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The everything DJ thread
- Thread starter spitRR
- Start date
Is this an occupation that ages out or are there senior citizen DJ's?
Wedding/event dj's can work until retirement age. They may actually be better equipped for most occasions as having a dj vastly younger than the intended audience doesnt always work out well. Some people dont bother exploring music from the past and only focus on current offerings. This doesnt go well when your target audience doesnt like current music.
Thanks for posting that video - that mixer is amazing and I love doing endless long mixes with lots of EQ and other stuff going one - even better is that I have that track he was using!
For all things rotary - there's a place called Rotary Boutique 416 located near the Esplanade downtown. Just got off the phone with him and the gent works out of his house and modifies your gear or builds custom rotary gear. I'm going to head over there this week to take a look at some of his work, but it looks pretty sweet. No website - but it looks like he has an instagram and facebook page.
Went to Moog audio last weekend to pick up a new stylus for my turntables. Was using the Shure M44 cartridge, but Shure just decided to stop making them, and no replacements to be found. The boys at Moog have a source thats making replacements for that awesome cartridge if anyone is in need.
While I was in the hood I decided to pop by and see Eugene at play de record and do some crate digging. He had a new NXS2 mixer sitting next to the sample station that was gonna be sent out for repair..........Man, its sweet.......the entire NXS2 series is so bad ass. The mixer is noticeably bigger, and the knobs are bigger and feel nicer as well. It just .......feels right
As much as I think those rotary mixers are cool and Id like to play with one, I could never own one. I know Im a pioneer fan boy, but their gear is just so good.
While I was in the hood I decided to pop by and see Eugene at play de record and do some crate digging. He had a new NXS2 mixer sitting next to the sample station that was gonna be sent out for repair..........Man, its sweet.......the entire NXS2 series is so bad ass. The mixer is noticeably bigger, and the knobs are bigger and feel nicer as well. It just .......feels right
As much as I think those rotary mixers are cool and Id like to play with one, I could never own one. I know Im a pioneer fan boy, but their gear is just so good.
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Those Shure replacement you got are most likely the Jico's. Apparently they're very good and as close to official Shures as you can get. You should have got them from Eugene though - the poor guy is hurting.
About 2 months ago I called him to see if he still sold the Spin Clean record cleaner and he said that yes he still does. As I was about to wrap up the call he asked, "Are you coming in for one? Are you coming in?" I said, "Yeah, I'll come in after work." I got off the phone thinking he sounded kind of desperate for a sale. When I got to the store we got to talking and sure enough things have slowed down considerably for him, so much so that he can't afford to hire any staff - Eugene has become a one man show over there. His wife Donna has been telling him to pack it up, but of coarse he doesn't want to, the store is his baby after all.
I bought my Spin Clean and left the store feeling really bad for Eugene. I don't think that new location on Spadina has panned out to well for Play de Record, but when your rent on Yonge St. gets jacked up by $7000 in one year you gotta make a move.
It'll be really sad to see it go as I've been going to that store since the first week it opened.
I try to spread my business as much as I can.......I did end up spending 120 in Play de that day, and never thought to ask him if he had the shure replacements......I'll be sure to stop in more during this pandemic BS. Thanks for the heads up.
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was dictating where to spend your money lol. After re-reading my post it did sort of come off like it.
Anyhoo...
Speaking of rotaries - a few years ago I modded my old Vestax into one. I'm quite happy with it and it really suits my style better than sliders. It does feel a little weird playing hip-hop and R&B with them though, but I play mostly house and techno so that's not too much of an issue.
Anyhoo...
Speaking of rotaries - a few years ago I modded my old Vestax into one. I'm quite happy with it and it really suits my style better than sliders. It does feel a little weird playing hip-hop and R&B with them though, but I play mostly house and techno so that's not too much of an issue.
Apparently the desktop isolator I bought will be ready today. I bought it from that Rotary Boutique 416 place. He has made some of his own gear, but seems to upgrade and modify a wide variety of mixers for people. The isolator model I bought is the SP150, but I can't find anything about it on the interwebz. The closest thing I see to it is the more common Bozure ISO-201. Bozure also sells kits so that you can buy and build your own isolators. A friend did just that and I have played on his which was really sweet. Apparently the SP150 has upgraded internals for better feel and I hope... better sound. Freshly painted to match my Rane Empath mixer too.
