Past few months I’ve just been mixing with real vinyl. As it’s quite expensive I want a method of mixing all my digital music. Should I pick up some cheap Cdjs (Gemini or Numark) or should I invest in Serato? Now that there is that Denon interface for $300, Serato seems like the best option. Opinions?
Depends what mixer you have imo. If you have a 3/4 channel get a CDJ or a pair if its cheap. I started on vinyl and ended up wanting to mix digital too… I won like £800 on Boxing Day football one year and my mate was coming over NYE for a mixing session but he’d only ever used Serato so brought that. Was good but he’d only used a controller too so kept smashing the tone arm. I liked Serato but found it a little annoying when mixing digital into vinyl.
I hated the idea of a “good DJ” being able to mix vinyl and thought a “good DJ” should be good on all mediums so ended up investing in 2 CDJs as well. So now I have them all… I never use Serato unless my mate comes round to mix. Even then its so much easier because I can have Serato hooked up to the CDJs and I can use my turntables purely for vinyl/me. Its so convenient.
If you want to mix digital WITH vinyl and don’t want to give up vinyl 100% get CDJs. It’ll allow you the option of mixing 3/4 decks + its way more compatible mixing between them imo.
Basically think about what you wanna aim for, if you wanna aim for being able to mix both digital and vinyl and mix it on more than 2 decks definitely go for CDJs even if you have to wait a bit to save up. But you need space and money. Getting Serato hooked up and everything you’ll find yourself slowly giving up on vinyl and sticking with that, which I found a little boring (but I spent about 3 years mixing on Serato with a controller… which initially pushed me to get turntables in the first place).
My current set up is 2 turntables, 2 CDJ 1000s and a Xone 92 mixer and I have Serato SL3 which I rarely use. Took about 3 years to get that set up but I’m really happy with it and if I had to lose anything it would be Serato all day long… but I’m glad I’m competent using it.
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Serato 2 box will run you 400$ CAD I think used and its the exact same feel as what you’re used to on vinyl, just add a stand to the setup and bypass the box into your 2 chan mixer even when you go to vinyl.
The only con from me would be hearing the fucking time code tone through the needles when listening at reasonable levels.
For some reason the bypass when going in and out of vinyl can knock the sound out completely. It’s weird but I don’t think it’s just me that has problems so if you wanna record a mix as well go for CDJs which will be hooked up to separate channels on the mixer.
There was a recent hatcha and oneman set that kept losing sound due to hatcha on cdjs and oneman on serato and hatcha said “a DJ of onemans skill shouldn’t be on serato” haha. Just having each thing hooked up to an individual channel will avoid problems like that, can’t rely on software it’ll cause issues.
I’m honestly thinking of just picking up Cdjs. The denon box I was gonna get doesn’t have the vinyl bypass/through so it would be hard to mix between vinyl and digital (what I want to do) . Considering I’m just bedroom djing at this point I don’t need pioneer or some shit. So a cheap pair of Gemini or Numark should do just fine. Should only having a 2 chnanel mixer be a problem?
yea thats fair, tbh every couple hours of it being on the box reboots, or at least the driver has to restart and audio cuts for like 20 seconds. I think its made to play ~1h on a fresh reboot.
Yeah if it cuts out and has problems then I won’t buy it.
those cheap ones are fucking nasty though. Waaaaay better to invest in some decent pioneers with USB
Even the 300s(?) are pretty rank tbh
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i mean, having to reset the box every 2-3hours isnt that big a deal, but for me the most annoying part is the tone coming through the needles, its like listening to the emergency broadcast channel when theres no emergency
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My budget is pretty small tho. At 15 I can’t spend 2,000 on a pair of pioneer ones.
agreed, if you shop around a bit for used you can get some good deals
got a pair of cdj 1000s for $450usd
Oh damn. Nice.
I got a pair of 1000s for £600 I think and I was spending about that on vinyl a month so made sense.
A 2 channel mixer isn’t a problem it just means you’ll have to either have 1 turntable and 1 cdj at a time or switch between them.
If you’re 15 just save up for what you want… You’re in no rush. Either save up for a pair of cdjs or a mixer with 4 channels. Then save up for the other. If you’re dying to play digital get one cdj and plug one cdj in and one turntable in then save up for the rest.
4 channel mixer with 2 turntables and 2 cdjs is the ideal set up imo.
But but good stuff, I wanted turntables for ages but I knew it’d be a long term investment so saved up for 1210s. Why buy something if you need to replace it in a few years? Buy cheap buy twice. Save up and buy once. That’s why I own 2x 1210s, 2x cdj 1000s and a xone 92. I knew I wanted them and would get years of use out of them so saved up and got what I wanted.
you’re thinking of 400s
i have them, they’re fine, just need a while getting used to the small size (not a problem for me, having started on 100s), but the bigger jog on 800 upwards models feels a lot better.
Great value for the money though, the usb port is very convenient, though the speed is shite compared to the new ones, and you can use them as HID controllers too.
that said, i sometimes wish i’d have gone for mk2 800s 
Thanks. Yeah I probably should save up for the nicer poineers. I’m thinking the mk2 800s?
serato’s better to watch
I’ve never had a problem switching between vinyl and digital with serato
Plus you can scratch with it
I’d suggest buying a Serato box second hand or saving up for some Pioneers.
The low end CDJ’s would be a bad choice as already mentioned as you’ll find yourself buying them twice.
Serato over all is a solid program and the most responsive virtual dj software on the market when compares to the likes of Traktor (loathe) and Virtual DJ.
I’ll sell you my Rane TTM-57 SL mixer at a good price if interested. It has Serato Scratch Live built into it and is a solid mixer still in mint condition.
Reason I was to sell is because I want to invest in the Rane TTM 57 MKII.
What I dont like about Serato is that the whole crate thing is so shite, Traktor actually makes sense to use from the get go in terms of importing music and so on. Bizzare itunes integration as well
Even the hardware is better on Traktor but it seems Serato is the most prevailant, you even get people who think traktor is a worse product and inferior which is pretty odd.
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