Traditional House
Progressive House
Tech House
Techno
Electro House
Trance
Electronica

United States
United Kingdom
Germany
Italy
France
Spain
Netherlands

learning CDJ from s4 for a small gig

Home :: General Discussion :: learning CDJ from s4 for a small gigReply

learning CDJ from s4 for a small gig Posted on: 19.06.2012 by Zulma Ramji hey guys, Ive been learning and playing on S4. I might be able to play in about a week but the venue has CDJ and they would want me to use them so that there is no commotion before resident dj. How long does it take to learn CDJs? I am going to be playing deep tech house. i will probably have 2 hours on the weekend to practise on friend's one. Maybe you can send over the tutorials for basics? cheers
Carmelo Politowicz 03.07.2012	Originally Posted by vpech013 it must be the settings in traktor that i messed up. I had this - Screen Shot 2012-07-03 at 11.18.02 AM.png but for some reason only deck A was playing and deck B wasn't routed to any channels. I assigned Deck B on CDJ. If i select Output L on deck B in tractor, both decks would be playing through one channel on the mixer. Any advise is much appreciated as i most likely will play this week and need to get this sorted out! thanks First off, if I'm not mistaken, are you trying to use the CDJ's as a HID controller for traktor? Assuming so, I can see one glaring problem with your settings - you have both left outputs going to channel A regardless of whether it's left/right, and vice versa for channel B. In any event, once you plug in the USB's to the computer, you should run the auto-setup/configuration wizard to get things set up correctly. I've never done it since I don't own CDJ's - but I'm sure a google search can help you, or download the manual for the CDJ's - it may be in there. Again - all else fails, you can just ditch traktor and play using USB/CD's as if they were turntables through the mixer. That's probably the easiest solution frankly.
Zulma Ramji 03.07.2012	it must be the settings in traktor that i messed up. I had this - Screen Shot 2012-07-03 at 11.18.02 AM.png but for some reason only deck A was playing and deck B wasn't routed to any channels. I assigned Deck B on CDJ. If i select Output L on deck B in tractor, both decks would be playing through one channel on the mixer. Any advise is much appreciated as i most likely will play this week and need to get this sorted out! thanks
Nancey Inderlied 29.06.2012	Originally Posted by Vandalus Hmm. I don't know if this is the "best" way to use rekordbox, but what I do is import my itunes playlists, which are for the most part "smart playlists." Then plugged in my USB drive, right clicked on each playlist that I wanted to bring over and clicked the "transfer" button with the name of the USB drive. It copied everything over and works fine as best I could tell on CDJ's. My only issue with rekorbox - and I could certainly be missing something here - is how do I best update/add files to the USB drive once there have been additions or changes to the playlist in rekordbox? The only solution I have come up with is to just re-copy everything over; it doesn't seem like there is a way to just update the new tracks to copy over, unless again I'm missing something somewhere. Any advice from peeps with more rekordbox experience than me? If you update a playlist and then re export it. It should just update the changes. Or export the existing tracks at light speed. As far as HID, you select the deck when you connect the decks. It's up to the audio routing to control the audio outputs.
Nancey Inderlied 29.06.2012	Originally Posted by vpech013 Hey guys, so i had the gig yesterday! wanted to tell you how it went and what i learned. So i was using CDJ 2000 with my laptop with traktor. I hooked up both CDJs through a USB cable and everything would have been perfect if both of them weren't going through the same channel. And i could NOT figure out in the traktor settings (i tried literary everything) how to have sound coming out through different channels. tried switching cables, everything! Good thing i had a USB with music, so i had one CDJ on traktor and one CDJ with USB. (i used rekordbox, but i must have fucked up and i didnt get any waveforms on the display). So i just loaded the song i was gonna play on USB on a spare deck in traktor for reference. I believe everything went well and im most likely be playing next week again. Things i learned: 1. I love traktor. fuck its such a good and intuitive interface and hardware. CDJ felt bulky and not particularly better. I also realized i have REALLY hard time mixing without seeing the waves of the song to foresee breaks etc. I love traktor effect. Even if i fuck up on s4, i can mask it quickly. With CDJ i couldnt figure out how i can do the same (maybe im missing something here - hardware?) 2. I didnt expect that beatmatching can be so difficult - on s4 (i dont use sync) i can see .00 BPM which makes it suuper easy so i never really bothered to learn the 'proper way' without looking at the wavelength of song, and it's bpm. Thats all. gotta get back to learning cheers This is why Rekordbox exists. It's free! And easy to use! And makes virtually every single one of those issues completely disappear. I still don't understand how people walk into a gig with 2ks and dont take the half hour beforehand to make a Rekordbox drive.
