From Edward Pond Sent Thu, Jan 1st 1998, 11:56
From Edward Pond Sent Thu, Jan 1st 1998, 11:56
>i've got about 400 CDs and only about 20 LPs, so i'm going to buy some C= D >decks (please spare the flames!) i'm just curious if anyone has had any >experience with them. any reccomendations appreciated, and any URLs of >models/makers also wanted. >Yeah! I assume you're talking about those DJ dual CD players with neat >features like speed control and built-in effects and scratch-like thingy= s. >Anybody have one of these decks? What can they do? Are they fun to fiddl= e >with at home? Are they useful for playing live gigs? What's the story on= >these babys? I managed to borrow a mate's set of Pioneer CDJ-500s which had the proper= Pioneer mixer too. I have to say they are excellent but very pricey (the prices m= ay have dropped tho). I still think that vinyl is the ultimate mixing medium because it's so 'hands on'. The Pioneers do have a jog wheel which is used to adjust the speed of the tra= ck being mixed on that deck which works very well indeed. I think that the biggest= difference between vinyl and CD mixing is that you can cue the CD to exactly where y= ou want it and use that cue point exactly and repeatedly. That last point can be very useful indeed and is really handy in a hectic= mix if you need to start again with the beat matching. Something I noticed with the Pioneers is that the pitch control slider is= not continuously variable. The decks have a digital readout of the pitch adjustment to the nearest 0.1 percent and when I played Ventolin (the bit with just the hig= h pitched tone) I noticed that the pitch only changed when the readout changed and you could hear the quantisation. I suppose that's being picky but I thought you might li= ke to know. The Pioneer mixer (can't remember the model) was well sorted with four channels and loads of effects and a BPM counter (yuk!). You could plug a 1/16" plug fr= om each deck to the mixer for auto-cueing with the cross-fade. I have also used some cheaper Denon CD mixing decks which had a very crud= e way of adjusting the pitch. You had a slider as usual and also two buttons which were pushed to bend the pitch up or down. It did work well though in combinati= on with the slider. In summary I'd say that the CD and vinyl mixing debate is very similar to= just casual listening on both the formats. You can get excellent results with both, each one has it's own advantages and there will always be people who prefer one or the othe= r. Take your pick. Hope you all had a great new year -Ed