Rider Friendly DJ Consoles and Turntables

A

Art Welter

Senior
Jan 11, 2011
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Florida
I am planning to get a mixer with RIAA (phono) inputs and a Firewire or USB connection for recording. Although my initial use will be for archiving my record collection, I'd like to get something rider friendly that has good rental appeal, but am unfamiliar with the DJ market.

What's popular and sounds/works well in the DJ mixer line?
Have any turntables become more popular than the Pioneer PL 12D ?

Thanks,
Art
 
Hi art
I have learned so much from your posts on various forums, i'll try to help.
The standard turntable is the Technics 1200 or 1210, there are various versions but all are good as long as they are calibrated.
For the mixer many djs like pioneers but sound operators hate them because they can clip very easily and send nasty things to your system.
I would suggest you look at the allen and heath xone23c that has usb in - out 24/96.
I use the 23 without usb and love it. It is very difficult to clip and should be very transparent, and does not cost a fortune.
Allen is still a very respected brand among djs.

 
Johannes Zotti said:
Hi art
I have learned so much from your posts on various forums, i'll try to help.
The standard turntable is the Technics 1200 or 1210, there are various versions but all are good as long as they are calibrated.
For the mixer many djs like pioneers but sound operators hate them because they can clip very easily and send nasty things to your system.
I would suggest you look at the allen and heath xone23c that has usb in - out 24/96.
Click to expand...
Johannes,

Thanks for the tips, I had a Technics 1200 turntable back in the 1980s, been so long ago forgot and substituted the Pioneer in my memory bank.

The xone23c looks good, other than that one what do you see on big time DJ riders, or see them using?

Art

 
Ben Lawrence said:
I will agree with Antoon on the Pioneer stuff and add that a lot of the hip hop stuff still requests the Rane TTM57 SL or Rane 62.
Click to expand...
Ben,

The Pioneer DJM2000 Nexus or DJM900NXS2 and the Rane TTM57 SL are a huge jump up in cost from the Allen & Heath Xone23c, do you see the Xone23c on riders, and if so could you please rate the Pioneer, Rane & A&H in order of general preference, and if any appear as "NOT ACCEPTED" on riders you see?

The market I am most likely to be dealing with (college & local club or wedding DJ rentals) won't have a rider, and will require something simple to operate, as is my preference too in gear I don't use frequently.

What would your personal preferences on the above listed units, or any others if rider acceptance was not a consideration?

Thanks,
Art
 
Most of the stuff I do is along the lines of what you mentioned. If you were catering to actual djs and or riders I would not suggest the 23c. Usually people who are established well enough to be requesting equipment are going to ask for the Pioneer or Rane.
That being said I have a couple of the Allen and Heath Xone 22 mixers and they go out far more often than the higher end stuff. A lot of the systems I send out are for Ipod style stuff. I would not usually want to send out a 1000$+ mixer out on those with inexperienced folks. The 23C might be just what you are looking for.
The Allen Heaths have been good to me although one has cropped up with an issue in the last couple weeks so I might be looking at at 23c myself.
 
Hi Art Sorry for the delay, luckily i have been away from civilization for some time.

Bigger acts will require top of the line pioneer mostly, allen and rane more seldom. They are big mixers with lot of functions or for specific needs like turntablism (rane).

The xone 23c is a good simple mixer with all thebasic functions that any dj could operate andthe brand inspires confidence but you will not see it on riders.
It has balanced mains, separate booth and record out, good eq and decent faders and a nice effect that many djs are familiar with, and will sound good and will not add noise and be kind to your sound system, but will not satisfy the more requesting djs.

I think it is the best in its price bracket and good for your goals, it has all you and simple djs will need but if you want to build a pro console for renting a big pioneer would be the best choice, and cost a lot more.
Sorry if i have been misleading!
Johannes




 
Johannes,

With the general consensus that the "big boys" will want either the Pioneer DJM2000 Nexus or DJM900NXS2 or Rane TTM57 SL, all more than what the production budgets for any DJ my company will provide for will likely encounter, looks like the good but inexpensive A&H route will be mine.

Thanks all!

Art
 
Art Welter said:
Johannes,

With the general consensus that the "big boys" will want either the Pioneer DJM2000 Nexus or DJM900NXS2 or Rane TTM57 SL, all more than what the production budgets for any DJ my company will provide for will likely encounter, looks like the good but inexpensive A&H route will be mine.

Thanks all!

Art
Click to expand...

