AlphaFive

S'pose I better kickstart this ... Tone2's Electra synth is awesome and has a nice metallic edge that makes it sound different from other warmer trance n dance machines. It's pretty exxy tho. Also if you're after a good reverb, ValhallaDSP is an awesome small setup with a range of simple but phat sounding reverbs.

Been producing for around 15 years now. Started on Reason 2.5 in about 2002. Fast forward over a decade and I've moved on to my third version of Ableton Live, complete with a decent suite of top plugins. I've seen and tried most of the big titles. Nexus, Sylenth, Massive, even the fairly recent SynthMaster (highly recommended). I also believe there's much to be said for the smaller or less-celebrated plugins out there - both instruments and effects. There's some gems out there that don't get the recognition they deserve. So my question is ... what are your favourite underrated plugins?

Yeah totally agree re the speaker/headphone war. How do you find the Sonys? I have a set of AKG K712 PRO cans, they are unbelieveable (and should be for the price). It is possible to get by using just headphones, just as it is possible to survive as a vegan. A good set of monitors is invaluable though. Im in the market for a new pair of monitors now. Narrowed it down to the Adam A3X, Eve SC204, or Yamaha HS5. Leaning towards the Eves.

Late reply as I only just signed up. Ive done a little live stuff with Ableton and an APC40. If you had a controller with assignable parameters and sample triggers you could have some fun. The name of the game is to formulate a strategy and start simple. Having good gear helps too. What extra stuff are you hoping to introduce with Ableton? I did some trippy ambient stuff once where I drenched the whole master in reverb and used the faders and lowpass filter controls on the APC40 to bring elements of the track in and out. Simple concept, just messing with a looped eight bar progression, worked well.

If you have loop capable gear you could cut the bass and part of the mids out and just get a loop going right before the main drop. Then when you want to transition, turn the loop off, drop the bass and mids as required, and let the new track kick in.

To the more experienced DJs here telling him to steer clear ... what the hell?? If someone wants a new DJ at their wedding, let them. Weddings are expensive and not everyone can afford someone with a deluxe Pioneer rig and a 1TB library. You get what you pay for. This was a prime opportunity for a young DJ to broaden his horizons and you talked him out of it rather than helping him to prepare for it. Shame shame shame. You could have been mentors, but instead you were naysayers.

I may be a newcomer here but I'm going to disagree with other people who have posted on here. People like what you do but you dont as you feel like a jukebox, not a DJ. My friend thats what a wedding DJ is to a large extent. People dont know what a DJ should be doing. All they know is the DJ spins a track and music comes out. Theyre not expecting sick electro drops and mad in key mixing. Theyre expecting Bon Jovi and Nutbush City Limits. Its up to you to get creative with that. My recommendation ... if your music library is well stocked enough and you know what music people may like, take the dive. Explain who you are to the couple. Let them know what theyre getting and ask what they'd like to hear. Discuss an appropriate upfront rate and use some of that to fatten your track library. I'd think $50 an hour is reasonable. Set a budget for downloading new tracks, or if your gear works with Spotify just pay for a subscription to that. The laptop idea was good - If you have phone tethering, use that to download any music you may need on the night on the go. Ensure your speakers are big enough to handle the venue. Rob and steal to acquire extension leads. And recruit a friend to help as a roadie if needed. You may think youre unworthy. You havent seen their overpriced alternative. Ive DJ'd a few weddings before. Theyre great fun and a top way to hone your craft.

Personally I like Serato if for no other reason than Serato DJ comes bundled with many controllers. Might sound like a silly point, still makes it easier to reinstall and update when you don't have to worry about serial numbers. I've had to reinstall while standing behind my NS7 watching guests turning up to a function - bad time for my gear to play up. In terms of functionality, I like Serato DJ's interface. Easy to use, quick to learn.

As my first new topic on this forum outside of Introductions, I'd like to give a little kudos to two mixing plugins I recently purchased and found incredibly useful. Purchased Sonarworks Reference 3 for headphones and Waves NX recently. Both are rather dull plugins that probably wont excite beginner to intermediate level producers. They do however greatly excite me, for a somewhat controversial reason - I mix using headphones. Its not ideal, and many will argue the virtues of good monitors for hours on this topic. I do so more out of necessity - my MediaDesk monitors died on me and i dont have a decent acoustically treated workspace anyway. And i gotta say, it isnt perfect but it kinda works now. REFERENCE 3 - Essentially tunes my reference headphones (AKG K712 PRO). Sonarworks have mapped the response of a swag of leading reference headphones and created this plugin to correct any imperfections - simply drop it into your master channel and turn it off when rendering your files into audio. My AKGs are the shiz and I was sceptical at first because of this. I lie not, this plugin breathed new life into these headphones. They sound significantly crisper and sweeter (yes I appreciate this defies monitor logic), and my bounced post-production mixes sound far better on all audio systems I tested them on. WAVES NX - Just released. Essentially simulates two monitors sitting in front of you. Gold for long production sessions. Finally a shoutout to those working without decent monitors. We do not suffer alone

Ive got a NI soundcard. It's a solid unit. Cant imagine why a non-Traktor soundcard would matter, but im not a Traktor user so maybe theres something im missing. Whatever you get, make sure it's got MIDI I/O and enough outputs to service your needs now and in the future.

Late post, jumping in on the off chance you havent purchased yet ... I've been quite impressed by Behringer lately. Years ago their stuff used to be junk. Now the quality is a lot better. I haven't heard their desktop interfaces yet, but their other gear like the X32 is killer. Not saying you should get it, however I am nominating them as a brand to investigate further. It's a buyers market right now.

If I may wade into this discussion ... I've bought a lot of gear from Sweetwater in the past. HIGHLY recommend checking them out. The SB2 is going for an excellent new price if thats what you want. For mixing and skratching, if you could find a good secondhand Numark NS7 mk 1 you'd be in controller heaven. Vinyl tops make them perfect for skratching and they're an excellent starting point - two decks and a mixer. A very robust and impressive unit too. I disagree with the CDJs comment. I'm not as experienced a DJ as a lot of people here, and if you want to play clubs at any cost well they'd be good. Still the controller market in particular is coming of age now and there's lots of good stuff out there.

Yeah i get like this. I do have a theory though, and that is the better you get the more self conscious you feel about your earlier works. It's like listening to a recording of your voice. Both are very personal things on display.

Hi all Been DJing for about five or six years. Did lose interest there for a while - none of my friends were into it, and it was a hard hobby to keep up by myself at times. DJ'd a few small gigs - weddings, community events, parties, nothing to write home about really. I understand some basic mixing fundamentals such as keymixing, but can't really pull off anything too spectacular yet. Got into DJing to compliment my music production. I've been working with DAWs and software synths/samplers/etc for almost 15 years now, so perhaps we can trade some knowledge Finally I have a group of friends interested in DJing. Now it's time to get gud. Oh yeah, and I DJ with a NS7 mk1. Looks pretty obsolete now when compared to other systems, but honestly it's still fantastic. Two decks and a mixer still works for me at the moment.