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 The thing about buying your first set of gear is that everyone will have an opinion on what to get, what not to get, what to do before you buy it, and what to do once you get it. I'm like everyone else. I have my thoughts and ideas as to things you should look out for when buying stuff. It's not the only way, but I personally think it's the safer way.
Before I get into this, I want to mention that there's a page filled with reviews on the site and a "what do you reccomend if I have £XXX?" page too. One of the first things that most people will tell you when you think of getting into this game is to try it out on someone else's equipment before you put your hard earned money into it. FANTASTIC idea. But what if you don't know anyone who is either willing, or has the equipment to let you practice on? You could always try to find somewhere that'll let you rent gear from them (I don't know of anywhere before you ask!) but not a lot of places do that. So, I'm afraid you have to think about buying stuff - sorry.
Providing that you're looking to become a Dj using vinyl , there are
a few basic thing that you are going to need:-
 2 x Turntables
2 x SlipMats
2 x Cartridges and Needles for the Turntables (normally included)
1 x Mixer
1 x Pair of Headphones
Something to amplify the signal (Stereo, Amplifier + Speakers etc.)
So, apart from some tunes, some furniture to stick it all on and some
really friendly neighbours, that should hold you for a while.
If you want advice on how to connect everything together once you get
it, then click HERE for
a page which will open up in a new window describing it all.
If you're about to send me a mail asking for advice on what stuff is
any good, then please click HERE first, where
there's a page going through all the stuff I've had experience with
- and therefore the only stuff I'd be able to help you with.
The one thing I'll say though before I go into each of this lot is that it's a good idea to spend as much as you can on the turntables, then whatever you have left on the rest of the gear. You can use a bad mixer with good decks without too much problems, but not even the best of mixers is going to compensate for bad decks. Plus, it's a lot cheaper to upgrade a mixer when you get round to that point than it is to upgrade your turntables. Turntables
The first thing you really have to make sure of is that there is a control
on the turntable which allows you to adjust the pitch (the pace at which
the record will be played at) of the record. Just a 33 or 45rpm setting
is not enough. You're looking for something that will allow the pitch to
be adjusted by AT LEAST + or - 8%. The larger the pitch control, the better.
One that takes up most of the length of the right hand side of the turntable
is preferred and is the industry standard for pitch control. The length
allows more fine adjustments than just a small control on the front of the
unit (see the Gemini XL-100 as the method you DON'T want to get.)
The next, and biggest choice you have to make when you are on a shoestring
budget is whether to buy DIRECT DRIVE or BELT DRIVEN decks (deck
is another word for Turntable or CD unit). I'm not going to get into a
hefty description of the differences between the two right now, but if
you're interested before reading on, then click
HERE to go to the section in my Extra Stuff page which goes into
a bit more detail.
Suffice to say, direct drive decks are by far the preferred means of powering
the deck. Simply, because the Belt Driven decks use a rubber band as an
intermediate to drive the deck, a lot of the power and accuracy is lost
through the transfer of that power. This means that the pitch settings
that you choose might not be held for long enough, meaning the tempo of
the song you are playing will change while in use, causing havoc when
trying to beat match. It also means that the deck does not have the power
(or TORQUE) to withstand the vigours of scratching, and has a poor start
up time.
The problem though, is that cheap Direct Drive decks will still have
similar problems, though not to the same extremes that the Belt driven
decks will have. The power to the deck is still somewhat lacking compared
to the better quality (and more expensive) models, and they can still
have a tendency to lose their pitch settings slightly.
As I said before, I DO urge you NOT to get belt driven decks, but as so many people have hardly any money when they start, combined with a yearning to be a Dj, it might be something you settle for. Just don't come running to me when they start playing up on you!!
I'm
going to say this again. It seems to be lost on people, maybe they aren't
reading this far into the site (1 page, lazy buggers!) but I'm going to
re-iterate this now.
Belt Driven decks really aren't good. This isn't from a "To
be a Dj you must have Technics" point of view. It's the truth. Belt-Driven
decks suck. You'll hear people telling you that they're using Belt-Driven
decks, and there's nothing wrong with them, "Oh yeah, I've had mine for
years, can do anything on them, scratch, mix, cook, play frisbee, solve
the worlds debt and hunger problems...." Fine. If you want to listen to
them rather than me, then I'm not going to get all fussed and bothered
about it, but PLEASE, stop asking me if it's OK to use Belt-Driven decks,
then bugging me about it for two weeks, ignoring what I say, then sending
me a mail two months later saying "Yeah, you were right, they suck. How
can I make them better?" At which point, I just hit the delete button.
