Need help with my setup.

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Domi

Domi

New DJ
Dec 13, 2013
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0
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Hi guys. This is Domi from India. It's been an year since I started deejaying, never really had the chance to learn it at some music school. Whatever I know about it has come from seeing other deejay's and the internet. I've had gigs in my hometown, its been pretty crazy since the past two months. I use a Pioneer DJM-800 and 2 x Pioneer CDJ 1000's Mk3. I'm thorough and well rehearsed with this setup. As it does not support USB, I sticked to the usual mp3 format CD's. Last week, I was at an event where the deejay had the same setup except for the mixer ( In his case it was the DJM 600). Then, he connected his Macbook with some kind of USB and AUX cables to the mixer and player and he was able to fiddle with the tracks on his Mac (It was Traktor, I guess) and play them on the CDJ's without hassle. I have a big gig coming up just before Christmas and would like to avoid the CD's this time as it is a mess handling them every time. No matter how organised I go, the CD's always end up in chaos. I have a DELL laptop (windows 7) which I would like to connect to my setup and use the tracks on the respective CDJ as I select it on the laptop.

What I'd like to ask you people is :

1. Which cables do I require to be able to connect my laptop to the mixer/player? If you could explain this thing to me, I'll be grateful.

2. Which is the best software, according to you, which can be used to perform at a live gig?

I like playing and mixing without the laptop, it seems neater. Doing this only to avoid the CD hassles and save time at the event. Need your opinions on this matter.

P.S I'm a newb.:cry:
 
Welcome to the board ...

Software is personal, so the best advice would be to try the main contenders (most have a free time-limited version), which are probably VirtualDJ, Traktor, and PCDJ. There are free ones as well .. Mixxx is one.

I don't believe the CDJ-1000 has a USB connection, so if you want to "scratch", you'll need some type of USB controller. A really basic one is the Numark DJ2GO, which comes with a basic (but usable) version of VDJ. In the US it's less than $50 .. not sure about India.

Then you need a USB soundcard .. most headphone jacks don't have great audio quality, so most will use a device to convert an output via USB to a higher quality signal. All DJ software supports USB out, some with a single stereo channel (no way to cue) .. some up to 4-5 stereo channels (for the applications that have multiple decks).

A cheap basic USB soundcard would be a Behringer UCA202 .. single stereo pair output. There are many brands that make them .. m-audio, tascam, presonus, focusrite, ..... anywhere from US $30 to US $500. A best bet would be one that had at least 2 pairs of outputs to allow you to cue up the second "deck" while the first is playing .. basically running 2 stereo pairs to 2 channels in your mixer.

I would start with the basics .. then you can look at all-in-one units like the Traktor S2/S4 or the Denon MC2000/3000/6000 series, the NUmark Mixdecks, etc. which combine controller, USB capability and mixer into 1.
 
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Reactions: Ron and Jeff Romard
For you to do this the way you described things, you'll need to get a program and it must come with 2 disc to put in both CDJ's to read the software coming from your laptop. Then you will need an outside source to get connected from your CD players, mixer and laptop. That's the only way it will work. Steve forgot to mention Serato which it comes with it's own box to do the hook up. You can find a used SL 1 box online for a very cheap price. My bigger question to you is after you do this where will you have your music? Will you rip all your CD's to your laptop or an external HD or will you be buying your tracks online? How will you handle this issue? That DJ you saw playing that way has his music most likely in MP 3 format and is using either an external HD or the internal HD in his laptop to store the music. Depending on how many CD's you have that ripping CD's to a file can be very time consuming and may take longer then you have since you said you have an upcoming gig for Christmas.
 
For CDJ / turntable use, the device doesn't read the software coming from the laptop - the CD players / turntable uses 'time code media' to tell the computer what to do.

Unless you're playing the original media, I'm not sure how you would use digital or analog turntables without a laptop.

I am in agreeance with the setup proposed by Steve.

The typical setup for a turntable user is the analog outs from the device to a Rane SL2 (or similar device) to the computer. From what I know, there is no way to load a song to a CDJ1000 across usb on the fly. He may be loading songs to memory cards, which the 1000 can use. I have the 1000's but I've never used them in this configuration. In my opinion, you're lugging more than you need to.

My setup now - Gig machine, midi controller, mixer (very simple overview)
That setup - Gig machine, SL2, CDJ-1000's, time code media, spare time code media, mixer
 
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