BitMaestro

I'd say I've done about 10 hours of use on it. Probably less. I'm gonna start getting into a daily practice routine so we'll see what its like in a month.

Hory shet.

Well, whaddyaknow, I've reset the tone arm back to zero, put 1.5g on and have the hieght about 1cm high and it's solved my problem. I should be more attentive to instructions next time.

Oh i see where I might've buggered up. I'm looking through shure's instructions that came with it. I've set the 'Typical tracking force (grams)' to suit the m447, the m44g take 1.5 typical tracking force...

My counter weight was set at 2.8 - 3.

Well, that didn't last long! I got the cart 21st July this year. I've wiped it clean, just played for 10 seconds and the gold dirt is coming from the right side of the stylus.

Thanks, yeah the snare and hat I have to make out of the (white)noise channel, but that sounds interesting, hit me up with vids when you find them. Cheers BeatLeSS, Yeah, well we all start somewhere, I guess I might as well document it. The sound wasn't the best. I had my Game Boy going through my amp and speakers which were facing the bed and a small, portable speaker for the TT sitting under the webcam's mic :/ Next time, I'll either record my GB on the computer then record the scratch, or just play live, this time both going through my mixer and amp and use my Zoom mic so I get the acoustics of my room. Either way the sound and playing should get more polished as i go.

I was moving my amp around today and plugged in my mixer to see I had it all working. It was then I realized a scraping sound as the turntable turns unamplified. The output through the speakers are fine, but it worries me to hear dragging sound. The sound isn't constant, but consistent every revolution. I'm using the Vestax PDX 2000 with M44G cart and stylus. The cartridge looks A LOT lower then usual, The height adjuster in the photo is all the way up. It's also leaving a goldish too... I really don't know what it could be... Is the turntable warped? Is my headshell bent? It wasn't like this the last time I used it. Chuck questions at me if I've been too vague, and no, it's not the sounds on the records, it's additional sounds.

Cheers guys, I've noticed the break beat side of Cop Porn can be easily rewritten onto Game Boy due to its simplicity, only i'll be able to program variation and transitions when and where I want. I'll make more 'Skratchy & Bits' as I progress.

Couldn't find anyone with footage of the night, so here's a rough one of today. The video might also explain my Username, if anyone ever wondered... I watch and can hear bits where I wasn't keeping good time, @ 0:46 that transform was luck, I'm definitely rolling back practice to faderless techniques to focus on timing more.

Considering the price of the innofader and the state of my DXM06, I might be better going with a $200 barebones mixer that comes with an innofader: http://www.thudrumble.com/product/dif-1s.html

Hmm, I'll look around for innofaders, my channel 2 is stuck on full volume, so if i can fix that for cheap as well as an innofader, i'd stick with the DXM06. Yeah I should probably practise my left hand too, so they get better together, thing is, one of my TT is a PDX2000 and the other a Numark TTX. It requires some adjustment in playing them until I can justify to buy a M44G/7 stylus for the TTX. That night I was using 'Ahhh'. I'm not using DVS. It was luck that I had found 'Uncle Scratchy's Old Fashioned Cop Porn Breaxxx' at a Dixon's when i first started, but I wouldn't mind getting Superseal one day and perhaps DJ Rectangle battle stuff.

One of my assessments at uni was to perform 25 - 30 minutes of music of my own artistic interpretation. I was pretty keen to get my scratching up to... er... scratch, sorry, but my time was put into arranging the actual music. I know that many musicians are perfectionists, but it's shit when your perfectionism brings you down, as a result my scratching debut to the public was kept to a 16 bar segment replacing a rap. I also decided to cut corners and focus on cutting sounds and drops rather than reverse tears or other faderless techniques. I promise you all, I don't like trying to skip stuff with instruments. Ever taught a kid guitar and all they want to do is shred or strum chords? That won't work if you can't press your fingers against the fretboard properly. But i digress. I discovered some problems when I decided to push for more practise with the crossfader (my mixer is a DXM06). 1. Trying to cut with a Crossfader with no knob makes it difficult for cutting, let alone anything quick. 2. I question weather my fader is actually what is considered 'loose' I ask a friend if i can use his mixer (DJM 350) and oh wow, my 2nd hand, $40, one fully functional channel mixer really does feel like shit in comparison. I've learnt that I need a new mixer if i wish to advance with my scratching. I was also falling into the trap of closing the channel with sound as opposed to opening it, perhaps this is a sign that i should try hamster? Anywhoo,The assessment was at Bar Open where I played to a mostly jazz/funk focused students. It went well, I was happy with it, scratching was clearly a new instrument to the audience (i think) but it definitely didn't look like I had just hopped on to it the night before, everyone was telling me it sounded great. Teachers couldn't fault my arranging, only the visual aspect of my performance. One of my teacher's views was to keep working at it, I think I got a tad nervous and might've lost timing (and the teacher's a drummer ). Not sure about his advice, he suggested scratching with CDJs and using drop sounds? I sort of dismissed the CDJ part of it, but wasn't sure what he meant by drop sounds. Chances are he has dabbled in this with professionals in the 90s and is trying to recall what they did, but i'd like not to underestimate their knowledge. If I find footage from someone who filmed those 16 little bars, I'll post it. Otherwise I might record a tad for you guys to critique. My top tip is that playing with others definitely makes you learn faster, I guess we have the upper hand as channel 2 is our 'other person'. With a bit more practice, I might get a spot in a friend's band doing some scratching here and there. And now for a question: After using a mixer with a LOOSE fader, where should i look for scratch mixers? The DJM 350 would be nice, could learn mixing along the way with it. but I can't configure for hamster though, I don't know what I prefer yet. I've seen people say DJM909 i think. Rane is up there of course, but I can't afford that stuff, even second hand. Bit of guidance would be nice. The End.

