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lmbo calrissian posted:Am I going to slowly pick up on "what a speaker can do" aka learn about sound as I learn DJing and see different equipment or should I be starting to read something Audio engineering by John Eargle and Chris Foreman was the required text at USC when I took the class (taught by an ex JBL principle engineer). It’s also a book printed by JBL so there’s that. It’s the only book I’ve read so others may have a better suggestion
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Apr 25, 2018 15:05
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Sound Reinforcement Handbook by Gary Davis and Ralph Jones.
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May 1, 2018 21:33
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Is there a recommended digital download store for hip-hop and R&B? Preferably one that runs the gamut from new releases to classics.
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May 16, 2018 15:50
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terre packet posted:Is there a recommended digital download store for hip-hop and R&B? Preferably one that runs the gamut from new releases to classics. I use Amazon
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May 16, 2018 16:42
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Use a record pool. BPM Supreme and Clubkillers will have all of the new and older stuff.
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May 22, 2018 08:22
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I just sold my Traktor S2 to a buddy and picked up a second-hand Traktor Kontrol Z2 because I wanted a mixer that I could use with my turntables. For the outputs, it has the following: Main L/R RCA Outs L/R XLR Outs Booth 1/4" Line Outs (I think?) For recording samples and/or scratching from my turntable, is one a better option for connecting the mixer to my audio interface?
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May 23, 2018 23:18
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MrSargent posted:I just sold my Traktor S2 to a buddy and picked up a second-hand Traktor Kontrol Z2 because I wanted a mixer that I could use with my turntables. For the outputs, it has the following: The XLR outs are going to be the best since those would be balanced. If the monitor outs are balanced as well then I think those would be just as good? I'm curious why you wouldn't just use the soundcard built into the Z2, though.
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May 23, 2018 23:27
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skull mask mcgee posted:The XLR outs are going to be the best since those would be balanced. If the monitor outs are balanced as well then I think those would be just as good? I have all of my gear routed through my Scarlett 18i8 and it just kept it organized. I might be mistaken, but I think if I wanted to record in Ableton using the Z2's soundcard I would have to toggle between the Z2 and the 18i8 as my Audio Device.
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May 23, 2018 23:39
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how much should I expect to get for a used (but still working great) technics pair these days
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May 24, 2018 01:16
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MrSargent posted:I have all of my gear routed through my Scarlett 18i8 and it just kept it organized. I might be mistaken, but I think if I wanted to record in Ableton using the Z2's soundcard I would have to toggle between the Z2 and the 18i8 as my Audio Device. If you're on a Mac you can create an aggregate device using the built-in Audio MIDI Setup utility so you can have the inputs from multiple physical devices appear as one soundcard to Ableton. No idea if Windows has a way to do something similar. I honestly doubt you would notice a quality difference between using the soundcard and just running it into your interface. One benefit from a direct connection if the Z2's soundcard supports it would be the ability to record both channels on the mixer separately in Ableton. I've done this a couple times using my DS1 when making some more "constructed" mixes where I wanted to be able to do some more post-processing on each channel.
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May 24, 2018 01:31
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skull mask mcgee posted:If you're on a Mac you can create an aggregate device using the built-in Audio MIDI Setup utility so you can have the inputs from multiple physical devices appear as one soundcard to Ableton. No idea if Windows has a way to do something similar. I honestly doubt you would notice a quality difference between using the soundcard and just running it into your interface. One benefit from a direct connection if the Z2's soundcard supports it would be the ability to record both channels on the mixer separately in Ableton. I've done this a couple times using my DS1 when making some more "constructed" mixes where I wanted to be able to do some more post-processing on each channel. Unfortunately I am on Windows and I haven't found a way to emulate what a Mac can do in terms of grouping multiple devices into one soundcard. At this point, I don't think I will need the ability to record the A & B channel separately but it's nice to know the option is available if needed. I can always switch the Audio Device over to the Z2 if I really need to split them. Thanks a lot for the help!