I also upgraded the original Serato box I was using to the SL3 box which offers a big sound quality upgrade.
Lastly, I picked up a KRK 10" sub to go with my booth monitors. Now it feels the way a booth is supposed to - like you're in a pocket of rich, crisp sound, capable of shaking the house when you want go there. I'm fortunate to live in a detached house, so it looks like I'm playing music all weekend. If we weren't in this physical distancing thing - my buddies would be over and we would be doing 4 decks for sure.
This is the Bozure unit - pretty nice piece of gear.
This is the Rane Emapth as a rotary mixer, which either Rane or some aftermarket seller also provides a nice faceplate for. Pretty sweet unit, but I like my faders too much to swap them over to rotary right now.
I also upgraded the original Serato box I was using to the SL3 box which offers a big sound quality upgrade.
Lastly, I picked up a KRK 10" sub to go with my booth monitors. Now it feels the way a booth is supposed to - like you're in a pocket of rich, crisp sound, capable of shaking the house when you want go there. I'm fortunate to live in a detached house, so it looks like I'm playing music all weekend. If we weren't in this physical distancing thing - my buddies would be over and we would be doing 4 decks for sure.
This is the Bozure unit - pretty nice piece of gear.
This is the Rane Emapth as a rotary mixer, which either Rane or some aftermarket seller also provides a nice faceplate for. Pretty sweet unit, but I like my faders too much to swap them over to rotary right now.
I'd like to hear more about the upgrade to your SL3 box to improve the sound quality of it. I'm currently using an SL2 box and while it sounds fine, if there's a way to improve it further, then why not?Apparently the desktop isolator I bought will be ready today. I bought it from that Rotary Boutique 416 place. He has made some of his own gear, but seems to upgrade and modify a wide variety of mixers for people. The isolator model I bought is the SP150, but I can't find anything about it on the interwebz. The closest thing I see to it is the more common Bozure ISO-201. Bozure also sells kits so that you can buy and build your own isolators. A friend did just that and I have played on his which was really sweet. Apparently the SP150 has upgraded internals for better feel and I hope... better sound. Freshly painted to match my Rane Empath mixer too.
I also upgraded the original Serato box I was using to the SL3 box which offers a big sound quality upgrade.
Lastly, I picked up a KRK 10" sub to go with my booth monitors. Now it feels the way a booth is supposed to - like you're in a pocket of rich, crisp sound, capable of shaking the house when you want go there. I'm fortunate to live in a detached house, so it looks like I'm playing music all weekend. If we weren't in this physical distancing thing - my buddies would be over and we would be doing 4 decks for sure.
This is the Bozure unit - pretty nice piece of gear.
This is the Rane Emapth as a rotary mixer, which either Rane or some aftermarket seller also provides a nice faceplate for. Pretty sweet unit, but I like my faders too much to swap them over to rotary right now.
My upgrade was moving from the SL1 box to the SL3, not internally upgrading the SL3 box. There is a pretty significant sound upgrade between the first version and the 3rd.
From what I have read regarding moving from the SL2 to the SL3, there are no sound quality upgrades since they both use 24 bit. The SL3 allows you to directly record your sets as opposed to having to record via your mixer output/audacity if that matters to you. Personally I don't like how the record levels are displayed in Serato Scratch Live, so I continue to use Audacity to record.
Also not sure if you are using Serato Scratch Live or Serato DJ, but from my limited reading between the two, SDJ has distortion problems on tracks that are already quite full sounding, because it seems to bump up the loudness even more.
For my overall sound quality, I look at each component, wiring etc and see where my weakest links are. I thought it was my speakers and mixer that I should be upgrading, but then was told the SL1 box would be the weakest like by far in my chain of components - something I would agree with now having changed it. It was also the least time consuming and costly item to upgrade if that matters.
From what I have read regarding moving from the SL2 to the SL3, there are no sound quality upgrades since they both use 24 bit. The SL3 allows you to directly record your sets as opposed to having to record via your mixer output/audacity if that matters to you. Personally I don't like how the record levels are displayed in Serato Scratch Live, so I continue to use Audacity to record.
