OT: Which Digitial Turntable?

drez · Post by **drez** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:36 am

Hey all, I'm not a DJ by any stretch of the imagination. I am looking for a digital turntable to throw some scratches of original source material into my stuff.

Do I know how to scratch? Negatory. But my musical accomplice does, so he can get me started. I'm really interested in learning about it, but I will not ever by vinyl because I don't have the time or interest in that side of it, so a digital unit it must be.

Ideally I'd like to be able to sample into it directly from Live via my M-Audio 410 into a mixer or somesuch as well as using custom made CD's.

Soooo, anybody have any recommendations on a unit that they have used, own, or lust for? Anything I should stay away from?

Thanks in advance!

JohnDP · Post by **JohnDP** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:24 am

Pioneer CDJ 1000 MK2 all the rest is just a copy...

deckme(N)tal · Post by **deckme(N)tal** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:13 am

i am sorry...but that's wrong^^
i scratch from 6 years and the only worth the money vinyl emulation is the numark cdx (pioneer cdj 1000 has got a not moving platter....)

musick · Post by **musick** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:46 am

deckme(N)tal wrote:..the only worth the money vinyl emulation is ...

Technics SL1210's + Serato Scratch Live (SSL)

deckme(N)tal · Post by **deckme(N)tal** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 9:53 am

yeah serato is good too...never tried it anyway...
i have heard good things about denon cd player...
Anyway stay away from pioneer and technics cd player..waaaayyyyy overated..

drez · Post by **drez** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:41 pm

musick wrote:
deckme(N)tal wrote:..the only worth the money vinyl emulation is ...
Technics SL1210's + Serato Scratch Live (SSL)

Yeah, it would seem that this would be the bests combo, but then I have other problems:

-needle maintainance
-portability

Also, if I used final scratch, can I connect it to the same PC that I am using Live with at the same time? Would it hurt performance?

musick, I see what you are doing...you are trying to get me into yet ANOTHER hobby that will consume my life. CURSE YOU!!!

Honestly, I want it to be pretty painless...call me a wuss if you want, but I want to use it and not worry about it too much. If I want to take it out of the house, it looks like a bit of pain. You DJ's got a lot of stuff to tote!

drez · Post by **drez** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:48 pm

As an alternative, maybe I should hook up with somebody that could lay down some stuff FOR me? Like I could render out some stuff from Live, set it up on an FTP and let somebody that's got skillz rip it up, render that out, transfer it back, and then I can put that into the mix.

Here's some examples of the stuff I'm working on (gratuitous warning: ruff headphone mix and incomplete tunes, just ideas)

example1
example2

This would save me a grand

I just do this for fun right now, so it would basically be doing it to do it

inis · Post by **inis** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:51 pm

deckme(N)tal wrote:i am sorry...but that's wrong^^
i scratch from 6 years and the only worth the money vinyl emulation is the numark cdx (pioneer cdj 1000 has got a not moving platter....)

This is true. Whoever mosted the cdj is a moron.

Obviously there are other options like serato, but the Numark is by the far the best DIGITAL TURNTABLE on the market, especially for scratching emulation. Based on the title of the topic, i assume thats what you are looking for, nhot some kind of software solution.

gaspode · Post by **gaspode** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:09 pm

I like my Technics SLDZ-1200, it has a nice feel and pretty decent A/D converters. You'll likely find you have to filter or effect any of the output that you have while scratching though, as you tend to get strange digital artifacts while scratching that will sound nothing like a true vinyl scratch.

Honestly, I would say if you are just looking for scratching, get a cheap techinics deck and some sample records. If you are really hard up for scratching original material... well I'd just head to a guitar center with a cd of your own choosing/making and go scratch away on all the digital turntables that they have.

Read reviews/get advice from people, but I would still use your own gut/feel on the digital turntables by trying them yourself. For every person that likes the cdj, sldz-1200, denon, etc, you'll find two people who don't like it for whatever reason.

Good Luck, and have fun!

deckme(N)tal · Post by **deckme(N)tal** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:26 am

Anyway for good reviews on scratchy stuff go to www.skratchworx.com
pretty dope site.
I am sorry but the new technics digital table is not good at all at scratching.
Obviously it can do the wicky wicky sound, but it digitalizes the sound and the platter is not good. it woobles...
Don't "trust" comments about only mixing djs about scratch feel (no disrespect on them) but it's like me givin comments on some guitar or saxophone.....i don't know anything about them and they all look the same to me...if a table is good for mixing and has a good sensitivity it doesn't mean that it is good for scratching.
vestax cdx 05 in combination with tascam ttm-1 controller and a normal analogic turntable is another good option....
next week i am buying a numark cdx...anyway

anyway if somebody wants to collaborate with some scratching stuff...hook me up...

musick · Post by **musick** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:47 am

drez wrote:
musick wrote:
deckme(N)tal wrote:..the only worth the money vinyl emulation is ...
Technics SL1210's + Serato Scratch Live (SSL)
Yeah, it would seem that this would be the bests combo, but then I have other problems:

-needle maintainance
-portability

That's true, but the Technics are club standard, if you can spin with them you can spin everywhere.

Spinning with Serato feels just like spinning normal records. When you start using it you even take the record off after a track instead of selecting a new song

Also, if I used final scratch, can I connect it to the same PC that I am using Live with at the same time? Would it hurt performance?

Final scratch -> final crash.

I did run Serato and Live at the same PC at the same time, no problem but not easy (for me) to get the 3 sources in sync...

musick, I see what you are doing...you are trying to get me into yet ANOTHER hobby that will consume my life. CURSE YOU!!!

This hobby goes well with Live, use Live for making rmxs and spin them with SSL

JohnDP · Post by **JohnDP** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:48 am

This is true. Whoever mosted the cdj is a moron.[/b]

fuck yourself. Use a CDJ and learn how to scratch instead of using cheap shit emulation like the numark CDX.

deckme(N)tal · Post by **deckme(N)tal** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:42 am

Not to start a fight...
but consider this..
pioneer cdj=not moving platter...
cdx numark=moving platter+real vinyl on top...
i dunno if u ever scratched or tried both....but....a moving platter is necessary to perform 85percent of scratch technics..

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 10:31 am

deckme(N)tal wrote:a moving platter is necessary to perform 85percent of scratch technics..

could you expand a bit on this? I know very little about scratching.

JohnDP · Post by **JohnDP** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 10:33 am

deckme(N)tal wrote:Not to start a fight...
but consider this..
pioneer cdj=not moving platter...
cdx numark=moving platter+real vinyl on top...
i dunno if u ever scratched or tried both....but....a moving platter is necessary to perform 85percent of scratch technics..

the point is that you can scratch on CDJ, as a matter of fact the scratch was invented and performed on material that would be considered so inferior today that NOBODY would claim to be even near able to scratch with it.

Jazzy Jeff used CDJ's extensively before using SSL and even though i admit that vinyl is still the best for sole scratching purposes there is NO NEED to call me a MORON because i state the advantages of a CDJ from Pioneer.

Period.