Long story short, I just got hired for a pretty decent string of spots DJing, and I’m about to get out to Brooklyn to a pretty poppin spot…basically been living off my music for a few months now, and want to pick up some new shit to finish up my setup. Thing is, my next HUGE gig is going to be taxed, so I wanna buy my equipment with that money so I can write it off
Anyways I am looking to buy:
Pioneer DJM-909 mixer
and
Roland Boss SP-303
Within the next month or two.
I am hoping some of you guys that work in car audio that carry Pioneer will hopefully be able to order this. If you all know someone that’s able to knock something off the 1500 list price of that mixer…I’d be more then thankful.
Thanks so much. Hope this is appropriate to post here…I’d just rather help someone local out before I blow 900 on eBay.
Nothing can really make my music better then myself in essence, but there’s two things I would like to expand on for my live performances…
The SP-303 sampler I am going to use to drop sound effects live - it’s always nice to be able to throw in sounds here and there throughout a live set…anything from an airhorn, to lasers, to dropping a “remix” right before a live remix/blend. I would normally use a line-out from my laptop, but I get massive AC hum, and my sound card died a month out of warranty. So I’m going to go the reliable route and have a stand-alone unit dedicated to dropping sound effects. Plus running more programs on my laptop isn’t something I want to do - my laptop has never crashed, and I don’t ever want it to over something that stupid. As for it being leet sauce, it’s kind of a dated machine, and as a real sampler it kinda sucks…but it’s a good sounding unit and I’m only using it for sound effects live, so it’s more then enough for what I’m doing with it.
The mixer is easily one of the best mixers made right now. I have the pioneer 707 now, which is the above mixer with no effects. The touch screen you see is a complete built-in effects computer, with over 50 effects. I could see myself getting creative with the ability to use that live a little bit here and there, but I mainly like how you can link it to the up/down faders, and I can roll echos when I transition out of songs. Makes it a LOT easier to make a clean transition between two hiphop songs with difficult intros. I know my personal weakness when it comes to mixing, although not really obvious because I work on it a lot when I practice, is phasing songs out perfectly and in-time. So it’ll help me do that, a lot.
So yeah, it’s a worthwhile investment for me. Just better tools for the job, and when you spend a lot of time using your tools you want the best shit.
BT / PvD use a MacBook / PowerBook, you just have the wrong laptop. DJing is going away from dedicated hardware, and toward software. I’m no DJ but I do pay CLOSE attention to the tech @ shows (and go to a lot, not as much as I’d like but oh well). The mixer, I can totally understand (although I’d guess most bigger venues have their own?), sampler, skip it, buy a mac. Gabriel & Dresden use one… heck I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find a big-name DJ who doesn’t.
Hardware DJing is disappearing in the trance music scene possibly - but with hip-hop, it’s merging the two that is becoming the current trend. Remember, there’s never going to be software that’s going to be able to emulate the turntablism aspects of hip-hop DJing. We integrate computers, but we stay to our vinyl for the control/manipulation it gives us.
edit since you edited: The MacBook would be a SOLID look…but my laptop is really really doing well for what it is, and its 200 dollars compared to ~1200. You’re right though, definately a good look (switching from PC to Mac for DJing), but I’m using the same exact software I’d be using on Mac, and I still wouldn’t like to fumble around with more then 1 program at a time on the computer (stupid sounding I know, but I hate having to click on the little sampler window to have the keyboard active in that window etc all night long). I just like to know I can reach over and hit a button if I feel I need to.
goddamn it stop editing!
you’re right about what you’re saying though, for sure. that’s basically everything I use minus personal preferences (and bias toward hiphop and my style). Pioneer mixers, Ableton Live, etc etc. Just missing the Mac, which in reality wouldn’t offer me anything but a sound card at this point.
I am not saying ditch tables, in fact I really don’t like CDJs after playing with them (footnote: I fucking SUCK at spinning anything). just, if you are gonna use a laptop, use a mac. and why buy a sampler when a laptop can do it better. I figure, if a software solution can do it cheaper / faster/ better / with more extensive options etc etc why not use that vs a proprietary / dedicated piece?
