Hey, I'm thinking about following Kanye's (DJ YEEZYWORLDPEACE) footsteps and doing some DJing at house parties and for fun. I will be strictly playing Hip Hop and RnB.

I'm thinking my setup will include the following:

-Windows 7 Laptop (4GB ram, 2Ghz Core 2 Duo)
-Virtual DJ
-either Hercules RMX or Numark Mixtrack Pro (or some other controller under $300)

What are your thoughts on this amatuer setup?
any recommendations for the DJ Controller?

Thanks in advance

RMX: http://www.hercules.com/us/DJ-Music/bdd/p/62/dj-console-rmx/
Mixtrack Pro: http://www.numark.com/mixtrackpro

 

All good except for Virtual DJ. You would be better off using Tracktor from N.I. and if if have the time to learn try Ableton.It's f'ing awesome for DJing

 

Hi, Virtual DJ is what I use and it works well for me. I do clubs, weddings, corporate events, Video VJ, karaoke, and almost any other type of gathering you can think of.
I've been in business 12 years, Have 5 complete digitally enhanced DJ/Karaoke Rigs. I try to never turn down a gig if possible.

We however use another program for Karaoke. While Virtual DJ can do Karaoke, I prefer prefer software that does song rotation and has singers histories.

Although many people look at DJing as a part time and kind of a "not really working" type of job. We have done very well with it. We typically do 10 to 15 shows a week in a relativity small market. As my only profession DJing has provided me and a few others with a nice lifestyle and good living.

 

Spend less on your laptop, you don't need a beast for dj'ing. A pair of technics 1210's or 1200's are one of the best purchases I have ever made and can easily be incorporated into a serato or traktor setup giving you the room for expansion. Also it means you can actually learn some skills on your turntables/cdj's, you cannot be a hip hop dj without knowing basic cuts and scratches, and you learn those properly without some decks. So I would recommend 2x decks or cdj's , 1 x mixer (rane,vestax,pioneer etc..) & 1 x serato/traktor interface should all come in to about £1000.

 

Your set up seems ok but Can I just say a five things.

First thing is why windows 7? judgeing from the PC specs you'd be better of with XP since almost all the DJ softwear is 32bit.

2nd what version of virtual DJ? there was about 5 of them the last time I looked and only the most exspensive was any good (numark cue is the same as best version of virtual dj but under a differant name)virtual dj is the online brand, numark cue is the shop sold model.

3rd one is virtual DJ the right softwear? Virtual DJ built for people moveing from CD's and modified for video's. It works like a cd deck, sync aproximates the speed of the tracks and attempts to mach pitch. You need to use the pitch buttons to keep live and old songs in sync.
I haven't really examed the codeing of Traktor since about 2005 but it still seems to work the same, just better. It cuts the songs in to beat segments. pressing sync lines up beat segments. Never fails in matching the beats, just use to find things that where really beats. It's very advanced codeing and too advanced to work on video by the way they've avoided video's. Don't know the other softwear never tryed them.

4th thing is are you sure it's computer mixing you want to do? Record decks always get the most respect, thats why people use them as time codes for the softwear. CD decks next for the simple reason of they look better than the PC things. Laptops are at the bottom since everyone knows you can have someone preprogram the hole night in the day befor and just press play (I know because I've done it for people before).

5th is buy your own speakers. they make a big differance since you can garantee the sound you'll get from them and not everybody shares PA systems.

My exsperence is I DJ'd from the age of 14 with my dad's friends. Dad has just under 40 years xp and his friends about the same. Dad's retired due to health issues. Mobile at first till we got a bunch of hotels as residencies. Learned on CD twindecks moved to computers once I found one that worked for me.
You can't beat a PC if you need all the styles in exsistance but if your only playing one style everything else is proberly better. Broke off from my dad's friends company when I was 18ish cause I was being ripped off (I was paying him tax money I didn't need to and he was keeping it. ie not paying taxes).
I stopped DJing year befor last as I'm now on my final year of a elecric & electron hons degree.
Useing Numark cue very really Traktor, as I play video's and mix them unless useing traktor. NI soundcard to a 15 year old Gemini mixer as my Denon mixer was sabatarged (22 and useing a 15 year old mixer can't wait till my course is over so I can start work and change that).

North east england based

 

1) My Laptop originally came with 64bit Vista, so I upgraded to 7...

2)I'm running a cracked version of Virtual DJ Pro (which I believe is the most advanced version offered).

3) I'm open to trying all suggestions, I just played with Virtual DJ for weeks just using a mouse and keyboard, and it got me interested.

4) Ofcourse as hip hop producer I respect the classic 1s and 2s, but for learning and a hobby, I'm not yet willing to dishout the 500-100 for the setup.

5) That is an investment I'll make later on depending on whether or not my soon to be hobby turns into a career.

Thanks for your thoughts

 

This is the laptop that I currently have so I'm not dishing out any cash for it.
As I'm only learning and just trying to pursue my hobby I thought one of those 300$ controllers would suffice. I definitely would like to upgrade to Serato and Vinyls later on.

 

sounds like a sensible plan, I don't know two much about those little controllers, but I guess if you want to upgrade later you can always sell it etc...
The two most important skills are to know your tunes, (which ones go together) and to learn to beatmatch. Beatmatching or beatmixing is the idea of changing the pitch/bpm (speed) of one tune to match another so you can seamlessly( or not ; ) ) 'mix' the two tunes together. Get those two skills down and you are most of the way there! I find it really useful to tap my foot whilst beatmatching helps me keep time ; )

 

So I ended up purchasing the Hercules RMX, because it had more buttons knobs and stuff and a better soundcard, but Im gonna return it because its terrible for sratching, when you scratch it takes like a 1/4 beat for the music to play again, this is apparently because the jogwheels are not touch sensitive so it only plays once the they have stopped rotating...

I'm planning on either getting the 4-set or the 4MX instead (these are almost identical but with 4 decks and touch sensitive wheels).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00yyW0ENlb8

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zKiR58kfTg

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqwWQfRKhuM

 

With Traktor, you can use any midi device to controll the program