ive been considering buying some equipment to screw around with (nothing fancy, just enough to get the job done). i would prefer cd decks to vinyl so i dont have to buy records, and i dont need a fancy mixer. how much would i be looking to spend for everything?
im assuming thats new right? i couldnt care less if it was used either, just not beat up. basically i want some real basic stuff to just mess around with and try out to see if i like it/can pick it up before i make a huge investment.
They make nice combo kits on one board. Browse ebays DJ Equipment section or search “dj mixer”. Buy the stuff and play with it… you might have some talent and its fun as hell.
so something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/NUMARK-TABLETOP-CD-PACKAGE-FUSION-111_W0QQitemZ220081635310QQihZ012QQcategoryZ29922QQcmdZViewItem
and then add amp and speaker?
Holy Shit these things are cheap.
I might pick one up too.
come on soopa, you should know who to ask on this one. well then agani, i dont know shit about CD decks…you were right. 
edit: dont get an amp and a speaker unless you want to. Get RCA inputs on your computer if it’s convienent. Then use your computer speakers. Way cheaper if you’re on a budget.
well a buddy of mine is a professional dj as well, so im hoping that he has an old amp and a small speaker or 2 that he wont mind me borrowing. id prefer to set up in my basement just to keep the noise down in the house.
have you considered just buying/using a laptop and a midi controller, and DJing with ableton or traktor?
no. im not that familiar with all the methods out there. i have a laptop and all of my music is on my hard drives, so enlighten me.
ableton is the way of the future. i don’t use it live, but i use it to pre-produce shit that i don’t want or am unable to replicate live on two turntables easily. ableton’s timestretching is where it got popular…it has really good key lock (which means the tempo can change without you changing what key it is in…it won’t sound sped up). Download a trial and go into the tutorial on Live performance/DJing. If you are slightly musically or computer inclined, after you install the program it’ll take you probably an hour to figure out the basics and get to playing around and DJing. I will warn you though, Ableton is a lot more complex then Traktor and requires a little more “homework,” however if you fuck with traktor and feel that you’re limited you can REALLY get busy with Ableton. I know for a fact 75 percent of re-edits DJs are playing out in clubs are made in Ableton…it’s great for that. Not many use it live, but I think that’s because everyone’s going to stay with Serato/vinyl for a long long time.
traktor is a program i am not very familiar with, but is also a good look to check out. it’s more like a DJing program then a production program, but it appears a lot simpler. use this with a MIDI controller like this:
and you can manipulate your MP3s on the computer, without the hassle of CD players which are completely useless in this day and age as far as I’m concerned, at least for DJing. There is no real reason to use CD players if you are slightly serious about spinning. All the features of expensive CD players are all available with even vinyl now, let alone computers.
Here’s a screen shot of traktor:
Looks fairly simple to me, I would download a bootleg copy of this and fuck with it…and if I liked it I’d head to guitar center and look at midi controllers.
is a midi controller basically a mixer, but you can hook it up to a pc? ill try both of those programs and see how it goes.
Yeah I guess that’s the easiest way to describe it. MIDI however carries no audio signal, but that’s more then I’d want to get into for someone just getting into this. To elaborate a little bit though, it just sends computer code back and forth to a computer. A program like Traktor will take those signals and interpret them to mimic a mixer or DJ console. Works well for cheap.
Personally I prefer hardware all day, but if you’re on a budget and just want to fuck around, check out Traktor first, Ableton on a night where you don’t want to leave the PC for a few hours.
i would prefer hardware as well, i always do better with stuff i can actually get my hands on. im gonna try traktor and in the meantime hope my buddy has some equipment sitting around that he wont mind letting me learn on. as far as vinyl vs cds, i just figured itd be easier and cheaper to go with cds as i have TONSSSSS of music (300+gb on my computers)
vinyl/mp3 > mp3 > cd
what kind of music were you planning on playing? what are you going for here?
trance mostly, but maybe eventually house, breaks, progressive. no rap or hip hop or anything.
yeah, you COULD do CDs but I would totally be rocking MP3s so you can get into manipulating shit a little more live, rather then just playing shit. Play with everything though, and figure out what’s best for you.