I started djing about 16 years ago aged 16. I had a 2 channel mixer and 2 belt drive turntables, learnt to mix and so on.
Took a break while I got into other musical styles and learnt how to play the guitar.
However electronic music was always my main love so decided to get back into DJing. Bought some cheap direct drive sonys (Fine for the money) and got back into it.
However the price of records had gone up from £2 for new releases to £7 - £10!!! So I thought id get into Traktor and Controllers. So I bought a Numark Mixtrack. It was OK for a while. Cheap or even free tunes! However I do feel one thing - Controllers are, in my opinion a bit shit!!!
Now before I get lynched let me explain.
They are massively overpriced! (Just look at that new toy Pioneer have released, even the S4 is a rip off in my opinion)
They turn every tom, dick and harry into a DJ
The ‘cool’ sets people like Ean produce would just bore me to tears in a club (Maybe this is just down to what i want to hear though, admittedly) Its kind of a poor mans scratch DJ.
I love DJTT, its been a great community and helped me get back into the whole DJ world. But with all the new ‘Entry Level’ software and controllers available at he moment I honestly think it could spell the end for the DJ!
Indeed it has spelled the end.. I’ve been doing this for a year.. I have a pioneer DDJ-S1. People in my high school are saying dj’ing is ‘talentless’ ‘once you know how do it its no big deal’ It’s honestly mind-blowing to see that the professional art that it is ridiculed by some douchebag who considers it a hobby.. where is the passion in all this?
Controllerism is a completely different way of performing musically with Traktor, Ableton and other software its more of a live expirience than simply listening to a DJ spin vinyl on turntables
I personally think unless you scratch well turntables are a waste of time
With the variety of controllers around people can develop there own way to be creative, with the introduction of sampling into traktor you can create your own beats and practically mash up and remix live with cue point juggling.
It seems you have gone to the very base of the barrel numark is a very inexpensive controller and you’re not going to see many DJs using them in the club.
If your a producer controllerism is the way to go because it adds new depths to your own music some of the most well known have switched to controllers, Paul Van dyk used xone 1ds and would break his music down so he could remove and add parts in live sets.
There is a ton of music around and theres going to be stuff or varietys of a genre you dislike im not a big fan of some drum and bass but i do like heavy drum and bass, Many people don’t get minimal but i find progressive minimal to be quite catchy and gets me moving without any real melody to it.
Personally controllerism i believe is extremely cheap you don’t need the highest priced controller to get going its whatever you feel comfortable with it all does the same thing.
Map a second hand Oxygen 8 for £50 off ebay when your in a DJ booth let me tell you 99% of the crowd or more will not give a flying hoot what you are doing behind there, as long as the music is good and it keeps them dancing they really won’t care.
Like a wise man once told me “Nobody dances to scratching”
Seriously.. there’s already another active thread on this. You’ve been here since 2009. You know where this leads and even say it in the thread title. You’re not even asking a question, but basically telling people to argue about nothing. Why are you trying to stir shit up?
Have you looked at budget controllers? My RMX and APC40 let me do everything I could possibly want inside traktor. They were $230 and $250 respectively. Not too shabby at all. If you really wanted to cut corners, you could get away with using only one controller, which has been tried and proven to work just fine. I just like the best of both worlds. A controller is nothing more than a box with some midi buttons. You don’t need an S4 to be good. Same goes for Macs.
This is probably the most overtalked about topic right here. And I would say a lot of people can explain this a hellofalot better than me, but just because you can sync 2 tracks and crossfade doesn’t mean your any good. If you think thats all it is, sonn you have a lot to learn.
If you knew what went on under those 16 arcade buttons, you would at least respect it. Stop using other peoples TSIs and try midi mapping out a controller and you will get my drift.
You got a lot to learn. Least when I didn’t know what I didn’t know I wasn’t as ignorant.
Controllers do make it easier for anyone to get into DJ’ing but they also make it way easier for those with skills to stand out IMO.
Prior to controllers, DJ’ing was left to those truly dedicated, or with deep enough pockets to afford buying records @ $10-20 a pop. And it was easy to separate the two.
If you find it difficult in today’s time to stand out amongst the sea of new school DJ’s, blame the equipment amirite?
I got into djiing because of the simple fact to share the music I love with other people and hope in any way, big or small, I might make them feel moved by the music just as I am.
Simple as that…yes there are many techniques to master but I’ve got time on my side to really get those down to make my live sets better, and even make my producing go farther..
Yeah… controllers are crap… thats why some of the top end djs use them…
Also, just because you got a controller doesnt mean you know shit about djing.
controllers are a CONTROL surface.
but wait.. what about CDjs and turntables?
STILL CONTROL SURFACES
you can throw someone a set of cdjs and a mixer or turntables with some music… does that make them a DJ? NO? okay then.
Also another key thing is that it’s more convenient to bring a laptop than cds and use timecode or controller.
Nother thing. Mixing A-B mixes… boooring.
Triggering hotcues and samples and effects at the right time making the mix YOURS not the mass majority of youtubers’.
Song selection is there still but you have more of a collection which makes it a bit harder in some cases.
Bring 300 out of 4000 songs you might have as to a controller dj that has 4000/4000 tracks that require much prepwork. And beatgridding on the fly is pretty much that same as beatmatching in movements with hands and time.
most the dancers are not looking behind the dj to see what exactly he is doing/using but rather in front and slightly under the gear to even see if they are changing out cds sometimes.
also.. TL;DR people who use cdjs dont even use cds but use thumbdrives from rekordbox. hurp