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May 24, 2018 01:52
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I'm having an issue with Rekordbox that's becoming a major pain in the rear end. I do a lot of copying of files and playlists between RB, Traktor and iTunes, to facilitate quick access whether I'm DJing with my laptop, CDJs, or putting music on my phone. The process I use is a bit convoluted (I think I've laid it all out ITT before) but it works perfectly fine - the gist of it is that everything is based on the iTunes folder hierarchy (Artist/Album/Track) and all other software is referencing those file paths so I don't end up wasting space with multiple copies of songs. Once cues and other metadata are edited in Traktor, it's all run through RekordBuddy and the playlists are manually copied into Rekordbox. Like I said, this works fine, ensuring consistency of file structure and preventing unnecessary duplicate files. But just today I opened up Rekordbox to find about 240 songs missing. These tracks were not missing last night when I was organizing them into playlists across Traktor and Rekordbox. The problem only seemed to occur when I created a handful of playlists in iTunes (to put music on my phone). It seems to be random - not local to one or two playlists, just a handful of songs from different lists. The files are exactly where they're supposed to be, even the 'missing' filepath in Rekordbox shows identical to the actual file location. Any ideas why RB is doing this? Or if there might be a way to batch relocate these files, to avoid the tedium of manually pointing it at each one of 240 tracks?
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May 27, 2018 22:39
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I'm djing a high school graduation party this weekend.
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May 28, 2018 23:25
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OK what is the best way for me to get radio-safe versions of top-40 songs? This is a one-time thing so I do not want to subscribe to anything. "She just bought a new rear end but has the same boobs"
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May 29, 2018 17:14
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Mister Speaker posted:I'm having an issue with Rekordbox that's becoming a major pain in the rear end. I do a lot of copying of files and playlists between RB, Traktor and iTunes, to facilitate quick access whether I'm DJing with my laptop, CDJs, or putting music on my phone. The process I use is a bit convoluted (I think I've laid it all out ITT before) but it works perfectly fine - the gist of it is that everything is based on the iTunes folder hierarchy (Artist/Album/Track) and all other software is referencing those file paths so I don't end up wasting space with multiple copies of songs. Once cues and other metadata are edited in Traktor, it's all run through RekordBuddy and the playlists are manually copied into Rekordbox. Like I said, this works fine, ensuring consistency of file structure and preventing unnecessary duplicate files. I would reach out to the Rekord Buddy dude about this. He may be able to help better than the Pioneer support. NevergirlsOFFICIAL posted:OK what is the best way for me to get radio-safe versions of top-40 songs? This is a one-time thing so I do not want to subscribe to anything. iTunes but they won't be DJ versions, or just join a record pool anyway.
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May 29, 2018 17:22
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A record pool is the best because of having to spend $1 for each song you can spend $30-40 and download however many songs you need for that month and then just cancel the subscription after that.
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May 29, 2018 18:27
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Seconding the record pool. Sign up for one month, download everything you could possibly need, and cancel it. Most record pools have Clean versions or Radio Edits of all of the top-40 stuff.
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May 29, 2018 18:39
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yeah this was the way to go good job goons bpm supreme owns
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May 29, 2018 19:11
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how is this even legal lol
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May 29, 2018 19:11
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It's a grey area. Years ago (pre-Serato), the idea was that labels would send out their records to DJs as a promotional tool in order to get their music on the radio and played out in clubs. That's kind of still the case.
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May 29, 2018 19:52
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keevo posted:It's a grey area. Years ago (pre-Serato), the idea was that labels would send out their records to DJs as a promotional tool in order to get their music on the radio and played out in clubs. That's kind of still the case. yes I remember when I worked at college radio we'd get advance copies on 12" and CD and we'd rip and  them all day on DC++ it was great.this also explains why FM radio sounds like MP3s these days, it's all from here.
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May 29, 2018 22:36
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NevergirlsOFFICIAL posted:yes I remember when I worked at college radio we'd get advance copies on 12" and CD and we'd rip and FM radio rolls off at like 15000khz. Even in ideal conditions you aren’t going to be able to tell the difference between a cd and an mp3 CDs are still pretty big for promos. Idk about top 40 but I can name like 5 smaller promotions companies that still send out CDs to radio stations. Even Ninja Tune does, or at least were a couple years ago.
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May 29, 2018 22:54
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skull mask mcgee posted:FM radio rolls off at like 15000khz. Even in ideal conditions you aren’t going to be able to tell the difference between a cd and an mp3 CDs are cheap as poo poo to make and I bet sending something physical gets a lot more attention than being Email #498732322 with attachments.
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May 29, 2018 23:34
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MrSargent posted:CDs are cheap as poo poo to make and I bet sending something physical gets a lot more attention than being Email #498732322 with attachments. That’s exactly what it is. Even when you’re keeping up with emails it’s easier to deal with CDs than a bunch of different download portals and such.
