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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: CDjs or turntables? - Page: 1

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Thinking about getting rid of my ns7 and switching to some CDj 850s or technic 1200s... Does anyway have any opinion on wheather CDjs are better than tables... Or vice versa? Of course I want to run timecode with whatever I get.
 
Posted Mon 09 Apr 12 @ 1:10 pm
With the CDJ850s there is no need for time code as they are HID and also have sound cards built in.
 
i would recomend cdjs. I have turntables and i like them but i think cdjs are easier to set up and maintain... no extra costs of needles and timecode vinyls and less wires to worry about setting up. plus u dont have to worry about people knocking and bumping the tables. if i had the option again i would go cdjs, especially one of the newer ones like the 850 or 900
 
Thanks for the insight, I still need to do some more research anyway, but I'm leaning
More towards cdjs. Also I have heard that tables can be a
Little cumbersome.
 
turntables: feels nice to touch but too heavy to move around
CDJs: easy to move around but feels like cheap plastic, YES EVEN ALL THE PIONEERS!!!!!
 
Psst! Psst! Hey, Ryan....the only people who care what you use, are other DJs......
 
Look at the Denon 3900's - actual vinyl feel on a CD deck. Might be the perfect fit for you.
 
If you're gonna be using software, why pay a fortune for a pair of CD players????

Surely buying CDJs is a waste of money if you're playing from Virtual DJ.....

For less than the price of just ONE CDJ you could get yourself an excellent controller/mixer combi.
 
groovindj wrote :
If you're gonna be using software, why pay a fortune for a pair of CD players????

Surely buying CDJs is a waste of money if you're playing from Virtual DJ.....

For less than the price of just ONE CDJ you could get yourself an excellent controller/mixer combi.



Agree! however scratching can have latency issues when it comes to a controller. i feel timecode is typically more responsive... but i havent seroisuly tested the newer HID contorllers either
 
I know what you're saying about time coding with CDJs, but I hate organizing CDs... Lol. This thread is really just to see what people out in the community are thinking. I'm still on the fence with what I want, but I'm sure I'll make up my mind soon.
 
apedrotte wrote :
Agree! however scratching can have latency issues when it comes to a controller. i feel timecode is typically more responsive... but i havent seroisuly tested the newer HID contorllers either


Are you basing that on the hercules in your profile? because with the registry tweek any of the newer controllers feel great to scratch with.
 
i myself use Denon DN-S3700's 95% of the time and Tech 12's 5%
I like the CDJ's as i have had issues with the laptop or forgot it and had to go with the USB stick back up
for me the 3700's are what i like most as they give more options

and any of the CDJ's will work Denon Pio (Input some name here)

Me i am a Denon man
 
A Cdj is a midi controller

And he didn't say he was bothered about what other people think he was asking for advice on two different types of equipment

I would have to say cdj, you have cd, USB, midi and proper had support allowing excellent midi control. That's a lot of features in a very small package.
 
Charlie Wilson wrote :
A Cdj is a midi controller


No - some CDJs can function as controllers as part of their feature set, but they're primarily CD players (hence the first two letters of 'CDJ'). You're paying extra for the CD player functionality, as well as the Pioneer name.

Timecode vinyl was developed as a workaround - a bodge job for DJs who didn't want to stop using turntables (old tech) but wanted the benefits of DJing from computer (new tech). It was a bridge between old and new.

This was back when controllers were few and far between.

Now we have thousands of controllers. Small, big, cheap, expensive, motorised, static, plastic, metal, USB, FireWire.....

I really don't see any need for the timecode workaround any more. Even for the specialist wiki wiki scratch guys.

My 2c
 
I totally agree with what groovindj said. Buying turntables is like a step backwards nowadays. Even buying CDJs is a step backwards IMHO. I have the Numark V7s which are essentially the the deck section of the NS7 with the decks chopped off. I'd highly recommend them, they are excellent MIDI controllers (unless you plan to use them with VDJ). You still have the vinyl feel but there is no latency, they are highly accurate, you have way more features, they're more mobile, and you don't have to worry about skipping or replacing timecode vinyl and needles. I like not being able to play CDs because now when I'm doing a gig and someone says "I have a CD, can you play it?" I point at my decks and say "These aren't CD players" (because I hate when people step to me with some crappy burnt CD they fetched from their car with some crappy song no one knows or would care to dance to lol).
 
I will cast my vote for CDJ's as well. Think about the following:

Middle of the night. Dancefloor is packed. You have the place just about whipped into a frenzy when all of a sudden the music comes to an abrupt halt. Your computer has crashed.

If your setup is a computer and a midi controller, what do you do? If a person is using a midi controller with built in sound card and mixer, then what? No computer, no music.

My particular setup is 2 Numark NDX400's and a Numark M3 mixer. The CDJ's I used have a usb jack for a thumb drive that I can load up with MP3's. I have one 16gig thumb drive in each CDJ at all times. Each one has a varied mix of current top hits. The Mixer has 2 channels and each channel has 2 inputs with a toggle switch above each channel fader to select between the inputs. Using a couple of splitter cables, I have the CDJ's running timecode through a Native Instruments Audio 8 as well as directly into the mixer. With the flip of a switch, I have 2 CDJ's and a mixer playing music directly from the CDJ's. I can also eject the timecode cd's and play regular music CD's as well.

So faced with the above situation, I hit one button to switch the CDJ from cd mode to USB thumb drive mode and I flip the switches on the mixer to change the inputs. In the amount of time it takes me to say something like, "Who's getting shitfaced tonight," I am playing music again. I even went so far as to record my sets then save those recordings as single tracks on the thumb drives. This can give me upwards of a half hour to troubleshoot the computer problem. Even better, when I do get things up and going again, I can switch one of the CDJ's back to the timecode while the other plays from the thumb drive and seamlessly switch back to computer.

It's not a matter of if things will go wrong, it's a matter of when. Being ready to handle situations smoothly makes for a much better reputation. A better reputation means more gigs. More gigs means more money.
 
The same can happen with any equipment. You use CD players and a mixer. What do you do if your mixer dies?

Anyone with experience of live performance knows to take a backup - regardless of what your playback source is.
 
djnutz wrote :
Middle of the night. Dancefloor is packed. You have the place just about whipped into a frenzy when all of a sudden the music comes to an abrupt halt. Your computer has crashed.


Not if you have a good quality laptop with a stable OS and DJ software that has been thoroughly tested. That's what I have.

Also, the Denon-MC-6000 I have is a hardware mixer so even if the very worst happens you can have an iPod plugged in to a spare line.

No need for CDJ decks or turntables in my opinion .... unless you want the "real DJ look", but of course people don't really care what gear the DJ has as long is the music is good!

Keith
 
You Buy gear based on what you feel more comfortable mixing on. I find it more comfortable to mix on CDjs and turntables than most midi decks Unless its a NS6, NS7. Any turntable or CDj can be hooked up to a laptop just like a Midi deck. Tell Jazzy jeff to mix on a DJ controller and he will say, Are you nuts.. LOL
 
CDJs are not the end-all-be-all of back ups if your computer fails, there's always having a second laptop. In fact I have a second identical Macbook which is an exact clone of my main Macbook which I bring to every gig. Also, I have the headphone out from my Macbook going directly into a line in on my DJ mixer so if my DJ software crashes I can switch over to an iTunes playlist in a heartbeat. And using iTunes as a backup is much better because it means I have my whole much collection available as opposed to having to resort to some wallet of emergency CDs with a limited selection.
 
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