First setup, gear selection. (I've done my research) need a little guidance.

[nabjab]

Hey Guys,

Nabjab here. Just an average joe ready to get into a 10 year dream now. I've been doing a bunch of reading and searching on gear. :freak:

This is what I've got so far: The decks I'm going to get are Audio Technica AT-LP120. I'd get the 1240's but being a noob I seriously doubt I will notice any difference in the motor torque or the more technical details. the 120s seem to have a few more features in the price range then any of the competitors turntables, aswell.

As for the cartridges /stylus goes, the ones with the LP120 will be just fine. I don't need anything fancy. As I will suck at scratching in the beginning I'd rather beat up some cheap needles, and not anything good. I doubt I need anything that reduces skip and jumping.

I have some 20 year old sony studio headphones that fit the job description, and I have a decent stereo for the output.

Here is where the research is starting to get a little tricky. I'm not sure what to do about the mixer, and I think I'm making it harder than it is.

First question: should I spend a little more money and get one that has nice bells and whistles that you can ignore in the beginning and grow into as you get better, or do you spend little money and just get the basics, and when you are ready for more buy a better one?

Number 2: Is there a difference between mixers for vinyl turntables, and cd turntables? Or are the CD mixers usually all built in one products?

Number 3: Inputs/outputs? As time goes on I see myself sampling part of the record and looping it back and then layer over it (all off of the decks). Is this with a snazy mixer/sampler, or two pieces of equipment? computer free.

Any other tips for a noob would be helpful and maybe someone that has good condition used Audio Technica AT-LP120s? I looked in the classifieds and equipment sale, and I didn't see any.

Thanks!

[Dix]

What kind of DJing are you trying to get into? Bed room, mobile, club? I'm just curious about what kind of experience you have.

[nabjab]

My experience consists of watching "scratch" a couple dozens times. HAH I played around with a friends setup all of about 30 minutes one night about 9 years ago, and fell in love. So I have NO experience, but this has always been something I've wanted to try. I'm a time in my life where I can buy nice "toys" for myself, so now is the time to get some turntables.

What I want to get into? No idea. All I know is I really really like the idea of playing off of vinyl with little computer aiding as possible. I realize that might not be the easiest with the little more reading I've done on sampling. I'm an open book as to where it goes. Right now I just want to see if I have any skill mixing with vinyl. So right now its living room, could grow into more.

[Sublim&All]

First question: should I spend a little more money and get one that has nice bells and whistles that you can ignore in the beginning and grow into as you get better, or do you spend little money and just get the basics, and when you are ready for more buy a better one?
Basically, that's up to you. I would vouch for a solid mixer, but as little bells and whistles as possible. In the beginning, they will just distract you from learning to actually mix two tracks.


Number 2: Is there a difference between mixers for vinyl turntables, and cd turntables? Or are the CD mixers usually all built in one products?
turntables may need a phono input, where cd decks etc. need a line input. I don't know if this also counts for the Audio Technicas though. Shouldn't make too much difference, most mixers will have two of both in the end anyway.


Number 3: Inputs/outputs? As time goes on I see myself sampling part of the record and looping it back and then layer over it (all off of the decks). Is this with a snazy mixer/sampler, or two pieces of equipment? computer free.
Can't really answer that, don't know enough about it.


Any other tips for a noob would be helpful and maybe someone that has good condition used Audio Technica AT-LP120s? I looked in the classifieds and equipment sale, and I didn't see any.
There are also other turntables you could buy for a reasonable price. Stanton and Vestax have some nice TTs, and you could also buy a pair of Technics. The last ones may cost a bit more, but will surely last a lifetime.

[Irrational_Fear]

I would personally go with a straightforward 2 channel mixer with EQs and not much else. Either new or second hand you should be able to pick one up relatively cheaply. I would recommend having a look at the Denon dnx-120 as a good example, it's basic but Denon make solid mixers and it will allow you to get to grips with learning the fundementals.

As Sublim&All said, anything with a few bells & whistles to grow into will likely distract you from learning the absolute basics. Once you have nailed these, you should then have a much better idea of the sort of mixer you want to upgrade to- i.e. 4 channel with effects, scratch mixer, midi mixer for software etc.

With regard to your techincal question, any mixer can generally be used with either turntables or cd decks. Again as mentioned, the mixer will have a switch to swap between "Line in" (cd players) or "Phono" (Turntables).

