argh damn ambient psy trance

[captdoobij]

this is just peachy. i finally came to the conclusion that i really really just want to stick to ambient goa and psy trance and guess what? all the stuff i really enjoy and want is only on cd's, with a few exceptions and those i have already on vinyl.

so now i am seriously considering selling my turntables and replacing them with a dual cdj unit and then buying a table later when i have more money to add on to the dual cdj's. this is just a hard decision because i enjoy using tables and vinyl but its not the music i really want to be spinning. i guess the music wins eventually.

so i was wondering if you all had any suggestions on a dual cd deck that would be good for using (im inbetween begineer and halfway decent now) to spin ambient goa/psy trance.

i guess my main needs would be
-MUST read cd-r
-a seamless loop
-cue points, more than one is a plus.
-MUST have some sort of a jog dial.
-nice to have effects but not that big a deal as i can always get an external unit.

i prefer stuff that is very intuitive and doesnt require me having to pick up the manual in the middle of mixing and try to figure out the loop or any other functions.

my budget is around 500...the less the better.

i was looking at some in my price range and found the stanton s700 and s650 models to meet my needs and budget. i know they dont make the best stuff sometimes so i dont plan on using it for years on end. if it even lasts for a year i would be happy as by then i would have saved up for a pio or denon and already scrapped the stanton. some others i found were the denon dn2000 model....didnt seem to have seamless loop though but i would probably prefer quality over the loop.

i own the denon dnx800 mixer so the denon cdj would be usefull with the mixer.

other stuff included the AMDJ PRO 300 and 400.

on the other side i could just get 2 AMDJ pro dj2 individual decks for 189 each. or the pro dj1 for 199 each (does anyone know the difference between the two)
the other individual cd deck option is 2 cdj100 for 260 each...but thats a little too pricey for me

sorry if this is a lot to read but i just have a lot of questions and hopefully id get some answers like always.


oh yeah and if anyone from the Philadelphia area is selling cd decks lemme know....

thanks.

[captdoobij]

i found some prices and i can get the stanton s700 system for 460 U$D. it has all that i was looking for and more too like the 10 cue points. i might save the 60 dollars and opt for the s650 but i think the cue points might come in handy for some wierd effects and such. or i could save 10 and get the denon dn-2000F mk3 for 450.

the denon looks good so far above the other two in terms of quality and the fact that i can use my mixers fader options to go along with the denon deck.

so i guess now my list of choices looks like this in order of what i might get

1- stanton s700
2- denon ( i might be leaning towards this more if it is more sturdy and reliable)
3- stanton s650.

has anyone has used any of these or can offer opinions on how well some of these systems hold up after some use and other relevant stuff i might need to know?

[madmonkey]

I'm facing a similar situation as well. Everyone I have talked to around here says to get Pioneer CDJ's, or if you really can't afford them, Denon. One of my friends has a denon (don't remember what model exactly, but I think 1800) that he hauls all over Texas and loans out to parties, and its been rock solid through all that travel.

I have been able to find plenty of goa and psytrance online, but not every track I want of course. I'm definitely not giving up my decks though, I love the feel of vinyl, the infinite range of adjustments, everything you can do by grabbing the record instead of tossing a wheel. I do, however, plan to buy a CDJ-100S as a supplement to my tables for those hard to find tracks.

Also, check out these sites if you havn't already for vinyl:
http://www.umprod.com they just reduced prices, LP's for $13! decent selection too! These guys are also some local Texas DJ&promoters, so I have to give them extra props just for that!
http://www.chaosexistence.com
http://www.spectralpsy.com
all 3 carry similar new releases, but there's a whole lot of variation on 90-2000 releases between the 3. The owners of all 3 shops are great people as well, never had any issues at all.

CDNOW carries spirit zone, twisted village on cd, and the more popular releases (hallucinogen, doof, spirillianz) on vinyl

[captdoobij]

i plan to spin ambient goa/psy trance and i really dont want to sell my decks. however now that angelic mentioned finalscratch costin about 400$ i might just go ahead and get that package and then i can still use my decks and just copy the cds to my hardrive.

[madmonkey]

If you do get that finalscratch, drop a review I thought I read it could do cd-dae on the fly, but that could have been another program. Your biggest issue will probably be latency, so see if the software supports ASIO audio drivers. If so, I'd recommend the usb iMic from griffintechnology.com, and the drivers from usb-audio.com. They can get down to about 7 ms latency. That would be under $100 for both and work decently, or you chould spend $150-350 for a roland or m-audio usb device. I'd get USB so you can use your desktop or laptop (or mac if you decide to get into producing!)