It's the only thing I'm a wanker about (actually, according to my last
edit assistant, there's a LOT more!!). This is something I feel passionate
about, that belt-driven decks are for people who either a) Aren't serious
about Dj'ing, b) are only going to use them for a couple of months as
a test to see if they're going to like Dji'ng, or c) Think with their
wallets instead of thier heads.
So, there are decks like Soundlab's DLP30's (I think), Numark's TT-1700's
(think they're now 1500's), Gemini's XL-400's, Kam's BDX range which are
built to emulate a Technics deck, but don't quite have the power or pitch
accuracy to be that much use after you've learnt to beat match. If you
MUST go out and spend as little as you can, then look at these decks.
I really would like it if this is the last I have to mention not using
them, I'm getting ready to punch my computer the next time I get a mail
asking me about them. I was pretty sure that I'd plastered "Don't use
belt decks" enough over my site already!! :-)
BUT, the thing I will stress, no matter how shoe-string your budget
is, no matter how unserious you are about dj'ing (unserious? someone get
me a thesaurus) no matter how long you'll be using them before you know
you'll buy better decks, DO NOT, I REPEAT
DO NOT
Use the Gemini XL-100 or the Soundlab DLP-1600 decks.
These decks are NOT meant to be used as Dj decks. Yes, people like Sapphires
advertise them as decks you can use, but you'd be better pissing off your
cat so it'd stick out its claw, then making it run round the record, caterwauling
as if to reproduce the tune you're playing. You'll have better power, pitch
control and care for your records with the cat than you would with the XL-100
or DLP-1600. I can not stress enough NOT to use these decks. If you're cheap,
go for the ones above, don't be fooled by the "Yeah, these are Dj decks"
and the price tag. You'd be better getting "I'm a cheap twat" tattood on
your head BACKWARDS for the money, rather than buying these.
Anyway, rant over, on with the site again........ Most likely, for a small budget, you'll be looking at this lot (no particular order):-
| Belt Driven Decks |
Direct Drive Decks |
| Soundlab DLP1 |
Soundlab DLP3R |
| Gemini XL-400 |
Gemini XL-500/600 |
| Numark TT1700 |
Numark TT1910 |
| Kam BDX180 |
Kam DDX580 |
| sorry, ran outta decks! |
Citronic PD-1 (best of the lot) |
Yes, I know there's a lot more makes and models out there, American Dj, Limit, Sherwood, etc etc, but the ones above are the ones I have had even the slightest of time on, and I'm loath to include stuff I've never used.
Here's where I put in a disclaimer though. The decks that I mentioned
above will just about do for normal beat mixing styles (trance, house
etc) but if you're thinking of doing ANY scratching at all, then you're
wasting your time and money considering any of these decks. For start,
belt driven decks are RIGHT out of the question. The other decks
I mention, though direct drive, just don't have the power to the deck
plate to make scratching a viable option on them, they just aren't made
to cope with the vigours of scratching. I've put a bit about equipment
on the Scratching page on this site. Read that if you're interested in
Scratching gear.
SlipMats
The purpose of the slip mat is to reduce the friction between the record
and the turntable to the point where you can hold the record still, and
the turntable will still turn underneath it (which is yet ANOTHER problem
with basic, cheap decks, their power is so weak that this won't happen).
The setup should go like this:- At the very bottom, is the deck plate (the part with the bumps on the side). Make sure to take off the removable rubber mat that
comes with the deck (NOT the rubber coating,
the rubber mat). On top of that goes the slipmat, and on top of that goes
your finest record.
As mentioned, there can sometimes be problems with the decks that cause
it to come to a grinding halt when you are trying to cue up the record.
The way to try to get around this is to reduce the friction further between
the deckplate and the slipmat. This can be done by either cutting a six
inch diameter circle piece of cardboard out, punching a hole in the middle,
then sitting this between the slipmat and the deck plate or by cutting
out a piece of wax paper (some inlays in record sleeves are wax paper)
to the size of your slipmat, and putting THAT inbetween the plate and
the slipmat. The second option there is by far preferred, by putting the
piece of cardboard between the two, the friction IS reduced, but so if
the stability of the record, so you may find the needle jumps a lot. Go
for the wax paper if you're having issues.
