Trying to get rid of the Sync button.

Home :: Reviews of DJ equipment :: Trying to get rid of the Sync button.Reply
Trying to get rid of the Sync button.
Posted on: 17.01.2011 by Hyman Landez
So I've been Djing for five years and I've been using button based controllers so no jog wheels. I feel like I've been cheating all these years as a dj. I was planning to save up for the Pioneer CDJ350 system but I don't know if it's the right choice. What controllers/ cd players or any other devices would you guys recommend to learn to beat match manually?
Thanks.
Mac Fly
20.01.2011
Originally Posted by Porkie
NExt time you see a pair buy them for me and ship them to NL, 250 each and 200 bones shiping to get to this rock I live on haha. Should cover it. lol
Man, your the first person I ever seen on this site who is from Newfoundland. I live in St. Johns and DJ at Loft 709.
Ulysses Vittetoe
18.01.2011
Originally Posted by willrjmarshall
CDJs and turntables are a bit of a dead end.

You can learn to beatmatch on any controller with jogs and a pitch fader
Not true at all. Pioneer CDJs and a pair of technics are still the club standard for a reason, and they will be that way for a while. It's because they're the most reliable, and they do what they're meant to do quite well. Also, manual beatmatching on an S4 isn't even that nice to do at the moment, nevermind the cheaper controllers.
Melinda Shick
18.01.2011
Originally Posted by coolout
GET SOME TURNTABLES...the easiest, cheapest and most fun way to learn how to beatmatch.

You can always find someone selling some good turntables cheap, there are literally MILLIONS of them out there.

There's always some kid, that buys some believeing he was going to be the next ________(insert turntablist name here) and then decides that it's not for him.

I have a friend that can't say no to cheap turntables...he has I believe 4 or 5 pairs of Tech 1200s in his house.

My advice is to troll craigslist or pawn shops and get some decent turntables: Tech 1200s, Vestax PDXs, or even Numark tt-500 or TTXs...then buy a couple records that you like.

You learn how to mix by ear without a tempo display and with no latency. Plus you might actually get into buying records and discovering music that you might not find online.
I have to say i'm believeing of going this route, i miss the feel of vinyl. Will be a while 'till i have funds though.
Gilma Marchini
18.01.2011
Originally Posted by DJKeyWee
mmm... get rid of the screen would be the best... but it's me.
True. No need to buy anything, just dim the screen to black and get your match on. That's what I did, with midifighters no less.
Mac Fly
20.01.2011
Originally Posted by Porkie
NExt time you see a pair buy them for me and ship them to NL, 250 each and 200 bones shiping to get to this rock I live on haha. Should cover it. lol
Man, your the first person I ever seen on this site who is from Newfoundland. I live in St. Johns and DJ at Loft 709.
Merilyn Sellards
20.01.2011
interesting, to see that the whole sync thing is still an issue for some people... is it me but even in traktor sometimes you don't get the best phase of the loop on top of the other song/loop so I purposely shift the phase to see if there is something better(it's still manual 50%). I don't have to do much with the fader because my bpms are in place, but still need to hear the beats snap into place, I come from using cdj 100/200 so whatever it feels almost the same(and most new cdjs give you bpm anyway)and even though I mastered this, it was still never the fun part about djing so screw that. I will say this again even if the sync makes my grandma be able to mix so be it!(I believe that's cool, you can communicate with more people other than djs about what you are doing once they can fiddle a bit with it). Unless you have gridded all your tracks it's far from perfect and you will always bump into those problematic tracks so there you need the skill . Plus this is so far from true how many here have tried to teach a friend how to use your controller, and I'm talking about people who want to learn, and they still majorly F it up? In my case they do, due to the fact that they forget to be aware of everything that's happening with ALL the controls/phases/parts of the song/equalization etc, in short all the things that build a dj/producer/mixer/controllerist whatever you want to call it. I hate those pioneer snobs who just beatmatch the next song and just go right into the next one, big deal, and big waste of buck, but thats only my point of view. ;P So I hope nobody gets angry here, some djs have to do just that, go into the next, but if you're wanting to get somewhere in the skills dept just use the Sjiet of your gear in creative ways
Yee Bedilion
19.01.2011
I see Vestax PDXs and Tech 1200s go for under $200 each all the time.

NExt time you see a pair buy them for me and ship them to NL, 250 each and 200 bones shiping to get to this rock I live on haha. Should cover it. lol
Hermine Lally
19.01.2011
It might be tough if you're in a remote area but here in the states, especially major cities, turntables are everywhere and much cheaper than CDJs.

I see Vestax PDXs and Tech 1200s go for under $200 each all the time.

Here in Philly, they are standard in every decent evening club, but Philly is a DJ town.
Yee Bedilion
19.01.2011
I too am in the same boat.

I got all thee controllers and the theory but my skills are weak.

What I have been doing is setting the pitch fader to the encoder on the X1 so its more responsive then just trying to use a button to pitch adjust.

I live in St. John's, Newfoundland. Nothing is really that cheap. I'm waiting for a turntable or two to turn up on the second hand market. Its a big wait.

X1 Encoder will have to do me for now.
Larhonda Veuleman
18.01.2011
Exactly. You can always map buttons to arbitrarily small increments for fine adjustments.

Reliability and so on, while a strongpoint of Technics is not exactly a big factor when learning to beatmatch @ home.

If CDJs were cheap I'd recommend them. They're not - buying a pair of CDJs gets you a workable but very basic and inflexible system, and at really considerable expense. The economics just don't make sense.
Lisa Lochotzki
18.01.2011
Don't tell me you can't... Back In the 80's I learn on modified tape deck and on Radio Shack (Realistic) belt-drive turntables (with wax paper underneath the slip mat so it can slip easier)... oh yeah the pitch wasn't a fader but the kind you have on the old Technics Sl-B2.

