Good beginner decks?

smr

smr

smr

Soldato
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Hi all,

I love trance (above and beyond) and similar styles and want to get my first decks. Can anyone recommend some good beginner decks, would I be better of getting a CD turntable or Vinyl? As I know vinyl can be quite rare/expensive maybe the CD turntable option... anyway, your opinions please?
 
Direct drives not belt drive if you go vinyl.
Buy cheap 2nd hands, most people give up so spend little as you can.
 
I really don't see the point of vinyl ones anymore. The tunes sound better but most of it is on downloads these days. You can usually pick up a couple of 1210's for £250ish or maybe even less these days if you do go for vinyl. They are a lot easier to learn on than my old Stantons because the digital pitch on the Stantons didn't have as much control for the beginner.

And let's face it, Above & Beyond were mixing off laptops and CDJs when I saw them last year.
 
I would say a pair of 1210's as cheap as possible (under £300, I've bought 2 pairs in the last 6 months) and serato scratch live (again second hand, circa £2-300), and that's that. I've been practicing scratch djing on and off for about 6 years and I've yet to use a decent CD deck option (imo at least), SL's are just so well weighted, it's organic. I think it just destroys the art in a sense when you remove the analogue element. Ergo for me at least serato is fantastic.
 
benneh said:
I would say a pair of 1210's as cheap as possible (under £300, I've bought 2 pairs in the last 6 months) and serato scratch live (again second hand, circa £2-300), and that's that. I've been practicing scratch djing on and off for about 6 years and I've yet to use a decent CD deck option (imo at least), SL's are just so well weighted, it's organic. I think it just destroys the art in a sense when you remove the analogue element. Ergo for me at least serato is fantastic.
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Pretty much agree here, I'm still using Final Scratch which is considered old school these days, but regardless timecoded vinyl kicks ass and I find it so much nicer than CD decks.

OT: Benneh, Is that Frank Zappa in your sig? :cool:
 
Me mate could scratch better on my old Stantons because they were designed for it, don't slip as much. I only got £100 for Str8-100s that cost about £550. Still got a big pile of hard house and NRG vinyl sitting here doing nothing too :(
 
I don't really understand how the final scratch stuff works. I don't really want to be forking out loads of money on new vinyl when I've got loads of trance mp3s already, so I guess digital decks are the way to go for me. But then, on the other hand, I'd really love to mix with vinyls as it's just the old school way and feel. Bah, dno what to do. Can I do both???? :)
 
Final Scratch is a option chap.

Basically you have a little box/interface and 2 pieces of vinyl. The vinyl just has a time code on it, like just a noise really, but it's playing a time code. The decks plug into the little box/interface, that then plugs into your laptop/pc/mac etc and basically the software on your computer plays audio files according to the time code data received from the movement of the decks. So you can move your record forward and backward etc, that sends the relevant info to the computer, which then moves the mp3/wav forwards and backwards. the delay is pretty much none existant, and of course you can use anything in your digital music collection. Imo this beats digital decks hands down. but some people prefer the feel of CD decks and so on, depends what you're into.
 
benneh said:
Final Scratch is a option chap.

Basically you have a little box/interface and 2 pieces of vinyl. The vinyl just has a time code on it, like just a noise really, but it's playing a time code. The decks plug into the little box/interface, that then plugs into your laptop/pc/mac etc and basically the software on your computer plays audio files according to the time code data received from the movement of the decks. So you can move your record forward and backward etc, that sends the relevant info to the computer, which then moves the mp3/wav forwards and backwards. the delay is pretty much none existant, and of course you can use anything in your digital music collection. Imo this beats digital decks hands down. but some people prefer the feel of CD decks and so on, depends what you're into.
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Ok so the 1210s would just have the two time code vinyls on it so it would be as though i was mixing with vinyl but really i'm playing mp3s... so cheap as far as records go as mp3 is considerably cheaper than vinyl but would feel like vinyl "authenticity", thus delivering the best of both worlds?

What about a mixer? Not needed?
 
smr said:
Ok so the 1210s would just have the two time code vinyls on it so it would be as though i was mixing with vinyl but really i'm playing mp3s... so cheap as far as records go as mp3 is considerably cheaper than vinyl but would feel like vinyl "authenticity", thus delivering the best of both worlds?

What about a mixer? Not needed?
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Spot on. You still need a mixer though.

For what it's worth, I'd suggest 1210s too. They're a little bit more expensive, but if you want to get rid of them they'll be worth pretty much what you paid for them.
 
Numark Axis 9s - can't recommend them enough. Can pick them up for a couple of hundred quid each and work brilliantly. Not as good as the Pioneers but can't expect that for the difference in price!

Don't bother going vinyl unless you are into scratching (and even then it's debateable...). CDJs are so much more flexible with looping, cue point memory, 100% pitch etc. Plus a CD wallet is easier to carry around and if you break a CD you just burn it off again! The majority of trance DJs (in fact the majority of all EDM DJs) use CDs these days :)

http://www.djstore.com/item/numaxis9.htm
 
Im selling a pair of 1210's, they are MK3 and in immaculate condition, very well looked after, saving up for CDj's :D.
 
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