Looking for cd decks.. Anyone got some? Or where's a good place to buy?

[djabstraction]

Hey I don't think you should rule out Denon! I got my first set of decks back in April and haven't regretted getting Denon in the slightest. I got some DNS 1000's which have got to be the smallest decks every for the amount of features they have,



Complete with custom "slip mat" design. Although you need like the most awkward sized allen key known to man kind. At least you can personalise easily.

Pros,

1. Very small
2. In-built effects
3. Large jog wheel
4. Very reliable (when using CDA, MP3 can be a bit flakey, CBR and VBR, both of which I wouldn't advise using)
5. Large LCD display
6. Bang for your buck
7. Changeable slip mat



Cons,

1. Only 0.1% pitch accuracy
2. Pitch slider can sometimes jump 0.2% rather than 0.1%, or change by another 0.1% very shortly after setting, so you need to double check.
3. Effects can be a little awkward to use as you have to set them up before cueing the track.



Of course I don't know about all of the top end Pioneers, but in my opinion these are far superior than the low end Pioneers which seem really cheaply built (no offence meant). One reason I went for these is their size as they fit nicely out of the way and don't even take up my whole desk when I get them out for a mix.

The pitch accuracy is a bit of a bastard as it means you will more than likely have to ride the pitch ever so slightly in order to keep a track in time, but I don't think that's a bad thing, it can only improve your skills.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw my penny in as I love my little Denons and will get some 3500's to replace these one day too.

[BassT4ken]

Originally Posted by lethalleigh

I must agree with you here dfx, get used to listening to tracks and after a while you know when changes are gonna happen in a track and how long it is to the end roughly! pre-listening to determine when and how you bring in next track, and setup EQ is important but effort on such time features is not recommended eg. you cant do it with vinyl anyway, its guesswork and becoming familiar with records and the track, and like dfx said "LISTENING" IS THE KEY.

As for the larger CDJ's, i can speak for the 800's and 1000's, its not possible to as dfx said "set the time display to "time remaining till cue point x", its only time remaining for track (default) or time lapsed for track! but if you really wanna use this technique, as much as i suggest against, use the time lapse feature and set your cue, then it will tell you how far in the track you are, then when set change it to time remaining, and you can then start it from the previous amount you got from time lapsed to get to your cue point! but ill say again not something i recommend either, its one of those bad habits that software can give you as i have used software when i started out also, now i use both but have learnt from the bad habits associated with it!

Thank you, it's exactly what I wanted to know.... So, if You don't use time-remaining with cue, the pre listening is very very important. If you want to make a transition at a specific moment, you must pre listen and remember exactly when you want to make the transition. I guess... it's maybe a bad habit due to software yes... So last question ^^, how do you do with cd decks to make a transition at a specific point for the tune X and another specific point for the tune Y ? (Make a transition when the specific points for both tunes arrive at the same time)... Hope you understand what I want to say ^^

[dfx]

well i suppose it could work like this...

for the track currently playing, you know your point X is at lets say 00:40 (time remaining) of the track. now you're cueing in the new track, and you set your cue point at 00:05 (time played). then you start prelistening and find your point Y of the new track at 00:55 (time played). this gives you playing time of 50 seconds in the new track before point Y, which means you have to start the new track when the time remaining display for the currently playing track reaches 01:30.

this isn't 100% precise, as the time display isn't influenced by the pitch slider, which means the seconds will run faster if the track is pitched up more.

i must admit i never do such calculations, i rather go by feeling. when i prelisten the new track, i hear roughly how long it takes from the cue point to the point where a certain part of the track (like melody) kicks in. this gives me an estimate whether i need to keep the transition short or longer. also when the currently playing track comes closer to the end, i'm listening to how much the track has broken down yet, and this gives me an estimate to when i can start with the transition. of course it helps when you know the track somewhat better, but it can also work for unknown tracks. but at all times, this isn't a precise science, i still get the timing wrong many times, and this is what takes learning and experience

[dfx]

Originally Posted by djabstraction

Hey I don't think you should rule out Denon!

ok i take that back i've only tried a denon cdj for like a few seconds and i found the jog wheel with the slipmat kinda strange, esp. in handling. but i guess that's just a matter of getting used to.

that being said, my new "hate brand" in matters of cdjs is numark i had to play on a pair of those once, and it was just horrible.

anyway, i'm trying to get a pair of pioneer 800s now

[djabstraction]

Originally Posted by dfx

ok i take that back i've only tried a denon cdj for like a few seconds and i found the jog wheel with the slipmat kinda strange, esp. in handling. but i guess that's just a matter of getting used to.

that being said, my new "hate brand" in matters of cdjs is numark i had to play on a pair of those once, and it was just horrible.

anyway, i'm trying to get a pair of pioneer 800s now

I must admin, the Numark Axis decks never really appealed to me, although when I went asking around Brighton, I got the usual salesman bullshit as the shop I asked in happened to sell them. Stupid thing was they wanted to charge about £400 more than online resellers due to their "after sales support"... twats.