Jerica Salava 29.06.2012	Originally Posted by loverocket If you always use SYNC. Turn it off. Practice with the SYNC off. Don't look at the BPM. The CUE and PLAY buttons were weird to me coming from a DENON DN 2000. Make sure you really understand the JOG wheel and the SET CUE and PLAY on the CDJ's. > Damn I'm good. I did say "don't look at the BPM" >
Jerica Salava 29.06.2012	Originally Posted by vpech013 2. I didnt expect that beatmatching can be so difficult - #1 there you go faderswagger ^^^^ #2 now you know why it's important to learn the CDJ2000's and why club owners want it uniform. >
Natalia Bucko 21.06.2012	Originally Posted by loverocket I guess when you have to learn to beatmatch on two 1200's with disco vinyl and a rotary mixer, you appreciate the discipline. Oh well why didn't you say so. In that case I'll start bowing at your feet right now.
Carmelo Politowicz 03.07.2012	Originally Posted by vpech013 it must be the settings in traktor that i messed up. I had this - Screen Shot 2012-07-03 at 11.18.02 AM.png but for some reason only deck A was playing and deck B wasn't routed to any channels. I assigned Deck B on CDJ. If i select Output L on deck B in tractor, both decks would be playing through one channel on the mixer. Any advise is much appreciated as i most likely will play this week and need to get this sorted out! thanks First off, if I'm not mistaken, are you trying to use the CDJ's as a HID controller for traktor? Assuming so, I can see one glaring problem with your settings - you have both left outputs going to channel A regardless of whether it's left/right, and vice versa for channel B. In any event, once you plug in the USB's to the computer, you should run the auto-setup/configuration wizard to get things set up correctly. I've never done it since I don't own CDJ's - but I'm sure a google search can help you, or download the manual for the CDJ's - it may be in there. Again - all else fails, you can just ditch traktor and play using USB/CD's as if they were turntables through the mixer. That's probably the easiest solution frankly.
Alla Bluemke 03.07.2012	No thats not really it either. It happens with all cdjs when you plug them in. It only plays out of one soundcard. You have to aggregate the soundcards, then assisgn the output channels you have. There should have been assignments it like ! and B on the cdjs as well. I have cdj 2000s and traktor, but have never actually hooked them into my laptop lol. I'll try this week. As for it not being intuitive as traktor and no wave forms and such that 100% correct! I more about the music at that point. When you are given everything in front of you that when you need to focus in track, feel and count drops and builds, ride the pitch a little to correct bpm faults. It just takes a little practice is all.
Zulma Ramji 03.07.2012	it must be the settings in traktor that i messed up. I had this - Screen Shot 2012-07-03 at 11.18.02 AM.png but for some reason only deck A was playing and deck B wasn't routed to any channels. I assigned Deck B on CDJ. If i select Output L on deck B in tractor, both decks would be playing through one channel on the mixer. Any advise is much appreciated as i most likely will play this week and need to get this sorted out! thanks
Nancey Inderlied 29.06.2012	Originally Posted by Vandalus Hmm. I don't know if this is the "best" way to use rekordbox, but what I do is import my itunes playlists, which are for the most part "smart playlists." Then plugged in my USB drive, right clicked on each playlist that I wanted to bring over and clicked the "transfer" button with the name of the USB drive. It copied everything over and works fine as best I could tell on CDJ's. My only issue with rekorbox - and I could certainly be missing something here - is how do I best update/add files to the USB drive once there have been additions or changes to the playlist in rekordbox? The only solution I have come up with is to just re-copy everything over; it doesn't seem like there is a way to just update the new tracks to copy over, unless again I'm missing something somewhere. Any advice from peeps with more rekordbox experience than me? If you update a playlist and then re export it. It should just update the changes. Or export the existing tracks at light speed. As far as HID, you select the deck when you connect the decks. It's up to the audio routing to control the audio outputs.
Addie Engbrecht 29.06.2012	I never used CDJ2000's in HID mode or anything, but I'm guessing you need to change a setting inside the CDJ to make one of them Deck A and the other Deck B (channel 1 and the other channel 2 I'm assuming). How else would Traktor know what is what
Carmelo Politowicz 29.06.2012	Hmm. I don't know if this is the "best" way to use rekordbox, but what I do is import my itunes playlists, which are for the most part "smart playlists." Then plugged in my USB drive, right clicked on each playlist that I wanted to bring over and clicked the "transfer" button with the name of the USB drive. It copied everything over and works fine as best I could tell on CDJ's. My only issue with rekorbox - and I could certainly be missing something here - is how do I best update/add files to the USB drive once there have been additions or changes to the playlist in rekordbox? The only solution I have come up with is to just re-copy everything over; it doesn't seem like there is a way to just update the new tracks to copy over, unless again I'm missing something somewhere. Any advice from peeps with more rekordbox experience than me?