Also not sure if you are using Serato Scratch Live or Serato DJ, but from my limited reading between the two, SDJ has distortion problems on tracks that are already quite full sounding, because it seems to bump up the loudness even more.
For my overall sound quality, I look at each component, wiring etc and see where my weakest links are. I thought it was my speakers and mixer that I should be upgrading, but then was told the SL1 box would be the weakest like by far in my chain of components - something I would agree with now having changed it. It was also the least time consuming and costly item to upgrade if that matters.
Bump.
Finally got my Isolator a couple of weeks ago from Rotary Boutique 416. It needed a replacement XLR port, but since the unit/parts came from Italy, it took forever for them to arrive. It's made by a small company called Audio Solutions - model is SP-ISO and Rotary Boutique 416 had the internal components nicely upgraded, tuned and painted/weathered to match my gear. SP ISO - Audio Solution
Audio Solutions has some other pretty interesting gear too.
I finally had some time to play with the isolator last night and it sounds truly dope. It massively boosts the volume if you are not careful, but the sound quality is top notch. The frequency separation is light years ahead of what the 3band EQ does on my Empath mixer, which I thought was already good. The isolator adds so much depth to playing music and can easily be worked into the master out when running 4 decks and wanting to record the sets. It was $420 and a lot of waiting, but my wife said the whole house shakes much more than before when I turn it up, so mission accomplished. It almost has me thinking about going back to playing vinyl.
Finally got my Isolator a couple of weeks ago from Rotary Boutique 416. It needed a replacement XLR port, but since the unit/parts came from Italy, it took forever for them to arrive. It's made by a small company called Audio Solutions - model is SP-ISO and Rotary Boutique 416 had the internal components nicely upgraded, tuned and painted/weathered to match my gear. SP ISO - Audio Solution
Audio Solutions has some other pretty interesting gear too.
I finally had some time to play with the isolator last night and it sounds truly dope. It massively boosts the volume if you are not careful, but the sound quality is top notch. The frequency separation is light years ahead of what the 3band EQ does on my Empath mixer, which I thought was already good. The isolator adds so much depth to playing music and can easily be worked into the master out when running 4 decks and wanting to record the sets. It was $420 and a lot of waiting, but my wife said the whole house shakes much more than before when I turn it up, so mission accomplished. It almost has me thinking about going back to playing vinyl.
ok.... maybe it's covid boredom, or basic frustration of my current set up. I've been using Technics 1200s, using serato SL1. It's fine, but I am going to take the digital plunge. I found a number of controllers from Pioneer that has phono inputs so that box is checked. I've now discovered that there is a serato competitor - rekordbox.
Also experimented with Serato Pro, and the songs more or less beat match themselves, which is interesting.
So... let's now see how deep this rabbit hole goes. I suppose I always knew this but when I priced out some high level pioneer gear, the price quickly surpassed $10K.
I might splurge on this bad boy instead:
Also experimented with Serato Pro, and the songs more or less beat match themselves, which is interesting.
So... let's now see how deep this rabbit hole goes. I suppose I always knew this but when I priced out some high level pioneer gear, the price quickly surpassed $10K.
I might splurge on this bad boy instead:
Anyone here into the Anjunadeep label? Anyone know of any comparable labels?
Also, it's been interesting to see how the music landscape has changed - labels are signing Artist/DJs; Artist/DJs are making music, but not releasing it; Artist/DJs within the label are only playing their own music, or music made by other Artist/DJs within the label exclusively. They've created exclusivity/scarcity.
Also, it's been interesting to see how the music landscape has changed - labels are signing Artist/DJs; Artist/DJs are making music, but not releasing it; Artist/DJs within the label are only playing their own music, or music made by other Artist/DJs within the label exclusively. They've created exclusivity/scarcity.
I've grabbed a bunch of the tracks produced by Dusky. Years ago I stopped looking for music by record label and now just look by artist, so I have pretty much stopped paying attention to the labels they are on. I will often use Beatport to see how the additional producers are on tracks I like and then search the entire catalogue on those producers. Leads down it's own rabbit hole too.
Why not keep your decks and buy the controller? Run a 4 deck system based on how/what you feel like playing.
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