DJ Thread

This thread is for DJs / club heads to talk shop.

Silkie just rolled through here last night and he was fire on the decks. He was going bananas on the sound color knobs on the DJM-800 and absolutely got the crowd going. It was a great time. I had the pleasure of hanging out next to the booth for a good chunk of his set watching him spin.

My home set up is two CDJ-400s and a shitty Numark mixer. I like the 400s because I can spin from USB sticks and don't need to burn CDs. When I play out, though, unless it's one of the newer model CDJs that takes thumb drives (350, 400, 850, 900, 2000), I spin on CDs. For those aforementioned models, though, it's a blast having your entire crate for the evening on two thumb drives. Also, spinning on thumb drives at home all the time lets me learn which tunes I like and which tunes mix the best, and then I burn CDs accordingly when I play out so there's minimal disc swapping needed.

I spin 120-145 and the lower 170s. I can't find enough good stuff to fill the 145-170. A lot of old drum & bass works, but if I'm trying to spin all new-ish stuff, that gap is filled with footwork/ghettotech, which I don't much care for.

I like the sound and the reliability of Pioneer hardware. I trust it way more than software, and have gotten insanely fast with CDJs. My favorite mixer, one I'd love to own in the future, is the Rane TTM56s. It's buttery smooth. I recently used an Alan & Heath mixer spinning in another dude's studio, and that was awesome. It had a filter horizontal fader (serves the same purpose as the color knobs on the pioneer mixers, but with a fader instead). It was fun doing crazy blends with that thing.

DJs, what kind of gear do you use? If software, do you use playlists/mix in key/syncing? Do any of you produce your own beats as well? What tempos/genres do you spin? What/where's the best system you've played on?

100 pages let's do this.

Still haven't jumped aboard digital decks, but they're fun and way too easy from the short time I've spent playing with them

Plus vinyl sounds great, looks neato and old skool, and I find that I can push highs and lows further with the shitty pa's I'm used to plugging into

And shit be fuckin cray cray amounts of fun

And you build insane muscle mass carrying your set around

  On 4/11/2012 at 10:01 PM, soma said:

Still haven't jumped aboard digital decks, but they're fun and way too easy from the short time I've spent playing with them

 

Plus vinyl sounds great, looks neato and old skool, and I find that I can push highs and lows further with the shitty pa's I'm used to plugging into

 

And shit be fuckin cray cray amounts of fun

 

And you build insane muscle mass carrying your set around

Me 2.

I don't dj a whole lot anymore. I used to have a PA w/ speakers and 3 technics. Now I have 1 technics 1200 MK2 and a 4 channel mixer w/ some ortofon dj styli.

I still collect old school ragga jungle. That was always my jam. I have a ton of great wax. If anyone in the LA are ever hears of anyone that has an opening for that kind of thing, pm me ;)

Spinning vinyl and playing out frequently, at least in this region, is impractical. All the venues have CDJs with Serato, no turntables. Plus a lot of my favorite tunes don't have vinyl releases. I'd give it 5 years before it's phased out completely...right now it specifically caters to collectors, while all the exciting new stuff gets released digitally months in advance...a large chunk of it not getting a physical release at all.

  On 4/11/2012 at 10:09 PM, jefferoo said:

I still collect old school ragga jungle. That was always my jam. I have a ton of great wax. If anyone in the LA are ever hears of anyone that has an opening for that kind of thing, pm me ;)

You gotta seek that shit out. It takes a lot of networking to get booking in this day & age.

I thought I was networking.

such a shame DJ Hardcode isn't around on WATMM anymore

  On 4/11/2012 at 11:08 PM, jefferoo said:

I thought I was networking.

You are correct.

  On 4/12/2012 at 12:47 AM, xxx said:

  On 4/11/2012 at 11:13 PM, oscillik said:

such a shame DJ Hardcode isn't around on WATMM anymore

 

DJing is so dumb. I have no idea why anyone would care about it at this point. You guys are always talking about something pointless

*breaks up danknugz*

 

 

will that do?

