Equipment opinions

I am approaching the point where I am ready to upgrade from Traktor 3 and my BCD3000. I am asking for your opinions as to which route to go. I play house, top 40, some rap, assorted latin music.

These are pros and cons as I look at it.


Option 1)CDJ 400's. Likes:Onboard effects, loop options, USB device ready and should soon have HID support. Dislikes: Do i need traktor scratch for this or will TPro also support HID? Will ALL the features work in HID as if I was using a cd.?

Option 2)Pair of turntables:make, model TBD
Likes: optimal scratch control. I like the feel of vinyl. Spinning things look cool.
Dislikes: Lack of loop functions, obviously cant play cd's, expense for Tscratch.

Question: would I still need Tscratch for either option?

Can I have your choice and more importantly why? thanks

 

You need Scratch for anything timecode related.

Whatever you like man. Play around with them first to get an idea of the setups...

 

I won't tell you to go one way or another, that's up to you. But I just wanted to add that while your looping options are limited when using conventional vinyl (beatjuggling aside), the entire Traktor family, including the Scratch variants, do great looping. I can't live without it, quite frankly. And for the record, I'm a timecode vinyl user most of the time. Weddings and corporate events I do just use MIDI though...you don't need to wow anyone with fancy scratching at those things.

If and when Traktor supports the CDJ-400's you should be able to use them without the Scratch/timecode designation. I think....not absolutely sure about that.

 

I do love the looping feature as well. Just like you I could not do without it. I am still waiting for more info to be released but whenever Traktor supports CDJ400's will it be done with TPro or with just TSP?

Any guesses or speculation?

 

If it does get released I'm sure it will be with TPro AND TSP.

 

dont forget that there are also spinning midi controllers (like the NS7)

 

I went into the Guitar Center nearby and played with the NS7 not bad at all, although I didn't like that its all one unit and that if something breaks then i am SOL. I am actually leaning toward the exact same set up that you have.

how do you like your DDM4000?

 

I like it a lot, you can custimize this baby like kwazy.
It has more buttons than you can shake a tree at and the build quality is also very good.

only weird thing I thinks is the location of the headphone jack, but even that's no biggy.

oh and another minor point is that when using midi, you have to get yourself a midi->usb cable.


If you're going for the same setup i suggest you might get the denon's that are the equivilant of the cdj400's (cd + midi). The cdj400's are a lot of money for just using it as a midi controller. And they don't even supply a Usb cable with the damn things.

also watch out for vista, since it can currently not support 2x cdj400 (but maybe that will be fixed in the next version since they also seem to have fixed the display of the cdj400)

 

Thanks for the input. I actually came across a DDM4000 for a pretty good deal and I picked it up. Love it so far. MIDI sounds cool but I dont know what I would use it for. What do you control with MIDI?

I am still reading through the manual. I think I read somewhere that you can pitch bend what you recorded? How do you bend it?


I am planning on using the CDJ's with cd's also so I wouldnt just be buying an expensive MIDI controller.
And screw vista, I wont move from XP until i am convinced that windows 7 is good.

 

you can control dj software with midi. (probably some other stuff too but I'm not familliar with that)