i need help and advice on vinyl and mixing in general!

[DjGone]

hello, im a new dj, with alot of equiptment with untapped potential. i have to gemini turntables, 2 numark cdj tables and a numark 6 channel mixer with a built in kaoss pad. my mixer only has 1 equalizer for all the tracks. is that good or bad? how? and what should i do about it? next, i definately need help in putting a mix together. do they sell records/cd's that have a drum pattern, and then another record/cd that has a synth pattern? would you just fuse those two together at the same bpm time and down beat? or is their no such records? do i just find two random records and play them together (within the same genre)? or is their a better method to this? if i want to spin trance and chillout, do i just go to the record store and ask them to help a rookie pick out some vinyl? or (again) is ther a better way to do this? how much should i spend (estimated amount) for my first stack of wax, how many records should i get to start out with?

i would apreciate if you could clarify my confusion, and give me any additional information that you think i should know.

thanks in advance,
dj gone

[djsynrgy]

you should try exercising a little independant thought on this my friend. Nobody can tell you what records you should buy or how many of them you should get. At least PRETEND it's an instrument and learn how to play it your own way. I can tell you that there is a way to mix ANY 2 records together, all you have to do is find it. So just start browsing man, and when you hear something that sounds really good to YOU, get it, and work with it. :D

[6ftabovsealevel]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DjGone
my mixer only has 1 equalizer for all the tracks. is that good or bad? how? and what should i do about it?

Lots of people use mixers that don't have individual channel eq's. I don't think I'll ever own another mixer that doesn't, but that numark should be fine for you for quite a while.

do they sell records/cd's that have a drum pattern, and then another record/cd that has a synth pattern?

I'm sure there are a few out there, but they're not nearly as common as just plain old full songs. Every dj you hear at clubs and on cd's plays complete production records. The possibility to sample from other tracks is always possible, but for the most part if you see someone spinning, they're just mixing the beginning of song B into the end of song A.

do i just go to the record store and ask them to help a rookie pick out some vinyl?

Nah, go find a decent record shop with a few turntables available and just listen to stuff. I think this is a better way to really figure out what kind of sound you're after. Maybe if you find a few records you like in a store, ask the guy behind the counter if he might be able to recommend a few more like it. Also, pay attention to the label that distributes the record. You can pretty much count on consistent styles of music between records on both small and large labels.

A couple last pieces of advice if I may... I would concentrate on one type of media for right now if I were you. Start off with the turntables and get your technique down a little bit before you start playing around with the cd's. And last but certainly not least, learn as much as you can from other people but don't limit yourself to only doing the things that you see them doing. That's not how innovation and progress happen.
Good luck.

[ae5]

Originally posted by DjGone
hello, im a new dj, with alot of equiptment with untapped potential. i have to gemini turntables, 2 numark cdj tables and a numark 6 channel mixer with a built in kaoss pad.

personally i would sell all that junk and use the money to just get 2 technics sl1200mk2's from http://123dj.com and a mixer with whatever you have left over from that. not many people mix cd's and it will be hard to find good tracks on cd and build up a collection that way, and gemini turntables suck hella bad. if it's something that you know you want to do (which i'm guessing it is if you spent all that money) you should just get 1200's

Originally posted by DjGone
my mixer only has 1 equalizer for all the tracks. is that good or bad?

bad

Originally posted by DjGone
how? and what should i do about it?

it's good to have a 3 band eq for each channel on the mixer, that way you can eq each track, if you have only 1 eq for both tracks what if one is really bassy and another is not bassy enough? when you go to mix them it's going to sound like shit, whereas if one is bassy you can either leave it or cut the bass a little and if the next is not bassy enough on that channels eq you can boost the bass. pretty simple. what you should do about it (in my opinion) is sell your shit and buy new shit basicly. you can get a cheap vestax with eq's on each channel.

Originally posted by DjGone
next, i definately need help in putting a mix together. do they sell records/cd's that have a drum pattern, and then another record/cd that has a synth pattern?

well, okay they do sell records which are just beats, they're called break records or breakbeat records, sometimes they also have basslines and other shit on them (on top of the drums not isolated), i've never seen a record that was just synth parts but you have to understand even if there were you wouldn't get them to line up right, i think what you want to do is get into producing, which is actually MAKING the music dj's spin, that's when you take a beat sample (or program one in the drum editor) and then with a sampler or synth create a bassline and atmosphere and leads and other stuff and then record it then master it then get it pressed onto a dubplate somewhere like http://scrunchrecordings.com then spin that. if you're just starting out and don't have thousands to spend i suggest getting propellorheads reason program (a soft synth)

Originally posted by DjGone
would you just fuse those two together at the same bpm time and down beat?

this only works if the parts go together in the first place. you should just get into production to create tracks, dj'ing to play those tracks

Originally posted by DjGone
or is their no such records?

you may find this stuff but you're going to run into the problems which i mentioned


Originally posted by DjGone
do i just find two random records and play them together (within the same genre)? or is their a better method to this?

usually people spin one style or genre and within that record collection try to match beats/tempos/etc. it's an art making records mix well together, that's what dj'ing is all about. that and selection


Originally posted by DjGone
if i want to spin trance and chillout, do i just go to the record store and ask them to help a rookie pick out some vinyl?

you can do that but a better thing to do is only buy from record shops with a turntable there that they let you listen to what you're going to buy on, explain to the shop guy what kind of music you're into and from there what type of sounds you like, like if you want lush trance with nice pads or harsh drum n bass amen stormers, then they can help pick out a stack for you to check out and based on that find other similar stuff you'd be into, listen to both sides of every record and pick the ones you like, if you don't like them don't buy them (big waste of money) they're not going to sound any better when you get them home so be very carefull in your selection (of course unless you're filthy rich and have money to throw around on records like it ain't no thing).
mailorder is generally bad because you can't listen to the records first. some records may be scratched to all shit too so mp3 samples don't always help you.


Originally posted by DjGone
or (again) is ther a better way to do this? how much should i spend (estimated amount) for my first stack of wax,

i try not to even go to the record store unless i have at least $100, i usually like to have at least $120-$140 to blow on vinyl when i go there, i don't know about trance but the dnb stuff i buy is like $10 per single and $15-$20 for a double pack, so$120 will buy you like 12 records, which is a good chunk at a time if you buy regularly. in my opinion. some people spend alot more some people spend alot less.


Originally posted by DjGone
how many records should i get to start out with?

if by "start out" you mean "start spinning at parties" i'd say 30-40 records would be the minimum i'd even considering spinning out with. work on your mixing first though, create several mix tapes and get it down pat, THEN "start out" and you can start making mix tapes as soon as you have some records


Originally posted by DjGone
i would apreciate if you could clarify my confusion, and give me any additional information that you think i should know.

thanks in advance,
dj gone

good luck.