One day I will gift myself a pair of these, proper porno decor
DJ setups/Mixer porn/New toys thread...
Dubman …used is always a bit of a risk with speakers. Not owned them, but the QAcoustics passive bookshelfs get amazing reviews, apparently sound amazing and the walnut ones look like much more expensive speakers than they are… in your budget too. I think Richer Sounds carry them if you have one anywhere near you.
mjh …massively depends on your budget, but if you aren’t arsed about them being ‘studio’ speakers, I’d give the active KEFs a listen, and I’d be tempted to give the Klipsch ‘The Sevens/Nines’ a go, solid reviews and look amazing IMO
6 days later
/wife’s voice: ……
303abuser …amazing bit of kit, probs overkill for DJ’ing use tho. Have the same issue with the Zen Delay, sounds incredible but really tricky to tame in a live setting.
The UA LEfx has ¼” TRS INSERT sockets, plus balanced inputs/outputs on XLR and external power, as well as BPM detection, should work (& sound) great with the Isonoe IMO
Since I mentioned money pits, I shouldn’t have watched this.
10 days later
Got myself a second hand Denon sc live 4 this weekend. Things have moved a lot since my previous traktor days it would seem. Linked it to SoundCloud so far and impressed I have immediate access to my playlists etc but cue points on first beats are hit and miss and I have no idea what I’m doing….yet. It’s the perfect unit to just noodle on immediately and the built in speakers are surprisingly punchy. Does anyone use Denon engine DJ want to give me a few starters for ten?
One major thing I need to understand is how I can get back to first beat as hitting cue seems to mark a cue point wherever you are in the track which is not what I want to do at all.
Millsy on Pioneer, if the track is paused and you hit cue, it marks your cue point there. It snaps back to that cue point if you hit cue whilst the track is playing
Along_the_Wire on Pioneer, if the track is paused and you hit cue, it marks your cue point there. It snaps back to that cue point if you hit cue whilst the track is playing
…yeah, try this. Cue manually with the platter then hit cue, see if it works then.
Have you analysed all your tracks in Engine? The default cue point should be set there I imagine
Unbroken1 I’ve only tried SoundCloud so far. Need to get an SSD, format it to exFAT and then sort my music collection out. I reckon engine will analyse those tracks with no problem, it’s probably a streaming service thing. I’m also hoping the metadata on the tracks from traktor will carry across but that might be wishful thinking. The thought of having to beatgrid stuff manually again with all my cue points etc gives me chills.
- Edited
On Denon / pioneer you can edit the grids either on the software or on the deck.
When you first import a new track in future you should ideally do some / all of these things if you want to be organised
- Rate the Rating out of 5. For energy (1 star being a Beatless intro, 5 stars razing the roof / peak energy)
- Put it in the playlist(s) which apply. Name the playlists whatever works for your brain - there are no right answers
- Write any comments for the keywords that would help you find this in a search later (imagining at some point you have over 5000 tracks). On pioneer instead of writing it you can use TAGS on rekordbox and press FILTER on CDJs to tick which tags you want to see. Again name these whatever works for your brain but try to stick to the same 5 or 10 ish words. Ie. Some of mine are Peak. Intelligent intro. Ethereal. Tribal Percussion. Sentimental. Anthemic. Closing.
- Edit the beat grid either in Engine, or rekordbox.
- If you miss step 4 you can do this on the equipment. I’m sure Denon had a physical button for Beat Grid that you used either with the scrolling menu knob to move the grid, or with the jogwheel itself
- Remember if you edit something on a drive later, to re sync it to your engine / rekordbox so all of your improvements are stored and not overwritten
- Drop hot cue B on the first main part where it peaks (So when DJing and listening in headphones looking for next track you can tell in 2 seconds whether this will be right vibe / direction / whether the key clashes or works well). Use A hot cue in rare cases for “actual first beat” if beats do not appear for a long time.
Hope some of that helps.
NasserAlazzawi brilliant tips mate, thank you. I’ll do all that. Yeah denon has a manual grid edit with anchor points in engine from the unit itself which is really handy as I can use the jogs instead of having to point and click on a laptop.
Has anyone on here had any experience using an Akai MPC One? If so, any cop?