It's a really fun way to make money and rewarding as a music fan.

woosh

It also gets the ladies hot n sweaty

i find the "hobbie" of djing really hard to justify, but i'm addicted to it....

i have given up giving a fuck about getting gigs though... coming from Inverness in Scotland the market for electronic music is pop/r'n'b or fidget house....

i played a handful of opening sets to practically no-one and a few music festivals... and there is no feeling like playing great tunes out of a ridiculously loud system...

i'm now more interested in trying to make perfect headphone sets with harmonic mixing....

There is already a thread in general discussion, but I get the feeling, this is not the community for DJs. Anyway, I'm a big fan of digital DJing and really looking forward to all the new inventions and revolutions coming up. The sample deck thing going on in the latest Traktor is really interesting - I hope DJing will be more remixing on-the-fly in the future. Still I need to buy a solid controller, my Behringer controller is total shit.

i like to watch the records spinning round, sometimes i get dizzy and that makes my brain feel woozy. i like to confuse people first, then plees them

i thought vinyl sales were going up cos decks are cool?

I DJ with cdj400s and whatever the club provides at the moment, im wanting to shift to vinyl, but im way too poor to keep up with everything, so i just buy what i can afford and go with digital.

i'm going to get rid of my normal coffin and buy this one

more compact and prettier

Just been DJing for fun with Traktor and a Vestax VCI 100, but I plan on getting two technics and a vestax mixer soonish. I know its kind of old news to spin on vinyl, but I like the sound and feeling that goes with spinning vinyl compared to looking at a screen or plopping in cds.

http://www.djresource.eu/Djsets/

found this site that has a large gallery section. i like looking at pics of peoples setups though i'm not a fan of all the cdj's...

most of it is in a different language. german?

Don't be jealous but I have 2 DN 3700s and a A&H DB4 :)

ps: pioneer is cheap shit

  On 6/25/2012 at 1:23 AM, halisray said:

Don't be jealous but I have 2 DN 3700s and a A&H DB4 :)

 

ps: pioneer is cheap shit

are denon's that good? seems most people use pinoneer.

Got 2x SL-1200 mk2's & a shitty genric mixer of an associate who needed money for £220, absolute steal.

Getting a cheap Beringer mixer off ebay, and going to learn on these.

  On 6/25/2012 at 11:24 PM, phick123 said:

Got 2x SL-1200 mk2's & a shitty genric mixer of an associate who needed money for £220, absolute steal.

 

Getting a cheap Beringer mixer off ebay, and going to learn on these.

awesome. you should buy serato

I have 2 shitty numark turntables and a shitty numark mixer. I dont play out wuth em, just fart around, scratch and fail at beatmatching.

I like em OK but I kinda want CDJs so I can mix & scratch my own stuff or YouTube samples or whatever. The CDJ 400 and 350 look good, I've had my eye on em for a while. But the numark NDX800s, although cheesy-looking, seem to be just as good for my purposes, and cost half as much. Would love to hear opinions on this.

Serato seems cool but I don't like the idea of being tethered to a computer. Seems to take a lot of fun out of it.

  On 6/26/2012 at 5:38 AM, sweepstakes said:

I have 2 shitty numark turntables and a shitty numark mixer. I dont play out wuth em, just fart around, scratch and fail at beatmatching.

 

I like em OK but I kinda want CDJs so I can mix & scratch my own stuff or YouTube samples or whatever. The CDJ 400 and 350 look good, I've had my eye on em for a while. But the numark NDX800s, although cheesy-looking, seem to be just as good for my purposes, and cost half as much. Would love to hear opinions on this.

 

Serato seems cool but I don't like the idea of being tethered to a computer. Seems to take a lot of fun out of it.

naw. it's fun being able to spin any track you like, even the rare stuff. i guess it's the same deal as burning cds and using cdj's it just comes down to personal preference in how you want to mix