As for a sampler, you will generally only find these on the higher-end mixers. I wouldn't worry about this to start with. Once you've learned the basics of beatmatching/phrase matching/EQ-ing etc on a cheapish 2 channel mixer you'll begin to get a feel for the features you want in future and will be able to make a more informed decision when you decided to upgrade- rather than splashing out $1,000 on a mixer without knowing what a lot of it does or what you want from it.

Oh, and good work starting out with TTs/vinyl- it may be more difficult at first (not having bpm readouts etc) but I cannot emphasise enough just how much better it will be for training your ears! Good luck :tup:

[DJ Highline]

One question that hasn't been asked yet is do you have records that you are planning on playing or were you planning on using files from a computer? If you have records great you are good to go...but if you are planning on using a computer then you need some more stuff...

[nabjab]

One question that hasn't been asked yet is do you have records that you are planning on playing or were you planning on using files from a computer? If you have records great you are good to go...but if you are planning on using a computer then you need some more stuff...

In the initial post I say "all off of the decks" , and "computer free" in 'number 3', so that question shouldn't have to be asked. I don't have a vinyl collection, but I've got a list of records I'm going to buy that I think will be good for beat matching, phase matching, and EQ-ing practice. Thrift stores in the greater memphis area will soon be drained of their vinyl collection aswell.

As for my setup, I want nothing to be qued with a mouse. I want to record 8 to 16 bars off the record into a sampler, and then loop it back off of the sampler. I don't think I'll need anything more then 5 samples at a time. (I might sound like an idiot saying that because I don't know the correct terminology, and I'm not exactly sure that is possible (still learning and reading))
(all good electronica has 5 layers, anything less isn't good. HAH)


I would personally go with a straightforward 2 channel mixer with EQs and not much else. Either new or second hand you should be able to pick one up relatively cheaply. I would recommend having a look at the Denon dnx-120 as a good example, it's basic but Denon make solid mixers and it will allow you to get to grips with learning the fundementals.

I looked at the Denon dnx-120 and it looks simple and inexpensive (even new). What if I wanted to have 3 channels, just for a one more input to play with? Anyone have any other suggestions? (no numark)


There are also other turntables you could buy for a reasonable price. Stanton and Vestax have some nice TTs, and you could also buy a pair of Technics. The last ones may cost a bit more, but will surely last a lifetime.

I've looked at Stanton, and didn't like their non super-oem tables. The audio technicas had more features for the price, and people seemed to approve of the AT's more than the Stantons. As for the Super OEM tables, people really liked the stantons ST.150s, the A.T. LP1240s and a few others, but the price is a little more than what I want to start out with. If I could find a deal on a used pair I'd consider stepping up a level. As for the technics, Those were the ones I played on LONG time ago. I've read those are the cream of the crop. You can't get any better then the technics. I'll eventually own a pair, but I've got to make this a serious hobby, or make it something that brings in money.

[Irrational_Fear]

I think to use multiple samples at the same time you would probably have to look at a dedicated effects unit. I'm pretty sure most of the mixers with onboard samplers (mine included) can only have one 'loop' sample running at a time (without getting computer software involved), as the sampler is generally treated as one of the switchable effects and controlled with the usual effects parameters.

When you refer to layers I assume you mean the seperate elements that make up the track- i.e kick drum, synth, vocal etc. If so, I doubt you would be able to seperate these out very easily 'on the fly' using just the EQs when most mixers have just low, mid, & high dials. For that level of on the fly 're-mixing' I would imagine you would need to be running something like Ableton Live, which aside from involving a computer, would also be getting into some pretty complicated territory for actual DJ-ing. A way round this would be to use acapellas / instrumentals of these tunes where available as releases.

As for 3 channel mixers, there are quite a few. But for a couple of examples at similar price to the denon- Reloop RMX30 Blackfire, American Audio Q D6 SRS, Stanton SMX311. Beyond that they start getting quite a bit above the price realms of a 'starter mixer'.

[nabjab]

Alright guys! I think I'm set I've decided on a mixer, the turntables might change depending on how much I really wanna spend.

Thanks for your help and your suggestions. It gave me a ton of things to read and learn from. It will be a few weeks before I buy it all, so you will have to wait until the picture shows up on the "my setup" thread, and when I reintroduce myself on the introduction thread.

Thanks again.

See ya around

-nabjab

[ampnation]

I'm not a turntablist but I know of a product called Dicers and don't know if they can be used without DJ software. I'm pretty sure though they can be used to create loops and other effects. They come in pairs and go on the corners of your turntables.