dextrous Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 ..... well it certainly feels like it. What's up everyone? It's been a while. Well more like 9 years. Circumstances changed and a turntable didn't feature. Happy to report that a turntable and mixer is once again a permanant fixture in my household. Thought I'd check out an old haunt and good to see this place still going. There's a few familiar names and some not quite so much Things have changed a bit. First up - no one uses vinyl anymore. DVS was around but no one I knew was running it exclusively. Now youtube has kids spinning vinyl as a novelty. Not like in my day etc.... As it goes I'm pretty keen to get stuck into digital but what the fuck is up with the mixer market? In the world of serato it looks like if you've got £1300 to spend you've got good options. If not it's fisher price shit. I'm not dropping over a grand on a mixer so where are the mid market options? Z2 looks good but possibly coming to the end of its life and Serato possibly a better bet than Traktor? Might just look for a second hand unit to get a feel for it all and upgrade later. Recommendations welcome. Also what's the deal with building a good digital collection? Did you all literally sit and rip your vinyl to flac? Would be pretty shit to have to buy all my records again in digital format (not to mention expensive). Next up, I was getting everything set up and wondering why one turntable is coming out mono only. Much head scratching later figure I've got a faulty cart. Obviously didn't like being in a loft for 9 years. Might have even been knacked before, who knows. Never mind lets just order another one. WTF shure have stopped making phono stuff and my only option is jokers on ebay charging £120+. Bollocks to that. Second set of advice please - what's a decent cart that's not shure? Last time I bought something that wasn't a 447 was when I used to blu tack pennies to the headshell with a Stanton 500 in it back in the 90s. Either that or advice on a hook up for a 447 at a fair price. Half a mind to sell my knackered one 'as seen' on ebay to fund another but I prefer not to be a dick so I won't. Anyway yeah. Good to see you all. Expect more sub newbie questions. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike-L Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Yo yo whats up Joe! Good to hear from you. You still in Leeds? I've been having a few scratch jams round at mine recently, you should get down to the next one.Feel free to pop round at any other time - I have a couple of Serato setups you can experiment with. There are definitely cheaper options for getting a DVS set up using Traktor or Serato.For digital - as well as recording some stuff direct from vinyl , i found it more convenient to rip a whole load of borrowed CDs, bought some charity shop CDs & found some Hi-Quality files of stuff I have on Vinyl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdiggla Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 As far a library goes, I kept my vinyl and digital collections mostly separate. I try to get newer stuff, remixes, mashups and edits digitally. Digital record pools like the Beat junkies, Amazon, beatport, reddit subs, and music blogs are where I look. If you do a month subscription to Beat junkie and take the time to meticulously go through and DL lots in that month it will be the best bang for your buck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextrous Posted October 7, 2019 Author Share Posted October 7, 2019 Hey Mike - congrats on DMC! I'm a bit more mobile than last time we spoke! Yeah hooking up would be good. Cheers Diggla. Yeah I'd spotted the Beat Junkies record pool via their youtube channel. Not a bad plan and yeah cheap charity shop hauls of CDs is a good shout. Might recapture the digging experience a bit. Too reliant on the likes of spotify these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Hey dextrous, how's it going man? The most popular decent scratch mixers these days seem to be the high end Ranes, the Pioneer S9, and the Z2. Native Instruments recently laid off a whole bunch of staff, but I don't know how that will affect their future products, including Traktor. I guess it depends what you want - the Z2 has a solid crossfader, all 3 faders can be swapped out for Innofader Pros, and IMO it has most things a DJ is likely to want these days - pads, effects, cue points, loops, sync and what have you. The Numark Scratch looks pretty cool if you want something mid-priced, although I don't know anyone that actually owns one - it's fairly new. As for digital, I try not to rip vinyl if I can help it. I'd rather get a high quality digital file directly or rip tracks from CDs. It's less hassle and you don't have to deal with clicks, pops, or crackle. I don't use DJ pools, but there's supposedly some really good ones. I guess Ortofon is your best bet for needles now. A company called Jico makes replacement needles for the Shure carts, but I've heard mixed reports on them. That said they make a bunch of N44-7 clones - over a dozen different ones - so maybe there's a specific one that's better than the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextrous Posted October 7, 2019 Author Share Posted October 7, 2019 Hey Steve - long time no speak. Yeah I picked up some Jicos when everything got unpacked a couple of months ago. I've got one running on my one working cart. Seems to do the job - no complaints. I don't have a working n447 I could compare audio quality to but it seems to track vinyl as good as I ever remember the n447 doing. Lets be honest, no one ever bought the m447 for audio quality anyway. Problem is my other cart - no continuity acoss the R/RG pins so it's done for on that channel. Assume the coil is broken internally. Not something that is easily fixed if even possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savwar Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 I know a few people who've moved to recordbox over serato recently. It's probably somewhat due to the convenience if you're someone who uses CDJs as well as DVS. If i was looking for a budget DVS setup i'd go for the pioneer-djm-250mk2 300 quid for the standard recordbox one or 500 for the serato version (DJM-S3)there's no curve adjust knob, just a 3 settings switch, but it's a magvel, like the s9, so it's probably quite good.the s9 is probably my favourite ever fader... granted, the djm250 one doesn't have the tension control https://www.thedjshop.co.uk/pioneer-djm-250mk2-dj-mixer-with-effects.html I haven't had a go on it, but I can't imagine how that isn't an amazing deal. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jam Burglar Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 A lot of DJs still use vinyl when it comes to scratching. The Cut-N-Paste records being put out recently are super-dope. I'm with you on the whole digital conversion thing. Most of the records I DJ with are 12" singles and lots of them have instrumentals, different 12" versions, and other differences from the LP, ... or were never on an LP to begin with. A lot of that stuff isn't available on for download anywhere even if I wanted to shell out. I just don't have time to record thousands of records. So, I either stick to the vinyl, or if I've got a custom set and want to use digital, I'll record the records I need just for that set. The digitial stuff is cool because it you can be super-quick with pulling up new songs and sounds, use sounds that were never on vinyl, etc. Still, if you want accuracy and sound quality, wax is still the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextrous Posted October 20, 2019 Author Share Posted October 20, 2019 Thanks for that Sav. Need to have a go on one though. Seems it's not the same magvel that's in the S9 and has a large-ish cut in time. Could do an old school credit card/washer mod but still.... Any opinions on any latency differences between traktor/rekordbox/serato? @Jam burglar- I still buy vinyl a bit anyway and can't see that stopping but digital does appeal for many reasons. I just need to get stuck in really but I'm tight and indecisive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBearOne8III Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 yo dextrous. i found this video a while back, hope it helps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrblast Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 I just recently got back into DJing after a long hiatus and have gone the Serato route with the new Reloop decks/Elite. I got the Ortofon scratch needles but found them complete shit. Managed to get hold of some M447s which are loads better. I can also recommend Soulseek (remember that?) for finding high quality downloads of common and obscure tracks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextrous Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 Soulseek is still going? Wow. Picked up a 44g cart for non silly money so all good there. With the tonar/Nico needle seems to be running alright as a bedroom set up. Still undecided on a mixer. I'm a right indecisive bastard. To be fair I need a new laptop as well and I'm not made of money so can only get a bit at a time. Z2 seems to be best bang on the mixer but still not sure traktor the best way to go. Quite fancy an S2 or similar for dicking about on and throwing raves in the kitchen for the kids too. They look fun without having much to lug about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mista_Ed Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Jeez!! ...Joey dex, how the hell are ya!!!? Nice to hear youre back on the spins dude!! I assume the kids have grown up a wee bit and youre able to set up again? Ayyy i dunno....most people i know still cut on wax, djing with dvs generally yeah, but cuttin....nahh. I moved to new zealand 8 years ago, and life is also very different...im still jamming on occasions and have a pdx and a rane 56 in my lounge so im still loosely involved, albeit not as much as 15 years back lol Id suggest grabbing a cheap rane or similar man....nowt wrong with them and can be picked up reasonably cheap - especially if youre just wanting to cut and jam out...lots of the new mixers freak me the fuck out and im just not down with spemding time learning new fearures for the 10 minutes a month i might actually spend scratchin Ive built up my digital collection from searching and downloading, usually from blogs an shit...but ive not really been downloading music in the past year or so, and yeh...soulseek is still going, amazingly! Keep in touch dude, would be nice to hear from ya! Im Easily findable on the old book of faces if ur using it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mista_Ed Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Ps total newbie my arse 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextrous Posted May 12, 2020 Author Share Posted May 12, 2020 Ed! Missed your replies. Great to hear you're well. Shame it's on the other side of the world, but still - can't blame you. Hope you're still reppin the BOG life down there though. Will look you up on the socials...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mista_Ed Posted May 13, 2020 Share Posted May 13, 2020 Ed! Missed your replies. Great to hear you're well. Shame it's on the other side of the world, but still - can't blame you. Hope you're still reppin the BOG life down there though. Will look you up on the socials...... LOL!!! #boglyfe ....for.... life!!!? (now upgraded with a hastag - gotta be down with the kids, ya know?) yeh hit me up mang!!! would be cool to touch base x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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