recommend digital turntable (me=dj-ing nubcake)

[snarekrazee]

i've never done any dj-ing in my life and i've never used turntable except for messing around with them for a couple of minutes at the store.the reason i want to start is mainly because i am an electronic artist (dnb,electronica,dance,trip-hop) and it will be a requirement soon enough.

 

the way i see things is that digital turntables work just as well as analog ones but they're also more portable and cost efficient (which i need).here are a couple of decks i'm looking at which i think aren't total crap AND they're also in my price range:

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Cortex-Dmix300-Digital-Music-Control-Station?sku=801465

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/American-Audio-CK-1000-Professional-MP3CD-PlayerMixer?sku=801314

 

suggestions please,thanks.

[6ftabovsealevel]

 

the way i see things is that digital turntables work just as well as analog ones

 

 

Spend enough time with both and I wager you'd reach a different conclusion.

 

Before we can tell you if those things are any good for you, we need to know exactly what you're planning on doing. Will your sources be records or digital? Do you just need to be able to mix tracks together, or do you want to want to be able to scratch?

 

I don't like those boxes that supposedly do everything personally. If one portion fails the whole thing is probably useless, and they're usually not built for anything but the least demanding of operators.

[snarekrazee]

i do want to learn,i've wanted to for a few years now just never got around to it since i was caught up with school and trying to put together a [rock] band.i actually stopped looking for a band a few months ago due to not finding people that are at least partially reliable and who are good at their craft,so i decided to actually put 100% in recording/mixing/producing and started an album.now i have an "excuse" to not put dj-ing off any longer.

 

a couple problems [for me] with analog turntables are them (a.k.a. the full setup) being a bit big for my apartment and the cost of the gear,vinyls,etc. i want to be able to assemble maybe not a pro rig,but at least a good rig to start learning.i want to mix and scratch btw,with mixing all i need is a computer with itunes on it

 

conclusion:

i realize that the "good" [analog] setup i'm looking for will cost about $1000 without vinyls and all of the other stuff.i want to also learn and do as much as i can with the gear.i'll also be using the rig with my computer for composition/production.

 

can you please put together some basic stuff (analog and digital) for me? because i really don't know what i'm getting into,thanks.

[6ftabovsealevel]

I understand why you don't want to go with the full turntable setup, it is more expensive and they do take up a lot of space. But you said yourself you're concerned with putting together a good enough setup to learn with, and I don't think any of those digital boxes are a proper introduction to djing, especially scratching. Nor do I really think they'd be too good for studio use.

 

If you can stomach the space and extra cash at all, you can get Serato for the same price as the two items you linked to, and a couple hundred more could get you a workable pair of used turntables and scratch mixer. You don't need a ton of vinyl if your turntables are a digital interface themselves, and this would be a much more flexible setup for studio applications.

 

Maybe someone else can chime in with some good digital hardware alternatives to the option I suggested, but I think that would be the best way to go if it's at all possible.

[Manipulate]

Using "Itunes" and MP3s is going to equal {censored}ty sound quality if you're trying to produce anything. There is a difference in sound between analog and digital but when you're looking at analog or digital, high bit rate wav files v. MP3s the sound quality difference is huge.

 

Plus, those digital tables are weak as hell for scratching, its like eating substitue meat, its not like the real thing, its a crappy simulation. I've been scratching for over 10 years and using stuff like that is no where close to real turntables.

 

Also, if your going to be sampling, "digging" for samples online puts you at a huge disadvantage because you're only dealing with the {censored} someone else has found and decided to put online. What that means is that anything that's off the beaten path is off limits to you. DJ Shadow's entroducing is a good example of why digging matters. It sounds good because he put in the work looking through records and piecing {censored} together. You're never going to learn that skill online.

 

Basically, the whole point is, you can't take shortcuts. If you buy cheap gear, and use easily accessible online samples, with crappy sound quality, then your end product is almost certain to be crappy too.

 

If you really want to get into DJing, buy some turntables and a mixer and go to some thrift stores and buy some records. Learn from the ground up and you'll eventually incorporate more records and gear into your setup, like serato or a drum machine or sampler. If you look at all the best DJs, they all learned the basics first and then expanded as their skills progressed.

 

If you're just trying to use synths and drum machines then I'd say {censored} the turntables all together and go that route. Using real hardware might be more intuitive for you but you can use your computer too.

 

Regardless of your approach, you can't take shortcuts.

[6ftabovsealevel]

 

Using "Itunes" and MP3s is going to equal {censored}ty sound quality if you're trying to produce anything. There is a difference in sound between analog and digital but when you're looking at analog or digital, high bit rate wav files v. MP3s the sound quality difference is huge.

 

 

Completely agree with everything you said, but this part might deserve a little bit more discussion. If you're talking about just playing back a digital audio file from a computer, the sound difference between an mp3 and wav file recorded at the same bit rate will be pretty much inaudible. As far as production goes, I don't think I'd worry too much about using an mp3 for a sample if it was at a high enough bit rate and I wasn't going to do too much to change that sample. It's just once you've got a finished product and go to have it mastered that they will always ask you for a wav file. As I understand it an mp3 will lose more information than a wav file throughout the conversion & mastering process, which makes the final product sound slightly worse.