needs advice on new gear

[BoonDoc]

Im going to get straight to it I'm a 10 year vet to the industry started on old school vinyl for 3 years and the rest of the time was spent mostly on a vastax vci300 but do to health problems i had to sit back for a year and had to sell off almost all of my old equipment i have a budget of 3500-4k any and all suggestions would be helpful

[KLH]

You need to decide what you'd like to use and go from there. Your budget allows a lot of flexibility unless you have to include a PA system.

Do you want TTs, CDJs, or a controller?

-KLH

[DJNR]

Lots of options in that bracket. Anything from CDJs to Turntables are available. I would narrow your options/preferences a bit :)

[BoonDoc]

I want to get back to the turntables with serato but the whole 900$ price tag for the rane mixer alone kinda bugs me out but I hate being called a button pusher with things like the ns6 and other standalone midi style controllers I have all my PA still so my budget is strictly for the platers mixer and software/hardware already have the Mac book pro

[DJ Highline]

Well you figure that you are probably gonna spend about $8 - 1200 on a pair of turntables (used Tech 1200s or new Stanton 150s) with carts. Then you need to decide whether you want to go with Serato or Traktor. If you are going with Traktor I would say get yourself either a Denon X1600 mixer which is a 4ch mixer or a Pioneer DJM-T1 which is a 2 ch mixer, both are Traktor Certified and comes in at about $1000. If you want to go with Serato then you are best off getting a Rane Sixty-One Mixer at $1400 and a Denon HC-1000S Serato controller. Even at the most pricey that still only $2600...With the extra money left over, you can add a pair of studio monitors or a pair of the new Denon SC3900 players and cases for everything.

Or you can get a pair of CDJ-900s or CDJ-2000s and save up for a decent mixer.

Edit: Even better, take the extra money and get yourself a bad ass controller. If you are going to the Traktor platform, then grab an S4 to take out with you or if you going to the Serato platform grab something like a VCI-400 or the new VCI-380 or a Numark S4. That way if you get a gig, you can just take the controller and leave your main set-up at home.

[DJNR]

If your budget is is $3500-$4000, then why are you flinching at the Serato price tag? :shrug:

Let me break down a budget plan for you:
Turntables (Technics M3D and above): $800 - $1000 for the pair
Rane 62 - $2000 ($1800 if you bargain or whatever)
Serato - <$1000 (which you won't need with the Rane 62)

So assuming you paid full price for everything I listed, you would be at $4,000. Most of that cost can be reduced because you could always buy used gear, like an SL1 or a TTM57 ($1000). Similarly, you could see if you could find yourself a pair of Technics MK2 which are significantly cheaper and much more prevalent in the used market.

[BoonDoc]

DJ Highline in your edit do you mean almost like a makeshift dubstep setup. DJNR when its broken down like that its not as bad your breakdown really helps serato has been my first choice especially with the novation dicer. thank y'all for the help with that now on to my next question i was using 8th world wonder for a decent amount of instrumentals and acapella tracks whats the big downloading site now

[BoonDoc]

DJ Highline in your edit do you mean almost like a makeshift dubstep setup. DJNR when its broken down like that its not as bad your breakdown really helps serato has been my first choice especially with the novation dicer. thank y'all for the help with that now on to my next question i was using 8th world wonder for a decent amount of instrumentals and acapella tracks whats the big downloading site now

along with the best bit rate

[DJ Highline]

Basically as DJNR and I both came to the same conclusion that you can get into a Serato Scratch Live setup for about $2.5 - 3K You said you have up to $4k to spend. With that extra money you can get yourself a really nice Serato Itch controller that if I am not mistaken will work with your Serato crates. This way if you get offered to do a gig, you have a nice small controller that you can pack up and do the gig with and keep the heavy and more expensive stuff safe at home.

[sephi]

Stanton 150s, M44-7 carts, Sennheiser HD25-1 II headphones, Rane TTM57. Little over $2k. Standard, solid stuff. Replace the Stantons with Technics if you are into them; that will bump it a bit closer to $3k overall.

You don't have to spend a ton of money to get Scratch Live. An SL1 is still quite viable, and they run $250-ish used. A TTM57 is barely over $1000 used - I got mine for about $1125 new.

[B3NNY]

Pair of Technics 1200's and a Rane 62. With this set-up you can pretty much do anything. Technics are already the cub standard in the US and the Rane 62 is soon to replace the Rane TTM57 as the new standard. You may not care about that, but it does mean that if you go to re-sell, you're going to get most of your money back.