In my spare time I’ve taken up DJing. I’m primarily interested in mixing Trance at the moment, but I’ve played around with some other types of music as well. I found myself playing with a few demo versions of different types of software, but it all felt too controlled. It all sounded and worked great, but I felt like I was cheating. I knew I wouldn’t find myself into the vinyl scene as it’s very expensive to acquire turntables all the music I would want. Instead I opted to check out the CDJs from Pioneer. I ended up getting a great deal on a set of CDJ-800 MKIIs. Although at first one of the decks was busted and I had to return it. In addition to my decks I’m running a Numark DXM09 Mixer with a pair of classic Sony MDR-7506 Headphones. I had contemplated getting the cheaper MKI, but in the end I decided the MP3 capability with the MKIIs was a must.
CDJ-800 MKII
The setup is very cool and I find myself playing with them a good bit, but I’m finding I still need to practice more to get all the transitions down. I’m also discovering I need to know all the songs in my set very well in order to setup all my cue points and make everything sound awesome. Not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing (my wallet!), but I find myself spending a lot of time at Beatport checking out the latest tunes lately. I spend the most time there after taking a listen to my two favorite trance shows, A State of Trance with Armin Van Buuren and Trance Around the World with Above and Beyond. I’m having a good time with them and I am pleased with my purchase. Don’t expect to see me in any clubs anytime soon, it’s just for fun at home. On a side note, if anyone is planning on attending the upcoming Winter Music Conference in Miami please let me know. I’ll be around and would love to hear about other people’s experiences for a later write-up.
