Decks!!!!!!!!!

[Twist]

does anyone have any recommendations for some direct drive entry-level decks? I've wanted to learn for years but lacked the confidence to try, but I've decided to stop being so rubbish and just have a go, and here's the perfect place to ask I reckon. it's like, I love dance music so much and if I could actually make people as happy dancing as I feel when I'm dancing, that would be one of the best things in the world.

Obviously nothing too extravagant, but something decent as if I buy cheap shit I'll only want to buy something better a few months down the line. I've been reading up loads the past few months but there's just so much out there. I've seen in this thread something about beginner sets with decks and a mixer, are these OK?

also is it preferable to start out on direct drive or get some practice in on belt drive first?

[pesh]

just look in cash converters for used technics, they're going for about £110 - £120 each these days

[teknon0tice]

Theres so many makes that do a good job now, I'd have thought anything around or above £100 per deck from Stanton, Techniques, Vestax ect would be a good starter of.
Its good start out with some slightly shoddy decks cos as soon as you can pull of a mix with them, then upgrade to a nice pair you suddenly find out your alot better than you thought you were.

[Twist]

thanks for the replies. I can't decide whether to go for one of the packs with mixer, headphones etc or get them secondhand separately - first options probably easier but less flexible, and I don't know what's shite and what's not.

plus the fact I'm skint as a bastard limits me a bit.

[Beatmonkey]

I got the numark battlepack (shittest numark direct drives, shittest numark mixer) second hand for about £150 I think, their peices of crap but they do the job. I've been djing on them for probs about 2 years now and as mentioned when I mix on 1200's I feel like a god.

[Twist]

I was just looking at those actually, think with my budget something like that's probably the best bet. Got my birthday in july so should get a bit of cash hopefully to put towards.

[Beatmonkey]

Remember to budget for vinyl as well, I think I spent £200 all in, £50 worth of vinyl is a reasanableish starting point.

[Twist]

aye that's a whole other can of worms - where to start with the vinylz!

[Beatmonkey]

A tip from someone who got it wrong - try and stick to just one genre and tunes that are fairly easy to mix, I brought a bit of old skool a bit of dnb and so on and so forthwhich meant that I was just lost most of the time and only had about 3 vinyls in each tempo bracket.

[Twist]

yeah, jungle and dnb is my first love and what got me into raving, but I'm thinking some techno would be easier for starting with? trouble is there's loads of tracks I love but I don't have a clue who they're by, or what they're called, I just dance to em. I suppose you learn that as you go along.