I’m currently digging into a set up involving a Pioneer/AlphaTheta digital standalone unit combined with my MPC’s and S2400, as well as live DJing. Upfront, I’ve never DJ’d. The things important to me are being able to blend 4 tracks on tempo and key, in high quality. Would also like stem separation, but as the MPC can do that, as well as software I have, it’s not a deal breaker. The important things are being able to scratch, 4 channels, standalone, and very high quality realtime pitch and tempo change.
Am I out of my mind?
I don’t want to spend the money on the XDJ-AZ, but… I have no background in DJing at all. I don’t want to deal with vinyl and want to be able to pitch up samples and record into the s2400 and pitch back down. With the MPC, I want to be able to select loops from the DJ unit and map them to the pads so I can sample into the MPC. Is that all possible?
I’ve been watching videos, but I don’t have enough information to know what it means.
Sidenote: Beatmaking comes easy, I’ve done it since I was 9. DJing I just don’t know the terms, and don’t want to buy a product that doesn’t fit my needs due to ignorance. I want as little interaction with the laptop as possible. That shit I do in the mix phase, and ideally with an engineer that isn’t me.
If you’ve never djed you’ll have a lot of learning time to get to the point you can scratch and mix 4 tracks at once. Controllers aren’t great for scratching, the best imo being the rane with moving platters.
What your describing is a lot of work, especially live sampling and then mixing back in from the mpc
You could look at keeping it in a 4 track dj setup and use loops which is technically grabbing a sample and looping it then you have the tempo synced fx and can half and quarter the loop while synced to the other tracks
Thank you for feedback. I don’t want to go back into the MPC in terms of MPC - DJ Set up - Back to MPC. I’m just loading my whole library into a dj set up and sampling that into the MPC.
When I say I’ve never DJ’d, that’s a bit wrong, I’ve done some djing since I was 7, and have some idea of what to do. I did live sound for plays in 6th grade. It’s just the key switching, beat mapping, pitch shifting that I don’t know what modern things are capable of.
I’m fine with it taking time to learn, nobody masters stuff overnight. I certainly didn’t make a hit as a kid messing around with FL 1.4. I just want to learn. My priorities are key and pitch switching/syncing as well as tempo matching. MPC and Push3S are great, but have to do offline. Can I do this real time? These questions come from a production side, not at all a DJ side.
As far as DJing, I’m taking it slow. They know me out here in Atlanta on Edgewood and in East Atlanta, jobs will be available with some patience, but I definitely know there is a learning curve.
I want pioneer because of the club owners I know who said its standard, and I absolutely need great keyswitching/pitch shift/tempo shift, as well as being able to load a full song and assign certain loops to the pads. Maybe I’m unrealistic, but money isn’t an issue and if it exists I want it.
I greatly appreciate your response.
edit: key point for me is getting old songs mapped on beat, like Ableton, and being able to assign loops to the pads so I can sample into MPC or S2400.
Pioneer standalone will use either rekordbox or Serato. Both have key detection and sync to keep tracks in time and you can key lock so when you alter pitch it will remain on key.
You can set hot cues to to the pads and trigger parts of one track synced to another track.
Modern gear certainly makes it a lot easier to do what you want
Sorry I initially thought you were using mpcs and decks together, I think what you are saying is doable. Some mixers I’ve used have effects that let you keep the pitch and change pitch though not sure if this is available in software.
I think most of what you are describing is possible.
Best option, get a controller and start practicing
The xdj-rx3 is a good option. Rr model but cheaper and then there are models almost twice the price of the rx3
I’ve not read the entire thread but unless you are performing and entertaining across all of the gear , it’s likely you’ll just look like a guy tweaking a mixer and scratching on a turntable.
I’d just put everything in rekordbox and use a 4 deck digital ( all in one ) layout / channel mixer and controller with either turntable added or one with a small platter dj controller.
Adding external gear will just complicate things and I’m not sure the audience will benefit. … clicking a channel mute on the mpc isn’t entertaining imo.
I have to ask - what are your intentions with the scratching part? You looking to do a bit of baby scratching of your tracks before you throw them into the mix? Or you looking to learn the whole deal known as turntablism, crabs, flares, clovers, tears, phrasing, juggling, all that?
If the former, any controller or standalone with decent enough jogwheel/platter response will do. If the latter, things get much more demanding in terms of hardware… And in terms of sound quality, to this day, I havent heard a digital system which truly sounds like scratching with analogue vinyl records, so sound quality will always be a slight compromise if you use digital
I’m from the old school when it comes to DJing, so I only use 2 deck systems myself. I’ve never quite understood the appeal of 4 deck systems… Current “casual” standalone of choice for me is the DenonDJ SC live 2, bought at a discount, pretty good bang for the buck IME
As for keylock / timestrech, any recent-ish digital DJing system has that covered… And almost everything a DJ system does, it does in realtime (the only exception perhaps being stem separation)
I’m trying to understand what you want to achieve. Do you want to mix 4 tracks, and do some additional scratching over the top? Where does the “sampling into the MPC” come into play? Are these 2 seperate “situations”? Ie “live” dj’ing with 4 tracks and scratching, vs sampling your mixing and scratching into an MPC in the studio?
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What I basically want is to be able to pull 4 tracks into the DJ set up, standalone only, I will not work with a controller. Find an initial chop from any of them and then key/scale sync all of the other 3 decks to that key/scale and tempo so I can put stuff together before sampling everything into my S2400. MPC quality live stretching/pitch shifting will not work, need high quality. Also would need to sync to the S2400 or MPC.
Is this reasonable?
Performance isn’t my main concern here, that will come in time. I’m using this as a new way to approach my sampling and creativity. It will also likely be used with my MPC’s.
Thanks for your patience and I hope that explains a bit better. My head has been in a fog and I haven’t been able to follow up.
IME, all modern standalones do a pretty good job when it comes to timestrretching/pitch shifting. The largest contributor to the end result is the amount of stretching the deck needs to do, the less the better.
For sync, you will probably need to resort to using Ableton link, as I am not aware of modern standalones having DIN MIDI; also not sure any of them transmit USB MIDI Clock either… but Ableton link is quite common…
There isnt all that much choice if you line up all the standalone DJ systems with 4 decks, so I suggest you go to a well stocked DJ gear store and try them all out. I wouldn’t personally pay more than what DenonDJ standalones tend to cost, but your finaces are your prerogative and YMMV
Ah ok. I guess the Denon SC Live 4 could fit the bill. It it standalone, has 4 channels, decent platters to scratch with, and can sync with external gear using Ableton Link:
Depending on your budget and I/O requirements, the Prime 4+ could also be a good option. The cool thing with Denon is that their firmware is updated very regularly, and now also includes f.e. stems rendering:
AFAIK Pioneer standalone gear cannot sync directly with Ableton Link supported hardware, you need to go through a computer to do so, which reads rather brittle and error-prone.