Wasily …unique workflow with MPC’s and those that love ’em really love ’em. Not so much house/techno-types, always seem to have been more associated with hip hop/R&B. Famous for their ‘swing’ that is replicated in loads of DAW’s that have various MPC-based swing settings.
This is the latest one and I’ve no doubt will be brilliant… guess it really depends if you wanna go all-in on learning it properly. My issue with kit like this is, for me it would never fully replace my DAW, so I’d rather spend my time going much deeper on that than stopping to learn something new.
. I was also thinking of it being used more like - Edited
The problem with these things is you really need to dedicate time learning the workflow, which is often compromised by a limited amount of buttons resulting in features being hidden under sub menus/shift buttons.
Time is better spent just learning your chosen DAW which exposes the same stuff with a mouse and keyboard and more screen real estate.
First impressions of Engine DJ desktop have been less than positive. Traktor is far more intuitive to use in nearly every aspect. Even the waveforms are a step back from traktor imho. I’ll keep persevering as it’s learning a new software, but stuff like not being able to immediately change the genre/title of a track with a simple double click. Wtf? I want to try stems out too but the basics so far have put me off even trying. The sc live 4 controller is great though, shame about the software.
2 months later
- Edited
Picked up some CDJ3000s and a DJM900 from a mate this morning for the gig on Saturday - fuck me, that’s a nice bit of kit. What a joy to play in they are.
I’ve been looking at buying a XZ controller. Currently fighting the urge to max out a CC on these, instead.
mjh I wouldn’t - I like the kit, but look at the AZ - the sound is vastly different with the DJM900 versus the XZ would be my main issue. Assuming the soundcard in the AZ is solid
Along_the_Wire …nice, even better with a proper mixer 
There is a subtle difference (when mixing) but it didn’t seem vast to me.
They did improve it with firmware 1.22 though so it running old firmware there was a more pronounced difference. It was similar to 900nxs1 but it was 900nxs2 I noticed the difference and pioneer themselves said XZ most closely resembles 900nxs1 quality
I wouldn’t let it put anyone off especially for home use or small / room 2 gigs etc.
Along_the_Wire CDJ3000
Lovely arent they.
NasserAlazzawi More the CDJ than the mixer - you’re right about similarity to the XZ
Denon & Euphonia is heavenly
NasserAlazzawi wait until you get on a proper rotary mixer Nass 
The 3000s were lovely , but you are looking at £5k for a pair . We also used a NXS2 and to be fair the difference between a circa £7k system vs my £1500 RX3 was minimal from a workflow perspective . All effects and screens/look and feel were pretty identical . Suppose that’s the beauty of Pioneer products . Flipping between hardware isn’t a massive pain .
IndustryStandard i second this. Having played on XDJ1000MK2, CDJ2000NSX2 and CDJ3000 in the last month Idon’t think the gap between them all is that massive enough to warrant the extra money unless you’ve got a money tree in your garden.
In regards to the mixer, again as much as I’ve enjoyed playing on a DJM900 for the past couple of months, I much prefer the feel to my Xone:43
…it’s all about feel with mixers IMO, good to know your way around Pioneers because of their ubiquitous presence in venues (assuming your ultimate aim here is to ‘play out’ of course!).
Honestly think that on the kind of soundsystems most people have access to, sound quality is much less of a significant issue these days, 95% of users are fully digital and new generation Pioneers seem to have eradicated a lot of the issues that the older mixers had.
For me there’s definitely a compromise in build quality though, even the Euphonia (AlphaTheta, I know!) feels a little shonky on that front, the main pots/ISO’s feel fairly solid, but the EQ’s/FX switches/knobs could literally be from any other Pio mixer/controller- not what I’d expect on a £3.5K bit of kit, and it’s actually a mixer that I quite like based on its features etc.
- Edited
Unbroken1 question for you. I know you have a penchant for boutique rotary mixers, but why do you think it is that pretty much every DJ (Tenaglia, S&D, Cox, Oakenfold, whoever) who has ever played on Urei/Bozak/other rotary on some of the (quoted) best soundsystems ever assembled (Twilo, Stereo, MoS, Home, Cream etc) never play on them by choice now?
I keep hearing about how good these things sounded, but literally no one is using them now to my knowledge and they’ve just become expensive collectors items.
Just wondering your thoughts as to why this could be!
ScottBailey to follow up, my guess would be parts and labour, or lack of these days? Genuinely curious.