As far as competitive tables go, I personally use the Numark TT1's(which have been replaced by the TT2's) and paid 375 for them. This is about the standard price for tables of any quality. This top end tables from Stanton, Vestax, Gemini, and Numark are all good, but you need to look at the individual features that they have and decide what you want. For example +/-10 instead of the standard 8, reverse platter, digital pitch etc. Check out
www.pssl.com or
www.123dj.com for a good listing of these tables.
Now as far as what constitutes a good mix, here's my take on the subject. I should start of by saying that I spin jungle, which definitely influences my view of spinning, but I also spin house, trance, and breaks on the side. Each genre has qualities that can really help you in whatever style you spin, and I have to say that trance helped my ability to spin jungle significantly. So, here's my input:
Not all styles support the same types of transitions, and this is very important. For example, trance tends to support long, flowing transitions while jungle tends to support shorter, more dynamic mixes(hard house tends to follow this also). One thing that you should always keep in mind is whether or not the tracks will conflict with eachother. If two tracks are very heavily layered, and the layers begin to develop quickly a long mix would be a bad idea since the mix will begin to sound "busy". This is where phrasing begins to become important. I personally don't count 32 measure stanzas because this doesn't support all genres. I always count stanzas as 8 measures(props to Kurve on that one) which will never do you wrong. Plus I personally think it's alot easier to keep track of just going up to 8 instead of 32. The way this works, is if you start an incoming track in phase with the outgoing track the new samples will start in the incoming track at the same time that samples drop off in the outgoing track. This keeps your mixes natural sounding. Utilizing this technique with the ability to read vinyl will allow you to time your mixes perfectly(read, you can make things happen in a mix when you want them to). So what does this mean? If you look at your records, you'll notice that the pattern in the vinyl is much tighter when there's more happening in the music. A good example of this is look at the difference in what it looks like around a break, and what it looks like when the beat drops in. Look at the vinyl at the end of your outgoing track, and at the beginning of your incoming track. Using this, you can pretty accurately judge when to start bringing in the next track, so that there's never a lull in your mixes, and also there's never an overly busy point.
Another part of a mix that should not be overlooked is balancing the EQ of the two tracks. You want the beats of the tracks to be fairly similar, otherwise the mix will sound very imbalanced. It never sounds good when a quieter beat is suddenly overtaken by a very strong beat on the next track, or vice versa.
As for beatmatching, all I can say is it will come with time. But just remember, DJing is more about playing good records, and having a good time than anything else. Good luck
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Fuck PLUR! It's all about hardcore assfucking!--The stuck-up 8ups
Just remember, I can delete you--Spencer