Would anybody recommend purchasing a digital vinyl system?

This is very helpful. Thankyou. I am going to try and find some videos which show how loud that high pitched noise is when interchanging between vinyl and timecoded and will make a decision based on that. Thanks again

That sounds great gavin. I will hit you up after I’ve made a final decision. I’m still doing a bit of research. Cheers man. Sounds like a bargain

I’ve got a set up for serato control discs that work on a second hand Rane 62 mixer. I play the two control discs on Technics 1200s and it’s a nice way to “feel” digital tracks and rips— the biggest drawback is that it also requires a laptop to run software. I can also play one table with an actual musical track and the other table plays digital on the time code. You can work it out pretty easily switching between vinyl and timecode, but I usually just do one or the other.

I also bought a cheap cdj 850 and that is more fun in different ways to me. Less time staring at a screen most of all.

I started out with a Rekordbox DVS system, but quickly aquired some cheap CDJs. Mainly because I wanted to avoid looking at a laptop screen and to replicate a proper club set-up at home. I’m much happier now but I can see why timecode/DVS would work for some.

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Yeh this works fine. I did it for years when I used to play out more often. You just have traktor (time code vinyl) on line and records on phono and can switch between them no bother. Same with serato.

Any mixer will do.

Can anybody here help out a luddite/idiot?
I’ve got a Numark NDX 500, only ever played CDs on it but decided i’d like to use the USB function, downloaded some tracks & transferred them to a USB stick put the stick in the NDX pressed play & heard nothing, no sound at all, the display shows the tracks i’ve downloaded but that’s it. :confused:
CDs still play as normal btw.

It looks like you’ll need to import the tracks into Serato where you can sort them and make playlists. Then you’ll have to export them to the USB via Serato. That’s how it works with Rekordbox and CDJs anyway.

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Ah okay, thanks, i know nothing about Serato so i’ll have to educate myself :+1:

I would expect it should be possible to play off usb without Serato or Rekordbox. It just won’t automatically sync the beats. You’d have to find the cue and press play on the beat and you’d have to adjust the tempo, all manually.

That’s how i understand it anyway. I could be wrong.

Check the files are in a format supported by the player.
I’m not familiar with the Numark but I do know the older Pioneer players don’t support flac or alac files for example.

They’re mp3s which it supports, so must be the Serato thing i guess.

That’s me out of ideas then. Hope you get it sorted.

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Thanks anyway mate

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You also need to check the USB is formatted correctly. On a Mac you’d go into Disk Utility and see what format it is. On Rekordbox it needs to be FAT 16 or FAT 32 otherwise it doesn’t recognise the USB stick. Might be similar for Serato/Numark.

And I still have Rekordbox issues where it doesn’t like a particular type of WAV but if you’ve got MP3s that shouldn’t be an issue.

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You might just need a firmware update to the ndx’s or as already mentioned the usb might need formatting.
If You’re going the Serato route You’ll need a dj controller as the ndx’s are not plug and play with Serato afaik (will work in addition to a Serato approved dj controller to control a third or fourth deck but won’t work alone)

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Think i’m gonna stick with vinyl tbh, i only make mixes for my own amusement mainly.

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i was pretty close to the rane folks when serato was first introduced and while i wanted to be supportive - frankly everything about it seemed like it was defeating all the purposes. all the inconveniences of vinyl (turntable configuration, potential for skipping) combined with the degraded sound quality issues of digital media files!

oh sure, i knew it was nice to not have to drag hundreds of lbs worth of records to the club, but you still had to worry about RCA connectivity, dipshits dive-bombing your turntables, dust on the stylii, the whole deal. and you also had to drag a laptop around - and usually an external hd, and the serato box and man, everything just seemed like a configuation nightmare.

using CDJs as controllers made more sense to me at the time - but at the time, you still needed actual timecode cd’s.

anyway, i guess i just kept buying records - that worked for me.

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Did you ever have people trying to set up their Serato DJ station while you are playing records? That’s just the worst. It’s the complete opposite of everything that’s fun to do in a club. If I wanted to have a rewiring session I would do it on a Monday evening, not at the weekend in a club.

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I find Serato great to be fair never really got into recordbox as I originally used Serato so stuck with it- like everything it has it’s pros / cons
My main gripes would be the sound quality of digital files (vinyl sounds so much nicer, not all but most of the time)and the audible whine from the control vinyl I find quite annoying at times especially if listening to music in a quite room(dj controller cuts this out)

Definitely not starting a digital v vinyl here of all places :grinning: from My perspective vinyl will win hands down all Day on the other hand though I have four youngish kids so buying vinyl is a rare luxury these Days .
For instance I bought 2Lps and a double 12” over Christmas which came to 102 quid before p+p just couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on vinyl regularly at this point in time nor would it feed the habit whereas it’s probably a months plus spending on Bandcamp.

Now this time 7/8 Years ago I owned probably north of 10000 vinyl which I’ve slimmed down to about 250/300 so I’m viewing this from both sides of the fence but needs must

On a side note the one and only time I’ve used serato at a gig everything ran nice and smooth bar the walk home my external hd fell out of my shirt pocket and smashed may be an omen there somewhere .

Even listening to mates who previously I would have called vinyl purists are finding it hard to justify the price of vinyl at the moment especially during lockdown with gigs drying up etc

Apologies for the minor rant
Have a great weekend :man_dancing:t2:

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Seems to be a huge discrepancy in pricing depending on label or artist. I do not buy the more expensive records. Certainly not at those prices you stated. Better to buy beer and listen to the music on bandcamp or YouTube. You can still find good records at around 10 or 11 pounds, although with decreasing frequency, i realise.

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