DJ/sound making equipment?

[Helevitia]

Greetings,

My son(who is gonna be 14 in about a month), wants to look into getting mixing/sound making/DJing equipment to put together techno/industrial/rave style music. I don't know that much about this stuff and was hoping someone at MURC would have an idea of what I might be able to get him to start off on the right foot.

He keeps thinking that he's gonna put together a list of stuff he wants so he can make music and put it all together on the computer. This sounds great in fantasy land, but I don't think he understands everything involved. I know there are computer programs out there that help you accomplish this, such as Fruity Loops, but other than that, I don't know
I also know that buying something like 2 turntables can cost $$$ and then there is the part of connecting this stuff to a computer(midi port?). If anyone can throw out there 2 cents, I would be grateful

Thanks,

Dave

[Haig]

You usually use midi ports if you want to connect a synth or any other music instrument into your pc. This hook up means that you are actually playing music from your synth into the pc and recording your playing into a sequencer program.

If your son wants to add beats and stuff to existing music and/or just mix music, then any software like Acid would do.

Once his final mix is done, he can burn it on a cd, it all depends what he wants to do with it.

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by Haig
You usually use midi ports if you want to connect a synth or any other music instrument into your pc. This hook up means that you are actually playing music from your synth into the pc and recording your playing into a sequencer program.

Right, such as drum machines etc... Wouldn't hooking up a turntable(for DJing) be the same thing as a musical instrument? Or would it be more like plugging into RCA jacks, optical/coax in, or line in kind of hook up?

If your son wants to add beats and stuff to existing music and/or just mix music, then any software like Acid would do.

Once his final mix is done, he can burn it on a cd, it all depends what he wants to do with it.

This makes the most sense for his situation. Probably if I got him a software program that allows you to mix sounds and comes with different kinds of sound bites, he'd be happy until the fad dies out or decides to take it to the next level. He is being a typical teenager about it though I ask him a question and the answer is "I don't know", or "no, that's not what I want, you just don't understand" hehe Oh and thanks for your input Haig.

Dave

[Haig]

Wouldn't hooking up a turntable(for DJing) be the same thing as a musical instrument? Or would it be more like plugging into RCA jacks, optical/coax in, or line in kind of hook up?

Yep, they are connected with its line out into your sound card's input and then recorded on the pc via any recording app.

About the sound bites, I know Acid and Cool Edit Pro come with a complete set of sound bytes & loops. There's also a bunch of sites that have freeware loops for download in wav format for both techno & rave.

Acid also comes as a freeware version I think

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/download/freestuff.asp

[Heed]

Many years ago (the 80's) I was a club DJ. Really never did any scratching/sampling that's all the rage these days, though. I was just a beatmatch/clean mix kinda DJ.

I do know turntables with pitch control can be pretty expensive (needed for beat matching which gives you the "seamless" transition from one song to the next). Technics turntables (I think it was the "1200" back in the day) were pretty much the standard as I believe they still are today-- they went for around the $1000 mark each back then--no idea these days.

If it's just a phase, I would recommend some of the software programs that allow you to basically do the same thing you do with turntables, but with MP3 or other audio files-- all from the comfort of the desktop without requiring turntables or CD players at all.

This will give him the ability to make "mixed cd's" from the desktop in the same manner that a club DJ might record his session on the night.

Check out:

http://www.mixvibes.com/

I haven't used this software (too old now to be interested in this stuff), but it appears to have all the basic functionality of the mixing board/turntable setup that was used back then.

There's a free downloadable version (no time limit) that would certainly give him all he needs to do basic mixes on the PC.

Here's the feature list for the free one:

3 dynamic views : Mixer / Media List (sound files) / Play list (event)

use of drag and drop in each view
use of drag and drop from mixer or media list to create play list in 1 drag. It's so simple !

multi selection for media and event (play list element).

Compatible with ID3v1 TAG

Media fields : title, author, genre, album, year, comment, remix, pick

Media database managment : order / find / select

Save media files in wave format (mp3 to wav for ex)

Beat Counting / Beat Matching

Cross fading Playlist with start time and duration for each media

Each media can be configured with :
3 bands equalization
speed
volume / pan
bpm

I have no idea with regard to scratching/sampling etc., but I believe Haig is on the right track with Acid as well as Fruity Loops.

Certainly try him with the free soft and see if that satisfies his interest.

[az]

MIDI is NOT an audio interface, it doesn't transfer audio data. It transports COMMANDS, like "play instrument xy at frequency q for z milliseconds at volume v".

So, what does your son want to do? Sound MAKING, mixing, sampling...? (BTW, I'd be cautious with spending money right now, I remember having had the phase of "I'm gonna be a techno maker" myself )

For anything that doesn't involve turntables and scratching, your PC with at least an audigy should suffice (except for microphone in - it's crappy on virtually every soundcard).

For recording and editing sound, Wavelab, Cool Edit, and Goldwave were good in '97 (Think they're still good)

If he wants to MAKE sounds, a software synthesizer would be what you want. Be careful, musician's software is very expensive and may need a really fast system.

I don't know if Magix Music Maker is available in the US (or in english), but the stuff from Magix is quite good and beginner-friendly and not too expensive (it's made exactly with people like your son in mind).

I'd try downloading erm.. trial versions first

AZ

[gt40]

FYI - you cannot hook up a turntable directly to your audio card, it will need to go through a proper phono eq.

[Helevitia]

Thanks for all the info guys. I'll probably have more questions as I look into what to buy him.

Dave

[az]

In addition to what gt40 wrote, your HiFi amp will probably have a much better phono preamp than you'll find in a standalone version for a reasonable price. Just connect the soundcard to some line outs (Tape2 out, for instance, or preamp out).

Oh, vestax make DJ turntables that look startingly similar to Technics' 1200.. and some of them are quite cheap. EDIT: Hmm, at least they used to...

AZ

[Admiral]

Hercules is soon to release a DJ Console and at an estimated price of 229$ it might be just the thing to practice on.

edit: seems they updated since this morning, estimated price of 249€ and Hercules pushed through with the official announcement.

[Helevitia]

Cool, I'll show my son this and see what he thinks. Thanks!

Dave

[Helevitia]

Now he is throwing out the word 'synthesizer'. anybody know any cheap ones? All of them that I have seen or $2K or more!

Dave

[az]

Software synthesizers.

AZ

[WyWyWyWy]

Hi,

If you son is only interested in techno/industrial/rave, before you pay for anything, just play with FruityLoops to see if your son is REALLY interested in DJing.

I remember a few years ago I was like your son and very interested to be a DJ, but after actually playing with making music, I found that I would prefer LISTENING rather than actually MAKING techno. (young people!!)

FruityLoop is actually a great applications.
First step is to see how they made all those demo songs. Top stuff they are and that you will see the possibilities are endless for this program.

Proper DJing is big money.

[Haig]

You can get any cheap ole used synth for < $100 and just use it to trigger the software synths via midi.

Check out Reason. It comes with a bunch of software synths along with alot of free sounds/loops downloadable from their site

http://www.propellerheads.se/