You don't have to buy the top-of-the-line, nor do you have to buy new.
Never met a DJ who turned down a DJM-800 when I was running a club (even when their rider called for better)
Even the DJM-850 new is reasonably priced compared to the 900.

I have had issues passing off non-Pioneer or Rane though.

However even in the worst situation the DJ and associated "posse" would panic-call around and someone would show up with acceptable gear -which was good as usually those type of DJ's were hard on the stuff and it was nice to put the club's gear away for the night unmolested!

(and there were those those times with some exceptionally abusive guys where the owner would lock the good stuff away in the office, claim that the "pioneer broke last night and was out for repair" and we would drop the expendable Behringer "pioneer clone" in the booth!)

If you were wondering: http://www.music-group.com/Categories/Behringer/Mixers/DJ-Mixers/DJX900USB/p/P0A56

Mostly it wasn't "physical" abuse, but sloppy drinking habits with whatever bottle of dom/cristal/vueve they managed to get their hands on:)~:-)~:smile:

 
Craig,

The DJX900USB looks like it has the features most DJs (and I) would be looking for, and I have no problem with the current crop of Behringer products. Perhaps the low cost reflects in longevity of faders etc., but how does it compare from an audio standpoint to the others?

Art
 
Art Welter said:
Craig,

The DJX900USB looks like it has the features most DJs (and I) would be looking for, and I have no problem with the current crop of Behringer products. Perhaps the low cost reflects in longevity of faders etc., but how does it compare from an audio standpoint to the others?

Art
Click to expand...

I picked it up from Guitar Center just to have as an emergency spare for in case the pioneers went down.
But it ended up getting used quite a bit and put up with the abuse of a college-aged dance club quite well.

Because almost all the DJ's were using the Rane Serato box -and with faily poor quality mp3's it was hard to tell the actual sound quality, but when I tinkered with it during set-up often I never really noticed a difference in quality or output.
The reason I chose it over all the other cheap mixers available was that it fit the pioneer-shaped cut-outs in the booths better than the 19" rackmount mixers I had in my own inventory, and it was the only one at that poorly-stocked Guitar Center that fit the price-point I was looking for.
The one issue I had was the RCA-only outputs, but it was still capable of driving the Aphex Dominator (I had installed between the booth and the DSP) well past the threshold I had set.

I also had a white-on-black P-touch label with the club's name stuck over the "Behringer" on the top left corner -you wouldn't believe how many DJ's never clued-in that they weren't using a Pioneer!
 
Craig Hauber said:
I also had a white-on-black P-touch label with the club's name stuck over the "Behringer" on the top left corner -you wouldn't believe how many DJ's never clued-in that they weren't using a Pioneer!
Click to expand...
With the "pioneers" drinking whatever bottle of dom/cristal and drugs reading names gets a low priority...

I have plenty of direct boxes, so RCA outs won't be a problem.
 
hi Art
although i have seen more praises for Behringer consoles in the last years, for what I DO i would rather have the Allen eq, preamps, faders, single but quality effect and balanced outputs (avoids a good direct box that costs half the mixer price...).
but we play mostly vinyl and if it has to be digital it has to be at least 320 kbps if not hi def flac/aiff, not average 128kbps garbage.

i know most of the time the difference will not be noticed in pa, but all the little things get summed and the more you got it right the better - that's my philosophy.
and i am a little bit more confident in its reliability - but that's more a matter of luck - and solidity, and the A&H feels way more solid.

plus it's gain structure means you can set it up with master at max (where it ends most of the time with most djs)with less probability of overdriving it - of course someone could still crank up the channel gains, but that's all.

i think, if someone doesn't care, a&h or behringer would be the same, but a&h would do better for the sound and the sound system probably.
if someone cares or knows a little, A&H would be preferred .
the berry could be the better choice only if someone was using three sources at the same time.
not many people do that at the level you are looking at i think and if he can do that, hey he deserves a Rane :razz:!

and keep in mind that dj mixers get a lot of stress on faders, they start to give problems soon if not of good quality - i have come across a lot of cheap mixers with sloppy, farting faders.

 
I had one of the earlier behringer pioneer knock offs. It was the djx700 I believe. It was cool to give it a shot but ended up having a bunch of issues quickly. Perhaps the newer models are built better but Im a little skeptical. I did have a Nox 404 briefly as a backup but never ended up using it and sold it off. It looked like they upgraded the faders and build quality seemed decent. That actually might be a ok choice for you but I have no idea on actual sound quality.
 
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