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Turntable

musicismylife78musicismylife78 Posts: 6,116
edited May 2005 in Musicians and Gearheads
I was wondering several thing:

1. I am looking to buy a turntable for hip hop purposes

2. I want to be able to create breakbeats

3. I want to be able to rhyme over the songs


My questions are

Is it necessary to have a second turntable, DJ shadow and others when they perform they have two turntables side by side. Whats the benefit of that?

Also for being able to rhyme over the beats, can you buy instrumental hip hop albums for this purpose.

How does a mixer fit into all this. It seems the turntable and mixer come seperately. Do they fit together, do you asemble it together

Finally is turntablelab.com a legitamite dealer. I dont know if I want to buy directly from the manufactuers themselves, and the website seems to have decent prices.

Thanks for any help
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • DriftingByTheStormDriftingByTheStorm Posts: 8,684
    http://music.hyperreal.org/dj/sl1200.html

    Technics 1200's have and always will be the standard for DJ use.

    It sounds like you should do some more reading up before purchasing though.

    Ok, i'm not a DJ and have no skillz,
    but i was once an electronic "music" enthusiast ...

    the mixer is used to MIX your two tables ...
    some times DJS have a 3 way mixer and it mixes in either a 3rd table, a computer, a DJ CD player, or other music source ...

    you have 2 record players generally, a mixer in the center ... and you fuck with one record while the other is playing ... you throw the slider to the side of the one you want on the speakers, so that the other record isn't skipping and blasting bullshit while you're sticking the needle in the groove and queuing up ... then when your headphones tell you that both records are on track togeather you throw the fader over and BAM ... you've got a MIX ...

    hopefuly it's a good one! ... yes there are plenty of non-vocal dance records, r&b or otherwise ... you can find them at dedicated DJ\dance stores on the net or in a metropolitan area ...

    any how ... thats all i wanna get in to ....
    :)
    If I was to smile and I held out my hand
    If I opened it now would you not understand?
  • Bart138Bart138 Posts: 37
    Cheguevara6 wrote:

    2. I want to be able to create breakbeats
    There are two ways to create a breakbeat/loop/etc from a record:

    1. Sample it: this requires a sampler of some sort. Basically, a sampler will record music and allow you to edit exactly what you want. So you'd start recording a little before the slice of music you want to loop, and stop recording a little after it. Then, you'd edit the sample until it is able to loop continuously and with no skipping effect.
    2. Buy two copies of the same record, and using your two turntables, play the breakdown on one, and when its over, switch back to the beginning of the break on the other table. This is how drum loops were created in the old days, and the reason the "two turntables and a mixer" thing became a standard. This is also tedious and hard, and if you screw up it sounds horrible.

    If you're interested in creating breaks, I would get some kind of sampler or recording device. You can find older ones for pretty cheap prices (under $100).

    P.S. - Turntablelab is legit as far as I know, but most of the time its much cheaper to look on Ebay or at local music/pawn shops for equipment and records. There is no shortage of used DJ equipment for sale by kids who wanted to be DJs and quit b/c its really not as easy as it looks.
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    The AKAI MPC 1000, 2000, or 3000 should be on your things to look at list.

    DR Dre has made a killing with them.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • Bart138Bart138 Posts: 37
    Pacomc79 wrote:
    The AKAI MPC 1000, 2000, or 3000 should be on your things to look at list.

    DR Dre has made a killing with them.
    Yeah, they're the standard, but I wouldn't recommend them to an aspiring DJ who just wants to make breaks. Honestly, I'd recommend something like Fruity Loops coupled with a decent low end soundcard to start off with.
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    Bart138 wrote:
    Yeah, they're the standard, but I wouldn't recommend them to an aspiring DJ who just wants to make breaks. Honestly, I'd recommend something like Fruity Loops coupled with a decent low end soundcard to start off with.

    yeah you're right.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • musicismylife78musicismylife78 Posts: 6,116
    can you still listen to ypur turntable without a speaker. If I just got 2 turn tables and a mixer and didnt have speakers, of course it wouldnt sound as good, but are the speaker required
  • KillerIsMeKillerIsMe Posts: 208
    hook up the outs to your home theater or cd player or whater if you dont feel the need to use a pa
    http://www.myspace.com/cannedanimal
  • Bart138Bart138 Posts: 37
    Cheguevara6 wrote:
    can you still listen to ypur turntable without a speaker. If I just got 2 turn tables and a mixer and didnt have speakers, of course it wouldnt sound as good, but are the speaker required
    As long as you have a mixer or some other form of amplication, you'll be fine. You can't just hook the tuntables to speakers because they don't produce enough output signal for the speakers to pick up. However, with a mixer it will work.
  • Bart138Bart138 Posts: 37
    If you really want to DJ for hip hop or dance purposes, I would highly recommend the documentary "Scratch." Its not a formal How-To guide, but it takes you through the history of turntables as instruments, and how DJs evolved from what they were in the 60s to what they are now. It also gets into the various techniques of blending and scratching, and has many close-ups of the pros (QBert, Shadow, Dj Premier) doing what they do.
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