Spinning with different brand turntables

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Posted by serginka on May-04-2006 23:15:

Spinning with different brand turntables

i have a numark TT200 and a technics SL-l800MK2. It seems impossible to put them at the same speed like a i saw others do. For instance in a club, this dj did not readjust the speed on his mixes until a minute or so. For me it seems i need to readjust every 10 to 20 seconds. Is that becuase of different brand of turntables? I mean regardless of frequency control. do i need to balance them? what to do. what to do.

Posted by sean5 on May-04-2006 23:17:

wow & flutter on those tables aren't as good as 1200s or st150s. get some st150s and you won't be experiencing problems.

Posted by serginka on May-04-2006 23:20:

define flutter please

Posted by sean5 on May-04-2006 23:23:

the way i understand it, the w&f shows how accurate the turntable is able to hold at each speed. so if the w&f is high, its speed will fluctuate and won't accurately hold the pitch that you set it at. the closer to 0 the better. i'm not expert on turntables, so you should probably just google wow & flutter.

Posted by serginka on May-04-2006 23:40:

how long do your turntables stay at the same speed before you have to adjust the speed?

Posted by sterilis on May-04-2006 23:41:

was the dj using the exact same setup?

i find that any turntables apart from 1210s or 1200s need the pitch readjusted constantly. its annoying but you get used to it after a while.

Posted by sean5 on May-04-2006 23:42:

with 2 1200s working in perfect order you should be able to hold 2 tunes in check for minutes with only very minor adjustments.

Posted by serginka on May-04-2006 23:43:

the only i know is that had two 1200 sl techniques. and once que matched his speed ... he could have both tracks playing for a minute and 30 sec in a full transfer from one track to the other.

Posted by serginka on May-04-2006 23:45:

"with 2 1200s working in perfect order you should be able to hold 2 tunes in check for minutes with only very minor adjustments."

and how long before you need to do minor adjustments?

Posted by sean5 on May-04-2006 23:47:

use your ears and i don't have 1200s. i only have 1 good table (st150) and 1 not so good (str860)

Posted by sterilis on May-04-2006 23:49:

not really minor adjustments. if you have it in cue before you begin to mix it in. it holds for at least 40 secs. ive never had to tweak it once i got it but i only hold a mix for about 30 - 45 secs.

Posted by serginka on May-04-2006 23:50:

alright. anything i can do to correct the quality... couldnt find anything on google.

Posted by serginka on May-04-2006 23:52:

so thats what i mean. i should at least have 40 seconds before any changess. and what increments do you guys do. Half percent or less?

Posted by sean5 on May-04-2006 23:57:

there is no set amount and actually i've heard people say that the adjustment is usually so small that a simple spindle twist or nudge of the side would do the trick.

Posted by serginka on May-05-2006 00:00:

well thats what i have to do to correct the speed
...i set the percentages as close as possible (to the 1/4th of a percent if possible) and then i have to catch the speed up or slow it down manually with a quick push on the vynil or slight break on the platter. ive gotten pretty good with that. lol

Posted by sterilis on May-05-2006 00:01:

it shouldnt be much. if its too much you need to practice more. if im out its only by a fraction. the slightest touch gets it back on track.

Posted by serginka on May-05-2006 00:05:

you make adjustments less than 1/2 of a percent?

Posted by sterilis on May-05-2006 00:17:

dont no the percentage but its not that much. i make sure its perfect b4 i mix it

Posted by sr126 on May-05-2006 01:04:

i have a bit of experience w/this problem...

actually, i would not put 100% of the blame on the turntables.

i would split it into 3 parts.

1) turntable

2) the music

3) the dj

1) we've already discussed the turntable, so i won't...

2) sometimes, it's difficult to really hold it down because of the difference in tempos. i have found that if two songs were written at similar tempos say one @110 the second @ 112 doesn't matter if play the first record @ 0%, +2%, or -4% it's easier for me to keep the two songs together for a longer period of time.

3) sometimes we have concentration lapses, off days... we can't be perfect all the time. sometimes it's difficult to be a precicse as can or usually are because of the envoirnment.

but i also blame a lot of people for just being ignorant, or just plain stupid for simply expecting their equipment to just keep it together like magic, becuase they (the dj) thinks (sometimes erroniously) that they are an awsome beatmatcher .

it's litterally impossible to play two songs that were written in two different at the exact same speed for more than several minutes, especially when you add in imperfection of manual cuing. sure you can get one record to play @ exactly 120.628554126 bpm but not the second one. you're ALWAYS going to be a little off, therefore YOU'RE the problem, not the turntable, so don't cry when you have to correct after a while, or wonder why to songs will not stay together after 15-20 minutes.

i never understood why people always want to blame the equipment, instead of just sucking it up, and keep on trucking. it's part of being a dj. if it's too much for you, sell yor TT's and CDJ's, and just stick ableton. pussies. j/k

Posted by sean5 on May-05-2006 01:08:

really good points

Posted by serginka on May-05-2006 01:47:

lol. nice way to put it. the other thing is that i only use final scratch. and i know the key matching feature will severely wabble the speed when trying to correct the pitch of a track at a different speed. (especially over 3 %). But i digitally analyze my tracks and usually dont mix with tracks greater than 1 bpm difference (because of my amateurism in djing). I have off days, and i know very well what those are like. its just that recently ive had those off days more than usual. ill take my powerbook and fs to a friend's pair of sl1200's and stop being a little bitch about it. i was just wondering if you guys knew any of the calibration techniques they do at turntable shops for direct drives. thanks for the advice though. lol

Posted by xenoaxe on May-05-2006 01:55:

I've never had trouble (other than when i first started) keeping 2 songs beatmatched long enough to do a smooth mix, i also find it easier to do so with 2 1200 m3ds rather than my cdj-1000's. But even when I was having to correct all the time i never even thought of it as a problem...or i didnt blame the equipment, i mean i started out with 2 gemini SA-600s...and i still didn't blame the equipment, that's a HUGE part of being a DJ, fix yer error before the crowd hears it, you can't be perfect all the time unless you're a pure laptop dj, and well, you dont wanta be one of those.

Posted by serginka on May-05-2006 02:06:

i would like to be one of those. i used traktor dj. i had more control on FS. maybe i just suck at traktor too. but i like to scratch too. on FS every now and then. couldnt do it with traktor dj. Then i heard PVD using live 5 (ableton), but i would hate to get rid of my vynil collection. i just get too nostalgic with those 12 inches.

Posted by Trance Nutter on May-05-2006 04:07:

quote:
Originally posted by serginka
(because of my amateurism in djing)

theres your problem right there. You need to practise. Practise = solution to the majority of your problems. Yes crappy decks will pitch all over the place, but with practise you will still be able to do some nice mixes. Yes you will need to do some pitch bending mid mix, but thats all a skill that you need to perfect, no matter what decks you are using.

Don't try to be Sasha too early, realise that it takes time to be able to mix perfectly like djs who play in clubs.