Try to steer clear of the mats with lots of printed designs on them
too. They can (sometimes) damage your records, and they are (sometimes)
not as effective at reducing friction as plain felt ones.
I don't really know the part where it comes to what makes and models
(if there are models) of slip-mats are best, but, the Technics ones are
damn good, a great choice. Just look for generic hip-hop ones, coz they're
designed to be very slippy. The best ones I've ever used are ones I got
from M2 (The people who sponsor my equipment pages). They're light, thin
and minimal printing on them, making them perfect.
MIXERS
The purpose of the mixer is to change the sound you can hear from one turntables
output to the other ones, without having a break in sound. Typically, this
means that deck 1 is in Channel 1 and deck 2 is in Channel 2. To change
from one channel to another, a cross fader is normally included on the mixer,
which, as you move it, moves the sound you can hear through the speakers
from one deck to the other.
When you're starting off, you are going to be fine with a really basic
mixer like Numark's BlueDog. Ok, if you have the money, get something
better, but again, I'm just talking bare minimum equipment right now.
The problems that you'll encounter with a very basic mixer should only
add up to sound quality issues. With no kills or cuts on the mixer, you'll
find that a lot of the times the bass drums and bass melodies will clash
with each other, and with no Gain controls, or means to measure the strength
of the incoming signal, you'll find that there will be mismatches in the
levels (volumes) of each tune as you go through the mix, meaning it'll go quieter or louder from tune to tune sometimes.
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Just make sure it's not so basic that it doesn't have a cross fader, or
it doesn't have a headphone cue on it. By headphone cue, I mean a means
that you can listen to (monitor) the turntable that ISN'T playing
out of the speakers. A normal cue will allow you to listen to the unheard
turntable and the live (playing through the speakers) turntable at the
same time and will have a slider or a rotary knob which lets you adjust how much you hear of either one (it's nice to hard the cued record and bring in the live one very slightly). This allows you to be more
precise when it comes to matching the beats.
I've got a separate page dedicated to Headphones, click the heading above
to jump there.
Cartridges and Needles
These are what transfer the vibrations caused by the grooves in the record
to sound. The needle (Stylus) itself sits inside the groove of the record,
and as the record passes through it, it vibrates. The cartridge hold the
needle, which is either screwed onto a headshell or locked directly onto the
tonearm - all of which translate the vibrations to an electrical signal
which is turned into the music that you hear. But you don't need to know
all that. Just don't hurt them!
There are MANY different kinds of Needle and cartridge (cart for short)
out there, but the chances are the ones that you'll get included with
the decks will be Stanton 500AL's. Check to see whether they are included
with your decks or not, as there's nothing worse than taking all your
stuff home, only to find that you can't use anything because of missing
equipment.
Amplifiers The signal that comes out of the mixer is barely strong enough to power your headphones, so you need something which will increase (amplify) this signal so that it will drive (make 'em work) a pair of speakers.
There's three choices (as far as I see it) to how to do this:-
1) Buy a separate amplifier and speakers. This can be a bit costly, but it is a great way of doing it.
2) Plug the output cable into either the CD or AUX port in the back
of your stereo (if you have one). I prefer this method because it
cuts down on the amount of equipment you need (and so money you'll have
to spend) and it means that there's already a built in tape recorder,
or MiniDisc recorder etc. to record your mixes. DON'T use the
PHONO input though. The Phono inputs use a completely different means
to process the signal, and are only meant for Turntables. Though you
ARE using turntables, the signal you are using is from the mixer,
which is known as a LINE signal and is far stronger than that
of a turntable, and therefore can't go into the PHONO input.
3) Using POWERED speakers. A few people that have written to
me over the year or so that I've had this site up have used these. Really,
they are just speakers with a built in amplifier, so you have to plug
them into a power socket, but, provided they are powerful enough to let
you hear the music loud enough, the will suffice. A few people I know
actually use the powered speakers from their computers. For professional
use, the JBL EON PWD 10 is great, I've seen it used a lot for the monitor
in the DJ booth. I use a pair of Roland powered speakers at home right
now as my decks are in the small room in my flat and don't/can't let it
go too loud - but they do kick ass when I crank 'em up!
 So apart from getting records to play, and having some nice understanding neighbours, that's the basics of what you need. Ok, there's stuff like something to keep your records in, and something to put your decks and mixer on, but you can work that one out yourself.....or can you?  Sapphires Sound and Light, really good on-line store.
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