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May 29, 2018 23:51
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skull mask mcgee posted:CDs are still pretty big for promos. Idk about top 40 but I can name like 5 smaller promotions companies that still send out CDs to radio stations. There's a really good bit on this topic in a new episode of Atlanta. TheWevel posted:I would reach out to the Rekord Buddy dude about this. He may be able to help better than the Pioneer support. It's definitely not a RekordBuddy issue. I've moved tens of thousands of tracks from Traktor to Rekordbox using RekordBuddy and any problems I've had turned out to be caused by something else. Since I'm on the topic, I can't recommend RB enough - their support guys are clutch, last time I thought I was having an issue with their product they diligently spent several days troubleshooting with me via email, and we found it it was something dumb on Traktor's end (it kept wanting to re-analyze tracks; turning on analysis lock after correcting the beatgrid solved it). If you want to make the move to Rekordbox for better CDJ integration, RB is easily worth the cost. Anyway, near as I can tell, this issue _must_ have something to to with iTunes... since it only started happening when I decided to go backwards and copy some subgenre playlists back into iTunes, in an effort to keep my phone's music more organized for transit, work and general aux cord fuckery. Even though adding the tracks to new iTunes plists wasn't actually moving or copying any data, somehow it's broken the filepath in both Traktor and Rekordbox. Before I left the house today I had Traktor scan and relocate the ~240 'missing' tracks, no problems there. Rekordbox might be a bit more of a manual job... whatever. I've learned not to do that in the future, I'll just deal with my phone being a bit of a mess.
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May 30, 2018 04:57
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Hi all. I want to get into DJing, more as a hobby than anything. I've read the OP but I think it assumes a lot of previous knowledge. Can any of you point me to a good tutorial/guide on how to start from near 0 knowledge on the matter? Any good youtube tutorials? Also, should I buy a cheap controller to start, or should I wait and practice with software tools before? Thanks in advance, fellow goons.
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Jun 1, 2018 12:45
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Ellaskins is a great YouTube channel with a load of videos that helped me as a beginner. You could play around in software but it's nothing like the real thing - I'd look around for a cheap Pioneer DDJ-SB2.
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Jun 1, 2018 15:49
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some guy i guess posted:Ellaskins is a great YouTube channel with a load of videos that helped me as a beginner. You could play around in software but it's nothing like the real thing - I'd look around for a cheap Pioneer DDJ-SB2. Thanks for the advice. I'm probably buying a used Hercules Air+ S Series, I found a good deal for 80€ including headphones. Is that OK, it's too little, or it's overkill?
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Jun 1, 2018 17:55
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Super86 posted:Thanks for the advice. I'm probably buying a used Hercules Air+ S Series, I found a good deal for 80€ including headphones. Is that OK, it's too little, or it's overkill? Just took a look at it and the layout of that controller is unlike anything I have ever seen and I have never heard of the software that it comes with. Honestly, I would not spend $100 on this thing, because it seems so much different than the industry standards at this point. Definitely would recommend that you look at a used Pioneer DDJ-SB2 like "some guy i guess" mentioned because the layout is way closer to a standard layout and the software it comes with is used everywhere and has good support.
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Jun 1, 2018 18:55
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Super86 posted:Thanks for the advice. I'm probably buying a used Hercules Air+ S Series, I found a good deal for 80€ including headphones. Is that OK, it's too little, or it's overkill? Even my bottom-tier Numark Mixtrack had Traktor LE. The industry standard only consists of a few packages - Traktor, Rekordbox, Serato. I understand that you don't want to commit yourself to something you don't know anything about; that's fine, and buying secondhand saves you the pain of depreciation. Do however get something that at least supports any of those three. Why do you do this? - they'll have most of the tutorials and articles. if you're ever like "hey, can I do X with..." someone probably tried that already. - they have (generally) good support - they're stable - they have all kinds of stuff in 'm to help you To me the topicstart doesn't really assume a lot of previous knowledge except for perhaps "what do all the parts do". That's not that hard. An audio interface is a soundcard for music production. For DJing, you generally have two signals; one going to the sound system ("main" or "house"), and the other going to your headphones ("monitor") so that you can hear what you're doing. A controller gives you a tangible way to change the position of the playhead. The way you do it with cassettes is too slow - i.e. press the fwd/rewind buttons and wait. The way you do it with vinyl is hard to find. The way you do it with CDs - hold a button and wait until it's jumped - is also too slow. A song will have a certain structure and parts will be louder than others - like the chorus. The software visualizes the song - louder volumes will have brighter colours and higher amplitudes in the waveforms. The software additionally acts as turntables; songs can be sped up and slowed down. The software also acts as a mixer which means it's summing the signals of both turntables and each signal can be attenuated. So, it may be that you have Song 1 and Song 2, and both have a similar-ish tempo, and you're trying to mix those. Howewver, you don't get the hang of it rightaway so you get the kickdrums sounding like a gallop of a horse. It would be good for you to hear that, because you can then correct it; meanwhile the audience is still just listening to Song 1 while you are frantically trying to come up with a solution to make it stop going BADUM BADUM.. BADUM..BADUM. Even without fancy audio interface or controller, you can still mix songs. The hands-on just makes it faster - provided that you develop the muscle memory for it. Laserjet 4P fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Jun 2, 2018 |
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Jun 1, 2018 23:16
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I really liked your galloping horse description and am totally stealing that.
