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Jun 1, 2004 12:00 PM
The Internet in the mid-1990s changed the face of modern society and how we conduct much of our daily lives. Far more than just a pop- or subculture phenomenon, e-mail tethered us to our computers, and online shopping drastically shortened our trips to the mall.
Love it or hate it, the movement from small specialty stores to more robust online retailers is a strong one, and it is changing the way that we shop for everything from movies and music to books, electronics, clothing and household items — even pro-audio equipment and music instruments. Instead of hopping in the car and spending hours leafing through brochures and talking to often-overburdened and sidetracked salespeople at a brick-and-mortar shop, you can jump on the Net, casually research products, read online user reviews and educate yourself prior to even entering the “store” and filling your virtual shopping cart.
Shopping for pro audio and musical instruments online offers many advantages. First, potent purchasing power combined with fierce competition to earn your dollar generally means lower prices than traditional retail. Second, online retailers have learned that to keep your dollars coming, excellent customer service and a highly knowledgeable sales staff are paramount. With huge warehouses enabling them to carry a vast array of stock and product lines, online retailers can be your single point of contact, offering fast delivery of specialty items — no more settling on whatever brands your local retailer can bring in.
And if it's preowned gear that you're after, eBay has become synonymous with fast, fun and secure transactions of often-mint-condition merchandise. With literally thousands of new pro-audio items and musical instruments up for bid every day, you're likely to find what you're after at unbelievably low prices.
SCRATCHING UP A DJ RIG
BY JASON SCOTT ALEXANDER
So, you wanna be a DJ! Congratulations — it's an awesome gig. Now, you need gear. One of the things that most people will tell someone who's thinking about getting into DJing is to first try your hand at it on someone else's setup before you go spending all of your hard-earned cash on a pile of equipment. This isn't always possible, or practical, though. Fortunately, assembling a functional and expandable pro-quality DJ rig can be affordable through picking up quality, lightly used gear on eBay, or combine used gear with the often-discounted new items found there. Either way, you significantly reduce your financial risk.
Although the debate about spinning CDs versus traditional vinyl is a hot one in the DJ community, both formats have their place, and, oftentimes, DJs will make use of both during a set. For starters, though, first take a look at the ubiquitous wheels of steel: your turntables.
If there's one place to sink the majority of your gear budget, it's here. Quality turntables will help you pick up and maintain proper technique and will compensate to some degree for any weak link elsewhere in your setup. Remember, you need to buy two of them to be able to mix, so investing in quality turntables now is a lot cheaper than buying entry-level pieces and having to replace them as you quickly outgrow them.
The industry standard has long been the classic Technics SL-1200MK2. Suffice it to say, today, there are a lot more options. Staple brands in the industry include American Audio, Gemini, Numark, Stanton, Technics and Vestax, each of which has full-range lines that can make choosing the right deck daunting for a newbie.
In addition to the ability to play back 33 and 45 rpm records (some decks go as fast as 78 rpm), the first thing you want to look for in a turntable is the option to alter its platter speed, or pitch, by at least ±8 percent. This is essential for beat matching. Older units typically start out at ±8 percent and offer selectable ranges of ±16, ±25 and on up to ±50 percent on high-end models. The larger the pitch range, the better. Look for turntables with long-throw pitch-control faders rather than knobs or dials, as faders offer smoother control. Direct-drive quartz-controlled motors are much preferred to less-accurate belt-driven mechanisms (essentially glorified elastic bands) for spinning the platter, which should be heavy, die-cast aluminum, if possible, with as high of a torque value as you can find and afford. Typically, torque ratings of 2 Kg or more are what you're after so that your vinyl picks up quickly after you stop or reverse it. If you are looking to do some serious scratching, then, definitely, the higher the torque, the better. Look for units that feature adjustable cushioned feet or a rubberized bottom to reduce turntable rumble, as well as a stable, sturdy tonearm, which come in straight and S-shape varieties. Handy luxury features to look for in more expensive units include adjustable platter start/brake-speed control, reverse, digital S/PDIF outputs, digital correction for the key or pitch of the music and onboard bpm counters.
