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first turntable rig?


justin lawesome

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Define "reasonably inexpensive". Dj gear can cost as little or as much as you want it to, just know that quality usually varies in direct proportion to price.

 

Honestly a dj rig, no matter what the price, might be sort of a crazy gift for someone if you aren't already positive that they want to give it a serious shot. Maybe something like one decent dj turntable and a gift card to a local record shop might be a better way to get them some exposure to shopping for music and a feel for how the equipment works.

 

Generous idea for something to do for a friend though. When I first started collecting gear and vinyl, all my buddies just laughed at me and went back to their various stringed instruments...

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You can find turntables and a mixer for under $200 used, but anything you can get for that much will almost certainly be junk. Unfortunately budget gear, particularly a turntable, is not nearly as forgiving to an untrained hand as the high-end stuff will be, it sounds like crap, and usually looks like it too. This can make it even tougher for a person on a budget to get over some of the initial frustrations already inherent to learning to dj.

 

I still think one higher quality turntable and some vinyl might be a better way to get them going though. When I first started listening to records I wasn't even sure I wanted to dj with them, it just happened that a lot of the music I liked could only be found on vinyl. So I had one turntable that was hooked up to my stereo, and I just listened to the tracks I had like any other piece of music without mixing them or anything. I think this gradual start was good for me in all kinds of ways. It got me accustomed to the way the turntables work, gave me time to build up a good size collection of music so I didn't get bored, and opportunity to know that music well enough to have a chance at mixing it well before I even tried it.

 

Once I eventually decided that I wanted to add the rest of the gear, the simple start had provided me with a foundation of ideas, taste, and knowledge to have a good idea of what I wanted to do musically. And it was those things that made me want to dj, nothing else. If someone would have given me everything I have now back when I first started, I would have sold everything but 1 turntable and just bought more music. Likewise, if I had been in a position where I felt I had to buy a complete dj setup for the cost of my first turntable and stack of vinyl, I probably would have been so frustrated with the quality of the equipment and bored with my lack of music to play that I would have junked it all and never looked back.

 

I guess what I'm getting at is that you can give your friend whatever material object you'd like, but you can't give them the desire to dj. The desire needs to be there first, and for the money you're talking about I think a decent turntable and some music will do a lot more for a person than a bunch of sub-standard gear with nothing to play on it. If you've got a music fan on your hands that you think might dig djing, both of you might be better served if you just point them down the road and let them stumble on it themselves.

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