help me figure out this turntable stuff

I also got a stanton str-80 and I must say it's a very nice table for sampling and the ocasional cut, no turntablism table though.

ok cool thanks man. ill look into that. hopefully this weekend i should get a new TT.

till then, peace....

Smoove03 wrote:till then, peace....

so after that it's war?

YOU KNOW WASSUP

aight this thread is a little old but I figured i'd ask this question here since its related

I bought a NUMARK TT1650 turntable a few months ago. Its ok. it does its job. seems more stable then the one I had before. It lets me spin the record arond and stuff but I had a couple questions:

what do yall think of this cheap mixer? its a numark DM950USB


i dont have two turntables. i read here that you dont really need 2 TT's to be able to scratch on top of your beats. Thats true, right? I just need the audio source which in this case would be my computer and my turntable which will have the record spinning..true? well this mixer seems like it would make it easy to do because of the USB thing. here's a link to a description:
http://www.instrumentpro.com/P-NumDM950USB

I found a site where I can get this for $65 brand new. anyone think it would be worth the $70 bucks? seems like it....

also, seems like I have problems when I spin the record back and forth. just from watching different videos and stuff i learned that I shouldnt press down on the record hard when I spin it. I dont want the platter to slow down when I spin it. but when I do it with my TT, I try my hardest not to press down but it still seems like the platter slows down too much. its direct drive....do you think it could be my slipmat? is there a site where I can get better quality slipmats? is there such thing as better quality slipmats?

im new to this stuff still bare wit me thanks for any help

what kinda slipmat u got?

and i wouldnt suggest that mixer. if you are going to take scratching seriously, you should buy a good scratch mixer. maybe a pioneer 707 or a used vestax 05 or 06

and you should check out www.skratchworx.com

thanks flip. yea i wanna get into scratching eventually but right now i just wanted to do some minor cuts over some of my beats. not really gonna try to be a dj or get into battling. just some minor stuff...so i wanted a mixer just to start out with then later down the line upgrade to something better. thanks for the link and the recommendations, bro.

so you wouldnt recommend any dj mixer for $100 or less?

nope, you'll outgrow that mixer within 2 weeks, trust me.
get a used mixer! i don't know about US prices, but with 200$ you should get something decent.

like i said, a vestax 05 or 06 would be a good choice.

i hate vestax.
if ur tryin to spend less than 100 bux, u can find a cheap gemini or numark, and u can learn on that until ur ready to move forward. the vestax sound is to 'thin' imo. as far as the usb numark goes, i have no idea about that. and the slipmats shouldt make much of a difference when u scratch. i just recently got 2 new slipmats to replace the ones i had been using fro more than 10 yrs.

the key is to be real smooth when u scrath. u dont want to put much pressure on the vinly. wet ur finger a lil bit and catch a snare and just cut that back and forth, real ez.

yeah, skillz would be a good thing 2

the best way to learn how to scratch is to watch other djs... maybe u know somone who could get you started?

flip-o-mat wrote:nope, you'll outgrow that mixer within 2 weeks, trust me.
get a used mixer! i don't know about US prices, but with 200$ you should get something decent.

like i said, a vestax 05 or 06 would be a good choice.

yea i been doin a lot of readin about different dj mixers. sh!t i seen some in the thousands i couldnt believe it but those had all types of effects and eqs and stuff. i hate to buy gear that has the word beginner in the description. or gear that is aimed at people just starting. that stuff tends to be real cheap so i was hesitant to buy anything too cheap...although i just wanna learn for now, i didnt wanna feel like i wasted my money. 200 dollars aint much so that wouldnt be a problem. just thought I could get more for less somehow...i dont mind used gear but i aint messin wit ebay for a while lol. i had a close call with something i recently bought and it got me feelin funny about the bay now...im gonna read up on the vestax and do my comparison thang

i hate vestax.
if ur tryin to spend less than 100 bux, u can find a cheap gemini or numark, and u can learn on that until ur ready to move forward. the vestax sound is to 'thin' imo. as far as the usb numark goes, i have no idea about that. and the slipmats shouldt make much of a difference when u scratch. i just recently got 2 new slipmats to replace the ones i had been using fro more than 10 yrs.

the key is to be real smooth when u scrath. u dont want to put much pressure on the vinly. wet ur finger a lil bit and catch a snare and just cut that back and forth, real ez.

see thats why i like asking these types of questions because everybody has a different opinion....im staying away from gemini. i had a gemini turntable and it was pretty cheap. i mean, you get what you pay for but I think it was a TT01 or something....it wouldnt scratch and the sound wasnt very good. numark seems like it had some ok mixers for the price. i forgot to mention that I am using the slipmat that came with my numark TT. nothin special.

thanks for the tip. i was messin wit a snare from one of my records and i learned a little just by cuttin back and forth on that. i was all excited and sh!t yea but thanks yall!

flip-o-mat wrote:yeah, skillz would be a good thing 2

the best way to learn how to scratch is to watch other djs... maybe u know somone who could get you started?

not locally. everybody around here is a "rapper." i know folks that dip in the beats but nobody who is into dj stuff. yea skills is something i dont have right now. lol thats why im askin these ?'s so i can get started

another tip---
draw a str8 line on the paper label on the record--from the middle of the record out to where the paper label ends. use this line as a reference. now, try to follow along (this is kinda hard to explain, but a real simple concept). cue up a snare on the record and look where the line is. the line should be at the very beginning of the snare. now bring the record to the end of the snare and look at the location of the line u drew.

so now u have an idea of how far forward and back u can bring the record to scratch the snare. use the line as a 'boundry' (so to speak) of where the snare is and go back and forth within that boundy and strt scratching. does that make sense? i did that when i 1st strted and it helped a lot...sort of a scratching 'visual' aide.

looking forward to hearing some cuts smoove

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIpRQ29PQS8

^
try that for optimum turntable set up - not hard and fast rules but a good starting point for weights etc

i use vestax for cutting - people moan about em now for some reason but theyre honestly really really nice. the 05 and 06 are so less expensive then when i bought em, and for cuttin, you wont need anything more

ive used the budget stanton and numark scratch mixers and they're pretty cool for the money - but the 05 would be my choice i you can stretch that $$

peace

thank you both!! bice that makes perfect sense. i watched this tight video a while back. this cat basically explained every detail of how to begin scratching. like he did it just for newbies. i will definately do that!

tusk thanks for the vid. ill check it out in a bit. the info is great too thanks!