The CD player take on this is the same, except you insert a control CD into each player instead – unless it is a modern HID CD player that’s designed to save you even having to do this. Wire that lot up and you can scratch MP3s to your heart\’s delight on your existing equipment. This “half-way house” is popular with club DJs, who can use the existing equipment in clubs to DJ on, thus saving them having to bring a control surface and set it up in a cramped DJ box – although setting up DVS is not without its challenges. As you’re not actually changing any of your equipment, you can switch back to vinyl simply.
Particularly beloved of hip hop and scratch DJs, DVS’s allow you to control MP3s using special DJ systems such as Traktor Scratch Pro ( currently half price) and the famous Rane Serato Scratch Live (street price US$539 / €429 / £419 ), among others.īy using special “control vinyl” and a control box, you hijack your decks for your laptop/MP3 DJing. Get a digital vinyl system (DVS) or CD equivalent It’s easy to switch between the two methods of DJing on the fly, and apart from the laptop, your equipment needn’t take up any more space than it already does. Of these three, the Reloop is unique in that you don’t even need to have your laptop plugged in or turned on – it just functions like a normal mixer when you want to go “old skool”.ĭigital DJ Tips says: This is a great way to go if you don’t mind replacing your mixer with a modern DJ controller. The Reloop Digital Jockey 2 Controller Edition can act as a centrepiece to your new digital/analogue DJ set-up.Ĭontrollers like the Reloop Digital Jockey 2 Master Edition (street price US$665 / €419 / £389) and the Hercules DJ Console RMX (street price US$349 / €269 / £319) can do this, as can more expensive units like the gorgeous Allen & Heath Xone:DX for Serato ITCH (street price US$1,299 / €1,048 / £859 ). This way, you get a set-up that allows you to DJ just like you used to, flipping to digital at any time and back again whenever you wish. However, you may not know that there are DJ controllers out there that then allow you to go right ahead and plug your record decks or CD players straight back in.
Replace your current mixer with a DJ controller that you can plug your existing kit back intoĪ DJ interface controller plus a laptop is all you need to be a digital DJ. So, let’s look a bit more closely at what you could choose to do: 1. We give kit suggestions too, but this isn’t meant to be a kit round-up, so do some shopping around for yourself as well (all prices below are from Amazon).Īnd remember, our Buying Digital DJ Equipment Consultancy is there if you’d benefit from extra help before taking the plunge.
If you’re in this group, then here we present you with several easy ways you can incorporate digital DJing into your current set-up. We’re talking about those DJs who’ve up until now spun vinyl or CDs, but who know – nagging away in the back of their heads – that they should be embracing digital. They know about the lower price of MP3s, the fun you can have with cue points, loops and effects, and the mind-blowing potential of Midi… but still, they don’t want to get rid of their current set-up, or indeed their CD/vinyl collection.
Many more have DJed in the past with vinyl and decks, but for whatever reason stopped, and got rid of all their stuff, only to get back into DJing thanks to the value and fun offered by modern kit.īoth of these groups tend to dive right in there as digital DJs, and once they’ve messed with DJ software on their laptops with the keyboard and trackpad for a while and got hooked, they proceed to buy a decent DJ controller. Many of our readers are too young to have ever bought a record – fact. Not quite ready to ditch the decks? With a controller that lets you use your existing set-up too, like the Xone:DX that we use here at Digital DJ Tips, you don’t have to.