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Jun 1, 2018 23:27
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'Boots in a dryer.'
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Jun 2, 2018 06:02
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Super86 posted:Hi all. As mentioned, ellaskins on youtube is good. He's clearly from that era that did too many drugs at raves but he's a solid dude and is pretty good at teaching. Otherwise, this is a classic book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-DJ-Properly-Science-Playing/dp/0593058119 It's not the most up to date but the essentials are essentials no matter what kit you're using, poo poo like song structure etc is all important to know about otherwise you're just some goon clanging one track into another (though some 'pro DJs' make a living off doing this). If you're looking at buying a controller then consider a second hand Pioneer DDJ-SB as at the very least if you do eventually upgrade, it'll be to things with a fairly standard layout that you're already used to along with a decent bit of software. I've found cheap controllers to be more faff than they're worth and anything other than the trio of Serato, Rekordbox and Traktor to be fairly poo poo to use (though I'd argue Traktor straddles the line between decent and bollocks). Where do you live? Do you know any DJs? Those I know relish an opportunity to show a new person how to play with music. Also can you keep time and count to 8? If so, hooray, you're probably already better than a lot of bedroom DJs...
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Jun 4, 2018 15:10
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Thanks for all the advice, guys! Really helpful! Unfortunately I bought the Hercules Air+ S before reading all your comments. However the DDJ-SB2 it's still too expensive for me (I'm a cheap rear end motherfucker) at least until I really know I like the hobby and decide to commit to it. Most of you recommend Traktor, etc. Is Mixxx (freeware) a valid alternative? I wouldn't like to invest in software just yet until I know the basics and I have a little experience. (Same as before). Olympic Mathlete posted:As mentioned, ellaskins on youtube is good. He's clearly from that era that did too many drugs at raves but he's a solid dude and is pretty good at teaching. Otherwise, this is a classic book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-DJ-Properly-Science-Playing/dp/0593058119 I'm buying that book, it looks good and apparently it has what I need. I live in Spain. I don't know any DJs around me yet. I can count to 8, however!
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Jun 4, 2018 21:28
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Super86 posted:Most of you recommend Traktor, etc. Is Mixxx (freeware) a valid alternative? So before I find out what Mixxx is: Nothing matters if you take your own rig (laptop, controller, audio interface, software) with you every time, because you're the only one who's going to operate it. The risk is then on the manufacturer's side; they may not have the features you want or need and they're not going to be included - or if the product isn't profitable, they're going to discontinue it eventually. Your investment is in learning how the software works and the playlists you build, plus the meta-information you store. Learning to work with different software is jarring; if you've memorized all hotkeys for one piece of software, it's not that easy to un-learn those, and picking up the new ones will take more effort. Playlists and meta-information are a different story. Playlists themselves are nothing spectacular; Winamp and iTunes can make them. You prepare a set with say, 30 songs. On your harddisk, they're just dumb files that don't know in what order they should be (and you can fake this by renaming files with a number in front and putting them in a directory so your OS always sorts them correctly - there's your playlist!). The DJ software will build an extra file that contains information that tells it in which order those files should be. Additionally, it might listen to what key and tempo the tracks are in, and store that in an internal database, the playlist, or the file itself. Besides that, you might've heard of people talking about "beatgridding" their tracks. This tells the DJ software when you hear a kick, or when a certain section of the song starts. The beauty of this is that in at least Traktor (I don't have experience with anything else, sorry) you can use these markers to trigger things; i.e. when a song passes a certain grid marker, the other song can start playing already. This takes away from the "live"-ness of everything, but can be a nice safety net; still, you have to watch track volumes. There is a lot of discussion possible about the craft, the art and the role of a DJ, and whether something should be done or not. I'm personally pretty cynical about this, but I don't let that take away from the fact that a good set can make a fantastic experience and that it's enjoyable if you can put some cleverness into it. First, there's the tempo grid. In a world where every drummer has a clicktrack (or is a computer), you only have to set it once to be correct. However, with some tracks, this may not be the case. Think of it like using a 3-meter tape measure