advice please!

[retail]

so I just purchased some 1200's on eBay ($650 for 2 with crap Gemini mixer)

anyways i need to do some shopping... the guy kept the cartridges so I need those, and I think I'd like to go ahead and upgrade the mixer (it is a "scratchmaster" hahaha)

anyways my budget is about $300. any help, ideas, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I already have 100+ records of primarily prog. trance/house/techno if that makes a difference in the kind of gear I need...

thanks!

i am now officially :owned: by my credit card bills! woo-hoo!

[Nquire]

Id go with like a Numark. Its like a step down from from any professional mixer. Which would probably run anywhere from 500 to 1,000 dollars. This Numark is only like $250. I have the Numark DM1002X mixer. With kill switches, transformers,all highs, midi's, and lows. Not professional, but works great...

[doug_sonic]

Stanton makes good mixers with a great value ( got my mixer for under $250) and you can't go wrong with picking up a pair of stanton needles either . I think the Stanton "CrAze" signatures run under $70 a pair . :D happy playing dude :D

[retail]

hmmm thanks for the advice...

i'm sweating the shure white label cartridges. ooooh so pretty
:drool: :drool:

any other DJ's out there willing to lend some advice?

[zartan]

love my numark matrix III mixer.

[GooglyMoose]

Yeah, I picked up the Matrix III and it worked great, I love it. Knobs, kills, 3 channels, EQs. Not fully pro but it has all the features you need for home. I got mine for like $100 new (when mars went out of buisness) and it is my best friend

[retail]

yay i scored my white labels for $89/ea!

WEEEE!

I like the Matrix III... hmm now i need to find it for $100 too...
the "Scratchmaster" will have to do for now :FUBAR:

[DnBinjecka]

I got a Numark Dm3002x from 123dj.com for $189 its got kills switches for high/mid/low and eq's for the same. 3 channel w/ efx return and adujustable fader curve. as for the cartridges. check them on price too sometimes they got good sales.
/ez

[djreplicant]

Uh oh, Yeah, I like The White Labels, too.

B

Sell a kidney and get a good mixer.

[hue-e]

Need carts? I've got the Ortofon Concords (NightClub) and totally love them. Actually they are the DJS with the NightClub tips. It took some time to figure out what tips I would need for what I like to do. Anyway, if you go looking around for them, they are the black ones with the yellow tips. I think you can get a pair of them on ebay for under $200. They should come with tips, but if you need new ones, they are $40-$50 each, but the sound quality is superb, they are diamond tipped and cut pretty tight so there isn't hardly any vinyl burn. They seem to last quite a while too. my $00.02

[Liquidguru]

i bought a numark mixer once. it fell apart. its a piece of crap. i hate it and it must die

:postal:my numark pro-sm1:rl:

[retail]

hmmm

anyone have any tips for sound insulation? i live in a 120+ yr. old rowhouse in baltimore and I swear the walls and floors are made from a composite of kleenex and balsa wood :lame: so i'm sure my neighbors are going to love my non-stop practicing.

i swear if the guy above me drops a toothpick i'll hear it

! :help: !

[hue-e]

Originally posted by retail
hmmm

anyone have any tips for sound insulation? i live in a 120+ yr. old rowhouse in baltimore and I swear the walls and floors are made from a composite of kleenex and balsa wood :lame: so i'm sure my neighbors are going to love my non-stop practicing.

i swear if the guy above me drops a toothpick i'll hear it

! :help: !

This is pretty cheap, check it. I had to do this when I was playing drums in this garage. Go to Home Depot and in the Materials area there are these styrofoam panels that are 2ftx4ft, They are white with a silver coating on one site of it. Get enought of that to cover your area. Stick it up with what ever you want to, but make sure it will stay.

You don't neccesarily have to do this one, it just adds to your sound proofing. I went to the cheapest place possible for this, go to a place like Kmart, Target, Walmart etc. and go to the bedding section. There, they will have roll-out foam mats you can put on your matress (under the sheets). They kind of look like egg crates but they are about as big as a King, Queen or whatever. Get enough of those to cover your area (this stuff is hard to make stay, use liquid nail or staple gun. Cover your area over the styrofoam panels. It sounds like a shabby concaucktion, but it seemed to tone down the level of my drum playing in the garage. Which is really hard to do with out 10 or so layers of masonite(which isn't cheap).

If you don't like the foam bedding thing, I would just put a double layer of the styrofoam. They run about $1.50+/sheet. Or at least that's what it cost a year or so ago.

Just one mans opinion, hope it helps.

[hue-e]

By the way, get the panels that are at least 1.5 inches thick!

[DNAgirl]

I have the same problem except its with my neighbors UPSTAIRS...so i dunno if this will work for everyone...hmm perhaps i can nail the styrofoam to the ceiling?

