Which is THE Premiere DJ Gear Company?

[Anderton]

Numark? Stanton? Pioneer? Ableton? Gemini? Serato? Mixmeister?

 

Inquiring minds want to know...

[gruvjack]

That's a good question. Thanks for posting here, Craig.

 

Rane makes some pretty cool DJ gear that carry on it's reputation of solid construction and reliability. This applies to Serato as well.

 

V.

[6ftabovsealevel]

There isn't any single manufacturer that makes all the best stuff. There are so many different types of gear and so many different user demands for each of these to be built for that nobody can cover all the bases on the highest levels. As a house dj if I had to choose one single manufacturer to buy my mixer & turntables from it would be Technics, but a scratch dj might choose Vestax. If things like cd decks, signal processing, computer software & interfaces, or speakers & amps also had to be considered there is no good choice, particularly for the scratch dj.

 

The Rane TTM-56 is probably the best scratch mixer, but if you want the best house mixer you get something like an old Bozak CMA 10 2DL or a new E&S DJR400. But none of these companies even make dj turntables or cd decks, they just focus on getting a couple key components right. As a general rule it is the manufacturers that try to create enough models to meet all the needs of every kind of dj out there that tend to produce very few pieces of actual high-quality equipment (Numark, Gemini, Stanton, etc).

[Monkey Mouse]

Technics are the only turntable you need to know about - unless it is audiophile...

 

In terms of mixers, rane, A&H, ecler are top tier. Pioneer and that price range in the middle.

 

CD players have many models and types (tabletop vs rack) and everyone makes these now.Pioneer, Denon, and Technics are probably the best ones.

 

I know nothing about the computer based stuff - so I have no opinions on that.

[Anderton]

Hey, thanks! I'm curious about the computer stuff, too.

[bangpow]

 

Hey, thanks! I'm curious about the computer stuff, too.

 

 

Well, the most popular DJ software for the club and even hip hop DJ's is Rane's Scratch Live aka "Serato". I personally use it and love it. A lot of people like it because while it doesn't have a crap ton of bells and whistles, it's stable as all get out and their support is wonderful.

 

It's main competitor right now is Native Instruments Traktor Scratch. That has a ton of bells and whistles and you can use up to 4 decks (2 controlled by CD players or turntables + 2 "virtual decks"). It's got VST capabilities and is pretty beefy. The downside to that is that you need a somewhat ballsy computer to run that software and keep it stable.

 

There's also other players in that game with Numark's Virtual Vinyl and M-Audio's Torq software.

 

Then there's your software that doesn't utilize cd players or turntables to control it and that is the regular Traktor DJ program, a variety of programs from PCDJ, you got Numark Virtual Vinyl, among many others.

 

It really comes down to preference and what you are looking for.

[Manipulate]

Don't forget about Vestax. They don't hold up as well as a Technics but they make some cool {censored}. The PDX and Controller One are way more versitile for scratching than a 1200.

[Khazul]

For decks - technics (12xxM5G?) (but not sure about cartridges, arms etc), for CD decks - probably pioneer (CDJ-1000Mk3), or denon depending on preferred style of cd-deck at the high end, for general mixers, I prefer pioneer or allen heath - though I'm way more used to pioneer mixers and just bought a DJM-800 and a pair of CDJ-1000 Mk3s. I havnt had any inclination to use specialist scratch/battle mixers, so no idea - my first port of call if I did would probably be the pioneer DJM-900, and for a larger format club mixer - probably the DJM-1000.

 

On the software controllers side (NI Traktor) - nothing even comes close to vestax controllers for positive feel and build quality - I use a VCI-100 and will probbaly get a VCM-600 for Live when its available - everything else seems to be just nasty cheap bits of land-fill fodder.

 

I think Stanton and Vestax are allways worth a look if you cant go for 'industry-standard' stuff because of price or whatever (I would avoid their rediculous torque decks and instead get one with similar torque to the tech 12 as they will never get a true CD/sampler style instant start, so you may as well get used to whats generally used), but in the end I go with pioneer+technics for the simple reason thats what I'm mostly likely to find if using club kit, so its nice not to have to think much about the gear.

 

Numark seem to generally just make land-fill fodder with blinky lights - dont touch with a barge pole.

 

Sticking Ableton in with technics/pioneer is kind of odd, I use Ableton Live for production and live sets of my own music. I have done a conventional(-ish) DJ set off it once. Never used serato, but I do use NI-traktor quite alot and actually thats my main way of working out a set these days, managing music collections etc and for a while has been the main way to deliver a set.

 

I guess in the end it comes down to whether you have to use otehr peoples gear or not (I do you need to be intimately familar with typical club gear), or whether you allways get to use you own gear - in which case find whatever works bets for you - just dont get too much out of touch with current typical club gear in case you find yourself having to use it...

[gruvjack]

I've been fascinated by the Electronique Spectacle products. The dual 3 band filter unit looks mighty interesting. I'm sure it'll be expensive, seeing that the DJR400 itself goes for around 2000 Euros but that's boutique gear for ya.

 

V.