If it doesn't come with one, you'll need to buy a needle cartridge and headshell for your turntable. Many different cartridges and needles (stylus) for specific DJing needs and styles are available from makers like Ortofon, Shure, Numark and Stanton. Do your research for a combo that suits your needs, as prices vary greatly. For entry-level, practicing DJs, inexpensive general-use cartridges are sufficient. And remember: You'll need two!
Alternatively to turntables, you may choose to pick up a pair of DJ CD players — or a single CD deck to complement your turntables. Finding CD decks specifically made for DJing is crucial because they feature instant start, tempo and pitch control, looping and cueing abilities that most consumer or studio-style decks do not. DJ CD decks come in either tabletop or rackmount varieties and preferably have either integrated or wired controller panels with mini circular scrub/scratch wheels, such as those found on the classic Tascam CD-302 CD player. Newer models such as the Denon DN-S5000, which boast a true-to-life spinning platter and vinyl disc, allow you to spin and control CDs with the same ease as vinyl.
Next, you'll need a mixer to adjust levels between your decks of choice. All DJ mixers come in two basic varieties — club/performance and scratch/battle — and comprise the same basic parts. The more expensive models simply have more features, such as built-in effects, sampling, filters and console-style EQ. Still, certain criteria must be met when looking for your first mixer. It should have at least two phono input channels for turntables, or two line inputs for CD players, preferably with EQ controls and a crossfader to mix the two channels of audio. A mixer with more than two channels is desirable if you wish to add input of other audio sources, such as external effects, drum machines or microphones. You should also go for a mixer that has an EQ with three bands per channel — hi, mid and low — so that you can cut or boost frequency ranges while mixing different sources. Finally, a ¼-inch headphone jack assignable to each channel is necessary for cueing/previewing. Gemini, Numark, Rane, Stanton, Tascam and Vestax, to name a few, are makers to look for.
Finally, to hear what's going on, you'll need a good pair of headphones — good being the operative word: no Walkman-style muffs here. Finding phones with cups that enclose the ear fully are a must to avoid hearing background noise. If you plan to play in clubs, look for durable models from Sennheiser or Sony, the two most popular brands among DJs. Outside of headphones, plugging your mixer's main outs into a compact stereo system or powered monitors is fine for practicing at home.
Once you have all of the basic kit, take your set over the edge with some cool digital DJ technology. For the mobile DJ equipped with a laptop PC or an Apple iBook, there's Stanton FinalScratch 1.5, which allows you to incorporate digital files into your sets. By using special included digitally encoded vinyl records, the FinalScratch hardware interface and software combo lets you spin and manipulate MP3, WAV and AIFF files in the same manner as traditional vinyl — on your or the club's turntables and mixer, but with the laptop becoming a virtual record box feeding your manipulated signals to your mixer. Then, for desktop DJs and producers, a plethora of cool digital DJ software packages are out there, including Native Instruments Traktor DJ Studio 2.5, which allows powerful bpm detection, playlist creation and file-management capabilities, or Ableton Live, a real-time loop- and sample-manipulation tool.
CREATING A COMPUTER-BASED DESKTOP RECORDING RIG
BY JASON SCOTT ALEXANDER
What once took a million-dollar room filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of professional recording gear to create is now available to home-recording enthusiasts, musicians and bedroom producers at a fraction of the cost. Computer-based desktop recording is finally at the stage that it can dutifully replace those expensive multitrack tape machines; mammoth 10-foot-long mixers; rack after rack of outboard compressors, EQs and effects units; and miles of expensive audio cabling that tied everything together.
To start with, you'll need a computer with some decent horsepower under the hood to run today's software. Host-based processing is extremely demanding of your computer's CPU, so, unfortunately, your computer is the sole area that you simply can't afford to skimp on. The goal is to run software in the most efficient, up-to-date and optimized manner possible to squeeze every ounce of power from the CPU.
If you don't already have an appropriate system, you'd be wise to look for at least a Pentium 4/2GHz or Macintosh G5/1.6GHz model equipped with at least 512 MB of RAM and a CD-RW or DVD-RW drive for software installation and regular backup of your work. If your budget is really tight, you may temporarily opt for (at bare minimum) a top-end Pentium 3 or Mac G4 processor, all the while keeping in mind that software applications and hardware drivers that you are likely to want to run may negate this decision for you. Bottom line: Be safe, and go for the fastest computer with the most RAM that you can afford — 1 GB of RAM is sweet.
