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Post by Horney on Aug 1, 2016 16:23:26 GMT
I used to have a set of 1210s and a mixer back in the day but it got nicked when my house was burgled and I never replaced it all as all my records were nicked as well and I was too heart broken to try and build up a collection again.
Fast forward 20 years (where the hell does time go!) and I noticed in Maplins I can pick up a MIDI controller like the Numark Mixtrack Pro 2 for £150. Using the bundled software I can have some fun building mixes from iTunes library. No plans on DJing out and about again but I like the idea of being able to build mixes of stuff for the car and my iPod for train trips etc.
I still listen to a fair bit of EDM as the kids call it now (Very much love B.Traits R1 show) but where do you buy the MP3s of this stuff? The popular stuff is on iTunes but I get the feeling there must be sources online for the more underground tracks.
School me people!
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Post by rich5660 on Aug 1, 2016 16:46:57 GMT
beatport.com
trackitdown.net
sure there are hundreds more but normally everything you need between those two, you can even select the file format if you're super canoe
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Post by rich5660 on Aug 1, 2016 16:47:23 GMT
lol I think we found a Canoeing word which isn't filtered out, canoe ballbags
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Post by Meerkat on Aug 1, 2016 16:59:03 GMT
Ooh! A topic I actually know something about!  I've been a DJ for quite a few years now. I also started on vinyl "back in the day" but made the switch first to CD and then to MP3 more recently. I had (and still have) the original Mixtrack Pro, and it's a pretty good controller, if a little plasticky. I then switched to a Pioneer WeGo3 because of how neat and portable it is (I DJ out a lot and lugging a bulky controller everywhere was a royal pain in the ass). It's a great controller, feels well-made. However for playing club music the pitch sliders are pretty short (they are on the Mixtrack too) which makes manual beatmatching tricky. You can always cheat and use the sync button though One of my mates got the Mixtrack Pro II but sent it back (twice) because of unpredictable buttons - some were too hard and didn't fire off properly and others were too sensitive and he kept on setting them off accidentally. I'm not sure if they fixed this with later batches, but something to look out for. In the end he went for this: Reloop Beatpad and it's excellent. I've played on it a couple of times and was very impressed with it. A bit more pricy than the Mixtrack through. As far as software goes, I think the Mixtrack comes with Serato (good software but a bit of a learning curve, particularly good for scratching and "creative" mixing (using loops and samples, etc.) and also Traktor (good software again, although the "lite" bundled version is quite limited in features). Personally I use VirtualDJ (also free for the base version) These days I'm mainly DJing at weddings and other event-type parties where I'm playing a range of all sorts rather than just club music. VirtualDJ is particularly good for this because it's rock solid (it's never crashed on me in the 2 years I've used it) and it also has an add-on feature called Content Unlimited which is basically like spotify for DJs - you can type in anything (even really obscure tracks) and it will find it and download it on the spot for you to play. I get some pretty random requests from punters and it's very rare that I'm not able to find the track online for them. Beatport is a good place to start if you're looking for music to download - they have an good selection of different dance genres and I can usually find enough good new music here to keep me happy. Some purist DJs look down on it though because it's quite "commercialised", but personally I find there is a good selection of good dance tunes on there. Just ignore the "charts" though because they are all rigged (record companies basically pay people in china to download lots of copies of the track in order to push it up the chart). Juno is quite comprehensive too, but I hate the interface on the website, it takes a while to listen through a large number of tracks to find the good ones. |
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Post by Horney on Aug 1, 2016 17:53:58 GMT
Cheers guys. That Reeloop looks ace but a bit pricey for something that'll not use a huge amount.
I'll have a look at the sites mentioned and see what I can find that takes my fancy.
Rich: post a link to your track we chatted about yesterday.
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Post by rich5660 on Aug 1, 2016 19:43:04 GMT
Meerkat, couldn't have said it better myself. Get a picture of your setups up here's mine to kick things off. Haven't used it in so long I'm thinking of selling up  I'll have a hunt for the track Nick, nothing special (and I'm embarrassed by it) but I managed to get it out there! |
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Post by jackyboy on Aug 1, 2016 20:59:46 GMT
I used to do a bit of mixing on my brothers decks. Nothing special..garage music mostly.. I was more on the mic than the decks.
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Post by Horney on Aug 1, 2016 21:09:25 GMT
I used to do a bit of mixing on my brothers decks. Nothing special..garage music mostly.. I was more on the mic than the decks. Ha ha. I can imagine you as an MC. Beer in one hand, fag and mic in the other. |
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Post by Horney on Aug 1, 2016 21:28:55 GMT
Had a nosey on Beatport. Lordy I could spend some money on there!
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Post by jackyboy on Aug 1, 2016 21:49:10 GMT
Sounds about right lol.
I used to do parties and a couple of raves. Grew out of it eventually though.
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Post by Meerkat on Aug 2, 2016 6:18:57 GMT
Meerkat, couldn't have said it better myself. Get a picture of your setups up here's mine to kick things off. Haven't used it in so long I'm thinking of selling up Nice! That's some quality kit you have there. I see you also have the KRK Rokits, I have the 8's and I love them. They're actually a bit too big for my current studio, but I won't be living here forever. Here's my studio, I have all my DJ stuff on one side and my music production stuff on the other:   |
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Post by Meerkat on Aug 2, 2016 6:21:52 GMT
Sounds about right lol. I used to do parties and a couple of raves. Grew out of it eventually though. Respect man, that's pretty good! |
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Post by Meerkat on Aug 2, 2016 6:27:58 GMT
Had a nosey on Beatport. Lordy I could spend some money on there! Yep, that's the problem with it!  I usually limit myself to £20 each time I go on there to get new tunes. Forces me to be a bit selective about what I buy. |
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Post by rich5660 on Aug 2, 2016 9:28:37 GMT
Had a nosey on Beatport. Lordy I could spend some money on there! Yep, that's the problem with it! I usually limit myself to £20 each time I go on there to get new tunes. Forces me to be a bit selective about what I buy. I do exactly the same, I go on, click add everything I like to my basket and then sieve through them again and again until I'm down to £20, then you know you're only getting stuff you actually like. It's so easy to spend loads. Awesome setup there though, I'm only on the one keyboard, it's a bit big for what I need but it was £10 off a mate so can't really complain. I had a smaller one before but it didn't have the velocity sensors in it so worked out pretty useless. The KRKs are fantastic, mine are rp8s too btw. |
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Post by Meerkat on Aug 3, 2016 10:29:20 GMT
I do exactly the same, I go on, click add everything I like to my basket and then sieve through them again and again until I'm down to £20, then you know you're only getting stuff you actually like. It's so easy to spend loads. Yep that's exactly how I do it as well. I normally find quite few tracks on the second pass that I'm not really sure why I put them in the basket in the first place! What dance genres do you normally play? I started out with trance when it was all the rage in the 90s/00s, then started playing electro and funky house. These days I play mostly tech house but still play my old electro tracks and keep look out for any new good ones. |
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le sigh