Digital dilemma!

[leah.j]

Hello!
here’s the thing:

I love vinyl and learned all my dj skills on it. Got an A&H Xone mixer, 2 technics 1210’s, it’s been great but I am a small (and a girl!) and carrying vinyl around is getting tiresome and painful. As much as I love collecting vinyl it's getting quite pricey too (I hate writing that down...) I’d also like to make use of my mp3 collection.

So while I’ll keep my current setup, I’d like to move to the digital side with either Serato/Scratch or CDJ….Mainly to learn to get really good at home with it, so I can play out, and keep on recording my own mixes at home.

First, I cannot believe how expensive Cdjs are! If I was to decide on cdj’s, I think I’d only buy one!!

I like the idea of getting serato so that I can use my vinyl knowledge and I’d feel a bit less unfaithful to vinyl this way ☺ I also already own a Macbook pro. And i like that there would be no burning or selection on what to take on a specific night required. But I’m unsure as to how common DVS setups are in clubs.

Any opinions?
Thanks!

[MBOCHEY]

I don't know how common they are in clubs, but the novation dicers are so cool and they are not too expensive. You should look it up on YouTube

[mantis]

its very common in clubs. If you just buy a serato box you can just take that and your laptop with you. You dont need to buy cdjs at all unless you want to.

i dotn use serato and dont even have a good laptop. i love the new cdj s with usb. not all clubs have them tho

[DJ Que Yi]

When I first made the switch from analog to digital I used time coded vinyl with VDJ Pro and a Hercules RMX. I could never get this setup perfect for more than an hour. I quickly switched to a Serato SL3, a Rane 56, and a set of Dicers and it was like a never missed a step going from analog to digital.

[DJ Highline]

Yea...a DVS system sounds perfect for you...Serato and Traktor Scratch Pro are both awesome platforms. Also if you are interested in going with digital decks, have a serious look at Denon's S3900 player. That thing is bad ass...probably the closest you will get to vinyl in a multi-media deck.

[Nicadraus]

Since you have a pair of 1210s already and being a vinyl lover, DVS is what's for you and will make you very happy. Setting up a DVS at a club or a gig is pretty easy as long as they either have a pair of CDJs or turntables. :)

[ampnation]

+1 what everyone else is pretty much saying. If you love vinyl except for lugging around the vinyl, DVS is THEE way for you to go. A Serato or Traktor interface with Novation Dicers and you're good to go. I'm a mobile DJ so no idea on the club thing...ask around in your area. But from what I gather, this would be a very common club setup in most locales.

I don't know if the new Traktor packages are selling yet, but the Traktor Audio 6 with TSP (I think that's right) or an SL2 + SSL would be the way to go. The audio interfaces from Traktor going forward are only going to be sold with software bundled and as you probably know, Serato Scratch Live is a free download but worthless without licensed hardware. If you're not in a club yet and serious about getting there, consider checking out what clubs have for mixers and swapping to that in your own setup. It's a minor advantage but depending on the mixer's features, it could add a fair amount of extra tools to your set. e.g. if you're not familiar with a certain mixer's FX, they'll differ from what you're used to and be less likely to use them. If you rarely hit anything but the basics (channel strips and xfader) then I don't think it really matters and I'd just stick with your current mixer.

[Synergy]

yep. DVS with time code. It isn't QUITE the same, but it is close enough. sometimes it fools me. Some DVS you can even set it so when you flip the record over it goes to the next track if you have a play list set up, pretty fuckin awesome because i catch myself doing that sometimes, picking the record up to switch.

now u have the task of choosing mp3, wav, flac, aiff....etc for your method of file format.