Equipment

Current DJ Setup:

Traktor Pro, iMac, Kontrol X1,
Denon DNS1200 x2, Pioneer DJM400

I’ve now gone even further into the Digital DJing world with the switch to using Traktor Pro software with an iMac. Not ideal as it’s a big 21inch monitor that’s not easy to move around, but hopefully I’ll get a laptop to work from soon.

Connected to the iMac are the same Denon CD players and Pioneer DJM400 Mixer. Alongside that is a new Kontrol X1 controller that provides more control of the software, and the ability to quickly apply loops, loads of effects and to use /setup cue points.

Compared to just using Decks, Traktor provides lots more of features and the ability to do a lot more in the mix. Some DJ’s say it’s not proper DJing as software does a lot of it for you, but I still prefer to do my own beatmatching, as software is never always accurate.

Previous DJ Equipment:

My first setup was a pair of Numark Axis 4 CD Players plus a Numark DM3050 3-channel mixer. Not the best of setups to start off with but it was all I could afford at the time and did the job early on really.

In March 2007, I upgraded my CD players to Stanton C.314‘s, which host a load of different features for the price such as hot cues, sampling and effects. My criticism with these though was their reliability (buttons began to ‘stick’ and wouldn’t work) and build quality (buttons wouldn’t work always, other people also had reliability issues in clubs).

I also upgraded my mixer to a Vestax VMC-002-XL, a mixer I enjoyed using. Much smoother upfaders than the Numark and better EQ’s.

One of the upfaders then broke, or I broke it! I repaired it but sold it and used a cheap American Audio QD-6 3-channel mixer for a few months, I needed one as I then bought a Stanton T.60 vinyl turntable – I thought it was about time I learned with vinyl at last!

My Stanton’s were then sold, my American Audio QD-6 isn’t in use and is not picking up too much dust I hope. I then bought a pair of Denon DNS-1200 cd players and a Pioneer DJM-400 Mixer.  Both a big improvement on what I had before. My only slight criticisms though is that the Denon’s aren’t very reliable when using CD’s, sometimes they just froze. Further firmware updates seem to have got rid of the problems with CD’s skipping. 99% of the time though I used USB drives which was the main reason I bought them. The Pioneer mixer is obviously quite superb with the effects and high quality faders and EQ, but the cueing methods are limited. You can’t crossfade between the 2 channels in the headphones. It also has a lack of outputs.