Zulma Ramji 29.06.2012	i used rekordbox but for some fucking reason no waveforms were showing. need to try again.
Nancey Inderlied 29.06.2012	Originally Posted by vpech013 Hey guys, so i had the gig yesterday! wanted to tell you how it went and what i learned. So i was using CDJ 2000 with my laptop with traktor. I hooked up both CDJs through a USB cable and everything would have been perfect if both of them weren't going through the same channel. And i could NOT figure out in the traktor settings (i tried literary everything) how to have sound coming out through different channels. tried switching cables, everything! Good thing i had a USB with music, so i had one CDJ on traktor and one CDJ with USB. (i used rekordbox, but i must have fucked up and i didnt get any waveforms on the display). So i just loaded the song i was gonna play on USB on a spare deck in traktor for reference. I believe everything went well and im most likely be playing next week again. Things i learned: 1. I love traktor. fuck its such a good and intuitive interface and hardware. CDJ felt bulky and not particularly better. I also realized i have REALLY hard time mixing without seeing the waves of the song to foresee breaks etc. I love traktor effect. Even if i fuck up on s4, i can mask it quickly. With CDJ i couldnt figure out how i can do the same (maybe im missing something here - hardware?) 2. I didnt expect that beatmatching can be so difficult - on s4 (i dont use sync) i can see .00 BPM which makes it suuper easy so i never really bothered to learn the 'proper way' without looking at the wavelength of song, and it's bpm. Thats all. gotta get back to learning cheers This is why Rekordbox exists. It's free! And easy to use! And makes virtually every single one of those issues completely disappear. I still don't understand how people walk into a gig with 2ks and dont take the half hour beforehand to make a Rekordbox drive.
Sally Walkowiak 29.06.2012	One thing nobody has mentioned, if you're a Traktor user, turn off the phase meter. This will also teach you to rely on your ears instead of your eyes.
Jerica Salava 29.06.2012	Originally Posted by loverocket If you always use SYNC. Turn it off. Practice with the SYNC off. Don't look at the BPM. The CUE and PLAY buttons were weird to me coming from a DENON DN 2000. Make sure you really understand the JOG wheel and the SET CUE and PLAY on the CDJ's. > Damn I'm good. I did say "don't look at the BPM" >
Jerica Salava 29.06.2012	Originally Posted by vpech013 2. I didnt expect that beatmatching can be so difficult - #1 there you go faderswagger ^^^^ #2 now you know why it's important to learn the CDJ2000's and why club owners want it uniform. >
Carmelo Politowicz 29.06.2012	I don't have CDJ's, but my understanding is if you try to connect them to each other you are supposed to use a hub, or in the alternative using their LINK cables. Perhaps that's why you were only getting sound out of one channel - or maybe your traktor audio settings were not set properly. Were you using an Audio 6/8/10 soundcard, or was it a "traktor certified mixer" that you were plugged into? I'm assuming that you could have just used the USB alone so long as the CDJ's were properly linked with each other and not concerned yourself with the computer at all - the waveform is displayed on the CDJ 2000 screen, so that tells you when the breaks are - when you load the track it will analyze it right there on the fly, or at least, it should. And if it doesn't, the fall back position (and truthfully, should be the first thing you do) is know your tracks that you are playing well enough. I mean, if you know the song, you are going to know when the break(s) drop, and how long they are and generally at what point you need to start mixing out of the song. At least, that's the goal in my opinion. Re beatmatching, if you were having trouble with it you should then really try to practice on your S4 without actually looking at the computer screen at all - the only way you are going to train your ears is if you are forced to rely only on them. Turn your monitor off (or dim if a laptop) if you have to. If you are constantly looking at the readout to tell you that its 124.27 bpm and then you match the exact tempo with the other deck to the same speed, you haven't really learned to rely on your ears to tell you when one is faster than the other. Sure it works to just look at the screen, but it will help you a ton in the long run to just work on getting your ears used to doing all the work, and things will get a lot easier once you have the skill down to fall back on in case things get haywire. Also, in my experience with traktor the beatgrids are often off, sometimes by a little bit, and other times it's a complete shit show - when that happens you can't rely even on the screen because once the grids off, everything is off - so you are going to be forced to rely only on your ears so its best to have the skill down. How big was the venue? Did you get positive feedback? Congrats btw.