PS, DJ Jazzy Jeff is all digital now iirc, using Trakktor off a mac
yeah I fucking hate CDJs- the inability to slightly change pitch of a song by playing with the platter has lost all feel, not to mention waiting seconds between track changes, and all that shit. CDJs are really inefficient as far as I’m concerned. The only way I’d ever use a CDJ is as a third channel for strictly acapellas, but that’s just dumb and wasteful. As for the sampler, like I said above, I just want to have something standalone so I don’t have to fuck with flipping between two programs and shit. When I drop effects like that, it’s usually during an actual transition or right after - and there’s no way I’m gonna be flipping windows on a computer during that.
As for DJ Jazzy Jeff, he’s using the exact same setup I am, Serato. Cept he’s sponsored by the company that makes it, Rane. One day…
sorry about the edits lol, I had a lot to say. I’m not some mac fanboiiii, I just think “right tool for the right job” and I see you moving up in the DJ world, and I see these big-name guys who I highly respect ALL going Mac, and I figure, hmmm, this can’t be just some marketing gimmick, these guys CAREERS depend on each night, if a computer let them down, there’d be hell to pay with fans, clubs, reviews, etc.
BTW, play with “Expose” some time, you are by NO MEANS limited to a single application on the mac at a given time, that’s a very “System 7” way of thinking Most people’s experience with Apple Computer is limited to the BS old broken garbage in middle-school libraries and the like… things have come a LONG way. Hell, just last night I installed XP on my Mac Pro and loaded up 3Dmark05 and with STOCK apple/ATI drivers and no tweaks and a few apps running in the background laid down a smoking 10760 That’s the beauty of the new intel macs, you can run osx OR windows, either natively (reboot w/ a program called BootCamp) or emulated, with Parallels, basically like VirtualPC. You need a windows-based DJ app AND a mac one? no problem, you can do it at the same time
I totally understand and respect it - I really would, in a fucking HEARTBEAT, trade my PC in for a Macbook. You have no idea My tight friend who dabbles in spinning has Serato on his Macbook, it’s essentially the same thing as my PC though. I haven’t had a problem on my PC yet knock on wood - and I put hours on hours on hours on it - and it’s been a year of playing out now. My next switch will be to a Mac, but only as my 3ghz P4 gets dated.
The new Mac OS is NICE - but I mean to drop a simple airhorn, I’m gonna need to switch from one program focus to another to get to the sound effects, and that’s just not what I want to do while I’m making a transition. The only alternative I could think of, is getting a MIDI controller to program to trigger sounds, which is how I did things earlier, but it was more annoying then it had to be at a cost of money (100 dollars, when a 303 sampler is 200). Plus it was always on my mind that a stupid windows sound COULD play through the speakers - never happened since I had em all off, but the idea just irked me…lol.
Everyone I’ve seen that is out DJing, that is dropping the sound effects hiphop/reggae style, has their MacBook and then under it their SP-303 or 404 sampler. Just the convienence of tapping a button right when you need it. It’s hard to really explain, if you were here I’d be like “look” and you’d know right away what I mean . It’s really no alternative, unless there’s a yamaha sampler or something that’s decent sound quality in my eyes that would be cheaper then an SP-303.
nah i know what you mean. I’d go the midi trigger route, i loved watching BT play with that, ah wtf is it called, well you trigger it w/ light / proximity of your hand to do anything from beats to trigger sfx etc. but yeah, i know EXACTLY what you mean about buttons vs menus, filmmaking can be a very real-time excercise too ya know
word. midi trigger is just a little cheaper and i have to run a program, then run sound through laptop. fuck that. i’d rather have standalone unit. its just how i roll.
so, hopefully someone in car audio can find me a mixer…haha
I figured as much…I can totally understand having better tools for the job. Try using a craftsmen open end wrench all day then try a snap-on open end, at least one less bolt will be rounded with the snap-on. It all makes a difference in the job/performance.
Most people’s experience with Apple Computer is limited to the BS old broken garbage in middle-school libraries and the like… things have come a LONG way. Hell, just last night I installed XP on my Mac Pro and loaded up 3Dmark05 and with STOCK apple/ATI drivers and no tweaks and a few apps running in the background laid down a smoking 10760 