i have a debt remaining of $1400 on my credit card and i’m waiting till i bring it down to $200 in order to purchase the new xone:dx. i make about $350 a month so it will take me sometime to get the xone:dx. maybe by novemberish or so. hopefully before. although when summer comes i can try to work full time and maybe just take 1 class during the summer semester.
???
what am i doing right now?
well i have been listening to a lot of songs on beatport. and just adding the ones i like to the “hold bin” where i would purchase. i purchase about 1 song a week. and if i’m HIGH then i will tend to purchase 2-3 a week since i’m “really feeling it”
now i think i’m doing something wrong due to %15 lazyness and %70 unfocused.
i keep playing the same tracks over and over but thats all i’m doing is listening to the tracks that i hope to make a set out of. organizing tracks into different sets. but i think that one of the major thing i should be doing is counting beats (4) and then counting bars? i guess these two things are very important and should be what i should put my time towards since i can’t buy any equipment right now ?
any opinions?
SIDENOTE—
i have decided that i will go w/ the xone:dx cause i can connect cdj’s to it. so my goal is to own the xonex, and “keep saving money routine” to getting different cdj’s and then an actual mixer and then maybe more stuff along the way. i also wanna get lights that are sound sensitive cause i think i will feel the music more if i have lights flashing w/ the beat.
If you have Traktor, and a current track list, you could always:
beat grid all your collection
set cue points in all your tracks
organise them by genre / ranking etc.
By the time you get your new gear, you’ll know your tracks so well, and have the benefit of your hard work setting a framework for you to grab tracks that integrate well into your current collection, and pull sets together fast.
but umm xone:dx is coming with serato. ;p maybe there is a serato demo or something i can play around with. my tracklist isnt that large. although i slowly build it every week
Why would you buy a XoneX to then buy a regular mixer and CD decks? If you want to spin time code then get two cd decks and a mixer. A LOT cheaper than a Xonex and two decks AND a mixer. If you want to mix internally then get the Xonex. But it just seems like an excessive waste of money as a starting DJ to have that much gear.
For now, though, I’d just keep mastering your tracks. Don’t just play stuff for that one set. Put together the sets and get different ideas, organize tracks differently, etc.. The laziness and unfocusedness will change once you get equipment to be working on.
[EDIT]
Serato doesn’t do demos. You can get the software now but you can’t use it without Serato hardware. So you can try and get something used off of eBay/Craigslist, or you wait.
xone-dx is 1300 bucks. i mean you know i would prefer mixer + cdj’s. but i don’t have the money for that. and that would be more expensive.
although now you just messed me up DvlsAdvct. don’t worry its a good messed up you just did. because i just now realized how useless that $1300 spent on the xone-dx would be. simply because i would prefer to get my hands on something that would be exactly the same as i would use in a club. and the xone-dx isn’t going to be that. so now i have to spend sometime to look over some equipment.
now since you just got me to realize how i would throw 1300 away. i think i should get somethin cheaper like a vci100 for 400 bucks unless techtools got a vci for like 500 in change. and that would be something i would practice with…idk…
then while i use that to practice i would save money to get piece by piece of my real equipment and have a setup how anyone would at a top-notch club
damn u just made me realized that u wud be throwing money away if i gotten that dx
Get the gear you want, not the gear the clubs want. I bring my shit to clubs to spin, cause I refuse to use theirs. Granted, I spin some shitty ass places on some shitty ass gear. So I just gave up hoping the decks would be able to read my CDs and went full digital. SO much easier.
thing is that i’m a no namer and even when i get good at DJing i will still be a nonamers and clubs will require you to use their equipment unless your richie hawtin or luciano. im sure i will be able to bring my own mixer. but honestly i prefer leaving my hard earned equipment at home and just maybe bring the small stuff. im glad i live in nyc. nyc has 800 clubs. making it easy to find a place to spin. the other day i was thinking how i would even prob spin for free just to get accepted to the club + get my name out. i thought that was a good idea at first but then i decided that nah fuck it if i spin at a club i should make some money out of it. since it will be a second job lol. well no im not getting that xone-dx. thanks to you i realized what i should be spending money on. i should def get a midi controller to start off with. i will go with the vci100 which isnt supported on here. cause its not a djtechtools product? only the second edition is? but thats 700+ bucks which i prefer not to spend. i think i saw something else for like 500 bucks
---------edit
ok they have the vci 100se for 549 bucks, i could start practicing with that while i collect piece by piece of my real gear of how it would feel like if i was spinning at a top-notch club like pacha / m2. lol. they have another 100se for 800 bucks.
You never ever deejayed and you just got a few tracks and you already think about playing in a club ?!? wtf ?!?
You should better start with a basic controller if you want to choose the completely digital route or buy some cheap CD-Players and a Mixer for a more traditional way. Then you have to discover if deejaying is really your passion or if its just something thats interesting for a while and then rapidly gets boring.
actually i found the korg zero4 on a site for 800 bucks. idk if i read it right but this can be used as a midi controller? http://www.korg.com/Product.aspx?pd=281
is that right?
well im not thinking about playing at a club that soon lol. maybe in 3-4yrs i will be rdy to start spinning @ clubs.
anyways i’m looking at this korg zero4 and becoming very interested in it. i want opinions on it, such as if i would need to buy anything else to get it to work on my computer.
and FYI serato does have a demo, it’s just restricted to one deck without hardware being attached. you could still setup your crates, your cue points and your loop points.
maybe try to find a used midi controller in the mean time, an oxy8 keyboard, an evolution pro, something cheap that you can practice with.