Zulma Ramji 29.06.2012	Hey guys, so i had the gig yesterday! wanted to tell you how it went and what i learned. So i was using CDJ 2000 with my laptop with traktor. I hooked up both CDJs through a USB cable and everything would have been perfect if both of them weren't going through the same channel. And i could NOT figure out in the traktor settings (i tried literary everything) how to have sound coming out through different channels. tried switching cables, everything! Good thing i had a USB with music, so i had one CDJ on traktor and one CDJ with USB. (i used rekordbox, but i must have fucked up and i didnt get any waveforms on the display). So i just loaded the song i was gonna play on USB on a spare deck in traktor for reference. I believe everything went well and im most likely be playing next week again. Things i learned: 1. I love traktor. fuck its such a good and intuitive interface and hardware. CDJ felt bulky and not particularly better. I also realized i have REALLY hard time mixing without seeing the waves of the song to foresee breaks etc. I love traktor effect. Even if i fuck up on s4, i can mask it quickly. With CDJ i couldnt figure out how i can do the same (maybe im missing something here - hardware?) 2. I didnt expect that beatmatching can be so difficult - on s4 (i dont use sync) i can see .00 BPM which makes it suuper easy so i never really bothered to learn the 'proper way' without looking at the wavelength of song, and it's bpm. Thats all. gotta get back to learning cheers
Era Roka 21.06.2012	I have great respect for turntableist's, and you need a lot of practice before you can temposync with your ears(if you want to do it faster than 15 Min ). I bought some tables myself and i know it's not easy and i really don't want to insult anyone so i'm just gonna quote discovery. Again i am not looking for a digital-turntable fight and that an animal can be trained to do this is just really intresting to me and doesn't mean it's easy. Animal Drummers Fish can’t drum, but over the past three decades, researchers have discovered that numerous other animals, including palm cockatoos, woodpeckers and kangaroo rats all know how to tap a beat. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/1...20061113141500
Jerica Salava 21.06.2012	May an unknown vinyl rip drift on you next gig.
Natalia Bucko 21.06.2012	lawl, I have no respect for beatmatching with BPM readers at all, and I don't trainwreck with or without sync. You should probably find a rocking chair and discuss "the old times" with the other old jaded DJs, becasue nobody else is going to care.
Jerica Salava 21.06.2012	no bowing, just respect beatmatching. Or else the Train Wreck Gods will visit your beat grid.
Natalia Bucko 21.06.2012	Originally Posted by loverocket I guess when you have to learn to beatmatch on two 1200's with disco vinyl and a rotary mixer, you appreciate the discipline. Oh well why didn't you say so. In that case I'll start bowing at your feet right now.
Carmelo Politowicz 21.06.2012	Originally Posted by loverocket I guess when you have to learn to beatmatch on two 1200's with disco vinyl and a rotary mixer, you appreciate the discipline. My bad - I got confused on your response. I thought you were mocking me...
Jerica Salava 21.06.2012	I guess when you have to learn to beatmatch on two 1200's with disco vinyl and a rotary mixer, you appreciate the discipline.
Carmelo Politowicz 21.06.2012	Originally Posted by faderswagger Lawl, maybe what we do is that hard for you.... But to me it's easy enough that I'm pretty sure a monkey could hit a button on time and then move a jogwheel to fix it. I've seen plenty of very smart people put headphones on after I've cued it for them and seen the looks on their faces of absolute bewilderment at what's happening in trying to listen to two different things and analyze which one is going faster or slower. Then, once they believe they've got it cued properly and tempo synced, start to bring the new track in only to hear the dreaded double count of a trainwreak. I know you're being facetious, but it does take practice to do it with only your ears, and no other visual aid or help. It's definitely a skill set that's for sure, as someone above said.
Julissa Serrone 21.06.2012	...and you concluded this from your years or extensive research on the capabilities of a monkey. C'mon man!
Natalia Bucko 22.06.2012	Originally Posted by loverocket Are you retarded? or just a troll? > Lawl, maybe what we do is that hard for you.... But to me it's easy enough that I'm pretty sure a monkey could hit a button on time and then move a jogwheel to fix it.
