The Official Beginners DJing Thread

A recent and affordable set up I've seen recently:

The Oxygen
http://www.synthtopia.com/synth_review/MAudio-Oxygen8.html

Plus

MiniMoog V Software

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/minimoogv/intro.html

The combination together provides a nice set and sound.

Invest in some nice monitors and you should be golden.

As for your digital audio workstation (DAW) program needs go, it's really your choice/preference.
There everything from Ableton Live, to Cubase, Reason, Sony Acid Pro. and even Frooty Loops is great for recording and production.


Oh and prices are much better on ebay.
 
ableton live is the best if u want to use software you can also produce music aswell as mix with ableton... its wat most laptop djs use.
 
midi is short for musical instrument data interface, basically a way to control a on-computer synth or instrument with a physical one, usually a keyboard (although i have seen midi for guitars, horns, you name it). reason and acid are both programs that allow you to import various synthesizers and drum machines (all digital) and organize them into coherent songs, since they will do all the beat matching of individual tracks for you and also allow you to use effects and onboard mixers
 
i wouldnt suggest using reason or acid no one really uses those anymore and you cant use external vsts with it rly without rewiring.
 
ChemicalSmiles said:
toa$t, with the purchase of traktor pro how much is the ddm-4000 with that.
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no idea what traktor goes for these days. It was on sale for about $275 recently for the audio 8 incl software. you can probably get it used for somewhere around there. You don't need the audio 8 for the ddm 4000 though, since you will probably want to use the mixer as a midi controller and run your sound card into the club mixer (or directly into your amp/speakers). You really just need a basic midi audio interface that has two rca out (i.e. one red, one white), traktor software, and the ddm 4000. total you can probably get it for $600.

of course, you won't have the option to manually beatmatch, but a) you will be playing at home, so who cares; b) you will be playing at a party where they will have CDJs that you can plug into; or c) who gives a shit about manually beatmatching.

the ddm 4000 is just a beast. look at all the buttons. now imagine being able to assign them all to whichever functions in traktor you choose. I usually run 3 decks of audio, plus the mic channel for efx bank 1, channel 4 for efx bank 2, the kill switches in the xfader section for play/stop/loop in/loop out, and the sampler bank for cue points.

Also, if you want to be able to do midi/audio and have an audio 8, you can pick which sections of the mixer are midi control and which are audio, so you can use the ddm-4000s built in efx on top of traktor's. basically, you have three audio channels like a regular mixer, and then assign the 4th channel to control midi efx in traktor, the xfader section used for stop/start etc, and the sampler section for cue points. that way you can also switch to vinyl or cds in the middle of your set and still use the same mixer.

it is a bit daunting to figure it all out at first, but it is so flexible that you can really make it do whatever you want.
 
We really need separate threads for DJing and producing...
seeemoresky said:
Hello. I enjoy music a lot and am interested in creating my own. I'm leaning toward the trance/house genre. I am influenced by deadmau5, above and beyond, armin van buuren, and old tiesto (before he started making thy video game sounding stuff). I would like to create music with similar sounds but obviously not exatly the same, I'd incorporate my own style. I'm assuming the correct instrument to go about doing this would be a synthesizer?
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No.

Synthesizers are heavily used in electronic music, but that is just one part of the picture. You wouldn't be able to create full songs if you just bought a keyboard. You need a drum track to accompany the melodies you make with the synth.

So, you need a DAW, first of all. That's a program which is used to make music. It records audio, lets you create musical parts, keeps track of all the different parts, lets you organize them into songs, and does other things like that. There are lots of them. Like FL Studio, Ableton Live, Logic, Reason, etc.

Most of them have their own synthesizers included. But VSTs (third party software add-ons for DAWs) and hardware synths (like MicroKorg) are usually better. The best of all, in my opinion, are real analog synths.

But that actually doesn't matter too much right now. Before you think about buying any synthesizers, you need to get a DAW. You won't be able to make much of anything without one.

Buy (or download) one of those, and start learning how to use it. Once you understand the basics of how they work, then you can think about getting a synth.
 
rmx said:
i wouldnt suggest using reason or acid no one really uses those anymore and you cant use external vsts with it rly without rewiring.
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TONS of people use Reason. And the included programs are good enough that you don't really need VSTs. I've heard lots of great songs that were made with Reason only.
 
okay guys.... thanks for all the advice (even though it was not my post). basically here is my ?: Ihave a regular macbook and want to start dj'ing. I can afford to spend around 1000 dollars total so what would you recommend? also would you recommend buying a program to start off with? if so whcih one ? any help is greatly appreciated ! thnks
 
^ Traktor and the hardware for it is 50% off right now. I'd get that.

(Thank toa$t for that tip, not me.)
 
By the way you'll also need a decent set of speakers and/or headphones if you don't already have them. iPod headphones won't do.
 
don't spend more than $50 on headphones. I have broken 3 pairs of $150+ headphones, with the 4th about to go. I am not making that mistake again.
 
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