good luck, oh and you have sure changed your tune about cdjs
yeah cause in our last harsh conversation (thread etc) lol i realized that its true. they will require you to use their stuff. the only thing i will prob bring which they prob won’t mind would be my own mixer if they don’t have it. but yeah, past 2 days i been doing hard thinking if my future will be strictly cdj’s and just putting the usb sticks in their and thats it. i’m thinking i might just use a software for practice till i’m able to have cdj’s to hook up to that korg zero4 that i’m interested in. but yeah i dont think i will go digital w/ laptops and software when i get in the real world. thats great that some of the pro’s i like do it. but yeah lol.
do you know if i would need anything else with that zorg zero4? i think its a rly good deal for me to start out with. price 800 is better than 1300 for xone-dx. and maybe in the future i would upgrade myself to a zorg zero8. who knows. for me to start practicing i think i would just need that zero4 , headsets and a software to practice with. and then i’d be set to practice away. idk about going cheaper…well suppose if i were to go cheaper…i would prob do the vci100se for 549 bucks…then save money for the zorg zero4. idk i could do that. im not rly in no rush or anything. i could prob do that 549 for 100se first, then save for the zero4.
dont think that many clubs would care that much. many have in house serato setups and will alow you to bring your own laptop or own laptop and soundcard if your using a different dvs.
This is going to come off as harsh, and for that I apologize ahead of time, but you really don’t know what you’re talking about.
If a club isn’t going to let you bring your comp/midi controller/interface then they aren’t going to let you bring a whole new mixer. If they have decks and are going to force you to use them, something I have never experienced in the small number of small clubs I’ve spun in NYC, then they will have a mixer they will force you to use.
Do a LOT more research before you buy. The VCI-100SE, Traktor Pro and a soundcard will be VERY powerful, and give you much more flexibility than CDJs. If you want to practice to use CDJs in clubs, get CDJs.
And there are 800 clubs in Manhattan but there are a LOT more DJs, and those DJs that have gigs are extremely territorial about them. It isn’t going to be terribly hard to find a gig, but it will be to find a good one that pays decent and isn’t in a complete shit hole. Keep in mind that a LOT of those 800+ clubs have either closed, are shit holes, or only cater to DJs that can pull 500+ people a night.
Good luck to you, and keep researching and working on this. Not trying to dissuade you, just to give another angle.
well this would be a second job. and i will just keep practicing until a decent club accepts me. i wouldn’t spin at shit places. i dont care if there are more dj’s than clubs. most of those dj’s arent thinking the way i’m thinking. they aint going to spin the same music i will be spinning. i’m going to spin different genre’s of minimal house music. minimal is very underground in nyc and you do not find to many clubs with minimal dj’s. spinning minimal music makes me unique cause of that. there arent too many minimal dj’s. and even if there is a certain amount, that doesn’t stop me from pulling something more unique than them. i’m a very creative person. very organized. i already have 3 folders (3 sets i’m building) folder #1 = minimal in the middle eastern. (2 tracks in there). folder #2 = minimal in latin (3 or 4 tracks in there). folder 3 = minimal tech (idk a few). and then i have some more minimal tracks from beatport that i need a friend to sometime come over and explain to me the background of the other minimal tracks i have, and explain how can i organize them and which ethnicity or group(make a new folder) can i put them in and work towards building more sets.
no doubt there is a propensity to see all the flashy gadgets and want to drop big $$ right away, IMO if you can avoid this and do the research into making the best purchases your dollars will stretch further.
living in NYC have you tried the NYC craigslist to see what deals are out there?
a beginner set of cd-js and a beginner mixer used would prob be less or close to the cost of the SE vci-100…
not sure on those headphones, it can be kind of a personal thing.
this advice is worth reading again, and bear in mind you don’t have to buy cdj800s etc $$$ for you to practice on at home.
i think cutflow got some of the ideas of the other thread mixed together, it’s alot to get your head around, and i agree that he should be asking questions here and doing research before spending money or worse yet getting deeper in debt!
i could return the headsets if i think its poor. they look good but the price is right for that brand. i might buy them for 170 and then return them. but before, is there any testes or anyway to test out headsets to see if they are worth the quality? like when i receive them, what are some things i can do to see if these are worth keeping.
You’re contradicting yourself. You’re going to have a VERY difficult time getting big gigs spinning minimal in this area. It is underground, and the scene is small, and that means there is even more competition and ego’s in the way. If you spin hip hop or house music you can walk into a sushi restaurant and get a decent paying gig. Minimal isn’t so easy.
Not that you can’t do it. And not that you shouldn’t try. You should try cause it’s the only way you’re going to know. But if you’re already walking in with a mindset that you deserve it, or you’re awesome, or you can change the scene, you’re most likely going to be let down. And I’m putting this a LOT nicer than it has been put to me.
But believe me, if you think 3 sets of different sub-genres of minimal and a can-do attitude is gonna do it, you may be sorely disappointed.
And with headphones, personally, I think all DJ headphones with that design are shit. I’ve seen them fall apart on DJs heads, and they’ve fallen apart on mine. Granted, I am a much more aggressive DJ than most, so they may work fine for you. But if you’re gonna spend that much I’d try out the Sennheiser HD25-II’s. They don’t look like DJ headphones but they sound amazing.
x, and “keep saving money routine” to getting different cdj’s and then an actual mixer and then maybe more stuff along the way. i also wanna get lights that are sound sensitive cause i think i will feel the music more if i have lights flashing w/ the beat.