Help an old timer out please

Hello

First post so forgive if I ask some ignorant questions - have done my best to try and get answers from the net.

Little bit of background - have had a set of decks for far too long for me to remember - starting on the belt drives and then direct drives. I also owned/still own Final Scratch. My DJ career never took off and hence why I now work in an office. Life also got in the way and I haven't used my decks for a while.
Anyway I have got the bug back again - not looking to make a career out of it but just the fun of mixing at home and exploring the new possibilities out there.
Unfortunately having a family now it has been ordained that there is no room for my decks in the house..........so I am looking at the digital alternatives.
Speaking to a mate he has an X1 and F1 and using traktor pro 2. I have also been looking at the S4 as well.

The bits where I am ignorant are the following

- I have loads of old jungle records on vinyl from 1994 onwards - I guess if I want to go truly digital I need to rip these
- I kind of understand that using the digital equipment there is a sync button (I have no problem with this) however I think this relies on the software knowing the structure /of the tune
- I have been reading about beatgrids and how you can create these on tunes
- Will I be able to do this effective on old jungle tunes that have been ripped from vinyl?
- Can I manually beat match using the x1 - almost the equivalent of using the pitch control on a record deck. I read a few places this doesn't work on the x1 and is more hassle than it is worth?

The set up I am thinking is an F1 and X1 with no DVS system due to lack of space - what are the thoughts on this as an intro into the world of digital mixing.

Hope I have made sense above.

In summary the question really is. How can mix old jungle vinyl records using just a pure digital setup with no turntables at a price that is not expensive as an intro into digital mixing.

Thanks for any help

 

- I kind of understand that using the digital equipment there is a sync button (I have no problem with this) however I think this relies on the software knowing the structure /of the tune

You don't *have* to use SYNC, in fact I prefer not to. I find that manually beat-matching gives me more control.

- Will I be able to do this effective on old jungle tunes that have been ripped from vinyl?

It depends, sometimes the grid will be off as many old tunes have times when they drift, just from the production. Here it is better to manually beat match to keep tracks in sync.

- Can I manually beat match using the x1 - almost the equivalent of using the pitch control on a record deck. I read a few places this doesn't work on the x1 and is more hassle than it is worth?

I used to only use the X1 MK1 as my main controller, having remapped the loop dials to control pitch and the EQ faders to control volume. Cheap and compact way to mimic a full controller, but now that I have an S4 MK1 I just use the X1 for effects.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. How did you find using the loops dials to control pitch. I read somewhere on the net that they were a bit unresponsive however their was not much more explanation than that.

 

I find them even more responsive than the tempo slider on the S4, as I play multi-genre with wide ranging BPM I have to keep the tempo range pretty wide. I tend to make large tempo adjustments with the S4 Slider then use the loop wheel on the X1 to add/subtract small increments.

You can even map a button to go up/down 0.01 tempo.