbuds for the headphones. A decent 2.1 PC speaker system (look for the longest connection cables you can find), or some bluetooth speakers will offer the most flexibility.

The Numark DJ2GO is a small controller. This is in NO way a replacement for a full two deck controller. The “wheels” are for pitch bending, at best. This feels like cheap plastic. But, I have a friend who has been using this at weekly gigs for almost 18 months…and it is holding up fine. While “turntabilism” is out, basic beatmatching is trivial with this unit and a little practice. I have played with his unit for a couple hours, and I liked it way more than I thought I would. With some other controller to trigger cue points, I would not totally hate using this at a gig.

If you want a controller…some combination of the Kontrol Z1, X1, F1 are hard to beat for “packability.” The Behringer CMD series offers a similar concept - modular units that can be used together.