Stavros Spartalis
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Stavros Spartalis
Participantsorry yes you re right, it’s a numark m6 usb. It has four channels and my friend has two record players which need some maintenance but work and one dual cdj, which no longer works. in this occasion, what would be the ideal connections? My friend has never used the usb port and is not that familiar with djing software but knows the fundamentals of djing. say when i was explaining to him what different things do in VDJ he understood straight away. however, he has say never used effects and loops, keylocks and so on. that’s why i’m trying to get him going.
ParticipantThanx Terry, and you are right. will try and get a mixtrack pro I on the cheap although the crossfaders are short. my friend will have to get used to the sync button ha :-). Sorry to be a pain but one more question. My friend’s four channel mixer (Numark) has a usb input. He reckons its a soundcard. do you think he could use that with his pc and a controller without soundcard and how?
ParticipantGo with what you ve got. at the end of the day, it’s only announcing. not singing, it’s family and friends. you ll also find that fine tuning a microphone with EQ on a PA mixer makes a lot of difference. Also if you only got one microphone you want it wired and on a stand so people don’t pick it up and walk away. if you need to call people up, have one for yourself and one for the people doing speeches. I don’t know how long your gig is going to be, but keep in mind that wireless mikes also need batteries and rechargable ones dont last long. Personally, i would not bother with anything high quality or expensive if it’s just for announcements or for non singers/vocalists/professionals to use.
ParticipantWhat do you guys think of this one? [media=youtube]R-OT5XlsmNg[/media] . or is it too cramped (small and too many things going on)? No sound card tho. Can find it for 109 euros.
ParticipantThanx everyone for your replies. I had a chat with my friend yesterday n told him that he must splash out more lol. trouble is it will only be a hobby at least at first so try explaining to the wife that you spent 200-300 euros for an expensive joystick lol. he also said that he would like proper pitch controls (takes the instinct out of the equation) and eqs for both channels (takes the behringer cmd micro out). He also played some music with the turntables and showed me a few things the old school way. so the quest continues. Terry, think you mean beatmix? also are the chinese knock offs a big no-no?
ParticipantD-Jam is spot on. Unfortunately, in my town, this happened about 5years ago. Why? I think it’s because bars stepped up. Upgrading their sound system, lights, music. And of course no strict dress code and no cover charge/entry fee, no queing up to get in and cheaper prices for drinks. It takes less people to make a bar full than a big club too. So the clubs (apart from a couple of exceptions of course), didnt evolve here, they just died.
ParticipantIt’s definitely not easy. First thing i did was to decide that my dj library would be different to my “standard” library. so in my dj collection there are no albums. only tracks/singles. then i separated the songs according to genre. and in each genre three subfolders for “low”, “medium” and “high”, which in my case has to do not with the bpms or the key but the energy of the song and how much i like it (which assumes that i like high energy “party” songs). On top of that i also use playlists but only as a guide to where i want things to go. some playlists stay on one genre. others change every 5-10 songs. most playlists are made taking bpms and keys into consideration.
A lot of people do things differently. most i assume use itunes. but my goal was to put things where i can find them and also have suggestions of other similar tracks without changing too many folders.
ParticipantTo be honest im not a fan of itunes although i never tried the latest version. the previous version that i tried left me a bit frustrated to be honest so i unistalled it. do you mean that it will have more chances to recognise songs automatically? The only way i can think of at the moment is to somehow manually copy the id3tags of all the songs that are say in a playlist and apply them on the new tracks that are mp3s. as far as the wavs go i will have to change the filename manually so it will be like 001 Rihanna-Diamonds for example instead of track0001.
ParticipantCmon guys, theres got to be another way, im fed up with reading track0001 track0002 and i really can’t be asked doing this manually..
ParticipantI have ran Vdj on a laptop with lower spec than yours (but 3gb ram) and never had issues with recording or anything else. is your pc maybe loaded with bloatware/other software running in background? could there be a virus/malware? Do you have the option to try recording on an external hard drive? If it was working fine before i would do the following:
1.Boot in safemode with networking and download the free malwarebytes anti-malware and have it run a full check
2.Delete anything unwanted and run checkdisc and defrag as softcore said
3.If you re good with computers try and back up everything and do a system restore to a time when traktor could record properly.
