Does Anybody DJ?

[Dinkleberry]

Where do you play?
What do you mix?
How long have you been doing it?
Could you share some any links to your uploaded mixes?

 

[Vegeta897]

I've been interested in DJ-ing for a while.

I recently got my first piece of kit that let me really try it for myself. It's an American Audio SDJ-1. (picture) I already had a Gemini 3 channel mixer which I used with my other music gear.

So I've only really been doing it for a couple days. I don't have much material to work with (Mixing the music I mainly listen to would be quite tough) but I've been doing some early 90s hip hop, which I found to be pretty easy and enjoyable to do.

Don't have any plans on actually becoming a DJ, nor will I make any videos (I always found them to be boring) But I started messing around with the functions on this thing and started trying some beat juggling type stuff, even though this thing is totally not built for that as you can't even use the jogwheel like grabbing vinyl. Still, I'm going to keep practicing and maybe come up with a routine to record a video of some day.

 

[FireStarter]

I was a DJ in college for a few parties/dances/proms here and there, and people liked me.

it was the only time in college my life REALLY felt like an American Pie [strike]shit[/strike] movie.

 

[Ennui]

ComradeBadger throws together mixes and DJs quite a bit I think. Someone should poke him and maybe he'll come post in this thread

 

[CrazyHarij]

i mix lowercase music on a spectrum console

 

[Dinkleberry]

So I've only really been doing it for a couple days. I don't have much material to work with (Mixing the music I mainly listen to would be quite tough) but I've been doing some early 90s hip hop, which I found to be pretty easy and enjoyable to do.

Made much progress?

i mix lowercase music on a spectrum console

I don't know anything about lowercase music apart from what Wikipedia said, but it sounds quite cool. What music is it and how do you get hold of it?

 

[kings009]

the best option you choose to play and remix the music's by using DJ REMIX Help.. all type of remixes are available in DJ...

 

[ComradeBadger]

ComradeBadger throws together mixes and DJs quite a bit I think. Someone should poke him and maybe he'll come post in this thread

Woop!

Super thread ressurection...

I've had my ReLoop USB decks for a while now, very happy with them cheapsies too, only around ~£400.

Software wise I use Traktor DJ Studio 3, and I personally think it's the best software for it..

I've been DJing a long while now, used to run a clubnight at uni and DJ probably twice a week - I live in London now, and I'm starting to get bookings now, s'all good.

Practice spring house/electro mix I did a while ago is here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?nnmdnj35hmn

Rough little minimix, with a bit of variety is available here:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/76380169308552aa/

(I did that one to try and get a booking at H&M in Camden, but I never ended up sending it - doing a slightly more varied version at the moment)

I generally play electro, fidget and baltimore house, but I'm starting to filter in a bit more uk garage, funky and dubstep into my sets

 

[Vegeta897]

I recently acquired a large collection of Current Value (very hard drum n bass/breakcore), and did some mixing a couple times, still on my SDJ-1. Really ****ing fun and intense. Some of the tracks are quite difficult to beatmatch; one time I encountered a track that I just could not even find the beat. Or rather, the 1. And I listen to crazy time signature stuff.

I route the master output through my Electribe S for some basic FX, but what I could really use is a Kaoss Pad. Damn that'd really take the performance to the next level.

I'd never do it for an audience though, no matter how good I got. Too much pressure. My brother came in my room one time while I was mixing and I already felt nervous. Though I did feel kind of cool, too.

 

[Mellish]

I really want to start out at djing. I've played around with ableton a few times, trying to beatmatch and stuff, it's really fun. I'm looking for a mixer that would be ideal for a complete beginner, my price limit would probably be about £400. If you have any suggestions, please tell me.

 

[Vegeta897]

A mixer? Or a mixer + decks? Or a combo? 400 for a mixer alone would be like, super quality shit, like one of those Kaoss mixers by Korg.

If you've got just 400 to buy a mixer + 2 decks (vinyl or CD or other) then you've got to make some choices as to what kind of setup you want.

You could go all software, and buy a USB interface and controller to control the software. Or you can get a ~£100 mixer and two ~£150 turntables. Or CD players. CD players at that price aren't very advanced, you probably won't be able to scratch with them (if you care about that, really isn't part of mixing)

Your other option is to get an all-in-one unit, like this

But I wouldn't really recommend it because if one part breaks you're screwed.

Personally, I think the American Audio SDJ that I have is a great solution. It's quite inexpensive, and you can play any of your digital media on it just by using SD cards, no hassle of burning CDs or changing them out constantly. I've got two 4gb SD cards in the 2 slots, (either deck can play from either card, so effectively I have 8gb of storage)

This unit just has two stereo RCA outputs for channel 1 and channel 2, which I have going into a rather cheap (~$100 but serves me well and sounds fine) Gemini 3-channel mixer.

The SDJ is about $250 new, I got mine for 150 or so on ebay. This will leave you room for a better mixer.

Welp, that's just about all I can say from my fairly limited experience.

 

[Mellish]

Thanks for that lengthy post vegeta. I think I'll either go for that American Audio SDJ and Mixer combo or just go for a usb controller to work with Ableton.