Jerica Salava 22.06.2012	Originally Posted by faderswagger Me too! I don't ever mean that as a figure of speech when i say it, I believe it's literally true. I would love to get funding for a research project on this, I really believe monkeys could easily be taught to beatmatch if you set the tempo for them. Are you retarded? or just a troll? >
Alla Bluemke 22.06.2012	Originally Posted by faderswagger Oh i know. I'm not trying to start new lingo, it's just the terminology I always use to describe it. But oh yes, totally! Everyone should learn to beatmatch without BPM readouts. It's a great skill to have, I'm just saying that for this guy to spin on CDJs this weekend, he doesn't need it. Me too! I don't ever mean that as a figure of speech when i say it, I believe it's literally true. I would love to get funding for a research project on this, I really believe monkeys could easily be taught to beatmatch if you set the tempo for them. Its def not hard, its just a matter of whether he actually knows how to beat match or not. If he does, then yeah 2 hours of practice on cdjs is fine. If not you are not going to learn or hear the difference of to beat doubling very easily, not right away. It takes a little bit of ear training to get the fine differences. Plus knowing which way to actually fix the track with the jog. Its easy after you learn how to do it. Its just the learning part will take some time to perfect.
Alla Bluemke 22.06.2012	Originally Posted by loverocket Does Rekordbox analyze BPM etc. ? That would be great. > Yup. That way you are damn accurate. You don't leave it up to the cdj to figure it out. It uploads waveforms and everything. Its pretty much the laptop on the cdj 2000 screen.
Natalia Bucko 21.06.2012	Originally Posted by Jack Bastard Sorry Faderswagger but that's redefining what beatmatching is. I would bet that 99% of djs would say that beatmatching is what you call tempomatching. Besides which it's an easy to learn skill that makes you a considerably more flexible dj, so why not learn it? Oh i know. I'm not trying to start new lingo, it's just the terminology I always use to describe it. But oh yes, totally! Everyone should learn to beatmatch without BPM readouts. It's a great skill to have, I'm just saying that for this guy to spin on CDJs this weekend, he doesn't need it. Originally Posted by DJDoubleYou But i must agree with faderswagger, i don't believe it's too hard to train a monkey to do that. (i'm serious) Me too! I don't ever mean that as a figure of speech when i say it, I believe it's literally true. I would love to get funding for a research project on this, I really believe monkeys could easily be taught to beatmatch if you set the tempo for them.
21.06.2012	Sorry Faderswagger but that's redefining what beatmatching is. I would bet that 99% of djs would say that beatmatching is what you call tempomatching. Besides which it's an easy to learn skill that makes you a considerably more flexible dj, so why not learn it?
Era Roka 21.06.2012	Originally Posted by karma Old schoolers? Lose the attitude mate I'm 19 and I respect the art of beatmatching as much as I respect traktor pro. Sure beatmatching is easy when you learn it but it's like riding a bike at first it sure is hard. I totaly agree with you, i believe it's essencial to be able to beatmatch. But i must agree with faderswagger, i don't believe it's too hard to train a monky to do that. (i'm serious)
Natalia Bucko 21.06.2012	Originally Posted by Jack Bastard What do all these people do when they need to mix into vinyl? Don't. Tempo matching without a BPM reader is difficult and takes practice. Originally Posted by karma Old schoolers? Lose the attitude mate I'm 19 and I respect the art of beatmatching as much as I respect traktor pro. Sure beatmatching is easy when you learn it but it's like riding a bike at first it sure is hard. Beatmatching isn't an art, it's a science. You can't really express yourself through beatmatching. something sounds in time, or not. you express yourself through what beatmatching lets you do. (yes that includes syncopation tricks, half-timing tricks etc.) So you should respect skill of beatmatching, but not its art. And what I'm contesting here is that beatmatching is hard. There's a difference between beatmatching and tempomatching. TEMPOmatching is hard, and takes a lot of practice. BEATmatching is the easy part. Tempo readers do the tempomatching part for you, so all you have to do is fix the phase, which you can learn VERY quickly.
Jerica Salava 21.06.2012	Originally Posted by guiltyblade just bring a thumb drive with your music and analyze it with rekord box. Provided the cdj 2000s are linked you will have everything you need. Very easy. Still capable of a trainwreck, but you have to really bone up to do that. Does Rekordbox analyze BPM etc. ? That would be great. >
Alla Bluemke 21.06.2012	just bring a thumb drive with your music and analyze it with rekord box. Provided the cdj 2000s are linked you will have everything you need. Very easy. Still capable of a trainwreck, but you have to really bone up to do that.
21.06.2012	What do all these people do when they need to mix into vinyl?

<< Back to General Discussion Reply

Copyright 2012-2023 DJRANKINGS.ORG n.g.o. Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan	Created by Ajaxel CMS
Terms & Privacy

The best DJ in Haiti is:

learning CDJ from s4 for a small gig