Haha alright, we'll see. If there's demand I'll try to sway him round ;P

No luck finding second hand. I'm gonna head down to DJ city and pick up m447 or m44g. Done some research, apart from maybe more adjustment to setup the 'G, it'll be an all rounder for learning scratching and mixing. The styli are interchangeable with the cart so maybe when I go further i'll have both down the track. I've seen the plastic cases that come with, which are good and seeing as it's only for my bedroom, there's no reason why it would break. Also, I might get my Dad to print this with his 3D printer and check it fits my headshells.

Ha! Yes, yes it is. It sits nicely at the back there while i practice guitar. I guess i never thought about second hand cart/stylus, i'd assume it's a consumable item like tyres on a car, something you wouldn't want to risk. But I'll look around for used and not abused..

The back story: Well, I finally got my 2nd TT, although not a matching pair, but I can't complain with a blue PDX2000 for $220. (excuse the bad photo) The seller said that the needle was no good and showed me the damage, but he gave me an example with another needle of his and the cartridge is fine. The point of the thread: The needle, VR 5EE, is $30 on USA sites. But my search for australian sellers come up empty. If I can hold off spending $100 for a cart & needle i will, but M447 is everywhere and i can pick it up from local dj stores easy. Do people buy overseas for needles here? or does anyone know any stores to try for needles or am I to unwillingly fork out $100 for a new cart/needle? Also, I'm thinking i might make a Stylus case for (hopefully) under $15 and pop it in the DIY thread (instead buying soft cases for the TTs when not in use)

Not sure if this should be in beginners or Vinyl discussion. I have a strange feeling that turntablists end up using a DVS due to 3 things: 1.Price 2.Song Selection 3.Space So far, Djs I've seen in Melbourne on TTs are using Digital Vinyls with a Macbook and whatever interface to make it work. In the short term, buying hip hop LPs and the like might be good, but i'm limited to songs released on vinyl. Places like Alley Cat records next to Glenferrie station have lucky dip bags of 10 house records for $10 which would make staying with actual vinyl slightly viable (some of the records can be hit and miss). But in the long term the price of songs and those genres not available on vinyl benefit from DVS. And not to mention carrying a notebook around would be easier to lug around than a case of 50 vinyls. I guess I'm answering my own question with what I've written, so apart from price, why do i feel reluctant towards DVS? Anyone still use just vinyl or is it just not viable on a budget? Would love to hear from mobile and venue scenarios.

All good. I decided to open it up and cleared some dust and twiddle the cables and I've got the fader working. I've got my parents Akai ap-x1 turntable and Akai am-u1 amp running through the speakers and I play instrumentals on that whilst listening for the ttx through headphones for now. Mixing will have to wait.

It'll be interesting what you guys can tell us on what's happening on the inside as you go further in.

Yeah, wasn't much of a showcase of styles to inspire. Congrats, I haven't heard anything so must've missed it.

I was #A 098 so early on.

How'd you go Mitch? Thoughts? There were definitely people to cool for school there, we'll at least we know they own headphones, 'tis a start. But interview went well, the pic I had had a shot with me at my TT and mixer and Cee Jay, one of the lady interviewers, talked about having the same mixer. So that was good, cheers for me mum for taking a photo A source there told me that one of his mates was doing the interviews and he told this source that in the first 2 hours he only let one person through cos he had some XP on turntables, obviously no stand outs... The raver with the mohawk got through, they pretty much told him there and then cos he was different, or so he told me. Gotta admit, I didn't really dress different, rocking up in a western/rockabilly shirt might not have worked well.

I enjoy listening to alot of stuff, even microtonal and atonal music when i'm feeling right. Now what i listen to won't always be what I'll want to play, after all, i still need to learn basics (and get gear!), but out of curiosity, once you gig and get a mix with a certain genre, do people expect you to just play that line of stuff? Skream comes to mind as example, breaking away from a genre and that. My Question: Is it possible to be known as a versatile DJ, or is the industry rigid with wanting genre-tailored DJs? I wouldn't mind scratching over hip hop/glitch hop/trap(i'm sure i'll find more that'd be cool to try) and mixing over dub/trap/2 step/moombah/house/deep house/dnb/chillout/hip/glitch hop, but we'll see how I go when I get my hand on more wax.

I'm going. They're looking for a particular model of person, but eh, won't say no to networking, despite having little XP. What time are people here going? I planned to get there early, chat in the line.