You are right about the jog wheel on the S1000s being a bit strange, I don't really use it much, just for cueing the track, and the pitch bend buttons the rest of the time. Although I would look allot cooler if I was to get to grips with the jog wheel

Good luck on getting some 800s! They look amazing, I always have liked the jog wheels on those things, they look really substantial.

[dfx]

Originally Posted by djabstraction

IYou are right about the jog wheel on the S1000s being a bit strange, I don't really use it much, just for cueing the track, and the pitch bend buttons the rest of the time. Although I would look allot cooler if I was to get to grips with the jog wheel

how can you spin at all without using the jog wheel i have my hands on it all the time, it's like the most important tool for me esp. on a cdj with a precision of only 0.1% (like mine also).

Good luck on getting some 800s! They look amazing, I always have liked the jog wheels on those things, they look really substantial.

yeah, the sensitivity and the precision of those things is really amazing, you can hear and feel every millimeter of movement of the wheel, be it fast or slow. same goes for the pitch slider, there's no jumping around between two settings are skipping over single steps when moving it (like it happens on the cdj-100 and even worse on the cdj-200 as well), it's precise to the touch. once you used it you never want to go back it's really a great step towards coming close to vinyl feeling. the only thing about them that makes me sad is that you cannot set them to a +- 6% pitch range like with their bigger brother cdj-1000 - as they'd have a precision of 0.02% then, which would be _really_ nice.

[djabstraction]

Originally Posted by dfx

how can you spin at all without using the jog wheel i have my hands on it all the time, it's like the most important tool for me esp. on a cdj with a precision of only 0.1% (like mine also).

haha, well, I guess I haven't learnt any other way to be honest, I just press the + or - pitch bend button every so often, it's quite easy to work out how often you need to press it.

Originally Posted by dfx

yeah, the sensitivity and the precision of those things is really amazing, you can hear and feel every millimeter of movement of the wheel, be it fast or slow. same goes for the pitch slider, there's no jumping around between two settings are skipping over single steps when moving it (like it happens on the cdj-100 and even worse on the cdj-200 as well), it's precise to the touch. once you used it you never want to go back it's really a great step towards coming close to vinyl feeling. the only thing about them that makes me sad is that you cannot set them to a +- 6% pitch range like with their bigger brother cdj-1000 - as they'd have a precision of 0.02% then, which would be _really_ nice.

So what's the precision of the 800's? 0.1%? I thought it was more accurate than that, though I guess as you say, it's the superior quality hardware that makes the extra cost rather than pitch precision.

I've never used vinyl personally, I'm a noob! And I prefer small cds over massive heavy boxes of vinyl any day...

[dfx]

the 800s have a pitch slider precision of 0.05% (at least when set to the +- 10% pitch range), which is really sufficient for most uses. (even the cdj-200s already have 0.05% precision, but their slider hardware basically sucks - you move it a bit and it jumps up/down by 0.15% or even 0.2%, it's really hard trying to set it to a certain specific value.)

i've never used vinyl myself, but sometimes i do wish i'd be using an analog medium, esp at those times when i find that the 0.1% pitch precision just isn't enough (and rarely even 0.05% turns out to be too coarse). it's kinda frustrating when you _know_ the track is playing just a tiny bit too fast, but you cannot set your player to this speed, and instead have to keep turning the wheel every few seconds by an inch or two.

[HADES]

Well if you're looking to buy some good used equipment you can always look on craigslist.com just google the site and then you can check out some gear, hope that helps ya out mate.

[GreyDog]

I have:
2 x CDJ-100s,
1 x VMX1000,
all nicely packed in a:
1 x custom travel case.

But I think the CDJ's are getting tired, and the sync no longer works, one took a fall

I'd look for a CDm1000 and 2 CDJ800 mK2'S, yum...

[dfx]

[djabstraction]

sexy! I love the blue neon lights in the centre of the jog wheels!

Wanna swap them for my Denons?

[dfx]

sure no problem, you just gotta pay me the price difference

[djabstraction]

boooo

[voodooman]

I'm pretty happy with my cdx-05's. Although I've never tried anything else, don't know any dj's down here.