to map out distances of kilometers; the small errors in measurement accumulate over time, which means that you sometimes have to re-set the tempo grid. For mixing this does not have to be a problem, because it's always the other track that syncs to that track's tempo grid. So, if a track wobbles between 120 and 124 bpm, just make sure to synchronize and crossfade where the tempo grid is stable and on the beat. A more radical alternative is to import the track in say, Ableton Live, and then "force" all the drums to the correct grid there, but this is usually not preferable in terms of quality. So there's your "investment". Learning one of the "mainstream" software choices means that all that information may be portable; i.e. if Traktor folds, the chances are bigger that someone's going to write a Traktor to Serato converter than that no-name software folds. With this kind of software it's like with DAWs - all manufacturers pretty much hate eachother and uneasily exist next to eachother because they know that you'll only need one of those pieces of software, and it's a zero-sum game. At most they'll offer a tool to lock you into their own walled garden. It's a sheer miracle that we even got standards like MIDI or VST (and that's even a miracle by itself; there's also DirectX, TDM, RTAS, AAX and AU but luckily the first three are dead or dying!). So - don't count on openness for playlists, the best you can hope for is something like http://djtechtools.com/2017/05/14/dj-conversion-utility-1-3-converts-traktor-rekordbox-playlists-itunes/ So, back over to Mixxx again: realize what you're getting into, and expect that the features may not be as polished or intelligent as the mainstream choices. On the other hand, I personally haven't seen much innovation happening there either; it'd be nice if you could use streaming as an option, but the Lovecraftian nightmare that is region locking and royalties combined with the fact that audio interfaces don't play nice with WiFi kinda prevents this. Oh well. I've heard great mixes being made with an antique version of Mixmeister (not realtime AFAIK though) Prepare, know your tools, take care of your ears, have fun, have a good taste in music, and if you're performing, learn to read the crowd and give 'm what they want. All of that is more important than anything else. Laserjet 4P fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Jun 10, 2018 |
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Jun 5, 2018 10:22
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I haven't used Mixxx but it's reputed to be fine. VirtualDJ is also free to try. Be aware that all the software operates a bit differently, the principles will be fine but if you change you'll have to get used to a new workflow. The reason people don't recommend manufacturers like Hercules or Gemini is that the hardware isn't considered reliable. It won't be a problem for you dicking around in your bedroom because if it dies, oh well. I'd be afraid to use it out though.
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Jun 5, 2018 10:48
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Super86 posted:Thanks for all the advice, guys! Really helpful! Unfortunately I bought the Hercules Air+ S before reading all your comments. However the DDJ-SB2 it's still too expensive for me (I'm a cheap rear end motherfucker) at least until I really know I like the hobby and decide to commit to it. Check that Mixxx has a mapping for your controller or has clear enough descriptions for you to be able to set it up from scratch.
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Jun 5, 2018 12:08
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guppy posted:The reason people don't recommend manufacturers like Hercules or Gemini is that the hardware isn't considered reliable. It won't be a problem for you dicking around in your bedroom because if it dies, oh well. I'd be afraid to use it out though. That and the cheaper stuff doesn't have outputs for stuff like booth monitors so you essentially gently caress yourself into having to mix in your headphones all night. I've done it, I didn't enjoy it but I've done it.
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Jun 6, 2018 17:15
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Thanks everybody for your answers. I'll follow your advice about hinking long term and start using Mixxx instead of the software that comes with the controller that apparently nobody knows (DJUCED 40). At the moment I'm in the "fooling in your bedroom" phase, but I'm enjoying it and might go further soon.
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Jun 7, 2018 21:10
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Super86 posted:Thanks everybody for your answers. If you like it, get good on the hercules controller and eventually upgrade to something cheaper but more recognizable like a DDJ-RB. It's absolute crap as a brand/controller, but you gotta start somewhere, and honestly if you are a good DJ you can mix on anything. All you really need is a way to play and mix two songs, and a way to output the sound, that's the basis of anything DJ'ing. I've seen guys who normally use high end CDJ's hop on a $150 controller and kill it.
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Jun 8, 2018 15:23
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