Decks!!!!!!!!!

[Beatmonkey]

Go with jungle/dnb I'd say, the learning curve isn't very much steeper and you'll probably enjoy it more the more you love the tunes. Mixing with a breakbeat = 100x more fun then mixing with a 4 to the floor bass drum (IMHO) but mixing a breakbeat into a 4 to the floor is even more fun.

[Twist]

well i do love my techno too, specially acid, and a bit of hardcore, and old skool.... bits of everything! I might try something a bit simpler at first but I'm definitely gonna have a go with some jungle

edit:

now the bf is rather insistent I get 1210s as nothing else compares, durability, quality etc. I'm looking at second hand ones, though I can't help but feel a bit extravagant buying those as my first! I suppose it's an investment though.

what to do, what to do.....

[Ab$olut]

well i do love my techno too, specially acid, and a bit of hardcore, and old skool.... bits of everything! I might try something a bit simpler at first but I'm definitely gonna have a go with some jungle

edit:

now the bf is rather insistent I get 1210s as nothing else compares, durability, quality etc. I'm looking at second hand ones, though I can't help but feel a bit extravagant buying those as my first! I suppose it's an investment though.

what to do, what to do.....

get them it'll be no loss if you do as you'll be able to flog em for the same price if not more if you're lucky

[buzzingtalk]

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.

NOOOOOOOOOOO

buy whatever vinyl you like! if you like jungle and dnb, buy that on vinyl. anyone that tells you to mix with something you wouldnt usually listen to 'because its easier' is lying - i learnt to mix with a combination of gabber, old skool, raggajungle and dnb which is where i get my 'play as much random shit in an hour' sound from. i find very high BPMs are comfortable for me to mix in - at bangface i was clocking in around 260BPM BUT even after a year of mixing, if you gave me some house or techno at around 130 i cant mix it for shit. nothing is easier than another - its only easier if you enjoy it

[technosquish]

And mixing with music you don't like you won't concentrate properly. And if your mixing vinyl you'll probably be mixing the same songs over and over again. If you don't like the music you'll just get bored simple as.

[buzzingtalk]

learning to mix new genres comes with time - a good dj never stops learning. im working on acid techno at the moment, which is quite hard consdering i hardly have any. when i was at uni i also used to mix alot of dubstep at my mates house, which i began to get a bit more.

[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.

NOOOOOOOOOOO

buy whatever vinyl you like! if you like jungle and dnb, buy that on vinyl. anyone that tells you to mix with something you wouldnt usually listen to 'because its easier' is lying - i learnt to mix with a combination of gabber, old skool, raggajungle and dnb which is where i get my 'play as much random shit in an hour' sound from. i find very high BPMs are comfortable for me to mix in - at bangface i was clocking in around 260BPM BUT even after a year of mixing, if you gave me some house or techno at around 130 i cant mix it for shit. nothing is easier than another - its only easier if you enjoy it

that's fookin good advice BT, cheers - and top music taste, that sorta variety is exactly what I enjoy. You got any mixes up?

I'm just so daunted as to where to start really, vinyl wise - I suppose I'll just pick up a couple of my favourites and start from there.

[buzzingtalk]

haha thanks. if you read the first few pages of this thread, it was me making the same decision as you about 16 months ago!

not got any mixes online yet the only one that ive recorded is about 6 hours long (ouch) and although the raggajungle section (2 hours) is sweet, ive not yet made it round to converting and hosting it somewhere. am about to try and record a new one though...

[Twist]

only a bit over a year since you started and you're playing out pretty regularly? go on girl!

yeah I'll have a read through for some ideas, thanks - I've just got that beginners feeling of 'aaarggghhh too much to take in where do I start WTF' going on. I'm determined to do this though, I've been talking about it for so long it's time to take action!

first things first - decks. 2 days after glade it's my birthday so I'm gonna combine my bday cash with some I've got saved and look for some used 1210s. Anyone here got any experience of buying big expensive items like that on ebay? Dodgy? I can't find any anywhere else round here though (Loot etc).