[retail]

i know i'm going to sound like a retard asking this but does taking the speakers off the floor help at all? set them up on milkcrates or something?

hmm yes i used to play in a band in high school... we had old mattresses lining the back room of my basement. can't quite do that here in the ol' apartment

[JunglystPimp]

yeah, taking the speakers off the floor helps... definately cuts down on the bass pounding through your floor

[retail]

yeah it doesn't take much to rattle all of the window frames in the entire building when the bass is pounding...

[hue-e]

Originally posted by DNAgirl
I have the same problem except its with my neighbors UPSTAIRS...so i dunno if this will work for everyone...hmm perhaps i can nail the styrofoam to the ceiling?

I beilieve it would work, however, it may make your ceiling look like shit, so you might have to find some sort of decrotive covering for it... unless you don' mind.

[DNAgirl]

i was only kidding..i'm just renting, so i don't think it'll go over well with the people who own the building.

But I'm getting kinda desperate.

[rajdeep]

I contemplated over this long & hard till I asked for advise on the Amtrak DJ's list:

From what I've read it sounds like you can see the studs that make up your wall. If so, that's great. You can fill in the spaces between with some type of dampener. http://www.b-quiet.com or for a cheaper solution (sorry if someone has already covered this) fill in the area with something cheap like the egg crate foam that people put on their bed or those cheap moving blankets that Uhaul offers (something like that). Once it's filled, put up the dry wall and cover the flat surface with a good sound diffuser (i.e. something like http://www.b-quiet.com offers) or the egg crate foam again (if your tight on $$)

The book "Modern Recording Techniques" by David Miles Huber and Robert E. Runstein has a really good chapter on sound proofing. Not to mention it's a great book for anyone wanting to record their own work. (used in many audio engineering classes) You can find this at Borders Books for $36.99 and it's well worth it.

First off, egg crate do not sound proof. They are used only for acoustical purposes, not sounds dampening. Hanging carpets from the ceiling do help dampen sounds as revealed below under the sound transferal explanation.

I built stud walls in an unfinished room and used two thicknesses of drywall, 1/4" and 1/2". I used a foam called ‘Fomular’ and cut it in strips and placed in on the studs and the first layer of drywall, basically wherever I drilled a screw foam is underneath. This was to lessen sound vibration transfer to the studs which are connected to the home. Sound transfer causes the sound to travel. When layering the drywall, I hung the pieces so they overlapped each other in such a way that cuts did not line up together. So I did not have to mud the first layer. That is how you dampen sound, however it is not an isolation booth. I laid carpet in the room which improved the acoustics ten fold. Hope this helps, I learned this technique by reading home theater forums. I know this is a bit much and you need to watch a few of Bob Villas shows, but it works!

And a link for sound traps http://www.silentsource.com/basstraps.html

I personally feel styrofoam and similar sound traps are high risk material for fire. I haven't sound proofed as yet with this fear. I may research more to see of I have any more options though.

[DNAgirl]

wow raj there are some interesting ideas there! if you've ever really looked long and hard at Glow's dj booth you will notice some interesting things (i think the dj booth is awesome...for all the glow haters) in the back they have a special wall designed for bouncing the music and absorbind it! (i believe that is what it is there for) and the sound proof booth (thats why there is bulletproof glass there) helps the dj hear the music better in the booth (refering to monitor reasons)...but then again still a newbie to all this, but i do pay CLOSE attention to the construction of Dj booths at every club. Last Remix mag John & Stephan Creamer had the same wall idea in there studio (it was just behind their tables and keyboard) that i'm referring to that is behind to booth at glow (club insomnia)

[rajdeep]

Let's talk about enclosing booths - the reason why one would do that is to hear the sounds from the monitors and not muddle them up with those coming from the floor esp. when there is a time lag. However, in the case of Insomnia, the floor is relatively small, and the speakers right in front of the DJ possibly at a distance of only 30 ft. I wouldn't think there's a need for the enclosure. But yes, the sound absorbing material at the back would be helpful in killing reflected sounds. Even at Nation the DJ booth is open. And here the floor is huge! So, in fact though time lags would be somehwat of an issue here they still don't use an enclosure.

[DNAgirl]

I was in the DJ booth at Insomnia and thought it sounded better in there then it did out on the floor. The enclosure is pretty nice, and i don't know how it sounded in Nation...cuz i never got to hear it from the booth in there, but i def noticed a difference from the floor. I'm sure RayKang could tell us if he liked it : )
Sorry to start stuff about insomnia's booth but i really like the booth : )

Peace

[Mitaic]

I found this site that sell sound proofing foams...

http://www.foambymail.com/soundproofing.html

[i licked JOEYd]

get this:

$450

digital mixer, tri-fader, and all the other bells and whistles.... just read below

http://www.123dj.com/mixers/red/infader.html

[the sex molesters]

Uh oh, Yeah, I like The White Labels, too.

B

Sell a kidney and get a good mixer.

speaking of which... know where i can sell spare body parts i don't need? i've been looking to make some extra cash.