4.Or again if you re good with computers try to bring back the laptop to its factory default mode (newer laptops usually keep a partition for that use as backup). or even better, install a fresh copy of windows which will not include all the bloatware that came with the laptop in the first place (which is what i have done to all of my machines, usually after a year of purchase).I believe that if traktor was working fine before you will not have to reach as far as step four. Then again, I would definitely recommend a laptop just for djing purposes. Especially in your case where the processor is just on the minimum requirements.
ParticipantDoes money bring you happiness? Not necessarily but it can help. Don’t worry all had to start somewhere. at least you re trying. i gave up on the idea when i was young because i had to use vinyl and could not afford any of the gear or the music. now because controllers and software progressed i gave it another shot, at first as a hobby, now as a part time job that i do mainly out of pleasure. not that laptops are cheap, but most people online at least seem to have access to one. Best thing you can do if you havent already done so is map your keyboard to the program and learn it by heart. there are even a few good mixes on youtube with people using virtual dj or traktor and you can see their screen and everything they re doing because they only use a mouse. yes having better gear will certainly help you progress faster but you can have all the gear in the world….if you havent got the passion for music and persistence, you won’t go anywhere.
ask yourself this….if there is somewhere you really want to go, would you not walk there just because you can’t afford a car?
ParticipantAs a kid i was using my dads separates hifi in order to record mixtapes. Not djing mixtapes, but more like various artists with maybe four seconds overlapping at the end. that thing had a single casette recorder with VU meters. analogue needles. and the very first thing my dad (electronics engineer) told me was: “have it high enough so it touches the beginning of the “red bit” momentarily but doesnt stay there”. Never questioned it then but been doing it ever since.
ParticipantOh and one more thing…. I strongly believe in a dj dedicated machine! Keep it simple, keep it clean and safe! too much at stake during a gig. and if people can afford $2000 for just one machine, i believe you can afford one more costing $350 – $500 for your everyday uses :-p
ParticipantIf you got the money to spend for a Mac, and you wont miss it, meaning that you don’t need to get anything else, music related or not, then i think there is no right or wrong situation. It’s just two different approaches for the same goal. Personally there is no way i would spend more than 600-700 euros for a computer, but that’s just me.
If you like messing about, with hardware, or software, get a Pc. Not that you absolutely need to mess about to get it right, but you can, and I love getting more ram, different hardrives, programmes for this and that, etc etc, fiddling in general. If you don’t…. get a Mac.
Drivers! I dont know what the big issue with drivers is. If your accessory/hardware was built for windows xp, you should run it on xp, windows 7? then have on a machine with windows 7 and so on. problems usually occur when someone upgrades the operating system or buys a new computer, and then you can have incompatibilities. it isnt always so (because say windows 7 alreadly included a lot of drivers for older periphels), but it can happen. ive had problems myself but managed to find away around them and that was time consuming but it worked. It’s usually down to how dedicated the manufacturer of the hardware is, because it’s down to them to make a driver for a hardware they might no longer be selling.
If you prefer playing games on a console rather than a pc…..get a mac.
The only grudge i have against apple, is that they tend to sue, not blind copiers that make crappy lookalikes, but anyone who comes up with a descent/better phone or tablet. microsoft are definitely no saints neither…but anyway!
ParticipantI feel you Black Rag. It’s even worse asking about computer gear and programs. But then again i have bought items at “high street” shops, knowing i could find them cheaper online because the shop clerks served me well.
– Hello i need something to connect to “A” so I can do “B” with it.
– Yes of course, we have “X” which is more expensive and “Y” which is slightly cheaper but doesnt do “Z” feature.
– Ok I will buy X/Y, thank you.Why not buy it online? Because i want it there and then, the assistants were nice to me, because i save the time looking at 10 internet shops and 5 reviews sites, comparing it to other products etc. Sometimes less is more.
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