Help a newbie DJ!

November 5, 2009 8:02 AM

I want to start DJing - specifically mixing and mashing songs and learning to scratch. I only want to make mixes for myself but might someday want to play for a house party if my skills improve. I need your input on equipment and how to get started!

I love music but have no experience DJing so anything you have to share would be helpful. I spent a bit of time attempting to research it but feel totally overwhelmed by all the options available.

What controller & soundcard (or other equipment) should I consider? I've looked at the Vestax VCI-100, Hercules RMX and M-Audio Xponent so far but have no idea what would be best to get started. I want a controller that will be good for scratching. I'd like to spend less than $700 total.

What should I look at for software? Seems like Traktor and Virtual DJ are popular and support most controllers.

What should I do to learn the basics? Any good DJ forums that are beginner friendly?

posted by aceyprime to media & arts (4 answers total)

So, I guess I'm confused by what you're asking. You're mentioning scratching, but also mentioning soundcards. Scratching comes from vinyl. Soundcard implies using a digital audio file. Using fake turntable controllers seems kind of dopey IMO. My suggestion is to buy a Kaoss Pad and an copy of Ableton Live. Both of those things will give you room to grow in your DJing and music endeavors. I am assuming that you already have an OK laptop.
posted by vas deference at 10:10 AM on November 5, 2009

I had a friend start out with this Stanton DJ Lab. he quickly moved on to better and more expensive equipment but it seemed like a great set up for beginning djs who want to learn how to scratch.

I just took a look at that hercules set-up and it looks pretty shit to me but the reviews are good. 'm not a fan of jog wheels for scratching, although they are pretty helpful at lining up tracks fast.

If I were going to start from scratch today, I would get 1 vinyl *direct drive* turntable for scratching, a midi-controller for effects and adding live synth instruments, and I would use Able for some preloaded tracks. Maybe add cd turntable in there that does sampling. Also probably a good drum sequencer.

For mashing songs Girl Talk, certainly the most famous masher working right now, uses a wave editor like Audacity (which is free) and TONS of patience.
posted by cyphill at 1:15 PM on November 5, 2009

As mentioned above, you really need to focus a bit more on what you'd like to be doing as a DJ. If your priority is seamlessly mixing two tunes together, then CD decks or a laptop running Traktor or Virtual DJ (with some sort of hardware controller) is the way to go. If you actually want to mash-up tunes up (where you play two tunes on top of each other for the whole duration of the tunes to create a new song), then you'll need something with a bit more fine tuning production power, such as Ableton Live. (I certainly wouldn't recommend using Audacity for mash-ups, with all manual timestretching that'd take forever!) If on the other hand you want to be a shit hot scratch DJ, then I'm afraid scratching on CDs or digital just doesn't cut it, and you'll definitely be wanting a pair of the best direct drive vinyl decks you can get, which usually means the industry standard Technics 1200s.

If you do go down the CD or vinyl route, then you'll still need to decide what sort of DJing you want to do, because this affects your choice of mixer - a scratch mixer tends to have the sort of layout and controls to facilitate scratching, whereas a beatmixing mixer is a slightly different machine optimised for those long blended beatmixes. It's not like you can't beatmix on scratch mixer and vice versa, but it's certainly easier with the right device.

Basically, what sort of style of music are you thinking of playing? This makes a massive impact on what sort of equipment to recommend. E.g. if you wanted to play old funk, soul, hip-hop etc. and get into crate digging, and scratch with it, then it's vinyl all the way. If you wanted to play techno, then I'd still recommend vinyl just because that's still the medium of choice for the hottest tunes. Trance these days seems to have migrated to CDs and MP3s, and if you just wanted to play the pop party hits, then that would be mostly if not entirely MP3 (but then perhaps burnt to CD).

Ultimately if you own any vinyl at all, I recommend starting with vinyl decks, because once you learn to mix on vinyl you can move quite easily to CDs or a laptop. Whereas, if you learn on a laptop it's a much harder learning curve to go back to vinyl. Personally I just love the feel of vinyl - there's a lot of tactile feedback that you can use to get that mix right.

If you don't own any vinyl, I'd recommend getting two CDJs and a mixer. You can burn whatever tunes you want to CD, take them out with you (saves having to worry about a laptop being stolen, or crashing or whatever), and CDJs are rapidly becoming an industry standard in clubs and the like, so if you ever do get to play out (and honestly, the opportunities are out there for sure), then hopefully you'll be good to go. At the end of the day, DJing is really just playing the right tunes in the right order, so it pays not to get too geeked out on the equipment side of it, best to keep it simple - two decks of some kind and a mixer.
posted by iivix at 2:34 PM on November 5, 2009

Oh, and you won't regret buying a copy of How To DJ Properly - that'll tell you pretty much everything you need to know to get you started.
posted by iivix at 2:38 PM on November 5, 2009