Similarly, your operating system should be the latest and the greatest. Nearly all current software titles and hardware drivers are optimized for Windows XP or Mac OS 10.3 (aka Panther). Installing older versions, even Windows 2000 or Mac OS 9.x, may preclude you from installing and running a hot new title. Also, things can get pretty cluttered on your screen when running so many applications and plug-ins at once, so it's advisable to have at least a 17-inch color monitor or a flat-panel LCD that can display at least 1024×768-pixel resolution. If you can afford it, a 19-inch or better will leave you breathless.
Next up, you're going to need a pro-quality soundcard or audio interface to get signals in and out of your computer. These come in two basic forms: PCI cards that install inside of your computer and external boxes connected by USB or FireWire.
Manufacturers are too plentiful to mention here, save to say that you're looking for at least 24-bit, 96kHz audio-quality performance (manufacturers are quickly moving to high-definition [HD] 24-bit, 192kHz as standard) supporting ASIO- and WDM-driver standards (GSIF if you wish to run a special sampling program called GigaStudio) and equipped with appropriate numbers of analog and digital inputs and outputs to handle your workload. If you're mainly recording voice and guitar, cards with two or four analog line/microphone inputs will suffice. If, on the other hand, your ambition is to record your band, including separately miked drums, it is best to look for an interface with at least eight inputs. Optical and coaxial S/PDIF and Lightpipe ins and outs are also necessary to interface your computer with certain outboard gear. High-end PCI-based systems — such as those offered by MOTU, RME/Hammerfall and Digidesign's Pro Tools family — are preferred for serious simultaneous multitrack recording and typically come with interfaces in rackmount or breakout-box form. Prices really jump, here, though!
If your chosen soundcard doesn't come with microphone preamplifiers built in, you'll need to purchase a preamp box. Again, so many great manufacturers are in this field, but the PreSonus BlueTube or TubePre are musician favorites. Likewise, if you plan to record MIDI tracks, you're going to need a MIDI interface. Top names to watch for in this field are Edirol, Emagic, M-Audio and MOTU. Of note, several affordable all-in-one audio/preamp/MIDI interface recording-system packages are now on the market, including the Mackie Spike, the Lexicon Omega and the Digidesign Digi002.
To make your signals audible, you'll need some decent studio monitors, or speakers. With prices dropping on what are called “powered monitors,” having the power amplifier as part of the speaker cabinet itself is both space- and cost-saving and, from a technical standpoint, advantageous in accurately reproducing sound. Speakers are extremely subjective items — no two people hear them the same way. Current industry favorites, though, are the Mackie HR-624s for their extended bottom end and pristine sonic accuracy.
With your basic hardware in place, loading up your computer with software is half the fun. First, you'll need your main recording application. Generically called a digital audio workstation (DAW), this software will act as your audio recorder and editor, MIDI sequencer, integrated mixer and effects processor and will play host to specialty subprograms called plug-ins. Popular DAWs include Digidesign Pro Tools LE, Steinberg Cubase SX and Nuendo on Mac or PC, Cakewalk Sonar 3 on PC only, and MOTU Digital Performer 4 and Emagic Logic 6 in Mac-only land.
Additionally, you can add supporting software to your setup in the form of software synthesizers/samplers or effects plug-ins that model everything from classic analog and tube gear to rare digital classics. Most DAWs come with dozens of top-quality plug-ins from the factory. More recently, soft-synth workstations are making good use of powerful CPUs. The undisputable leader of the pack, Propellerhead Reason 2.5, functions stand-alone or as a plug-in, providing you with a studio's worth of synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, effects and dynamics processors all under one roof. After that, you can venture into the world of loop-based editing and composition tools, such as Sony Acid 4, Propellerhead ReCycle 2.1 and Ableton Live 2.
That should keep you grinning for some time. You can later quell any further burning feelings in your wallet by looking into such niceties as hardware mix-control surfaces and host-processing accelerators for your DAW's plug-ins, not to mention funky hardware synths and drum boxes. Yes, it's an addiction. So save those pennies!
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