DJ Turntables: Buying Guide by Vekked (2016)
djtechtools.com
djtechtools.com
They still run exactly like new and are about the most reliable machines I own.
I have a few tips for anyone getting to turntable DJing:
1. Feedback from speakers is picked up[sic] through both L and R channels but is inverted on one of them, I forget which. Combining the channels as mono cancels it out, a bit like active noise cancelling. If you have a mixer with a mono/stereo switch it's easy to test this out by tapping the deck as it's playing. Stereo depends on fixed listener position relative to speakers anyway so almost never miss it in a venue.
2. If you really want the effect (including very high record wear and poor sound quality) of a straight tonearm you can angle your cartridge outwards on the headshell.
3. You're probably going to turn the bias to zero so that your arm doesn't jump off the record when you back cue. However, if you ever have record that skips at particular spot when playing, either due to a bit of dirt or damage, you can turn bias back on for a moment and the stylus will usually ride past it just fine. When you're playing in front of a crowd that's a handy get out of jail card.
4. For DJing you'll want a spherical stylus as it will track better when moving the record backwards. You can get better sound quality from an elliptical stylus if you're just playing or recording from vinyl though. The absolute best sound quality is from a stylus shaped like a record cutting lathe tip but never ever use that for DJing.
5. Clean your stylus.
That means you can switch from a spherical DJ to an expensive elliptical stylus depending on what you're doing without rewiring the headshell or keeping a second set of cartridges/headshells.
e.g. if you want to sample, record or just listen then use the elliptical set for better sound quality and lower wear.
The spherical styli have a smaller contact patch with the groove but track better when scratching or cueing.
Given all the very good and correct advice throughout this article and this comment section, remember:
* The internet loves perfect
* You don't need perfect
* Imperfect is better than nothing, use what you can get
* You can always get another set of decks/mixer/etc later on
In other words, be pragmatic, buy smart but don't fall for the hype. I wish we could all have Technics 1200's too, but we can't. You'll have endless fun learning to mix on a budget pair of Stanton belt drives, and you'll probably eventually learn why people hate on belt drives, but you'll probably take a while to progress far enough in the hobby for that to actually matter.
With that said... two of my favorite djs right now, who are talented vinyl djs, often bring their own gear to events and they use the Pioneer PLX. I wouldn't be surprised if they've modded them somehow though. In my short time with some PLXs it seems the tone arm was not very well built.
The tonearm on the Reloop has bearing that have a small amount of play, on my Technics, they are extremely solid after 100's hours of play time. But the biggest issue is the Reloop has the flutter at 0.5%, while the Technics at 0.05%. Doesn't sound like a huge issue, but when playing a song on Reloop, the beats per minute will fluctuate from 100 to 100.5 to 99.5, non-stop. The Technics has the same flutter but at a much lower tolerance, so you don't see this appear. Performance, they both do well on startup and stop, and of course improved RCA jacks.
I just quickly tried this on Google's built-in metronome widget (TIL) [1] and I can't hear the difference between 99, 100 and 101 bpm. However, the switching is discrete (the audio stops and restarts) which probably makes it much harder to detect change, of course.
Just curious, not trying to question your comparison of course.
If looked after, they're almost bomb-proof.
The original 1200 was a pure hi-fi deck in a large and very competitive market. DJs just adopted because it could be repurposed for their needs.
When Matsushita redesigned the 1200Mk2 they could afford to maintain their market leading position by investing in things like die casting and superior bearing.
Any OEM manufacture now is unlikely to want to spend that kind of money to manufacture something sold in small numbers.
Funny, originally the Roland drum machines were not targeted at dance music producers. Initially a handful of such producers adopted those machine for their purposes.
Amazing how a set of failed products spawned a massive industry *and* cultural movement.
Can you feel it?
- William Gibson
I've had them for more than 20 years, I've dragged them through subways and left them on their side, stored them in poor conditions, dropped them down flights of stairs, shipped them internationally and back.
worst thing that happened? tonearm bearing went out of whack, 40 bucks to fix.
vestax pdx3000? plastic case and bad feet. Gemini? Get anything else.
Features? Features on a turntable is just something that will break. like the light on a tec 12.
DJing with vinyl is fun as hell, gets me away from my screens, let’s me find music in a really satisfying and interesting way AND takes me to shops where i talk to people and learn things from them. The digging is maybe the best quality — walk into a place with a limited set of music, guide your search based on categories, album art, personnel listed in the sleeve etc. Digital provides almost none of that; digital “digging” tends to get boring and overwhelming, both.
Old man stuff, probably, but I do think there will always be some ppl tuned to wax. As soon as you want something you can’t find digitally you have to anyway, and from there it’s a slippery slope.
Controller - laptop setups are common for house parties, and for bars and events that keep the same dj all night, but less common in clubs where the CDj’s with USB sticks make it easy to switch over. A CDj needs a DJ mixer, to which you can also hook up a record player, so mixing both is not too hard.
Personally I find vinyl a bit daft for new music since it’s all made on computers anyway! For older music it makes a lot of sense though, much of it never made it to digital.
I recommend a small DJ controller. It has everything included. You don't need all the fancy features to learn the basics. As long as he eventually learns to avoid the sync button, he'll be able to transfer the skills to most digital setups with ease.
Vinyl is different, and there's really no emulating it. If he can mix without syncing or visual cues (such as the transient indicator on most digital setup, where you can match the peaks of the track) and do it entirely by ear, that gets him most of the way to vinyl mixing.
The other half of vinyl mixing is actually the vinyl aspect. Drifting the tracks is different than you'd do it on CDJs, and it's different if you're on a belt driven turntable (which you shouldn't use for DJing anyway) or direct drive. That needs a bit of practice regardless of actual mixing skill.
But the core concepts are the same. As long as it has the faders, the low/mid/high knobs and gain, he can learn most of what he needs.
I started on a single Stanton CDJ, a cheap Behringer mixer, and Virtual DJ on the other "deck" that I pirated. I'd mix a track in, mix out the previous one, then transfer the track to the other deck and mix again. All of the actual adjustments were solely on the CDJ. It taught me enough to really warrant a real second deck later on.
I've gone on to play clubs in several countries, if that matters. Learning the basics can be done on even the most budget of setups (in fact, you might even be better off).
Hope that helps!
And it's important to add...learning to mix is actually the easy part. As someone who has gigged internationally you understand that song selection, reading the room, and working the crowd are the hard part. That 6th Sense is the real skill.
The S2 or S4 are both great controllers at entry level price. They aren't standalone, so you will also need a Laptop.
Numark mixers are OK, however the cheaper entry level mixers are basically midi controllers and do not include a headphone output for queing songs.
Vinyl is great, but also quite expensive and hard to learn. Best to learn on a digital system first.
As the other poster said, I bought myself a Native Instuments S2 and couldn't be happier for the price, minimalist but with a great build quality and you get the Traktor Pro 3 software included in the price.
You can still go digital too with a DVS system like Serato