Will I end up getting Serato/Traktor?

[BitMaestro]

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.

[Mitch]

Plenty of people still play on vinyl.

Barely any mobile DJs do, due to the large range of music required. Also a lot is not on vinyl.

There are plenty of DJs in the underground house/techno scene that spin predominantly/only vinyl.

At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference - what you want to play, and where you want to play it. I personally like DJing without a laptop, but there is nothing wrong with doing so. There is also nothing stopping you using a combination of vinyl and DVS

[wrxfiend]

I started on vinyl (before dvs lol) and can say you really need both, laptops fail, usb drives fail, wax does not (unless warped from heat)

But i def prefer dvs (serato in my case) ive become used to the visual help, cue points and non skip features plus being able to play my own beats ive made on dvs and scratch any soundfile i can think of.

I recently played a wax only gig with Oxy, having a weeks practice on real wax only, showed me how much my skills had slipped.

If im playing a gig or party from now on i will prob take a small bag of my favourite wax aswell as my serato setup, just incase theres any tech difficulties and also because people are genuinely surprised these days if you use real vinyl :-)

As far as collecting vinyl goes, at first when i started out i would grab just about anything that came in to my local record store costing me a small fortune. Nowadays i am more selective, but for making beats i grab heaps of op shop $1 assorted old stuff. I have also scored heaps of old collections from family members and friends. But i have to wait to get my hands on my parents massive collection! Lol

[eggssell]

im using my dvs less and less. and if i could get that sampler/ looper i was looking for i may give it up for the most part.

on the other hand definitely music is more accessible to you. unless you a baller gandy style.

i started vinyl only (before i had my own gear), and mixing a lot of 128 house and disco.

then when i got my own gear got traktor scratch because i had bucket loads of cd's and digital music already on hand.

also ive seen many vinyl only sets of varying genres.

some of which like the dude in osaka who did an entire set of jamaican 45's, has made me start to use vinyl only.

except i suck at it, because i still cant mix hip hop, pop, or non four on the floor type music.

do whatever you want that you can afford. and reality is you can change.