You may learn the hard way on regular midi controller if they don't have high resolution pitch fader... nothing bad here. You'll find it easier on higher end gear, and understand why It cost more. Still you'll learn.
Ulysses Vittetoe
18.01.2011
Originally Posted by willrjmarshall
CDJs and turntables are a bit of a dead end.

You can learn to beatmatch on any controller with jogs and a pitch fader
Not true at all. Pioneer CDJs and a pair of technics are still the club standard for a reason, and they will be that way for a while. It's because they're the most reliable, and they do what they're meant to do quite well. Also, manual beatmatching on an S4 isn't even that nice to do at the moment, nevermind the cheaper controllers.
Kiyoko Wellisch
18.01.2011
Bullshit. The pitch fader of most midi controllers isn't nearly good enough to beat match with. They are always too small and standard midi isn't accurate enough.

Get some turntables or some cheap CDJs.
Larhonda Veuleman
18.01.2011
CDJs and turntables are a bit of a dead end.

You can learn to beatmatch on any controller with jogs and a pitch fader
Melinda Shick
18.01.2011
Originally Posted by coolout
GET SOME TURNTABLES...the easiest, cheapest and most fun way to learn how to beatmatch.

You can always find someone selling some good turntables cheap, there are literally MILLIONS of them out there.

There's always some kid, that buys some believeing he was going to be the next ________(insert turntablist name here) and then decides that it's not for him.

I have a friend that can't say no to cheap turntables...he has I believe 4 or 5 pairs of Tech 1200s in his house.

My advice is to troll craigslist or pawn shops and get some decent turntables: Tech 1200s, Vestax PDXs, or even Numark tt-500 or TTXs...then buy a couple records that you like.

You learn how to mix by ear without a tempo display and with no latency. Plus you might actually get into buying records and discovering music that you might not find online.
I have to say i'm believeing of going this route, i miss the feel of vinyl. Will be a while 'till i have funds though.
Hermine Lally
18.01.2011
GET SOME TURNTABLES...the easiest, cheapest and most fun way to learn how to beatmatch.

You can always find someone selling some good turntables cheap, there are literally MILLIONS of them out there.

There's always some kid, that buys some believeing he was going to be the next ________(insert turntablist name here) and then decides that it's not for him.

I have a friend that can't say no to cheap turntables...he has I believe 4 or 5 pairs of Tech 1200s in his house.

My advice is to troll craigslist or pawn shops and get some decent turntables: Tech 1200s, Vestax PDXs, or even Numark tt-500 or TTXs...then buy a couple records that you like.

You learn how to mix by ear without a tempo display and with no latency. Plus you might actually get into buying records and discovering music that you might not find online.
Gilma Marchini
18.01.2011
Originally Posted by DJKeyWee
mmm... get rid of the screen would be the best... but it's me.
True. No need to buy anything, just dim the screen to black and get your match on. That's what I did, with midifighters no less.
Lisa Lochotzki
17.01.2011
mmm, interesting, I'll dig it. Thanks.
Ulysses Vittetoe
17.01.2011
Originally Posted by DJKeyWee
I don't have any pitch fader bug with my sc2000, I must be lucky?
One of the sc2000 threads here has mentioned it and there's been talk of it on the denon community s as well. Supposedly they're releasing a firmware update later in the month to fix it though.
Lisa Lochotzki
17.01.2011
I don't have any pitch fader bug with my sc2000, I must be lucky?
Ulysses Vittetoe
17.01.2011
The sc2000 currently has a firmware bug with the pitch faders, just an fyi. If you want to really learn to beatmatch skip a controller for now and get that pair of 350s. The s4 is no help either even since the settings for changing the pitch bend sensitivity are bugged in traktor s4 and the pitch faders are small. However, maybe wait a bit and take a look at the ddj t1 because the jog wheels and pitch faders are also nice and big plus it's from pioneer so you know you're getting quality.
Nedra Fresneda
17.01.2011
turn off the phase meter and bpm/pitch% readings. time will train your ears not only to match bpms but know when the beat is phased (even the tiniest bit). you can turn snap and quant off for a closer "cdj" experience, will help your timing too

i'm kinda in the same boat as you since i'm going back to the basics a bit, just needed a proper pitch fader and keep myself busy on those not in the mood/not "live remixing crowds".

i don't consider it cheating, just wasted time if you are not doing something interesting with it.
Antonetta Wikel
17.01.2011
Originally Posted by DJKeyWee
mmm... get rid of the screen would be the best... but it's me.
+1 just take two tracks sync one to the other manually without ANY visual assistance. and keep em together for as long as possible. Don't even worry about mixing, just keep em in sync. Best way to learn beatmatching IMO. You gotta train your ears.

It's funny because I'm coming from the other direction, been beatmatching on vinyl and CD's for nearly 2 decades and now I have this sync button that allows me freedom to loop and cue jump,basically remix on the fly. Ultimately I'm very happy with my current setup as it allows me to mix "oldschool" or "controllerist" depending on my mood.
Lisa Lochotzki
17.01.2011
mmm... get rid of the screen would be the best... but it's me.
Teresia Janusch
17.01.2011
ditto...

the phase meter in traktor should help you learn too
Lisa Lochotzki
17.01.2011
Anything with a pitch fader that fits your budget... as simple as this.

A pair of Denon SC2000 works a treat.

<< Back to Reviews of DJ equipment Reply

Copyright 2012-2023
DJRANKINGS.ORG n.g.o.
Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan

Created by Ajaxel CMS

Terms & Privacy