Cusp Cusp

Should you want to eek more out of your system, you can get a relatively inexpensive (around $200…less, second-hand) Loudspeaker Management System (in addition to your chosen speakers) to gain more control of where your cross-over points are (keeping the sub-bass out of your mains, and vice-versa) helps the speakers give optimal performance (when adjusted correctly).

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Cusp Cusp.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by Cusp Cusp.

Look at what the currency requirement is for this project… under £200.

I’ve been playing on home stereos (for over a decade) that are less than 10 years old, and I’ve seen the quality of output vastly improve over that time. I’ve even played a party where all of the speakers were Bluetooth. As someone who plays house parties, I’ve also noticed that there’s typically one (maybe two) room(s) that needs to be louder than the rest, beyond that, you just want the music for ambient background. Home stereos excel in this area. I’ve picked up a nice Sony Home Stereo with some 8″ three-way self-crossover speakers for under $75 (and it’s still at the house I semi-frequently play), but availability varies over time and from town to town.

If Graham had say £500-750, I’d agree with you, and push toward a pair of used, low-end PA speakers like a pair of QSC K8s (which I know will flood a small bar with over 95 dBA of sound). Also, please refer to the article (on this site) in which I rated speakers.

House parties are supposed to be about the raw experience, so unless you have good speakers or you have friends with speakers you can borrow, this is a pretty inexpensive way to go.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Cusp Cusp.

You can get information regarding stems here: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/stems/

The Stems themselves will be available is MP3 files inside an M4A wrapper. I’m not liking this as much as I do the Dubseed method, but I presume Native Instruments has more money to throw at this than Dubseed does.

If you want to remix and/or use 7.1 Dolby, you’ll want to use the Dubseed approach.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Cusp Cusp.

You don’t need to associate with people who don’t value you. Some people think that you should pay them for the privilege of DJing because they are providing an audience. All I can say is learn the art of negotiating, and always be able to walk away from the table with a “no thank you.”

I’d like to suggest renting speakers from your local Pro A/V shop. Renting is a lot less expensive (as options go), but you can try out different kinds until you find a set that you really like… you only have them for a short period of time, so you’ll be able to try out different brands, sizes, and combinations. Did I mention this is the best bang-for-your-buck? Also, rent them early with a guarantee that you’ll have them for your party, Pro stores like knowing they’ll have “for sure business” and sometimes the sales agent will “like you” and allow you to get a bump-up in quality, and when you buy your speakers, they might also give you a discount for renting a few times.

For your first purchased set of speakers, I recommend getting something used but in good condition (no one cares what the speakers look like and you’ll get a better deal if they are physically scratched or dinged). You will notice a marked improvement if you pick up a sub-woofer, so try to get a “package deal” when you buy everything.

I don’t know what your budget is so I won’t suggest any specific speakers, but you should also try and assess whether or not you want to buy them, or rent them.

Setting up audio, video and lighting for events is my “day job” so I can definitely give you more input as I know your needs, but try renting first.

I’m a bit biased myself, I love the Novation Twitch.

The touch strips are super easy to get used to, have more advanced features than a job wheel and give more of a “Touching the music” feel than any “tiny-sized record representation” jog wheel. Jog wheels cannot give you “Needle Search” instant drop anywhere on the song nor can it give you the ability to control loop length by simply pinching or expanding two points on it (which the touch strip can).

So while we’re at it, this is what Novation decided to do with the Twitch in that otherwise wasted space that would have been the Jog Wheel… they created 4 banks of 8 buttons (4 wide x 2 high, that’s 32 buttons per deck) which are Bi-color LED lit. So… You can control 8 hot cues, 8 auto loops, 8 effect on/off triggers, and 8 slicer mode slots and 8 loop rolls (by default) or turn on the SP-6 Sampler for Serato DJ… For Traktor, it’s slightly different, there is no Slicer mode and the sample decks are replaced with Remix Decks (or two more track decks… or off if you want).

The Twitch is one of the very few controllers with an official Traktor overlay and when you use Traktor Pro, you can control up to 4 decks (in Serato DJ there are only 2 decks).

Almost any way you slice it, the Twitch is a better controller (feature-for-feature) but ultimately, buying a controller comes down to your needs and what you want to do with it.