[buzzingtalk]

only a bit over a year since you started and you're playing out pretty regularly? go on girl!

yeah I'll have a read through for some ideas, thanks - I've just got that beginners feeling of 'aaarggghhh too much to take in where do I start WTF' going on. I'm determined to do this though, I've been talking about it for so long it's time to take action!

first things first - decks. 2 days after glade it's my birthday so I'm gonna combine my bday cash with some I've got saved and look for some used 1210s. Anyone here got any experience of buying big expensive items like that on ebay? Dodgy? I can't find any anywhere else round here though (Loot etc).

again, read through this thread. i got my beauties on ebay for 450 including loads of other bits and delivery. this was qwuite expensive but they were as new with brand new, prime needles on them.

if you want any help, then ask me - have a look on ebay now, youll find some - a good tip is to look for the reason for selling - and dont be afriad to email the seller as i did - he was a semi-pro dj who didnt need to practice and had a kid on the way so was selling up. aks questions, keep your eye on things and bid as late as possible - remember to look at user ratings and comments. if you want me to have a look at an auction, PM me the link

[dinnwarde]

I bought my 1210s from a forum, however it was the dodgiest sale ever!

It was £300 for the pair, and was including a pair of HD25 headphones (the wickedest ones, theyre like £100 for new)

When i got the decks, they were battered, no headphones in sight, pitches were all over the place....had to open them up and tune them a bit....the tonearms are still pretty dodgy as one channel is louder than the other on each deck.

However in a way i kinda appreciate them being a bit rugged, its better practice for playing out! And i might have my first set down in London later this year, if all goes to plan!!

Ive had my decks for about 3 years now (got a pair of belt drives when i was 14) ... although a guy in Ireland did offer me a set at his night when i was 15/16, but i could never make it over

@ Twist, i would say eBay is pretty safe in terms of this, you have a lot more protection that way, look forward to hearing some mixes, what do you play out of interest?

[Twist]

BT - yeah sorry dude just started reading through now!

There are a shedload on ebay, I'm watching a few at the mo, they seem to go from anywhere from £150 depending on age, condition etc.

If I could get your advice on some that would be fantastic - it'll be in 3 weeks or so when I'm looking to buy. You're a star

dinnwarde - thanks for the info. I'm looking to play a bit of a variety really - I love dnb and jungle, also some acid techno, bit of breakcore, anything to make people grin and dance their arses off really, which is what I love doing myself.

[dinnwarde]

Wicked!
Yeah i have been meaning to branch out in terms of genres, need some techno and breakcore stuff badly

Buying jungle is so skinting alone though, but it would be wicked to play more varied sets

@ BT, got any mixes online? Love the ragga jungle

[buzzingtalk]

sweet, just PM me or add me on msn (pm for my adrress) and send me over some links when your looking and ill check to see if they are legit. also make sure you pay through paypal as you get free protection up to 500pounds.

dinneward - not got mixes online yet, am playing in norwich tomorrow so hopefully can record then, im about to record one today so hopefully get it online. anyone know where to host mixes though?

[dinnwarde]

You could get a free account on http://www.virb.com
Its wicked! Like myspace but far far less shit and annoying

Or just use http://www.mediafire.com for temporary hosting

[buzzingtalk]

sw33t ill have to get on it, had a wicked 4 hour mix just now, sorting out what tunes and vibe to take to norfuck tomorrow, got a massiv bag of raggajungle goodness as well as a few dubplates of my own shit for good measure. forgot i was recording, and its not really a mix, but me pissing about with certain tunes and trying to get them to fit! will record one tomorrow before i go out

[baldmosher]

I played my first ever live DJ set at a party on Friday, it was top, bit of rock, bit of cheese, bit of metal, bit of breakcore, bit of vicious drill n bass, and a bit of The Orb. Went down a treat!

BT, I'm hearing you on the fast speeds thing, my set covered everything from 80bpm to 240bpm, but I'm not sure I can "mix" it properly yet cos I'm used to throwing together party sets with very little to no bpm matching going on, but it's certainly easy knowing the tunes you're pulling out of the bag, both for selection and "mixing" purposes. Then again I've only been mixing tunes on vinyl for probably a total of 5 hours in my life, I usually make mixes from CD and edit them digitally. I've not even learned Traktor yet!

[shakyjane]

These should now be sitting in my house waiting for me to collect

[casiokerry]

Surweet!

Not sure about those monitors for decks, but tis a moot point. They're nice monitors anyway.

I wasthinking of getting some better CD decks, but I think I'll stick to MP3 for now, as it allows more mash-up options.

[buzzingtalk]

niice

i finally had a proper play on some cd decks last month...got the hang of it quite quick. easy to use except for the lack of movement on the platter, found it easy going forward and very hard just slowing it down abit e.g. using hte button and not touching the platter on vinyls

im hopefully gettin a third deck, gonna get some peice of shit too so i stop having such a cushty life with my perfect 1210s